Background noise

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Drusia
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Re: Background noise

Post by Drusia »

"All right," he said, "I guess we have to take this threat seriously." (The tone of his voice implied reluctance.) "I'll recommend to High Commander Yenhael that we assemble a strike force to deal with this threat, whatever it is. But one thing. I do note, Peregin, that you have carefully avoided telling us exactly where this place is. I can't imagine your reasons for that, and I'm not even going to try to pry it out of you. But you're going to have to work out the details with the commander of the strike force ... because you're going to be guiding them there."

"Yes, Sir!" I say snappily. I consider adding more, but that will likely not end well and I don't really want to tick them off further.

-- Drusia

OOC: Desiree is pretty much done in the other thread until the airship lands. Assume she's snuggling with Anfisa.
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Graybeard
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Re: Background noise

Post by Graybeard »

OOC: This is largely intended for Drusia-the-player, although there's a reason that I'll get to for doing it here rather than as a PM.

OK, so how do you want to proceed from here? To my mind it isn't really necessary to "do" anything, since the key thing has just been "done": things have been set in motion to get the elves interested in what's happening with the BBEG. (This was not a foregone conclusion.) If you want to bring down the curtain here, with an option for Dru to pop back into the other thread at some point for long enough to warn her daughter what is about to happen, that's fine. If you want to transact the preparations for battle, that is fine too, with options for other things going on in Praenubilus Astu or elsewhere. However you want to proceed.

Note that I'm posting this here rather than as a private message, because if your preference is to go ahead and play it out, there could be opportunities for people (including people not currently active in Errant Road) to create elf characters to be part of what is to come. I have no idea whether there is any interest in doing that, nor is the possibility by itself a reason to keep the quasi-thread open. Is anybody interested? Please be heard soon so that we can move on. (Note that there would be opportunities to play an elf character when the fun and games start up north even if this thread shuts down.)
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Background noise

Post by Jack Rothwell »

OOC I could add a character to the mix if that would help things here. I think 'elf' is the one race type I haven't made one for yet. :D /OOC
Alberich
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Re: Background noise

Post by Alberich »

[OOC: Well, my last elf didn't last very long [crocodile tears]...but my understanding is that Drusia's plan is to put her elf character back on the shelf rather than play this one out. If there's an adventure, I'm always game. I've actually been toying with a human fighter-mage character from Goriel - someone the elves might recruit as a "local guide" even if he wasn't with them initially - and could write him up tonight.]
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Graybeard
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Re: Background noise

Post by Graybeard »

OOC:
Alberich wrote: I've actually been toying with a human fighter-mage character from Goriel - someone the elves might recruit as a "local guide" even if he wasn't with them initially - and could write him up tonight.
One thing to be aware of is that the final action is NOT going to be in or near Goriel. Details TBD and will be discussed in the other thread when Rose wakes up.
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Alberich
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Re: Background noise

Post by Alberich »

[OOC: This character is someone with good reason to leave Goriel, more widely travelled than most of his countrymen, and useful to have along if you can stomach humans, but as the elves say we can play it by ear. I've got no problem running a member of the elf expedition instead, or in addition, if that adventure is even going to happen on-screen.]
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Drusia
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Re: Background noise

Post by Drusia »

Graybeard wrote:OOC: OK, so how do you want to proceed from here? To my mind it isn't really necessary to "do" anything, since the key thing has just been "done": things have been set in motion to get the elves interested in what's happening with the BBEG. (This was not a foregone conclusion.) If you want to bring down the curtain here, with an option for Dru to pop back into the other thread at some point for long enough to warn her daughter what is about to happen, that's fine.
Whoopsie! A little late, but I'm pretty much done with Dru for the moment. Obviously. ^^;;

Um... others could do their things. Dru could always pass the buck to someone else. She doesn't exactly know the region well.
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Re: Background noise

Post by Alberich »

A Tsuirakuan passenger airship was hasting away from the Rinkaiel terminal. The stunned Anfisa came to under a healer's care. No one here knew her; anyone who had would've predicted her first word --

"Desiree...?"

She focused her eyes and looked around. "Where am I, and where's Desiree...?"

The healer explained that they were on their way to Tsuirakushiti, that they'd hastened away from an attack by an elf, and -- after they checked -- that there was no Desiree here. Anfisa was good at hiding her feelings. But not these feelings and not now. She was horrified. Had anyone seen her? She was easy to recognize. She was the loveliest girl in the world, about so tall, golden-haired and gentle...

