EVENT #5: SOVEREIGN CITIZENS (GODSBLOOD)

[aionmods]

Sovereign Citizens

GODSBLOOD

At the height of the Sovereign's moon, Vaeka Lovenskol's execution is announced. Outside of the City Hall, a dignitary of Achamoth is flanked by an entourage of Kenoma, reading the words of Regent from an unfurled letter: Vaeka stands accused to conspiring against the Regent and abetting the fugitive menace known as the Pleroma. Though the details are not made public, rumors spread quickly, some far more wild than the actual truth. The full truth, after all, is something only the Regent's agents and the Pleroma themselves know, and even to them the manner of her exposure is unclear.

Though losing a proud daughter of an influential family, there seems to be little that the people of Godsblood can do besides accept it. After all, they are still a city of the Regent's empire, and for all the freedom they've enjoyed, there are limits. If she was truly aiding the Pleroma, the sworn enemies of the Regent - and in an organized manner, if the rumors are to be believed - can they truly object? Or would challenging the Regent's claim simply invite more death?

As with many things, the families of Godsblood are torn. Tensions are thick for the five days leading up to Vaeka's appointed execution by hanging, with everyone having an opinion and few wanting to go on record talking about it too loudly. As such, the people's frustrations come out in other ways. Bloodites are uncharacteristically unfriendly to strangers in this time, keeping to their own and treating everyone else with overt skepticism.

Those that have arrived as part of the Regent's official envoy, or seen guarding Vaeka, will receive a particularly icy reception. No longer are the Kenoma curious wanderers on personal business. Now, they are here as the hands of the Regent; few of the Godsblood citizens are foolish enough to challenge them outright, but they are ever an honest people.

Early on, the Kenoma and the rest of the Achamite contingent sent with them will be able to take over a jail in downtown Godsblood to hold Vaeka until her execution, clearing out all other Bloodite prisoners and employees in the meantime. This means they have a relatively secure position to guard their prisoner from, which is a good thing; after all, the Regent did outright invite the Pleroma to stop them, and Pleroma are nothing if not stubborn.

EXECUTION DAY

After five agonizing days of waiting and several high visible conflicts between the Pleroma and Kenoma, finally the hour of Vaeka's execution arrives. A gallows is set outside of City Hall, ready to welcome its newest victim, and a massive crowd has gathered in an spirit of anxious anticipation. Some worry that violence may break out in the streets, even without the Pleroma's agitation, but gradually the minutes tick by and the gallows remain empty.

First one minutes passes. Then five. Then fifteen. Slowly, it becomes clear to the people of Godsblood that Vaeka will not be arriving. Are the rumors true? Has she been saved? Have the Pleroma been successful, despite all odds?

As the hours pass and the crowds disperse, Vaeka Lovenskol is not officially reported as either living or dead. Fortunately, Godsblood is a place where information has a way of getting around, whether those in charge like it or not. Some are saying that she was seen being whisked away as if by powerful magic, following a bloody fight at the jail in which she was being held. Where did she go? Maybe her supposed connections to the forest people did her good, some surmise.

The days following Vaeka's failed execution carry a strange and uncertain energy. Where before there was tension and distrust, Godsblood now finds itself in a surreal reality where the Regent's word is apparently not absolute. Then again, do they really want a repeat performance?

QUESTIONS

What is the best way for Aions to travel to Godsblood?
For Pleroma, this is very easy, as they are likely to either already live there or be able to easy take Greentruth's portal. For Kenoma, they may come directly from Achamoth by boat as part of the Regent's envoy or arrive via Eustace's portal which is set up in a shed a fairly long jaunt outside of town. Once there has been some time to get established, Misa will be setting up another portal leading straight to the prison where Vaeka is being stored.

Are the Kenoma permitted by the Regent to kill other Godsblood citizens?
Though the Kenoma are authorized to kill any Bloodites that try to physically fight them, they are expected to keep things clean. The Regent prefers to only punish the guilty, and having the lines be clear will create less of a hassle in the future. Generally, Godsblood is not in a state where physical resistance is likely to happen unprovoked.

Comments

[expiera]

[One more day to go before execution day. There have been attempts to free the prisoner, and while none has succeeded so far, it was very much no reason to let their guard grow lax. If anything, the more time passed, the higher the tensions mount: there's no doubt in any Kenoma's mind that the Pleroma will keep trying until they exhaust their resources, whether it be time or themselves.

Thus once Rand was successfully freed, they could no longer afford any shred of complacency, any gap in their defenses. Ciel didn't stop Emet-Selch during his 'interrogations', she simply began taking his place whenever the Ascian was no longer keeping the prisoner company. She also opts to erecting a barrier within the cell where the rebel captive is held, though there was no telling if it would be any effective at keeping things out and in.

