epidemiology | EVENT ▸ EMPIRE OF THE CRASHING WAVE

EVENT ▸ EMPIRE OF THE CRASHING WAVE

EMPIRE OF THE
CRASHING WAVE

The royalty of Guild Ophelia has managed to hold an audience with Empress Nama of the Celestial Mountains, urging her to meet with the Empress of the Crashing Wave in the interest of finding an accord between their clans. In return, Nama requests that Ophelia take two letters to the Crashing Wave's court, where, as foreigners, they should be received better than any of her own people.

The Empire of the Crashing Wave is a week's travel by foot from the Land of Celestial Mountains, through the forests and farms of the Flowerlands. There is no visible indication that this universe was once two, with even the road leading through the Flowerlands heading seamlessly toward the sea.

The farms and villages in the outskirts of the Empire of the Crashing Wave are decorated in seashells and motifs of the sea, and the closer one gets to the city, the stronger the scent of the ocean becomes. Once the city proper is reached, Ophelia's magitek projects words in front of their eyes that only they can see:

Location reached:

» EMPIRE OF THE CRASHING WAVE
A progressive society that values innovation. Main sources of income: fishing, pearl diving, jewelry crafting, shipbuilding. Politically matriarchal; socially egalitarian. Empress YOUMI resides at the PEACEFUL TIDE.

No events scheduled. You may wish to survey the surrounding area.

The city is built right on the ocean's edge, with some parts of it even jutting out into the sea on bridges and piers. The castle, Peaceful Tide, is built high above the rest; guards will stop anyone at the gates and, if shown the correspondence from Empress Nama, will deliver the letters directly to Empress Youmi. Attempts to seek an audience with Youmi will be rebuffed for the time being, so you may as well take in the sights...

▸ A PROMISING DEVELOPMENT

Unlike the Land of Celestial Mountains, men may move freely here, the matriarchal rules of the land only extending to politics. Men and women work alongside each other in all sections of the city, nobles and commoners alike, and even the guards have men among their ranks. In the Artisan District, potters, musicians, and artists line the streets and sell their wares, work, or discuss their craft with each other.

Closer to the Beach, there is a boardwalk where young couples stroll alongside grandparents chasing after their grandchildren, electric lamps bathing the wooden planks in a warm glow at night. Fishermen haul in their daily catch in buckets and nets, trailed by a gaggle of hopeful cats. Beachcombers and pearl divers populate the beach as well, making it a clear place for work instead of play.

A few days after Ophelia's arrival in sea clan territory, a bell rings loudly in the late afternoon, drawing citizens toward the castle. Guards stop anyone from getting too close, though the populace seems to know what to expect -- soon, a beautiful woman in an elaborate blue kimono appears in an upper balcony.

When viewing the woman, Ophelia's magitek will tell them:

» EMPRESS YOUMI
Leader of the EMPIRE OF THE CRASHING WAVE.
30 years old. SPECIES: Human. MEDICAL CONCERNS: Lactose intolerant.

The crowd cheers at Youmi's arrival, only quieting once she raises her hand. She speaks clearly and confidently, her voice carrying easily across the assembly.

"I have received a letter from Her Imperial Majesty Nama of the Land of Celestial Mountains. She informs me that their spring festival was interrupted by an attack from our own people, working without my knowledge or consent," Youmi begins, holding her hand up again when a displeased rumble begins to ripple through the crowd. It's unclear if they're perturbed by the ambush or by Nama herself. Once all is silent again, she continues.

"She has detained the criminals, for that is what they are, and assures me she will not bring this to the battlefield. I will send her an agreement to the terms, but hear this: any who escalate this further will be slain by my order. I have spoken. The spirits of the sea watch over us all."

Youmi then retreats back into the castle. While some citizens cheer their empress's decree, others mutter unhappily amongst themselves as they disperse and go about their business.

▸ BUT TROUBLE CONTINUES

The rest of the day following Youmi's decree goes by without incident, leaving time for Ophelia to stop by the sake breweries near the sea or travel back through the forests of the Flowerlands for hunting, hot springs, or simply enjoying the nature of Hanabira. With war averted and the empresses in communication, it seems as though Ophelia's time in this universe will draw to a close soon.

