usir | Mini-Event: Skywhale + Day of Lefkokó

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The Skywhale & Day of Lefkokó

🜙 The Skywhale

	After fierce retaliation and an increase in city-wide defensive power and measures, it seems as if the orc attacks have, at least for the moment, begun to subside. Along with the lessened threat of orc ambushes, the first storms of winter have died down to a gentle and occasional snow flurry, leaving the world peacefully blanketed in powder snow and a calm stillness. The City of the Free Peoples take this time to celebrate the final repairs of the airship, the Skywhale. With sail balloon once more filled and the engines working hard to keep the air within it warm, easier and safer travel is once more available. The Skywhale leaves once a day in the early morning to head for Didymos, and today is its maiden voyage since the repairs. Thalassa has changed greatly in the last century, blossoming into a massive port and military city, with resources and opportunities unavailable in the more eclectic Cty of the Free Peoples. Restless legs may find their chance to stretch to a new experience. Sail the skies aboard the Skywhale and see Thalassa's grand transformation to Didymos for yourself. Catch the voyage back before nightfall, or remain in Didymos until the ship's return the following day. There is plenty to see and do in the city by the sea. You can even see Logistykon's reef from aboard the Skywhale's deck as it swings around to dock. It is a grim but beautiful sight in the clear blue waters. While the threat of fire and orc ambush has diminished greatly, the City of the Free Peoples is filled with a sense of unease and discomfort as repairs on the city and attempts to put lives back together continue. Murmurs of discontent slip through the city streets, along with rumors that this is all Lykos' fault or accusations that the Captain might be hiding something. For every murmur of distrust, however, there are counters of the heroics and quick action that helped keep the city strong and beat the orcs back. There has still been no word from Krimnos or the airship, Valiant, that usually hails from the cliff city daily. Messengers have not made their wing from the city and those sent to the cliffs have not returned. It's not unusual for this time of year, but the absence is felt keenly by traveling merchants who need to get their wares to or from the city. A journey by horse or on foot would be risky, but the potential rewards for escorting a company up to the cliffs could prove significant.
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🜙 Day of Lefkokó

	No matter what city you find yourself in, the dawn of the 17th sees a change in mood and atmosphere across Idan. Snow has stopped falling and the sky is a bright, clear blue. The weather warms enough to cause water to drip softly from the icicles hanging off every awning and outcrop. Decorations of magical or crafted snowflake art and blue ice flames line city streets and building windows, and jovial merriment spills out into the streets. A sweet wine made from frostberries, warm honey-mead, and spiced apple drinks are offered in taverns, inns, and small shops or homes, a free offering to be had with sweet or spiced cheeses and spiced or candied nuts and fruits. It's a celebration that is far from unfamiliar, one that has been celebrated for centuries across Idan's towns and cities, though the methods and particulars of the celebration have always varied from place to place and people to people. December is the month of the White Raven, and in particular, this day is a day to honor him. Lefkokó, the deity of dance, freedom, madness, and cunning sits at the head of the cause of these festivities and his domains are the focus of the celebrations. Today is a day of dance, drinking, and games of skill and chance. A day to test your bluffing skills, show off, and take deep joy and pride in the liberties and opportunities available to all. Few work on this day, beyond the essentials, and everyone who is able to takes part in this moment of freedom and relaxed expectations or responsibilities. The cities are alive with music and dancing, and the taverns are a swirl of chaos amidst high stake games of cunning and chance. Clever minds clash over riddles, old and new, and as the day progresses a lack of sobriety becomes increasingly evident in the streets and establishments alike. As the sun reaches the highest point in the sky and the shadows dwindle to near nothingness, the aviaries of all three cities release the newest flock of rare juvenile snow ravens to their freedom, letting them take wing to the skies for their first ever flights. The flocks of snow ravens, the most coveted of magic familiars, fly off to the wildlands after practicing their acrobatic feats and visiting various areas of the city in search of food to give them energy for the journey ahead. Once they take their leave of the city, many begin to seek out hidden trinkets, magical herbs, and small, rare items across Idan with a precise and dedicated focus. Those who honor Lefkokó by celebrating in his name may be visited by his rare and clever emissaries later in the month with an offering of thanks from Lefkokó himself.
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🜙 A Warning.

