EVENT: UNITED EARTH AIR MAIL

[initiatesnpc]

Date & Time: 9/24-27
Location: Throughout Exsilium; above, below, and the in-betweens
Characters: ALL; tag yourselves in
Summary: The United Earth comes bearing gifts oh wait no those are bombs
Warnings: Violence a given, injury, other things probably (notify a mod if there's cause to add a particular warning!)



There was a horrendous symphony being played throughout Exsilium.

Sirens kept tempo, shrilling to life minutes (hours, if the instruments caught a lucky break) before the roar of strange engines affixed to strange machines cutting through the eastern horizon. Always the east; why bother mixing it up? According to drone scans, there was little the island could do to repel them, little to inspire a change in tactic. Amusement, perhaps, but there was none of that in play.

Sirens and distant, ever-growing roaring...and then the thunder and crack of buildings and earth suffering heavy blows from above. Sounds of war, yes, but seemingly so one-sided...

Seemingly.

The intelligence had been too sparse for countermeasures to strange, hulking warriors and supernatural speak. It wasn’t utterly ignored, however; their moles were some of the best. If they said the Initiative had wizards, the Initiative had...something dangerous. Maybe wizards.

Well, maybe those wizards would enjoy being blasted or eroded out of existence? That appeared to be the motivation at-hand as wave after wave of bombings battered the already-broken city, driving its inhabitants old and new underground like ants.

Most of them, anyway.

The United Earth was about to get a heaping helping of fresh intelligence on those wizards the week it struck out beyond its borders. Throughout the barrage, the housing units buckled under broken ceilings, the long-since ruined gardens burned and suffocated under heavy chemical smog, and almost-familiar haunts became cratered replicas of themselves. For four days, the planes kept coming, no matter how many were deterred or destroyed. And on the ground, masked men scoured through battered remains and marched toward the Hold, bent on tearing the place apart in search of valuable clues...and technology well beyond the island’s apparent means. Armed to the teeth, this onslaught was indeed...Armed, but not wholly prepared.

It wasn’t going to be the easy, bullying win it was supposed to be.

Comments

[whatsupcroc]

[ Her tail thwumps against the ground once again, offering no resistance to being pulled back in. If anything, she's glad. She's not sure how people stay brave though stuff like this (the whole week, and whatever was following) without borrowing on the strength of the people around them. Even if it was kind of cheap to look for reassurance running around as a coyote people mistook for a dog in the poor lighting.

If Vanadi's up for an armful of wiggly canine, Collette isn't protesting. She won't even wiggle that much. ]

< You know... there were bones in there. >

[ But unsure if she really wants to think about that too much, she sighs and closes her eyes. ]

< D'you mind if we stay here for a little? >

[implying]

[ If Vanadi even notices any difference between holding the human Collette and the coyote Collette, he's not giving any sign of it. Both arms are wrapped around her, and he leans his forehead against a furry shoulder.

He's perfectly okay with changing the subject of bones before it even gets explored if she is. There's nothing pleasant down that way. ]

Certainly, my dear. I have nowhere in particular to be.

[ The tone is just as polished as ever, but lacks some of the energy. Not to mention it's a little muffled by the fur. ]

[whatsupcroc]

[ She chuckles a little, both a mental "noise" and a half-pant canine laugh at the same time, content to lean against him. Hugs are nice, no matter the form. ]

< Just don't get too comfortable. I need to be back to human again in under two hours. >

[ She assumed he knew the rule on limitations from the self he knew in Cittàgazze. It's another time limit on something she appreciates more now that it's here again. It's nice to talk with Vanadi, even if they're not saying much. The cold shoulder hurt, no matter how well deserved.

And probably will be again. But that was then, and this was now. Focusing on one over the other was dumb. ]

< What was Cittàgazze like? If you... feel like talking about it. >

[ What was I like? she wants to ask. She doesn't really know if she wants an answer, not to that. Knowing more about how it was for Vanadi, learning more about him, she liked that.

Besides, it beat the stuffing out of her other train of thought, one that started with, "So what kind of accident landed you so many metal limbs?" ]

[implying]

[ In under two hours? He'd never considered that her shapechanging might have some kind of limit on it, if that's what that is. Well, good to know. He'll have to ask why, at some point or another.

One hand idly strokes the fur of her head and ears, and he tips his head back against the wall. ]

The city itself was wholly unremarkable, and covered in soul-eating monsters, on top of that. But they moved slowly and weren't difficult to avoid, if one was careful not to be penned in. Ah, but the worlds available for visiting... [ He smiles. ] I visited yours once! A forest of redwoods, you said it was. It was quite lovely.

[whatsupcroc]

[ She feels her eyes starting to close again. Collette blinks rapidly, knowing the danger lying that way. Vanadi's not helping, the soothing motion of his hand over the fur of her head continuing to calm her down. Little wonder dogs love this kind of attention.

At the mention of the redwoods, her ears twitch. ]

< The Redwood Forest! I haven't been there for years. Did you get to see the big tree with the tunnel right through the middle? I thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen when I was little. >

[ She just knows that going back meant she didn't just stare up at those trees this time. She flew up there, touched the sky and made a piece of the forest not everyone could see her own. ]

< Vanadi? Was the war over for the me you know? >

[implying]

I did! It was just as lovely as I could have hoped! [ Just not gonna mention that kitrites use that and better in their architecture on a regular basis...

He gives one of those ears a good rub, just a little bit delighted that this is technically a person he's lavishing attention on, and yet it's perfectly acceptable because she's not shaped like a person. How convenient! ]

It was, my dear. You won.

[whatsupcroc]

[ Collette would have loved to hear more about the kitrites... even if her architectural appreciation isn't top notch. Knowing more about places and people she'll never see has a bittersweet excitement to it all.

She allows herself to lean in, lulled by contact. There's nothing to protest in her book. After all, hadn't she been using this morph to specifically help put people at ease? If it worked both ways, doubly good.

Sometimes everyone needed a little comforting familiarity. She's not sure if Vanadi's ever had a dog before, but she'll be glad for the fact he's as attentive to what feels comforting and calming to someone wearing the genetic make-up of a member of the canine family.

Especially as he tells her the one thing she most wanted to hear: You won.

She can guess the cost. She can postulate, on what Vanadi has said, why she herself is alive for Vanadi to speak with. If their two lives were as similar as Collette suspects, then the changes came at the last minute. Windows to another world, or teleportation into another world, either way can save a girl as she's passing out of this world into whatever's next.

She's almost jealous of her other self, this Collette who has the option to go home. Seeing Phillipe again, seeing Anne, probably finally getting to go skiing and moving out of the hospital because wouldn't Phillipe get transferred back home after all of that? Of course he would. They'd be a family again, and that thought was nice.

She likes believing that's precisely the life other!Collette is living, one where she comes to Cittagazze for a lark and to find adventure, and that's all. It's a nice, if contradictory, fiction.

Collette tries to lick Vanadi, whatever's most convenient. ]

< Of course we did. Hah! After everything we did, there's no other way it could turn out. >

[ Not true, but true enough. ]

< Thank you. For knowing, and for telling me. >