[EVENT] Phase II reunions!

[zenderael_mods]

Who: OPEN!
When: Week 32
Where: Bastan/Fall City/Underwood
Before/After: After the Phase II merge
Warnings: TBA

[Suddenly we have almost the entire cast of the game in the same place at the same time! What does that mean? REUNION THREADS!]

[Here is an open post for all your threading needs! This should make it easier to have mingling threads, open threads, random encounters, multiple participants, etc etc etc]

[Basically any characters you'd like to have meeting up in the new, merged Bastan may do so here. Stick a time in your subjectline and if you're doing it on a day other than Sunday (this post is good for all of week 32), add a date tag for it. Go wild!]

Comments

Anais + Lera: Monday Morning

[firecracker_hopping]

[It's been ages since Lera has seen Fall City University. Coming back to it brings back all sorts of memories, both good and bad. She came here for work a lot; she remembers the bombing, too, and that makes her think of Noelle. Poor Noelle... But, she is here to see other people (and ones she can see again), today.]

[She is dressed down, though. For once, she has regular Earth clothes on. A black T-shirt and blue jeans, with sneakers. She doesn't even have the sword belt or swords on, and feels weird without them here.]

[She didn't tell Anais that she would be here. Instead, she's waiting outside of the teacher lounge, leaning against the wall.]

[vallinar]

[Eventually, Anais emerges from the lounge, still sporting her leather training armor and her sword's slung over her back. She almost passes Lera by entirely, but does a double-take before she gets too far.]

Miss Savinkov?

[Aaaand doubling back now.]

[firecracker_hopping]

I certainly hope I haven't changed that much!

[The gold eyes are the big change, but there's a visible and large scar along her left forearm. She also looks to be in better, trimmer shape than she used to be. She was always active, but she achieved new levels of fitness after all that training.]

[Lera grins brightly, though.]

Anais!

[vallinar]

Well, the golden eyes are certainly different.

[Anais isn't commenting on the scarring. Everyone's entitled to their battle scars and Anais doesn't want to pry too much.]

It is good to see you.

Lera + Alt!Mal: Monday Morning

[firecracker_hopping]

[Lera's been running all across creation -- if creation counts as the Bastan/Fall City and Underwood areas -- seeing people she hadn't seen in awhile and making sure her own army wasn't thrown off entirely by the sudden existence of Fall City here. She hadn't had a chance to tend to much non-business things, really.]

[Seeing Malachai Dominga again is business. It's pleasant business, though, and not the sort where she has to snap at a few new recruits that thought they get rowdy in a bar in Underwood. As such, when she approaches the league's camp, she looks pleasant.]

[She waits at the edge. One of the posted guards took off to tell Malachai about her once she got here.]

[giltededge]

[Before it was Lera, being told the Mazda was looking for him was something he'd never have expected, and when it had happened that first time, it had been a shock. An even bigger shock to find it had been Lera.

Now, though, it brings a smile to his face. It isn't that he doesn't like the former-Mazda-turned-vice-admiral, just that she doesn't tend to make social calls.

He's sending out a work detail when she comes calling, and gets that done easily enough before he heads out to where she's waiting, giving her an informal nod rather than a salute.]

How are things getting on in the city?

[firecracker_hopping]

Busy. [She smiles at that and shrugs her shoulders.] We've had about fifty different things to sort out since yesterday.

[The appearance of a town. An epidemic, already under control, but their medical staff had to be put to use. Thankfully, she could simply put them under the clerics' command and make it work out easily.]

We have them under control for a moment, at least. I thought I'd see how things were with Days' End. Pretty well, it looks like.

[And talk to him about some things. She looks different than she did when she first got here -- when she showed up as the Mazda, even. She stands up straighter, manages to sound more commanding without thinking about it, and even looks more confident. That wide-eyed nervousness is gone.]

[Mal D./Marlene] - Sunday

[giltededge]

[It takes him a bit to find the place. The two-cities-in-one thing, while not a new concept after Paris in the Nenakret, still makes it difficult to find places without a bit of searching.

Malachai's ditched the armor for work clothes, having taken to helping with work details himself, though he does have his twin swords with him, strapped to his hips.

He spots Marlene near the light as she'd said, and grins as he approaches.]

Fancy meeting you here.

[marleneonthewall]

[Marlene is there, waiting by the stoplight like she said she'd be. She's so used to these things by now, but they're new for everyone else, everyone who doesn't already live in a merged city like Jioret or the Nenakret.]

