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TDM #1
TDM #1
DREAMING
At first, there is nothing. You are nothing. Whatever existed before ceases to be if for a moment. Then, bit by bit, you start to become aware. Where there was not even darkness now is a dim haze, gentle and almost mist-like. You have limbs again and beneath your feet lays a path of light reaching out like limbs of a great tree beneath you, twisting and climbing out into the horizon.You take a step forward for what else is there to do? As you walk you begin to remember what it was you were doing before the nothingness; maybe something as simple as chatting with a loved one or close friend. Maybe you were just beginning a great journey or facing off against an old foe. Whatever it was, you get the distinct feeling that wherever and whenever that was, it is not here. Not now.
The path of light twists off into different directions. When you look up you can see that it is not a sky above you but the sky of everything, a grand cosmic tapestry littered with not mere stars but galaxies and clusters of galaxies that gleam like crystals against the velvety backdrop of space. Admire it for a moment, if you will. You don't know how long you will drift here, but you are not alone. Other wanderers will come and go as you bask together in the vastness of creation.
It seems to you that there are two paths to walk in this place, the light and dark beckoning in turn.
❖ THE LIGHT AT THE CENTER
One leads you to the center, splintered fragments folding together and colliding until only one thing remains: a light that speaks to you with the voice of all there is and has ever been. It greets you simultaneously as an old friend and as a lost child, both rejoicing in and mourning your arrival. You remember it too, somehow, with a feeling of complex nostalgia, as if returning to a place recalled from your distant childhood.
You’ll feel the same of the other wanderers that join you in the light; you know their faces, their voices, and as you reflect upon the world of your birth, you may witness fragments of theirs as well. You feel a comradery, then, a synchronicity of thought and emotion. Are the lives of others truly so different from your own? Or are you simply two hands of the same, greater being? Though some individualistic part of you may resist, the longer you spend in the light, the more you will find yourself becoming one with it.
Despite this welcoming call, no matter how eagerly your pursue its embrace, before you can fully submerge yourself in this oneness you will find yourself being torn away. As if seized by the impossibly long, cold arm of a creature unseen, you are plucked from the edge of fulfillment. The last thing you will remember is the sensation of your world, and all the others your experienced here, collapsing into nothingness.
❖ THE DARK OUTSIDE (CW: deep despair, ego death)
The other leads towards the outside, where the splintering becomes so great that the vestiges of reality can do nothing but collapse back into the abyss at the end of everything. As you wander to these barren outskirts, your thoughts will not be drawn to familiarity and oneness, but instead to memories of discontent and waste. The darker the path becomes, the more you find yourself dwelling on life’s disappointments and injustices, of the things about yourself and your world you find wanting.
If you see others here, at first they will feel frightening or contemptible, as if representing to you the worst experiences in your life. Even if they are someone you’re certain you know, that familiarity and affection will be stripped away in the face of the great emptiness before you. In the end, you were all the same. In the end, none of this was worth it. If you approach the end together, you may even form a kind of kinship around this acknowledgment, as the need for paranoia and hatred fades.
Slowly, the darkness encroaches, and you can see it devouring all the things you once knew. Memories of your home, of those you loved, dissolve into nothing, and you can only reflect on the barren emptiness in your heart as you see it happen. In your final moments, though, you feel peace with it all, knowing that there was no other way. You step from the edge of the last dwindling fragment of being and are greeted by silence.
❖ THE END
No matter which way you go, you are left with a single impression: you feel the world you came from die. It's a realization that transcends logic or sense; it weighs on your heart and leaves the vestiges of dark memories dancing in your thoughts like motes of ash. It's a memory of your home crumbling away into nothing as if consumed from within by rot. Returned to the void, all that's left to you is to be reborn.
