EVENT #5: SOVEREIGN CITIZENS (VENERA)

[aionmods]

Sovereign Citizens

VENERA

In contrast the Aion's last visit, they now arrive in Venera on a completely average day... or so it seems. Unlike Godsblood, Venera has been given no warning as to what's about to befall it; the Kenoma are simply authorized to arrive and begin their bloody work without fanfare. Even their entourage of Achamite soldier don't stick out that much; in the time since the plague left, the city has refilled with occupying forces. Notably, the Hylician ones seem to be keeping out of the way, almost as if they've heard some things and would rather not be involved too closely in what's to come.

As opposed to the ghost town it was during the plague, Venera is now reasonably active, with most attending to their usual business. Shops are open, and its people are withdrawn but superficially friendly when meeting strangers. Initially, the targets of the Kenoma hit list will have no way of knowing what's coming for them, but after the first couple attacks word will begin to spread. Those that have recently been engaging in seditious behavior will become harder to find, leaving their usual homes and workplaces to stay elsewhere, and making other attempts to escape the Regent's attention.

Once those alerts have been raised, the Kenoma will have to engage in more detective work to find their targets, questioning other Venerans and seeking out fugitives in the homes of their family and friends. In the meantime, some of those who believe they are in danger may become desperately enough to seek out the Pleroma directly, imploring them for aid. Unfortunately, seeking out one sect may just as easily draw the attention of the other. Most uninvolved Venerans will be too terrified to intervene one way or another, reluctant to aid in the persecution of their neighbors but fearful of consequences. If your Aion travels openly, it will take some effort to pin them down long enough to hold a conversation.

SEEDS OF DESPAIR

Several days into the culling of Venera, the Aions will have witnessed the city gradually withdraw into itself. The streets become vacant as more and more people decide it isn't worth the risk to be seen outside, abandoning work and play alike to hide out in their homes, refusing to answer their doors to all except the most desperate pleading. Those that can't avoid their daily obligations are quiet and morose, trying their best to remain unseen and unremarked upon.

If your character has been observed as a Kenoma, either now or in their previous visits to the city, the citizens will look upon them as if they are the messengers of death. If you are seen as a Pleroma, they will resist your gaze, as if fearing your presence alone might leave them marked. In rarer cases, you will see those with stronger spirits, with glares of hatred or determination. They are powerless now, but seeds have been sewn, and whether they are the seeds of despair or of action are yet unclear.

By the time the Kenoma's hit list has been fully addressed, several have been killed and several more have been rushed from their homes to flee the city entirely. There have been holes left in the tapestry of the community they were once part of. One way or another, their absence will be felt keenly by those they left behind.

QUESTIONS

What is the best way for Aions to travel to Venera?
Estinien has plans to get an early start for the Pleroma by teleporting to the Lover's shrine and flying somewhere closer to set up a portal from the ocean caves near the Godsblood Lodestone to a spot of farmland closer to Venera. Paul will be setting up a portal directly from Achamoth to one of the Achamite outposts in Venera.

How much force can the Kenoma use while interrogating Venerans?
While they are generally not permitted to kill Venerans who haven't tried to physically fight them, they will be permitted to apply both physical and mental pressure upon those that refuse to provide them with information regarding the whereabouts of their targets. This duress should be proportional to the resistance the Veneran is offering. The Regent is not inviting them to terrorize Venera on a level to a level they cannot reasonably blaim themselves for.

Comments

[vivificantem]

[Paul takes that in quietly, just considering it for a moment. Trying to find a way to explain faith to someone who doesn't explicitly have any.]

There's no guarantee that we'll reach any of our goals. We can make them all we want, and then we can get murdered tomorrow and none of that will come to fruition.

I think it's just a matter of the goals we're setting being less concrete. Things we have less of a concept of, because we've never personally experienced them. We can set a goal to do a specific thing during the day, because we know that specific thing can be done. Whereas a long-term goal that's less concrete seems impossible, but there's no more guarantee that it is than there is a guarantee that it isn't.

I think that just leaves the element of fear, when it comes to less concrete goals. Do you agree with that, or...?

[lockedon]

[ He has a point. ]

I suppose you're right.

[ At least about the being murdered tomorrow bit. The rest of it....is still a little harder to swallow. ]

There's no easy way to get rid of fear though.

[ If there were, he would have made a lot of difference choices, all those years ago. ]

[vivificantem]

There isn't, unfortunately. It's something I've had to come to terms with, over... Well, a long span of time, let's put it that way.

[His voice remains calm overall, though there's a slight shift beneath his words, a tense undercurrent giving the impression that all of this is segueing into something that's a bit harder for him to talk about.]

I really feared death for a long time, actually. Almost all of my life. I had full-on crises over it a few times. It's not something I'm proud of, but it's something that happened.

I feel like the Kenoma has helped me move past that fear, but I also understand that's a pretty specific circumstance.

[lockedon]

[ It might be subtle but Eustace glances over all the same, his brow furrowing. A little bit of hesitance enters his voice when he speaks again, an unwillingness to overstap any invisible boundaries that may have already been set up. ]

Is it something you're willing to talk about?

[ He understands if not, and he won't blame Paul in the slightest for choosing to skip over his own personal experiences. ]

[vivificantem]

Oh... Yeah, of course. It seems kind of rude to bring it up if I'm not willing to talk, you know?

[He shrugs a bit; he supposes he can understand why someone might not want to, but all of that feels so distant now.]

Death has always been this nebulous...thing, without much purpose or meaning behind it. It just takes you whenever your time is up, and you have no say in that and no way to make it matter, if that makes sense. The God I believed in where I came from was also said to be aware of our suffering - every injury we suffered, all harm that befell us, every single death that came for His creations... It must have weighed so heavily on Him. Just a constant, unending barrage. A deluge of death and pain. All of it coming to beings that He loves without exception.

It's... It just sounds unbearable.

[Paul usually doesn't have a lot of feelings about things; if he does, he tends to bite them back, to keep them in his head where they belong. This is a clear exception, one of the things that gets a proper emotional flow going beneath his words that hints at the person he used to be, well before he became the person he is now. Before the Angel, before the deaths. Before his own experiences with either.

He doesn't know how he feels about that person he used to be. Not anymore.]

The Kenoma brings peace to those it touches. It's a knowledge that the world isn't good enough, and it's acknowledgement that you've suffered, and any acts you manage toward it is giving a meaning to everything that goes before you. The idea of putting an end to that unbearable degree of constant suffering is... I don't know. It resonates pretty well with me.

[lockedon]

[ He feels—a little stab of jealousy, just a little, at how calm and genuine the other man feels about what he's saying, as though he truly, deeply, believes in his words. Eustace can't remember the last time he felt such conviction for anything.

And that conviction goes some way in soothing his rattled nerves. Not all the way, but it gives him something to think about and something for his scattered mind to focus on. Giving it meaning, huh?

Unfortunately he's never been the best at eloquence, either on the spot or practiced, and he needs a little more time to mull over his own thoughts. What he is sure of, though, is one thing. ]

Thanks. For explaining what you believe in. And for not trying to force it on anyone.

[vivificantem]

[That is, in the end, what he's here for. To be steadfast when others can't be, so that maybe they can eventually find their own means. To not fall apart, and to remain firm regardless of what's being leveled at him, and to remain resolute.

If he can't do that much, he has nothing, he's fairly sure.]

It's not my place to tell others what they should or shouldn't believe. I can help people figure it out, but in the end everything is one's own decision. It doesn't feel right to do otherwise.