EVENT | ZUGZWANG | SEPTEMBER 21-28

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: September 21-28, 2014
Location: Keeliai
Situation: Something in the city has caused the Foreigner's powers to go off the charts, affecting even those who wouldn't possess any. Things pretty much go downhill from there...
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

The state of affairs in Keeliai has been tense since the incident at the Midnight Hotel with Evandau, and the aftereffects have put a touch of pall on the city. Kedan look at each other distrustfully, wondering who among their number might be possessed by Malicant's essence and that suspicion carries to the Foreigners as well. How can they fight for us? they seem to be asking. They can't even stop fighting amongst themselves and the Emperor. Of course, the kedan's opinion of Evandau is likewise not exactly stellar any longer, as whether through inevitability or design, his cold actions of killing those who cross him has come to light. While there's no open dissent in the ranks (and likely, it seems, more due to fear of repercussion than loyalty) there are certainly looks and whispers.

The turtle hatchlings have also picked up on it, and they've become quieter than normal. Especially those who are suffering under shedding the remainders of Malicant's taint if they were injured by the poisoned weapons, they'll seem hesitant to bother their parents for minor things, or if possible will ask a parent who isn't afflicted first.

It feels like the calm before a storm.

---

LINKS
Powers Going Haywire (Sept 21-25) | Powers Nullified (Sept 26-27) | PART 2 TBA (Sept 28) | OOC Plot Post

OOC NOTE
Reactions to the Part 2 plot reveal will also be threaded on this post and the comment will be unfrozen when the other posts are made. Event questions can be directed to this comment. Have fun!

Comments

[peacefullywreathed]

"I'm doing no such thing," Solomon retorted instantly, even as he handed Raine some more bones for the arm and took back the femurs to start on Skulduggery's legs. "Therefore, yes, you are wrong, but I won't blame you for it due to your recent state of dis-assembly."

Just don't do it again, you idiot.

The thought was a whisper, but it was there, and unconsciously evident in the grim set of Solomon's jaw and the way he didn't stop helping with the re-assembly, or the vague air of relief in spite of his words. Not that it was all for Skulduggery (he would claim none of it was for Skulduggery), given the implications of what had just happened. "I shouldn't have been able to do that."

[skeletonenigma]

The immediacy and strength of Wreath's response belied the words themselves. So did the speed with which he worked, the relief, the intent expression on his face, and the vibrations Skulduggery felt while his torso was put back together - the vibrations which could only have come from shaking hands.

But he chose not to pursue the topic just yet. Wreath wasn't currently receptive to teasing of any sort, and he'd brought up a much more interesting topic of discussion besides.

"No," Skulduggery agreed, rotating his newly assembled shoulder in its socket. "Nor should you have, but I'll happily forgive you and move on in exchange for your help in putting me back together. I shouldn't be able to use my faces, either. Now, why do you think we can? Feel free to chime in, Raine. I think we could all use a distraction."

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine hummed quietly in thought, tuneless and absent, and kept working at putting Skulduggery back together. "Asti seems the obvious answer," she said. "His power has lingered, even when everything else is cut off. That which he granted me directly modified my existing abilities, however." And she did pause briefly there, gaze distant as she worked through that. "It's impossible to tell, of course, but most likely his boon is still in effect, it's simply that I lack the tools to use it." Annoying, but logical.

That much thought through, she resumed sorting bones out. "Your faces were made to function here by Asti," she added, and looked to Solomon. "I'm less clear on the specifics, but if what you can still do isn't directly tied to the filter he granted you, I'd be surprised. Still-- none of that says why you'd retain what Asti gave you. It does, however, say that whatever is causing the nullification doesn't affect Asti." Another pause, to consider whether the conclusions she was drawing could have some foundation. "...It couldn't be caused by him, could it?"

[peacefullywreathed]

"By Asti, deliberately or not," said Solomon, "or by someone else." He fitted one of Skulduggery's knees together, followed by the fibula. He picked up one of the shoes and took out the sock, and shook the bones into his hand to put that together too. His expression was thoughtful, calmer than it had been.

"You say your boon directly modified your existing abilities?" he asked. "So did mine. It removed the addiction. Now my magic is nullified and yet I find the boon grants me a direct link to the single most addictive Necromantic technique of all?" He shook his head. The death-aura hadn't been addicting, so the boon's original purpose was still in play. Maybe it was an accidental loophole. Maybe it was meant to be benign. But if so, why did the boons still work at all?

"What modification did the boon make, and how might that come into play given that you've no direct control of your magic?"

[skeletonenigma]

Skulduggery said nothing. He didn't have the same context for the way Raine's magic worked as Wreath did, although it was less because of an inability to understand and more because he'd never asked, and didn't see a need to. He might have seen a need now, except that his mind was going too fast and he barely even noticed Wreath and Raine were still interacting.

Bits of conversations Skulduggery had months ago were connecting with pieces of information Skulduggery had now, and it was enough of the proverbial lightning bolt that he was finally able to enjoy the sensation again. Being forever irritable and violent and on the cusp had run Skulduggery's mind into the ground; now it was coming back, rusty and slow, but undeniably there. It was, perhaps, the best thing to come from Skulduggery's magic all being nullified.

