MEETING MINGLING
As characters arrive, the forest clearing is still dark, barely lit despite the evening hours. It makes it all the more difficult to clearly make out the men and women shuffling about in cloaks, but at the very least they don’t treat the ALASTAIR recruits suspiciously. Rather, they seem to be expecting guests already.
It becomes quickly apparent that these are no ordinary people. There's something off about them, something a little... magical. Hidden by their hair is their pointed ears, one of the only things that suggests they have goblin ancestry.
Needless to say, there are no refreshments, but recruits are encouraged to find each other and try to put the pieces together. There may be clues in their surroundings, tomes and trinkets left about various tree trunks in lieu of proper seating, and the Order members around them.
INITIATION
Eventually, a silence falls over the crowd as two figures take to the center of the gathering. There’s an obvious familial resemblance between the pair of men, though one hangs a step behind. Chances are, you've seen him before, lurking quietly in the background. This time, he does the same.
The more outspoken of the pair steps forward, spreading his arms out to greet the assembly proudly.
”Welcome, old and new friends. My name is Michel. No doubt some of you are wondering what you are here for — don't worry, all will become clear. We are the Order of the Chimera, and today, you are the lucky few who will join our ranks and fight for justice.”
The crowd cheers.
”We are special. Gifted. We have goblin blood running through our veins that makes us strong, and that terrifies the humans, so we must live in secrecy. The goblins have hatred for the human side of us, so we must hide from them, too. We're half-breeds. Chimeras: beings made up of parts from different races, something that should not exist.
But the Chimera is also powerful. Before, all we could do was take the sun away, but now I've discovered something greater. A spell that will change everything. Magic that will strike anyone who does not stand with us down. We wi—”
SHUTOUT
Naturally, nothing’s that easy! Before he can finish, the speaker gets cut off mid-syllable by a bang and rise of surprised shouts along the back of the assembly. Despite the scrambling, those who were involved in the town square debacle might recognize what’s happening.
The law enforcement must’ve gotten tipped off, because they’re here to crash the party -- and all invited PCs get to be part of the collateral damage. Between the physical skirmishes and Order members retaliating with spells sizzling through the air, it should be possible to use the resulting noise to make a break for it and lie low until the heat’s died down. The hard part is making sure everyone makes it out to begin with, because you can bet that the punishment won’t be a slap on the wrist and a night in the slammer.
[ooc notes: there will be a subthread for NPC interactions, though was stated in the event post we recommend grouping up -- the more minds, the better! There's no set tag order, so characters may come and go as they wish. ] |
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epidemiology2015-11-21 01:41 pm
no subject
Officially. Someone else in my unit found him but I was the only one able [and qualified enough] to keep him.
[Briefly, she crouches down to give him a scratch behind the ears. One of the rare moments she's affectionate towards anyone in public. Her smile's gone by the time she stands back up, thoughts touching upon another question from a few weeks prior.]
I didn't arrive with him but for some reason, ALASTAIR saw fit to bring him here. They said he was a gift.
[Casually transporting dogs through time and space since 2015.]
no subject
He nods, when she explains. It's not the first time he's heard something like that. It is the first time ALASTAIR really decided to supply them with material aid, as far as he can tell. If Hayate could sniff out trouble the way she claims, it's not impossible ALASTAIR actually tried to help out, for once.]
They brought the Captain's horse here, too.
[And it doesn't take much thought as to how that might be useful. ...then again, they'd left Eren with some weird foreign drink, so maybe their motives aren't entirely sensible.]
no subject
But first, an intermission, brought to you today by the letter S for 'Survey Corps'. Riza's met Levi and Eren, as well as the now-absent Mikasa but past the fact that they all seem to be in one unit together, she's really not sure of their connection.]
Captain Levi, correct? Is he your commanding officer?
[They're both military of a sorts, she feels comfortable enough using the terminology.]
no subject
Yeah. [Though there's a slightly chagrined look to him when he answers her. His commanding officer—who he'd just given the slip in the middle of the night to sneak off to some shady-ass meeting. (Or so he'd intended.) It's not that he'd meant to keep Levi out of the loop, but he'd had to weigh the value of the information they might gain against the risk of screwing it up by disregarding their terms. Nothing in Chantes so far has struck him as more than he could handle, so he'd gone with his gut and taken the chance. They can only hope he won't regret it.]
Captain Levi heads up Special Ops in the Corps. He's the strongest soldier humanity's got.
[He says it with an earnest kind of frankness that seems to suggest this is a generally accepted Fact. (Or maybe he's just that big a fanboy. Or both, he's still embarrassingly in awe of him, sometimes, even after months. Not everyone gets to serve directly under their heroes, even if the circumstances are...unique.)]
no subject
You sound very certain of that.
