epidemiology | EVENT ▸ RESCUERS DOWN UNDER

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EVENT ▸ RESCUERS DOWN UNDER

RESCUERS

Tensions are high in the Democratic City-State of Drakstaden. It's been two days since the infiltration of the Broadcasting Station, where a secret recording of the Prime Minister laying out plans to enslave the lower classes was broadcast to the entire city -- leading to a number of bystanders, Ophelia, and Rost to get arrested and thrown in prison.

Of course, no one's useful to the resistance effort behind bars, so Rost makes contact and explains that they've been spending the past two days planning a prison break -- and it's time to put it in action.

▸ VAKDIR PRISON

Rost’s most studious member, Brynja, proposes that the prison break effort be split into two groups: a distraction group and an infiltration group.

The infiltration group will need members familiar with technology who will be able to use -- and if necessary, manipulate -- the Vakdir security tech. Stealth and speed are of the essence, as being caught could blow the entire operation. It’s possible there will be run-ins with stray Vakdir who will need to be dispatched quickly and quietly, then hidden; fighters who specialize in guns, explosives, or other loud weaponry might want to join the other group.

The distraction group will have to busy the Vakdir on guard duty and, in the worst-case scenario, take them out before they can investigate or stop the break-in. Good conversationalists are required, but good fighters are necessary, too. Most importantly, creative minds who can think on their feet and get themselves out of tight spots are ideal for the distraction group.

The main Vakdir security is positioned in the lobby near the entrance and around the perimeter of the building. The minimum number of guards at any given area is two; the Vakdir do guard duty in groups. The most important thing while there are no alarms going off is to keep the guards busy and in place -- you don’t want them heading back and finding a group of infiltrators. Whatever it takes to keep them there! Each guard is a different person and has a different personality, so what works for one may not work for another. If an alarm goes off -- when an alarm goes off, since one does near the end of the operation -- it’s time to pull out all the stops. This is when it likely gets violent, unless you’re particularly persuasive. The security camera footage will be deleted and the released inmates won’t be taking any prisoners themselves, so no one will be left to remember your face; don’t worry about becoming a fugitive.

The infiltration part is a little trickier. Brynja knows the location of an alternate entrance, but it's locked. The only hope is a small, impossibly high window. Looks like you’ll have to do some teamwork! With some standing on each other’s shoulders -- and a good lookout -- someone will be able to drop in through the window (watch your landing!) and unlock the door from the inside. Unluckily, one of the first obstacles they’ll run into is a retina scanner. Luckily, a few of those retinas are nearby... some Vakdir officers have accidentally stumbled upon the team. They’re unprepared, but armed; take them out quickly, before they can alert anyone. Once they’re out, you can hold them up to the retina scanner.

The door to the holding cells is the next obstacle. It appears there’s a password, one that changes daily if the TODAY’S PASSCODE IS... is any indication. For a moment, it looks like they’re out of luck, before a prompt pops up: WOULD YOU LIKE A HINT? If pressed, it will bring up the following hint:

6
16
1611
111621
31161211
THE PASSCODE IS THE NEXT NUMBER IN THE SEQUENCE.

Eventually, someone’s bound to figure it out -- the answer is 132116111221; each number describes the number before it. In this case, one three, two ones, one six, one one, one two, and two ones. Once inside, it’s up to inventors to hack the locks or bruisers to brute force their way in. Either way, free the prisoners! Yes, all of them -- not only are most of them probably locked up for bogus charges, but the more people on your side, the better your chances are for winning not just this battle, but the war.

Once they’re all free, it’s time to lead them all back the way you came so nobody trips an alarm. Except... everyone’s a little bit worked up about being freed and running amok. And it looks like someone just tripped an alarm all on their own.

Well, no one said it would be easy!

▸ DISCUSSION

After the break-in and escape, you'll need to lie low. Go back to the hotel, hide with Rost, spread throughout the city with your newly freed friends -- whatever you like. But wherever you go, you'll notice that Vakdir presence has increased, even in the previously unguarded lowest levels. If you're wanted for crimes, you'll need to be especially careful, unless you want to constantly be running for your life.

With the sudden surge in criminal and treasonous behavior, the entire city has gone on lockdown. There is now a curfew in place: everyone must be in their homes by an hour after sunset, which, given the short daylight hours on this part of the planet, means citizens only have ten hours per day of freedom.

