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
You don't need sympathy
They got a pill for everything
Normally, Adam was pretty good with the heat. It wasn't like he wore much anyway and he had always been fond of the sun, the extra light these Kivan days brought down to the Drench; while not all of it filtered through, it was definitely more than they got during the colder seasons. The heat brought back memories of being a kid and finding a warm patch of concrete to lay on for a while, staring up at the eye-glaring glimpse of the sun above through the Plates.
Perhaps this Kivan was hotter than the ones before it or perhaps he was growing weaker with age, but this season had shown him what it was like to suffer in the heat. After a morning spent pressing cans from his ice box against his face (a moment's relief, but it didn't last) he had finally decided to venture out into the streets and see if anyone out there had devised a better way to keep cool.
If all else failed, he could dive into the river. Maybe choking on the rubbish in there would be alright if he was a cool temperature while doing so.
Swinging around the banister of the stairwell as he always did, Adam only just stopped himself in time to prevent a collision with Mallorie. Bouncing back up a stair, moving like a slinky toy yanked back by a child, he paused to examine her. Judging by the look on her face and more importantly, the sweat on it, they were suffering from the same problem. With a smirk, he asked: "Hot, innit?"
Just take that dark cloud
Ring it out to wash it down
(This post was last modified: 01-18-2023, 09:41 PM by Adam.)
Breathe silently, make the ghostly voice surrender.
Kivan was Mallorie’s least favourite season, without contest. The inescapable heat did little to smooth her already ragged mood, and in the Drenches it seemed somehow closer. Unpleasantly intimate. Like someone standing too close in a queue. She was reduced to her lightest clothes (feeling a little indecent with her arms on display) and venturing occasionally outside in the faint hope it might provide something approaching fresh air.
Stomping back to her room and lost in thought, Adam’s sudden appearance made her start and she recoiled before realising who it was. The muggy atmosphere had blunted her temper, and she was irritated enough to be crude.
“Hot is an understatement,” she huffed, finally, “this is more like being suffocated in a wet kroko fart.”
Adam, she assumed, wouldn’t mind her shortness. Truth be told, she could feel the hair on her brow curling away from her flushed skin in the warmth, and didn’t much care if he was offended.
Mostly.
Sort of.
Mallorie sighed, rubbed her damp temple.
“Sorry. Losing my mind a bit. How do you cope with it down here?”
You don't need sympathy
They got a pill for everything
From the meeting they'd first had when Mallorie had come to complain about the noise in his apartment, Adam certainly hadn't pinned her to be the type to mention wet kroko farts; a surprised laugh came out of him, a bit goofier than his usual carefully controlled chuckle. "Yeah, that's about right." Especially when you went outside and the sticky wet air combined with the odours of everyone in the tight Drench spaces struggling with the heat.
Ignoring the apology as he wasn't even sure what it was for, Adam blinked for a second at the question, lost until he remembered that she had been in the Plates until very recently. "Oh! Uhhh, well, I do have a spot, but..." Dark eyes scanned Mallorie up and down, making some unknowable check of her abilities. Seemingly satisfied by what he saw, Adam nodded and began to walk to the door, gesturing for her to follow, until he stopped at the threshold and turned.
"Can you climb?" The somewhat ominous question received no further context.
Just take that dark cloud
Ring it out to wash it down
Breathe silently, make the ghostly voice surrender.
That Adam laughed at her slip was a relief - and what a strange feeling, to make someone laugh. Not unpleasant, just…odd.
Mallorie shifted and folded her arms, getting more control of her temper as she exerted control over her limbs. If Adam had a spot it was possibly (probably) not entirely legal, but likely did the job. Flippant as he was, he struck her as someone who got the job done. The nature of the job, on the other hand…
“Can I…climb?” She repeated, as though she’d never heard of the word. “I…suppose it depends on what we’re climbing?”
She wasn’t sure, exactly, how strong a climber she’d be now, with her injury. It was doing better since she’d started the exercises, but her left side remained weaker than it had once been. And it wasn’t like she’d had much opportunity to test it out. That said, she was ready to start tearing hair out over the heat, so…
“Yes, I can climb. Just how illegal will this be?”
You don't need sympathy
They got a pill for everything
"Just buildings." Adam said casually, as if he were describing going up a single step. Leaving through the door, he headed down a couple of yards then slipped into an alley that weaved between housing here, skinny and dirty but filled with many wonderful opportunities for someone looking to scale the walls. Pointing to a windowsill, then a heat vent, then another sill, then the roof, he shrugged and glanced across at Mallorie. "This. Shouldn't be that hard."
It certainly wasn't for him - with a liquid grace unbefitting of his gangly limbs, Adam flew up the wall, using the opposite surface to balance when he needed it. By the time Mallorie asked her question he was stood on the top sill, secure enough to turn around and look at her, offended. "Scuse me, what makes you think it's gonna be illegal? It's actually entirely legit. I do do some legit things sometimes, y'know."
Up over the lip of the wall and onto the flat roof, he leaned back over the wall to hold out a hand for Mallorie if she needed it, though it would seem unlikely his sticks of arms could lift a whole other person.
