The Return Journey (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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returnjourneylogs2022-05-04 09:45 pm
returnjourney) wrote in returnjourneylogs2022-05-04 09:45 pm
Entry tags:
- !port,
- aki hayakawa (chainsaw man),
- alex mercer (prototype),
- amanda young (saw),
- claire fraser (outlander),
- grace gibson (original),
- loki odinson (mcu),
- lucifer morningstar (lucifer),
- misty day (american horror story),
- rhys strongfork (borderlands),
- theo crawford (original),
- theon greyjoy (a song of ice and fire),
- timothy lawrence (borderlands),
- viktor (arcane),
- william (westworld)
PORT: THE SKY-CITY OF BHUJERBA
PORT: THE SKY-CITY OF BHUJERBA
Welcome, bhadra, to the city-state of Bhujerba! The Peregrine touches down on May 4th, in a proper port — airships are the only way on and off the city, so the Aerodrome is a busy and bustling place. As a sky-city built on a mountainous structure floating ten thousand feet above the ground, it has little in the way of wilderness, but it has a sprawling city with deep mines stretching down beneath it. Look down past the railings when the thick clouds part and you'll see the world below; look up and you'll see great blue crystalline structures, a mark of the deep magicks that keep the city in the sky.
The full OOC write-up for the port is here. If you have any questions about the event, please ask here.
1. Disembarking
It's been months since the ship made port, but whether it's been days or months, it's always exciting to see somewhere new. The Aerodrome is thriving with people, passenger ships and merchant ships and military ships alike making berth in the docks, all contributing to the rivers of people pouring in and out of the building. The sounds of the crowd bounce around the vaulted ceilings, humid tropical air hotter still for the press of bodies everywhere. Navigating the crowds takes a certain confidence, lest you get knocked aside by a burly creature carrying a crate on his back, or separated from your companions by a throng of chattering flight stewardesses.
Of course, not everyone will disembark. Inmates cannot leave the ship without a warden as escort, and wardens are responsible for inmates in port — they don't have to be glued to each others' sides, of course, but it's harder to make trouble under a watchful eye.
2. The Cloudborne Tavern
Thanks to the Navarch, there are rooms booked in the Cloudborne for passengers who do not want to trek back and forth from the Peregrine. Staying above a busy and bustling tavern isn't always the most restful affair, of course, given there isn't really a closing hour, but it certainly makes for a life experience.
The tavern below is full of colourful characters, drawn by the ludicrously cheap pints. It isn't uncommon for people to get soundly drunk, but a watchful Seeq keeps an eye out on the place: get too rowdy or violent and you might find yourself thrown out on your ass.
3. The Lhusu Mines
Though the mines are closed, there's plenty to do in the labyrinthine tunnels winding deep into the mountain.
The Paling — Talk with the locals in the taverns and on the streets and you might notice a frequent topic of conversation: the paling's fall. The paling was a Crystal used to create a magick barrier that kept fiends at bay in the mines, so that the miners could work safely. However, something — or someone — has stripped the paling of its magickal energy, and now the fiends have overrun the abandoned tunnels. Sometimes they even make their way out and attack the locals. It is imperative that some brave hero makes their way deep into the tunnels, finds the paling, and recharges its magick power. But so far no one has been up to the task...
Hunting Marks — A bulletin board in the Cloudborne has posters for bounties, seeking hunters willing to deal with the fiends that spill out of the mines. Many are for looking for materials, such as bat fangs fresh from the jaws of the massive, four-winged bats, or bone fragments from the undead skeletons. Or, for the particularly ambitious: the mighty Nidhogg, a colossal snake with a highly venomous tail spike. A prize awaits the first to return with its skin!
Filthy Pirates! — Not everyone ventures in to mop up trouble for the locals: the mines are a considerable draw to those who are happy to risk the fiends for the chance to loot the goods left behind. Many people have fallen in these attempts, leaving gil, armor, weaponry and other goods strewn through the depths. Be careful, though: not all treasure is as it seems.
4. Shopping!
The marketplace is as busy as the Aerodrome, with massive crowds clustered around covered tents, wooden booths, and humble cloths laid out on the stone floor, all bearing incredible wares. The atmosphere is raucous: people haggling boisterously, children scampering between adults' legs, people hollering for others to move, move, as they shove their way through with carts of purchases or goods for sale.
Food is plentiful: turnips and onions are particularly popular, given the season, and tomatoes fetch a high price. Street food vendors sell stewed cockatrice (chicken-esque!), chunks of moist cactus, flank steaks on sticks, and something aptly called "bacon bread".
And, given the war going on and fiends loose in the world, there is no short supply of weaponry and armor. Swords, pikes, bows, axes, daggers, even a small number of rudimentary firearms, all available to those with ample coin. Armor is popular too, with artisans prepared to make it custom within a day or two — leather is affordable, but the price of metal could feed a laborer for a year.
