Mini-Event: Skywhale + Day of Lefkokó

[usirmods]

🜙 Bottom

⤛ Navigation

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.
🜙 Top
🜙 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.
🜙 Top
🜙 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.

🜙 Top

Comments

[fuga]

It is what I have always made for myself. What other desires can there be?

[ Lauralae would like to study, to learn, but she knows what she has done in the years of her life cannot be looked upon fondly. She had heard whispers of forbidden magic long before she had fled her temple and now... Now she is a master of it, in a way, and she cannot admit it to anyone. The gloves along her arms protect the scarring that might give her away and she is twitchy with her discomfort.

Slowly, she stares at Alucard, gazing at him. He is... More than she had thought when she had met him before. ]

I have never had friends. I do not know contentment. I do not know how to achieve those things.

[cryptsleeper]

Made by what forces? Forgive me if I presume necessity out of true desire.

[He's absolutely overstepping bounds. So be it.]

You learn those things by doing, and they cannot be done apart and isolated from the world. There are countless risks. You must decide if the new and the struggle is worth those things.

[fuga]

What forces are there? The world pushes us one way or another. I make what I can of it.

[ She's not offended. It takes rather a lot to imagine her to be offended by any commentary on her nature. ]

Is the world worth embracing if they still seek to kill me for things I cannot control?

[cryptsleeper]

You assert yourself. You control what you can. And then the rest is learned by both parties. It is an unspoken social contract.

[Perhaps this is all too lofty and too dramatic. Alucard is not a stranger to either accusation. But he cannot imagine anything worse than true isolation, and his elder has yet to run for the wilderness yet.

That says something.]

[fuga]

The last time I asserted myself I was killed.

[ Her eyes flick to him, staring, dark, intense. Lauralae had stood up for herself, her place in the world, her enjoyment of her own isolation, and all she had been given were manacles around her wrists and a discomfort that settled deep in her stomach, the knowledge that she might die.

Careful, she turns her head away, a touch morose. ]

I controlled myself. My future. That had been enough.

[cryptsleeper]

As was I.

[His circumstances were different. No chains or anything of the sort, just the red hot anger of someone trying to force him into a conflict that he had no love for. Someone dragging him from the legacy of his parents, someone forcing him into a death that he would never choose. Faced with that option, he embraced every ounce of rage inherited from his father, and tore whatever he could to blood red ribbons before the grave opened for him.

It was an unpleasant death. But it was better than the other options before him at the time.]

The future opens itself again.

[fuga]

And I am here.

[ Isn't it enough? She has not fled to the wilderness again, to bury herself in familiar dirt. She has not hidden herself away and demanded that she be left in peace to relearn her crafts and take note of the world again. She is here and she is petting a wolf while speaking to another of her kin and even that feels more dangerous than many things she had done in her life. Openness is not natural to her, and Lauralae is learning to adjust her expectations of what she might expect here now.

She shakes her head, eyes closing. ]

I do not know what path it is I am expected to take. This feels beyond my control.

[cryptsleeper]

Not only here, but have remained as such. I would say that is control.

[There will never be enough. But that isn't the point. The point is ownership of where one stands, and how the world must accept that fact. In this case, it is such a tiny step, but from what Alucard can gather, that shall simply be the pace.]

You've made plenty of decisions about the world already. You should reevaluate with that in mind.

[fuga]

Where else might I go?

[ When her soul and her body are directing her rather than her mind what choice does she truly have? Rav'ahm makes a noise in her hair, wings fluttering a little before he nudges at her head, and she frowns. She seems sour, somehow, and far younger than her ninety years might suggest.

Isolation has left her with many childlike mannerisms, it seems. ]

Perhaps. I might try.

[cryptsleeper]

Where would you have liked to have gone before?

[That's probably a question with a broad answer. Better that than Alucard trying to actually make a suggestion. He knows absolutely nothing else about the fellow dhampir beside him, save for what has already been revealed. To recommend x, z, or z is impossible.]