	By the 18th the orc camp has been abandoned, the animals freed and the orcs, whatever was left of them, appear to have fled. Retreat is unusual, even more so for them to cut their creatures loose and flee without triumph or trophy, but this is something different. Many of the weapons, trinkets, and armors coveted by the warring orcs have been left behind, and the fires trampled and stamped out with apparent urgency. Tracks lead to the south a few miles and then vanish into snow in the direction of Lake Atéleio. It and the land south and west of it are consumed in a blizzard blown over from the sea, and tracking beyond that point becomes nearly impossible, though by this point it is assumed the Orcs have retreated to Spear Valley. Whether or not they will return is unclear. Those in the City of the Free Peoples on the 18th will receive another message, this one from a less mysterious source, addressing the coming dangers. Though the attacks have set preparations back a few weeks I would like to quell any worries. The Long Night approaches, but you are a city of strong, brave folk. The threats on the horizon will not be the end of this city any more than these raucous attacks have been. Supplies can be claimed from the defender's camp for any struggling to make the necessary preparations. Those who have lost their homes will be provided shelter and supplies. When the Long Night comes, keep your children indoors, your fires stoked, and your buildings shuttered. There is nothing to fear. Your defenders will keep you safe. -Captain Lykos Several hours later a second and then a third message is received across all kingdoms. It comes only to the couriers of the awakened. The first comes as an audio message: A dull scraping sound followed by the click and whine of metal dragging across stone and the dripping of thick, viscous liquid somewhere distant. It ends abruptly and a simple thought message, short and uncomfortable, follows it. silarclupes irom otnemem The message has no signature.

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A. Aboard the Skywhale
[The opportunity to travel was something Alucard was taught to never refuse. A mandate. Travel as men do. And now men flew on great airships, the journeys that took days upon days now cut down to a fraction of the time.

To stand on the deck of the Skywhale and look down is a novelty. There have been so many journeys in the past, and hell, Alucard can fly if he puts real effort into his feral magic, but there's a difference between seeing things from that angle versus this one. The ship towers over the land.

His coat has been put aside for the time being, the ridiculously sized wolf that follows him everywhere content to lay atop it so it does not fly away. Alucard has traveled lightly in the past with only one bag to his name, but now he doesn't even have that.

Somewhere in all of this, there's a soft sigh, both hands on the railing that runs along the side of the deck.]

And it only took a century to create this technology. Remarkable.

[He's still furious about many things. This is not one of them.]

B. Didymos
Thalassa is not Thalassa anymore. The feeling of the city has changed, but of course it has. The streets aren't the same, hell, there are roads Alucard can recognize and they lead to dead ends now. Cities evolve. They must, they're living and breathing things. And there is no rush to return to the City of the Free Peoples. Not right now. There are other things to do.

i) The most important thing to do is determine how easy it is to return to Krimnos. That's done in the most straight forward way possible: hanging around the appropriate markets and listening to what is said by those in the know. Shop keepers, merchants, whoever is impacted by the airship not functioning.

The roads aren't an option. There's bandits. There's thieves. The river is starting to freeze, the wolf packs are hungry and a dozen other reasons besides. There's an aching familiarity to the problems, one Alucard wouldn't bat an eye at, but.

But if the ship is repaired first, is all the effort and potential risk truly worth it?

"Stunning how a storm brings the airships so low," he says to himself after overhearing a merchant's recounting of her attempt to brave the roads and all their threats.

ii) The struggles of the road do not discourage Alucard entirely from his total lack of patience in returning to Krimnos. He's spent the afternoon in quiet contemplation, having found a glassed in bar that overlooks the sea. His animas is curled up on his feet (said feet are so very asleep now), and there's a barely drunk glass of wine there.

