[EVENT] IN THE WAKE OF XI TIANLONG

[khuimods]

Characters: All
Date: January 2019
Location: Around Aifaran
Situation: The archipelago is recovering from the megastorm, Xi Tianlong, and a Watcher has sailed into Aifaran's port.
Warnings/Rating: Mentions of death and devastation resulting from a natural disaster; use additional warnings as needed.


The force of the storm and the chaos it wrought - both mundane and metaphysical - has given rise to its name: Xi Tianlong. The Black Sky Dragon left devastation in its wake and many areas are still flooded. The first priority is to ensure the safety and security of everyone living in the archipelago. Anyone of sound mind and body is expected to join the recovery efforts.

I. THE WORK BEGINS

Volunteers may report to operation and logistics outposts run by Sentry and city officials to assist with a wide variety of tasks. Each outpost reports to an overarching emergency operations center, where almost all leadership decisions are being made from.

At a given outpost, the scene is one of organized chaos: most people are in constant motion, wearing weariness as well as their uniforms. Most of the outposts have been set up within buildings but a few are located outdoors beneath huge tents. It may be hard to tell exactly who is in charge, but soon enough you'll be directed to a table designated for processing volunteers. From there, volunteers will be assigned to tasks based on their skills - and not necessarily what one may prefer to be doing. Lives are still at stake. It is time to dig deep.

While participating in recovery efforts, people begin to come across… oddities. Things that do not appear to belong here. Some admit to hearing voices calling their names or whispering incomprehensible secrets, though they're chalking that up to exhaustion and stress.

Below are areas where volunteers are needed:

MEDICAL SUPPORT: A wide spectrum of support is needed, from doctors and magical healers to basic first aid. Individuals will be assigned based on their expertise to emergency clinics that are being set up across the city. There is very little time for bedside manner: the focus is treatment, especially in facilities handling more serious injury. Triage is in full effect.

Including, it seems, for injuries that do not have an identifiable cause, or are reportedly caused by one of the storm's more chaotic effects. Patients falling under this category are sequestered in a separate treatment area, or in some cases moved to an entirely different facility to provide adequate care. They must have stories to tell a willing ear.

DEBRIS CLEARING: At first glance, this is the most straightforward task and easily the one that has the most volunteers assigned to it. One hardly needs particular skills to gather up and deposit debris in bins that are bound for the growing mountain of wreckage outside the city walls. Items of a personal nature or anything that may have immediate use as part of recovery are separated out, but a more thorough sorting will have to happen later. The archipelago is not an endless bounty of resources, and everything that can be reused or recycled, will be. It is hard, messy work. Many volunteer crews push back heartache with song and recitation of well-known poetry to keep their minds focused.

The Sentry does need sharp eyes to deal with a few particularly hazardous areas. Anyone with structural engineering knowledge or similar may end up clambering through the carcasses of buildings, locating any survivors and shoring up instabilities as much as possible.

ORGANIZING AND DISTRIBUTING SUPPLIES:Between what the city and businesses provide, donations, and items collected as part of the debris clearing, there is a lot to go through. Supplies from the city and Sentry are already quite organized, but the rest will arrive at collection points in various states of disorder. Volunteers are needed for sorting, cleaning, and distributing supplies. This may be on an individual basis or to bring items to shelters, such as clothing, medicine, blankets, non-perishable food, and so on.

Items of a personal nature (e.g. pictures, anything with a name on it, etc) that are recovered by cleanup crews are set aside for people to try and claim later, but it can be quite a mess. Lost and found is by no means a priority, and those who come to ask about their property will either be turned away or told they can dig through the piles. There's no time to catalog it all until the city is in better shape.

REPAIRS AND CONSTRUCTION:The first order of business with repairs is to sort what actually can be repaired from what must be torn down and built again, better and stronger. So there is a sort of tiered organization: when the nature of repairs has been ascertained, usually by an expert with long experience at this sort of thing, then the task is assigned. There's some demolition, not all of it skilled, for which Dreamfolk with destructive talents or large muscles are in high demand. Priority in rebuilding is given to utilities and those centres where people are being given aid; dwellings are a close second, since the winter is still in full sway, but all efforts are calibrated toward helping the most vulnerable first.

Carpenters and masons are well loved here, but anyone with a talent for reinforcing structures, for hitting a nail with a hammer, or just plain old carrying heavy things and holding them in place, will be valued.