[ruinsprofessor]

She didn't have to ask which 'someone else' Solomon meant. "It might be something like an immune reaction on Asti's part," she said, similarly thoughtful. "If it is directly caused by that someone else, however, that raises the question of why anyone has retained anything. If this was the result of an attack directed at Asti, I'd expect the opposite: that his resources would be taxed, leaving us solely with our own power again." She kept coming around to the same idea, and she didn't like it at all, nor that it had taken her so long to come around to the greater implications. The nullification had rattled her badly. "So in that case, the logical assumption would be a concerted effort against the Foreigners, either to harm or... to distract from something that needs to be uninterrupted."

If it needed them out of the way for something, it had certainly achieved that effect. Raine blew out a tired breath, and, noting that her hands had stilled again, resumed fitting smaller bones together. "My boon modified my efficiency with mana," she said, in answer to Solomon. "It's allowed me to heal average people as easily as I would normally heal an exsphere user, at home. Mana responded in the same way as it always had, but the results of the same shapes became more potent. The same with my support artes, and, progressively, with my light artes as well. But... all of the possible applications of that boost are to do with mana, which I can no longer even sense." She was intently focused on bones alone by that point, in an effort to detach emotion from an idea that was still genuinely upsetting, and her tone had grown cooler.

[peacefullywreathed]

"I can't sense my magic either," Solomon said simply, finishing a foot and attaching it to the end of Skulduggery's leg. "That didn't keep me from using the most powerful technique at my disposal, and the one that would have driven me insane the quickest if I'd used it while addicted."

If the boons were booby-trapped, then how might Raine's be so? If she was meant to draw extra power from mana to heal others, then a booby-trap would logically be the reversed in a way to maximise suffering. "It's possible you'd take mana from others instead," he said, "maybe even feed it into your exsphere, if the lack of them was what made your artes less powerful while you were here."

It was a tangential consideration, to be sure, though a relevant one. Better Raine know for sure what her magic might do, at such a time--and not even attempt to use it even through the nullification. Still, the unspoken elephant in the room was lurking.

[skeletonenigma]

"Several months ago," Skulduggery said, testing his newly-attached foot by rotating it in its socket, "Asti grew sick. There was a severe food shortage, enough so that some of the Foreigners had to start using separate technology to grow their own gardens. Around about the exact same time, blood rituals being practiced on the kedan were discovered and interrupted. The next thing anyone knew, Asti's sickness had disappeared, and the blood rituals weren't heard from again."

It was prodding the elephant in the room, if not pointing it out outright; probably, Skulduggery suspected, because none of them wanted to consider the implications. The problem was that if no one did, everyone on the turtle would be taken by surprise when Malicant launched his inevitable endgame.

Skulduggery hissed with the pain of another attached joint, and then took over some of the work with one of his newly-put together hands. "Please don't ever do that again, Solomon. It's even more painful than you would think. Keeping the boons working smoothly through this period makes sense if you're trying to lull people into a false sense of security, but why is he trying to lull us into a false sense of security? Are the gifts going to eventually backfire, or is using them making us more susceptible to him? If that's the case, Raine, you might be the least compromised one here."

[ruinsprofessor]

By the rules of her world, neither thing should have been possible, but she still didn't know exactly how the boon had effected its change on her, and suddenly she was loath to say impossible, either. Slightly paler, Raine stared at Solomon for a moment. "I think I'll avoid experimenting, in this instance," she said. One hand rose to her collarbone, not entirely a conscious gesture. "If that's the technique your boon has the greatest effect on, though, the fact you've retained it does at least make some sense."

The elephant in the room really did need to be addressed, didn't it. Raine fell back on helping with what was left of Skulduggery to put together, handing bones to the appropriate people more than anything else. "Blood magic... Yes, I heard about that. I had been under the impression the matter was resolved, but... you think there's more to it." She could almost see where he was going. "If this effect is something more to keep us out of the way than anything else, adding to the discord caused by the taint, and if preventing the interruption of a blood ritual or rituals is the goal..."

Raine shook her head, and sat back a little. "It's a lot of ifs, none of which we're currently in a position to do anything about. If it is up to something, it's likely using the Palace. Difficult to interrupt in any case. A false sense of security would fit with the idea that we're being pointed away from interfering... hm. Why is it you're sure we're keeping the boons because of rather than in spite of our enemy?"

[peacefullywreathed]

"The blood-magic is still ongoing in the palace," Solomon said a little flatly. "Or at least it was, some months ago, when the palace had just been subverted--some of the Foreigners managed to infiltrate it." Raine was one of them, though Solomon didn't know that. He made a noise at Skulduggery's reprimand, half a grunt and half a wordless grumble, and handed some bones to the skeleton.

Then he sat back with a sigh. "Because," he said, "there are things Asti would be better served giving his attention to than maintaining our boons if he were fighting Mevolent's little brother so directly. And if Asti himself fell sick only once blood-magic rites were interrupted, then that says a great deal about where the rites were going."