tushanshu_logs | Our story binds us like right and wrong

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Our story binds us like right and wrong | September Catchall

Characters: Pepper Potts, Devin Parker, and you!
Date: Throughout September
Location: Sky Sector, KPD Headquarters, Healers Guild, and around Keeliai
Situation: Pepper is living life mostly as usual, and Devin is getting over some denial about being stuck here.
Warnings/Rating: None yet, will add as needed.

A. [Pepper] KPD | Throughout September | Open

There is, thankfully, less to do at work this month. It's still pretty warm, but not stifling like the first part of August. The heat seems to be keeping crime down, for the most part, and Pepper is glad to be a little less busy. She works more days than nights this month, patrolling in street clothes more often than not. When she is in armor, it's on those few times when she has night shifts.

B. [Pepper] Jade Dojo | Mid-September | Bakura

The first time Pepper sparred against Bakura, it did not go exactly as planned. She'd let the issue go, probably for longer than she should have, because there was a) nothing she could do at the time, and b) things had seemed quiet on the dark, scary shadow demon front. Neither of those things were the case any longer, and Pepper isn't content to sit back and let this unfold without trying to do something.

"It's been almost two years since I hit you," Pepper said quietly, brushing her thumb along Bakura's jaw where she'd struck him. "We never talked about why I did that."

C. [Devin] Water Sector | Early September | Open

Being naturally a few degrees cooler than the average human, the heat doesn't both Devin as much as it might some people. He continues his 'hobby' of learning the city, mapping and memorizing the streets. He's in Water Sector most of the first half of this month because he can find an easy place to cool off if he wants to. It's an interesting area. His irritability is still on display from last month, though the cause of it remains uncertain.

D. [Devin] Sky Sector | Late September | Open

Devin spends more time in Sky Sector the second half of the month, familiarizing himself with the gardens and occasionally asking about the old palace when anyone will answer. He also spends a little time looking at the Foreigner housing; it's been almost six months since he arrived here, and while he'd much prefer to return to his home world, he's saved up enough to transition out of the Hotel soon. Klaus may have grown more polite, but the vampire is aware he's still an object of consternation.

E. [Devin] Healers Guild | Early September | Kylo

Every two weeks or so, Devin appears at the Healers Guild to meet his vampiric needs under medical supervision, as he's requested. He doesn't allow anyone to be in the same room with him when he actually consumes the blood, however.

By now he's at least a passably familiar face in the Guild, and most of the regular staff and volunteers have learned that bothering him immediately after he's finished is an unwise idea. There's something faintly wild at the edges of him, something less restrained as he starts to stalk his way to the exit, hoping to find a quiet place to be alone.

OOC: Let me know if you want anything specific or feel free to put up your own starter!

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"A friend of yours, I assume?" Noting that Wan had built her house seemed a rather personal thing to bring up.

Devin leaned back, staring into the empty space of the sky. It was hard to imagine what the Palace had looked like, but it didn't matter much. "He had a penchant for wrecking things. Why did they decide to tear it down instead of restoring it?"

Valdis didn't bother answering his question concerning Wan, it was a stupid question anyway.

"It was a reminder of darkness," she replied, "And by the time we had returned from the Dreaming, it had fallen into further disrepair and superstition. The majority of the Kedan wanted to start over and...well, no one wanted to mess with anything that Malicant had touched. Besides, the place is still cursed, or at least, what's left of it is."

It was not a stupid question. It was apparently an unwelcome one, however.

Devin arched an eyebrow at her. "Yes, I do seem to recall a bit of that curse taking an unfortunate liking to you." He returned his gaze to the clouds. "Palaces do have a way of looming, even when they aren't falling apart. That's half the point of them - they make you feel small. It's a power tactic." The vampire smirked at her, catlike. "Plus, they quite literally throw shade."

Valdis glared at him, red beginning to creep into her eyes as he looked up at the clouds, though she blinked it away.

"There are other ways to establish power," Valdis replied, "Eshai had muted the souls of the Kedan and it wasn't until after Malicant's defeat that they fully awakened. She didn't need a palace to control them. The Emperor after her, Evandau, is the one who left the palace and enabled Malicant to take it."

