☆ 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

[sing_for_me]

[ She knows what he meant by his question. ]

We can't...stop it.

[ She pulls out of thin air. She doesn't want to lie to him, it leaves a bad taste in her mouth. But the last thing she wanted right now was to worry him. She wanted, for once, to be of some use, to not pull the other person down. ]

But we need to get through it somehow. And helping you...helping you gives me a reason to. So there has...there has to be more that I can do then just...then just stay.

[ Because that's all she's ever told to do. Stay back, stay at the apartment, stay with this person or that person, stay out of the way. Alex is well aware that she's no fighter, nor does she have the smarts to create elaborate plans or schemes. But she was so sick of being useless, of being left behind. She knows that he was saying so for her benefit, even. In that state, he was still trying to look out for her.

If someone like that can't do shit for himself, what makes you think you can?

Again, she ignores the voice. Keeping her gaze lowered to the ground to try and avoid seeing him--because then, then she really would be useless.

She manages to find a rock--not all that big, but it might do. Anything would do at this moment. She's lightheaded when she stands, but catches herself and makes it back to Berserker. Reaching behind him again, she holds the padlock steady with one hand, then tries to smash the rock against it over and over. But only a few hits in and she can feel the dizziness hit her again, and she has to stop to try and catch her breath. Her head lowers by his shoulder, fighting to keep her eyes open. She can see his blood dripping onto the ground, her ears honing in on the sound of liquid. ]

Sorry, I--just give me a second...

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ He's not used to being helpless; he's never been helpless in his entire life, so it's a terribly alien feeling. There's nothing he can do to help himself nor anyone he cares about. His body is broken and bleeding, his wings are useless -- no, he is useless. It's infuriating and frustrating and it makes this whole situation so much worse. All he can do is watch Alex ignore what he's saying and struggle to do the impossible. ]

...Stop. [ He can't jerk away from her or stop her attempts, so he tries to reason with her instead. ] You're hurt, you're exhausted, and there's no water. You can't make it out of here if you wear yourself out now.

[ He grimaces and lowers his head. ]

If you rest while you can, you will be better able to resist. Your company in this shithole is enough from you...

[ It's not a lie, either -- Alex is someone he's come to care about. He wishes she weren't here and he were suffering alone, but at least now he can see she's still alive. ]

[sing_for_me]

[ One more attempt and she stops, her shoulders sagging in defeat, but her teeth gritting in frustration. What good..what good was that? Her presence? It was just her. He said it himself, all the things that made her useless, that made her worthless in this situation.

But that wasn't all that stood out to her, her head lowering as she caught her breath. She's heard a similar spiel before. A room, a dismembered corpse, a simple message left just for her. The stench of blood only helped in sending her back to that very moment. ]

You say that like you're telling me to leave you when I can...

[curruid_coinchenn]

...I can survive far worse than this. If you find an opportunity to escape, but it means leaving me, take it. I can endure.

[ Again, it's not a lie. His body is nearing its limit, but he knows he's too valuable to their captors alive. They will heal him when he is too weak and keep him from getting too weak, if only so he can keep providing them with a constant harvest of scales, blood, and venom. It's a depressing existence and of little comfort when he's in so much pain. ]

I will not force you to make that choice, though.

[sing_for_me]

[ Why, why was she always being she's told to--

A pause. Her eyes raise to meet his probably for the first time since she was thrown into the cell.

Being told she had a choice did something to calm her down, showing visibly on her body as she lowers herself from kneeling up to resting on her legs.

Her arms pull back from around his neck, leaving the stone next to her. Pulling her sleeve over the palm of her hand, she uses it to carefully wipe off the blood by his eye.

Silent as she was, there was a hint gratitude in her tired eyes, along with a silent apology. Sorry for causing a ruckus, for almost getting you in trouble, for not being able to get you out of this. ]

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ He's in no position to force anyone to do anything. If giving her a choice gave her some sort of relief from whatever she'd been suffering, so much the better. He's been made helpless and had everything he values taken from him, so all he can do is...nothing. It's frustrating.

Berserker doesn't shy away as she dabs at the blood on his face. His cheek is tender and swollen, even the lightest touch makes it throb. It's okay, though...It surprises him that she'd bother when he's such a mess already. He shifts in his restraints to lean closer to her, lowering his head. Bound the way he is, he can't offer much comfort, but he wants to at least make some sort of contact. To rest his forehead against hers would be enough, the gentle pressure a reassurance. ]

[sing_for_me]

[ His movement makes her think that maybe she might've pressed too hard and hurt him, but then he starts to lean closer. Alex finds herself meeting him part way, despite not knowing what exactly he wanted to do until his forehead pressed against her own. A light, small gesture that somehow managed to wash over her. Some men, when beaten down, broken, and bound, take it out on on others. Then there were those who still found something to give.

Her hand reaches for one of his that hung from a chain to the wall, her fingers slipping between his and gripping with a slight pressure, wanting to return the same reassurance to him. Her eyes close for a moment, exhaling slowly as she allowed herself this brief moment of peace.

There was a strange kind of solidarity in the present helplessness, but still wanting to have something to offer. ]

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ It's a moment's reprieve in this hellhole, something soft among the pain. Despite being reminded that he's little more than a beast, there is still something human within him that they can't erase. He grips her hand as best he can and closes his eyes, savoring the moment of comfort and reassurance. He might be broken, but he's not defeated yet. ]

We just have to survive...That's all.

[sing_for_me]

[ Survive...Her eyes start to open then. There was nothing daunting about the word, no sense of impossibility. ]

I can do that..

[ It might be the one thing she felt actually could do. It's the only thing she's accomplished in all these years, even when the drugs she was made to take constantly pushed her towards the edge like it has to so many others like her. Somehow, someway, she wouldn't let herself die. ]

You will too.

[ Her tone held no command or force, but it was certain, determined, a little hopeful even.

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ He will survive because it's what he's always been meant to do. Difficult to kill, refusing to die even when the wounds should have killed him. Berserker nods slowly, chain clinking against his collar with the motion. ]

Even if I didn't have people to live for, I would survive because I have to. My survival...our survival will spite them.

[ Exhausted and broken as he is, he is still easily motivated by spite. Anything to throw this back in the faces of their captors. ]

[sing_for_me]

[ Ah, spite.

Her eyes flick to the figure standing off to the side, blurred but still present. To prove them wrong, to prove all of them wrong. ]

I—

[ The cage door clanks open, one of their captors stepping in. With just one of them, Alex doubts he’s here for Berserker. Still, she shifts to position herself in front the dragon, pushing herself up to stand, her hand slipping out from his but giving his fingers a last squeeze. ]

I’ll see you later, Ciarán.

[ There’s an absence of the quiver in her voice this time around, soft as it still was. The man garbs her arm to tug her forward, and gives just the slightest bit of resistance. A prelude to the fight she was going to put up when they would be alone. ]

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ He lets himself hang in his restraints as she's pulled away. Same as it ever was here now: alone and helpless to do anything for anyone. The fact Alex puts up some resistance does hearten him. Berserker gives her a nod, defiance flashing in his eyes for just a moment.

They will survive because they have to. ]