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
For all his job was reporting on the happenings up here, Adam spent surprisingly little time actually in the Plates. The tram up had been a nervous exercise in reminding himself no one up there knew his face and that the features his father had left him weren't all that recognisable anymore (something noted with a twinge of pain). While he knew the Warehouses were hardly the most uptown place in the Plates, it still felt like the wolves den.
It was very bright, that much was for sure. You never realised how little light reached the Drench until one went up to the Plates; Adam found himself covering his face with his hand any moment he could, peering around at the too-saturated world and it's light colours with a barely disguised distain.
Sunjata would be here soon and with him hopefully new revelations about the workings up here, the only reason he'd made the trip. Ignoring any sideways glances, he took a badly rolled cigarette from his pocket and lit it, leaning against a large warehouse door as he waited for his latest informant to arrive.
don't know what you're thinking of do i chip away or keep defenses up?
The Plates at least are within his ability to visit. Especially when he’s in between shifts and it’s the perfect time that his father isn’t home to ensure he stays within the boundaries of POINT plate. It’s why he decided that now was a good time to invite Spider up topside, to give him a bit of an in person view of the spaces he’d specifically pointed out.
At first, he doesn’t find Adam, and instead spends a bit of time wandering under the sun, too warm. The button up shirt is unbuttoned at the top two, a bit of sweat peeking through the curls along his forehead, freckles on full display when he finally spots the lanky, tall as fuck man.
There’s a huff of relief that leaves him as he immediately heads toward the other man’s way, trying to catch his attention as he lights up the cigarette. “Hey,” he calls, darting from the edge of the sidewalk toward the warehouse. “Didn't think you’d get so close to one of them immediately.” He rumbles, a brow raised.
Wouldn’t he want to be further away and watch from afar? Or was that simply more Sunjata’s style?
don't make a sound, if it gets too loud will you hear me come around?
Adam looked up, cigarette hanging from his lip, and shrugged. "Not like it's illegal to stand here, is it? Unless the rules've changed since the last time I visited." He hadn't even thought anything of it and did feel a pang of something close to fear for a moment. After a quick scan of the area around them he dismissed it, content for now no firing squads were waiting around the corners.
Pushing off the wall with one foot he turned to look at the warehouse, flicking his eyes up and down like he was making some kind of judgement. "So...I hope you got something really interesting in there. I didn't come up all this way to see some pallets and boxes, Arbiter Jr." Not that he really expected there to be nothing, but the bright light and watchful eyes up here were already getting to him. "And sides, speaking of being careful, isn't dear old dad gonna wonder what you're doing around here?"
don't know what you're thinking of do i chip away or keep defenses up?
“It’s not.” Sunjata murmurs, though it still causes a hint of discomfort in trying to figure out how best to go about letting Adam in. After all, he certainly looks the part of a Drencher. He’d have to come up with something unique, something that had little to no arguments if they were in fact caught up here. But Adam pushes off the wall and Sunjata sighs slightly, stepping back and readjusts his shirt.
As for his father? The question does still him, makes his jaw work as he shakes his head. “He’s already at work. I have some time before he notices I’m not there.” And he’s mastered it so far, though he doesn’t want to get cocky. There’s still a bandage wrapped around his middle from the last time he’d gotten into trouble. “Come on.” He steps away from the building, as if weaving some special type of path back toward the sidewalk until he’s sure they’re not in eye view of the cameras around the warehouses, before he turns on his heel and guides Adam toward the back of the building, to an employee entrance.
A card slips out, pressing it to the security link before the door unlocks, and Sunjata guides Adam inside. It’s a shift change, everyone out for an hour to let the building cool down – the inside is warm, sticky with the heat and humidity, but Sunjata doesn’t intend to stick around in here very long. He turns to the left and guides Adam up one of the flights of stairs toward the higher end storage rooms, opening the door to boxes and pallets much to Adam’s dismay he’s sure. But he pops one of the boxes open, revealing a set of weaponry within, each one marked and tagged with where they are to go. The weapons themselves look unassuming as a small baton, but fitted with buttons across the handle and a clear view of extending bars and almost as if it's filled with something.
This particular box appears to be intended for the morning enforcer patrols. "This is a new set we're getting to replace our old ones." To replace the traditional batons that sit on the belt of each and every enforcer.
don't make a sound, if it gets too loud will you hear me come around?
”I’m surprised he hasn’t got you under some kind of creepy 24/7 guard outfit. Man, if someone wanted to assassinate you, do you know how fuckin’ easy it would be?” Adam asked with a laugh far too jovial for the question as he followed Sunjata around the back of the warehouse. He had avoided cameras enough times in his life to know the purpose of the winding path without asking and copied the steps as closely as he could, quick dark eyes flicking around to try and see the lenses they were hiding from.
He wondered where Sunjata got the card from, but didn’t bother asking about it, too interested to see what they were going to find; indeed, he was initially disappointed by the reveal of no one around and some boxes. Uncomfortable from the heat, shifting from foot to foot, he was about to get sassy about it when their actual goal was revealed.
Adam leaned in over the box, taking a look without moving his hands from his pockets. ”And..what delightful thing does this do? It looks more fucked up than the average beating stick. You get one of these yet?”
don't know what you're thinking of do i chip away or keep defenses up?
