Event #15: TO EXPAND UPON VICTORY

[vivalamods]

Event #15: TO EXPAND UPON VICTORY

The Corsairs adjust to their newfound land control by preparing potential agricultural land, and making changes to their intel network. Focus turns towards the island of Larendt.

MISSIONS

Kind to Nature: The Bavrect Restoration Project goes forward.
Description: Bavrect soil and surviving plant samples need collecting and testing. Others may explore the now safe to hike island surface for signs of surviving wildlife to log, and potential future farming sites. Fresh water sources need testing for contamination.

Moving Up: Staff from Elysium pack and move to the Isles above.
Description: Under the guise of fearing the Corsairs, many Elysium spies are busy packing up their supplies and belongings to move to locations in the Isles Above where they will establish new lines of intel collection. Give a hand in the moving process or help cover for those who are arriving to their new place of business.

Root out the Soldiers: The Corsairs must defeat the troops guarding the sweatshops on Larendt before they can claim it.
Description: Larendt is home to multiple labor camps where workers occupy sweatshops and agricultural fields from dawn to dusk. To claim Larendt, Corsairs must locate and defeat or chase out all soldiers scattered around the island. Most soldiers work as guards, while others have taken positions with companies overseeing the labor.

The Slave Driver: A man with a whip refuses to allow the Corsairs to free the last of the sweatshop workers.
Status: Open
Description: Log Leader required. The Corsairs must defeat Damian, a fearsome labor camp manager, who will fight back with body puppetry magic that takes control of other's bodies, and a cruel, burning whip.
3-4 participants may take part in this battle.
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Comments

[theriflespiral]

"The numbers are in hundreds of paces. Anything marked with an asterisk notes an unexploded bomb near the site. a circled asterisk indicates the bomb has been isolated and contained." There's only one of those so far.

She kneels down and, just as she said, marks out the paces with the next number in the set, dips down the probe, marks the number down.

[singlemilletgrain]

"...Goodness."

Shu looks at the chart and notes the unfortunate quantity of numbers with asterisks. They would have some job to do locating and detonating those stray explosives. Pulling out a chart of graph paper, she begins to convert the numbers into a grid pattern.

This work is familiar enough to her that she doesn't need to keep her full focus on it. She segues shortly after into a more important discussion.

"How have you been these two weeks, Natalia?"

[theriflespiral]

She pauses, and waves, vaguely, at some of the other workers taking samples. "It's been much the same, no matter the branch. Word got out quickly. I did not realize I was so notorious already."

"As for myself... I've... Something's changed."

[singlemilletgrain]

"Hm..."

It certainly wasn't as if she had mentioned the incident, but she supposed perhaps some of the captured soldiers had started blabbering about something or other.

"Changed?"

She elects not to pry into the former matter, judging it less pertinent how exactly anyone knows.

[theriflespiral]

It's quite a few paces before she says, "... The ice is not working as well. In either respect. I am... Out of balance. Out of sorts. My connection to life increases, but is painful to use."

[singlemilletgrain]

"A malady of the mind," Shu suggests in an even tone. "Something affected you quite deeply, evidently. Why was that, if I may ask, Natalia?"

[theriflespiral]

"... You were there. I nearly did those people damage. I..." She pauses. Her eyes go wide in shock. "I've lost count."

[singlemilletgrain]

"Well, yes." She gives a nod of affirmation. "What I meant was... why this particular enemy inspired such a strong emotion within you. Some insight might be beneficial for you as well, if you don't mind discussing it."

[theriflespiral]

Some cussing in Ursan again. "No, the paces, I've lost count."

She grumbles and turns around, looks back to the hole they'd left. "As for what happened, I'm. Not sure. I know that... I know that I called him after one of the infamous of those who did such Devil's work back home, trying to find... Concoctions, treatments, that would produce someone beyond the pale of a soldier, but most of what he did amounted to little more than torture.

"... Was I a scientist? I am." ... She reviews her behavior, and can't say it with a straight face. "I, like many, attempt to be. Calm. Practical. Empirical. But... Then... Was I subject to such things?"

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu does not interject as Natalia distracts herself briefly with the counting, presuming it helped her broach the topic. As for her chart, it is filling in nicely, though likely few people would be able to make sense of it besides her.

"Mm..."

Natalia's explanation is a bit confused - and confusing. But the exact details aren't important right now. She senses a path through the emotions that are being raised.

"You do not need to be calm under all circumstances. It would be inhuman to expect..." Shu says this without a trace of irony. She is calm under (almost) all circumstances and she is exceptionally inhuman. "But your reaction was so... deeply personal. You suspect you have some connection to these things...?"

[theriflespiral]

She pauses, nods. "Yes. I'm uncertain as to how. But I know that calling him a hack was full-throated. I felt it with my entire being. So was the screaming. I..."

