aterat | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who; Everyone!
What; Pulse log; REMEMBRANCE
Where; Throughout the City
When; August 8th - 15th
Warnings; Will update when and as necessary

In the days leading up to August 8th, the city is abuzz with activity. Businesses in the Merchant district have posted notices they will be closed the following week in observance of something called “Remembrance”. The Aspects are absent this week, though that doesn’t seem particularly out of the ordinary, and it’s easy to get caught up in what is quite a celebratory time in the city. Harvests and meats are being brought in from the outlying farms, the main square is being cordoned into stalls for food, drink, and performances. The guard is more present this week, keeping a close eye on the organization and watching for any miscreants.

As the time of the festival approaches, a quiet excitement seems to thrum through the others here, young and old alike, and on the evening of the 8th, a commencement parade makes its way through the market district.

The procession, filled with musicians, dancers, jugglers, and the like, make their way from the fountain square to the center of the market district, where a crude stage has been erected in the square at the center of the market district, in front of the guard headquarters. It’s nothing fancy, but it does serve the purpose of bringing to the attention of those gathered those who stand atop it.

A tall man in a Guardsman’s blue uniform climbs the stairs, steel plates glittering in the midday sun. He has a stern countenance, and there’s a stiffness through his shoulders that suggests he isn’t overly fond of public speeches. He takes a steadying breath before clearing his throat.

“People of Aterat, those of us who were risen from its ashes and those of us who have been gathered to kindle its flame,” he pauses here for a moment, giving his address an air of gravitas. “Welcome. I am Captain Orson Khannar, of the Aterat City Guard. I was a guardsman before the Fall and I can tell you we stand as a shadow of our former selves, but we do stand. Two years ago, today, the Aspects descended from the Fountain, all that remained of our once proud land, they saw the ruin wrought upon it, and they began to weave. There was little of us left, but what stands was reassembled because we Remembered.” A cheer rises from the collected locals, along with a few scattered cries of ‘bless the Aspects’ and ‘long may Halcyn reign’. Captain Khannar raises a hand to still the crowd and after a moment, their cheers and raised prayers quiet.

“But we did not remember enough. This year, the Creator has provided, and we welcome among us memories from other worlds. This Remembrance, do not forget their sacrifice.” His tone changes then, and his piercing gaze moves across all those who have come here from elsewhere. “Outlanders, I expect nothing of you, but I offer you a warning: we are not your captors but we are your neighbors. As such, we will hold you to the same standards to which we hold ourselves. I am the Captain of your guard, and it is my sworn oath to keep this city safe from miscreants. That said, those of you who are willing and able, I would welcome your aid. Surely by now you have seen our fair city has its share of problems. My office is just there across the square.”

And with that bit of business handled, he directs his attention back to the crowd. “A Happy Remembrance to us all!” The crowd cheers again, though less enthusiastically, as a few look around at those gathered from other worlds, uncertain if they share the Captain’s willingness to welcome the aid of ‘Outlanders’.

The rest of the week is a city-wide party. The taverns are overflowing with merrymakers, there is wine and food for all, music at all hours of the day and night. Performers come out in droves, there are artists, artisans, and the like. If you can think of a festival occurrence, it happens at some point, though all the shops are closed for normal hours. It seems it’s quite the holiday, and you are welcome to invent whatever you'd like for a scene.

The Captain remains true to his word, and the Guard HQ in the Market Square seems to be the only place operating normally. There are regular patrols throughout the events, but Captain Khannar can be found most days in his office, upstairs in the HeadQuarters, should anyone like to question him.

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"Well I dunno - some people have more than one place, like a summer house! Or a cabin in the woods they go live in when they're named and shamed in a political scandal and need to go 'spend time with their family during this difficult time of reflection and we ask that our privacy is respected'."

Thankfully, her family have never had to retreat to such a remote place to hide from cameras, but she's certainly known people who have.