Beware of pickpockets. Happy shopping!
market;
only, he doesn't.
He nicks it, of course—he's quick, practised, anonymous—but before he gets three steps away a pale hand snatches at his prize. If the surprise isn't enough to startle him into releasing it, this voiced raised over the din of the market might make it necessary:]
I'll take this one, too. And these.
[The pencils.
Viktor is not quite dressed for the weather as a local might—that is to say, he's wearing a shirt, and a vest over it—but he's made an effective sartorial effort to blend in. His crutch, thankfully, is not out of place as-is. (Neither is his hair.)]
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You-- Don't, that's not--
[He's both angry and embarrassed, his face reddening. Not just for being called out, but that anyone caught him in the first place.
Once Viktor is done paying for his items, Theo reaches into his pocket and fishes out what little money had been given to him for this trip and shoves it at Viktor. He doesn't want warden charity.]
Here, fucking-- just take it.
no subject
His own purchase is waiting on the lip of the stall behind him: three similar notebooks, a bundle of similar writing tools.]
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Theo only glares at Viktor. He's good at that, at least. You WILL take this money, warden.]
no subject
—No, Viktor relents, albeit only by closing his hand. He looks no happier; not as he pockets the coin, nor as he collects his purchase, nor as he directs Theo—or follows, if impatience wins out in the next two seconds—away from the stall.]
We are guests here. [This is a sharpening of his typically gentle timbre, distinctly unamused.] If you absolutely must hold the wardens in contempt, fine, but leave these people out of it.
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What does it matter? It's one damn notebook, and we'd be gone in a week anyway. They won't miss it.
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[Where are they going? Wherever. This way. It's enough to be outside.]
Losing one book now could be the catalyst for some unforeseen tribulation in the future. It's all a cascade. Thank you, [is abruptly snipped after the stranger who just obliviously shouldered him on the way past, and followed by a low mutter,] Idiot.
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[Unsure of where that idiot remark was aimed, Theo bristles anyway.]
By that logic, it wouldn't matter what we did it or didn't do! Like us landing here from saying space ship isn't going to affect things? Just existing here at all, no matter what we do or don't do, whatever or whoever we interact with? Come on.
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[It's taking half his attention just to keep from knocking anyone's ankles or stepping on any sandalled toes in this crowded space. But he persists.]
Take our incident back there. Ignoring the obvious economical concerns—witnessing a theft could damage someone's faith in people. Witnessing a successful theft might encourage them to steal. But if someone witnesses a would-be thief having second thoughts, and instead paying for what they might have taken, it could do the opposite. With these possible outcomes in mind, given a choice, why not choose the second option?
[This could easily come off as a lecture, but Viktor's tone warms into it as he goes. And why shouldn't it? He's outside, in a fantastic place, with a person he's fairly certain he likes—or at least wants to like—talking about something important to him. He's enjoying himself.
He's briefly lowering his voice,] Also, try to avoid saying things like spaceship out loud.
no subject
Geez. You put way too much faith in people. They couldn't give a shit. They never do. They mostly just care about themselves and whatever's going on right in front of 'em. If they see someone about to steal something and change their mind, then nothing happens and they forget about it by the next day. They're not gonna have a change of heart. That's not a thing that happens.
[He's telling on himself big time without even knowing it. He also rolls his eyes in typical teenage fashion at that last remark.]
People are going to give even less of a shit about that than seein' someone shoplift.
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[But,
—no, there is no but. Fuck that paradigm.]
Hope isn't easy. At times it seems like, [pausing for a sigh, soft through his nose,] like a derangement of perspective, especially when the world seems determined to convince you that you don't matter. Many people... they appear not to care only because they've been taught not to try.
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Cuz the world is right. There aren't many ways to make a dent in it. You seen how big this universe is. “A drop in the ocean” doesn't even begin to cover it.
[Pretty rich coming from this kid, considering what he did back home and the ripple of consequences it has there for decades to come. But there are many reasons he felt like he needed to go to such an extreme, and making his mark was just one of them.
Theo turns the notebook over in his hands, flipping through the pages. A small gesture made for his benefit, something that would cause big ripples in a small pond.
He huffs, clapping it shut. Don't get sentimental, Crawford.]
Don't worry so much about everyone else around you, and you're more free. That's what they all really want in the end.
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He thinks they might. But that may be his own deranged perspective.]
Freedom is a worthy motivation—and unfortunately easy to pervert. But that, [he says, and takes an awkwardly long stride to avoid tripping someone,] is a deeper philosophical discussion than I feel like having today.
no subject
Especially when there's way better stuff around to concern myself with.
[Like the stall of magic-imbued jewelry they just happened to pass, which causes Theo to skid to a halt. Something that casts magic that doesn't require the user to have the ability themselves? Why hello there.]