REBIRTH
In a new time and place, you awaken. Stirring within a capsule of warmth and isolation your senses will slowly return, only to observe that you are trapped. Your body, as it wakes, is tangled in close, yours eyes unable to open, as if still within the womb. You are held tight in the embrace of something unyielding, so smothering that at first you only have the strength to struggle for moments at a time. Yet, as you persist, the pressure begins to relent in turn; it may take hours, but eventually you will find the purchase to push, to claw, to fight, and it will all give way.The chrysalis surrounding you bends like flesh and cracks like glass. It tears as you force your fingers through, finding liberation one inch at a time, until finally you have emerged. As if having undergone metamorphosis, you feel old and new all at once. You are weak, piteously so, but the markings and scars of your previous life remain. As you slump down upon the smooth cavern stone, you realize that you've just wrenched yourself free of gigantic crystal, though its hollow, shimmering form is now in pieces on account of your passing. Somewhere on your body, a shard of similar material remains embedded.
The cave itself looks almost like the inside of a geode, the walls and ceiling bedazzled with greyish crystal that shines with all the colors of the rainbow. While they vary wildly in size and shape, only a few have grown large enough to hold a form like yours, and you can see the one you just escaped isn't the only one bearing a passenger within. They may have already hatched, or they may still be lingering in stasis. Either way, there's enough time that you may have a chance to speak to yours unexpected peers, or to perhaps to struggle to find something to cover your naked body with. You feel the chill of the open air against your moisture laden skin, a distant light trickling in through the cavern's opening.
Make the most of this time. It won't be long before you're interrupted.
[Mod Note: If you don't want to deal with your character being naked in front of the others at that location, feel free to assume they emerge at a different time than the others of their legacy. Characters will be 'hatching' over a period of several hours.]
CAPTIVITY
It seems that someone was waiting for you to arrive, and not in the most friendly of ways. Though the specifics of who comes to get you will vary according to which legacy shrine your character awakens at, there are certain commonalities: most notably, how they are ostensibly here to capture and imprison you. It's easy for them, all considered. You can barely stand, so fresh out of your chrysalis, and whatever powers or special abilities you may have had will not answer your call. Even worse, your would be captors are well equipped for the job.
Each group arrives with several 'whips' made of unknown materials. What makes them so special only become obvious when one of them inevitable snakes its way around your body. Whether it be your ankle or your neck, being bound by these cords puts you under the influence of whoever is holding the other end of your leash. Your mind remains untouched, but you will find yourself physically incapable of performing physical actions that go against their will. While the possibilities are frightening, thankfully they all just seem to want one thing: for you to come along as a good little prisoner and to not cause any of them too much trouble.
The rest depends on your character's legacy:
❖ THE LOVER
The small island the shrine is built upon is approached by several modest boats with colorful sails. They carry what appears to be a collection of fearful fisherfolk and town guards. They are reluctant to speak with those being pulled out of the shrine or even look them in the eye. If they have their choice, the entire process will be done in silence. If you try too hard to upset them, the guards will sternly bring you to heel.
❖ THE CELEBRANT
The infrastructure of an entire festival ground seems to be built around this shrine, and as a result, there are an usual amount of people present. While most keep their distance, a few will engage with the local guards that arrive to capture the Aions, complaining that this is going to interfere with their preparations for the upcoming Lover’s Festival. They are pushed aside in short order, and the rest of the retrieval will be done in a stern but business-like manner.
❖ THE MARTYR
At first, those arriving to capture the Aions will be hesitant to even enter the barren crater this shrine is held within. Once the presence of the new arrivals becomes clear, however, they will run in as if crossing the no man’s land of a battlefield and complete their work with gusto. It appears to be mostly military folk and they seem to lack any patience or sympathy for those they capture.
❖ THE SOVEREIGN
The captors here seem to be a mixed bag, almost as if two separate squadrons have arrived at the same time. One is a gathering of people who give off the impression of mountain folk, while the others are well armored soldiers. Though it will be hard to make out the specifics, there seems to be some manner of disagreement between these two parties over what should be done, but the ones kitted out in full military attire win out in the end. By then, they are completely out of patience for further resistance.
