The full seasonal event can be read here! Below are the main seasonal items for quick reference:
1. A thread reacting to the season's weather in some ways.
2. A thread in the part of the city your character doesn't live in!
3. A thread relating to your vocation.
Of The Season
Quote
"Tell Dr. Nate that Gale sent you, and he still owes me for the mushrooms. Except that it takes you a while to reach the clinic, and by the time you do your fever is spiking, and so instead of the requisite message you instead tell the poor soul who greets you that 'A gale'a m'shrooms sent me cus'a my hands.'" - Zephyr in Oh help me, please doctor, I'm damaged
don't know what you're thinking of do i chip away or keep defenses up?
He supposes Nate does have the confidence to say that to him, but it isn’t like Sunjata will complain. It was nice in a way, being around someone that didn’t seem to care who he was, would tell him how it is regardless. So he offers a soft muffled hum of agreement as his face remains buried, shortly before reiterating the point Nate’s tries to make, glancing over at him the best he can while he keeps his face mostly buried. “The meanings the same.” He admits, readjusting a little on the exam bed, one hand rising to his hair, pushing through the short crop of hair before landing on the back of his neck.
The admission, though, is one that’s both inspiring and also a bit depressing, another rumble of a hum leaving the young Bratena. “Because I’m a Plater and an enforcer?” He tests the waters a little bit with that question, shutting his eyes as he buries his face back into his arms. “I don’t blame you, but, I also don’t know how to get you to see that I’m not here to ruin lives down here.” He might be the Arbiter’s son but he certainly didn’t act like it any time he was down here in the Drench.
don't make a sound, if it gets too loud will you hear me come around?
Licking his lips, Nate let’s out a soft, almost reluctant noise of agreement. “I guess they are.” His eyes flick to Sunjata, watching him push his hair back, but Nate stands before steel can meet his blues, pushing himself up and leaning over the other man to check the leeches on his back.
“Latters more of an issue than the former.” It’s much easier to be breezy and open from this position, where there’s no chance of anything on his face being seen, used against him. “Its not… you can have the best intentions and still fuck up, right?” Nate tries a different angle as warm hands poke gently at the leeches, the space around them, his fingers tips burning hot against the numbness. “If I don’t trust you, I don’t lose anything when you fuck up.”
While it’s not exactly a happy practice, it is one that’s kept him mostly safe down here, especially with regards to Platers. “I never lose anything this way, right?”
don't know what you're thinking of do i chip away or keep defenses up?
He supposes Nate’s right about that, but all he can do is mull over the words he wants to say. Nate’s standing now and Sunjata works his jaw as he buries his face again, trying to feel through the numbness of what it is Nate’s doing, but he doesn’t get much of an idea beyond pressure. The muscles are still sore, though, and as Nate presses down to check the spots Sunjata can’t help the small sound that leaves him, immediately burying his face more to hide away from it as he flares red again.
“You don’t.” Sunjata agrees, muffled and a bit sadly. “You don’t really gain much either, though.” It’s really a no win scenario in his mind, and if he were to take the same approach? Well, he’d be another mindless drone of his father’s, puppeteered into keeping the same old same happening. “I don’t get to trust people on the Plates.” Nor his own family. Nor the people down here in the Drench. The only people he can say he trusts at this point is Savera and on occasion, his mother. And perhaps the new budding relationship with Willow.
Which equally makes a lonely life. “And I’m not supposed to trust any Drenchers… So.” In case the implication of his words wasn’t clear, he’s stranded on an island, caged and kept hidden until he either got with the program or mysteriously disappeared.
don't make a sound, if it gets too loud will you hear me come around?
Nate’s hears it. He can’t not. The sound that slips out of Sunjata twists it’s fingers into his hit and tugs. He swallows, audibly, and decides he can’t trust anything he might want to say, though it doesn’t stop the gentle press of his hands as he moves on to check the next leech’s progress.
“I’m not really trying to gain anything.” Nate pauses with his fingers on Sunjata’s back, just barely stopping himself from tapping, though there’s a twitch there. “No one down here is. Everyone just wants to make it through the day, or the week, or the season.” There’s no time to dream about it getting better, especially when the current ruling class seems hellbent on making everything worse.
Another rough huff of laughter leaves Nate, his hands pulling away as he returns to the stool he’d been sitting on before. “I just said I didn’t want to. It’s kind of the same thing as not supposed to, isn’t it?” There’s something about the way Nate says it, the implication that he hasn’t followed his better instincts, the hope that maybe this is an island they share.
don't know what you're thinking of do i chip away or keep defenses up?
His lips part to ask why not? when Nate continues and he keeps his face buried, simply listening, not wanting to fall into those traditional roles of Aristocrats speaking over the Proletariats. It’s how they got here, after all. “What if you had a chance to?” He asks, generally speaking of the Drench in general. Of course, he can’t make them, but he can certainly try to make it less bleak down here.