Just take that dark cloud
Ring it out to wash it down
Breathe silently, make the ghostly voice surrender.
Mallorie was suspicious the minute Adam led her out the building, and their short journey didn’t clear her mind on the matter at all. Though she assumed he wouldn’t deliberately endanger her, she was still a little…dubious about what exactly he considered “legit”. She’d seen the state of his apartment.
The route he pointed out looked straightforward enough from their vantage point, but things always looked different when you were outside them. She watched Adam ascend and was, at least faintly, impressed; Adam generally gave off the impression of being about as graceful as he was tactful. So seeing him climb the building like water was...a surprise. She frowned in her own version of an appreciative glance.
“I wonder what could have given me that impression,” she replied, a little less under her breath than usual. Then she looked at his hand, extended out to her.
Adam was probably not strong enough to lift her directly, but still the gesture had been made. Mallorie glanced around quickly, assessing, before huffing a laugh and stepping forward.
“You’re a bad influence, you realise?”
Bracing herself against the wall to push upwards, she took his hand.
You don't need sympathy
They got a pill for everything
"I think you're profiling me." Adam insisted petulantly, though the smile breaking through the pout as soon as he said it made it clear he was joking. In truth, he quite liked that he seemed like the kind of person that might break the law. Rebellious, cool, sexy, going against the man.
Not that he'd been actively doing that for some months now, but that was besides the point.
His estimations of Mallorie raised the moment she took the breath and his hand, Adam grinning as he put in the effort to lift her. This was a pretty easy building to climb, as far as they went, but a lot of people balked at the idea of parkouring around the Drench at all (how many people had he tested this way? Too many to count). Once Mallorie was up and over he leaned back to catch his breath for a moment, resting on his hands and looking up at the bottom of the Plates, the closest thing to sky they had down here.
"Not a right lot of good influences in the Drench. At least I'm not gonna mug you or try get you to join my gang. Yet." He winked.
Just take that dark cloud
Ring it out to wash it down
Breathe silently, make the ghostly voice surrender.
Mallorie raised an eyebrow. “Is it profiling when I’ve seen the inside of your apartment?”
He might not actively be a criminal, but he certainly seemed to enjoy the idea of being one. All roguish intent and flippant charm. Once upon a time Mallorie would have had no time for it, now she found she almost enjoyed joking with someone. If this counted as a joke. She still wasn’t sure sometimes.
That Adam helped her up with relative ease was a surprise; he was so lanky she half expected him to crumple under any sort of physical exertion. She took a moment to steady herself, get her bearings, and followed his gaze up.
How oppressive it was now, on the other side of those plates. She felt, for a moment, ashamed that it took uprooting her whole life to realise it, and was grateful for Adam’s comment distracting her from the view. Mallorie shot him a sidelong look.
“True. Compared to some you’re just the friendly neighbourhood ne-er do well, I suppose.”
She rolled her shoulder, and started looking around for routes upwards.
You don't need sympathy
They got a pill for everything
"What, exactly, did ya see in my apartment that was illegal?" Adam asked, the teasing smirk still on his lips but his eyes a little sharper - if she actually did have an answer for this one, it would have to be taken care of soon; he'd always made sure to scoop any substances into containers and away when he opened the door, but after so long resting comfortably in his den of debauchery it was easy to forget what wasn't acceptable outside of it.
Breath caught back, he stood up and followed Mallorie's eyes up, then shook his head. "We're going across now. Not very far. Look -" Adam pointed to their right, where the glowing street beneath was divided by a beam that rested between two buildings, just wide enough for someone to stand with both feet together. "One at a time, but it'll take us. Then we're there. Not too much ne'er-do-welling." He winked, then set off walking - the trick to getting across these kinds of things was to go confidently and not let the possibility of falling enter your mind.
The beam did creak as he walked, especially as he got to the middle, but held, the many bootprints and scuffs on the top of it recalling it's long history as part of the rooftop routes. Over on the other side, Adam stretched and waved for Mallorie to come over now he was off. "They taught you how to do this in Enforcer school, right?"
Just take that dark cloud
Ring it out to wash it down
Breathe silently, make the ghostly voice surrender.
She didn’t look at Adam when she replied, distracted enough by their surroundings not to notice his expression. The question amused her though, and she huffed a little laugh.
“Less illegal, more questionable,” she said casually, “a few of my former colleagues would’ve found something to drag you in over, I’m sure.”
Less funny, but true. Mallorie wondered, momentarily, how she’d be dealing with the heat if she was back up top. She’d traded comfort for…what? Climbing walls with the reason why she didn’t get any sleep for nearly a month?
She followed Adam’s point and nodded at the beam.
“Take this route often, then?” She asked, watching him cross it with at least a little concern, even if it didn't show on her face.
The creak of wood made her wince, but it held and so she assumed it was at least moderately safe. So she stepped forward and placed one booted foot onto the beam.
“Can’t say they taught us to climb the city, no. Though there were physical tests, expectations…”
Mallorie inhaled and pushed forward, forging ahead after Adam.