"Oh! You know what you should get? A house boat, like one of those youtube hippies that grow those creepy kombucha fungus thingies for fun and do yoga on the full moon. Not that you have to do those things to live on a house boat, but I notice things. Patterns. YouTube algorithms."

Without giving him much of a chance to reply, she happily carried on chatting away, finally deciding to move on from the house she'd stopped in front of, heading instead towards the one directly across from it.

"And what the heck kinda word is 'miscreant' anyway? Is he talkin' about people that like...pull pranks and steal y'pocket money? Or actual criminal criminals?....Actually, I wonder what they even do to them? What if they don't have jail- what if they go straight to public executions and torture and shit??"

Eyes wide, she turned to Caelan with a - probably misplaced - grin. "Do y'think they have an iron maiden?"

Caelan was getting used to this by now, Holly chattering on with barely a pause for breath as she moved the conversation in a rather random winding path that he hardly understood most of what was said. It was, without a doubt, the most interesting way to go about talking at length on a variety of subjects.

Would he ask what any of it was? No. He could at least imagine a house boat was a cross between the two, and he couldn’t deny that it did sound like the kind of place a selkie would live rather happily. He would have replied, but.... Well she was talking again. Holly, you have to let the person you’re having a conversation with get a word in! It’s become less a conversation and more a small vampire child talking at the seal man.

At the very least, he could follow this line of thought a little more easily as they turned away from the one house that had reminded Holly of her home, and moved towards another. “From personal experience, he’s probably referring to a little of everything? Seems like the boring, humourless sort of fellow. I get the feeling that he expects everyone to be on their best behaviour and just fall into place. Haven’t spoken to him myself yet, going to do a little more watching and listening first.”

He didn’t feel like having to break out of lockup just yet.

“If they turn to such extreme forms of punishment for small things, I can assure you this world is in for a rather rude awakening from those they’ve dragged here. I doubt most of us would stand for that.” At least he would hope not, that would be absolutely insane. His brows raised at the grin and the comment about iron maidens, for once he shakes his head with a quick motion. “I certainly hope not! If you see anything like that, or anything involving irons, do us a favour and let me know?”

"Yeah, I kinda got that feelin' as well....s'all well and good wantin' us to behave, I just don't see why we should. Maybe if we all acted up a little, they'd get tired of us and send us home."

But then, what are the odds that everyone would get behind that? Rather low, she'd wager. "I say fill your pockets with whatever you like. It's not like they got metal detectors or anythin', and if they try to pat you down, I'll jump on 'em and bite 'em or somethin'."

Because Captain KillJoy would definitely love that.

Whatever she was going to go on to say next, she paused for half a second when she noticed how quickly Caelan shook his head, all urgent and everything. "Uh- sure, I can do that - why irons specifically? You allergic or somethin'?"

As they reached the house she'd set her new sights on, she - somewhat awkwardly, thanks to her skates - walked/wobbled up the front steps, though she did turn around to face Caelan once she could to show she was listening to his answer. While she seemed to have the attention span of a goldfish sometimes, if Holly wanted an explanation or was interested in an answer, her focus was laser-sharp. And as it turned out, learning about selkies and fae in general was becoming one of those topics.

Caelan wanted to keep track of the conversation, and to respond to the matter of ‘behaving,’ but this time Holly really distracted him with two particular words. They were not generally used sided by side in his time, and honestly depending on what it was? They could be something of interest, even if they apparently didn’t appear to be resent. “Metal detectors?”

The selkie laughed a little a moment later, he could actually imagine Holly pouncing to attack the captain that didn’t see it coming. “I appreciate that though, we might just make an excellent team you know.” Not that he’d want her just randomly attacking people, he had a feeling she had more useful talents than that anyway.

Watching the kid wobble her way up the steps to the house’s front porch, he raised a brow. “You might want to change those, yeah? Don’t seem to quite have the stability you need for sneaking around.” Caelan tried the door for a start, checking to see if it was unlocked first (no point in going to hassle he didn’t have to) before pulling his lock picks out from one of his coat pockets and pulling the ones he needed out.

