abraxaslogs | The Festival of Enlightenment

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The Festival of Enlightenment - The Free Cities

Enlightenment - The Free Cities

In the Free Cities, Enlightenment has come once more.

In each major hub, lanterns and lights of every kind are being hung everywhere. On every storefront, every sidewalk, every home and every fence. From elaborate custom made lanterns with color changing lights to simple hand carved candle lanterns and everything in between. By the time Enlightenment proper rolls around, the three major cities are bedecked in lights..

Lanterns and elaborate candle holders and artfully carved candles are going on sale everywhere. Flyers are being plastered on walls announcing The Annual Circus of The Sciences! The latest and most impressive inventions from every corner of the Free Cities! Hosted by Prime Minister Reiner herself!

This is a time to celebrate technology. Free from a dependency on magic, The Free Cities thrive in this time of literal and metaphorical darkness. The phrase ‘lights for Enlightenment!’ is on every citizen’s lips. In the evenings, night markets pop up in the streets. Vendors offering little mechanical toys and decorations set up, as well as the latest street cuisines, and light up jewelry to celebrate the holiday. Pendants, earrings, headpieces, bracelets... some of them glow due to naturally occurring substances, some have chemical reactions activated with the press of a button that make them light up and twinkle.

Circus of the Sciences

In Cadens the focus is on inventions and the latest technological advancements, the buzz about this year’s Circus of The Sciences spreading through the city. On Enlightenment Day, in front of Portham Hall, the greatest inventors from all over the Free Cities gather to show off their greatest inventions, each vying to win the coveted prize of government funding. All inventions are on display to the public - there’s a great deal of talk about an engine powered entirely by steam! - and judged by a team of Ministry officials.

Yet none judge quite as harshly as the infamous Head Judge, Aleksander G. Klingel. Known not only for his own contributions to Cadens innovations and technological milestones, but for his biting commentary during the competition itself. Some of the less technologically minded have even made it a point to attend just to see what the winning insult will be this year...

"I wouldn't trust you running a bath let alone a hydroplane."

"Are you a stuffed puppet? Because your head must be filled with felt to come up with something this inane."

"This is really a tough decision... because you're all crap."

And even the summoned have a role to play, if they so choose. Aleksander is more than happy to compensate any of the Summoned for their time... if they’d just participate in a teeny little holiday experiment. All they need to do is hold a metal rod for a few minutes. Aleksander promises it’s not dangerous, that little tingle is perfectly normal...

Mind over Magic

In Libertas and Aquila, new plays and performances are debuting - and all seem to have a common theme: the power and superiority of technology over magic. Even overheard conversations may espouse the same ideals - how strange that the other kingdoms still rely on magic, it’s just irrational! The theme of technology and light are found even in the newest fashion collections, unveiled for the season, utilizing reflective fabric and metals.

Should anyone ask a local how long, exactly, this holiday is celebrated for, they’ll be told that in honor of the light of technology triumphing over the dim, the festivities last all day and all night. Come the day, the street markets open in the morning and stay open until the next morning. There’s singing and drinking in the streets, everyone trying to stay up until dawn to show that the spirit of the Free Cities will never go dark. Starting with The Circus of The Sciences, kicked off by a speech from Prime Minister Marlo.

Standing on the steps of Portham Hall, wearing her formal military garb, is Prime Minister Marlo Reiner. She holds up her hands for silence from the crowds.

"Welcome, once again, to another celebration of the Enlightenment! We’re gathered together to celebrate and illuminate all the hard work that each and every one of you do, every day, to make our Free Cities what they are! We’ve cut ties with relying on magic to do everything for us and we thrive! Even now, in the darkest part of the year when the rest of the world struggles, we thrive! Because we rely on ourselves! Your minds are more powerful than magic and nothing can dim your light!

"So let’s have a good time! Starting with the Circus of The Sciences! Enjoy the best of what the human mind has accomplished, and if you see something you really like, I don’t think a single one of our inventors would refuse a donation. Judges will be making the rounds soon.