This curfew applies to the rebels of Rost and Ophelia, of course, though with your combined resources, you should be able to find a way to get around it and continue your work throughout the city, whatever that may be.

Still, things are bad. And despite the combined efforts of Rost and Ophelia, things keep getting worse; Rost worries that the Vakdir will increase its efforts to root them out, pulling innocent citizens into the thick of everything and bringing the lower class ever closer to the Prime Minister's planned subjugation.

Purple-haired Rost agent Froken stops by the hotel one day before curfew, surreptitiously letting Ophelia know they're ready to do whatever it takes to finish this once and for all; Rost is prepared to hear any suggestions that Ophelia may come up with, trusting them as experts in this matter (whether or not that's true for the individuals in the guild).

But first, you'll need to discuss what to do.

▸ OOC NOTES

This log takes place over one day, with the next log beginning two weeks later. Get ready to get serious!

Please note: due to a dip in activity, we have shifted some plot points, combining this log and the next. The next planned !plot log on 26 May will be the final log of this mission.

If you have questions about this log or the mission, please direct them to the dossier. Questions about the game in general can be directed to the FAQ.

▸ Up now:

Player Plot: Mayission Impossible (sign-ups closed).

▸ Coming next (Futurology runs on timezone UTC):

19 May: Resolution submissions and voting begins.
23 May: Resolution submissions and voting ends.
26 May: Final log of Mission: Drakstaden.

▸ CR/Welcome Meme ▸ Drakstaden Dossier ▸ Drakstaden Locations ▸ Drakstaden Bounty Board ▸ May Calendar

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[So perhaps Kylo is a bit apprehensive about magic mending the body is all he can surmise. D doesn't respond to the declaration, but it seems as if he's not one to judge regardless. Magic can be as tricky as science sometimes.]

If you're human, and you don't have them mended, it will take six weeks for them to heal.

[His eyes shift to the computer screen, looking over what Kylo is studying.] For me. [He'd feel bad he spoiled Kylo's fun for having an interesting plan about the whole mission. Dehydration tools, the molecular level of blood and its genetic code, though all of it is sparse considering the tight rein the government has on the Internet. They can't have their masses too smart.]

And for Adrian.

We won't be here another six weeks.

[He doesn't know that for certain but -- well, tensions were unbelievably high. It was difficult not to feel like they were approaching event horizon. Something would have to give soon, and then they would be off back to Hathaway, and he could make use of the facilities there.

That seemed more likely than him finding the courage and stuffing his pride long enough to ask for help.]

What for?

[His frown remains ever curious, eyes darting as he absorbs what little information there is to digest. It all seems rather irrelevant to the mission, after all -- sure, the lower levels lacked for consistent access to water but...]

[Kylo gets a look, but the expression of it is unreadable. Really, it just seems as if D is trying to study Kylo's face. He can continue the scolding suggestions about being healed, but why bother when a) it isn't his business, and b) Kylo will make his own decisions anyway.

D can be very stubborn, too, a lot of the time. It's a wonder Left Hand hasn't vouched for that yet.]

Sustenance, in a way. [Kylo isn't wrong. This has nothing to do with the mission. Drakstaden just happened to have similar advancements in technology as the Frontier.] We're dhampirs.

Do you know what that is?

[Kylo is used to the look D gives him, because its the look Kylo himself gives everyone else. So they end up just staring very intensely at each other for a while.

He can't actually fault D for doing research that didn't have anything to do with the mission. He was just playing a video game to try and calm his nerves, and had in turn made them worse.]

No.

[The concept existed in a different sense -- feeding on the Force in others, rather than on blood, so he cannot even draw the comparison.]

What does that mean?

[Maybe it was better if Kylo didn't know, though that's D's own personal opinion, and maybe not an opinion shared by Alucard. The other dhampir doesn't seem to mind if people know.

But D prefers being shrouded in mystery. People ask too many questions. Vampires cause too many problems.]

It is what you call someone who is half human and half vampire. [His eyes slide over to Kylo.] Do you remember if Adrian asked the Guild for blood? [He did, and Alucard confirmed it to him; however, he wants to see what Kylo thinks, if anything.]

[He cards through his memories; its a slow process.]

Yes. Some time ago.

[He never made much use of the magitek network. It was difficult to speak like a normal person without the Force to guide him, at times. He was always too ready to get into a fight -- an attitude that did not serve him well during his tenure with ALASTAIR.]

