tushanshu_logs | [EVENT] A NEW WORLD ORDER

[EVENT] A NEW WORLD ORDER

Characters: ALL!
Date: December 8, 2015 (with some starters for the following weeks)
Location: Keeliai, the Midnight Hotel, others
Situation: The Foreigners have awakened.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

They've been in the Dreaming for so long that when they wake up their bodies feel more like automatons, alien and ill-fitting. They haven’t atrophied, thanks to Milyn, but they’re stiff and a little bedsore, and the solidity of the Life Plane is jarring. Here, the surroundings don’t move on a whim. Here the world is more stable, almost harsh and unyielding in spite of the homey surrounds.

It’s been a year, says the clock on the mantle and on the second floor. Says Milyn, too, when she’s able to stop hugging them long enough to speak.

Nothing much has changed in the Midnight Hotel. There are dishes out of place, objects belonging to either Milyn or Eva in evidence, the diorama exactly where it had been but now brightly-painted thanks to Milyn's boredom. Milyn and Eva took a room each, in the time the Foreigners were sleeping, though neither used them much.

Eva’s upstairs, Milyn will tell anyone who asks. In her room.

Eva hasn't left that room in three days. She hasn't spoken in three days, either, or walked, or moved, or breathed. Her effects are neatly arranged around her bed, and the sheet has been pulled up. There is heavy incense in the room and Milyn has managed to preserve the body enough to remove the risk of too much mess (and other things). In a way, that makes it worse: as though Eva is sleeping. It’s difficult to tell whether Milyn is in denial or whether spending three days with no one to talk to other than sleeping Foreigners and a corpse has had its influence.

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"I do know what you mean, in part."

The Dreaming, for all that it had been strange, had been a place of seeing his friends relatively happy. Midii and her family, Sokka and the comfortable shop, even the friends he'd seen in the Musain he'd wandered into for a little while there toward his time in the Dreaming. Seeing Bahorel and Feuilly there, whole and well enough, despite being dead still, after what they had been while he was under Malicant's power in their final confrontation, had done him some good and he had relaxed further to see a happier Grantaire than usual, raising his glass from the corner.

"It was...safe there." He allows as far as he can explain it. "Those I cared for...they were safe, both friends from home, and you and some of the others." His mind goes to Midii for a moment, and he cringes a little, thinking of how badly she must feel right now. Taraja was special to her and she had been a mother to her own hatchling and...

"There was comfort too." He allowed. "Comfort that we could allow ourselves to have because...everything was solved. " Waking up to all of this had been something like a nightmare, even though he knew damned well it could have been worse.

"A year." He agrees, his tones a bit darker and more subdued than they have been lately. Even when he and Taraja had first met Sokka, when they'd both been reeling from the loss of the sacrificial hatchlings, he had at least tried to look at ease. Such heavy news as this though, well, it prompted other reactions entirely. Really, he wanted to do nothing more than fling himself somewhere safe. If he had been able to, he would have run home, made sure Jackie was all right, then thrown himself into what he still thought of as Combeferre's room, fling himself into the sheets he had not changed since his partner left, and curl up there, with the familiar smell, as he had taken to doing when things got to be too rough here.

He probably would not cry, but he would have stayed there a long time, being motionless. When there was no fight to fling himself into, and no useful things to do with his time after a great loss, he generally spent time alone doing just that, making himself small and quiet and, well, safe in the way he'd felt with Combefere around. It was a stupid notion, and a stupider habit, but Enjolras did not let himself do it often, and only at the most dire of events.

But the option was not there now, and maybe it was a good thing. If it forced him to handle life all the faster, and if he could find a way to help Sokka, somehow, it would be better for all of them. For now, he stood closer to the young man, moving a hand to his ear and smiling sadly. He'd bought Taraja a matching pair of hoops, and, since she could not wear them, secured them on a red ribbon for her to wear around her leg. She'd asked for red because it matched his waistcoat and...

Enjolras shook his head, hair flying everywhere with the force of his trying to forget that moment and to nod at Sokka instead.

