☆ Event Log: Snatched, Part One

[faileas]

Event Log: January, Snatched - Part One

I. The Fires (14th) Though it began this month with petty vandalism, before long, things escalate. On the evening of the 14th, when many are settling down for the night, fires blaze to life simultaneously all over the city, though they seem to cluster in places that Mirrorbound and refugees frequent. Homes, businesses, market stalls, the Barracks, the Residential Districts, they could pop up anywhere, but the worst of them seem to hit different locations within the Haven. The refugees stand to lose a lot in the fires, everything they've built up since arriving here at the end of September, and Mirrorbound stand to suffer damage to the homes or businesses they've built in Aefenglom. No doubt everyone is quick to catch on, but with so many locations burning at once, help is thin on the ground. As soon as they're alerted, the Coven sends out a call to all Witches, Merrow, water-based Dragons, anyone who can manipulate water or ice to help put out the fires across town before they can spread. With the city plan so tight and buildings so close together, it's a real worry. They'll accept all hands, even those with no particular water-based talents - anybody can carry buckets, after all. Bucket brigades made up of mostly Monsters form from the River Temese out to pass water to where it's needed most. Others with fire magic or resistances are asked to search the buildings still on fire for anyone still trapped inside. On the streets, more set up stations to treat burns and smoke inhalation, and to check people over for worse injuries. It takes a couple of hours to put out the last of the flames, but thanks to quick action, no lives are confirmed lost. The City Guard is present at the sites of the fires in the hours afterward, questioning witnesses and determining the sources with both magical and Monster-ability-based methods, but as the chaos calms down, it quickly becomes clear that 1. this is a case of purposeful arson, and 2. not all witnesses are present. Maybe it's your friend, or family member, or just an acquaintance you know you saw go into their house at the end of the day, but they're conspicuously absent from the crowds gathered on the streets. Those who are Bonded to a missing person feel it first, though - a horrible sensation like a pillow over the face or a tightening in the chest, smothering their Bond to barely anything, except the very rare flicker of something, a tiny spark lost to the darkness as soon as it's felt. The sudden absence of them is like a case of phantom limb, something that should be there suddenly isn't, but yet it isn't quite an annullment or breaking of the Bond. It's still there, just muted and tamped down. It feels a little different for everyone, maybe painful or maybe just uncomfortable, or maybe, in the cases of new or less-close Bonds, it simply feels as if it never existed. Regardless, those Bonded can't be found through Bonds. It's like those loved ones have vanished, without a trace. The City Guard and Coven representatives alike will seek to make a comprehensive list of all who have gone missing, but Mirrorbound cooperation will be needed for that; they would know better than anyone, because the missing ones are all Mirrorbound or refugees.