Effective enough, as it turned out. Johnny makes it in, but Ciel is alerted to an intruding presence the moment the bullet pierces through and distorts a magical layer he could not know was there. The breach's awareness affords her a split-second to observe him, and it's both the lack of hostile intent and the way he focuses that makes his goal immediately obvious. Two Black Keys cut through the air in response: one to intercept the bullet (??) aimed towards the lock, the other towards the crippled but not-so-helpless Pleroma Firebrand's leveled index. As the nail-like swords are magical in nature, canceling out whatever the man had fired would be ideal, but if not, she's prepared to contain the prisoner first and dispatch the newcomer second through any means at her disposal.

That she recognizes the man and that he can't walk... Ah, nothing personal. He gets it too, doesn't he?]

[comelately]

[ he figured that she had some sort of ability if she was the one guarding Vaeka directly, but he had no idea what it might be, and they had no intelligence on her at all - now he's seeing that she's right. The nail collides with her black key destructively, the hole it leaves in its wake immediately working its way through the blade, but suspended in the air without a pathway to its destination, it won't accomplish much more than shredding the key. Which, actually, might be a good thing for Johnny; the fact that his bullet doesn't hit its mark means he has half a second of extra time to yank his hand back before her second blade slices off his finger.

Christ alive. He'd better be careful, or she'll disarm him (quite literally.) Looks like this will be a little harder than he thought. Eight bullets left... If her ability is - apparently - to summon blades out of nowhere, there's no telling where she might strike next. Which means he'd better get this over with before she gets a good grasp of what he's capable of. ]

Tch...!

[ he uses the split-second momentum of yanking his hand back to push another finger up to his jaw; meanwhile, his off-hand's the one pointing downwards, and he takes the moment to fire from both, Tusk appearing briefly at his side before both Stand and user are sucked into another bullet. The one that went to the floor is now a bullet-hole crater, moving steadily towards Ciel's leg and leaving a path of destruction in its wake; the other takes Johnny with it and flies to the ceiling with similar intent, though this time, it's burrowing towards the door again. If he can just destroy enough of it... ]

[expiera]

[Her gaze narrows further as she takes in the result of collision between bullet (it's not a regular bullet; it's too thin, it spins, it's too compact--) and Key: it is evidently supernatural—spiritual, and has the power to cause some sort of spatial distortion. She's not left wondering for long; some sort of... pink shimmer? Flickers at his side, and in the next moment, he shoots two nail bullets.

There's no room for interpretation. His crouched stance was that of a sniper, he held nothing in his hands before he fired. One moment, he was perched from distorted space, the next, he's gone with his shot.

Her priority is clear.

The crater on the ground is barely given a passing glance. Sharp and steely blue remain firmly fixed on the nail that the intruder disappeared with, and within the next instant, three additional Keys have appeared in her hand. Clenched between her knuckles to create a fan-like formation, they are then thrown in turn at different intervals. The first is based on her instinct in trying to catch the nail bullet early, the second is based on initial impression and assumption, and the third is based on observation and calculation. All three are imbued with a spell that will cause its target to burst into flames upon impact; if the first two miss, the last one may graze its target a mere few centimeters away from the cell door.

At the expense of her own mobility, perhaps; focused on the bullet that she can spiritually perceive and interfere with thanks to her superhuman capabilities, she only manages to shift her stance enough to get one leg out of the bulldozing crater's way. Damaged flesh and bone in one leg is acceptable anyway, as long as she doesn't risk losing the limb whole. Her powers do have limits here, she can't be too complacent with the nigh perfect immortality she possessed before.]

[comelately]

[ the hole is just that: a hole. There's nothing inside but Johnny by the time the nail hits the ceiling, and the only reason Johnny isn't shredded to nothing, too, is because he can't be hurt by his own Stand power. Vaguely, he can hear and see the attacks coming after him through the pinhole field of view he retains, but his concentration is focused on keeping the rotation going as long as he can. The problem, then, is not the blades themselves - they're matter, and so tiny void passes through them the way it's passing through the cell ceiling - but the flames they produce. There's no destroying energy. It's sucked into the attack alongside him, and he suddenly finds the safe emptiness he's hiding in suffused with heat, where the only kindling available is him.

He's been hit by all manner of attacks in the past few months, but somehow, fire's never been one of them. As it turns out, it fucking sucks. In the strange liminal space between nothing and something that Tusk provides him, there is no distraction from the flames licking at his skin and clothes. It burns. The first blast comes, and every screaming nerve he has left is telling him to get out now, you need to put this out, and that's before the second one hits. But he can't leave. He's got limited ammo and the clock is ticking - Yuuta and the others are counting on him. This can't be worse than when he got shot. This can't be worse than when Gyro nearly got pulled into Sugar Mountain. He can survive this - he has to. He just has to make it to the lock.