Crouching by the doorknob, he set to working on that while he answered her question with a confused little wrinkle of his nose. “Allergic? Not sure what that is, but if it means that it burns and fucking eats away at your skin...? Yeah sure, I’m allergic. Most fae are actually, at least where I’m from. It’s reason number two for the gloves.”

"Mmhmm - they like this big clunky machines that have a kinda...like an archway through the middle?"

Was she making a teeny effort to explain it a bit more simply? Yes. How long that'd last, it'd be impossible to say, but she was trying. "And you walk through the arch, and if you have anything metal on you, like jewellery or a belt or a knife stuffed in your boot, an alarm goes off and it makes a whole racket, and you get pulled aside and patted down, at least at the airport anyway."

With a glance down at her feet, she gave him a toothy grin; "Bold of you to assume I bought my shoes with me; I live in these things, if you want me to take 'em off you're gonna be carryin' me around like a koala."

Which...wasn't really a terrible idea, she wouldn't have minded that at all - until she inevitably got bored and wanted to run around and pick something up to stuff in her own pockets. This however was set aside entirely when Caelan got to work on the doorknob, her pinball-attention span now focused on him picking the lock, though she did wince at the apparent effects of iron.

"Fuckin' yikes, bro...it's that bad?" With a shudder, Holly shook her head. "I wonder why iron though, that's so random...like how vampires are apparently allergic to garlic for some reason..."

Alright, so the metal detector things were less exciting than he’d presumed. In fact, he rather hoped they didn’t exist here. No one was taking his damned knives if he had anything to say about it. Caelan was still disappointed but... still, it was interesting in its own way he supposed.

“Well if you’re going to be sneaking around with me, you might want to keep that in mind. Wouldn’t want to actually be sneaking around somewhere that people might actually notice the clunking sound from you trying to walk in those things.” Not that he would leave her behind in such a situation, a challenge was a challenge after all. He also doubted that he could lose her so easily, she was far too spirited for that.

Fussing with the getting the pins in place, he hummed a little. Fuckin’ yikes, indeed. “Worse if you swallow the stuff, but yeah.” He raised a brow, getting the binding pins in place. “Are you saying vampires not ‘allergic’ to garlic then?”

Which was interesting, he supposed it would be very good to know what kind of things they should both be watching out for if they were going to be getting into mischief together. Caelan certainly wasn’t about to get careless with someone who worked with him. It was one thing to get carried away and careless where his life was concerned, it was another with someone else’s.

Where he couldn't see her, Holly mimed along to what he was saying with a roll of her eyes, sticking her tongue out a little at the top of his head while he worked on the door. Tellin' her how to sneak...honestly! He had no idea how sneaky she could be!

....Wait a minute, now that was an idea, Holly-Brain....

Casually - so very, very casually - she rolled a little further behind him, like she was just going to keep an eye on the street. "Nah, s'just a myth. If you're not born like me, y'can't go out in the day time though, that'll end real bad..."

What actually occurred, however, was less keeping watch and more of her physical body becoming rather more dark and misty in consistency, with her voice becoming decidedly more...disembodied as she spoke.

Slipping around Caelan and under the door, after a few seconds she was back to flesh and bone, and Caelan would hear the door being unlocked from the inside.

When it opened, he'd be met with a sharp toothed little grin. "Not so clunky, huh?"

Caelan was too preoccupied with the door to really notice Holly slowly disappearing. He was too busy trying to wow her with his B&E skills, just needing a moment or two more on the lock in order to get into the place.

THEN the lock was clicking on its own and the door swung open to reveal a familiar, mischievous little gremlin. Some people might glance behind them in bewilderment after something like that happened, but Caelan wasn’t some people. Normal to others was not normal to him, he’d worked with stranger. “Well now, I suppose not!” He pocketed the lock picks, grinning a little. “You gonna tell me how you did that, or is it a special vampire trade-secret?”