❖ THE ARTISAN
The people here seem to have mixed feelings about your arrival. On one hand, it seems to be a moment of considerable trepidation, on the other, they seem unbearably curious about your nature. They will ask questions about any unusual features you have, or what your skills are, while others from the group try just as hard to shush them. Ultimately, they don’t seem that enthusiastic about having to capture you, but they also don’t seem to think they have much choice.
❖ THE INNOCENT
Among rolling hills of flowers, at first it seems as if this shrine may not be visited at all. Before the arriving Aions can escape it, though - naked and weakened as they are - a group of fairly normal looking townsfolk will arrive. They pause as they spot you near the shrine, almost like they are hesitating about coming at all. In the end, they will converge upon you and ask for you to please cooperate. They won’t hurt you, as long as you come with them.
❖ THE SEEKER
Armored soldiers are the ones to first pull you from the shrine, but as you arrive outside of it you'll see that it is situated at the edge of a great forest. An ancient observatory is build into the cliff face behind the shrine, and your captors are apparently in the process of negotiating with a series of robed individuals that have emerged from it. According to them, the soldiers kidnapping you are trespassing. Unfortunately, they are not the ones with weapons.
❖ THE WANDERER
When you first emerge from the shrine, it will appear as if you have just missed a skirmish. There are a few bodies scattered about, all wearing woodland armor made of leather and fur. The victors, it seems, come in the form of fully armored soldiers. Thoroughly irritated by the fight that just happened, they will not waste time on niceties. If you try to ask them what just happened, the best you may get is a sneer about ‘those damn forest people.’ You may spot a couple more bodies on the trail leading out of the forest as well.
❖ THE FIREBRAND
The first thing to be seen beyond the cavern entrance is a sheer drop into a raging canyon river far below you, with only a narrow path leading up the steep cliff face. It would be a difficult situation, even without black-cloaked warriors making their way down it to collect you. Struggle too much and you'll be at risk of being thrown into the chasm. These masked assailants are largely unmoved by your protests and will drag you the entire way up the cliff if you force them to. "Your soul will be claimed," they say.
❖ THE VISIONARY
The view from the mouth of the cavern is awe inspiring, revealing the foreign shapes of a world you've never seen before. Unfortunately, the altitude of this shrine means you will also be greeted with sharp wind and biting cold. Fortunately, or not, a party of mountaineers and three black-cloaked warriors will arrive to collect you. Despite their seeming inability to defy the orders of the warriors, the mountaineers will toss you some shoes and blankets for the trek down, even if they are taken away from you later. If the warriors speak at all, it's mostly in the form of ominous utterances.
❖ THE CHAMPION
Even if one were to stagger out of the shrine's cavern before being approached, the Aions arriving here will swiftly find themselves in a hopeless situation. Not only are there soldiers here to collect there is a moderately sized military barracks built around the shrine itself, and this particular squadron is not on your side. You will be swarmed before you can get far at all. There seems to be a mix of two squadrons here, some wearing heavy armor and red accents, while the others wear full face masks and dark cloaks.
Once you've been captured and pulled from the shrine, you will given a formless white gown made of moderately comfortable fabric, with sleeves reaching your elbows and its bottom reaching down past your knees. You will not be given pants or shoes. You're in for a journey, apparently - no matter who plucked you from the cave, most of the heavily armored soldiers in the prompts above will turn out to be 'Hylician soldiers', while the smaller number of black-robed warriors are referred to 'Achamites'. After the initial dealings with the shrines, all prisoners will be passed off to a squadron of Hylicians, though a few Achamites may follow along depending on the location.
Where are you all going? Back to Hylici, apparently.