There's seats on either side overlooking the water. Winter is strange on a shoreline. It's so stark, and the waves roar against the cold.

C. Warning

[Lupes

That's the only word Alucard thinks he can make out in that message. It's wolf related, and true enough, his animas is listening closely to this one. Alucard frowns at that and looks over his shoulder. Ellis is absolutely an asshole and rarely serious, so this demeanor is strange.]

Agreed. [The terrible thing stays in his hand, then shakes his head.] This thing contains nothing but ill will, I'm convinced.

Wildcard
You know the deal

Edited 2018-12-16 22:38 (UTC)

[It really is amazing, this ship. Sure, she had been on the back of a flying familiar a time or two, but it had never been a comfortable ride. In the end, Shura would still prefer to have her feet on solid ground, but she wasn't going to say no to this kind of transportation. The little lion leaning on her legs looks less than content with the situation, but Shura ignores him.]

Startin' from scratch like they did, they've done a good job. I'm impressed~

[Shura's death came early in the war, but she had heard enough about what happened afterward to know that the survivors had a great deal to overcome. It would have been easy to languish and never recover from the trauma.]

Mm. I've been out of the loop of recent developments for far too long. I'd like to know how recently these ships have become a major form of transportation.

[And by out of the loop, he naturally means dead for about a century. Details. It was the kind of technology he remembered his father speaking of in what ifs rather than here and now. A thought warm enough to send a flickering smile across Alucard's face.]

A while, I bet, since everyone else seems more annoyed by the delays than awed by the take off.

[Shura had not been the first in line to buy a ticket, instead waiting and watching those ahead of her to know just what to say at the window. She could excuse a few errors by claiming to be from the countryside, but she didn't want to have to use that excuse if she didn't need to.]

Then again, those devices only fell from the sky only a few years ago and everyone seems fine with 'em.

[The part about mostly being annoyed by delays gets a soft laugh. Shura's right, of course, but it's the phrasing of it all combined with the lingering thrill of this entire process that causes it.]

I believe you're correct on both accounts. Although sometimes with invention, I would be slightly suspect when the heavens open up. A chain of development is...more reassuring, let's say.

Only if you're thinkin' too hard about it~

[What do you mean the general population should maybe be a bit more suspicious of strange things falling from the sky that don't have a clear source, even if they are super useful? She lifts her hand to her her chest and murmurs a soft word, and the device rises from the red seal on her sternum. Maybe handling such an important thing on the edge of an airship is careless, but Shura doesn't seem too concerned.]

Makes it a lot easier for us to use these things, though. If I was more of a schemer, I'd say it was all connected.

I consider these things the appropriate amount.

[No, he's an overthinker. But the point stands, as far as Alucard is concerned. Especially when Shura so mildly suggests that this is all connected. He blinks, then looks at her with an unreadable face.

How much planning went into this return from the dead?]

If you were a schemer, what else would you say on that topic?

Guys like you go bald early.

[Shura says cheerfully, clearly an expert on the subject.]

I ain't a schemer, so I don't have any other guesses. [long term planning what??] But if you got someone who can raise thee dead like this and produce animas on this scale, you gotta imagine that some plannin' went into it. If it was just some guy who somehow managed to raise his own little undead army by chance, you know he'd be braggin' about it to someone.

Mm.

[The joke is on her. Being a dhampir means that Alucard's already in his 70s and won't show it for another few decades.

Long term planning was already something he had considered. So none of this is new, unfortunately, but he nods along as she speaks to show that he is indeed listening.]/small>

Doubtlessly correct. And there are too many taverns in the world for a more quiet type to accidentally let such a feat slip too.

[Let's be real, the joke is always on Shura. That's her kind of luck.]