"It does make sense, really. I shall miss her, but I suppose that...eventually children do grow up, don't they?" He frowned as he said that, but it was a more resigned one now. "And yes, knowing they are safe is good. It does not help me miss her less, already, but they can protect each other, anyway. And perhaps someday, we will make landfall near the group of them."

He could imagine the hatchlings, bigger now, and creating a sort of floating city of their own until they were able to make up whole ones much later on. Or just adventuring themselves until the wanderlust of young adults went away. In fact, that thought made him snort a little.

"Do you know, I think I understand now, how my father felt, when I went off to Paris."

Monsieur Enjolras Senior had warned him, many times to be careful, knowing, even though his son had kept it quiet, that he intended to launch himself into dangerous directions. Politics and physical travel through a world he did not quite understand, even after a year and a half here, were very different from each other, but even so, Enjolras could see something of a comparison there.

"And yes, I cannot imagine all of them at once here. Poor Asti might have something of a problem carrying them, along with all of us." That happier thought got a smile. "I should hope we see them again someday. I cannot imagine how much she has grown up." That feeling, at least, was much better, somehow.

Yeah, Sokka won't deny how nice it was in the Dreaming... how nice and convenient it was to be there. For Sokka, Suki was there. They'd found Katara, of course, and she was staying just as he was, which had certainly reaffirmed his decision not to head back home. And in the grand scheme of things, it had almost felt like a proverbial paradise what with no real malignant forces outside of their own imaginations haunting them. Being back on Asti meant that they were going to have to face the music at some point.

"Yeah, it was like our own little paradise, wasn't it?" he says kind of dreamily, as if he could almost taste it. But really, he can't. It's just out of reach no matter how hard he tries to recover it. He sighs then and just shakes his head. "Nope, of course it wouldn't last. And now we're here, back at the throes of... well, them," he says with a gesture out of the hotel, obviously referring to the kedan. "What do you want to bet that we're not going to get a parade for our work, huh?"

But whatever. That's less of an issue or a concern than the loss of Taraja. Even if it makes sense that Taraja left, the absence is still there. Even if the mental link isn't completely shut off, he can't help but feel physically torn by the distance.

"You know, I would have imagined my father would have felt the same way too... if he'd been around when my sister and I left the South Pole," he says. After all, Hakoda had already left to go fight in the Hundred-year War, and so Sokka had left without him ever knowing. "We didn't meet him until long after that, and by then we'd already been through a number of battles. But even so, I can imagine that, at that point, Dad probably felt something of the same thing."

He looks off to the distance, perhaps in the direction that Taraja was, but who could really tell inside the Midnight Hotel; they were in this little pocket universe anyway that didn't make scientific sense.

"I can't help but wonder if they know that we're alive the same way we know they're alive," Sokka says, thinking about it a little bit. "Maybe they'll actually decide to come back one day to see how we're doing! You know, since we can't really steer this city-turtle thing."

It had been a decent holiday, really, Enjolras supposed, and all right, he had made some use of the time that he was there between the worlds, particularly as it came to spending time with the friends who had either never found their way here, or with those he had never been able to make his appreciation and love for clear, trickling all the way from Combeferre to his first (and only) editor, and even to Mere Hucheloup who had let them tear apart her wineshop to make their barricade. And he'd done it without a paper or a pen of any sort in sight. He'd been productive, and, more importantly than that, he'd come to a sort of peace with all of them, leaving it perfectly clear where everyone stood.

But now, all that was over, and it's time for the work, and very literal work it was, that stretches out before them. He's nodding at Sokka's words, a little wistful itself. "It helped, actually. I barely remember most of it now, exactly what I told them, but...I know I made my peace with everyone I cared to make it with. Dreaming though it was, vague as it all actually is, I cannot mind that we were stuck there, if returning to all of..."

He's repeating the gesture, with a somewhat worried, somewhat amused tone, because, really, is there any better way to put it than the gesture and the search for words. "I am not even going to ask how they've changed as much as the update we've just been given suggests. Where I come from, nature's timetable is a great deal slower. Perhaps we could have used something like that in Paris."

