EVENT | LANDFALL | KITHIKA | BOTTLE

[cherrywood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: February 12th - 28th
Location: Kithika, inside the bottle
Situation: The discovery of an artifact from the first war against Malicant reveals the land of Kithika within a dimension of the Death Plane... and just happens to be contained inside a bottle.
Warnings/Rating: Please indicate content warnings in subject headers as applicable.

OOC INFORMATION ♦ CITY OF KEELIAI ♦ INSIDE THE BOTTLE ♦ THE WORLD EATER
Arriving in Kithika is unpleasant for the most part. Transport through the glass vessel deposits you in the middle of a thick and murky swamp, with air so hot and humid it feels as though one is breathing through a wet towel. This is a place of perpetual night and there are no celestial bodies visible overhead through the twisted vines to break up the blackness, making the only light visible that which comes clumps of marsh fungus that emit a steady glow in a variety of muted colours: pale blue, whitish green, watery mauve. The only other light comes from those who can generate it themselves and that will reveal numerous broad-leaved trees, in some places standing too thick to move through. Below, knee-deep water laps in swirls at their legs, accompanied by the occasional slithery feel of something moving in the bracken against wet limbs, gone before it can be identified. A variety of strange noises from creatures of the swamp fill the air with buzzing and hoarse croaking, interrupted by the screech of mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds darting past and hungry for a meal.

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OOC NOTE: Characters will not be able to progress past the Temple and the Grounds for 48 IC hours after which point, the way to continue onward to find the dragon will be discovered. The second log will be posted on the 17th, to help spread out the tagging. Thank you!

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OOC INFORMATION
Landfall Questions | Approved Item Requests | Player Plot - Kryptonian Rampage OOC

CITY OF KEELIAI
Emperor's Orders: Miasma Explained | Marshaling the Forces | A City Under Siege | Halting the Scourge

INSIDE THE BOTTLE
Crossing the Swamp | Decayed Grounds | The Sullied Temple | Stone Idols | Item Discovery

THE WORLD EATER
Battling the Dragon | Soul's Poison | Kryptonian Rampage | The Guarded Pool | Weighing the Options | Aftermath

Comments

[solo_patria]

Oh THIS was lovely. Instead of being assaulted by students, which Enjolras could generally cope with perfectly well, he got try to calm down a dragon who seemed both angry and to be one of Napoleon's favorites, if not his favorite of all favorites. This was going to be an interesting afternoon.

"It most assuredly is not, here." He did have to agree on the point. "But I wonder, is it fully 1807 either."

He declined to mention the regretful circumstances that had befallen the Emperor, for now, knowing that would get him squashed as well. "I think it best that we establish where we are." And , right, that was a hint of exasperation slipping into his voice there, but it could not be helped.

[dracobin]

Exasperation was an emotion Lung Tien Xiang was well acquainted with; he heard it a great deal from the people around him, his companion notwithstanding.

He had long learned to ignore it. Instead, he rose on his hind legs to get a better look at his surroundings.

"It is nowhere in France I know of, nor England, nor Spain: the architecture is nothing like." The cold, aristocratic drawl was a little forced; he was trying to ignore the unease that sat heavy in his chest. Where was Napoleon? Surely he had not been kidnapped in the night? "I can think of a great many reasons why our enemies should want us separated, but you? What sort of fellow are you, to be taken away like this?"

[solo_patria]

"That IS something I wonder." Enjolras had to agree there. "Kidnapping a dragon, kidnapping the Emperor, well, there are many who would wish to do him, and you by an extension, I'd imagine, some degree of harm. But myself?"

No, it made no sense. He was no one of particular importance, though he quite desired to be. Delusions of his grandeur would not lead to this.

"Only a guard, with a handful of enemies, minor ones at that. I hardly think law students might have arranged this for me, and it would not account for you at any rate. I would also suspect that if we found a third here, he would be from somewhere completely irrelevant to either one of us. A Jacobin or some damned thing, no matter how many laws of time that breaks."

He supposed they might try searching for another, finding out.

[dracobin]

"You cannot know that will happen for certain," grumbled Xiang, though it was more out of a desire to be contrary than out of any real concern for the spirit of scientific inquiry. He was quickly tiring of the whole affair.

But what did interest him was Enjolras' reaction to the entire thing: puzzled, yes, but hardly panicked. He seemed a level-headed sort, and the Emperor had always valued that in a soldier.

"Then at the very least," he said after a moment, "it appears we have a common enemy, lieutenant. No doubt you know of me in your time, so I think further introductions are hardly necessary."

[solo_patria]

"No, that IS true. I can, however, hope." Enjolras offered, inclined to attempt taking this in as much stride as he could manage at the moment. "It would seem to be the most reasonable of explanations and allow that we might find a way to each return to where it is that we belong."

And as for the matter of knowing who he was, well. It seemed that the dragon may be offended more if he did not know, so he nodded. "I do confess I am uncertain as to how I must address you properly."

[dracobin]

Well, that was politeness, of a sort: he could appreciate that, at least. Xiang grumbled a little, again, but only briefly, and more for show than anything else.