We're probably not going to figure out who's behind it until whoever or whatever it is decides to show themselves.

[She shrugs, turning the device between her fingers.]

I ain't any good at trying to figure stuff out like this, so I'm not gonna worry about it much for now. But it's still a pain, gettin' brought into trouble like this.

That's remarkably pessimistic. [Alucard doesn't agree, that much is conveyed in his tone. There's not exactly hope there, but rather a cold knowledge that information will be revealed by hard work, not just waiting for things to be revealed.]

Some others with different skillsets will take up the work, I am sure. As for your last point, we are in agreement.

You think? Well, it takes all types, doesn't it~

[Shura would call it being realistic, but that was her opinion.]

Just don't forget to take a break from thinking every once in a while, nya? It's not good for any of us if you overdo it.

[Is that concern? Maybe, but only just vaguely.]

I shall take that under advisement.

[Something else occurs to Alucard in that particular moment, and that is that he's yet to see hide nor hair of the ridiculous wolf that has attached itself to him. That being a sign that she's up to no good at all, he makes a polite noise and turns so that he is looking at the deck rather than over the side.]

Something else has come to my attention. Please excuse me.

[He's totally not going to take that under advisement. But he was a grown man and could do what he wanted, and she waves him off/]

Nyaha, you don't have to be so polite with me~

[Though... it was awfully quiet, wasn't it? Shishi was probably somewhere warmer than the deck, but still, she had better make sure he wasn't trying to eat something he shouldn't.]

Victor didn't intend to be close enough to overhear a spoken thought not meant for answering, but as he's taken in the feeling of this city, so unlike the one he'd visited years ago, he's been overhearing all kinds of things. His thoughts had run in similar lines, his heart yearning for a sense of what Krimnos is in this era, at the same time uncertain what it will be like when he finds it, in truth. There's no going home, and what new skin had their city grown, away from the fires of protection which had once kept it so warm? There's no doubt in his mind it's survived, because people do that, cities do that, and yet he can't think too closely on it. Can't let himself long for what he'd lost even before he died. That sense of home.

So he has kept himself moving through the markets, sampling foodstuffs he's heard of, and particularly those he has not. Food is another artform, and the skewers of grilled fish with their two different sauces are delicious and cooling as he listens and observes, allowing himself to be tourist at heart--and mindful of his tucked away coins, with his spell of warning against pickpockets. It was a city, after all, and he knew the sting of that need. Money didn't solve everything, but it filled bellies and might buy protection for a little while.

Makka is an excellent deterrent, her wild looks more compelling than he expected. All the more amusing, because she's only as dangerous as she needs to be, and right now, the need is low.

"Ships are left in harbor when the seas are too treacherous, aren't they?" he asks for the question that wasn't meant for answering, offering his open-faced wrapped sticks of grilled fish to Alucard. "You should really try some of the fish."

Makka, who has enjoyed the fish as much as Victor has, gives the fish a longing look and licks her lips. She's already been fed, but food is enticing, especially good food. Even if most of it is lost to her palate.

Alucard would hiss for someone interupting his thought process he knows Victor's voice very well now. (He's a good roomate. Fantastic on a battlefield. In Alucard's terrible definition of friendship which in the last year and change of his life was defined by "who will have my back and also not stab me in my sleep so I can kill my father?" Victor counted.) He is not the only one that wants to return to Krimnos and he's an ass if he pretends otherwise.

"True enough, but I'd have guessed that when these things are not used, there is some kind of covered space for them to be placed in. Mostly to avoid this precise situation."

There's zero denying the disappointment in Alucard's voice. He's tired and frusterated and he wants to know how much of his father's castle stands. What's been taken, what's been sold on markets both legitimate and not, what remains. Even if it's just foundations. Especially if it's just foundations.