OOC: Anyone who volunteers will receive a unique discoverable based on which volunteer group they choose by responding to the comment below.

II. HAZARDS AND HUSHED WHISPERS

The trees that sprouted improbably from lightning strikes during the storm remain firmly rooted, wherever they are. Most of them grew from rooftops but a handful reside in the streets. Regardless of whether they have soil or sun (and in one unique case of a tree growing in a flood zone, no air), the trees seem healthy and content. They're also quite diverse, including fruit-bearing trees, evergreens, and several from unidentified species. One has a bioluminescent glow at night. Another grows perpendicularly out of the side of a building. None of them show signs of disease, damage, or lack of nutrients. For the time being, the official word is to leave them alone. Given their origin, no one knows how a tree might react to being cut down or uprooted or touched, and in any case they don't seem to be doing anything but standing there. Leaves fluttering a little in a non-existent breeze.

One glaring exception to this ambivalence is the grove of trees rooted in a section of the Skyway. Rumor has it that the cluster grew out of a single lightning strike, whereas all the other strikes only produced one arboreal interloper. About a week after the storm clears, Opara Core technicians erect a containment tent across the entire section to hide it from view, and to cover the roots dangling down through the track. By then, however, enough pictures of the trees have been taken to reveal the gnarled roots and branches are not made purely from wood: they're veined and interwoven with a silvery-blue metal. Even the leaves have silvered edges, giving rise to the theory that they're sharp as razors. The technicians and scientists who come and go from the site are tight-lipped about the situation and will evade questioning.

There's been no improvement or really any change in the status of those buildings now colloquially called 'drowned.' Obviously, no one is allowed inside. Those with a careful ear to the ground may overhear some whispers, that these buildings are -- wrong somehow, strange. But these conversations are hushed quickly. Whatever is actually wrong, it's something that those investigating are trying twice over to make sure doesn't get out to the general public. The clearest thing, perhaps, is that these buildings are not safe.

While it's not the first priority, as soon as there's some breathing space the Sentry has some crimes to look into. The storm's peculiar eddies affected many Dreamfolk, and while there's some debate about the level of responsibility given that many are reporting states of altered consciousness-- crimes still happened. People have still been injured or worse. This is not something that can be simply let lie. Further, cannier minds provide, there's the risk of some having committed opportunistic crimes and then trying to camouflage them under the veneer of a Dreamperson affected by the eddies. Sorting this distinction out comes first; then comes how responsible those under the eddies' influence actually are. Nothing is being allowed to simply slip by if the Sentry catches wind of it. Frankly, they're paying more attention now than they usually do, under the logic that now more than ever their order will be a source of reassurance.

OOC: If a character chooses to touch the lightning trees, please respond to the comment below.

III. WATCHERS IN THE WATER

The two ships that accompanied Melias are of a similar design to her own, but there is no visible cabin on them. In fact, there only appears to be one door on each, at the stern, but there's no visible means of opening them. The ships are cream-colored and almond-shaped, with whorls carved onto them that could be symbolic of the water - and, if one looks closely, there are words carved into them in an alphabet that has been extinct since long before the establishment of Aifaran.

The ships do not dock, but flank Melias' ship in the harbor, seemingly guarding it. If anyone gets curious enough to try and sneak aboard one of the two mysterious ships, they will be met with a feeling of intense amusement projected into their minds before something resembling a tree branch materializes from the hull, grabs them, and gently deposits them on the docks nearby. Any attempt to breach the chitinous hulls by violent means will be met with a wave of anger tinged with disappointment. Hull damage is quickly self-repaired. The ships seem to be alive after a fashion. That's crazy, though, isn't it?

If Melias learns of an attempt to board or damage the ship, she'll scold the Dreamfolk: "All in good time! Honestly, you lot are so impatient."

---

OOC Notes: Melias will be available for threading upon request.

Comments

[lasergrenades]

The distraction that Tony provides is welcome, and much better than sitting around at home mired in grief. It's easier to keep moving and keep her mind on something, whatever it is.

She smiles, bemused, when he walks back into the room holding a bucket with... a plant? An odd plant. A plant from the Skyway lightning tree grove. "Uh." Pepper squints at it, and then at Tony. "You know they were telling people to stay away from there," she scolds, with the fondness of long habit. Neither of them ever knew how to stay out of trouble all the time, and the grove on the Skyway would have drawn him like a moth to flame.