[She's dressed in Earth clothes, bright colours and breezy styles, with big gaudy earrings. She's dressed up, a bit, because she chose the clothes in anticipation of her meeting with Artemis and Ravi, but still casual.]

[But even with the unfamiliar clothes, those straight bangs and that tall reedy figure make her easy to identify, even from a distance]

[Her face lights up when she sees Mal. She rushes him with a hug.]

Mal~! Cor, it's good to see you again!

[giltededge]

[Ah, the hugs. He hasn't noticed he actually missed those until just now, with Marlene giving him one, and he returns it gladly.]

It's good to see you, as well. Has Earth been interesting?

Ravi/Nova - Sunday morning

[paladont]

Ravindra wasn't sure how to feel about Bastan anymore.

It had been, for years, the only place he could call home. Familiar and comfortable, he'd known the city inside-out, he could navigate it in his sleep. He knew the architecture, the melding of vegetation and construction that made the city seem as though nature were only barely being held at bay, tame, for now, but just shy of wild. Growing up in the jungle, overgrown and wild was what he'd been used to, and Bastan's ability to leash it and tame it--that was a comfort, because it meant the city could leash and tame him, as well.

But now, the city was...different. Aerveas's druids had broken nature free of its bonds, the bushes and trees and vines built into homes now overtook the stone, reclaiming space from their oppressors. Windows had been shattered, doors torn off their hinges, walls knocked down. Rogues had cleared out any valuables they could carry before they'd fled and left Aerveas to fight without them. Aerveas's armies had commandeered buildings for their own purposes, and the signs of it were still upon them. The fighting had caused further damage as the allied forces cleared Aerveas's armies out of the streets, scorched walls and cracked roads in the wake of guild abilities being thrown around.

It was a Bastan that had been battered and abused and neglected. But beneath the damage it had suffered, it was still recognizable as the city he loved. Maybe that was what hurt the most. Starting over from scratch wasn't as painful as picking up the pieces and trying to fit them back together.

He had to spend Friday night out of town due to the curfew still in effect in Safta, but Saturday he arrived in Bastan early, soon after sunrise, and donned his armour to report in for restoration efforts. He didn't get around to it. One of the paladins with some carpentry skill was going through the barracks and making note of which doors had been busted so she could repair them; Ravi ran into her on his way out, informed her that his own door was in need of repairs, and ended up agreeing to help her out because everyone else was already busy with other things.

That ate up most of the morning, but he didn't mind. Simple work, following instructions, moving methodically from one thing to the next. It was a small thing, but it was better for him to focus on the small things than to look at the whole scope of the restoration efforts and become overwhelmed by how much work was needed.

After that he got pulled into something else, and then something else again, and before he knew it, they were working by lamplight and an officer came to send them back to the barracks for the night. He went to bed feeling just a little more encouraged about the situation, thinking that maybe it wasn't entirely hopeless.

Sunday morning, though.

Sunday morning was not okay.

The change was immediately apparent as soon as he stepped out of the barracks. Black pavement like in Pariskret, and right across the street, one of those blocky steel-and-glass buildings that rose up much too high. He was not the only one shocked by the sight. Confusion reigned among the paladins out front, their destinations temporarily forgotten, until someone with authority came through to tell them to stop gawking and sent them off to where they were needed.

A merged Bastan was worse than a broken Bastan. At least broken, the city was still the same one he knew. This was alien. Surreal. Different. Even regaining the lost portions of the city was not enough to make up for the invasion that came with it. He hated it. It seemed pointless to trim back vines and free buildings from overgrowth when Earth was now the overgrowth, and there was no way to remove it to make things how they'd been.

Paris's merge with the Nenakret hadn't bothered him much. But that was because the Nenakret wasn't Bastan.

He was kept busy by restoration efforts, but it wasn't enough to distract him. Earth was all around him. He couldn't escape it. Everywhere he looked, there was some sign of it marring his familiar landscape.

So by the time he ran into anybody familiar who was not a fellow paladin or a member of his league, he was obviously in a sour mood. There was an aura of resentment oozing off of him as he made his way down the street to the next task.

[taking_names]

It had only taken a couple of misunderstandings and re-explanations for Nova to understand:

Zenderael and Earth were connected! He could go home! An even more fantastic turn of events after the already-fantastic turn of events of having been returned to life!

Since he had no way of actually telling a warp mage where he wanted to go, he had asked Irena to write the word Omghan on a piece of paper so he could simply show it to them and ask to be sent there. The Nenakret, he knew enough landmarks to describe.