Something about...bloodletting.

[It's. Kind of weird, now that he is really thinking about it. Oddly ritualistic is where his mind wanders.]

I try not to spill my own blood more than necessary.

[Just. Throwing that out there. He's really bad at it, but that doesn't mean he doesn't try.]

[D's look acknowledges the information, but his eyes return to the screen. He hasn't changed anything since Kylo moved over, hasn't scrolled through anything. Whatever he's found, it hasn't been written down. He must be skimming or memorizing.] It's not a bad decision.

[Keeping your blood on the inside.] I don't know what the vampires from Adrian's world are like. [As a preface, this discussion concerns only what D knows even if Alucard's father feels painfully familiar.] On the Frontier, vampires crave the blood of humans. It doesn't nourish them. Vampires don't have to eat.

The craving is a curse.

[That was. Definitely a sentence. Kylo Ren has to go over it a few times before it sinks in. Its not necessarily a lot to digest, but it is definitely a new concept.]

A curse for what?

[He asked, not unlike a curious child despite his tender age of thirty. Granted, he's still wrestling with a "craving for blood" being a biological need of any kind, but his life experience made it hard to think of anything as "a curse". There was darkness in all things.

Most things.]

Existing.

[There's a reflection of red blood cells from the screen in his dark eyes. D is different, and it feels very much like a curse. Maybe to vampires it was a gift, even with the blood drinking. They don't mind it. They have power and control.] A long time ago, vampires ruled the Frontier. They created technology and a government. Humans were their prey, and mutants were their servants.

[They brought order, but D doesn't say so to Kylo. It was their order and not a democratic system of things, and D isn't an advocate of it. It was an order governed by vampires, lording over humans and mutants.]

They tried to find true immortality, but couldn't.

[It is probably a fortunate thing that D chooses not to voice the shortcomings of his government. Kylo's opinions in manner of state were hardly a secret, as of late. But everything else he offers him gives him something to ruminate on.]

There is similar history, in my own galaxy. Though, nothing to do with blood-cravings.

[He could never seem to explain the Force in a way people understood off the bat, so he doesn't try.]

You are using past tense. Your people overthrew them?

No. [Well, it depends on what Kylo means by "people," but D just assumes it's his species not his profession.] Dhampirs are an anomaly. An attempt at true immortality.

[He doesn't look at Kylo, but the avoidance doesn't appear to be because he's afraid or ashamed. The expression on his face is a marble statue, stoic and solemn.]

Hunters began to appear, the ones who were brave enough to kill the vampires. I am one of those Hunters.

I see.

[And in the mean time, they had to satisfy these blood cravings. He glances back at the computer screen.]

You must be very popular. Between the blood cravings and murder of your world leaders.

[Even though its dry as the Jakku desert, its mostly bemused sarcasm. He knows all about being unpopular. And he's starting to know something of murdering world leaders too.]

[D doesn't respond to the joke, but he also doesn't seem insulted. Kylo isn't wrong. When the last vampires are gone, he'll be the next in line for fear and hatred. He's half vampire anyway, right?]

The Nobles have had their time on the Frontier. [Some think vampires are cold, calculating, emotionless creatures, but they're wrong. They feel love, anger, sorrow.

So they have their own fears and hatred, too, don't they? He's half human to them, siding with humans. A betrayer.] The humans are surviving and growing. They pay me to help them.

The day I taste their blood will be the day when a Hunter comes for me.

[To clarify what this has to do with the findings on the screen.]

[It all falls into place rather neatly when D puts it that way. He shifts uncomfortably to try and relieve some of the pressure on his ribs.

He is familiar with temptation. In fact, he's rather weak to it himself, though in an entirely different sense. It comes to mind briefly, when he realizes that D has apparently not tasted human blood before.]

How do you manage?

[He asks it offhandedly, but the truth is, he's paying closer attention now.]

[The lid on the power that Kylo can feel the barest hints of is the evidence of his discipline. Rigid and unwavering, solid. It's not one struggling to be held down, strangely enough. D doesn't feel unstable and chaotic.

It's more like a cap of cement, one that can be pushed away to let the power out.]

I've had a long time to practice. [The look he turns to Kylo is somewhat knowing, but not rude.] How do you?

[He probably shouldn't have asked a question he wasn't prepared to answer himself. His lips turn downward.]

--my abilities differ from your own.