Each group arrives with several 'whips' made of unknown materials. What makes them so special only become obvious when one of them inevitable snakes its way around your body. Whether it be your ankle or your neck, being bound by these cords puts you under the influence of whoever is holding the other end of your leash. Your mind remains untouched, but you will find yourself physically incapable of performing physical actions that go against their will. While the possibilities are frightening, thankfully they all just seem to want one thing: for you to come along as a good little prisoner and to not cause any of them too much trouble.
The rest depends on your character's legacy:
❖ THE LOVER
The small island the shrine is built upon is approached by several modest boats with colorful sails. They carry what appears to be a collection of fearful fisherfolk and town guards. They are reluctant to speak with those being pulled out of the shrine or even look them in the eye. If they have their choice, the entire process will be done in silence. If you try too hard to upset them, the guards will sternly bring you to heel.
❖ THE CELEBRANT
The infrastructure of an entire festival ground seems to be built around this shrine, and as a result, there are an usual amount of people present. While most keep their distance, a few will engage with the local guards that arrive to capture the Aions, complaining that this is going to interfere with their preparations for the upcoming Lover’s Festival. They are pushed aside in short order, and the rest of the retrieval will be done in a stern but business-like manner.
❖ THE MARTYR
At first, those arriving to capture the Aions will be hesitant to even enter the barren crater this shrine is held within. Once the presence of the new arrivals becomes clear, however, they will run in as if crossing the no man’s land of a battlefield and complete their work with gusto. It appears to be mostly military folk and they seem to lack any patience or sympathy for those they capture.
❖ THE SOVEREIGN
The captors here seem to be a mixed bag, almost as if two separate squadrons have arrived at the same time. One is a gathering of people who give off the impression of mountain folk, while the others are well armored soldiers. Though it will be hard to make out the specifics, there seems to be some manner of disagreement between these two parties over what should be done, but the ones kitted out in full military attire win out in the end. By then, they are completely out of patience for further resistance.
❖ THE ARTISAN
The people here seem to have mixed feelings about your arrival. On one hand, it seems to be a moment of considerable trepidation, on the other, they seem unbearably curious about your nature. They will ask questions about any unusual features you have, or what your skills are, while others from the group try just as hard to shush them. Ultimately, they don’t seem that enthusiastic about having to capture you, but they also don’t seem to think they have much choice.
❖ THE INNOCENT
Among rolling hills of flowers, at first it seems as if this shrine may not be visited at all. Before the arriving Aions can escape it, though - naked and weakened as they are - a group of fairly normal looking townsfolk will arrive. They pause as they spot you near the shrine, almost like they are hesitating about coming at all. In the end, they will converge upon you and ask for you to please cooperate. They won’t hurt you, as long as you come with them.
❖ THE SEEKER
Armored soldiers are the ones to first pull you from the shrine, but as you arrive outside of it you'll see that it is situated at the edge of a great forest. An ancient observatory is build into the cliff face behind the shrine, and your captors are apparently in the process of negotiating with a series of robed individuals that have emerged from it. According to them, the soldiers kidnapping you are trespassing. Unfortunately, they are not the ones with weapons.
❖ THE WANDERER
When you first emerge from the shrine, it will appear as if you have just missed a skirmish. There are a few bodies scattered about, all wearing woodland armor made of leather and fur. The victors, it seems, come in the form of fully armored soldiers. Thoroughly irritated by the fight that just happened, they will not waste time on niceties. If you try to ask them what just happened, the best you may get is a sneer about ‘those damn forest people.’ You may spot a couple more bodies on the trail leading out of the forest as well.
❖ THE FIREBRAND
The first thing to be seen beyond the cavern entrance is a sheer drop into a raging canyon river far below you, with only a narrow path leading up the steep cliff face. It would be a difficult situation, even without black-cloaked warriors making their way down it to collect you. Struggle too much and you'll be at risk of being thrown into the chasm. These masked assailants are largely unmoved by your protests and will drag you the entire way up the cliff if you force them to. "Your soul will be claimed," they say.