Though the pendant is heavy around his neck, and when he notices it again, his thoughts are back to Taraja too. He wouldn't begrudge the hatchlings any siblings they had left, or the choice to go on with them; he had done the same with les amis through everything that the first life had brought them, after all, but yes, that absence is still there, and comes up to gnaw at him just after he thinks that he's accepted and can handle it. It is still just so...

Well. There is a moment where he follows Sokka's gaze, wondering too. Well, much less about the pocket universe; science is the sort of thing that he left to his friends, thank you very much; he'd barely managed in the law school, practically designed for slackers who didn't give much of a damn back then. When it comes to Taraja though, he almost pictures her, then stops again, when it doesn't feel quite right. How she must have grown by now! There is a second, maybe even a few where that's especially cutting, but thankfully, Sokka is interrupting what could have lead to a very depressing moment, and he finds he has to nod.

"I think that they must. Our energy has to have changed a little, I would think, from when we were asleep. And, yes, perhaps they will. It is a small current, after all. Well, relatively speaking, considering how far apart the rest of us here were when we were pulled. That is the other strange part of this. It would seem Asti is taking some sort of a well earned rest."

That really was completely strange and new and not something he'd ever thought they would encounter, somehow.

"Apparently, he's not speaking to anyone, these days. Then again, if any of my friends did not notice I was being impersonated by a force of massive evil until nearly too late, I suppose that could be awkward."

Very literal work is perhaps the best way to put the present into perspective, and while Sokka is still in part bemoaning the fact that the Dreaming is so much nicer than the plane of Life, he too knows that the gloves are off now, and the world is vastly changed from whence it was before their journey into the depths of the turtle to face Malicant. In fact, that the change so thoroughly seems to have discarded them from history practically is catastrophically shocking in many respects.

"Well," Sokka says with a node of snide sarcasm, "I'm sure the kedan would be most appreciative to tell you exactly how they changed everything behind our backs. Though maybe not before taking the rest of your juulan first, if it's actually true that they've taken over all the places we used to hold." He still looks oddly at the ring on his finger, which has a shocking bright blue gem inset into it. "At least we're free to live anywhere in the city we want now without having to worry about those creepy spirit lanterns. Provided there is anywhere in the city to go."

Their discussion of the hatchlings eventually leads to Asti himself, and that's a subject that Sokka is much less familiar with. While the gnawing ache of Taraja's absence is still felt, his mind is doing its best to distract him from it, and so the change of topic is welcome for Sokka, and he's going to hold onto that, even if the topic isn't exactly good news. Well, what could he expect; the only good news they've had so far is defeating Malicant a year ago. Everything else has just been downhill since they've woken up.

"Well, Asti never spoke to me," Sokka says with a fake huff. "Clearly I wasn't special enough for that." Of course, he's well aware of the fact that Malicant had probably already infiltrated Asti's mind by the time Sokka had arrived, but he'd also never really explored the palace or even much of the Fire Sector, which is the direction in which Asti's head lived. "Probably a moot point now to go try to meet him, huh?

"But I hope that doesn't spell out something worse for us, you know, something like Asti either being dead... or worse." As if there could be something worse. "Could you imagine us just running smack dab into land at the speed we're going? Let's just hope that Asti wakes up or at least has some amount of conscious thought before that happens."

It is fairly shocking, yes, that sinking feeling when you realize that so many stories, so many friends and contributions have been lost, or cast aside completely, or just completely destroyed like this. Enjolras has had experience with that before; history's tendency to forget, and it always seems to be those things that matter most that end completely cast aside, that had their chance at becoming historic and then slipped away just like that.

All that said, it is a blow each time, and he's faced with the same sickening shock that came over him during his last few hours in 1832. And here, having taken on an unwinnable fight that they somehow still won and having it erased...

"Well," he mutters, to himself mostly, his tone a little...all right, a lot dark, "It certainly is different every time. Maybe in the next world any of us are dragged to, things will end a little differently."

Downhill is one word for all of this, at least.

"That actually would be useful to learn." Sokka is right about the potential costs all right, but even so, it could be useful to ferret out all the same. "If there is anything I learned at home, it is how easily a narrative can be controlled. Propaganda is a powerful machine, and they'll have had a year to form theirs, with no one here to counter it."