[fuga]

Somewhere to learn. To grow things.

[ It is a nameless place, something that doesn't mean anything to her at all in the long run. Somewhere where she might be able to live in peace - but what place could that be? She cannot picture it or pick a name in her mind. ]

[cryptsleeper]

That is....very broad.

[Expected. But it is a place to start.]

[fuga]

No one has asked me such a thing before.

[ And she seems rather petulant about the idea. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[That in and of itself is both upsetting and unsurprising. However, there is something that sticks in Alucard's mind as he considers this information. To grow things.]

I recall, some time ago, I encountered a temple complex with a series of greenhouses, which enabled the growth of plants that need constant warmth regardless of season.

[fuga]

A temple...

[ That makes her pause. She had a home there once, but trying to remember it fondly comes with some difficulty. ]

An owned temple? To who?

[cryptsleeper]

Mm, I'm trying to recall. It was an early trip, and I didn't keep my notes as well as I did later in life.

[And all of those notes are still at home, if they survive at all.]

But you'd be interested?

[fuga]

I would not loathe it.

[ There is no denying the comfort she finds in religion, so to be tied to a temple once more... It would not be the worst future for her. Her eyes dart down to Ellis, uncertain. ]

You could find it again?

[cryptsleeper]

Mm, so long as my memory cooperates and the building still stands.

[Or else he'll simply locate a similar enough place. The temple is hardly the point anyway. A greenhouse seems the best way to wed wild untamed nature and civilization. A quiet place to begin anew. Something poetic about greenery.

Ellis, at this point, is snoring. Softly, barely noticeable over conversation.]

[fuga]

I grew plants and poisons in the wilderness. They were... It kept me occupied. I was happy, sometimes, when I had them. That is how I earned what little money I had, with trade.

[ It seems difficult for her to admit even that, as if confessing the simplest of things was a burden to her. The weight of Ellis is a comfort and she breathes out, eyes closed. ]

I could live there. Alone again.

[cryptsleeper]

That returns us to what I asked before: is that what you want?

[To simply return to before, and take no part of the world?

He remembers the temple now. It was to the speckled doe, to Seyra, her domain that of growth and healing and order and earth. A thing at the forest foothills before the mountains that lead to Krimnos truly took hold.

Easy enough to confirm that it remains.]

[fuga]

I would not be opposed. Is that not the same?

[ The idea of want is something that is a foreign concept to her. She has lived a life where it has been need rather than want - she made and purchased whatever she needed to survive, learned a craft, taught herself magics, and she flourished. When had want ever come into that?

She shakes her head. ]

What do you want, kinsman?

[cryptsleeper]

Opposed sounds like settling and falling into patterns because that what makes sense at the time.

[There's a greater point here, but the question gets nothing more than a speedy response that speaks to a much older kind of rapport.]

Of you, or in general?

[fuga]

Are there issues with settling into comfort?

[ Is this what it is like to have parents to raise you? This kind of determination about the world? Her nose wrinkles. ]

Both, perhaps.

[cryptsleeper]

It can become a trap of it's own.

[Well, maybe his parents. They were stubborn, overdramatic people.]

From you? To consider that there is a world that would be better for your involvement in it, rather than retreating into the familiar. Things have changed, and what worked a century ago may do more harm than good now.

For myself? To assess what of my family's castle remains. To rebuild the legacy they intended to leave behind rather than the ones they did, and to continue to determine what force has dragged us all kicking and screeching into the future without our consent.

And from there, I shall see how the earth has shifted beneath my feet.

[fuga]

A trap.

[ She frowns, considering, watching as he speaks.

It makes sense. Fading into the familiar would make her life the same endless circle it had been before, and even if she had been content she wants more now. There is magic for her to learn, things for her to do, and she cherishes the chance for her to have that gift even if she is not sure how to ask for it.

Quietly, she huffs a noise, low and animalistic. ]

It may be the Gods. It may be more. [ Her voice is soft, quiet, as she continues. ] I would help you find that answer. I will discover the force in return for a place to live.