II. The Lost Souls (14th - 20th) CW: Torture, captivity, restraints. You were spirited away in the middle of the night. Maybe you were out, or maybe you were safe in your own home, but either way, someone managed to get the drop on you. Upon waking, everything is fuzzy, until clarity returns suddenly and violently. It's possible to remember a struggle, an enchanted darkness that might have enveloped you, maybe even a glimpse of the face of the human or Witch who grabbed you, but now you're stuck in a small, stone cell, the only entrance covered in shiny new bars thick enough to hold back a rampaging Dragon. The hall beyond is also stone and dimly lit by sparse magitech lights and the soft, runic glow of spells drawn on the walls and floors. There are more cells like yours, filled with more Monsters and Witches like you. What's worse, maybe you're alone, or maybe another poor soul is trapped with you - the space isn't exactly large enough for two, but the comfort might be nice. Witches will find their magic restrained, tamped down with a spell similar to the Coven's punishment for lawbreaking. Monsters' restraints are more traditional - muzzles, chains, manacles, and particular weaknesses that differ from Monster type to Monster type, such as silver or iron, water, or the lack of water. Even if, by some small mercy, a person finds themselves with their hands free, all of the captives' Watches have been taken, along with most other belongings on them. The uncertainty of your new location doesn't last for long. It's only a matter of time before people pass through the cellblock in pairs or trios, talking to each other and ignoring the captives behind bars, checking up on the spells that line the room. Those with keen memories will realize - these are not the same people who took them in the first place. All are human, and they all share a familial resemblance - black hair, violet eyes, pointed noses, and unpleasant sneers. Over time, with observation (and what else are you going to do, while you wait for the worst?), maybe frequenters of the Coven will pick out a familiar face, a haughty, unpopular Witch named Constance Rathmore who refuses to associate with Mirrorbound in classes, or those familiar with the law might pick out a mid-ranked member of the City Guard named Godfrey Rathmore, who perhaps looks the other way when refugees are harassed. As the hours tick by, it becomes obvious that there are maybe 22 of the Rathmore family, the only ones with access to this corridor. Other voices, maybe familiar from the kidnapping, can be heard outside the main doors at times, but they never enter, and seem none the wiser as to what is actually happening. a. The Torments And what is happening? Something sinister. It's usually a different set of family members, a pair of cousins, the daughter or the son, occasionally even the matriarch and her son and daughter-in-law (who may be recognized as long-time members of Parliament). Their methods and motivations may be a bit different, but they share one thing - innate cruelty, and a hatred for those they see as a plague on Aefenglom, those harbingers of unwanted change. Sometimes they inflict pain on captives right there through the bars of the cells, with nasty spells or physical instruments, but more often, they choose a victim or two to remove from their cell, still in restraints, to take down the hall, through the heavy door at the opposite end from the entrance. The wide room at the end is a place of horrors: instruments of torture lining tables, heavy restraints, and glass jars to receive any bits or blood they might separate from the original owners, to sell on the black market. The runes on the walls and floor in this room are different as well - this is advanced, forbidden magic, practiced by the daughter Constance on brand new test subjects. When the family members have grown bored or tired themselves out, they return their current playthings to a cell - not always the same cell with the same cellmate, not always with the same restraints, but every time they ensure that it will be difficult to escape or fight back. b. The Whispers While the Rathmores do not often speak directly to captives, they speak to each other quite a bit, as do the others who occasionally pass outside the heavy door at the entrance and simply seem to serve as watchmen outside the corridor. It's easy to get snippets of conversation between the horrors. What else are you going to do, besides wait, and listen, and plot your escape? "Shame about Uncle Rodolphus. Scarred by the mist, his Black Market business raided." "None of it would have happened if they hadn't provoked Dorchacht. It was Drummond's Witch in our city who unleashed that awful gas, as retribution for what they did over there..." "...-Destabilizing a whole city like that, and there are only a hundred of them give or take. Imagine what they'll do to Aefenglom if we don't stop it." "They'll all want to leave after this, surely. We'll go for another batch in a couple of weeks, once Godfrey convinces the Guard to stop looking." "Good. Maybe Dorchacht will take them. Them and their brutal revolutionaries..." "...-Father thinks we can control them if he manages to get in touch with his contact in Dorchacht. They had that spell, you know? Like the collars, but better. Maybe then we can sell them off, make some money back to cover our losses..." "...-All this pushing for equality. The whole economy will collapse. Everyone has their place in a functioning society, right, sister?"... "...-heard from Mr. Rathmore himself they're doing magic in there. A spell to send the Mirrorbound home, and the refugees along with them." "Then why did we have to grab them like that? You'd think they'd want to leave." "The Coven wants them here, obviously. It's a power-play, there's no way they'd allow Mr. Rathmore to do this..." "...-I don't know about this, the Rathmores always seemed a little extreme-..." As a reminder: while this prompt contains a general content warning for torture, please make sure to leave decently specific content warnings in your headers for anything that may be uncomfortable for other players to stumble across. The level of torture experienced by each character is up to the individual players - please respect each other's limits!