It's all only one or two seconds, in total - a bullet travels fast, even through a wall - but by the time the hole reaches the lock on the door and bursts open with an unpleasant click, it feels like it's been half an hour. Johnny bursts out, too, fully-formed again; unlike last time, he's dumped unceremoniously onto the ground in a hurry, on fire and screaming in pain as he desperately tries to roll while being unable to use his legs. There's no time to check on what Ciel might be doing next.

Fortunately, he'd tried to plan for being attacked. The second nail bullet, having gone unimpeded, makes a beeline for her kneecap; the effect is somewhat similar to Tusk clicking and dragging a bullet wound from her right foot all the way up to the target point in a gruesome trail of blood and shredded flesh and bone. ]

[expiera]

[The jail's lock is broken open. She failed to stop the bullet and the man it carried to their destination.

It's what she registers first, and in the very same instant, her balance is broken by the impact that runs through her left leg. Rending through flesh and bone like a hot knife through butter, it draws out a wince of pain from her through gritted teeth. The nail bullets are in fact even more potent than ordinary ones, and the only reason why she's not sent crashing to the ground is thanks to conjuring another Key and using it as crutch in time to keep herself upward. These spinning bullets that tear and shred through spatial and physical space alike... Tch. They're too dangerous, and she's been too complacent; she should have went for his hand first the moment he made it clear what he's firing from.

Better late than never, then.

Her mobility has been woefully crippled and it will take some time for her broken bones to reform, but she still has a free hand, and the Cremation Rite proved far more effective than expected. The previous Black Keys are dispelled in a flash back into fluttering pages of a book to give way to three new ones in her hand, and when she throws them again, they are aimed with impunity towards Johnny's right hand and arm. Wrist, palm, and elbow to be exact; bone for bone, limb for limb. His left side will be next, if she can afford to go for a follow-up throw.]

[recursive]

( unperceived in her non-manifested state, rika lurks in the room with the cell.

the cursed spirit, once given shape by yuuta's cursed technique and life by orimoto rika's soul, is now little more than an automaton animated by a fragment of left-behind will. like a body missing a phantom limb, it can remember impressions of the emotions that once filled it. at its core is one thing: love — both fervently protective and destructively possessive. the current "rika" does not want to be here. she wants to be by yuuta's side, protecting him. even now, she can sense that he's fighting someone else, but he's also continuously feeding her the same commands he'd given outside this building.

as a factor within those calculations, rika is aware that any action she makes could have a negative impact on yuuta. in order to manifest, she must use his energy; in order to absorb damage, she must use his energy. if he runs out, he will be defenseless — she won't even exist to save him.

on certain levels the mechanics of this fight are beyond her. she doesn't have the ability to comprehend the rules and limitations of johnny's or ciel's abilities, not without yuuta there to feed her that information. but she does become aware of johnny bursting through the lock on the cell door across the room; she reorients near him, attention fixated on his blue-haired attacker. they are both injured. there is nothing she can do about that. she sees more of the woman's weapons appear in her hand, watches them wind up and then fly at johnny's prone form.

there is somethings he can do about this. )

RrrrRRAAAAH!

( the furious voice, a young girl's screech beneath multiple layers of heavy distortion, is an echo of orimoto rika's, desperate and furious in the coils of her curse. between ciel and johnny, a dark tear opens up in the air, and a hand nearly huge enough to wrap around a small person's torso reaches through. heedless of the damage, it intercepts the Keys simply by taking them to an open palm and closing around them, and it's obvious enough that the manifestation is physical enough to take damage; the pale skin rends like torn paper, and the wounds seethe with a sort of spiritual miasma. taking this hit isn't without consequence; elsewhere in the jail, yuuta will sense the drain from his cursed energy, and rika can only take so much damage before she dissipates entirely for a few days.

the spirit's hand disappears as suddenly as it had appeared in the first place, and it leaves behind it the sense of disturbed water; that whatever it had come from was still lingering in the room, ready to strike. )

[comelately]

[ being outside of the bullet hole is a plus in that it means he can put the fire out, theoretically; it's significantly harder to stop, drop and roll when you can only do it with half of your body, but goddamn, he's trying. On the other hand, it also means he's back in the room with Ciel, who - against all belief - is still standing, despite the grievous injury. Is she some kind of machine?! He's too preoccupied with writhing around on the floor trying to put out the flames to focus on what she's doing, which may as well be a death sentence. It's in her eyes, the same as his: she's prepared to kill.