Devin returned the sharp edge in her gaze with a lazy roll of his shoulders. "I said it was a power tactic, didn't I? Not the. Anyone choosing to use only one would be a fool."

He wasn't sure what in particular had irritated her, but if she wasn't going to make it obvious, then he'd continue. "Eshai and Evandau weren't kedan, if I recall what I was told. Do you know how they came to power in the first place?"

It was a better subject of conversation than her encounter with whatever that thing had been.

"Evandau was the Chief of Police during Eshai's reign," she answered, "He came to power after Eshai was murdered."

Ironic, she supposed, that she now held a similar position to Evandau's past one, especially considering how he had died.

"Because that is a transition that typically goes well," Devin said dryly. Commanders of any kind of martial force rarely made good emperors, though there were some exceptions. "And Eshai? Or was she around too long for anyone to remember?"

"I don't know about Eshai. She was dead before I came to Keeliai and most knowledge of her seems to have been lost with her library. Malicant and his followers destroyed it when they took the palace."

Among other things.

"I was far more focused on learning how to destroy the World Devouring Demon than on the history of a dead emperor."

"Burning books. How predictable," he said disparagingly. "That was a fair thing to be distracted by, so I won't scold you for negligence," Devin added, teasing.

He knew the severity of the situation, but there was something to be said for looking back with a little humor. Else the darkness would continue to be a source of fear.

"I suppose it is predictable," she replied, only acknowledging the tease with a brief smirk, "Malicant wasn't particularly original though. He also didn't like to dirty his own hands."

That didn't mean they weren't filthy though.

"His followers would have done anything for him and his Taint even affected us Foreigners, to the point of insanity for some."

"Direct contact opens one to vulnerability. It's a smart strategy, if a brutal one. Politicians call it 'plausible deniability'."

He wasn't jaded at all, no. "How did he convince them to follow so blindly? What were they promised?"

"Who the hell knows." she began, "Eternal life? Revenge against their enemies? Virgins? They are all blind fools if you ask me." And he technically had. "Anyone who follows a fickle God is a fool and all Gods are fickle."

You couldn't trust a God for anything.

Devin gave her a slanted look. "Knowing the answer to that question could actually be the key to finding the rest of them, you realize." He'd hope that she had thought of that already. "Their devotion to his goal had to come from somewhere, particularly if it doesn't require his continued presence to maintain through magical means."

Valdis fell quiet. He was right. They had no idea what the Cultists wanted. They had to have a goal, something that drove them to keep going. Something aside from what their brethren had achieved now that both Malicant and Eshai were gone. She had written them off as crazy, despite knowing that their leader was anything but. Some of them undoubtedly were blind, but Daseng wasn't. You could be brilliant and insane at the same time, Amos was proof of that.

Her silence was answer enough that she had not, in fact, considered the problem thoroughly. Cults or armies or causes did not persist with such fanaticism unless they were so thoroughly steeped in belief that their devotion could not be shaken.

"It is possible that their current leadership is employing other methods to keep the rest in line, but if there weren't something implicit about the cause motivating them - even a promise that was compelling enough, whether true or false - they wouldn't still be at it," Devin continued after several long moments of quiet. "Or only those most desperate would be. And if they were desperate, they would not be nearly so organized. We've been asking the wrong questions because Malicant is gone."

"We've been treating the matter as if they still worship their God, but maybe they've taken their fate into their own hands now. They simply want us to think this is still about Malicant."

In other words, she had underestimated them. She would not make that mistake again.

"Milyn might know what they are after, she used to be one of them, after all."

"They may yet still," he cautioned. "That's not an angle that we should disregard immediately. But if whatever they believe they will get for their devotion remains within reach, then we need to figure out what that is. Have they made any overt claims since Malicant's defeat? Simply causing mayhem and panic isn't enough to hold a cause together, but if they've managed to keep their goal quiet despite their apparent numbers, that's impressive on it's own."

He could give credit where credit was due, even to his enemies. An eyebrow went up.

