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
The idea of having to isolate oneself is enough to make Cian feel uncomfortable. While he is not the most social person himself and not one for big gatherings, not having anyone is something he would deal with badly and he is glad he has at least managed to find a few people so far during his forced stay in the city.
The last of the initial confusion and the slight tension with it finally drains and he leans back against the wall, sticking his hands in his pocket and exhales slowly. His eyes remain mostly on Sunjata, only flickering to the sides from time to time to make sure no one has stopped to look at them from the street for too long. He nods slowly at the explanation, even if he doesn't fully understand why such a disagreement could be so bad to be seen as something like treason of all things, but he gets no chance to consider asking before Sunjata's question reaches him first.
His shoulders rise and fall in a slow shrug. "As permanent as my stay in the city will be, I guess. Got down here the same day... After they had questioned us. Just wanted to put as much distance between it all and me as possible. Couldn't really afford the room up there for much longer anyway." He is still not sure his more or less drunken impulse self-exile to the Drench had been the best idea, but too late for regrets now.
"Was fortunate enough to run into help for the first couple of days, at least, so there's that. And I'm managing decently right now." At least he's got a roof and four walls, even if the living conditions are far from optimal. Perhaps they are as optimal as he can ask for.
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.
father, father, let me figure it out i'm gonna swim in the thick of it now, i can't even tell the difference now
“Oh,” Sunjata starts to say, dumbly trying to figure out whether or not it was good or bad that Cian had done such a thing. Either the Plates would take it as having sufficiently scared someone enough or they’d take it as further proof that Cian was up to no good. But Sunjata wisely refrains from admitting either of those, given the fact it had been a money situation, and it was yet another thing Sunjata had failed in doing in their friendship. (The whole, helping to find Cian some work while top side, part of the agreement he’d made.)
So he stews on that, chews on the inside of his cheek, glancing up once more at the Plates above before he looks back at Cian and moves to angle himself more toward the street the alley lead onto so that he’d also be able to watch whether or not somebody got too interested in their conversation.
“I know the feeling.” He agrees, a small sympathetic look given toward Cian. “It’s very different from what I’m used to.” The freedom, despite being a wanted man, constantly watching over his back. It was far more relieving than living Plate side under his father’s watchful eyes. For Cian, though, it had to have been different in a bad way. And he wonders whether or not the second lockdown lifts if Cian would depart and never look back.
It really is a returning thing in his mind. Was it a good idea? A bad one? Suspicious of him, not suspicious? Had anyone kept track of it or had everyone dropped any care for him the moment he was left out of that holding cell? In Cian's honest opinion, he would just be happy if he was ignored and forgotten about by any kind of authority in the city. Though after his second meeting with Samuel, he is aware that at least one still recognizes him.
When it came to money and work, those are just more things he does not blame Sunjata for. That past offer had not even crossed his mind at all in a long time and he really can't put that responsibility on someone other than himself. He had the offer about the workshop from Iara to consider and apart from that, he is currently getting by helping out around where he is currently renting a room. Enough to have a sleeping spot and at least not starve, but that's about it.
"Yeah..." He sighs heavily. "But you get used to it. Or... No, you don't really. Or I don't. Not yet at least. Can say that the initial shock has gone down, but I don't think I can ever get fully used to living like this." He rubs his neck and scratches lightly at some of the lingering rashes on his skin under the collar of his jacket. "Was quite nice up on the Plates, I have to say. But after being down here and seeing how people live... I almost feel bad for thinking it. Guess I like comfort."
Enforcers, noble houses and their rules aside, living on the Plates is highly preferable when he can compare it to the Drench, even if saying that out loud could cause trouble in some company, he is sure. And Sunjata is close to the truth; should the lockdown lift tomorrow, Cian would be out as soon as he could get hold of a ticket for a train ride home. As for looking back, perhaps he would. Eventually.
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.
father, father, let me figure it out i'm gonna swim in the thick of it now, i can't even tell the difference now
Sunjata agrees, after all — he thought he had an idea of how bad it was to be down here, how terrible the living conditions were, but it was nothing compared to actually living it. Now that he has, it only adds more fuel into the change he wants to see. Why did the Plates have to sit there, lording above those they relied on for so much to make the system work, without taking care of them?