"Well, I can try," she offers a moment later, standing and taking a look at the little seedling. "...are you feeding it scrap metal? This thing is wild." Bending down, she peers at it curiously. "I haven't really figured out what they're saying to me yet, but I guess there's something to be said for practice. How big of a cutting did you take?"

[squidiot]

Kai looks at the thing that Tony's talking about, squints, and shakes her head. "Nope, I haven't seen anyone else over here. Why, what's up? Did it get broken or something?" She leans over the clock curiously. "Or did someone mess with the time? 'Cause that's definitely not what time it is. Maybe it got messed up in the storm?"

[annihilist]

(He will probably never say it out loud, even if he has accepted it.)

Although this is not the setting in which Devin would hope to find Aly (relatively) safe and sound after the storm, at least she's on her feet and talking. This is markedly better than when he fished her out of a canal, so he assumes she avoided getting totally inundated.

"Aly." The look Devin gives her when he approaches the makeshift treatment area she's in is akin to parental annoyance-relief. "Why am I not surprised you've ended up here," he remarks, faint scolding at the edges of his amusement. "I'm beginning to think it's physically impossible for you to stay out of trouble."

He tugs gloves on and pokes around the box of supplies to make sure he has everything he'll need, then comes to her side. "Let's have a look, shall we? How did you get this?" Devin wants to know, gently taking her injured arm to inspect the gash.

[wolfishflame]

Something about Devin's Look at her makes her think of her dad and how much she misses him, and homesickness squeezes her heart. At least she can ignore that for the most part and engage in banter.

"'Cause it's totally on-brand for me to get my fool self hurt," she says with a cheeky grin. "And I'll have you know that I can avoid trouble perfectly well. I just choose not to."

Okay, that's not entirely true. Trouble seemed drawn to her like, well, a moth to a Flame (ha ha). Not that he needed her to tell him that. He's smart; he'd probably figured that out.

"Did you know that rubble can give out under your feet really easily and when you land on your butt a big broken piece of rebar rips open your arm on the way down?" she says cheerfully. "Because I am a living example."

[annihilist]

Well, turnabout is fair play.

Since Tony has kindly decided to telegraph his next move, insofar as creating a magnetic field to fling something at him can be called a telegraph, Devin opts to grab the bolt instead of getting out of the way. He reaches forward sharply, palm open, snatching it like he's going after a bug. It stings a little, but it wasn't going fast enough to do any real harm.

"Cute trick," Devin acknowledges, shaking his hand out. His smirk has genuine amusement in it, and their antics have already gotten a few laughs out of the wearied volunteers. "You've gotten more imaginative with your responses, I see. Might want to work on your glower, though."

And he lobs the bolt right back.

[ninjainviolet]

Except for a few pictures here and there, the same could be said for Sheena.

The ninja gives her friend a wry look. "Speak for yourself. I mean, it's not like I've ever run into a situation without thinking about the consequences or anything," she adds--her tone indicating that's precisely what she has done.

And still does because that's just who she is.

"I'm sorry to hear about that." She doesn't offer any kind of hope because it's been a while, and surely there'd be some news by now. "They don't let you investigate anything? Why not?" She had caught that bitterness, Valdis. "And just how effective are you at making people talk?"

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis glanced as Sheena, slightly surprised by the last question, "I'm an empath, I can sense when they are lying, then I just...talk to them, give them scenarios, psych them out a bit, play devil's advocate...I don't need to lay a finger on them, or threaten them, to get the truth."

She shrugged, a hint of a smile on her face now, "I don't know for sure, but they probably won't let me investigate because I might have told the Head Detective that I won't take orders from him. Never mind the reason, but as you might figure, that didn't go over too well."

She laughed though. The look on his face had been worth it, though she regretted the long term impact.

[lasergrenades]

Even if Zepyr were inaudible to human ears over the sound of the welding, the armor is quite good at picking up and filtering sounds. It's nice not to blast her ears with the noise just have a conversation.

"Tony's the one that made this armor. He's my best friend and a technological genius," Pepper explains with some amusement. She pauses for a moment, shifts a little and begins on another section. "I've watched him do this enough times to understand the mechanics of it." Mostly. The armor computer does the rest. She imagines that she'll get a lot of practice when she goes home, too.