As the sun sinks down, finding a place to sleep might be a good idea. There are hotels in the city, but for those who are trying to be a little more frugal, the Flowerlands is a good place to set up camp for free. Doro, the Lord of the Flowerlands, has heard of Ophelia's efforts in starting communication between the empresses as well, and offers rooms in his castle in thanks; if war were to start between the two, his land would suffer for it.

During the night, those who accept Doro's invitation will hear a commotion very nearby, steel clashing against steel. Doro and his daughters rush out, weapons drawn, and straight into a skirmish between sea and mountain clan ronin. The warriors are fighting to kill, and in their fervor, someone's fire arrow alights a farmhouse on Doro's property. The farmers need to be rescued and the fire put out, and while the warriors will likely kill each other, they could also be subdued to prevent further damage. Please let the mods know with a link to the thread if your character is killing or capturing any of the ronin.

After the skirmish, Doro must be brought back inside his castle, having been wounded during the battle. He pleads with Ophelia to continue to help, as it looks like a tentative truce by the empresses is not enough to calm the citizens. Since they were so successful in receiving an audience with Nama, he believes they can propose a way the two empires can live in harmony.

Throughout the next two weeks, skirmishes between the clans are peppered throughout the Flowerlands, some leaving bodies behind and some leaving damage to farms and forest. It looks like Ophelia's peacekeeping mission just became a lot more hands-on: keep the skirmishes from getting out of control while still working toward a way to end the conflict once and for all.

▸ OOC NOTES

This log will last for two IC weeks: the first three days will be free exploration, and day four is Youmi's proclamation and the skirmish in the Flowerlands. Your characters are free to explore for the next ten days, during which further skirmishes will occur. If you have questions about this log or the overall mission, please ask them on the dossier. Questions about Futurology in general should be directed to the FAQ.

▸ Coming next log: Peace proposals! Get your brainstorming started now.

▸ Activity Check is due on 5 February 23:59 UTC. We do not accept late submissions, so make sure you fill it out!

▸ Uniform Design Contest is open! Submissions are due 28 February 23:59 UTC. Gamewide voting will be in March.

▸ Bounty Board ▸ Items Page ▸ Exploration Group Planning ▸ General Plotting ▸ February Calendar

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's ... camouflage, I guess. I've only had the chance to practice around the HQ. [Not on missions, not yet. Their past two instances didn't leave a lot of room for that. That said—] So it might not work as well, but if the gates open, I can probably get through.

[He looks off in the distance, and then frowns.]

They will open, right?

They'll have to bring supplies in eventually.

[ she shrugs her shoulders. ]

I could try to convince them open them up and give you an opening to sneak past. [ 'convince' here meaning ... well, Keith probably knows. ] But ... getting you back out would be harder, and you wouldn't be able to stop camouflaging without them noticing something strange going on. It could be days or weeks before they move anything in or out.

I can't hold it forever, not without passing out. I'd have to find a place to hide.

["Hiding" in some way is the biggest inconvenience possible in all of this. Keith doesn't know where he'd hide. He doesn't even know what's inside.]

I don't get it. Why are they keeping us out?

Maybe they're afraid the Mountain Clan will do to them what those Sea Clan women did to the Mountain Clan.

[ js. the mountain clan is more militaristic — they can stand to have open borders. if the sea clan is more peaceful like the dossier suggests, then they probably wouldn't have the resources to react if someone tried to start something. it'd hurt them worse. better to just avoid it entirely. ]

We're not even from the Mountain Clan! [And do they even know what happened? Keith doubts they have E-Mail. Then again, that's an argument that doesn't slip out as he begins to raise his voice.] We're just ... we're just tourists!

[A beat.]

Ugh, we're just tourists.

[That's the worst.]

[Its been roughly a week since he'd last spoken to Rey -- it was somewhat cathartic, to be able to sit and think on what they had learned. It didn't take a radar technician to know that they were missing pieces to the puzzle, and those pieces would be found in the Empire of the Crashing Wave.