It is very hard to think like this when there's a smell of fish involved though. Weird thought, but a true one all the same. Alucard extends a hand for one of the sticks, mostly because he hasn't eaten in a few hours. He ought to take care of this. Besides, it'll summon Ellis who he knows has spent the past hour wandering the market and getting scraps either out of cuteness or out of terror.

"Thank you. How much of the market have you explored so far?"

Edited 2018-12-18 13:21 (UTC)

Thinking extensively on an empty stomach rarely did Victor any good, and for better or worse, he was offering Alucard the kind of solution he could. Feed the body, feed the mind. Victor gives him one of the sticks of grilled fish, indicating after to the lines of sauce on either side of the grilled fish. Help yourself.

"In passing? A fair amount. There's a woman who makes these absolutely delicious crepes with savoury and sweet fillings over toward the North end. Told me all about how her daughter-in-law who does maintenance on the air-ships is having her second child early in the spring."

Makka leans against his leg, giving her best pleading expression up at the food he has in hand. Victor gives her a look, and she huffs a soft woo up at him, expressing her particular designs with minimal theatrics for now.

"Word going around seems to vary complaints between the usual. Money for merchants, unsafe roads for merchants and travelers, a lack of guides for predicting weather or handling the more unkind turns nature takes." He glances up toward the sky, squinting against the light. "Krimnos is as cut off from the rest of the world as they are from Krimnos while the airships are out of commission. In spite of the risks, people are looking for people who might chance the traveling, from here or the City of Free Peoples."

He smiles, but it's a thin expression. "At all similar to what you've been exploring?"

The sauces are declined with a single palm up from Alucard's free hand. This is more than enough, and there's a mental note made to repay the favor as soon as the next opportunity to do so presents itself. This is enough to power him through till evening, likely then some. (There is a small realization in all of this that Alucard can't rememer the last time he actually cooked. Strange thought to have, stranger still to find it upsetting.)

"Yes," he says softly. Alucard also hears that woo out of Maka and he has a feeling where that might end up in a few minutes. "Additional fears about wolf packs, which I'd write off as hardly a bother if you know what you're doing, and a bigger concern about black ice which truly doesn't change it seems." From Alucard's tone, it's clear he also considers that a far greater risk than wolves. Or bandits. Or generally unsafe roads.

There's zero surprise about Krimnos being cut off though. It's in the mountains. It's winter. It happens. "Are there people impatient enough to wish to head out if there are enough in a group to make going forward seem possible?"

In Alucard's heart, he knows this is selfish and self centered. Better to wait for modern convenience to put itself to rights and then just rid the airship back to Krimnos. But he wants to get to the city. Get to the part beyond the city that his father claimed as theirs and see what remains.

Makka leans more heavily against Victor's leg, wooing again. There's a lulling quality to her voice, still low enough now not to draw undue attention. Victor, for his part, takes a bite of fish, commenting offhand after swallowing, "Manners."

Makka cocks her head to the side and promptly sits down. The thump of her rump on the ground produces a flicker of a smile on Victor's lips, and he tears a piece of fish off with his teeth, carefully managing both the rest of the skewers and the one he'd he'd bitten into in order to transfer that piece of fish down to Makka. She takes it with a delicate pinch of her front teeth, then promptly tosses it up, snaps it out of the air, and swallows it down.

"Aren't there always? The concern is more in finding the guides or the defenders to pay to make sure they arrive. Krimnos is only as well supplied as the merchants keep it, after all." And not every larder stays well stocked in non-perishables.

"You know, you need to convince her to get mine to beahave so politely," Alucard murmurs, a thin smile on his face from Maka's well, everything. He's jealous, he'll admit that much. Not because Ellis is a dick about everything, but specifically because she's figured out nothing angers him more than constantly shedding on his coat.

Speaking of, Alucard catches a clump of white hairs on his sleeve and picks it off with all due haste before taking another bite of his fish. Tastes as fresh as anything. Maybe too much salt.