That was a problem so far as he was concerned. The narrative of history had been discarded, and it left over a thousand stories in its wake, and damn but Enjolras hated that right from the start. "I wonder," He started, knowing it was not exactly practical. "how many false attempts and doors slammed in the face and stolen juulan it would take to get something complete. More than we could afford just now, of course, but sometime in the future, it would be a good idea. How do we know what we are fighting if we do not know what they've been told to believe...and who exactly is scripting that."

It was something, and the first time since waking here that he felt he had even a little bit of an idea of what to do in this new world. That was something, anyway.

"If it helps, it was not exactly Asti the last time "he" came bearing gifts." Enjolras mutters. "But probably, I would not bother. They say he's sleeping, or something like that." Whatever the massive thousand year old continent entity turtle version of that is at least. Worse?" He asked, raising an eyebrow, though on second thought, he realizes he probably does not want to know.

"At least this has been going on for quite a while. So that probably would have happened while we didn't notice, anyway." Silver lining? Maybe.

Sokka can't help but chuckle darkly at some of the things Enjolras has to say. After all, they always seem to be facing dark circumstances here, and with them dark subjects. "Well, maybe next time we get sent to another world, we can put in a request to the management to get one that has a little more positivity than this one," he quips with a little humour. "Of course, it'll probably actually be denied, but I guess the effort to improve our own fate can't hurt, right?"

At any rate, he does admit that Enjolras has a good point about learning the narrative would be a useful thing to learn, especially with the concern of how it ended up the way it was and who were the ones doing the shaping. Yes, the practicality was probably a net loss at their current juncture, but if they ever had the opportunity to learn it, it would be good.

"At least a dozen or more," Sokka says, answering the question as if it weren't hypothetical. "But I suppose it won't take too much knocking on doors to get the general shape of what we're looking at. I mean, we might not get access to those sorts of people easily, but we probably will find out who they are and a loose idea of what it is they're after without too much effort. And not too many juulan either. That's some good thinking."

He can't help but grin; they've at least got a plan now between them. When stuck, the two of them always seem to find some synergy and a way forward; he absolutely loved that aspect of his friendship with Enjolras.

Of course, Sokka hadn't really known about Asti's boons either except as a vague story (not to mention having heard what happened in the Dreaming after some of them had attacked the rest).

"Well, at least Asti isn't the Creep Lord in disguise at least," Sokka replies. "Sleeping or dreaming are probably some of the better choices at the moment. As far as worse?" Sokka certainly takes Enj's cue, and as he leans forward, his voice dropped, "let's just say I have a pretty good imagination. Anything that doesn't look like that I can interpret as a blessing no matter the circumstances."

"I would enjoy that, in another world, yes." Enjolras matches that dark chuckle, because, truly, in its way, a lot of this is too unbelievable not to laugh.

"It is almost hilarious, you know? The fact that we continue to be...what is the word again...screwed?" Enjolras tried that on for size, and it did not exactly suit him as vocabulary somehow. "Still, the fact that we are screwed at every turn. And I suppose it could not hurt to try. Whatever factor of the universe has sent us here, it may be a little inclined to mercy next time, should we beg."

How to learn that narrative would be another question, and probably a long and drawn out one as well. It was not exactly as though Enjolras could disguise himself as a kedan and learn the entire story.

"The general shape would be a fine enough place to start. And who knows? Perhaps as they are yelling at us to go away, we'll find some bonus accusations tossed into the mix. It could be educational."

And good. Taraja may have been the force that brought them together, but Enjolras is lucky that friendship with Sokka did not end and begin with only her. Sokka's creative and thoughtful and does not let him get bogged down in the details for too long.

"I am glad, you know." he adds, "That we've become close. We do work well together, I should think. And I am glad about that. Whatever Asti chooses, he is himself again and that impacts them all.

"Then let us cheer on good imaginations. May they always remind us that we have only up to go!"

Sokka flashes an incredibly brief smile at Enjolras' use of the term; it so defied the way he talked so funny that he snorts out an approval, if such a thing could transpire. But he then mulls over the term for a moment before sighing and regretfully consenting to it. "Yeah, I'd say screwed is pretty accurate for our circumstances. I'd say anywhere could be better than this, but I don't think that's entirely true."