As a man used to hyperspace travel rather than travel on foot, he hadn't imagined the journey would last quite this long. On the final day, he finds himself staring out the window at nothing, a progressive irritation creeping up the back of his neck. She was supposed to have contacted him with information once she had gotten inside, or had found something of note. Had she failed? Was she with-holding something, in a moment of regret? Perhaps he could contact her through the magitek -- but then she would grow irritated with him, and claim some nonsense about him being worried for her.

Somewhere in the middle of all those thoughts, he'd turned away from the light of the window to close his eyes and breathe outward. That's when he feels the familiar pressure on the front of his forehead, begging him to open them again --

And there she stands. Perhaps there was something to their theory after all.]

Where are you?

[Its a frustrated demand for information. He does not take the time to understand what she is doing, only vaguely aware that he's interrupted something.]

Edited 2018-02-04 21:20 (UTC)

I know that it's frustrating, but … [ rey's answer trails off. her attention is on keith, soft and understanding and empathetic, and then —

it's that sound. or rather the lack of it. the birds sound more distant. the ocean, further away. and … the rustle of leaves closer. her face falls, and her focus seems to shift.

she turns her head and sees him there.

shit.

now? she'd told him they should try initiating the bond, but she hadn't figured the result would be an impromptu intrusion on — well, anything. she should have. she presses her lips together. ]

This isn't a good time. [ she mutters it under her breath, her gaze quickly averting from where ben stands. or … doesn't stand. shit, again. ]

[Keith isn't perceptive enough to totally understand what's happening. What he does figure out is that Rey says something that's not meant to be heard, and it's weird. It's the definition of weird. She hadn't even finished her thought. She had a finished thought there, right?

His eyebrows pinch together.]

What?

[Because what the heck else is he gonna say?]

[He hears her loud and clear, unlike Keith, and pauses to squint and attempt to assess the situation. She's with someone -- he can't see who, but it is someone familiar, and not one of the Sea Clan. Someone she'd traveled with?

So he brushes past her discomfort.]

There is never a good time.

[Blunt, but #wheresthelie. The irritation is still plain on his face, but better safe than sorry.]

Are there Hanabirans with you? Just nod, or shake your head.

[ oh. duh. keith.

what was she saying? she searches his expression for some kind of hint but all she finds there is confusion, and it doesn't help that ben won't stop talking at her. she could honestly choke him right now.

she grits her teeth, a tension flickering through her jaw, but she pulls her lips into a strained smile and

shakes her head. ]

Sorry. [ there's a distinct lag before she explains. ] I thought I heard something.

[It takes about two point five seconds for Keith to pull his knife out. The purple symbol glows against his hand as he glances around.]

What did you hear? I wouldn't be surprised if we finally ran into trouble.

[He sounds like he's both eager and a little irritated.]

[Kylo Ren squints in confusion, until he remembers that she is probably not talking to him. There is yet another flicker of irritation, but this time, he stays quiet. There is a pressure that sits on their link as he attempts full focus on Rey’s end of the bond, to see if he can make sense of the situation without being able to see it, and without distracting her too much.

It is in his interests for there not to be too many questions, after all.]

Edited 2018-02-05 05:40 (UTC)

[ buried under some muted sense of panic is the warmth of familiarity; whoever it is, she knows them well. cares about them. his probing shouldn't bother her, but — she can feel him there, almost more real than keith is, and always a dark spot in the corner of her vision. her eyes keep tracking to it.

but she spots the knife and alarm drops her stomach. ]

What? [ oh my god keith you can't just pull out knives — oh. right. again, not able to see ben. she presses a hand to her forehead, cringes. then, ] Oh. [ her reaction was too intense for regular conversation in part because sensory overload makes it feel like there's a lot going on!! she deflates now, quiet.

some part of her mind is like goddammit i told ben i'd have something and update him and he's here and i don't have anything and he's obviously waiting around for that. is he expecting her to get rid of keith? well too bad he can't just show up and expect her to drop whatever she's doing and—

there's a lot of 'what do i do with this' going on.

anyway, keith asked her a question. ]

In the bushes there. [ she points straight through ben, and in doing so gives him a somewhat hard look of reALLY you're experimenting with how much awareness you have NOW? ] Rustling. It was probably just an animal. Put that away. [ and please just let her excuse lie unremarked upon oh my god. ] Let's just stay focused on how we're getting past the gate.

