EVENT #07: ASPHODEL CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

[vivalamods]

EVENT #07: ASPHODEL CONSTRUCTION PROJECT PLANNING

The Corsairs have been mobilized and preparations are underway. As negotiators are dispatched to Vindess to prepare for the evacuation under Imperial noses, the crafters and suppliers set to work, preparing the new settlement and whatever airships can be spared for the evacuation. Some Corsairs have even taken it upon themselves to build or “liberate” more airships for the effort.

As always, when the goal is certain the Corsairs move as one. Together, they will see Asphodel completed. All hands are needed, the question is, where do you lend yours?

MISSIONS

Prepare Asphodel: Get the new settlement of Asphodel up and running to receive the refugees from Vindess.
Priority: Critical
Challenges: Corsairs will need to keep the settlement hidden while also making suitable housing and preparing farms and other amenities to sustain life. It will require a large amount of excavation to get in order, as well as construction of homes, furniture, and other facilities. The work will be backbreaking and the timetable is extremely aggressive.

Prepare Citizens for Evacuation: As the citizens of Vindess toil under Imperial lockdown, the Corsairs must prepare the entire population for evacuation.
Priority: Critical
Recommended Roles: Negotiators and Infiltrators
Challenges: Corsairs will need to convince the entire population to evacuate. There are a number of methods that can be employed, while many are going to be reluctant the Imperial crackdown has shaken the settlement and unease is high. There is evidence within the Imperial offices that Infiltrators can recover that show mass executions with lists of “dissidents” have been scheduled for April which the Corsairs might make use of if they choose to investigate. Other options include capturing potential dissidents and taking the entire willing population while executing or taking prisoner loyalists, or other methods the Corsairs determine for themselves to make this happen.


Acquire Airships: The Corsairs always need more airships, and moving an entire population will require heavy effort and can use as many ships as can be mustered.
Priority: Optional
Recommended Roles: All
Challenges: The Corsairs don’t have the major Ether Stones that serve as the airship engines and will need to either capture or salvage resources to increase the size of their fleet. While the Corsairs have been investigating airships that don’t require Ether stones, that research is still a distant dream, but some Corsairs may want to spend some time pushing that investigation along to see if they can make it a reality sooner rather than later.

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Comments

[heaven_rooted]

"They don't just come into existence that old," Tau snorts, although somewhat amused. The hint of a smile turns somewhat uncertain as Shu trails off into that thoughtful silence, and while he's not sure what might be going on through her mind, something about it triggers warning bells in his own head.

He blinks when she speaks again, his expression sobering as he nods. Imperials won't just leave due to an inconvenience. He'd heard what had happened with Hesaeth, and hoped that neither side would be so desperate to slight the other that they'd choose to raze Larendt's forests. Truthfully it's difficult not to be anxious when the threat exists and spreads like a disease biding its time.

"I'd rather hope we can do something before it comes down to such, but I'll hold you to that," he says, smiling crookedly.

[singlemilletgrain]

The warning bells are apt, even if nothing has outwardly appeared to shift. Or perhaps Shu's placid half-smile is just a tad bit more menacing...

"Best to be prepared for all eventualities."

She responds tritely, and a bit uselessly, for she does not think, 'our odds of success against the Empire may not be high' is a topic of conversation that one pursues with a relative stranger. For a time, she sits quietly, for she thinks she is tired of discussing the Empire and its ever-abundant crimes.

"...Tell me about your forest."

[heaven_rooted]

That's something Tau doesn't disagree to, offering a solemn nod. He can't anticipate how much more destructive the Empire might decide to be, and he doubts rumors and a few plants suddenly compromising some of their structures in the labor camps will truly keep them away.

He looks off into the distance, past the stretch of freshly sown fields as though he could see beyond them. He'd love to be anywhere but stuck underground again, but they have things to tend to.

"...it was peaceful. Everything was greener, more alive. There's no visible boundaries, it's just something you notice when you're there, a subtle shift in the atmosphere. There's a spell that keeps away those with intent to do harm, making a maze of sorts that keeps turning them back out to the rest of the woods they'd come from. But those seeking shelter would be able to pass through. I...don't know if it's the same now."

[singlemilletgrain]

"It seems like a beautiful story. A mystical forest protected by the spirits - the faeries that lead you astray in the tales of Victoria." Shu smiles, clearly more at ease with the change of subject. "And you came into existence in such a place? Are there many like you?"

Sensing his wistfulness, Shu taps him on the shoulder lightly.

"Here. Come with me."

[heaven_rooted]

Beautiful, huh? He supposes on a vague level it could be. He decides not to ruin Shu's perception of the place by mentioning its changes, but then he's not entirely sure how much has been affected since he'd left.