III. The Ones Left Behind (14th - 20th) Meanwhile, out in the city, the atmosphere is a new kind of tense. The papers pick up the story pretty quickly, so before long, it seems that everyone knows about it. In the days since the fires, repairs seem to be on the backburner; the remaining refugees especially worry for their missing friends and loved ones, and the missing Mirrorbound. The graffiti stops entirely, as do nasty comments in the streets. The upper-class, when they come into contact with the remaining Mirrorbound, cannot meet their eyes, or even react with genuine sympathy, a rare few even saying in hushed murmurs that they hope they find their people. Vandalizing their property is one thing, it seems, but people simply vanishing, Bonds being smothered... that's another. Even if they don't worry for the Mirrorbound, they worry for their own safety in Aefenglom now. On the other hand, residents of the Western Residential District, primarily Monsters but including a fair few humans as well, stop by the Haven more often, bringing food and kind words, and asking after the disappearances with real concern. The City Guard is an increased presence on the streets, trying to track down witnesses who may have information, but without warrants, their hands are tied in a lot of cases. Some Mirrorbound are asked quietly by the Lead Investigator if they wouldn't mind looking into some of the sources of the fires, and trying to track down anyone who might have seen something - they can operate a little more loosely, not being bound by the same bureaucracy as the Guard. They're promised Guard and Coven cooperation and support in this. The demand for artists increases in the days after the abduction. Many of the refugees especially will seek out anyone who can draw to help them create fliers about the missing people to post around town, to raise awareness. Maybe they want to make posters of another refugee, or maybe they want posters made of particular Mirrorbound faces who helped them in the past. They're distressed, but they're pulling together as a community - and it's clear they consider all the Mirrorbound a part of it, judging from how they'll try to pull anyone in to their efforts to put the 'missing' posters up around the city. The Coven, too, is in a flurry of worry, second only to the refugees, who are missing some of their own as well. Many of the regular classes are disrupted and become impromptu Divining sessions, circles of Witches holding hands and chanting in rooms filled with incense smoke, making concentrated efforts to determine the location of their missing fellows. After all, many Mirrorbound are their classmates, and they want to see them returned safely. Anyone passing through the Coven may get pulled into one of these sessions - Witches to lend their magic to the circle, Monsters who know any of the missing to act as foci. Unfortunately, nothing concrete turns up in the fleeting visions they do get, and the backlash is immense, resulting in splitting migraines. It's magical interference for sure. Luckily, Miss Aerianna, the middle-aged Arachne caretaker to the Dreamers (who, she'll say, are currently unreachable - they're trying to suss out the missing Mirrorbound as well), is well-versed with Divination headaches, and is around distributing her supposed cure-all, which smells like swamp-water and tastes twice as bad. At least it works on the headaches. While the part of the city who wanted to see the Mirrorbound gone have quieted down some, the part of the city that welcomes them has grown louder, providing what support they can to try to find those lost souls who have vanished. The investigation briefs will be posted under location-specific headers down below! Feel free to thread underneath them with others investigating the same area, or collaborate with other teams to share information. We decided to go ahead and allow for everyone who signed up to investigate whichever area they're interested in rather than splitting characters into mod-decided teams, but we encourage working together!

Welcome to Part One of January's event, Snatched! The sign-ups thread is here - it's not too late to get involved. Only the kidnapped characters who will escape on the evening of the 20th is closed out to new sign-ups. Headers for the investigations are here. Part Two of this event will be posted on the 21st and will include the escape, rescue and bringing the perpetrators to justice.

And a note for all! If your character does anything significant during Part 1 or Part 2, we want to hear about it on the city tracker! Make sure your submissions are in by Feb. 3rd, because a special aftermath post will go up on the 4th.

Comments

♥ for sure!

[gehennawind]

[ If she could, Paloma would steal all the pain and hurt from this miserable woman and take it into herself. She's never seen anyone struggle so much just to get down a few bites of questionable food.

