☆ 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

[enkidoh]

[Without any further ado the man jams the knife into their wrist and that just...that hurts. Enkidu squeezes their eyes shut and hisses, not giving these hideous men the satisfaction of hearing them scream. After that the knife twists and turns and when they look they can see a look of pure glee on their captor's face.

Enkidu knows that they love humanity above everything else. That they like to listen to all of their stories, they like to read all of their books. They have chosen to walk besides them and be their weapon. And now this?

Why would they do this?]

Stop it. [Because it really hurts and they do not understand any of this. And before they receive a ridiculous punch in the face they can hear themselves mutter a soft, helpless...]

Cu, make them stop this. Ask them...

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ Berserker looks up from where he sits on the floor. He pants through his open mouth, still trying to get his breathing under control. At first, there's no response to Enkidu's pleas. A few moments of silence pass before he decides to speak. ]

...Why? Do you think it will make them stop? It won't. Do you see what they've done to me already?

[ The man holding Berserker's leash suddenly grabs a fistful of his hair beneath his horns and yanks on it, forcing the dragon to look at him. ]

Oh, so it can talk. [ Another kick to the ribs. ] Beg and maybe we'll spare your friend.

[ Now was the time for Berserker to silence himself again. He says nothing and his silence is repaid with a slap to his temple. ]

Keep going, then, until it decides to listen. You're gonna regret acting like this, beast.

comes in 4000 years later with a tag

[enkidoh]

[And they see it. And he is right as well. These humans won't stop. If they will speak, he will get beaten and if he won't they will take their finger. Chances are big that, in the end, both of these things will happen.

That, and Berserker did not beg. And Enkidu wouldn't want him to do so either.]

Hn...my hair...it is worth much more than...my hand. [Truly, when that knife digs into their bone it is difficult to hold back a scream but they manage.

And then one of these humans start to speak.]


We could let one beat the other or something. You know like...

[Enkidu watches how the short man turns to the taller man as they start to discuss something...quite horrible. And Enkidu is naturally quite a pale lump of clay but their face turns at least twice as pale when they listen to that conversation.]

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ The cruelty of men is well-known to Berserker. His expression remains unchanged despite the scene before him. He's slipped back into his protective apathy -- not caring is safer for him. Apathy detaches him from the situation. If he gets hurt, so be it. If they hurt Enkidu, so be it. It doesn't matter when you feel nothing. ]

I got this bastard to attack a faun. Think we could get it to attack this one? Prey's prey to a starving animal. Inject it with that drug again and take its restraints off. This witch is worthless to us, so we wouldn't have to stop it like we did before...I mean, we should, but if something goes wrong...

[ Use his instincts against him. Turn him back into what he fought against. He was a fool to think it was possible to change. Berserk is and always will be a monster to be used for the purposes of others and nothing more. A tool to be used. His own desires don't matter and never should have. ]

[enkidoh]

[Enkidu has never truly feared anything. They questioned and they were surprised at times. They knew happiness and knew how to laugh. They knew compassion and recognized sadness. They understood the divine and stood next to mankind.

But this.]

You cannot do that... Cu is...that is unfair. [Enkidu should shut up. But it would be even more unfair of them to allow such a thing. Cu's soul needed to grow. He needed to return and revel in the progress he is making.] If you would do that he will destroy this entire place. Not just me, you as well. This room...of cruelty.

[They had to try and they watch both men intently.]

It would be quite a sight, though. Do we still have some left?

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ The other man didn't need to ask. The one by Berserker is already drawing up the drug into a syringe. The dragon has experienced this before -- it will burn, his nerves will feel like they're on fire, and he'll wake up restrained in a cell with no memory of what happened. There will be fresh blood on his clothes and maybe on himself, if they didn't bother to hose him down afterward. It's simply inevitable. ]

Let that one down. It'll be a better show if they can run.

[ Berserker feels the needle enter the muscle of his upper arm. His expression doesn't change even after his nerves start to burn. It hurts and he doesn't care. Once Enkidu has been freed from their restraints, both of the men retreat to the safety outside of the room. A spell from one of them releases Berserker from his restraints.

The dragon doesn't move from his place on the floor, on his hands and knees now. Growling echoes through the room as he slowly loses control over himself. It's probably a blessing that he's injured and can't lunge as effectively with his shoulder and leg hurt as they are. His head snaps up as he snares at Enkidu, teeth bared in a snarl. ]

Stay...away... [ Distorted, strained. He can't keep control much longer. ] Or kill...me.