"No, just me. I don't know if other sorts of spirits like myself exist in this world, but I suppose it's not impossible. They might be more bound to their true nature and limited in where they can go."

Tau blinks, looking at Shu as his focus falls back into the present. "Hm?" He tilts his head, but pushes to his feet.

[singlemilletgrain]

"How curious your existence is, then." Shu blinks mildly. "One might call it a miracle of sorts, if you truly believe yourself to be unique among all creatures. Your predecessor brought you into being - and so on before that? But what was the prompt that created the first arboreal spirit?"

Leading Tau to the edge of the field, she gives him a slight nod.

"Here. Repeat after me."

Exhaling slowly, she closes her eyes and brings both palms together... then in a smooth motion, lunges upwards as if she were performing the 'tree' yoga pose.

...It is unclear how this is supposed to be useful in any sense.

[heaven_rooted]

"I don't know how I'd feel if I met someone who was like me but didn't have to go through the extra hoops to be this way," he notes dryly as he follows after her.

"All I know is what my keeper told me about what they learned from my predecessor. That there were numerous spirits of similar sorts, and other spirits would look after them because they couldn't go anywhere. I'm not sure how they came to be."

Tau stops as they get to the edge of the field, staring as Shu begins to...do something.

"...the hell are you doing."

[singlemilletgrain]

"Should not guardian spirits be more couth?"

Is couth even a real word? Shu betrays no hint of humor as she repeats the motion, looking a bit ungainly.
...And then the next time she does it, a little sprout pops out of the ground in front of them.

"Come. Think of your forest and repeat after me."

Again. And another small ripple of sprouts.

....omg

[heaven_rooted]

He still stares at her flatly. What did that have to do with...whatever this is?

His attention drops down towards the ground as something sprouts in response. Somehow. Something by the look on his face suggests that Tau is not entirely convinced of this. He folds his arms.

"Why?"

[singlemilletgrain]

"Because it is cute, and I saw it in a movie once when I visited Higashi, and I am trying to do you a favor."

She responds sagely.

The next motion brings up a small shrub.

[heaven_rooted]

"...there are so many weird words coming out of your mouth at once," Tau says, his position not having changed as he continues to look on. Oh, and now there's shrubbery. What is this??

"It seems impractical to make such gestures for that."

[singlemilletgrain]

"Oh, alright. If you're going to be that way. Do think of your forest, though."

Shu brings her hands together once more and lowers her head so that her pressed palms are up against her forehead. Then, with one great thrust upwards, there is the sound of a crack as the ground underneath the field erupts in a shower of dirt caused by a thousand trees reaching for the sky all at once. Winding and twisting, stretching and surging, the fragile stems thicken into wood and bark, solidify into a thousand old hardwoods whose roots skitter along the surface of the field and whose canopies suddenly cast all of the underground into shade. It is the gleam of fireflies that light their way now as they stand suddenly at the entrance to a thick and dark wood.

"I would like you to know you have ruined a dream of mine by being obstinate." Shu sighs. And however much Tau followed the instructions to think of his forest is however much this illusory wood will resemble his home. "...It is not real, of course. But since you have already seen my work, I do not mind so much."

[heaven_rooted]

Oh, he is most stubborn.

His smugness is interrupted at the sudden surge of power. It's strange, somehow even familiar although he can't quite place why.

As Tau starts to see what Shu is doing, he does push his thoughts towards home. They're old memories, for the earliest are the best, a dense wood where greenery thrived. A great old tree stands apart from things, dulling slightly, its own foliage thinning. A younger tree is rooted not too far beside it, with still much growing to do if it ever hopes to become like the other.

"...."

[singlemilletgrain]

And indeed, as he gazes around, he will spot those familiar trees. The gaps in his memories are filled in with generic foliage that blends in with the surroundings, but insofar as he seeks out anything specific, it will be present for him to glimpse. Shu gives him a little nod, then steps forward into the entrance of the wood, pushing aside some low-hanging branches.

"Why don't you show me around?"

[heaven_rooted]

It's strange, almost startling, even though he knows it's an illusion. He can feel the difference, so it's hard to quell the anxiousness of seeing but not sensing what he sees.

Tau smoothes out his expression into his usual neutral mien as he walks through these woods.

"You're scary," he can't help but say even as he navigates the shaded spaces, resting a hand on a trunk that he knows isn't really there.

[singlemilletgrain]

This child was sent by Shang Di to try her. Shu's cheeks puff out very slightly as she arches an eyebrow at Tau.

"I believe most people would say 'thank you' or in some other manner convey appreciation, rather than insult the gesture."