After it's gone, her hand cradling the side of Fang's skull, talk as useless as it is endless starts to bubble up and out of her cold mouth. ]

After it's over, come and find me. I know so many wonderful places with the best quick bites. Cheap. I'm freaking broke, but sometimes if they like you, they'll cover. I could cover yours. If you wanted. If you don't wanna impose, I'd really like to, anyway. My, umm, my name is Paloma. [ Hurriedly: ] You don't need to say yours!

[belligerentwarrior]

[Fang's mouth twitches into a ghost of a smile at her cellmate's rambling. Generous, this one. There were few aspects of Oerba that Fang clung to, but one tradition of her old culture in particular...]

[Food. Giving food was a borderline sacred act, the ultimate gift of peace. The woman was obvious a vampire, and didn't need to eat, but... she'd still given to Fang—fed it to her. And now, offering to buy her something later? She'd laugh, under normal circumstances. If this shared hell didn't make them comrades before, they sure were now.]

[Giving her name was only right. Fang has to swallow again (wincing all the while), and her voice is a hoarse whisper. It's a struggle, but she never has known when to quit.]

Fang.

[Giving her name was only right. Reciprocating was only right. Kindness was all they had.]

...drink.

[It's a dangerous suggestion. Fang was a Turnskin; she knew all too well the peril of dancing between strong Monsters' urges, trying to neither repress them until it was too much to bear nor submit and get swept into its depths. Paloma had to be hungry. She could only take a little bit, Fang didn't have the strength for anything more, and she expected it would take an enormous effort of will to stop once she'd started, but... Paloma had survived this far. She clearly had strength. Fang wanted to trust that.]

[gehennawind]

[ Fang. Fang? Are hers showing? Paloma clamps her lips together, mortified, but rationalizes that it would be a major waste of energy to spend on pointing out a flash of the white and pointy.

Or would it? Either she's asking for the water they both know she isn't hiding away, or the Turnskin is urging her to... prey on what's left, on a woman who'll die if their captors can't be assed to prevent it. She recoils (but not with so much carelessness that Fang's head drops from her cradling hand). ]

You can't mean that. You shouldn't. [ Her voice goes thready. ] Going hungry won't kill me like it'll kill you.

[belligerentwarrior]

[There's so much she could say, so much Fang would normally shrug off. It's hard to look cocky when she's wracked with pain and hunger of the like she's never felt, but Fang tries anyway, the corner of her mouth twitching briefly upward.]

[She wants to rationalize, that they'll bleed her anyway with their torture and she'd rather that blood go to a good cause, that if feeding made Paloma stronger she might have even a sliver of better odds of escaping, that Fang was a Monster and not as delicate as a human. That she wouldn't miss a little blood, with all the movement Fang as getting up to.]

[Maybe she'd pass out and Fang could actually rest for a little while.]

[It's a lot to put into a few words. Fang tries anyways.] S'fine. Won't miss't. [This next part takes a moment, and she has to swallow first, but she manages to keep her grimace small.] You'll... get stronger, yeah?

[There was still a very real chance of dying, but that depended both on the vampire before her, or their captors.]

[gehennawind]

[ A stranger's generosity or— an assisted end to it?

She stares, dark eyes enormous and watery and frightened of whatever's not being said. Wanting, too. Of course Paloma wants to guzzle the lifeblood from Fang, whether or not it's freely given. Of course the corrupted half of her is licking its teeth in anticipation. ]

I-I don't need strength, I just gotta live through it. So do you. Someone's missing you while you're gone. [ a wet non-laugh ] How do I face them?

[belligerentwarrior]

[Someone's missing her. That made her heart ache in reminder. There was more than one person that fit that description, but the most important one... She looks Paloma in the eye, a spark of resolve there even through all the suffering.]

What'f you can... get out? [If she was stronger. If she could heal. Their captors expected them all to be weakened, and maybe they wouldn't expect this vampire to have fed if Fang survived the experience. If there was a single opportunity, no matter how small, to escape...] My Bonded. She's here.