“Easy, I’d guess. I’ve already been shot once.” The scar from that sits on his inner thigh. “You’d probably be doing him a favor.” It’s the honest truth right now, at least. Nothing had changed since the attack before, only dubbed to the public as a training exercise. And besides, what use was fully hiding when his face was likely recognizable anywhere from how often they shoved him and Savera onto their tabloids?
Inside the warehouse, however, heat infiltrates the room as they peer into one of the boxes and Sunjata refrains from touching one, but he does reach out to point at the different slots. “It is more fucked up.” He agrees quietly, pointing to the thicker end of it. “This part has prongs you can open and inside has a sort of… Taser type of electricity spark. The other end is hollow but can be used to expel pepper spray.” Each button in the center by the handle is for swapping between the two choices.
“My unit hasn’t received them yet. They’re going to the outskirts checkpoints first but then they’ll trickle into the Drench patrols.” The announcement makes him wince as he swallows hard and looks back over at Adam. “They really fucking hurt.” Worse than the usual batons they get, with one end being hollow and the other far more blunt.
don't make a sound, if it gets too loud will you hear me come around?
”Damn, really? ..Cos someone was trying to kill you or just some fucked up Plates training shit?” Adam had heard enforcer training could be brutal and with the standards Shaju had for Sunjata, he wouldn’t be all that surprised to hear that they’d had to play dodgeball with bullets. It was obvious that his father was a touchy subject for Sunjata, but it was too fascinating, the chance of an inside glimpse at the Plate’s most powerful family too enticing not to ask: ”So you guys never had any fun together?”
Anyway, matters of fatherly love were insignificant when one was looking at the weapon in the box. Adam’s cringe grew larger as Sunjata pointed out the different ‘features’ of the device, all the various ways in which it could fuck someone over for daring to upset an enforcer. At the very least, he could use this information to tell Nate what kind of stuff he would be treating over the next months.
He assumed there had to be more to the plan than that, though.
”So…are you just showing me it, or are we about to blow this place up or something?” Adam rested a hand on his hip and looked across at Sunjata.
don't know what you're thinking of do i chip away or keep defenses up?
“Both.” Sunjata remarks, knowing that it’ll make little to no sense to Adam in the context of the question he’s asked. So he heaves a sigh as he peers at the weaponry, before his gaze flickers back to the Drencher. “They said it was a Plate training accident when I went to Ok’Kotoll Medical, but the guy was actually going for it.” There’s a slight grimace as the memory surfaces, one he shakes off with a shake of his head. “I was hospitalized for two weeks.”
As for whether they’ve had any fun together? Sunjata actually barks a laugh at that. “Saints no. He hoped I drowned for my swim test and once we left the Drowning Trails any hope of having a fun, nice relationship with my father went out the window. I was six.” And while amusement is clear in his voice and gaze, it’s truly a sad thing to talk about so easily in the way that he does.
But that’s how it is.
His gaze finds the weaponry once more and with Adam’s question and gaze pointed at him, he shakes his head. “No. I wanted to show you I was right so that the information I gave you wasn’t bullshit. We’ll need a lot more manpower if we want to blow this place up and get away with it.” And after being in Capital Prison? That’s the last place he wants to go.
don't make a sound, if it gets too loud will you hear me come around?
”Oh.” Adam said, not really sure what to do with the too-honest answer to his question. While he’d had his fair share of injuries, he’d never been shot (probably for the best, since hospitals in the Drench were unlikely to keep anyone around that long). ”You’re probably…lucky? Since you can still walk and all. And it didn’t hit you in the dick.”
As someone who often spent time thinking about how wonderful it must be to have a father, hearing Sunjata’s experiences with his didn’t gel well with Adam’s dreams. He sighed, resisting the urge to ask if Sunjata was absolutely sure they’d never had a good time together, and just nodded. There were more urgent matters at hand.
Reaching down to touch the weapon with a couple of fingers, feeling the buttons with caution, Adam hummed and tilted his head one way then the other, then looked up to see their surroundings - more specifically the exits. ”Seems like a shame to leave without doing anything, though. Think they might miss a couple? We could use ‘em ourselves and take ‘em apart to see how they work.”
don't know what you're thinking of do i chip away or keep defenses up?
For whatever reason, Adam’s comment causes the young Bratena to laugh, amusement bleeding through him as his chuckle softens so that he can respond. “Lucky, yes.” He pauses, debating and then failing to prevent himself from adding, “Everything still works, don’t worry.” As if Adam had been worried about it in the first place.
He regrets it a few seconds later, flushing lightly as he looks away and back at the weaponry – enough to sober him up from any other kind of thoughts and embarrassment when the next question comes and he hums under his breath. This box is accounted for, and he slips the lid back onto it as he steps down the row of boxes, finding one nearer to the top without any labels, and the young Bratena hops onto the box beside it in order to pry it open.
“Ah, there we go.” He announces to Adam, reaching into the box and taking two of them out from the box that were unassigned, mixing some of the straw and paper covering over the rest so that it didn’t seem like anything was missing. After all, these had all been accounted for.
He hops back down, handing both of them to Adam with a nod. “These ones won’t be missed.”
don't make a sound, if it gets too loud will you hear me come around?