[Speaking of someone suddenly being a touch more aware, Keith looks like he's slowly losing his patience with Rey at the moment. Her "what" at his knife as if she's never seen him pull a knife before is strange, and nothing that comes after really flows. At all. Sometimes he's out of his depth when it comes to social situations.

But this is Rey.

Rey is acting like ... like she's ... well, his awareness doesn't go far enough for him to have a theory.]

What's the problem? And why don't you actually tell me?

[Her alarm is obvious, but the connection stil isn’t strong enough to really determine who is on the other side of it, especially not through all of Rey’s panic. He has already initiated contact — maybe the smartest thing to do is to try and break it off.

But — no. They were supposed to be figuring this out. Even if it was clear he wasn’t getting anywhere.]

Remove yourself, if you must.

[He might have picked up what was going on in a normal conversation, but its obvious that someone has picked up on her odd behavior.]

[ wow that really drives the guilt home. for the first time since this weird connection began, rey's attention is fully on keith. her expression softens, goes slack. she's been pushing him away, just like she was pushing finn and poe away and—

well, poe wasn't necessarily a loss in the same way. but finn and keith could be.

but then there's the literal dark side growling in her ear, telling her to just abandon the situation. she clenches her hand into a fist at her side. ]

I don't know how.

[ her voice is surprisingly low. she's not sure which of them she's talking to. is removing herself from both conversations an option? she doesn't want to have to confront this all at once, not when she's torn right down the middle.

only a moment later does she realize that she has started taking a series of steps back in the only direction that's away from both of them. it's like three steps but she has bodily decided she doesn't want this life. ]

[Is there a clue here that he's supposed to be getting? The moment she takes a few steps away from him, he feels a little lost. Well, he was already lost, so maybe "a little" should be "very." It's not like he wanted them to get into this mess, but this is the mess they're in right now. And it's—up until a few minutes ago, they were both aware that they made this decision, right?

Right?

As it is, Keith is all too familiar with the need to abandon the conversation. He could keep press, but he's tried, and she just walked away. So, he does the same, turning abruptly to head in the direction of the woods where she thought she heard a sound. At least he can keep himself occupied.

It's the weirdest way she's ever put up a wall with him, but everything has been weird about Rey since she got back. He might as well get used to it.]

[Rey steps away, and he moves to follow, until he suddenly becomes very away of this sense that he — shouldn’t, in spite of the fact that he wanted to. He encouraged her to do this, even, with the idea that they would continue this conversation elsewhere.

But after a step, he is rooted in place, both metaphysically and physically. His eyes widen and then narrow when he realizes it.]

Rey—stop.

[Its a demand, that comes out in a frustrated panic.]

Edited 2018-02-06 01:37 (UTC)

Keith? Keith, wait!

[ she says his name, finally, but it's with an edge of dread. gods, not again. not like poe. she hadn't even done anything this time, and—

she can hear ben, almost distant, calling out for her.

it's not even conscious, the way she opens herself up to it. this has become habit, letting him flood into the vulnerable cracks that run through her. she turns her gaze fully on ben. the tears in her eyes are fought back, reserved to a watery and somehow still hard expression.

this is no fault of his bad timing. she has been putting this wedge between herself and keith since before she got back. only after a moment of studying him does she realize — something's wrong. something … that means she shouldn't just bolt after keith. ]

What's happening?

[She opens up, and he feels the lock of his limbs loosen. There is an exhale of relief that chases the sense of irritation as he moves to follow her. He needs to open the door of the inn to close the metaphysical distance between them, which he does, leaving him standing in the middle of a crowded street talking to himself.]

