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
Sabotaged myself again, got a brain like a hurricane
So I ask myself, when will I learn?
No one knows what a mess I'm in
It was still somewhat early in the day by the time Cian made it back to the motel. Only after having limped his way into the nearest store to pick up a random bottle of something strong. He did not care to check what it was, just looked for the price tag with the lowest number and the label showing the highest percentage. The motel owner was up by the time he got back and gave Cian some disapproving looks and comments about the state he was in. Bruised, limping, messy. Having already had a shit morning, Cian announced he would be out of the room before the end of the day. Part knee-jerk reaction, part genuinely not wanting to bring his problems to the motel as well.
Back inside the room, he took one look at his sad self in the mirror and noticed a large bruise across his right cheekbone. It took him a moment to connect it to the boot he got in the face at the diner. Tipping back a large part of the bottle and letting the alcohol burn through his empty stomach, he put an alarm for a few hours forward and more or less passed out in the bed. Once time was up and with his left knee and his head throbbing painfully in sync with each other, he stuffed the bottle and the few clothes he had into his bag. Checked out, limped his way back to the tram and took one heading for the Drench. He had enough money saved for food for a while now when he did not have to deal with the motel rent anymore. Where he would sleep was something he did not want to think of yet. He just wanted away. Away from the bloody Plates. And if they were indeed planning on having someone watch him, he would damn well make sure to make it difficult for them and force them down below with him.
The tram comes to the stop down in the Drench and Cian makes his way off, pausing for a moment as the wall of pressing humid heat hits him. The Plates had been warm too, but this was something extra. He is already warm and sweaty from earlier, so perhaps it won't be too bad. Or it will just add to the misery. Without a clear goal in mind, he starts limping his way along a random street. He has no plan at all. Still not sure if giving up the room had been the right thing to do. Though at the same time, he would have run out of time soon anyway and with the current state of his leg, he can't exactly run errands for anyone for money. His option now seems to be sleeping in the streets, which came with a huge risk as well. He is currently beyond caring about that, however. If he could find a dark alley to be "safe" in, fine. If someone came and stabbed him... Well, fine. He is in a too big mix of anger, spite and anxiety to bring himself to care either way.
He makes his way from one street to another until he is no longer sure where he is and how to make it back to the tram should he change his mind. Not that he is about to. Yet. The bottle had at some point made it out of the bag and into his hand again. His knee is however starting to complain too much at this point, forcing him to finally stop wandering. He is on one of the less busy streets he has been on so far and he decides to stop with his back against a wall. A bit out of the way of people walking by. Closing his eyes with a defeated sigh, he tries to just stand and breathe the heavy air. Trying to think through his spinning, dehydrated head and fighting against the temptation to just drown himself in whatever he has left in that bottle.
Fuck everything that is his life right now.
CIAN
My mind feels like an archenemy
The reader of this text has standing permission for responsible powerplay and to use physical/magical force against this character. Instant killing and permanently maiming not included.
One leg swinging back and forth to the beat of music playing from a nearby bar, Adam was laying on a roof and smoking a joint that was more sawdust than anything else, but at least it was something to do with his hands and mouth as he thought. Perhaps somewhere else in the world it would have been romantic to stare up into the sky above, where one could see stars...here, the underside of the Plates, dark and impenetrable, dominated.
As far as he knew, Sunjata had gone back up there after their tryst - not what he would have done, but he supposed it was better for the Drench as a whole to not have the future Arbiter hiding out down there. Working his teeth back and forth, he found himself hoping that nothing too harsh had happened...but with a place that threw it's children into cold water to see if they made it, it was difficult to imagine Sunjata had merely been given a slap on the wrist.
With the burning end of the smoke reaching dangerously close to his knuckles, he sat up and ground it out on the metal roof, tossing it to join the hundreds of other little paper twists that littered the space. Looking down into the alley he intended to drop into, he was surprised to see the top of a head; normally, it was empty around here. Still, someone clutching booze and hanging out in a shadow was hardly rare in the Drench and once he'd watched for a little while to make sure the guy wasn't about to stab someone or keel over (he really didn't want to deal with a body right now), Adam headed down the gap between buildings.
Had it been an unfamiliar face, he would have walked past, but as his boots hit the ground and he glanced over, Adam was shocked to see a face he recognised, though barely in this light and with the abuse done to it. For a second he just blinked, eyes moving up to the bruise and down to the bottle, then he was leaning forward, clapping Cian on the arm. "Uh...hey man, you...doing alright?"
Obviously not. But how else did you start talking to someone who looked so downtrod?
Sabotaged myself again, got a brain like a hurricane
So I ask myself, when will I learn?