So he rumbles a low sound of agreement, mostly muffled from his mask, before nodding his sympathies and understanding. “Yeah, I get it. Took a lot of things for granted.” He admits, the mask warping on his face in the way he winces slightly. “I would like to change it down here. Just don’t know where to start.” He admits with a small shake of his head, a deep exhale.
“Don’t know if they ever will be able to change.” Maybe it was better to just leave it all behind.
A quiet laugh leaves him and he shakes his head slowly, once again turning his gaze up towards the Plates. "Way too late now, but I think a lot could have been done better from the start by not building directly over the city. I mean, really... Seems like there is a lot of space off to the side out on the Scapes." He looks back to Sunjata and gives the other man a shrug with an almost apologetic smile. "Sorry, but building directly on top of people like this is just a shitty move." He dares say it out loud to Sunjata, but knows full well how much trouble such a statement can give him otherwise in the wrong company.
"So can't really do much about that." Apart from bringing it all down, but he actually would find that just as devastating. A lot of innocent people would be injured and to him, a lot of all the regular people living on the Plates would be innocent victims in this huge conflict as well. "But... I don't know... Preventing the floods to start with might be of a lot of help, though you'd need a lot of people and resources for that. Like making the canals deeper, being able to lead the water coming down from above away somehow." He sighs and tries to stop his head from spinning away with all the ideas.
"I suspect that all that would be met with resistance from the leaders up there, sadly." He chews on the inside of his cheek and shrugs once more, quietly wondering if he is starting to have too many opinions on things. Too many opinions against the Plates. Perhaps it was somewhat for the best for his own safety to be on the Drenchers' side while living in the Drench, but he still wishes he could just hide away in the middle. This is not his fight and it really should not become his fight either. He is just stuck in it like so many others.
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.
father, father, let me figure it out i'm gonna swim in the thick of it now, i can't even tell the difference now
That’s something they can agree about – but it had started long before Sunjata had come around – had even been thought about, he imagines. It had occurred from people having too much pride and prejudice to be able to figure out a way to live amongst the rest of them, instead choosing to make a statement as big as any billboard and self-centeredness might. But he laughs alongside Cian, glancing back up at the Plates with a slight wince. “Oh, I agree with you there.” Sunjata offers, casting a glance toward Cian with a glimmer of amusement in his gaze despite the heavy topic.
Cian has a lot of good ideas, though, ones that Sunjata makes a mental note on before the ideas come to a stop and he almost wishes he could get away with pulling out his journal to jot them all down, for fear of forgetting them until he reaches a point where he can get away with it. “The Arbiter would likely rather die fighting off the Drenchers than live amongst them.” He admits bitterly, refraining to say anything that could be incriminating to him (such as my father, despite never quite seeing the man as such a figure in his life).
“Something’s got to happen, right? It can’t just stay like this forever.” Every now and then the uprisings did start. But the Plates had so much behind them that they could squash it quickly. And selfishly, Sunjata hopes that with the information he has, that maybe this time they stand a better chance provided they have the power to take out the resources above.
He had a hunch that Sunjata would not react badly to his opinion about the Plates being built right on top of the original city, but he still feels some relief when he is agreed with. When it comes to everything else, he would like to help. He truly does. If there were some actual official projects going on. Seeing nothing wrong with working towards better the lives of people in the Drench. His problem with it is that doing anything to make things better seemed to be seen as "part of the resistance", though in his mind, making life a bit easier would only make people less likely to start a whole revolution.
"Yeah, sure. It's not likely to make any of them move down here, but... Still can't see why they seem so against just letting people here live in alright conditions. I've gathered that the Plates are so dependant on the workers from here, so why would they not at least want people staying healthy enough to be able to do said work?" He doesn't expect Sunjata to hold any answers, just asking the questions to air his thoughts as if it would help trying to untangle something.
Yet another sigh leaves him, another shrug, as if he's making some feeble attempts at shaking off that heavy feeling that seems to weigh down on him today. His mood being as gray as the weather. "Yeah, just what that something is. How much would those up there let people down here improve things for themselves without getting nervous about it." He understands that there will probably always be a sharp divide between the two parts of the city, but even things out just a little bit would still be better than nothing. That a violent uprising would be needed is nothing he wants to consider and wants to try and hold onto at least a fraction of positivity that there must be other ways.