That should be enough to get him home. And then, and then...

And then he would see Chisaki! And Iravati! And everything would be wonderful and there would be no more problems ever.

In a nutshell, if Ravindra was exuding darkness, Nova was shooting off beams of light at the moment.

He was delighted to spot a familiar face, even in its familiar state of gloom. That was Ravindra through and through. He couldn't shout his name the way he normally would, but that was no problem!

"My favorite grumpy paladin!" Nova cried, descending on Ravindra and attempting to scoop him up in a hug.

[paladont]

The cry caught Ravi by surprise. He looked up, but was too stunned to react in time to prevent the assault, and then too stunned to do much more than tolerate it. Who the fuck--?

Wait.

Was that Nova? Why was his hair different?

It was definitely Nova. Only Nova would call him that and be this embarrassing this early in the morning.

All he managed was an awkward, "Ah..."

Darius + Duncan: Sunday

[zenpc]

A week plus change of being a paladin felt so much longer to Darius.

He liked it that way, though. He worked best when he had to learn on his feet and think on the spot; patrols and battles meant that he developed his paladin abilities with real world applications that let him grow more natural with them. His life on Earth felt like a distant echo -- which was as much willfulness as anything else. A little bit of talking confirmed that he would probably never see Los Angeles or anyone there again.

When he got to the church, he did as requested. He asked one of the guards for Heimdall. Darius waited inside the main church's hallway. He had the dark blue and silver uniform and armor on. His arms were crossed, his warhammer slung over his back. It felt a little strange to be wearing it when he thought about it.

He had never met Duncan before. Darius Kim -- his character had shared his name, much to his embarrassment -- was a short young man, of Korean descent, with black hair that he cut even shorter after becoming a paladin. He realized that he had no idea what Heimdall looked like, which meant he was looking carefully at everyone coming in and out of the church.

He said cleric. It was all he had to go on.

[inchesofevil]

Duncan had been looking through the Zen wiki's armour sets to find some cleric armour he liked that he thought he might look remotely passable in. He hadn't found anything yet, mostly because he only got the chance to look in snippets between all the other shit he had going on.

And boy did he have a lot of other shit going on. Thankfully, he was the man in charge, so he had the authority to tell Doukas to shut up for a minute and let him take care of something.

In the interim, he'd appeased the bishop by at least wearing the Vahishta's distinctive outer-robe over his jeans and vintage Black Sabbath T-shirt. (Fuck you Doukas do you even know how much this shirt cost it is so appropriate.)

But the white outer robe, heavily embroidered in gold and black patterns, made him distinctive enough. It was more of a coat really, meant to be worn over the robe the ex-Vahishta had been wearing when Duncan met him, knee-length and open with wide elbow-length sleeves. That meant the Earth clothes underneath were plainly visible, plus the black thermal undershirt he wore under the T-shirt.

Equatorial weather. A bit odd, that.

He'd asked to be informed if anyone came looking for Heimdall, and/or if anyone named Darius showed up. His guards pointed out the young man who'd come asking after him, standing in the main hall.

He walked up, grinning, knowing full well that Darius would recognize the robe as the Vahishta's. "Darius, right?" he asked, in greeting. He raised a hand near his shoulder. "Heim."

[zenpc]

"Hey, bro." Darius said, turning to look at Duncan. He was about what he expected somehow; he knew he was a cleric, so the robes gave him away. He flashed a smile and stood up straighter, looking Duncan over for a moment longer. Something about the robes he wore over his regular clothes was familiar; something that he did not immediately place. He shrugged it off for the moment and extended his hand out.

"Darius Kim," he said. "I feel a little bad for my past alt. Didn't think naming him after myself when I was a kid would be a thing later on."

He hesitated, for a moment. Then, awareness dawned on him; the outer robe was familiar, if not quite with its usual garments, for a reason. Other facts keyed in; the way the guards showed him respect. He stared for a moment and then shook his head quickly, animatedly. "Shit! You're the Vahishta!"

Anais + Ravi - Sunday, after Ravi meets Nova

[vallinar]

[Home. Anais is home and she never thought she'd be ever again. Sure, it's mixed with Fall City now, but still! Zenderael! Home!]

[She's been out wandering around the new city, attempting to see just how much had changed when she thinks she spots a familiar figure just up the street from her. Frowning, she hurries to catch up, and the closer she gets, the more she can make out who it is. She's just trying not to smile right now.]

Savarna!