"Here’s to another year of changing the world!"

With a thunderous roar of applause, The Day of Enlightenment officially begins!

A Closing Ceremony

(Coming soon! The events of December 21st and beyond will depend on player actions...)

OOC: Event #5: The Dimming

LOG: Thorne | The Free Cities | Solvunn

PvP: The Mission to the Singularity

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Didn't you accuse him of being a teenager in an adult's body, Sypha?! Pick an insult and stick with it!]

Is it? I'll be honest, I haven't invested much of my time in understanding the place's innerworkings as far as governance goes. Doing that strikes back at my desire for some peace and quiet.

[There's a gentle shrug at any rate.] I'm not sure. But you know how it can go some time. A place's population dwindles, no one else is around to take care of the dead. Looking at the headstones, there have been no recent burials.

At any rate, I've taken responsibility for it, even if it is for selfish reasons.

[There are plenty of prematurely aged teens out there, and it's a fond observation ~~most of the time~~]

Yes! I went looking into their civic codes and regulations, and it's dizzying. Somewhat bureaucracy for bureaucracy's sake. The free election concept is compelling, but in actuality it's difficult to unseat any official.

[She's thinking about YOU, Ranier. That's a woman who knows how to work a system. But Alucard's not looking for politics, he's deliberately dodging them. And, in fairness, he always has. That's on-trend for him. Sypha can respect that.]

Well, it's looking much better than it must have after Eifstide. Did...any of the revenants come from here?

[We're not all commies before communism as a concept was articulated by Marx, Sypha.]

I'll take your word for the matter. And I am not shocked that that's the path you found yourself down.

[Sypha, you're....utterly yourself.]

One or two, yes. [There's a shrug.] They've been reinterred, and I can only live in hope that things remain quiet for now. I don't know how people live in cities.

What, causing trouble? [She does not say 'being a nosy parker', because her Grandfather taught her never to put a knife in an opponent's hand, but she'd rather openly admit to stirring shit than poking around where she oughtn't.]

On that we can always agree. The art and culture are fascinating but there's hardly any room to breathe. Most rooms you can't even go like this- [She stretches her arms out to the sides, which is about the width of her private quarters at the Cat. And she's not a tall woman, her wingspan is significantly smaller than Alucard's.]

Looking into functioning governent systems and how things are organized here. [Not nosy! He's even being polite and acknowledging that this is a smart thing to do.]

Why do you think I'm out here? There's far too many people. [But of course Sypha's true issue is space. Alucard shakes his head, although the note of fondness that should be there isn't.] There's a few ways around it, but. Hm.

[Someone's going to tell her eventually. It may as well be him.] Has anyone explained the concept of the Horizon here to you yet?

[Sypha tips her head, raising a hand out behind her towards the wavering line of scrubs and dunes stretching toward the edge of the sky.] I assume you don't mean the obvious?

You know the answer to that.

[But Alucard's eyes do go to the Horizon. The desert is still wholly unfamiliar, but he appreciates the seeming, impossible vastness of it. That he can run or fly for miles and miles and precious little will change. That seemingly nothing lives there, and what does only comes out at night.

To the point.]

The thing that the different factions war over, the Singularity. Those not from this world such as ourselves have some kind of innate connection that others do not. The Horizon is a second reality or plane of it tethered to this Singularity. In theory, it is a blank space, but one can conjure their own little world within it if they so choose. Like a fiefdom or a domain, but singular to one person and much smaller in scale.

[A blank space, accessible only by people from other worlds, anchored by an object of this world. A plane of conjuration. There's a lot to peel back, there.]

All right. When one enters this Horizon, you step out of this world? Through what means? [She sees it in her minds eye, a great rent in the catacombs' wall, searing violent and green and blue at its scintillating edges, a hellish landscape speeding past on the other side. Could the Singularity be an entrance to the Infinite Corridor? A method of navigating it, even?] And if you have a keep there, then--ah! I knew you weren't actually living in a cactus!