However, the plan that Enjolras is concocting with Sokka's help is, as zany as it sounds, actually plausible and productive. Even though it's not exactly the happiest, most fun thing ever. "You're suggesting we go around Keeliai looking for people to insult us. And that's your idea of educational?" Sokka smirks though, letting him know that he's not actually dismissing it but instead approving.

But really, Sokka is thankful too. Having a non-bender around, even if it's not from his own world, as a friend is hugely productive, and it definitely pushes away the loneliness of this world now that it only has Katara, Tony, and maybe Jack Frost as his close comrades.

"Well, I'm glad that you're glad. And honestly, it's good to have you on the team. Though I think I'm going to need to come up with a new name for our little group since now we're getting people who aren't necessarily centred around the Avatar." Because every good thing needs a name, even if it's a plain one like Boomerang. "Just calling us 'foreigners' seems so passé."

It really did, didn't it? Enjolras can't help being amused by that too, and the snort does feel, really, like some kind of an accomplishment that Enjolras can't help but be a little pleased with. Well, if it weren't so true at least.

"Sadly so, but still. Trapped in a world where he won would likely be worse." Just to throw that out there as a possibility. It does make most things look good after all, doesn't it?

"Well, if that happened, I think it would be very beneficial" Enjolras eyedarts a bit. "We might have to compare to see which ones are common and which are especially made up or creative, but yes, essentially if we can work out what they're saying, and potentially why..." Sokka seems to get the idea, so Enjolras is nodding, a smile on his face. He's grateful to have people here, too, and somehow, as crazy as most of them are...it does work somehow, after all.

"I think that may be a good idea, yes. 'Foreigners' is theirs, too, when you think about. Something else to call ourselves. My last group name involved a terrible pun in French so I submit I should stay out of trying to come up with it one way or the other. I will take almost anything, though I draw the line at something like 'you people'. "

Sokka makes a rather disgusted face at the thought of being trapped in a world where Malicant had soundly beaten them. Though at the same time, that was about the worst thing that could possibly happen. "Yuck, I think I'd prefer dying in a world where the Creep Lord won than living in it," he says with several ounces of unease.

However, Sokka seems to be on board with Enjolras in all of this. "Well it just so happens that I'm an excellent namer of things," he says, changing subjects to their new goal. "So you're already here with the right people. Hmmm." He pauses to think about this one for a little bit, working through a couple of possibilities before stopping on one that's rather promising.

"How about 'Super Heroes'? Because we should be heroes for defeating the Creep Lord, and we're all kind of super awesome people?"

He's waiting for a nod of approval.

"I quite agree." Enjolras doesn't quite make a face himself, really, though he does wrinkle his nose very slightly, looking much like a disgusted rabbit. "I wonder if he would have wished our lives and not been happier to crash our spirits and to remind us of it, often. In the Dreaming, you know, I'd thought...was made to believe he had enslaved me. He had two of my friends with him, and they were his servants too. He rather took a glee in the whole thing that makes me wonder which he might have liked more. He seems the sort to play with his victims before ending things."

It's not a great statement to linger on, though, and he's grateful Sokka's suggestion tends to the happier and more immediate.

"Super Heroes." He repeats, and tries that on for size. He does have to admit it has a ring to it. "Not bad at all. We may wish to run it by whoever else would like to help us in, or join us for this, but it IS a contender."

Sokka, "pessimist" that he is, pushes that whole first conversation away. "Okay, I think we've definitely had our fill now of contemplating the worst possible existence for our entire gangly group of 'friends,'" he says with a rather displeased tone. "Suffice to say that the Creep Lord is gone, and we can just move past that whole unfortunate affair. So that we can worry about our next problem."

Sokka looks pleased at Enj's so-far acceptance of the name. "Good, we can use that as a starting point," he says with satisfaction. "And if someone doesn't like it, well, I imagine I might be able to come up with something slightly better, you know, since this idea's already pretty stellar."

