TDM #7

[vivalamods]

TEST DRIVE #7

The day begins as any other, you’re going about your day, living your life, when, without warning, you feel the world around you shift on its axis. You feel a great tear, welling from the depths of your soul as you are ripped from all you have known. If you’re lucky, you arrive in the wilderness of an unfamiliar world, where the language is foreign and the people are hostile. To make your escape, you must learn some language, flee, and occasionally fight, all to find your way off the floating isles you find yourself on and to the great ocean below, where rebel forces will welcome you.

If you’re unlucky, you materialize within a room full of armed guards and are quickly subdued with charged nets, stripped of your belongings, fitted with strange devices that suppress your powers and pressed into servitude. Your days are unimaginable pain and toil.

Fortunately, even in this world, there is still hope. For the denizens of this world have not given up. And it is for that dream of salvation that the Crimson Corsairs raise their flags and sail - for liberation. Perhaps you are one who has lived their entire life under the oppressive yoke of the Empire. Perhaps you have seen first hand your family and friends cut down by nobles hunting men for sport, or perhaps you have run afoul with the church and barely escaped with your life. No matter your origin, the Corsairs sail for you, for your freedom, for your life. And today, a taste of freedom will be won for all.


ARRIVAL/LIBERATION
With the impending attack on the Vindess Mines, the Corsairs sent in a negotiation team to get the Miners on their side. Although there was some conflict with the pro-Imperial miner leads, most of those on the ground are horrifically mistreated and open to a better life. As such, the Corsairs have reciprocated their allegiance by quietly evacuating their loved ones and relocating them to the Vault. Among these are some Servants and dissidents who had been held in the mining area for penal labor, and are now enjoying their first taste of freedom as they’re quickly loaded onto a Corsair airship.

During the tense hours of the journey, the ship runs silent and dark, with nobody daring breathe a word and with only the gentle groan of the machinery as its carefully guided away from the Isles Above and descends toward the Eternal Ocean. The silence is finally punctuated by an announcement from the Crow’s Nest - Flotsam sighted! Suddenly the entire ship seems to blaze with light and warmth as cheers from the sailors are accompanied by lamps bursting to life, and it is with this relieved and celebratory air that the ship comes in for a landing and a warm welcome at the hands of the Flotsam crew before their handoff to the Vault.


A NEW YEAR DELAYED BUT NOT DENIED

While the official celebration of the New Year has been pushed back to give the Corsairs a chance to complete their mission, there are still muted observations throughout the three cities. Warm food and drink are passed around table and tavern as those who have been left behind quietly ring in the new year, hope in their hearts that the mission will succeed and give them much more reason to celebrate.

While muted, the taverns are bustling as people share food, most homes partaking in a traditional hot pot-style meal where whatever good food they still have on hand can be tossed in and boiled in flavorful broth to feed a large audience. With hope in their hearts and prayers on their lips for the Corsairs engaged in their most daring operation yet, the Crimson Corsairs watch and await the dawn.


NEW YEAR RE-RIGGING

A major Flotsam New Year tradition is to replace as many weathered sails and ropes as possible on the fleet. The Corsairs spend hours during the colder months sewing sails, weaving rope, and forging hooks to keep the fleet in tip-top shape. During the first clear day of the new year, any hapless soul who looks limber and unoccupied will be pressed into service, working with crews for long hours to replace sails, rigging, and other essential pieces that define a ship’s worthiness. It’s not all bad though, those who do help are plied with copious amounts of grog and food after the job is done.


WHAT’S NEW YEAR WITHOUT A BIT OF GAMBLING?

With a New Year comes bonuses! The Corsairs don’t have much, but it is still customary to give out bonuses to Corsairs who do well. The sums aren’t necessarily much, but they go a long way for the Corsairs with family hoping to get a few luxuries off the black markets of Elysium. For those without such obligations, however, well, there’s always poker. The taverns of Flotsam are bustling with ne’er do wells looking to burn through their new lucre with a game of cards, or perhaps acquire more of said lucre from unsuspecting marks. Care to try a hand? Just be warned, Corsairs play for keeps.


WILDCARD

Have an idea for your own prompt? Feel free to make any prompt that you think would fit!

OOC
Welcome to the seventh Test-Drive Meme for Viva La! All threads here may be considered canon once characters have entered the game. Threads here are eligible for use as a roleplay sample for applications, which will open on the 15th of December at midnight.
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Comments

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[spacetogrow]

"Sorry. Didn't mean to bring up such a heavy topic," Ilphyl said.