She pauses. "No, I think I know this effect. Under continual stress, memory can become... Indistinct."

[singlemilletgrain]

“You have suppressed the memory,” Shu supplies, after a moment’s pause. “Perhaps there is no need to try to recall it now, though at some point in the future… Do you believe your powers to be connected to something that was done to you? “

[theriflespiral]

"It's possible. I know they were doing research into our equivalents of life magic, psychic abilities, things like this. A way to augment someone biologically or mentally to supplement or remove the need for cybernetic replacement of limbs."

She takes a reading. "... I thought I was proud to be a part of it. Ha, but this is Russia, yes?"

[singlemilletgrain]

Of course. Russia. Wherever that was. Although it hadn’t escaped Shu that Natalia had expelled some words in the Ursus language in the laboratory. Regrettably, she did not know much.

“Ah. In the end, it seems all may be justified under the banner of war…. So you suffered in such a manner for your nation’s ambitions.” From what Shu recalled, Natalia had described a childhood rife with such abuses. This does not entirely surprise her. “What is it you feel now, Natalia?”

[theriflespiral]

"Much as I did when I first arrived. Nothing." She hums, writing down the reading and continuing on. "Or. No. I know that I am angry about it, but... Distantly. Like you've lost track of someone in the snow and distance, chasing their shadow."

[singlemilletgrain]

"...I am not sure that distance is completely wise."

Shu's counsel is gentle. "Or... is that not a conscious choice? Something like this, I believe, can only become a greater sorrow if left to fester."

[theriflespiral]

"What else am I to do, Shu? You saw what came of me trying to find an out, of trying to express my heart through the ice. I... I don't want to hurt..." She doesn't want to hurt Shu. Or anyone else she thinks of as a friend.

[singlemilletgrain]

Her smile is utterly sympathetic, even if it is a bit tinged with something that bears a faint hint of amusement.

"Perhaps... I might suggest not exploring these difficult feelings while in the presence of someone you wish to kill."

It feels like this might help.

"We are quite safe out here, far away in these barren plains." ... "...Well. After we detonate the ordnances. But if you wish to seek the source of these feelings, this may not be a bad place. And I am a skilled healer. You need not worry about me."

[theriflespiral]

"... Speaking frankly, I was expecting Imperial ambush, not my own emotions in the middle of a fight." Natalia does not have much self-awareness.

"Regardless, I was worried about leveling a frost in the field we are trying to get a harvest from, which is why I've been sparing so far."

[singlemilletgrain]

"It is early winter, Natalia." She counsels lightly. "The frosts will come with or without your help in a few weeks. I imagine the preparations are for the coming year, though perhaps there is some form of Ether that can help. Regardless, the land mass is large enough that I doubt anything you do will hamper the efforts too much."

[theriflespiral]

"Then, if you will permit me at the next reading, I shall eliminate all the unexploded bombs I have, so far, discovered." Thus given permission, she raises her hand, hums, licks a finger to get the windage. Looks at her table, carefully. Nods. Mutters slightly as she kneels down to take the next reading. "... 045."

[singlemilletgrain]

"...All of them?"

At once?
Scattered across this whole field?

"...Ah. If you wish to do so, by all means..."

Shu's eyes slide about 0.05cm to the left in mild perturbation before she begins to unobtrusively start warding herself from physical damage.

[theriflespiral]

"Only the ones I have discovered." One hand reaches up to the sky, and then she flicks her wrist while grasping, as if trying to shake stars from the firmament. One. Two. Three. Four.

She remembers... She remembers pain. She remembers the raw fury with which she addressed that doctor, the fury with which she wishes she could address--

Her hand looks, for a moment, coated in ice, and then half a dozen shards float around her wrist. Some describe a straight-on arc, while others sail a parabola.

Many of them are still sheltered, partially, by the earth, but they still turn it as they detonate from the shock. She closes her hand, and the shrapnel is pulled from the earth, along with the ones she couldn't quite detonate, now coated in ice.

"... Thus, always, to tyrants." She readies her next volley.

[singlemilletgrain]

This is probably good for Natalia's emotional health. This is what Shu tells herself as the mass detonation of explosives resounds in her ears and the earth shakes beneath her feet. Not exactly flustered, just... discomfited, she takes a step closer to Natalia just in case anything untoward begins to happen.

She presumes it wise not to interfere or speak until Natalia is finished with this task.

[theriflespiral]

oh, it is DEFINITELY not a healthy way to deal with her emotions, both from the way she's breathing and the way her posture shrinks. There's something in there, vicious and hurt and lashing out, and she's screaming.

But at least it's lashing out somewhere it won't hurt people.

... She sighs. Even those three volleys are... Exhausting. "I'll mark them off."

Even as she begins to circle, or describe a square, around those eighteen. "... This is... inefficient."