(Untitled)

[the_measurers]

Last year, Geldeheim City had glittered for them, cold and translucent like a collection of great icecubes. This time, it was as if someone had taken a hammer to those icecubes. Many buildings still stood, but some were bisected, shattered by beams of power, or perpetually burning with magefire. Some of the city's ubiqutuous flat 3d projection

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[We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[the_measurers]

Geldeheim city is the largest city on this world and there's lots to do, especially in the recent aftermath of a revolution.

-There's still plenty of opportunities to loot. If you're the thoughtful kind of rebel, only loot from the remains of big stores. If you're not, family businesses have got some of the good stuff that was taken in the initial riots. Or defend those businesses, if that's your thing.

-Eager young people are distributing necessary goods around the city, providing basic medical care, doing what they can to help people in the aftermath of the war. They need any helping hands they can get, but especially doctors.

-The ad-hoc governing council currently in charge of the planet is eager to hear your suggestions for what can be done.

-Merely because they're fighting the Fay'lia does not mean all your allies are people to be trusted. This is being driven home as you hear rumors in the streets and pubs that those who are critical of the revolutionary leaders are being slandered as counterrevolutionary troublemakers or worse, mysteriously disappearing. Do you dare investigate?

-If you're associated with Freedom Deliverer Robin, expect to encounter eager fans. The show is immensely popular here.

-Remember those people you assassinated last year? They had families, loved ones. If you're stricken by guilt and feel a need to visit, you still have their information from last year's mission.

[OOC: You're not restricted to these prompts. This is a catch all thread for whatever else you might want to do in this post.]

Re: [We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[truthafterzeend]

Georgia's suit had been reeingeered to look more like she was bundled up for cold weather. Originally, she'd been on the ground getting footage about the holiday season -- see what people were actually doing, rather than trying to make something fake. Goodness knows, she'd had enough fake holidays growing up with her parents -- Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving... all excuses to show what a Lovely Family Doing Normal Pre-Rising Things (within reason) they were.

But rumors that the revolution was taking a page from the French Revolution was a lot more interesting than people trying to rediscover family-friendly animal sacrifice. (Not to mention made her a lot less nervous -- she could deal with government silencing dissent; bleeding animals made her worry that one was going to reanimate and attack the children.)

So, she was cruising the local bars, camera and microphone in her bag, contemplating how to get someone to talk to her. "I need to work on building my credibility more."

Re: [We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[the_measurers]

The bars were indeed a good source. And with all the post-conflict despair and celebration going around (they went hand in hand), they didn't lack for business.

In one, a smoky place in one of the working class neighborhoods where the revolt first kicked off, men were discussing the news of the day. Men talk over dark beers at a nearby table.

"...and you know how Jan is, always has to speak his mind. Talked too much in too many places. Got real drunk one night and called RC-" revolutionary councilman/woman, the council that was the transitional government. "- Hauptmann an' his mom, pets, and daughter a buncha things one don't say 'bout someone you hold in the highest esteem. A week later, disappears, out of fuckin' nowhere."

Re: [We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[truthafterzeend]

The main problem with Georgia's plan was that it was hard to blend in when she couldn't drink while wearing her suit.

"Is that so?" she said.

That was news. Moreover, it was news that no local station would touch, but they should. Considering what happened last year, someone needed to make sure the planet didn't just fall into new leaders with the same behavior.

Re: [We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[the_measurers]

"Ai brother...sister. Come have a bitter-" he was kicked under the table by his companion. "-or just sit, and we'll catch you up on all you missed." One said, pulling a wooden chair out for her. They interpreted her heavy coverings as evidence of terrible scarring. They thought she was a guerilla, terribly wounded in the fighting and just now returning from medical care.

Re: [We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[truthafterzeend]

Georgia took a seat. "Thank you. I'd rather not take my mask off in company, though. The doctors are worried about infection." Which was true; just not with her as the victim.

"It's a shame -- the company's good, but a bar's not the same when you can't drink in public."

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[the_measurers]

"When you get the OK, i'll buy you a round meself, sister." Said the first man, stout and wearing a newsboy cap and fustian. "How long you been in? We'll catch ya up on everything." Said the second, skinny, with a wool cap, self consciously not drinking his beer now.

Re: [We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[truthafterzeend]

"Not long," Georgia answered. "I figured I'd take some time to sit before doing anything else."

Re: [We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[the_measurers]

The stout man launched into his explanation: "The corpseskins-" their epithet for the Fay'lia "-what's lefta them, are all holed up in their fortress up north, along with those in the old senate what we didn't swing from the lights. The RC's officially the new government from here all the way out to the provinces."

"'a's not true. Someone said one was seen out on Dirk Avenue the other night, what had a girl-monster with him that shot lasers from her eyes and smashed up the pavement with 'er hands. 'E then went out into the street an' took a wee just to show off."