No one knows what a mess I'm in
Cian remains standing with his eyes closed, unaware of the fact that he is being watched from above. The ground feeling like it is slowly tipping under his feet and had it not been for him leaning against the wall, he is sure he would have fallen over. He does not react to the sound of boots nearby either. Adam does not get a reaction out of him until he touches Cian's arm.
The reaction is Cian throwing himself away from the wall he is leaning again, bottle dropped to the ground. It miraculously does not break, but its contents start to trickle out on the ground. Nothing that he even thinks of as he staggers a couple of steps away more or less on one leg and then turns to stare at Adam as if he is expecting a beating. After a couple of seconds of staring and on the edge of hyperventilating, Cian manages to push through his growing panic attack to recognize the other man.
All air seems to leave him as he exhales slowly, shoulders slumping and head hanging. "Fuck..." The word is mumbled hoarsely and Cian stumbles back to get some support from the wall again. He lifts a hand to rub his face, only to pause and stare at something on his arm. He holds up his other arm next to it and frowns at the red marks around his wrists from where the cuffs had cut in from all his fidgeting in the cell The confused expression on his face might tell that he has not even noticed it until now. With a heavy sigh, he shakes his head to finally reply to the question. "I think I've done better... This fucking day can go take a walk off the Plates."
CIAN
My mind feels like an archenemy
The reader of this text has standing permission for responsible powerplay and to use physical/magical force against this character. Instant killing and permanently maiming not included.
"Whoa, whoa-" Admittedly, dropping down next to someone in a dark alley was not the best way to make a calm, friendly entrance. Adam supposed all his friends were so used to his bullshit by now he'd forgotten not everyone in town expected him to descend from the skies.
His hand stayed hovering just over Cian's arm, Adam feeling like he needed to provide some kind of comfort; beyond the shock he'd just given the man, clearly something else was wrong. He was lurking int the shadows with a bottle of booze - no one did that if they were okay. Bending down, Adam picked up the bottle and turned it in his hand so he could read the label and raise his eyebrows, but he passed it back. "Uhhh...sorry. 'Bout that."
He felt quite guilty looking directly at Cian, so instead he followed the other man's eyes to the marks on his wrist. Recognising them as the marks of bindings immediately, hardly a stranger to such things, he cringed. "What happened? Got on the wrong side of some Enforcers?" He'd been there for plenty of friends in similar situations before.
Sabotaged myself again, got a brain like a hurricane
So I ask myself, when will I learn?
No one knows what a mess I'm in
He rubs his eyes and takes a deep breath in an attempt to calm down. He has been on edge since being dragged out of the diner and he needs to just get a grip on himself before he pass out from exhaustion or something like that.
With another deep, slow breath he lowers his hands again and looks towards the bottle being offered back to him, its label showing some kind of cheap strong vodka, and he takes it back. Holding it loosely in one hand, he makes a dismissive gesture with the other at the apology, as if to say it's alright. He leans his back against the wall and goes over the asked question in his mind, trying to figure out what to even respond.
"You could say that. Was in the wrong place when they came to collect Sunjata for daddy dearest earlier this morning." He huffs and takes a swig from the bottle, making a face as it burns down his throat. "I tried to get out of the way, but they must be real twitchy about movement because they were on me in an instant and hauled me in as well." He is still not sure what information he should share or not, but his mood is still in the camp of not giving a fuck about what happens at the moment.
CIAN
My mind feels like an archenemy
The reader of this text has standing permission for responsible powerplay and to use physical/magical force against this character. Instant killing and permanently maiming not included.
Cian seemed exhausted, more than anything, as he spoke and waved his hand dismissively. Adam had already crashed at Nate's place along with Sunjata, but he began to consider dragging this poor soul there as well. At least Nate had a bed and medicine on hand (also 'medicine') if it was needed. For now though he just leaned back against the wall and listened, his eyes widening as he heard the Arbiter mentioned. For all the shit he spoke, he'd actually only seen the man a handful of times, and always from a distance.
"Shiiit. I mean, they let you go though, obviously?" Since he was here now. "Did they think you'd uh, led him astray or whatever? Given him a bad influence?" That thought was almost funny, given the things Adam had done with Jata, which could certainly be considered as much more of a problem. "Did they hurt you?"
Sabotaged myself again, got a brain like a hurricane
So I ask myself, when will I learn?
No one knows what a mess I'm in
Cian is exhausted. He is not grievously injured, but damn is he tired. And shaken. After all the anxiety and stress that had piled up ontop of each other for a longer time, the morning's event had been enough to shove him over an edge. He has not fallen into the deepest pit of his mind, but he is certainly below his usual more easy-going self.