[heaven_rooted]

This is how he is around people he likes. He can be much worse when it's the opposite!

"Well it is," Tau says, laughing a little at the face she makes. Maybe he prides himself a bit in being able to get under her skin. "Most people don't conjure up entire gardens and forests from memories and dreams."

His hand brushes against a tree trunk in passing, fingers pulling away as though touching something unfamiliar. In a sense it is, because there's no response from the trees that he would expect, not in these. They may not have the same awareness as he does, but they still had their way of responding, old friends and distant relatives of a sort.

"We're in the oldest part of the grove," he says, pretending like nothing had happened as he continues, stepping over old, gnarled roots that rise up from the ground, skirting around patches of flowers and moss. "That's the Old Man, not that he's really there anymore. After my cutting was taken from him, he gave the rest of himself the forest around, to continue to thrive."

[singlemilletgrain]

"You have caught me in a nostalgic mood." Shu responds with a slight shake of her head. "It has been many years since I have done something like this. But tonight, you see... I was remembering. So why not share our memories?"

Though she is the one responsible for this, Shu touches as little as possible. It seems inappropriate, in a way, to place her hands upon this precious memory of her companion. She was a visitor, a guest in this space, and she listens with the appropriate solemnity as Tau speaks.

"There can only be one of you? Is that the way it works?"

[heaven_rooted]

"I...guess? It's not like I could have asked him. But...I guess it would make sense that way. The rest is the cycle of nature, of plants returning to the earth. He was only a part of himself when he came to his world- I don't know how that works. But he grafted himself to this tree and flourished. I grew from a cutting. It's kind of ironic, actually."

Tau looks towards the smaller tree, seeming hesitant to approach it. Sharing memories... But there are somethings he'd rather not share, and yet he can't help but remember as his steps slow.

The atmosphere seems to darken, he brightness of the grove encompassed by a shadow. The smaller tree flickers between images, vibrant and green one second and then stained, the trunk splashed with crimson. Out of the corner of ones eye the shadows seem to creep in, like a seeping thing snaking towards them when they're not looking directly at it.

[singlemilletgrain]

"True. But -- how do you know this other information about him if you were never able to communicate?"

This question might or might not be answered as Shu observes Tau's next actions. She senses the change in the atmosphere before anything tangible shifts - though she is momentarily surprised, she steps quickly towards the boy and places a calm hand on his shoulder. Adolescent trees, she supposes, have the same sort of emotional instabilities as adolescent humans.

"Do not fret. Memories are ephemeral things."

Her voice is warm.

"Face them or dismiss them, but you are in control."

[heaven_rooted]

"My keeper, our guardian. They were with my predecessor before I came to be..." His voice is quiet, distracted as the one version of the forest fights against the other.

Tau stiffens beneath her touch, drawing in a slow, deliberate breath. His expression is strained as the darker woods overwhelm the greenness of the grove. It's not that the skies above are dark, but the shadows cast within the area seem darker somehow, a pervading stillness encompassing the area like a held breath.

"...this is what it looks like now," Tau says, his tone neutral, but his fingers curl into fists at his sides.

[singlemilletgrain]

Her hand remains still.

"The span of the field is a transient thing. It cycles in months, from dormancy to fruition. But you are a being of the forest, an ancient thing. In time, you will see that this is but a brief stain on a life that extends beyond known memory. Grieve not for what has passed. Look ahead to what will be. You will see it restored, I can promise you."

[heaven_rooted]

For a time he says nothing. He knows at some point he'll return to the real thing. Then maybe he can really let those wounds heal. But for now, if it keeps the Empire from advancing...

I'm sorry, he sighs. Some forest guardian he is.

"I know. But it's still hard." To see what will be. To look past what's in front of him. Tau closes his eyes, wishing it were easier to conjure to mind the images he remembered in his younger days.

[singlemilletgrain]

"Anything worth caring about always is."

Though the sentiment is trite and perhaps rather like something that might be found on a greeting card, Shu conveys a sincerity to the message that suggests genuine belief. As the darkened forest looms around them, she exhales slightly and the trees begin to recede back into the ground. As before, the blooms close to buds, the leaves fade, and the branches retreat as it all returns to the embrace of the seed.

Save for the smaller tree that Tau had previously focused on, the field has returned to normalcy.

[heaven_rooted]

Tau can sense that faint shift, his eyes opening again. There's just the vaguest pang of not being surrounded by familiar woods anymore. Cursed or not, he misses home.

"Sorry. You meant it to be a better experience than it turned out," he apologizes quietly. His head tilts as he still sees the tree there, and he steps closer to place a hand on it. Why's it still here?