❖ THE VISIONARY
The view from the mouth of the cavern is awe inspiring, revealing the foreign shapes of a world you've never seen before. Unfortunately, the altitude of this shrine means you will also be greeted with sharp wind and biting cold. Fortunately, or not, a party of mountaineers and three black-cloaked warriors will arrive to collect you. Despite their seeming inability to defy the orders of the warriors, the mountaineers will toss you some shoes and blankets for the trek down, even if they are taken away from you later. If the warriors speak at all, it's mostly in the form of ominous utterances.
❖ THE CHAMPION
Even if one were to stagger out of the shrine's cavern before being approached, the Aions arriving here will swiftly find themselves in a hopeless situation. Not only are there soldiers here to collect there is a moderately sized military barracks built around the shrine itself, and this particular squadron is not on your side. You will be swarmed before you can get far at all. There seems to be a mix of two squadrons here, some wearing heavy armor and red accents, while the others wear full face masks and dark cloaks.
Once you've been captured and pulled from the shrine, you will given a formless white gown made of moderately comfortable fabric, with sleeves reaching your elbows and its bottom reaching down past your knees. You will not be given pants or shoes. You're in for a journey, apparently - no matter who plucked you from the cave, most of the heavily armored soldiers in the prompts above will turn out to be 'Hylician soldiers', while the smaller number of black-robed warriors are referred to 'Achamites'. After the initial dealings with the shrines, all prisoners will be passed off to a squadron of Hylicians, though a few Achamites may follow along depending on the location.
Where are you all going? Back to Hylici, apparently.
WAITING
After you've been handed off to the the Hylician military, you have a long road ahead of you. Loaded up onto carts, and then eventually onto river borne boats, the people collected at the shrines will all be brought to a forest in the center of Horos. Along the way, the squadron ferrying you will combine with others from neighboring shrines, more and more captives arriving in your group the closer to your destination you get. Along the way you will be fed and watered well enough (though only with military rations), and at night you will be given flimsy bedrolls to sleep around the fire with. Captives will be under constant watch by the Hylician guard, and anyone who shows any signs of resistance will be required to be bound by one of those magic whips, usually around the ankle or wrist. The rest of the trip is spent being pulled along in carts or the storage bays of boats. After the groups start converging, captives of the same legacy will not necessarily be kept together.
The final muster point of the Hylicians and their captives will be among forest ruins. For what purpose you have arrived they will not say, but the entire group will be camping there until preparations are complete. Sadly, you won't be allowed much space to explore - not without being bound and under watch. If you've behaved yourself it's possible to move about the central ruins, but only if the guards are confident they'll be able to wrangle you when necessary. It does allow for moderately private conversations along the pillars and walls of the ruins, but venturing out into the forest itself is definitely out of the question.
From beginning to end, characters will spent about two weeks in transit and waiting in the ruins. To what end is yet to be seen, but if you listen closely, you may hear whispers of a 'ritual space' being prepared.
QUESTIONS
Are everyone's homeworlds really gone?
That's a complicated issue, and while the fate of their world is not without hope, they may certainly get the impression its been destroyed from the dream they had. Alternatively, they may refuse to believe what they felt and attempt to dismiss it as only a vision. More about this situation will be revealed as the game goes on.
Can I only experience one end of the dream sequence prompt?
Characters may experience one ending, both endings, or neither. If they experience both they will struggle to recall which came first or which feels the most 'true' to them, as both will simultaneously be the thought they are reborn with. If your character refuses to pursue either path they can simply linger in the middle until the infinite worlds above them start being extinguished one by one, eventually expelling them into darkness in a similar style to the light prompt. Which dreams they experience will not dictate their intial sect affiliation.
Is it possible to pull another character back from the end of the light or darkness dreams?
Yes! If your character is able to resist the pull of either end, they will have the chance to try to pull another character back from the edge of the abyss or the edge of oneness. Whether or not they succeed is entirely up to the other character, though.
Do you come out of the chrysalis wet?