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[bearsperminute]

"Eh, you can't really avoid it," Kanna smiled. "Besides, I brought it up, didn't I? Talkin' about my own past."

She watches the dance, how it goes, who does it.

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[spacetogrow]

"I'd say you're welcome to ask about mine if you want," Ilphyl said. "Or we could go back to dancing."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[bearsperminute]

"I mean, the first thing I can think of is how you came to learn nature magic if you were caught up in noble intrigues all the time. That stuff's exhausting!"

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl shrugged. "Ran away. It didn't hurt that I was a youngest son." They pause, realizing this might require some more explanation. Ilphyl knew birth order might matter here among the nobility, but to the extent sexism existed, the Empire's society favored men.

(It remained a really weird way to organize blood relations, in their opinion, especially because there was so much pressure to lie about who a child's father was, if it wasn't the right person.)

"Women rule my people, so sons were seen as less important than daughters. My teacher wasn't even an elf; she was a gnome who took me in after she found me. She... well, she cared where I came from, but only because it affected what kind of person I was. But I was a person who wanted to learn from her, and that was what mattered."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[bearsperminute]

"Runaways, horror-bringers, devils, and witches the lot," Kanna quotes, from some bit of Imperialist clap-trap she couldn't remember the title of, and then...

And then she laughs. "More fool them, eh?"

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl laughed as well. "Well, I'm proud of some of that. And it's their own fault for bringing me here."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[bearsperminute]

"I should really look at their latest propaganda, it's been a bit."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[spacetogrow]

"A few of us have been talking about doing our own counter messaging, but I don't know much of how that would work." Ilphyl said. "I'm better with animals than people, but... well, it would be helpful if the average person didn't consider us their enemy."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[bearsperminute]

There's a light that suddenly enters her eyes when Ilphyl says that. "Wait, really? I'm not the best writer, but if you need a voice or someone who can act, I'm sure I can pick it up."

She's also very distinctive, what with being six and a half feet tall and all.

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[spacetogrow]

"Yeah. I don't know if we've got a plan besides leaflets, but even a test reader might work."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[bearsperminute]

"Old-fashioned broadcasting? I can see it."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl tilts their head. "I don't really know how that works."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[bearsperminute]

"... Like... Farming, with seeds, you just toss 'em everywhere."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[spacetogrow]

"Right. I just don't know what a 'broadcast' is exactly, even if I get the idea." Broad-cast makes sense with the 'send it everywhere, in hopes that it finds a person who needs it', but not what is cast broadly.

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[bearsperminute]

"Oh! Right. Hmmm. You know those big towers you see sometimes in Imperial cities, with the big ol' wires in 'em? Those broadcast ether waves... or... somethin'. And you can listen in if you've got the right receiver."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[spacetogrow]

"OH, like a Sending spell, but one everyone can hear."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[bearsperminute]

"Gonna admit-- I don't know what a Sending spell is, but it sounds like you've got the right idea now."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[spacetogrow]

"Magic stuff. A friend had an item that would let her talk to her lover when he was off doing other things," Ilphyl explained.

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[bearsperminute]

"Oh, nice! That sounds pretty handy, actually. But-- I guess they could only talk to each other, then?" That's... Really useful, honestly. Imagine if she could talk to...

Nah. They're sworn enemies, now.

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl nodded. "Yeah. So not so good for sending messages to everyone."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[bearsperminute]

"I mean... That's basically a telegraph, though, isn't it?" She pauses. "You... string a wire between two points, and... you can relay messages through it. If you didn't have radios already, like the Empire does, you'd be able to relate orders a lot faster than normal, or keep your friends in touch, too..."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl is already shaking their head. "We don't have those. If there isn't an ability to send a message via magic, or a messenger, you send a courier with a fast horse."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[bearsperminute]

"Right, there's places with Ether depletion, too..."

Re: II: A New Year Delayed, But Not Denied

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl nodded. "We do have a few of those back home. I once walked into one without realizing it until my goggles stopped working."

Which... Ilphyl wears eye protection, though usually they shove them out of the way at night or indoors, like they are now. Full sunlight is just... always going to be too much for them to see clearly, even if they are used to it. They'd spent the first months in this world -- at least once freed where they had a choice of where they could go -- feeling the limit on their ability to just go outside.