Lady, there are many areas of instability. You may wish to make haste, Vee cuts in from where she's supporting another beam, audible to them both.

"Yep, working on it." The redhead finishes the top portion of the welded seam, drops down next to Zephyr and starts on the bottom half with both repulsors this time. "Got enough problems without buildings falling over."

arrives very late with starbucks

[psituational]

Character Name(s): X
Volunteer group: Repairs and Construction

X isn't exactly the handiest with a hammer, but his talent's progressed to where he can really help out with demolition efforts. He'd volunteer anywhere a talent for destruction is actually helpful.

[psituational]

It was the first day in weeks X spent most of his time outside of his apartment. He'd wanted to help during the storm, but knew the risks outweighed the benefits; as long as there was any danger of him dying, he'd be less than useless, and there wasn't much he could contribute to offset that possibility.

So, he waited, indoors in relative safety, with no true certainty that the storm would ever end -- only then, it did.

And it left thousands of questions in its wake.

In the middle of trying to work out where his help was most needed for the disaster relief effort, X became distracted with a familiar voice in his head. He could place it immediately -- Hila -- but had to take a few seconds to remember who the white wolf actually belonged to. Valdis, of course, all the thousands of years of memories in his head that didn't belong to him, and in which Hila was recent enough to be a footnote. No wonder the thought of it had been so difficult to place.

Valdis needs you.

X's muscles tensed. Valdis sending her ka out to find him signalled that she was in more trouble than simply needing a spare change of clothes.

So he did exactly as he was asked, and stood outside the city border some time later with a full bag over his shoulder, scanning his surroundings for any sign of either an ephemeral white wolf, or a large, black, and solid one. "Valdis?" he called out. "Where are you?"

[redlightgreenlight]

Hila emerged from the shadows, walking toward X with her head low, affectionately pressing her head against his arm.

This way. She led him through the woods and to a small cave, not too far from the city, but far enough that Valdis had been able to escape the hurricane of emotions.

Valdis lay curled up the back of the cave, her green eyes stayed closed until she heard X's approach, though she didn't rise to meet him. A small strip of white with words written in blood lay not far from her paws, if he examined it, he would recognize enochian symbols.

I figured you would come, Valdis still didn't move from her spot at the back of the cave, but she did raise her head ever so slightly. How did the city fare?

[psituational]

There was a time X might have hesitated at the sight of such a large wolf, however unconsciously. That time vanished after he read Valdis several months before. He walked up to her still form at the back of the cave like he'd known her all his life, gentle but inexorable in his movements.

"Badly," he admitted. "It's going to take a long time to fix. There's no shortage of volunteers, though, from what I saw."

He dropped his bag on the ground and flipped the top open, revealing some of Valdis's clothes. "What about you?" he asked, catching her gaze and holding it steadily. "You seem like you're hiding from the whole city."

[redlightgreenlight]

Not his life, but certainly all of hers, which is why she had sent Hila for him and no one else. She released a heavy sigh, uncurling a bit so she could glance into the bag.

I am, she said simply, The storm had an...adverse effect on my senses, including my empathetic ones. I couldn't filter the emotions of the city, my only option for survival was to leave.

Not just her own survival, which X might realize without her saying it, unfortunate perk of him knowing everything she had seen and done.

I seem to be back to normal now, she dropped her head again, But the damage has already been done.

[psituational]

Feeling the fear, despair, and desperation of an entire city without filter or shelter would easily have been enough on its own to send Valdis into hiding. X could scarcely imagine something similar happening to him. But still, she asked for X, and she sent Hila to do it, so it couldn't have been the whole story.

"Damage?" X asked softly as he unpacked the bag. "What damage?"

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis growled, though it wasn't an angry sound, just an irritated one, and it's direction had nothing to do with X.

I killed someone, she replied, It's untraceable, and he might have died from blood loss anyway, but... She trailed off, I think Devin suspects...I wasn't really in my right mind.

[khuimods]

While breaking down the crumbling remnants of a wall, X will find a sealed cylinder that had been hidden within the wall itself. The cylinder holds a parchment map of the city, with markings suggesting that either other settlements existed or were planned, although it’s impossible to tell which. None of them are mentioned in the archipelago's publicly-available histories.

[makebelieveavenger]

"Sorry. Others seemed quite keen on trying it."