For most intents and purposes it's the same experience as hatching out of a real butterfly chrysalis, so yes, a bit.
Can my character resist the influence of the whips?
Those possessed of particularly strong wills may be able to struggle with the whip's control in brief spurts, but not long enough to make a full escape attempt. They may be able to take an impotent swing at one of the guards or fight against being pulled along, though. Naturally, doing this will indicate to the Hylicians that you are a problem, and their handling of you will become harsher the more it occurs.
How cruel will the Hylicians be to the player characters?
The Hylician military are not friendly people and come across as being a bit callous even at the best of times. However, unless you provoke them, they will be primarily focused on just getting the job done with as few interruption as possible. If your character makes a habit of pissing them off, either by constantly fighting back or just by being persistently obnoxious, their treatment will get worse. If driven to it, they may take the opportunity to take out their frustrations on particularly troublesome prisoners, via physical punishment, humiliation, or deprivation.
That's a complicated issue, and while the fate of their world is not without hope, they may certainly get the impression its been destroyed from the dream they had. Alternatively, they may refuse to believe what they felt and attempt to dismiss it as only a vision. More about this situation will be revealed as the game goes on.
Can I only experience one end of the dream sequence prompt?
Characters may experience one ending, both endings, or neither. If they experience both they will struggle to recall which came first or which feels the most 'true' to them, as both will simultaneously be the thought they are reborn with. If your character refuses to pursue either path they can simply linger in the middle until the infinite worlds above them start being extinguished one by one, eventually expelling them into darkness in a similar style to the light prompt. Which dreams they experience will not dictate their intial sect affiliation.
Is it possible to pull another character back from the end of the light or darkness dreams?
Yes! If your character is able to resist the pull of either end, they will have the chance to try to pull another character back from the edge of the abyss or the edge of oneness. Whether or not they succeed is entirely up to the other character, though.
Do you come out of the chrysalis wet?
For most intents and purposes it's the same experience as hatching out of a real butterfly chrysalis, so yes, a bit.
Can my character resist the influence of the whips?
Those possessed of particularly strong wills may be able to struggle with the whip's control in brief spurts, but not long enough to make a full escape attempt. They may be able to take an impotent swing at one of the guards or fight against being pulled along, though. Naturally, doing this will indicate to the Hylicians that you are a problem, and their handling of you will become harsher the more it occurs.
How cruel will the Hylicians be to the player characters?
The Hylician military are not friendly people and come across as being a bit callous even at the best of times. However, unless you provoke them, they will be primarily focused on just getting the job done with as few interruption as possible. If your character makes a habit of pissing them off, either by constantly fighting back or just by being persistently obnoxious, their treatment will get worse. If driven to it, they may take the opportunity to take out their frustrations on particularly troublesome prisoners, via physical punishment, humiliation, or deprivation.
no subject
[ They did seem particularly cruel, no matter why you weren't complying. Silco shrugged the blanket a little tighter around his shoulders, and looked behind him, at the few guards, who were looking right at him.
It felt like he was captured by enforcers, no recourse, no ability to bribe them. He hated feeling so powerless, but enough attempts at forcing it, trying to walk in other directions, resist, had been met with harsh repercussions. ]
I think there are enough of us resisting, that any difficulty is seen as resistance.
[ If this man hadn't been trying to resist though, he likely wasn't much of a fighter, Silco decided. ]
Then again, even walking slow seems to piss them off by now. Particularly from those of us who haven't been complacent.
no subject
Even if he'd chosen to stop fighting the soldiers, that hasn't stopped him from trying to intervene when they started to pick on others who clearly couldn't defend themselves even if they wanted to.]
That, I've noticed. This must be quite the inconvenience for them.