['Strongest soldier in the unit' she would've believed or even 'strongest soldier in the army', but all of humanity's pushing things a bit far. But then again, Eren had told her a little of his world, governed heavily by walls and titans and the threat of extinction. So much different from hers, likely making any comparisons drawn far different as well.
Her eyes glance upward for a moment in thought before settling back down.]
Is it because he's the best at fighting titans?
no subject
Yeah. [More specifically, he's the best at killing them, and not getting killed in the process, which is a feat unto itself. But that probably goes without saying. It's why Eren had been put under his watch in the first place—and Eren's come to know him a little bit better since Levi became his erstwhile keeper, he's managed to start to expand his reasons to respect him. But the crux of it is yes, because he's the best at killing titans. Like a proper embarrassing overeager fanboy, he can't leave it at that.] He's the best with the maneuver gear, and he's got more kills on record than anyone else. People say he's worth an entire brigade on his own.
[And humanity really needs every bit of that. He sobers, jaw locking up and fingers going still against Hayate's head, earning an unimpressed whine.]
It's not that much of a surprise that ALASTAIR would have wanted to recruit him.
[Despite their "employer" making some pretty weird decisions in general, if they were going to pick anyone up from his world, Levi would probably be the obvious choice. No matter how much humanity needed him, apparently.]
no subject
Her faith in the other recruits, however...
ALASTAIR's choice in recruits has thus far remained an unsolved mystery to Riza. There are those that are obvious candidates, strong and skilled in both the diplomatic and military arts. Then there are those that seem entirely illsuited, from painfully young children to those lacking all the skills necessary to successfully carry out missions such as these.
She's not surprised at her own recruitment, nor at Eren's, though she wonders if he sees himself the same way. Nothing seems to be happening at the moment, so she lets her attention rest on Eren for the time being.]
What about yourself? Do you think they made the right choice in recruiting you?
no subject
I don't think it's right. [No matter what a smart decision it may or may not have been from ALASTAIR's perspective, none of it is right.] None of us had a choice in coming here in the first place, no matter what responsibilities we had back in our homes. Humanity's counting on us. I can't just forget that.
[A lot of people had died to be sure he'd have a chance to turn the tides with what power he has, who were counting on him as the crux of humanity's new counterattack. It ought to sound egotistical, to talk like humanity needed him in particular that badly—and maybe it is. But he'd resolved in Trost to do what he could to be hope for humanity. That hasn't changed. And yet here he is. Same goes for Levi, really. They're both pretty hard to replace, if for different reasons. They're both stuck here, and as far as he knows humanity could be attacked in his absence and he'll be powerless to do anything about it.]
I'm not going to abandon them. I'll do whatever it takes to get back.
[So ALASTIAR can count on that, if nothing else. He'll do whatever it takes—whether it's completing this mission or tearing ALASTAIR itself down with his teeth.]
no subject
Even so—]
Whatever it takes is quite the commitment.
[No judgment, no disapproval, not when she's in the same position as him. Neither of them have any way of knowing what ALASTAIR intends for them to do, nor how long any of it will take. 'Restoring peace,' nebulous though the actual process may be, seems easy enough to ensure without having to stray off the path she's set for herself. There's no guarantee that'll last, and bad as Chantes has been thus far, part of her dreads finding out what might lie behind it. If there's another senseless slaughter, another abuse of power, another Ishval.
How far is she, or any of them, willing to go, to be able to fulfill the promises they've made?]
no subject
And how far is he willing to go? When push comes to shove and it's his principles against his people, what will he do? The short answer (the idealist answer, the one that would drive Jean up the wall if he heard it) is that he doesn't intend on letting that happen.
He'd long stopped petting Hayate, and the dog butts his head up against Eren's fingers to remind him that he's there. He gives the dog one last scratch and then pushes himself up to stand again.]
The only way you can change things at all is to fight for it. There's no point if you just give up when things get hard.
no subject
It's about as much of an answer as she expects from him, and she opens her mouth to say as much. Right as she does, the crowd around them suddenly hushes at the approach of two men, faces only vaguely familiar in the dimlit forest. Barely audible, Riza utters a command for Hayate to return, and throws Eren a quick look. The main attraction of this entire evening, no doubt. Time to tune in fully and take careful note of everything spoken so that they might be able to unravel the mystery of the events in Chantes.
Surely there'll be plenty of time later for even more in-depth shounen.]
no subject
Considering the hell that's about to break loose, it's the last time they'll get to speak casually for a while. Brought around to attention but the mutter and hush of the crowd around them and the figure stepping into the forefront of the gathering, his attention reroutes to the apparent leader of the Order rather quickly. He catches Hawkeye's look long enough to get the message—later, then—and then starts to duck his way through the crowd to the forefront of the "stage." Might as well get front row seats. Nothing bad can come of that, right.]