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

DEMONSTRATION

[alderwood]

Do you honestly think that this is going to save us? That these people are going to save us? Look at them!

[The kedan stalks across the stage, grabs one of the two women his henchmen have dragged on stage and gives her a good, hard shake by her white hair. The other prisoner, when he gestures, is shoved down to her knees. A position of execution, for anyone familiar with it.]

These people aren't even capable of saving themselves! We've wasted decades worth of resources for what? Throwing a party? For these Foreigners?

No more. That ends here, right now.

[The statement is prophetic, but for reasons contrary to the kedan's desire. When he turns towards the red-headed woman, ready to fulfil her position, the shadows cast by the silk draped in festive designs shifts and Evandau -- the Alderwood Commander himself -- almost materialises from it.

There is no time, no chance for the kedan to react. He wields a knife and moves fast, dispatching the head of the snake and the two henchmen holding the hostages. A spray of blood, some cries of pain, then there are three dead kedan and two living Foreigners left unharmed but bloodspattered.

He does not mince words, nor does he check to see if they are okay. There are others in the crowd, loyal to the dead kedan and wielding weapons easily concealed. They will be hungry for Foreigner blood and so it is these that he goes after, intending to hunt them down one by one as police flood the area to make arrest those that evade him and to ensure that no others have been hurt or killed.]

(OOC: The muster grounds for the parade will have erupted in chaos and there's a good chance that many of the anti-Foreigners mingled in the crowd are still about; officers will be advising any that they see to clear out and return home, or to move to one of the peaceful sectors and enjoy the remaining festivities, because they have this under control. Feel free to have your character act or react to other player characters here or move them to a safer area.)

PARADE GROUNDS - AFTERMATH

[alderwood]

OTHER SECTORS (PEACEFUL)

[alderwood]