He tips his head back to take another drink from the bottle and adjusts to stand with less weight on his bad leg. "M'yeah, but they said they would be watching." He shakes his head slowly. Another mouthful of strong spirits goes down and he clears his throat. "Got the feeling they wanted us to confess to having been plotting something. I mean, I guess it does seem pretty suspicious when the Arbiter's son shows up on the Plates before sunrise after being stuck down here for a while and the first thing he does is to meet with a stranger instead of reporting directly home."
"We were not doing anything, though." He adds quickly. "Sunjata just had enough time to more or less say Hi and explain where he had been before they showed up." More of the bottle's contents goes down Cian's throat. Perhaps more to calm his nerves than numbing the pain in his leg at this point. To the last question, he first shakes his head and then shrugs. "Got a boot to the face, but I think they fucked up my leg more. Took one of those batons to the back of the knee. Have not even checked how it looks yet, but it hurts pretty bad still." His free hand gestures to his left leg and he lets out a heavy, tired sigh.
CIAN
My mind feels like an archenemy
The reader of this text has standing permission for responsible powerplay and to use physical/magical force against this character. Instant killing and permanently maiming not included.
"They always say that. Don't usually mean it." The amount of times Adam had been told he was being watched by some shadowy arm of the enforcers was beyond counting, yet they didn't know about half of the shit he got up to; a lot of it was just words. The problem of course was that sometimes, it wasn't. With Cian though...he couldn't see the Plates expending too many resources to keep track of such a mild mannered visitor.
There was certainly a lot of alcohol making it's way into Cian's mouth, but Adam was hardly in a position to judge on that front; he just knew it meant his friend was going to need looking after as soon as he started walking (stumbling) again. "I guess it looks kinda weird, but that's just Sunjata, y'know? I mean, before he went up there, we -" He wasn't usually one to be tightlipped about his hook ups, but something made Adam correct himself before he continued: "-he's going through stuff."
Using the wall to balance, he knelt down and rested on his heels, glancing up at Cian before rolling up the pant leg as gently as he could. As much as Adam loved the Drench, it was not the cleanest of places - not where one wanted to be walking around with an open wound.
Sabotaged myself again, got a brain like a hurricane
So I ask myself, when will I learn?
No one knows what a mess I'm in
Adam's words, in combination with the amount of alcohol going into Cian, were oddly calming. With the lockdown, tensions, incoming heatwaves and whatever else, would they really waste resources on keeping track of his movements? He is a stranger nobody with no (known) track-record of illegal activities and he will gladly stay that way. The paranoid, panicky hurricane in his brain is finally starting to fade out. It is however replaced by the feeling of the ground under him and the wall behind him slowly rocking. He can blame that on the alcohol. Or himself, since the bottle isn't exactly drinking itself.
"M'sure he's goin' through a lot of stuff now." He mutters quietly and presses the bottle against his forehead; the glass barely cool enough still to be of any help. "No idea where they took him after they let me go." All he knows is that no matter how much he dislikes his own situation, he doesn't want to trade places with Sunjata either.
He frowns and looks down as Adam kneels next to him, as if he cannot figure out what the man is about to do. Until Adam starts rolling up his pant leg and Cian just shrugs for himself and leans his head back against the wall again, closing his eyes. "Maybe it just feels worse than it is." He mumbles mostly for himself and takes another drink.
The leg in question got a dark welt going across the back of the knee, surrounded by a large bruise that has started to spread out in every direction. The skin is still intact at least, if only barely, with what looks to be a lot of blood gathering just under the surface.
CIAN
My mind feels like an archenemy
The reader of this text has standing permission for responsible powerplay and to use physical/magical force against this character. Instant killing and permanently maiming not included.
"Probably to dear ol' dad. He'll live. Much as Shaju is mad at him, Sunjata is the only real heir he's got if anything happened right now. He needs to keep him around." While this was true, Adam said it to comfort himself as much as Cian, inwardly cringing as his mind provided images of what Jata's punishment might look like at the hands of the Arbiter.
It certainly seemed like Cian had had a rough punishment too; Adam cringed at the swollen mark behind the knee, his fingers just lightly brushing over the skin - it was hot. "Okay, I should probably get you up to Nate's. He can give you something. Maybe just painkillers-" Though given the amount of booze Cian was getting through, he might not need those. "-But probably an ointment or something too."
Standing back up, holding out an arm to support the other man if he needed it, Adam would try and start guiding them out of the alley and down the street, taking the ground route towards Nate's clinic instead of his usual parkour trip. "Rough introduction to the city, eh? Guess if you're here more than a week you gotta have a Plates run in at some point."
