☆ 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

[showsnopiety]

Noctis might find it surprising, but I think I can explain it to him.

[It's a big house, they can be more or less discreet.]

I'm as well behaved as you are.

[kuroi_taiyo]

Mm. Then you were definitely about to start a fight.

[ Him, well behaved... Imagine the day he's like that. It'd be scary. ]

I was held down that way for more reasons than just being an appealing target.

[showsnopiety]

It wouldn't be the first time.

[She smiled a little wider for a moment, showing teeth.]

What were you planning to do? I'm sure you can guess what my idea.

[She just wants to hear the horrible stuff because it'll make her feel better tbh.]

[kuroi_taiyo]

I mean, I already proved to them that I wasn't afraid of using my head, or my speed.

[ They'll fix this a little later by trying the whole predator/prey in extreme circumstances with a dragon that had little thought or feeling towards Judar, but it's fine. It just means he later has to be creative. But speed and head explained a lot about why he was set up to be down on his knees. ]

Most of the dangerous things I can do aren't possible, given the stone cells and shed antlers. Deer faun aren't really dangerous this time of year, apparently.

[showsnopiety]

I think you mean you weren't using your head with your head butting.

[She huffed in quiet laughter, despite of everything. Then again...when weren't you going to laugh at your awful jokes?]

Hooves are dangerous as well. But...it is a wonder that they're not trying to make you grow your antlers out of season.

They seem money oriented.

[kuroi_taiyo]

Ah...

[ He holds up the shackles, which have small trails of blood coming out from underneath. Yes, Caren, this means he's letting you keep your joke. ]

I think they are. They put these on not too long ago. Given how recently they were shed, I'm guessing it takes a bit to really get started.

[ And then he imagines it's going to be really bad, given the unusual velvet his antlers have. Not that he's going to share that and cause extra worry. ]

[showsnopiety]

That was in poor taste, wasn't it?

[Not exactly an apology, but hey, no more of those jokes. She gets it. Backing down.]

You know...I have wondered if we would be harvested onto death.

[Her smile is more of a grimace, and she lapes into silence. Ah. They could really die here. This really, really...sucks.]

[kuroi_taiyo]

Not for a long time, if they really want a profit. It's going to take a while to make the costs of all of this back.

[ Take that as you will, whether good or bad. It'd mean that they should be here long enough for a chance to be found, if there was any weaknesses or flaws in this setup. ]

Then... It'd depend on if they want to deal with bodies, or find a way to get us off their hands for a final profit. Like you said, money-oriented.

[showsnopiety]

So...they'd have to sell us for the biggest profit. But if they could take us to the underground fighting ring and use us for rigged bets.

The best way they could make a profit is sell us to a different city. New location. No ones the wiser.

But they also seem so angry...some of us may die before they find their market.

[kuroi_taiyo]

With all this harvesting, we wouldn't make good ring material. Selling us to another city, though...

[ That sounds more likely, and his tone says as much. It wouldn't be so unusual or unheard of. ]

We'll have to see which is stronger, huh? Anger or greed.

[showsnopiety]

They can't sell us to the one city that we know of, so that's out.

[She could laugh. She really could. But somehow, it doesn't come out.]

Is it sad that I want to bet on anger? I don't want another collar around my throat. Not if I can help it.

[kuroi_taiyo]

They'll do it to whomever they think they can get away with it.

[ As it's early enough that they had no way of knowing who their kidnappers were, or their connections, it could mean literally anything. ]

But yeah, bet on anger then. No one's going to tell you not to. Some'll keep going on about hope, or believing we'll be found, but if all that doesn't work, hold onto betting they're angry enough.

[showsnopiety]

With how many people taken, they think they can get away with quite a bit.

[Or they're panicking. Could be that too. But she still smiled a little.]

That's something we can rely on. Pettiness. We can rely on pettiness, spite, and anger together, if you want.

[kuroi_taiyo]

They've shown to have the resources for it.

[ They did to start the fires and take them without anyone realizing what was happening. It wouldn't surprise Judar to learn that someone was very good at illusion spells to mask things as well. Then there's just the willfully blind ones that let it all happen. ]

Anger, pettiness and spite are easy to rely on. Especially with how hard it is to break out of it.

[showsnopiety]

If people were spotted carrying bodies, there would have been an alarm. They have witches too. It might have been different if it was just monsters-it could be explained that they went feral- but there's no reason to have that many unconscious witches being carried throughout town.

[And witches had more value in this society. They just were a little more of a citizen.]

Mmm. That sounds like a very polite refusal. Am I wrong?

[kuroi_taiyo]

Hence resources.

[ Either some in this group being witches as well, or they have prepared spells and traps set up, to make this as easy as possible for them. ]

Not a refusal at all.

[ Not when Judar is normally as petty and spiteful as a fae. ]

[showsnopiety]

Mmm. If they follow the money, they could find the source. Sloppy.

[Not that she is putting her bets on being rescued, but it will make it easier to point fingers later.]

Good. You're not-

[She paused, and her ears twitched, before she brought up a hand.]

Footsteps.

[kuroi_taiyo]

[ The way Judar's ears twitched, he heard exactly what Caren had. That and just how still the faun gets, concentrating on those sounds.

There's other sounds going on, and while his hearing is easy to focus on certain kinds of sounds, it's not as sensitive as the kinds of ears Caren has. Not in the same way. Which is why he's talking so soft, it's barely a whisper. ]

Either getting something, or to another cell...

[ He doubts it's just a simple check-in, to see how much the chimera had attacked him in this time. ]

[showsnopiety]

[She's had time and experience. Who knew, maybe Judar would be just as sensitive in time. She hopes not, for his sake.

She doesn't say anything, but she gives a slight nod. There weren't enough people to check in and see if she was having a faun snack or not. But...they might alert the others if they knew Judar had gotten down.

Jeez. She felt all tensed up, as if rushing them would solve anything. How barbaric.]

I just kept getting stuck on what to do to them... This seems better

[kuroi_taiyo]

[ Either way they were going to be in for some punishment. So he's going to use this time to get as much rest and recovery as possible. Which is encouraged for Caren just as much. Chill out for a couple minutes, girl.

Besides, they're definitely going to be tugged away for worse deeds and mistreatment. Harvesting, more experiments with feral and starving natures of 'prey' monsters, and things like that. Judar's got a dragon to chomp into him at some point. Fun time for everyone.

Which is why he's just going to use Caren as something comfy until then. ]

yeah this for sure works

[showsnopiety]

[Caren has no chill but...she'll try to. Since they'll have some awful treatment for the both of them in the week ahead.

They will recover eventually, be rescued. But for now, Caren will curl around Judar with closed eyes.

Maybe later, they can pretend none of this had happened, if only for awhile.]