Welcome Festival | Day 06 | All Sectors | OPEN

[hazelwood]

Characters: You! And you! Even you!
Location: All Sectors
Situation: It's the sixth and final day of the Welcome Festival!
Warnings/Rating: To be updated if actual warnable material occurs.

OOC Details:
>Header threads are available for the major events of the day and anyone can tag into them, replying with others as they are interested.
>Our thanks go to everyone that volunteered their character for the special event today! Favrielle and Yue are the lucky two foreigners that will be "voluntold" for a grand demonstration in front of half the city.

FINAL DAY:
Five days of festivities have come and gone, but the sixth dawns as one final celebration across all of the sectors, with the tours of each day reinstated and the markets re-opened for all! The lanterns made during each previous festival day now decorate their respective sectors and are being lit throughout the day -- though each sector has a podium with the most beautiful of the foreigner-made lanterns on display, ready to be lit at sunset.

With five sectors and twelve active gangs spread across Keeliai, the Alderwood Commander has mobilised the entire police force to patrol all areas and enforce the laws where they have been broken. An eye has been applied to the exact deployment of officers, with the greatest congestion in the Fire, Metal, and Earth Sectors according to gang presence and criminal activity over the course of the festival. Given that the entire force is beating the shell, there are equal amounts of upstanding and corrupt officers spread about and a few juulan go the extra distance in dissuading the latter when one has crossed the line.

Evandau is again a constant presence today and he moves with such frequency through the sectors that he often seems to be in two places at once. Most of the honest kedan take his presence as a reassurance, but there is the portion that eye him nervously and avoid eye contact. There are rumours of a half dozen arrests overseen by him personally since dawn, but he has proven too busy to confirm that via idle chatter with civilians.

Despite the increased police presence, criminal activity continues to fluctuate. Many of the less savoury kedan can be seen employing their skills for their own betterment, so mind your purse and person anytime that you go into a crowd or off the main thoroughfares.

Once again, should two or more characters get into an large-scale altercation, be it with NPCs or one another, please advise Alex (reignsdown or gmail or aim) for intervention/dispersal.

PARADE:
Roadways have been cordoned off throughout all of the sectors for the sake of one parade to trace a spiral route out from the center of Keeliai to the outer walls. Preparations for this parade have been the most secretive of all events during the Welcome Festival, but it's clear by the costumes donned by dancers and acrobats meant to participate in it that no expense has been spared.

Scheduled to begin two hours after dawn, it has drawn many kedan to the sidelines to watch. They, in turn, have been encouraging foreigners to the very front and center, where many have gathered to see and follow the path of performers as they trek through the city.

Widely agreed upon as a beautiful way to mark the final day's festivities, there are few in Keeliai that realise the parade's start is about to be usurped by a demonstration far more powerful that the grand luxuries displayed over the previous five days.

Interrupted before it can begin, all ceremony is gone when the crowds are swarmed by members of the most powerful gang in the Fire Sector and two foreigners are taken hostage, dragged onto the stage bridging the street -- a planned platform for Lieuen to make a final festival speech from -- as the leader of the gang steps up to spread an entirely different, anti-foreigner sentiment while making a demonstration that no one will forget.

Comments

[sophos]

[Annabeth comes back later, after the crowds are gone. She's not sure what she expected to find, but she didn't like the idea of staying inside because it was safer. She had years of practice in sneaking; she doubted angry anti-foreign kedan would pick up on her presence.]

[She's careful to stay out of light as best she can; invisible as she is with her cap on, her body still casts a shadow. She comes into the square, the scene of the crime, so to speak, and makes her way for the dais in perfected silence. Someone alive is up there, and it looks like the bodies are, too. Mostly, she wants to know if it's another kedan or not, and if it's related to the "show" earlier.]

[She creeps to the edge of the dais, staying low, but doesn't climb on top of it, content to just observe. Blood samples? Was that what the guy was doing? And something with their clothes.]

[cowled]

[Apparently this is the day of people trying to sneak up on him. Each interruption has left him increasingly more irate, and he's almost ready to leave when this newest person arrives.

Invisibility. Interesting, but hardly new to him. Gypsy's methods at least took care of her shadow, and in the bright light of the night, it's impossible to miss. He arches an eyebrow - hard to tell, under the domino mask and the hat he's using to supplement his regular costume - and simply looks at the spot where the girl is crouched.]

You could stand to be better at that.

[no. really. BAT LINEFACE.]

[sophos]

[Annabeth glances down at her shadow. Normally and by the general populace, it goes unnoticed, but it's still a little more visible than she would have liked. Too bright here for legitimate sneaking. She really could have done better, but she'd gotten ahead of herself. The man was observant, she'll give him that.]

[She stands up; it makes for a better getaway if necessary]

I'm aware, actually. [She hears that lineface and raises you a tone of "it didn't work, but gold star for trying to make me feel stupid"]

[cowled]

[A girl. Young, by the sound of her voice. Tim's age.]

It's an interesting trick.

[sophos]

I'd say useful is more apt. [And no plans to remove it, just yet]

What're you going to test the blood for?

[cowled]

There are better ways of going unnoticed. Invisibility implies you have something to hide. It invites suspicion.

[Which explains his tone. Which is, you guessed it, suspicious.

Also, do you really think he's going to answer that question? He isn't like to share that information with anyone who isn't a Bat, frankly. Or at the very least, one of his closer associates. Huntress need not apply. Because he's a douche.]

[sophos]

I think it works a little better than a ridiculous and suspicious disguise. Especially when hunched over dead bodies.

[She's not even bothered by the tone. Invisible people are of course full of suspicion. Doesn't mean they're the only ones.]

[His lack of answer doesn't go unnoticed -- she didn't really expect an answer, but his flat out ignoring of her question tells her loads.]

[cowled]

I'm protecting my identity. You're trying to hide your presence.

[Which means what, exactly? He focuses briefly on what he knows of her. He's heard her voice on the Network - Annabeth. She's a serious and rather studious-sounding individual. She's been careful not to give too much away, and the invisibility reinforces that. Is it that she's incapable of taking care of herself physically and has chosen not to invite conflict? Or is it that she's entirely too capable?]

[sophos]

You're hiding who you are while protecting it. I'm masking my presence which protects my identity, to an extent. They're not exclusive.

[She studies him right back -- hard to tell exactly how old he is, beyond at least 25 but under 40. But he's secretive, deflective. Admitted he was hiding who he was, which, of course, makes her want to find out.]

[cowled]

[good luck with that, Annabeth.]

Hm.

[Yeah that's all she gets.

You know, for a guy that's 6'2 and built like a brick wall, Bruce is really good at disappearing acts.]

[sophos]

[She doesn't need luck. She's got divine wisdom on her side. Challenge accepted.]

[...and she takes it less as disappearing and more like running away, even if he had finished whatever he was doing. Even if she's annoyed by the abruptness. She frowns, then hops up on the dais to take a careful look around]