It probably wouldn’t go anywhere but… Trying was worth something, right?
Nate returns to the stool and Sunjata forces himself to tilt his head toward the doctor, glancing at him from a stark red face. “I guess so. I’m not supposed to trust Drenchers but I’m pretty sure I trust you.” Now most definitely after spending a night down here, regardless of consequences, he was back here again.
don't make a sound, if it gets too loud will you hear me come around?
“That chance to gain something?” Nate scoffs, shaking his head and laughing softly. “What am i giving up for it?” He’s more than aware that it sounds cynical, but nothing is ever free, not really. Who is he to shatter the other man’s dream with harsh reality though?
His eyes dart back just in time to catch a full view of Sunjata’s red face, Nate’s lips immediately stretching into a gentle grin. “I’m glad the feelings mutual.” Maybe he doesn’t trust the other with his deepest secrets, but enough to hear him out, to believe the things he says? Absolutely.
don't know what you're thinking of do i chip away or keep defenses up?
He’s silent for a moment, unsure just how to respond. What would Nate be giving up for it? What would he be willing to? Unfortunately, Sunjata isn’t familiar enough with the Drench to be able to pinpoint the thing that might make it worth it for the other man, but here he is – gears spinning – in the hopes that he maybe just might find something worth it. “I… I don’t know.” He offers, and half the redness of his face is the embarrassment of being caught like this with how the other man seems to make him react, and half chiding himself for his own stupidity.
But then their eyes catch and that gentle grin has him burying his face again, forcing his eyes closed behind his arms as if it offers some warded away protection from it all. “Me too.” He mumbles through the muffling of his bare, suntanned, freckled arms. “Would make this really awkward if it wasn’t.” He tacks on, a little louder this time.
So he heaves a sigh and tries to push past the awkwardness he’s started, swallowing hard enough that he wonders if Nate can see the inner turmoil. “So... How much longer do I have?”
don't make a sound, if it gets too loud will you hear me come around?
“I mean,” Another laugh huffs out of Nate, the doctor seemingly not noticing Sunjata’s embarrassment, “it’s something you have experience with, isn’t it?” It’s not meant unkindly, just a simple clarification of facts. There are no illusions that with power comes shackles, though they only seem to manifest when one wants out.
A soft hum leaves him as the enforcer hides his face away again, his tongue making another appearance now that there’s no need to be self conscious. “None of this has to be awkward. I’m a doctor.” They’re just having a conversation while a procedure is underway, nothing untoward about that. And Nate relishes the chance to latch onto an excuse, to lean over the other man’s back again and hum. “Not much longer. They’re getting close to being full.”
It would be easy to let silence stretch out for the last few moments, but despite claiming to want an easy life, Nate us never done things the easy way. “Have you ever thought about going to other way with it?” He asks unprompted, offering no context whatsoever for the question and fully expecting Sunjata to pick up the thread.
don't know what you're thinking of do i chip away or keep defenses up?
Is it something he has experience with? Yes and no. For him personally? It’s different, it’s everything, embracing the unknown on a pipe dream that it works. And yet here he is, trying to convince others to do the same – and while he’s willing to give it all up, all he wants is for them to keep what they have and gain more from it. So he swallows hard as his face hides away. “Personally? I’d be giving up everything. The Plates, my job, all of it.” Because he’s a dreamer and unfortunately, those don’t tend to thrive here in Ok’Kotoll specifically. Especially when ones father was the biggest hurdle of holding the chains.
The comment of none of it needing to be awkward is only met with a soft hum of a sound, an acknowledgement in lieu of blurting out something terribly embarrassing again – though Sunjata hasn’t fully thought this through – thought of the fact Nate would have to tie him up into it again, and the thought is one he tries to shove away as fast as possible, distracted so much that he misses half the question in the first place, let alone uncertain of where the question’s origins lay.
“What?” He asks, tilting his head toward Nate now that it’s completely distracted him from the other thoughts, one steel eye surrounded by freckles brought out by the sun atop the Plates peering curiously at the doctor.
don't make a sound, if it gets too loud will you hear me come around?
A noncommittal little hum leaves Nate, part of him wondering if Sunjata really realizes what he’d be giving up. If he’d actually thought about it. Yeah here’s no better moment to ask than when the conversation loops back around again, and Nate can lean in, his voice softer but closer.
“About actually giving everything up.” Nate’s voice is serious, a conversation he’d had with Adam coming to mind. If they can keep arbiter jr from being broken, maybe change is within reach? It’s a dangerous kind of game to play, especially considering the way they do very nearly toe the line here.
There’s a clatter as Nate stands, pushing the stool against the cupboards and bending over Sunjata’s back with a hand on his shoulder, one of the leeches releasing and curling up. The doctor immediately scoops it away and dabs at the spot it had been attached, covering it with a bandage and gently touching the much lighter bruising around it. “Hows that?”