Someone had - she'd been thrown down to the tarmac by the attack - this brought fast tears and increased desperation. Was there any way to go back? Any way to find out?

There was no way this ship was going back, but there was a crystal ball on board. Anfisa stood by, distraught, as a helpful steward got through to the terminal. A few agonizingly slow and polite conversations later...yes, a guard had seen her. Surrounded by "god nuts" and being carried to a strange airship. Carried, not walking. No, he couldn't see if she was alive. No, there'd been no one else down there who could've seen. Anfisa shrieked in helpless grief.

The rest of that flight was sheer hell for her. Her first and only love was torn from her and probably dead. She'd been at the gates of paradise, everything she wanted stretching out in front of her, a free life away from her past dangers, a kindly country to live in, in time a better one still, and above all a long life with Desiree....the loving words of her promise echoed back -

"Never mind. The point is... I didn't learn about zenanas and submission from my work as a priestess. About pleasure, yes. Some of my duties as a priestess are a bit like a getera's. But in a lot of ways it's different. I'm not locked away from everyone - me and the other priests and priestesses can do as we like with our own time. I can go about the town and if someone is interested, I can bed them or not, as I choose. No one owns me or guards me - I can do as I like.

"And I would very much like to find my way to your warm bed, at least some of the time. But I wanted to make sure you understood that my heart may open up to others as well. And that, no matter how many people I fall in love with, no matter how many people I spend my time with, I won't love you any less. And I will keep coming to you as long as you'll have me."


Anfisa wailed while she had the breath and sobbed once she didn't. A pretty girl in such distress drew would-be "burly knight protectors," but just now she was inconsolable. She bruised her fists against the fixtures in the washroom, howled at the ceiling, and cried as she never had before.

Towards the end it had been getting better too - the way she'd started introducing her --

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm called Desiree, and this is my lover Anfisa."

No reservations - no maybes - just "my lover Anfisa" - all she ever wanted to be - and her last invitation -

"Would you like to see where I live?"

A wizard in the airship's crew knew the damping spell, and kept the worst of her agony from the rest of the passengers. For Anfisa, a lifetime with Desiree would've gone by faster than that airship trip.

As they came closer to the end, her deep-rooted survival instincts urged themselves on her attention. There were other problems too. She might have her passport, but it was Desiree who'd had the travel funds. Had she been rich, she could've afforded weeks, months, a lifetime of visible grief. But she was down and out. That meant she'd have to pull her mask back on. She had a pretty good idea what she'd have to do to get by in this strange land. And she wouldn't be the first, not by a long shot, to turn to that life after grief, pain, and loss too great to bear.

So she cleaned herself up, then came back out of the washroom and among the other passengers. The friendlier ones showered her with attention, expressions of concern, offers of help. She thanked them all graciously, tucked away the cards she received, and accepted a free meal, but she knew she could only get so far on the kindness of strangers. At night and alone she'd be on the rack. But by day and in the sight of others, she must laugh, smile, charm...and observe.

She left the café where a kindhearted stranger had bought her a meal, and walked through the streets of Tsuirakushiti, the paradise she'd dreamed of sharing. A discreet inquiry at the terminal had told her the way to go. Count three streets, turn right, ask a sweet-faced schoolchild the name of that street...and in time she was before the square-cut, forbidding edifice she sought:

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

With a last breath and squaring her shoulders, she made her way to the door and knocked.

[OOC: And here I mean to leave her for now. No need to show explicitly what comes next. But if anyone wants an adventure with her later on, feel free to tip me the wink.]
Last edited by Alberich on August 21st, 2013, 2:00 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Graybeard
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Re: Background noise

Post by Graybeard »

OOC: It occurs to me that if you really wanted to keep her active, I could play the Homeland Security people (there is another reason for doing this), and/or she could have an encounter with Khoo...
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Alberich
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Re: Background noise

Post by Alberich »

[OOC: Thanks, but right now I want her to fade into the background and have some off-panel downtime. If a real adventure for her comes up later, which I am extremely open to, it should start with the assumption that she's been working in the city and also informing for HS on the side, and has gotten some training in the process - spy tradecraft, massage, some kind of martial art, and heavily accented Tsuirakuan. Oh, and she'll be going by another name, probably "Anna."

I shudder to think what shadowy department of the Tsuirakuan government would use Anfisa and Khoo for the same mission, but there's the core of a thriller there for sure.]
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