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

[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."

[singlemilletgrain]

"If you feel a sort of release from this, the efficiency is unimportant."

In Shu's viewpoint, though, this seems highly efficient, having one person blow up a dozen bombs all at once. Not that she has any experience with this matter, but she imagines it would usually take a team of experts to extract all these dangerous detritus, and certainly it would entail lengthy laboring one at a time.

"But perhaps when you feel calmer... you may approach the source of this emotion a little more directly."

[theriflespiral]

"No, I mean... Even three of those wore me out." Ammo 18 on an enhanced Arts damage skill and the non-Sluggish slow? Maybe even a Stun in there somewhere? Extended range!? Destroys traps!? You're fine. "I need work on that."

She hums. "Besides. Doing readings like this usually is calming. I don't mind monotonous work."

[singlemilletgrain]

"Erm."

She isn't sure what to say in response to that.

"Are you usually equipped to do much more than 3? Well, don't tire yourself too much... Here. Come look at the progress you've made. Let us sit."

Shu gestures Natalia towards the roots of a tree nearby that allow for something resembling seating.

"By my estimates, you have covered about a tenth of the land that needs to be surveyed already, in under an hour. Of course, this isn't a project that needs to be completed today. Thus far, I believe these numbers here indicate an underground source of moisture running generally due east - in this area." She circles a sort of diagonal slant on the map.

[theriflespiral]

"That's the first time I've done it, but now I've done it, I know how to do it the same way, every time?" She shakes her head. "Regardless."

She looks over the map, and nods, closing her eyes. "That... Suits. I recall that's towards our pirate port, isn't it?"

[singlemilletgrain]

"Very possibly. There are all manner of reasons that there might be a vein of moisture in the area. But you have done an excellent job thus far, Natalia."

Shu folds up her map and leans back against the roots.

"...Do you feel a bit better, exerting your energies?"

[theriflespiral]

She blinks. Pauses. Nods. "... I'm not sure why my usual practice isn't helping."

[singlemilletgrain]

"...Perhaps the wound is too severe for your usual practice."

Emotional wound, that is.

"Is that how you usually cope? Training and practice?"

[theriflespiral]

"Yes. It's... Efficient. I must always seek to improve, and if I work until I am exhausted, I see improvement."

[singlemilletgrain]

Silence for a moment as Shu allows this statement to permeate the air around them.

"...Natalia..."

Does she even need to say anything for it to be obvious that this approach is unsustainable? Shu sighs lightly and refrains from lecturing.

"Natalia, will you humor me for a moment? Consider the position of the lowly sponge. I, seeking to clean my house, soak the sponge in water and wring it out upon the floor. Then I scrub until the floor shines. The sponge is of great quality. It is sufficient for many rooms of my house. At last, I have exhausted it - I wring and I wring and only a single drop of water exudes.

Surely, I say, if I simply wring harder, it will yield more water, for my work is not yet done..."

[theriflespiral]

"... I see where this is going." She sighs and continues walking. "but regardless, my body recovers fine."

Neatly eliding that it's not the rest of your body that's the problem, now is it, Natalia?

[singlemilletgrain]

"It is not your body to which the metaphor is alluding, Natalia."

Shu counters softly.

"...Though truthfully, I don't think your body is recovering as well as it ought to without proper rest, either."