[ There is no longer an ally -- a friend -- in the chamber with him, just prey. His instincts are in complete control as he pushes himself up to his feet. As if stalking his prey, he keeps his distance for now, sidestepping slowly around the edge of the chamber. A quick dash and he'd be upon Enkidu; it's almost as though he's toying with them. ]

[enkidoh]

[Enkidu has lived their life in some sort of blissful state of neutrality. They have walked besides humanity, they have enjoyed stories told by humans. But they have never truly been among people, forced to live a life similar to them. Perhaps that is why they find this difficult to understand.

The pain is one thing. Applying a knife to cut through their being is another. But this. They have been too naive, yet they do not know how to look at this in another way. A weapon could be quite useless without anyone to wield it.]

Heh, there isn't much room for them to run. [Enkidu can hear the man chuckle while he starts to undo their restraints.] It will be messy, though.

[Their muscles feel surprisingly sore when they are freed, not even to speak about what they have done to their body. But right now that is the least of their worry.]

Cu... I have never feared death... [Still that much is true.] ...and I will not forget who you are.

[And that is all they can say because they can see the change in him almost immediately.]

...You should also not forget who you are... [Still, they do take hold of one of the knives their captors left behind but they do not lash out. Not even when Cu starts to dash at them, toying with them as if they were nothing but prey. They merely shield their face and allow themselves to stumble backwards.]

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ The words don't reach him, not truly, anyway. The person who might respond to those words is buried underneath predatory instincts that he can't ignore. His eyes are colder than ever as he slowly stalks Enkidu. A flash of metal catches his attention long enough to recognize it as a threat; they are armed, but not dangerous. Berserker doesn't stop in his pursuit. What made him so dangerous as a Servant is surfacing once again: no fear of death, relentless, and brutally efficient.

The dragon stops as Enkidu stumbles back, then suddenly lunges forward. A great pain shoots up his injured leg, but he ignores it. With the force of his pounce, unless they move aside, he will land of top of them. From there, it would be trivial to kill his prey... ]

[enkidoh]

[It is difficult to completely focus, to think like a weapon instead of like the human they sometimes try to be. The cuts hurt and there are bruises as well. What they look at isn't the Cu they've got to know. His eyes are cold...calculating. And it isn't fear what they feel. They do not fear death. They do not mind losing.

But they know him. And they know how unfair this is to him. To stagnate the growth of his soul in such a cruel way.

Enkidu manages to dodge just in time by making an awkward sort of barrel roll. Their hand tightens around the knife they are holding as they get back on their feet. It hurts but it gives them a moment where they can take a deep breath and try to focus again. Be their own weapon. They might not be able to summon their chains anymore or change their shape, they're still created to fight.]

Very well...

[Carefully they lower their body, eyes narrowing a little.]

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ Enkidu's dodge leaves Cú empty handed as he lands on the floor with a grunt. The impact hurts his injured shoulder, but he ignores the pain as always. Instead of turning to leap at them, he sweeps his tail quickly and powerfully at their feet in an attempt to knock them over or at least slow them down.

He will catch his prey or die trying. It's not a pretty mindset..It's not as though their captors will let him kill Enkidu, but they might let him get close to doing it. Their cruelty is purposeful, after all. ]

[enkidoh]

[The room they have is small. It will not give them much space to move. And the Cu that is in front of them now isn't the one they came to know. This is one these humans want him to be. And it is sad and dreadful. Disturbing and cruel.

Enkidu manages to dodge the tail but once again the room proves to be too small for them both. After all, Berserker is considerably larger than they are. And then there is the entire thing that this is a room meant for torture. In the end every item inside has a pointy end. And as they dodge something pointy and sharp digs into their upper arm.

Apparently these humans have invented something that involved pins coming out of wood. How awful.

A groan escapes their mouth as they pull back but yet, when they focus, Berserker is a little bit too close to them...]

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ Berserker seizes on that opportunity and goes to grab Enkidu by the shoulders. An ominous growl rumbles in his throat as a bitter, acrid smell fills the small space. Black, sticky, viscous liquid drools out of the corners of his mouth -- he is quite ready to poison them now. He goes to bite at the junction of their neck and shoulder, intent on delivering a potent dose of his venom. ]