Only mentally. Physically, you look as if you're meditating. [That should explain the means, but--

--a keep. Alucard shakes his head.] Why would I construct something in a false reality that I am capable of actually creating here? [he's living in a cactus, sypha.]

And as I know where this is inevitably going, there is a caveat regarding one's first journey there that you should know about.

[Sypha physically cannot help looking over her shoulder, in the cactus' general direction, and then back to Alucard with a bemused pout. Why? Why this?]

All right, so it's a...kind of astral projection, then? [Odd, but reassuringly not at all an Infinite Corridor. While access to one might afford them access back to their own world, it wouldn't be worth the cost to accurately harness.

The less she dwells on that, the better.]

Oh? A toll, or something?

[Shut up, Sypha.]

I suppose that's a good way of putting it. [Not an infinite corridor at all.]

Mm. The first time you enter the space, you are yourself, but with no memories. All of your core remains but the rest is...[Alucard gestures with a flat palm, wiping something clean.]

It is highly disconcerting.

['Disconcerting' hardly describes the horror that wriggles over Sypha's face at the thought. No memories? None at all? She sucks a sharp gasp between her teeth and folds her arms tightly across her chest.

All her life, she's honed her memory. It is her best and most reliable tool, the cornerstone of everything her people do and are. To lose that--]

But it. Comes back, yes?

[Obviously, if Alucard is here and still angry enough at her to hold himself at a distance. She may not understand the root of his hurt, but he clearly remembers the cause. So the memories must return? Unless he hasn't undergone this process himself, and speaks of it only through his knowledge of other transplants?]

It does, yes.

[It is impossible to miss Sypha's reaction. She's not subtle. None of them ever have been, and none of them are inclined to change now. He sighs, pausing to brush a few stray strands of hair back in place.]

Thorne threw all of us, imprisoned or free, into this state with no warning. For some, the lack of memories lingered. It did not in my case.

[An important detail. A few, if he's being honest, but never mind the particulars of Thorne being a hellhole that made everything worse.]

Am I wrong to assume you'd rather do this now?

[Unease slithers up and down her spine. Sypha squeezes her elbows and lets out a huff. Alucard's right - she has a choice in this, where he did not. She can forego this risk and continue to work with the resources at her disposal. But, presented with an opportunity to communicate with other people in their situation, beyond the reach of any Faction's authority...]

Yes. Soonest begun, soonest done, and all that. But not here. [The graveyard may be Alucard's sanctuary, but it's still an open public space.] I have a room in town. If you'd rather not be around people, you can just explain the spellwork to me?

[Alucard can't honestly argue with not here. As a wolf, curled up in his cozy little cactus, he is protected. No one is going to be so stupid enough as to fuck around and find out what happens if you prod a sleeping animal.

But two people, including a young woman, in deep meditation? That is a recipe for disaster.]

It's all instinct. [It is a terrible reason, but better to be frank.] And there's no spellwork, only knowing the path from here to there.

[Damnit.]

I can try to walk you through it, but I'd still need to be present.

Oh, well, [Sypha shrugs - her most intrinsic magic is instinctual, outside of the gestures she was taught to harness it. Sometimes conjuring up flames and waves feels like nothing so much as slathering paint across a canvass with a palette knife. Pure, gut-deep, expression.] Instinct I can do.

[She gnaws at her lip for a moment.] We could find somewhere else? Or set up a tent, or...

[Truthfully, she feels safe in her little room, with its locking door, and the scrap-piece-quilt spread over the bed. That coverlet had been her first real purchase here, dug out of a bin at some secondhand store, because the salvage feel of it reminded her of home. It's a silly thing to draw comfort from, she knows, but she's been alone here in a way she's never really had to square with before.]

I very much do not have the materials for a tent, and in this equation, you are more vulnerable.

[Your call. The dhampir is still an awful bundle of nerves, but he would not force someone else into the same unguarded position he was once in. That is unfair and wrong, no matter his remaining anger.]