"You may call me Monsieur Tamerlan: my tutors and advisors do." His Chinese name was reserved for ceremonies and other formal occasions, though he never quite stopped thinking of himself as Lung Tien Xiang. It would not do to forget one's ancestors, after all.

"And what of you, lieutenant?" He eyed the man critically: his clothing did not speak of his service, at all, but he was appropriately respectful, and his hair was a lovely shade of gold. He would do. "What sorts of things have you seen, in the Guard?"

[solo_patria]

Enjolras supposed that, well, it was only fair for the dragon to be a bit grumbly at him under the circumstances. It was certainly understandable, really.

"Monsieur Tamerlan then. A pleasure." Enjolras added a brief bow after addressing him such, which only felt right under the circumstances, really. He had no idea what was going on, but even so. One must give respect where it was due.

"Generally, since I've joined, a good deal of annoyances in Paris. Civil Disturbances and the like. " He shook his head, disgustedly recalling July of 1830. "Two years ago, over a simple press disturbance, they actually pushed out one of our kings, rioting in the streets and barricades. Disgusting and dangerous, to say the least."

[dracobin]

Any pleasure the lieutenant's bow might have given Xiang was short-lived. Almost immediately afterward he began to speak, and again his words were utter nonsense.

"Kings!" he said heatedly, barely giving Enjolras time to finish. "What is this talk of kings, when my companion ought still be Emperor of France, with me at his side? When the people ought to have their say, provided they are willing to be peaceable, and the Armée de l'Air ought to prove more than sufficient to dissuade them, when they are not?"

Again, that dull, aching feeling of foreboding. Something was not right here--had never been right, he was beginning to realize. Enjolras was hiding a great deal from him, and for what reasons he could only imagine.

"Speak, lieutenant," he said icily. "Tell me what has happened, in Paris. In France. Tell me what has become of Napoleon."

[solo_patria]

"And he might be still, I hope that he is still, in the future of the world you have come from." Enjolras told him, quite sincere in that regard. He understood, truly, what it was to wish for Empire to return. "Empire was, doubtlessly, the better way. However..."

And here follows a brief explanation of the Russian Winter, of the Sixth Coalition, and the way they have played out in the world Enjolras knows. And then, and his voice grows colder, angry, yes, as he speaks of a forced abdication and the Emperor's exile. That is, however, all that he will say here, not wishing to tell the rest of it.

"I was young then, as those things were happening, but it was enough." He adds, voice shaking with emotion there, and, for any who know Enjolras well enough to have seen him in such a state, ordinarily, it might remind them of his reverence for the Jacobins, or the way he touches one of his earrings when pressed to make a difficult decision. At the moment though, well, he seems like nothing more than some odd version of Marius Pontmercy.

"Enough to show me that so much as I love France, there are things in her which are wrong. But the way they choose to go about "solving" those problems now? Ridiculous. Everyone with sense can only see that there is but one way. And I know not an Emperor who could be returned to it with the same strength within him yet."

[dracobin]

Xiang listened.

The more he listened, the more he regretted asking: but he could not very well ask Enjolras to stop, when he had wanted to know in the first place. Still he grew quieter and quieter, his wings hunching about him like a little tent, as if to protect himself from the words.

It was wrong: it was all wrong. How could there be a Sixth Coalition, when there had never been a Fifth, or even a Fourth? England had fallen not a year after his hatching, and Spain had been crumbling before his very eyes before he arrived: what resistance, if any, could they have offered? How could Enjolras speak, so, of armies and troops, and never once mention the dragons of the Armée de l'Air? How could anyone think to send his companion away to some island, as if Xiang would not move heaven and earth to rescue him?

"So you do not recognise me, after all," he said at last: hardly the most important matter at hand, but the only one he could think to focus on, in his distress. "I do not exist in your world, and nor do any other dragons."

[solo_patria]

Enjolras felt terrible as he relayed it, not only because of how the story ended itself, but for how it was making the dragon feel just now. It was indeed a thing which should never have happened, terrible to say the least, and while he'd not mentioned the specifics involving dragons...yes that was fairly easy enough to pick up on, wasn't it?

"I do not, I must admit." He sighed a little. "I did not wish to alarm you at first, and well, I do hope that in a world where you exist things must be different." Dragons, after all. They HAD to be.

[dracobin]

"They will be different," said Temeraire vehemently. "They must be: I shall remember everything you told me, and prevent it from happening, if anyone should try."

He paused, then added, with the air of one unaccustomed to gratefulness: "And I will remember you, as well, lieutenant, if our paths cross in my own world; such loyalty to my companion must be rewarded, somehow."

[solo_patria]

"Good." Enjolras did believe that it was possible for things to be turned around with proper warning. "I should think if any being could do it, it would be you." It was comforting, really to consider a world where the empire might still hold, instead of what they'd gotten instead.

As for the rest. The dragon of Napoleon himself. Surely an Enjolras in any world could come to appreciate that.

"I would...that is kind of you. Thank you."