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 Shops are open, and its people are withdrawn but superficially friendly when meeting strangers.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

[tohell]

[ They say revenge is best served cold. Contrary to popular belief, it isn't well suited to be acted upon with fire in the veins and in a heated moment of virulent fury. No, the greatest retribution is the steady culmination of painstaking work, leading to empires crumbling and heads sent rolling. Things which require a sharp and cunning mind, not a berserker on a rampage.

This may not be the fruit of months or years of planning, but it does come with forethought. A scheme comprised of how best to strike at the heart of this woman's most potent regrets. Because he knows, with a keen, knife-sharp severity, the heart can suffer for millennia, long after every flesh wound has become forgotten. Something no mortal could comprehend when they've never been forced to live with loss for half so long as he. How the soul can ache for a love that never was; torturing itself, imagining what it might have been, with kisses that never were, upon a mouth that hadn't been touched.

It's a pain they share. A wound freshly scabbed over that J intends to reopen. Exposing the festering pus of infection that has taken root to sour her heart, contaminating every new chance at joy with the poison of her bitter memories before it can thrive.

Her bow is a lethal weapon, with arrows too close at hand to dismiss a second use in the span of time it takes for him to reach her. So J is cautious to maintain conversation, keeping her preoccupied as he moves at a slow pace of steady hooves to round away from her blindside, converging towards her front. A dangerous position, but one that stirs less instinctual paranoia than the rest.

A pantomime of shock puts that on hold, stilling him with a twist of potent surprise working through stolen features, as she professes her desperate manhunt. ]

You went that far? Traveled across this whole world, just to find me?

[ A wide hand rises to drag itself down the face he now wears, strong-jawed and weathered by a life full of strife, pitted against the men that had seemed so intent on bringing death upon his head. At first, it seems to be an expression of defeat, seeping into the rest of a body language that rounds shoulders gone tense then slowly turned slack as frustration bleeds into the futility of a guilt that has deep roots. Apologetic to suit the words that fall just short of a whisper; too gruff in their masculine depths to appropriately stay hushed. But there's sincerity in how tired the half-hidden look is, when deep-set eyes seek Hayame out. Focused upon her face, from where they reside above the hand cupped over a mouth he grips in regret, remorse, in so much restrained feeling it has to be dammed up and braced behind the force of his own palm. ]

I'm sorry.

[ J can't supply a fabricated history for an illusion's whereabouts or an explanation that doesn't clash wildly with the fact every Aion, both Kenoma and Pleroma, had been summoned to the Regent's presence before this mission had begun. Just as she's said, Matsukaze had not been among those ranks, nor anywhere else in this land for that matter. It's a damning bit of evidence to disprove the portrayal J is working so hard at, just to reap the rewards of her anguish and sorrow. So he dodges any answer, and says nothing to explain the reason for how one of her own has made an appearance out of the blue.

Words have always been J's greatest skill. Twisting them to his benefit, turning everything upon its head. He does that now by taking what Hayame admits to beyond what's been said, and uses them to side-track her from the obvious truth that's so close it could jump up and bite her. Hayame's longing becomes a weapon trained against her, aimed at her weakest point. In this way he tells a woman in love, hopeful and desperate, the cruelest of lies. And J gives her exactly what she wants to hear. ]

Still- [ His hand slides away with a shaky exhale, speaking volumes without the need for any verbose litany of words. ] It makes me happy, knowing you wanted to see me, too.

[warmare]

[She can't believe it. She can't let herself think that this is the man who had plied her with his cooking each day in attempts to soften her heart to him and the members of the village full of orphans. She can't allow herself to hope that this is the man who had happily tosses his son into the air and played with those children who looked to him in the absence of any living fathers to be had, and he had been so fair, so firm, and yet so kind. She can't even begin to trust that-

That this was the man she had thought... perhaps if things were different, perhaps if they had time, perhaps if they lived in that better world he spoke of, where she could just be happy to be alive... Perhaps then, he might have smiled at her, and when he reached out his hand... perhaps she could have taken it, and let him encircle her in those arms.

The Matsukaze in front of her comes closer. He moves like Matsukaze moved, he did that- that thing, those things Matsukaze did, how his large, strong hands rubbed into the back of his neck when he was thinking, how he covered his mouth when he was shaken...the movements distract her from the fact that his hooves don't make the right sound on the cobblestone streets, that there's something just a tiny bit off about his voice-

He's sorry. He's happy. He's-]

Say something... Tell me something that only Matsukaze would know, if you really are him...

[She is ashamed of how her voice shakes in the middle of her words. She is sure... No, she is not sure. What would Matsukaze say, in this world? She had imagined it so many times in her darkest hours. What would Matsukaze do? What would Matsukaze tell her? It never seemed right when she tried to do it by herself, it never eased the pain in her hearts or the loneliness that had been growing and growing unchecked every gods damned day-

Was it Matsukaze, if he did not mention the son he had once begged her for the time to save? If anyone could have somehow slipped the gaze of the Kenoma and the Pleroma both and been able to live off the land it would have been him, but would Matsukaze have been able to avoid that Regent's shadow court? Could it be Matsukaze, if she almost stepped back away from him... and yet didn't?

She doesn't know.

And she can't-

She can't shoot until she knows.]