"I was under the impression she had only worked with one of their leaders."

Edited (added a thought) 2017-09-09 05:04 (UTC)

"They have explicitly stated on multiple occasions that Malicant Lives. They are continuing to research the drugs, even develop new ones. They took pains to accept Sherlock's challenge and hurt the Kedan, but we were not specifically targeted." Could it be a revenge play? Valdis didn't think so.

"Milyn helped develop Dust, she claims it was to help her people be able to feel emotion again, but Daseng corrupted what she had done. I'd have pity for her if she hadn't poisoned Anton and messed with the head of a man who had surrendered to us so he couldn't rat her or the others out."

"Drugs may be as much a part of their plan as a simple business decision. They're a typical product of choice for illicit groups," Devin pointed out. "'Malicant Lives' is a fear tactic, as were the attacks. They engage in violence carefully, and they use it as a scalpel instead of a shotgun. That means they either have limited resources to commit such attacks, or they're holding back on purpose."

He gave Valdis a look of mild disdain then, though if she were so blinded by her dislike of religion that she hadn't asked these questions, maybe he shouldn't have been surprised by her answer.

"Those actions don't make her a cultist. They don't make her a good person, either, but that means she's an opportunist, not part of Malicant's harem. Don't keep letting your personal bias get in the way of objectivity."

"I know that Malicant lives is a fear tactic and the drugs are most likely for income. But Red Mist...according to Sherlock it was almost as if it were based on a parasite, it was trying to..replicate or something. But it couldn't survive very long, hence why it is so volatile."

Valdis had thought about most of those things, the real issue here now was the motivation of the cultists. It seemed that they had only decided to attack because they were provoked and were otherwise quiet. Did they simply want to be left alone? Should she endeavor to leave them alone? Though she definitely hoped that they had limited resources, it wasn't a fact she knew for sure.

"Despite her lack of morality in the face of scientific discovery, Milyn helped us defeat Malicant," Valdis added, ignoring his disdain, "And I said she used to be, something which she didn't exactly deny when I asked her about it."

Besides, the woman was alive, that was due to objectivity and not blind emotional bias.

"The next question then becomes whether those aspects contribute to their motivation or are only distractions. For example: the peons think that Malicant can't be destroyed or that he'll come back, yes? The leaderly equivalent of that may be to accomplish what Malicant was aiming at without the demonic assistance. Does drug development serve that? This is all brainstorming, just to demonstrate the line of thinking to consider."

Devin studied Valdis silently for a moment. She might have had enough restraint to let Milyn roam loose, but her retelling of things might not be the most reliable version of events.

"All the same, if she actually signed her name in blood somewhere, it sounds like she only did it for access to resources, not out of genuine belief," he continued at length. Again, that pointed to opportunist in his mind, not cultist. Not even properly ex-cultist, if Milyn hadn't been indoctrinated in the first place. "I've heard of graduate students doing much the same, albeit under less dire circumstances. She might be worth talking to or she might not be. If she's no longer in the fold, she can't tell us anything about their current ideals."

"Even if they didn't take part in the attack, if someone aids and abets a terrorist, they are an accessory to it and therefore subject to the same scrutiny and laws."

Valdis looked at him, her tone and gaze even, any sign of annoyance or anger buried and hidden so deep that very few might sense that anything was wrong at all.

"And I'm glad you are brainstorming possibilities, it's part of your job after all."

A slight pause.

"I'll talk to Milyn about it, the window of prosecution has passed anyway."

The curve of Devin's smirk was approving this time. "See, there's the law enforcement officer talking. That's the angle to come at it from, so no one can claim that you're targeting her for personal reasons."

Which Valdis probably knew already, but Devin was very good at digging into people's old wounds, and she had just presented him one straight off the bat. She ought to remember that he was not to be trusted, and not a friend, though Devin wasn't sure what they were at this point.

"You'd have better rapport with her, I'd imagine," he agreed with a nod. "It's too bad the culprits from the attacks earlier this year were nothing but foot soldiers."

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Our story binds us like right and wrong | September Catchall

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