[paladont]

[Ravi has been left with a lot to think about. Heimdall and Nova having a rivalry, Heimdall killing his friends, Heimdall as the Vahishta--even the reparations work can't quite keep his mind off of everything.]

[Anais catches up to him once he's finally got a minute to spare. He's supposed to be heading for the infirmary, but there was a 'take your time' included in the order, so for the moment he's pausing for a cigarette, leaning against one of Bastan's streetlights and puzzling over the Fall City streetlight across the way.]

[At the sound of his name, his attention snaps back and he looks around for the source of the voice]

[Anais?]


[Anais!!]


[There's a similar sort of barely contained smile when he recognizes her. He straightens from the streetlamp, turning to face her]

Vallinar. [he sounds pleased, and maybe slightly awed]

[he's wearing his blood-stained berserker plate, with a matching shortsword (fighting's over, no need to use Akhi's for the moment), but he is still definitely recognizable as Ravindra]

[vallinar]

[If Anais had been the sort to hug, Ravi would be getting a big one right now. As she's not, she simply slows once she gets closer to him.]

Apparently, we have made it back.

[And now she's eyeing the hell out of you, Ravi.]

Savarna, what in Xumurdad's name are you wearing?

Val/Nova - Sunday morning (after Nova/Ravi)

[arentweglad]

[Bastan was a lot like the Nenakret now, full of Earth. She didn't like it before, she doesn't like it any better now. Well, aside from video games. Those can stay.]

[And maybe roller coasters. If she can find one.]

[This also means her player's in town! She needs to write to him! But first a stroll to get the lay of the land, assuming that's possible- she'd never spent a lot of time in Bastan anyway, but even if she had, she doesn't think it'd be any easier to navigate with Fall City mixed up in it...]

[She spots someone familiar, though the hair's all wrong... A lookalike, maybe. Still, best get a closer look just to be sure. Especially after Rayu!]

So she strolls right up to Nova and slaps him on the shoulder.]

Heeeeey...!

[She's still got her druid gear, but her eyes aren't violet anymore. They're a lovely shade of gold!]

[taking_names]

[he jumps a bit, and turns -- who's this?]

Oh, wow!! Obnoxious druid girl, hello! [inexplicably delighted smile

pls allow a few seconds for processing]

...Spellsword now?

[arentweglad]

Hah, it is you! [she grins proudly.

then gives an irritated look.]

It ain't permanent.

Lera + Virelai: Monday Afternoon

[firecracker_hopping]

Before Safta entered the war in earnest, she promised Virelai a chance to meet her dire chicken. There had not been time until after the war was over, though, and the appearance of Fall City meant it got pushed back another day. But now, finally, there was time!

Lera waited for Virelai near the Amber Gaze stables, set out near the city. She asked her to meet with them there; the Mazda was in riding clothes, with boots, baggy pants, and a baggy tunic on. She even had her hair pinned up, the way she did before battle, but that was mostly to not get dirt and the like in it from the animals riding about.

Her chicken is nowhere to be seen. She had Colonel Sanders back in the stables, still, with an aide responsible for bringing him out. The stables were built against part of the reconstructed wall -- a makeshift wooden structure, not meant to stay here for long. Before they left, they would have to tear it down. The wall let them take a few shortcuts in constructing the stables.

[bantambrawl]

Meeting the Mazda's mount was more than an indulgence now. It was Important. Without Bonecrush, Virelai recognized she may not have come out of the war as well as she had. He was a critical advantage, and mounted combat... fit. It felt right. Even her favored weapons were a perfect match for the endeavor. Why hadn't she ever dedicated herself to it before? (Game limitations, primarily.)

The other guilds and mounts must have all had nuances to learn from. ... But indulgence was most of it. Virelai was nearly bouncing with her excitement when she met up with Lera. She had seen a few on the battlefield, but that was different than being up close-- than maybe being able to touch one?! Instead of spiked armor of bone, Virelai was in a more casual fur pelt mantle over her brown tunic with a crocobear-skin hood and the furriest of boots. She was still a berserker, after all.

"Hello Lady Mazda!" she greeted cheerfully. "Um, thanks for letting me come out here."

[firecracker_hopping]

"Virelai!" Lera called back. She walked up and looked down at her, smiling brightly. "Of course, of course! We're comrades, right?"

She looked back at one of the soldiers and nodded at him. He started back towards the stables, before she looked at Virelai. "You're looking well!" Bouncing and in her berserker gear, if not quite the spiked plate armor that she had seen her wearing in battle. "Have you had a chance to relax much after the battle?"