[Its a very pointed dodge. Though it dawns on him that -- D is able to sense them, which surprises him less and less the more time he spends on the team.]

I do not experience cravings.

[Unfortunately for Kylo, D is a scientist before he's a Hunter or a dhampir. The truest craving he has is the thirst for knowledge.

His eyes don't leave Kylo, though his stare is soft, curious.] What do you experience then?

[ABORT MISSION. No, that question is mostly harmless, so he glances sideways before replying.

Surely if no one had moved away from them yet, nobody could hear them. So he demonstrates by calling the wireless mouse into his hand using the Force.

Accompanied with it is a cold, brief chill as the energy flows through him.]

I am Force sensitive.

[Interested, D carefully watches the illustration. Whatever he feels by it, nothing shows on his face. Kylo gets zero judgement or surprise, and Kylo also gets no fear.] I see.

"Force" sensitive.

[It's not posed as a question, allowing Kylo the option of clarifying or skirting out from under D's probing. He knows what it's like to be interrogated.]

[He floats the mouse back to where it belongs and allows it to touch down gently, as if it had never left.]

The Force is an energy that surrounds all things. I can feel its presence, and bend it to my will.

[He is used to being the inquisitor. This does not feel like an interrogation to him...yet. Really, its not so bad -- and it takes his mind off the crippling pain in his lungs/side.]

It is considered a rare trait.

[D accepts this explanation as if it's the most natural thing in the world, his eyes lingering on the mouse before returning to Kylo.] Interesting.

The Nobility can do something similar. The ones born to Noble parents.

[Likewise, D can do it, too, but he chooses not to show Kylo or admit he can. Showing means he would need to draw on the vampiric power he wants to forsake.]

It's called "telekinesis."

I have heard it compared to that before.

[There are differences. He is not sure he wants to get into them. Every time he made the effort, people looked at him like he had two heads -- or treated him as if he was being unreasonable.]

The Force is tangible. At times, it has a will of its own.

[He inclines his head towards D, peering at him in a studious manner.]

For example -- I feel its darkness within you.

[For the first time, D's face visibly changes even though it is slight. Not good or bad, intrigued. Only vampires and mutants possessed a power somewhat like the Force.

Very few humans could do anything extraordinary, but D has met one or two. The spiritually inclined, in his world. Future-seers, healers.]

How does it feel?

[He knows already; he wants to hear Kylo tell him subjectively. He asked the same of the people who had shared a dream about him, what they had thought: he was a terrifying monster, brought misfortune, and some had wanted to kill him.

It isn't simply being half vampire. This power is greater, more horrific, darker. The Sacred Ancestor is one of the coldest, strongest presences, the oldest of all vampires. Kylo can see it if focusing on D: a looming, gargantuan shadow, dense with strength, ancient and wise, with piercing red eyes and a hauntingly pale, beautiful face that--strangely, looks a lot like D's own.]

[Well--he asked.

So Kylo's focus goes beyond D's eyes, to the point that he appears to be looking through him rather than at him. What he sees causes him to swallow uncomfortably.

As a child, he'd been haunted by visions of a gargantuan figure in the Force -- a figure he'd later come to know as Supreme Leader Snoke. His master. One of the most powerful Force users he'd ever come to know -- perhaps more powerful even than his grandfather.

This presence -- its older, not quite as vicious, or as...

There's a word there that he doesn't have language for. Trying to dig for it just coaxes goosebumps to his skin. Whatever the power is -- it doesn't belong to him, even though some hungry part of him can't help but covet it.]

...

[Silence holds his tongue for longer than he cares for.]

Ancient--hungry.

[The Dark side was always hungry. His voice is smaller when he says it. It isn't fear -- it is barely reverence. But it is most certainly envious.]

[The whole while, D doesn't speak. He watches Kylo's face, searches Kylo's distant eyes. He knows what it feels like, the raw and suffocating power from his father. It's not something he fears, but something he respects enough to ban himself from truly touching.

He can feel it being churned when Kylo pries, and the cement-like lid rustles briefly as if it has the inkling of its own to come off. Suddenly, it all draws away, and D's left with an intense gaze boring into Kylo's face.

All at once, the eyes soften, and after a moment, he turns away to keep from being overbearing perhaps. There's nothing he can say that the darkness didn't already say for him. Strangely, D looks what can only be summed up as sad. Regretful maybe.]

EVENT ▸ RESCUERS DOWN UNDER

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