Shit. He needs to do something. The thing about burns is that the pain persists even once the flames are out - Johnny is, of course, still smoldering at best, but not being actively immolated has only marginally improved how he's feeling. In an ideal world, he'd be able to focus on Ciel and try to take her out before she does any more damage to him. Reality isn't so kind. He has no idea what the limits of her powers are; all he knows is that she's strong and fast, and, apparently, built like a tank. His best bet is to shift focus. He struggles to orient himself in Vaeka's direction, throwing an arm out towards her, and through the blurry veil of tears in his eyes, he sees Ciel taking aim at his arm in the same instant, but shit, he needs to do something. Do what he came here to do, and maybe the others will show up in time...

Right. Others. He'd forgotten that, technically, he wasn't alone. The tear in space didn't come from him this time; instead, it's Yuuta's big scary girlfriend-Stand, and she's saving his ass. ]

Rika!

[ it's a breathless gasp of surprise - but he can't waste the tiny window of time she just bought him, apparently at her own expense. The effort of stretching his arm makes his singed flesh sting, but he grunts through it, loosing the last 3 nails on his right hand and willing them to destroy Vaeka's bindings. ]

[expiera]

[A spirit that is sustained through cursed energy? How did she, an Executor of the Church who has hunted the undead for years, miss it? For better or worse, Ciel has no time to chide herself over this oversight; she needs to focus on the now, lest the Pleromas successfully get a hold of Vaeka and take her away. There could be countless reasons that could explain how the spirit was able to remain hidden anyway, such as another Aion's power, for instance. She'll have to mull over it later, once she actually has the free time to do so at her leisure.

The Black Keys are caught by the cursed spirit, though it (she) may find them particularly unpleasant to clasp: they were originally developed by the Holy Church as spiritual weapons with the explicit purpose of laying to rest heretical beings that should not be able to rise again on God's Earth, such as zombies and Dead Apostles, more colloquially known as vampires. Nevertheless, Rika's goal has been accomplished, her directive fulfilled: Johnny avoids further crippling, and takes the time afforded to him to shoot for Vaeka's bindings in turn.

There lays the true alarm, what can really compromise their mission. The ghost girl's apparition is ignored entirely as as a cluster of magical energy with a faint purple glow appears at Ciel's fingertips, and upon swinging her arm out towards Johnny's nail bullets—and by extension Vaeka's direction, three bolts of horizontal lightning shoot forward in a renewed attempt in intercepting them. They can punch their way through space and matter, she already knows, then what about energy? The puddle of crimson at her feet is growing, but she pays it no mind as she fires off the spell that was admittedly far less well calibrated or aimed to her liking. Called forth in a rush and lacking the precision Black Key throws would otherwise afford her, they lack uniformity in range and power: a stronger bolt intersects with one of the bullets, while a weaker one arcs onto Vaeka. Enough to momentarily stun and numb, but shouldn't bring with it lasting repercussions.

--Tch. It wasn't Ciel's intention to hurt the captive, but the result is what it is. More importantly, her bindings--?]

[comelately]

[ the nail bursts when struck by the lightning, unable to hit its target; the other two strike the bindings, precise despite Johnny's haphazard flailing, eating through whatever ties are restraining her. Rope is simple; metal takes a bit more effort, but, unexpectedly, that aspect might have saved Vaeka. The bullet hole lingers a little bit longer, and its black hole-like rotation draws in some of the energy of the lightning bolt as it arcs towards Vaeka, as it had before with the fire. Fortunately, Johnny's not in there to get burned even more. Unfortunately, poor Vaeka is still going to get a pretty shocking wake-up call. ]

-- Run! There's backup outside!

[ his voice is strained from the pain still prickling huge swaths of his skin, but he cries out to Vaeka nonetheless, desperate for her to get out of the cell and make this suffering worth something. It's all he can do as he tries to flip himself onto his back, hissing with every point of contact on the floor, and keep his eyes on Ciel again. His other hand is half-lifted, threatening, and the apparition of Tusk stands behind his shoulder once more. ]

[aionpcs]

[ After enduring long hours alone in her cell and even longer hours undergoing the "interrogation" of one of the Kenoma, Vaeka is exhausted in both body and soul. She has heard commotion outside several times throughout her imprisonment, even heard that a guard had been killed. But today seems to be worse than the other days...

The lightning? It's terrifying. She's a member of the Resistance but she is not an Aion, a witch, or any sort of engineer. She was a guard at a portal, knowing that danger could come at her any moment but never once witnessing it like this. Bound in her cell, Vaeka flinches and hopes that maybe this will just strike her down before it can get any worse. The clock is ticking and they are trying so, so hard for her...

But then her bindings are free. She can feel the weight of the rope falling from her shoulders and her legs. Her mouth hangs open in shock as she she looks down at them. ]

It...wh...!

[ A choked sob falls out of her mouth as she struggles with the bindings around her feet. These she can handle with the rest gone. ]

I'm going! I'm going!!!