[Fang might've felt an almost moral obligation to feed this stranger in return, and fainting from bloodloss might've been a great potential perk in the situation, but that, above all. This was dangerous; Fang knew why they put Paloma here. It's the same reason they might put her in a cage with a puca or a faun—predator and prey. If this could increase someone's odds of running for help, even just by a shadow of a chance, she'd do it.]

[Anything, for Ursula.]

[gehennawind]

[ The point is impossible to argue. What if, what if, this strength could be enough to escape? (Not on her own. Never to just leave her heart's answer behind and have the knowledge of doing it hang between them, forever.) ]

If... if we, we keep it together, and you've got your lady to find, I can use that to stop myself from killing you with this.

[ She closes her eyes until the Beast isn't gleaming out of them. ]

Breathe out.

[belligerentwarrior]

[Fang doesn't nod. Nodding sounded excruciatingly painful with the silver cinched around her neck, and a waste of strength besides. The Turnskin closes her eyes as well, exhaling.]

[gehennawind]

[ She hadn't asked her to inhale because the dungeon is chock full of every revolting smell one could think of. Before the exhale can complete, Paloma descends with the accuracy and quickness of a rat tearing off another's tail.

It's wonderful, while it lasts. A fully fledged vampire bite, executed without intention to harm, is instant delivery to a heaven where pain is an unknown and delight is the rule. The bite is horrific in that it is more wonderful than any known high and intrinsically the tool of a parasite, and she cradles Fang's head gently, but her fingers spasm and tighten regardless. Paloma could hear her heartbeat before. Now it's on her tongue, and its rhythm is felt, and she must, must, must stop.

Her fangs slide free so awfully, if painlessly. She speaks into her neck. ]

Please forgive me for that.

[belligerentwarrior]

[Fang's completely unprepared for it. It's... overwhelming. The rest of her breath leaves her in a rush and she moves a little, even against her restraints because for a too-short moment, she couldn't feel it—that burning, fearful antithesis to a Turnskin's being.]

[All the other pain stops, too. In this short stay in this accursed dungeon, she'd almost forgotten what that was like.]

[It makes reality crashing back that much more stark. She hisses, eyes pinching shut the moment the agony returns, and it staggers her fragile consciousness. She doesn't know what to say. Hell, Fang probably too stunned to say anything, or even hope it was worth it.]

[gehennawind]

[ And Paloma keeps her eyes shut. She doesn't want to watch the pain come back to Fang. Knowing it's there is bad enough. ]

I didn't take what I'd need to break out. That would drain you. This way, like- like this, you'll have a shot at it, if they leave you alone for just... if they give you a break.

Please understand. I'm selfish. My Bonded is down here, too, and any time we get is—we won't have much.

[belligerentwarrior]

[A break. Right. Fang could endure a lot, but the silver flush against her skin—dying in some places under the collar and manacles like burnt charcoal—for so long, for every hour of these miserable days, was debilitating even for her. Unless these damn things came off, she wouldn't have a chance.]

[Not that Fang could voice the bitter thought. Her eyes flutter open, her vision wavering. Paloma's still muttering to her neck, so she couldn't look at the vampire. The clashing, overwhelming sensations of bliss and agony back-to-back left her reeling. It's all Fang can do to utter a sound that... mostly sounds like an acknowledgement. She gets it. At least, Fang thinks she does. Words were making less and less sense by the second.]

[Her eyes flutter shut again, too leaden to stay open.]

[gehennawind]

[ She's listening for changes to Fang's heart rate, for any possible sign that Paloma took too much away, like a new childe would. Even now, the Beast is a hammer at her thoughts, at the thin, thin fabric protecting her soul from debasement.

Because it is touch, because it is the only thing passing for intimacy in hell, the bridge of her nose presses to the side of Fang's shoulder. That this might be crossing a line isn't even a puff of a thought. ]

But.

I'll remember you.