"Right. That is hardly pleasant, is it?" Enjolras actually has to ask this question. There are moments when the social progress that he's made seems to recede entirely, aren't there? "Ah our next problem. Making friends and influencing kedan?"

Well, the last time Enjolras was taking team name suggestions, he went for a pun so, anything to keep him from that fate again, right? "I quite like it, yes. More important than a name, we might want somewhere to meet. If nothing else, we could use the hotel for space, of course, but somewhere to spread out would be comfortable depending on whom we manage to attract to us."

Sokka just nods regretfully when they talk about the "next" problem they face. It's much more abstract and much less easy Sokka to just fathom up an easy answer to.

"Well, the Hotel is a great spot and all," Sokka says, as they shift to talking about a meeting space, "and it's certainly a protected space, especially if we start working with the kedan on this sort of thing. But yeah. I mean, we're just going to have to go out and see how much this turtle has changed since we've been asleep to do that. I doubt most of the places that used to be sacred are any longer..."

It requires a different sort of technique than the ones they've used before, doesn't it? Perhaps they've found a way to start already. But no, he expects it to require different skills, and maybe to develop them or...who knows? It will at least not be boring.

"That too." He agrees, "We may be able to organize...outings so to speak. Perhaps if there are more of us, we will be safer. I do not THINK they would want to do anything about a lot of us, surely? And no.

[His face falls as he considers that idea, but he does have to admit that, more than likely, they are not.]

My God, but that is a strange thought.

Sokka contemplates his plottings, and eventually nods in agreement. "I think you've got the right of it. It doesn't sound like a completely terrible idea to have a few people present when you're collecting stories from the kedan, but we also want them to feel honest, so don't... you know, make it feel like they're being bullied or something. Granted, the Hotel is going to help a little with that, but..."

He shrugs before nodding. "Yeah, I have no idea where I'm even going to be sleeping tonight!" He pauses and adds, "Which is kind of a weird concern to have since I've just slept for an entire year without waking up. In a hotel lobby."

"Making them feel bullied is the last thing we want, certainly." Enjolras agreed. "I wonder if there are some friendly gestures we could try to replicate. They may still want to insult us or be angry, but it would be a door opener."

As for the rest of that, Enjolras had to laugh. "You know, that is a great point. I feel as if I'll never need to sleep again, though I know that's not the truth. The entire thing is just a bit unreal, isn't it?"

Sokka shakes his head at that. "Hey, the way I'm feeling after waking up, I'd be more than happy to go to sleep again." He yawns widely for a moment; he certainly feels like he could go to bed, certainly.

"Oh yeah, I bet many of the kedan's minds were poisoned against us long ago in this year," he continues. "I mean, you might find one or two of them that still like us, but I'm going to take a wild stab that it's a minority. At any rate, it's still important to figure it out because that's the only way we'll turn the tide."

"It really is." Enjolras shakes his head, hair that he did not remember being quite so long flying around him as he does that. Apparently, somewhere in the last year, he'd lost the thong he'd wrapped around his braid, and now has a host of snarls and other things to deal with later. Sore as he is though, sleeping seems oddly out of the question for him. Eating everything in sight though...

"Probably a very very small one, yes" He agrees, wincing at the thought. "Though yes, I agree. Our only chance, really."

Edited 2015-01-21 10:20 (UTC)

"Well, I guess that's the plan for the moment then," Sokka says, confirming the plan. "As for me, I think my goal is to figure out what the heck is out there. And I reckon that'll be my first order of business. After eating of course."

Because as far as food was concerned, well, he agrees with Enj on that one.

"Food yes. And as much coffee as can be found." Enjolras agrees, sighing wistfully at the thought. "I wonder if the bakery can be persuaded to toss a couple chocolate croissants in a bag out the window if I throw the money and a note to them. Those were always the best. After that, certainly to business."

"Yes, coffeeeee..." Sokka says, almost sounding rather much like a zombie. "I think I could drink a gallon of it if I could find it in that quantity somewhere. Anyway, I'll catch you around certainly."

Edited 2015-01-28 12:05 (UTC)

"Definitely." Enjolras agrees, giving him a nod. They'll have to stick together after all now, right?"

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[EVENT] A NEW WORLD ORDER

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