[It really says something about the life she's been living, that the word 'vulnerable' makes her shudder. She really has picked up Trevor's well-earned paranoia, hasn't she?]

If it's not too much trouble, then, I'd prefer my room. There's food there as well, in case this is the kind of magic that leaves you hungry after.

[Paranoia is a friend and a safety tool!

There's no arguing then. Alucard takes a scant five minutes to clean up what little work he was doing in the graveyard, and he walks with Sypha back to her little rented room. The more people they find themselves around, the more the dhampir straightens up. The more his eyes move everywhere.

He's practically falling of the edge by the time they reach Sypha's room. A place cozy enough, and what Alucard can imagine is still a novelty for someone who did not grow up as a part of the rooted folks.

The dhampir is tall. There's little room to sit, and so he settles down on the floor. How this place is quiet he doesn't ask. He only waits until Sypha is also seated to even try.

When he speaks, his voice is far calmer than the dhampir feels.]

I'm not sure how to begin, so I'll tell you about the thing at the center of this place. Two tall stones stand beside each other, a semicircle cut out of each half. Together, those semi circles are whole. And they stand in the middle of a crater. Around that is a void. White. Blinding. And where you should go.

['Quiet' isn't a word that applies to The Cat, but Sypha finds comfort in the background hum of people all packed into relatively close living quarters. She's always had a hard time sleeping without someone else's snores on the other side of the wall. The music and laughter filtering up through the wooden slats unkink tension knots in her shoulders as she folds herself to the floor across from Alucard. Her room, as she'd said earlier, is only twice as wide as the bed itself, and much of that floorspace is taken up by a small desk and a little chest of drawers. The pull-handles bump against the knobs of her spine.]

This void, is it...hm, how to put this...does it take from you? Is that where everything it strips away goes, do you think?

--Sypha, focus on the void, don't question the metaphysics of it.

[Alucard sighs. This may not work. If it doesn't, he does not want to haul ass to the actual, physical location of the Singularity, as that is far too much work.

Is it the background noise? Maybe. But that shouldn't be an issue, not for Sypha. This should be a natural thing for her with how skilled she is with magic.]

Just a large white space. Infinite possibilities.

If the void doesn't want to be questioned, maybe it should make some sort of sense at the start. [She mutters while closing her eyes. Speakers do a fair amount of meditating, settling into their magic, so the posture comes easily. Back straight, hands palm-down and cupped loosely over her knees, she settles into her tailbone and breeeeaathes out.

The sounds blend together into a low background hum as the familiar relaxed focus settles over her mind. Infinite possibilities, devoid of ~~all the Infinite Corridor's~~ colors.

... ... ...]

Look, you'll understand after this just please roll with this?

[But there. Sypha's at least meditating, and Alucard watches. He can't know if Sypha's achieved Void until he slips into the Horizon himself, but it seems wise to linger for a few more minutes. There's so much noise here. Someone could walk in and see this, or else--

--well or else none of this works, and they have to figure out another path.

It is instinct to turn back into a wolf right now, sitting inside and feeling as if the walls are too close. Nonsense, of course. His cactus is far more cramped than this place, and yet--

--Aluard shakes his head, focusing on Sypha again.]

[Her ribcage expands and deflates with every steady breath, rhythmic as the beat of the music below. This headspace is familiar, but no different from the usual meditation she'd engage in to center herself before a taxing day.

After several long and fruitless minutes, Sypha flips her hands on her knees. Golden tongues of flame spring from her cupped palms, brightening and waning in time with her breathing. Perhaps an outward extension of her magic will help?]

[Sypha's breath is steady. That is a good sign, but it doesn't feel correct. The texture is off, although how Alucard knows that, he can't say.

Her flames don't help his peace of mind. They're inside, her eyes are closed, and there's fire. Rationally, this isn't a problem. Sypha can control her flames, and yet.

He gives it a few more minutes. Alucard's hands want to wander. Fiddle. Do something. So instead he sits on them to force stillness.]

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