There was a particular sort of smug pride that fed into her own grin as she stepped aside to let Caelan pass. The sort that she was still young enough to have when getting approval from those she liked or looked up to.

"Pfft, trade secret - and I can only do it on account'a me bein' born like this. If y'get turned you ain't so lucky. So!"

Clapping her hands once, she wheeled herself over to the closest doorway and peered into the room it led to, before an unseen force directed her attention, pulling her around like wheelie chair and pushing her towards the staircase instead.

"How'd you wanna do this, you take the downstairs, I take the up? Or we both explore together, 'cause I don't got a preference, but I understand if you maybe need a hand to hold. 'Case you get spooked."

Another grin. "Old people get spooked real easy, y'know."

Oh, Holly... No one should look up to Caelan. He’s not the greatest role-model material, at least according to most of his group. Unless, of course, you wanted to be a well-meaning disaster with a flare for the dramatic.

“Well, all I got born with was this silly seal skin, so I guess I’ll have to muddle along without that ability.” He grinned a little, walking into the house and shutting the door behind them, and clicked the lock back in place. That way, if anyone followed them in, they’d hear them fussing about with the door.

Well... Unless, of course, there was anyone else like Holly about.

He doubted it.

“Well, we could split up, but I think the smarter thing would be to explore together. It’s not like we’ve had a chance to case the place. Who knows what’s around, yeah?” He hummed a little, glancing one way and then another. It was a nice place, or at least it had been when people had lived here.

Yes, Holly. He gets it. He’s ancient. He pursed his lips a bit at the idea of being easily spooked, but decided to roll with it. He could appreciate the humour! “Besides, my aging heart might not take a spook. One bad one and then poof, I might as well be a sealskin rug.” He joked back, looking to the stairs himself. “We’ll take it from the top and then work our way back down.”

Another small chuckle escaped though, “You gonna have to use your trick on the stairs, or?”

Holly was arguably already a disaster with a flair for the dramatic, although she was certainly not always well intentioned, so really, if anything....he was a good role model!

She liked both options equally, so when he said they were headed upstairs first (a suggestion taken with great enthusiasm), Holly took a second to look at the stairs, then her skates, clearly trying to weigh up if it'd be worth taking them off or not.

In typical Holly fashion, she went for the latter.

"Nah, I'll be okay!" Said with the confidence of someone who had never fallen down a flight of stairs before, she grabbed onto the bannister, and started the supremely awkward ascent upstairs.

To her credit, she did manage to reach the top. It was just slow going, is all. Once she got to the top and was clear of the edge of the step, she threw her hands up with a grin.

"Fuck yeah, stair skatin'!"

~~Caelan for all that is holy, please help her when y'all need to go back down.~~

That was certainly something that would go to his head should he ever hear it, and so he should never be told that.

As it was, he should have stopped holly as she clomped her way up the stairs in her roller skates. That was entirely dangerous. She could have fallen and turned her brain to jelly. Unfortunately, Caelan hadn’t really thought of that at first. He was more of the mind that if at first you don’t succeed at something; it was a lesson learned. It was how he’d learned a lot in life, after all.

Now half way up the stairs as she moved along awkwardly, the vague realization hit that the higher up she went the more dangerous it was. So at the very least, her trip down would be very different from the trip up. The selkie wasn’t sure how durable vampires were compared to the fae, and he knew from experience that falls sucked. He’d broken a leg going out a window once and was lucky that it hadn’t been more serious.

Grinning a little at her celebratory shout, he moved to hurry up the stairs himself. “You’ve invented a new challenge, clearly. Though if anyone lived here, we’d definitely have been caught, what a racket.”

He nudged her lightly, sending her rolling gently just a smidge further away from the edge of the stairs.

... Just to be safe.

“Now let’s see what goodies we can find up here!” He gestured to the first door, one he presumed would either be a bedroom or a sitting room.

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