"I'm a century out of date to be useful with navigation," he says, disappointed with that particular fact if only because he used to be good at this. "Otherwise I'd be indulging the selfish desire of homecoming."

Edited (tmw u write up two replies then put em in the wrong threads) 2018-12-20 23:50 (UTC)

"Makka, do you think a heart to heart will convince Ellis of anything?" He asks, voice sing-song in quality, Makka's ears flicking first at her name, then head canting as she considers the question. Maybe she really is, though her response to it is opening her mouth just enough to allow her tongue to loll out: canine laughter at its finest. Victor's lips curl into a short lived grin at that, for all he doesn't outright laugh. People, and animas, will change as they change.

That said, should Ellis show up before all the fish is consumed, her chances of getting some out of Victor are decently high.

"There's one point where I would have considered myself reliable as a guide, but these days, I'd only find that confidence in sounding out the elements." Such as the weather, the hidden crevasses beneath the snow, and avalanche danger. Things that were always variable enough that the time and erstwhile changes would shift nothing for him that wouldn't have already changed. "Besides, imagine the sight it would make descending on the city from the skies. I know I do." It would be a singular and appropriately different way of returning "home."

Sing-song is contrasted with a voice all too serious addressed to Makka. "Thank you for your honesty." Because that reaction is painfully honest, and what else can be read from such a face? It's ridiculous to look at yes, but Makka is right. The wolf is going to listen to no one.

Ellis is currently trotting back with a rather large sausage that she has claimed as hers. Fish? Beginner's scraps.

"Sounding out the elements would take care of half the problems, admittedly." Victor has made it abundantly clear that his skill lies with snow and ice and all manner of things that are king this time of year. To say that the man is currently in his element would be a gross understatement so far as Alucard could ever make one. But as it stands, there's too many thoughts.

Besides, Victor has a much greater point. There is a romanticism in the descent from airships onto the city again. If they're up high enough, Alucard might be able to catch sight of one of the castle's spires. That'd be a fine thing to help him prepare.

"It would be overly dramatic, but appropriate given that we seems to be bound into that realm these days."

(Bullshit, Alucard's always lived there. Coming back from the dead just makes everything even more over dramatic all of the time.)

More fish for Victor and Makka. Makka, who looks toward Ellis on her approach, then licks her lips. She doesn't move toward Ellis, but oh. Oh, that looks delicious. Makka is too clearly focused on the sausage in Ellis's mouth, watching her every movement.

"Were we not before?" He knows not everyone was, had heard it in what was said or wasn't said. People woke to find themselves in colours that supported a dragon who hadn't held their service at the time of their death.

Even more strange, in ways, as them all resurrecting from a multitudes of times, battles that had happened over all those nearby fields over the years the war had stretched on. The pointless, bloody battles stripping colour and light out of the world, and leaving it diving toward madness.

He shook his head, as if dismissing some thought or another from his mind, and absently bit into his fish. After swallowing, he added, "I can appreciate some high minded dramatics. May as well change our perspective on everything literally as well as metaphorically."

Ellis pauses. Considers the look she's getting, then just headbutts Alucard's knee. It prompts the dhampir to look down, then shake his head with a surprising fondness. Ellis is still an absolute shit, but this he won't scold her for. (That sausage is probably stolen goods though.) He crouches down, and is careful as he tears the sausage asunder. Ellis claims her piece immediately, and Alucard holds the other out for Makka if she so desires.

"We were, but I suppose that this is in a different vein."

Which is a shitty dhampir joke, unintended but now just there. Ellis doesn't hear it, because food, and if Victor picks up on it, well, so be it. Either way, the sausage is quite distributed and Alucard straightens up again.

He's ready to go home. That much he knows.

"I feel as if all we have these days is the literal," Alucard says with a grim set face. "Steady ground, for example. New perspectives. Knowing what's around the corner." There's also only one conclusion. "It does us no good to only have the literal."

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Mini-Event: Skywhale + Day of Lefkokó

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