Not that Alice couldn't sympathize - there were more than a few nights she'd gone hungry to the point she'd be willing to try anything vaguely food like. But circumstances shouldn't have been that dire yet.

"I was just passing through - do you? You didn't lose your home, I hope?"

There was something like genuine concern in her tone. A

[makebelieveavenger]

Alice spun on her heel to face the stranger. She was sure the alley had been empty - how had she missed him?

Her violently green eyes - the only real splash of colour on her - narrowed, her fingers flexing as they inched towards a pocket.

"You're not one of the sentry," she accused sharply, looking him over head to toe. He didn't seem dangerous, but then, neither had Doctor Bumby. Some people were very good, indeed, at seeming.

[afoolsgold]

"Can you get into my toolbox and pass me a wrench? It's the small ratcheting socket wrench – green rubberized handle, and it's, uh, got some numbers stamped on the shaft."

...ah. Well. Perhaps he should have expected this development.

"A ratcheting socket wrench," he repeats, articulating each syllable in such a way that he cannot possibly know what he is looking for. But let it never be said that the unknown has ever stopped the Fool from venturing forth--he won't be daunted now.

He steps over to what he can only suppose is the toolbox and bends over it to examine the selection of whosits, whatsits, and thingamabobs on display, carefully considers his options, and then plucks up the dullest looking one he can find. (Rubber, at least, he is familiar with.) "This one?" he asks, holding, uh, something, aloft for Tony's inspection.

[afoolsgold]

"You're not one of the sentry."

The Fool is quite good at seeming to be many things... though perhaps not dangerous. Under Alice's scrutinizing and narrow stare, he returns a ponderously benign smile. "No, I daresay I am not," he agrees with her assessment. "Yet I have plenty of experience garnering their attention, whether I wish for it or not."

He peers from her to the drowned building, and then back again. "They're a mystery, these buildings, aren't they? One I think we both wish to solve." A touch more earnestly, he adds, "Let me help."

[annihilist]

"I am aware," Devin replies, arching an eyebrow up at her. "Too bad I don't have a camera on hand, we could capture your living example for posterity. Maybe remind you not to do this a second time, mm?"

He begins carefully examining the laceration, assessing the severity of the injury and checking for debris. The gash isn't too deep, but it's likely to re-open if she tries to do too much.

"I hope your tetanus shot is up to date," he needles, going to the box of supplies and transferring what he needs to a small tray and placing it next to her. His features are rearranged to something more suitably wry. "Can you move all your fingers? Any numbness or tingling?"

[psituational]

And there it was.

X didn't judge. He never had the right to judge anyone. Nothing about his movements changed, or even faltered, as he finished unpacking the bag he brought and laying all the clothes out on the rock between him and Valdis. Still, it was a quiet minute before he said anything.

"Dreamfolk?" he asked. "Or Aifaran native?"

She might not have known, but the question still needed to be asked.

[redlightgreenlight]

Silence, yet she couldn't expect much else considering what she just told him. To his credit, he didn't panic, he didn't even give any sign that he was upset, or afraid. This was why she had sent Hila for him and no one else.

Native she replied, watching him carefully, He was teetering on the edge, I couldn't help myself, couldn't let the energy go to waste...now he's nothing, and it's my fault.

Her stressed sigh was almost a whimper.

[lasergrenades]

Pepper laughed once, shaking her head. "Yeah, that doesn't surprise me to be honest. Telling people not to do something is usually a great way to ensure they do. I've just seen enough weird Dreaming stuff to know not to put it in my mouth."

Touching, though. Touching it was tempting. Slightly less likely to result in problems. Maybe. She'd keep thinking about it.

"Nope, townhouse is still standing. I live a few blocks from here," she answered, gesturing in that direction. Suddenly, she looked and felt even more exhausted. "The area didn't get too much flooding, thankfully. Lots of lightning apparently. Have you seen any of the other trees up close? I heard they're all pretty different."

[makebelieveavenger]

"Close enough," she said ruefully, and she was clearly giving the tree a wider berth than others. "I don't know why, but looking at them gives me a headache. It's quite peculiar, really."

It made navigating the city without breaking out into a migraine a bit tricky really.

"I'm glad to hear you didn't get hit with the brunt of it. I'm still at the Dreaming Bridge, and it held out as can be expected."