"Aw shut, Kirn. That weren't no Fay'lia."

"What 'e said, yeah, but that skin was gray an' he had things on his head."

"You mind? Trying to update our Compatriot. We can talk rumors and flubbledyshit after."

"Regale me, newsman."

"Anyway, it's a bunch on the RC but the two you need to know's Erich Hauptmann and Ekatrin Svinboera. Yeah, Yoseth's daughter, rest in peace. Hauptmann used to be a student at Garrel Poltech, before last year's Khristermass riot." Referring to the assasinations the stationites had carried out last year. "'e started preachin' on the campus, which didn't seem to bother the corpseskins and their toadies none, until he started using his family money to arm some real rumblers. Never did it public-like, always kept his hands clean, but you knew who you owed it all to. When the grunts in the local garrison started to get surly too, 'e bought them too." They'd signed up to fight Protean Beserkers and extrauniversal barbarians, not their own people. "An' then he found Ekatrin Svinboera in an orphanage, people rallied around her. I don't know if we coulda done it wit'out him. You remember the real war, I don't gotta remind you of that, sister. Afterwards he started to preach about the need for solidarity on the holovis, to not talk anything what might make us look dis...dis-yoo-nee-fed."

"Fied."

"Yeah. That." Neither man had received the best education. "That's when people started to disappear. 'E hasn't said a thing about it but 'e knows. If 'e's not telling people to do it himself, they think 'e is. Svinboera, she's against it. 'A thousand blossoms must rise', that's 'er slogan, an that means we can speak out. To Yoseth's daughter."

"To Yoseth's daughter." They clinked glasses and took a long draught.

Re: [We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[truthafterzeend]

"To Yoseth's daughter." Georgia agreed. "I didn't nearly get killed so that people could hush things up in the name of 'solidarity'." Another half-truth; she did nearly get killed for the truth, but not on this planet.

Re: [We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[the_measurers]

The stout man wiped his mouth from the froth of the bitter brew. "Hauptmann thinks she owes 'im." He spat to the side, showing his distaste. "Now everyone who still cares is choosin' a side."

[truthafterzeend]

"Damn," Georgia said. "Does Hauptmann have a lot of support?"

Re: [We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[prideofabh]

What Lafiel would like to do would be to assist in the escapades up north, perhaps capturing some of the Fay'lia technology in addition to dealing with the threat. On the other hand, Lafiel would (reluctantly) admit she lacks the Special Forces training that would let her be a competent soldier in a ground action.

Instead, she agreed to assist the local police in the city for a couple of days, looking for Fay'lia sympathizers. Which was marginally more interesting than assisting in making a holiday. Honestly, if the Fay'lia ran their empire in any way like the Abh -- that is, in a sensible way -- there wouldn't be much of a presence that wasn't concentrated in the large cities.

But, maybe there would be interesting intelligence. Or a chance to capture Fay'lia technology.

Re: [We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[weeabhoo]

Where his princess went, so did Jinto. And thus he was wearing a heavy overcoat over his standard issue uniform, and the yellow armbands of the revolutionary guards over that. The locals had been all too happy to have representatives of Senburu-Trati'salan lending their infant efforts at policing some legitimacy. Thus Jinto and Lafiel found themselves in the exact opposite situation as they had back on Clasbull, which Jinto quickly pointed out, teasing her about possibly having to dye her hair and dress in the local fashions again to blend in.

When a citizen had approached them, saying she'd seen a man who looked like a Fay'lia (bundled in a scarf of course, but you couldn't hide that silvery skin, those strange colored eyes) duck into the basement of a destroyed building, it had immediately caught their interest. He thanked the citizen for her information then turned to Lafiel.

"I'll radio for backup. Let's get there before he moves on."

Re: [We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[prideofabh]

"Yes, let's." Lafiel ran a last check to make sure that she was armed and had the other gear loaned to them ready. "With surprise, we may be able to capture them alive."

Lafiel had adopted the local fashions anyway, because she honestly hadn't been prepared for how cold the planet was. Yes, intellectually she'd known that planets were not climate controlled, and had even been to various biospheres recreated in the station, or growing up in the Empire. But there was a difference between a short walk to observe the ice crystals or whatever and spending all day walking the streets. Which were covered in an awful mixture of ice, water, salt, dirt, particulates and things Lafiel would rather not think about.

Re: [We wish you a ____y _____: everywhere else]

[weeabhoo]

Jinto radioed in their situation and readied his own laser pistol, right behind her. Soon enough they were there, at a burned out shell of a building, with a few steps leading down to a basement with a wooden door whose lock was broken.

He indicated the door, flattened himself to its side in the classic 'stacked up' entry position. He was nervous, yes, but he also wanted to show Lafiel the results of his practice with Gaunt.