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
"Damn, things really aren't going well with ol' dad, huh?" Adam asked sarcastically, raising an eyebrow as he looked across at Sunjata. To be fair, from all he knew of the Arbiter, it made sense he wasn't the most nurturing father, though with Sunjata being the one thing keeping his bloodline going, it was surprising he wasn't more particular about his son's safety. "...You haven't got any siblings, right?"
He hadn't come across any in his research, but sometimes the Plates could keep secrets tightly held for years.
Quiet as Sunjata spoke after that, Adam easily ate the snacks in his bag, hungrily biting into a few at a time, the combination of whatever he was smoking and however many hours it had been since he'd eaten creating a suddenly-noticed hunger. It was only when he'd swallowed and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand that he leaned in closer to Sunjata, a challenge in his eyes, the light from the street below reflecting in them steadily.
"So stay. Cut off the stupid gavel, wear different clothes, find somewhere to lay low for a bit. There are guys I see everyday down here that the Plates have wanted to find for years. Or fuck, just hang out down here until the lockdown lifts and piss off to wherever you want. It's not like the Arbiter can see into every corner down here. In fact, there's a fucking lot he can't." Plenty of crawling spaces, cellars, backrooms and attics for an astray Arbiter's son to stay in for a while.
Just because I made poetry a mission
You might as well punish a kid for coloring outside the lines
A huff of a sigh leaves him, a shake of his head as he abandons the snacks for the time being. “I do, but they’re young.” Supposed to be his replacement once he’d passed his swim test — something his father had dearly hoped he wouldn’t, but he doesn’t voice that thought. Instead, his arms only tighten around his legs as Adam offers him an out, but unfortunately for now the fear of his father outweighs everything else.
“It’s an option.” He pauses, working his jaw, setting the bag of snacks onto the side closer to Adam in case the tall man wanted it. And with the absence of it, he tilts his head and presses his cheek against the top of his knee caps. “Not… Not today but maybe soon.” He debates with himself a few seconds before his steel gaze lifts to scan Adam’s face.
“The last couple of years of my training I spent trying to figure out how to change things. I wanted to get stronger and better and take over and fix all of this but…” It sounds like a pipe dream. His father’s too strong, too influential, too many people following his advice and ideals, it would be nearly impossible.
"Oh wow, the Arbiter still fucks?" Adam exclaimed, scrabbling to find a pen in the mess of things around the rooftop hideout. "What are the kids names? Any of them little Arbiter jrs in the making?" Maybe it was creepy to ask and perhaps foolish to assume Sunjata would tell, but the allure of new information was too much to resist. Pen found, it hovered over the back of his right hand, Adam eager to make notes.
He was surprised to see Sunjata even consider his words, never mind seem to actually agree. Watching as he pushed his face down and spoke, for the first time Adam felt a genuine twinge of sympathy for the man before him. Anything before had been a theorectical consideration, the end of an argument where he briefly considered that the Arbiter's son might have feelings...with Sunjata right before him, it was harder to think of him as just another posh idiot.
Sighing, he reached out to awkwardly pat Sunjata on the shoulder, twice. "It's a good idea, but you're gonna need a fuckload more guys than just you. Like, a lot more guys." He dreamed of spearheading some kind of revolution himself often enough, but the whole system was so overbearing it would be impossible for one man to do it. "...What do you think it'll take, for you to be ready? To come down?"
Just because I made poetry a mission
You might as well punish a kid for coloring outside the lines
If there’s one thing that makes Sunjata cringe harder than everything else, it’s the idea Adam plants that his father does indeed still fuck. He squints across at Adam, looking relatively pale for the suntanned skin hiding underneath the clothes to hide his insignia. “Unfortunately.” He doesn’t really want to think about it to be honest.
“You know I can’t give you their names. But my sister is ten and my brother is eight.” He offers in case Adam wishes to do some sleuthing. “The only reason my father’s trying so hard with me is because I passed all his bullshit tests much to his disapproval.” Hence his replacements being made, hoping they’d turn out more steel boned than him.
Perhaps he just hasn’t found something he believes in strong enough yet to fight his father back on it.
But Adam pats his shoulder and he’s clearly tense beneath the touch — not used to it in the slightest, let alone a placating way, especially from a stranger he’s named Spider in his mind because he doesn’t actually have the other man’s name. “It’s unlikely to find that many on the plates I can talk to where I won’t immediately be jailed for conspiracy.” Hence the impending sense of hopelessness.
He’s a bit more attentive when the question comes, though, something sharp crossing his gaze. “I’m trying to get as much information as I can.” He pauses, chewing on his lower lip for a moment. “To help with the rebellion we’re told is brewing down here.” And he won’t be ready until he has at least the big players of that just yet.
Were he talking to anyone else, Adam would have immediately fallen into a rabbit hole of themed questions, such as 'do you think the Arbiter says his own name when he cums?' or 'do you think he's secretly like, a huge sub?'. Thankfully, amazingly, he showed mercy to Sunjata and didn't ask any of these burning queries.
With 10 and 8 scrawled on the back of his hand, Adam went back to adopting a more casual pose, his legs swinging back over the edge of the building as he grabbed another snack. These were some kind of candy, flicked up into the air and caught in his mouth. "So-" He paused to chew before he choked, then tried again. "So if you passed all his tests and shit, why doesn't he like you? Can he tell you're soft on us Drenchers?"