Did you forget our agreement? Or did you hope I might instead?

[Nevermind the information, but the promise she had made when they had found one another in Headquarters.]

It has been a week. What is happening over there?

[ oh my god count on kylo fucking ren to make this about himself. she starts to take a step towards him, hand balling into a fist at her side, and she stops herself short, drawing up as he advances on her instead. she lifts her chin, stubborn and angry that he would act like such a demanding, entitled dick when she's in obvious pain.

but like he couldn't just be her diary forever, i guess. ]

Nothing! Nothing is happening. If something had, I would have told you, as I promised I would.

[ she raises her voice. coolcoolcool. shouting in the forest. ]

Why don't you trust me?!

[ what she means: why can't LITERALLY ANYONE JUST TRUST ME. now it's kylo ren's fault. everything is kylo ren's fault because he's the one who is

still

here. ]

I was the one who suggested we do this in the first place. I was the one. Why would I turn my back and try to evade you now?

[Trust? What...is...tr...u..st...?]

The same reason you don’t trust me.

[They tried to kill each other. Duh? He doesn’t even stop to think that she might actually trust him, because trust is fake and an illusion. This whole adventure they were on with the Force bond was a necessity. She trusted the Force, not him, same as he did — surely. He isn’t even offended by the way she balls her fist, though he can sense what she wants to do with it.

He doesn’t answer her second question because there are more pressing matters. Impatiently:]

There is a war stirring here. Its only gotten worse since you left, among the people. If it continues, what you find may not matter.

[ she shakes her head, almost saddened by what he says, but — perhaps because, deep down, he knows better — he moves on in haste before she can properly address it.

has it been hard to trust him? admittedly. but that is fear talking, and she won't let fear control her decisions. for this reason, again and again, she chooses to anyway.

it's amazing that he's blind to it. amazingly stupid.

so she throws her hands out to the side, more tired than she is angry at this point, still frayed from being torn in a million different directions. god, she's just exhausted by her own emotions. being alone was in so many ways easier than this.

she wouldn't trade it, but … ]

Staving off this war has cost me one friend already.

[ rey won't sacrifice another at that altar. not keith. never keith. you need a better schtick, ben. more to the point, she didn't suggest they do this only for the tactical reasons that had inevitably sold him. it was something more personal, more … base. and he's just as blind to that. ]

[He squints at her response, because he doesn't understand what that has to do with anything. There is a stretch of silence where he seems to be contemplating her reply.

But no. He still doesn't get it. Its not a malicious reply, because he makes a point to meet his eyes with that same confused expression when he says it.]

Friends aren't going to get you your incentive. Finishing this is.

I'm not here because of some incentive.

[ god, would he ever be able to understand that? she had to believe that he could, if he was ever going to come back. and she does have hope for that. she does. ]

You already gave me that. [ and tbh it was disappointing and unfulfilling like most things kylo ren gives people yoooooooo. no but she's actually quite despondent when she mentions her parents. err, indirectly. but she works through it. she shakes her head. ] I thought finding them would give me something that I needed. Something that I've been missing, but … It didn't.

They never had anything to offer me. But Hathaway does.

[ as long as he stays, finn is safe from snoke. and in the interim, she can turn kylo ren's heart back to the light. and … and keith. and urahara. these people that she cares so much about, that she can't let go of. it hurts her to admit it because she feels like a coward, somehow. but that's not her war. thrawn is right. it's never been her war. she just stumbled upon it one day and threw in with the side that had the most to offer her.

and … she will go back. one day. she knows that. because finn and poe will go back, and they'll need her, and they'll need ben, and maybe by that time keith will be ready to leave too, and —

but now? right now? she's here because she wants to be. not for any stupid incentive. the belonging she's been looking for, she's found. if she can just hold it together — if anything, it's been the effort of denying that fact which has been causing her the most grief. trying to chase the end goal, the over-the-rainbow destination of their own galaxy. ]

I already have everything I want here. But if I don't follow him now, I might lose it.

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ring ring ring ring ring ring ring BONDNANA PHONE

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