Yet there is the other voice in his head telling him again that he should not think of it at all. That he should just stay out of it.
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.
father, father, let me figure it out i'm gonna swim in the thick of it now, i can't even tell the difference now
When it comes down to it, the Platers acted as if sharing any little thing with the Drench would be to pollute their own well being with the grime of the city that they, themselves caused. And with Sunjata being friendly enough to the Drench when he’d been around them, well, it wasn’t exactly the tough love Shaju had hoped it would be when stationing his son down here to teach him a lesson. Because instead of growing hard and angry about the way the Drench treated him, he was empathetic. He understood that it was due to what he represented, and the ex-enforcer wasn’t going to hold that against them when it was literally just a game of survival down here while they indulged in a carefree, easy live up top. Instead of teaching his son to be the picture perfect enforcer, blinded by the laws he made, all Shaju had done was create a rebel instead.
“It’s because they think that if they give the Drench an inch, they’ll take a mile. To make any concession against the Drench is a losing battle.” That was as honest as he could be, realistically, knowing the things that he did – the training he’d undergone when expected to replace his father, if ever the chance arose. But who knows, maybe Shaju had trained him poorly, fully expecting something terrible to happen to him so he didn’t have to become the next one in charge of the laws.
It’s a lot of heavy talk down here. Talk that could land them in severe trouble if anyone listened in, and truth be told he trusts Cian with at least a little knowledge that Sunjata didn’t fit in with the status quo Plater. Perhaps that’s why they’d made fast friends. “They won’t do anything about it. People want to come here and live at the capitol. They want to pretend they can have a rags to riches story, when it isn’t made for succeeding.” He admits quietly, the lines of the mask on his face shifting with the frown he offers Cian.
"Don't think their rights and privileges will go away because other people get a few more rights as well." He mutters mostly under his breath and shoves his hand back into the pocket to stop himself from fidgeting and idly clawing at the hidden rashes on his neck while trying to think. All this has him remembering some of that him and Sunjata had talked briefly about during the masquerade. That if Sunjata should just try to go through with it all until he was in a position where he could decide what changes to be made. Though it might be all too late for something like that now, with Sunjata's move to escape from the Plates.
Besides, it isn't Cian's place to judge or really think much about, having full understanding why someone would not want to play along with all that even if it might get them in a better position in the end. Perhaps the whole journey to get there is not worth it. Maybe it will just do too much damage along the way.
He shakes his head at his own thoughts as if trying to keep them from tangling up further and his gaze momentarily drifts over to a couple of people that walks by the entrance to the alley perhaps a bit too slowly. A quiet hum is offered in response to people wanting to come and live out their dreams in the city. All talk about the glorious city in the sky and not much is mentioned about what is going on underneath. He doesn't want to think much more of it, but his mind is stalling with coming up with something different. The general situation and his own are just souring his mood too much at the moment.
"Everything about this just... Sucks." He grumbles unhelpfully and tips his head back against the wall. Maybe he should just find a few bottles of something strong and roll over and admit defeat for the rest of the day, make another attempt at being positive somehow tomorrow. The Drenchers living with this year after year seemed to be able to still make a life out of it and find their own fun in the midst of it all to keep going.
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.
father, father, let me figure it out i'm gonna swim in the thick of it now, i can't even tell the difference now
He can hear the whispered words, but only because he’s spent most of his life trying to listen in on things that he shouldn’t be. So he snorts, heaving a soft sigh and nodding. “I don’t think so.” He agrees with Cian’s point, but he’s also the outlier when it comes to the Plates. He’s the one nobody trusted because he didn’t believe in the system of beating anyone down just because of where they lived. “They think any concession’s a loss, though.” He offers equally as quietly, before he glances around the alley once more.
His hands shove into his pockets and he rocks on the back of his heels a little, humming his agreement under his breath at how this sucked, before an idea hits him and he tries his best to avoid any looks from those passing by the alleyway – looking as unsuspicious as possible. “You wanna grab a drink or something?” He asks softly, tilting his head out the alley. “I can’t sit down somewhere to drink it with ya but I can grab one and we could go somewhere else.” The less he stayed outdoors the better, especially when it came close to the Enforcer shift change.
He’s already been recognized once, he doesn’t intend to do it again with one that has less than ideal means.