He couldn't speak on how successful Sunjata might be finding support in the Plates (though he could guess), but Adam snorted at the news of the rebellion brewing in the Drench. "Yeahhhh, there's way less of a threat down here than they think. Sure, there's those of us that wanna fuck the whole thing up, but most people just wanna get their heads down and get on. Plan on leaving town. I don't think we'd get more than twenty if we tried to recruit, and thats just like, fucking target practice for the Plates enforcers, right?"
Just because I made poetry a mission
You might as well punish a kid for coloring outside the lines
He is incredibly lucky that Adam doesn’t ask those questions. If he did, Sunjata might just turn red and die of a combination of embarrassment and nausea. So, when the subject shifts and Adam’s catching bites of the candy from the air above the alleys of the Drench, Sunjata unfolds himself, opens a bit more, lets a leg dangle above the rooftops even as he keeps the other tucked up tight against his chest.
“Not necessarily soft for you. Just… Soft in general. I’d rather help people than punish them, especially for things out of their control.” He pauses to let a scoff of a laugh leave him, a shrug of his shoulders and a shake of his head. “That and I’m too impulsive and bad at words.” No, there wouldn't be great speeches from this piss poor Arbiter in training.
As for the rebellion, it is a surprise to hear just how small it is in comparison to what they’ve been told, and a frown crosses his face at the realization. “Unfortunately. Unless… Maybe taking down some big targets might inspire some recruits?” If everything looked bad and pointless, he couldn’t blame them.
But if they took down resources of the enforcers? Where they get their weapons? Maybe things would change.
"Help rather than punish? Fuck, where did you come from? Sure as anything wasn't the Plates." Adam teased, though there was some genuine surprise too. Of all the people up top, Sunjata would be the one he would have expected to be the most pompous. Either he had been born with the heart of a saint, or the Arbiter was so bad a father he'd managed to teach his son the opposite of everything he stood for.
Either way, it was quite funny, in a fuck-the-Plates way. He liked it, and so Adam decided he liked Sunjata.
Balling up the finished bag and fiddling with it in one of his hands, Adam frowned up at the covered sky above, the lights reflecting off the bottom of the Plates. "...And...what would those big targets be? What're you suggesting, Arbiter Jr? Sounds pretty dangerous." Not that meant he was against it, but he suspected Sunjata might think rebellion was easier than it truly was.
Just because I made poetry a mission
You might as well punish a kid for coloring outside the lines
“Unfortunately, it was the Plates.” He rumbles with an odd combination of bitterness and amusement, sour but almost to the point where he finds his situation to be hilarious if it weren’t for the fact he was living in it. Perhaps from an outside view it would be more entertaining, but from the middle it’s quite a shitty hand of cards to be dealt.
Despite their strange meeting, however, he finds that he like Adam well enough as well – enough so that he trusts the Drencher (while he, by all accounts, shouldn’t - and instead when the question is aired, he unfolds his other leg, reaching over to pull out a tiny notebook that he keeps on his person at nearly all times – yes, even when he wasn’t wearing his enforcers uniform.
“It would be dangerous.” He mulls over, flipping the book open and crowding Adam’s space to show him. “I’ve been finding out where our weapons are made. Would be a good target to knock out and make us less overpowering.” He pauses. “As well as noting down the typical day to day plans for the construction for the sixth plate.” Once those two information dumps are laid out, he tilts his head toward Spider and tries to gauge his reaction.
The appearance of the notebook was enough to get Adam upright again, the opportunity it held not wasted on him. It was almost too good to be true, the son of the Arbiter showing him collected information about all the plans and cracks of the Plates...if it were real, that was. As much as he did like Sunjata, Adam wondered if he could still be playing a con, even now, or if the Arbiter could be giving his son false information.
Still, he wanted to see what was in the book. Leaning close, he tried to read and memorise as much as he could, as quickly as he could, for his own notes later. "You're a real interesting guy, Sunjata..." He mumbled as he reached forward to turn one of the pages, hoping to see more. "This is...this'd be really useful stuff, if you'd let me copy it down. Course, I'd have to check it all out, make sure it was legit." A quick glance aside to see his reaction.
Just because I made poetry a mission
You might as well punish a kid for coloring outside the lines
It’s a strange mix for the both of them, an amount of trusting and yet distrusting of the other enough that it makes it feel like a leap of faith for the both of them. “I’m not like the others.” Sunjata responds to Spider, casting a glance at him sidelong. “Just… Forced to try and fit in I guess. But I’ve been doing my own research this past season, after my engagement was announced.” He shrugs, very clearly disinterested in the life that was being painted for him.
As for the rest of it, though, Sunjata nods. “I can’t let you copy all of it. Don’t want to give the hand away too quickly, you know. But the locations can be scouted without much difficulty.” He flips to the back of the book, ripping out a page and producing a pen from the same spot he’d hid the book earlier, scribbling down the locations he’d mentioned previously so that Adam could do his own research.
“I just need more time to get more. And maybe some other things that would be useful.” Before he heavily considers abandoning his Plate duties and disappearing under them into the Drench.