[The sarcasm in his voice is thick enough to feed them better than their rations.]
no subject
You could say that. [ Mind, Silco didn't like any authority figure that didn't work for him. Crime bosses often didn't, and although he was here, naked, small, and weak, he was still the man who'd brought Zaun into a new age, and forced Piltover to take them seriously. ]
They're worse than enforcers. [ He admitted, the venom in his voice obvious, there was only one thing worse than cops, and it was these guys. He looked back at Kim, head tipped. ] I haven't seen anyone stand up to them for long, either. [ He looked down at the whip on his ankle, teeth clenched. He knew what it meant, but he was loathe to voice it, the trembling in his limbs enough for him to try something foolish again, but he needed to stay calm. See this through a little bit more, before he lashed out. Silco ran a hand through his hair, and although Kim couldn't see it, the trembling in his fingers stopped, although his gaze still burned whenever he caught one of the soldier's in his gaze. ]
no subject
Enforcers of what, exactly?
[Only plain curiosity colors his voice, though a few things about the man's bearings and tone start to line up with the whip around his ankle. It's intuition on Kim's part, which he won't fully throw himself behind without hard evidence.]
no subject
Silco did not claim to have a very worldly education, after all. ]
They are the enforcers of Piltover's will. [ He said, disgust laced in his voice. ] A city that controls mine.
[Yes, they were cops. ] There is a long history of them enforcing their laws on us, by any means necessary.
no subject
[Another person, another world beyond his understanding. It's only alarming in how normal it's become. Piltover-- sounds more Vespertine than Revacholian, but it's pointless trying to find those parallels.
A zone of control, on the other hand... Now, that's something familiar.]
Laws you don't agree with, I take it.
[He chooses his words carefully, not wanting to offend this man by showing any sort of partiality in something he doesn't understand.
Kim glances at the guards trailing behind the cart, its noisy spokes starting to overpower the sound of their boots in the mud.]
Force like this?
no subject
[ He admitted. Mind, Silco had little to worry about from the enforcers, given his tight control on their leader, Marcus. He had bribed his way into prominence, but that didn't mean that he knew how they felt about his city. How much they would burn Zaun to the ground, if given the direction.
That Marcus was still compliant was due to fear, and his iron grip on what Marcus cared about. He knew how protective fathers could be. ]
It's a small improvement. The laws are...yes. Unnecessary. They work for Piltover, but with regards to us... [ A tightening around his eye, the other -- the bad one -- barely moved. ]
They only enforced to keep us quiet and complacent.
no subject
My city is a protectorate of foreign powers. Laws don't always translate well across cultures.
[Or class barriers. The RCM does what it can to skirt some Coalition rules that don't fit Revachol's needs, but it's a battle of red tape more than anything else.]
no subject
[ Silco had for so long fought against the Enforcers that he hardly knew anything else. It was a way of life for him, at this point. Sure, he "played nicely" with the one hand, while he sent Jinx and Sevika out with the other, trying to smuggle in drugs, or disrupt systems.
He was an old hand at playing the game, but that didn't mean he still didn't desperately want them to be free. He would have it, too. They would break those chains if he had to pull it from Piltover kicking and screaming. ]
Does yours bite back, to the ones that hold their leash?
no subject
They were idealistic times, at best.]
It's not really in the position to.
[The RCM is stretched thin across the city, attempting to prove their ability at self-ordinance, all while citizens accuse them of being Moralintern lapdogs.]
Only thinking in sweeping political terms can give you an ironically myopic view of things. [And makes it almost impossible to have any hope.] Helping each other on a day to day basis is the best you can do.
no subject
Silco was good at hiding it. Few people saw the person that he was beneath the Piltovan-friendly veneer. Perhaps Jinx, and Sevika, who had known him for so long, that she knew the monster he was before. Perhaps the Chembarons, when he'd suffocated the lot of them. His fingers tightened into the blanket he wore, the only barrier between him and that biting cold. He wasn't used to it, but it reminded him of that shock of cold water, that night he'd drowned. ]
Play nice, and let them walk all over you, yes? Help each other out. [ The mocking tone in his voice spoke volumes. ]
Quiet, complacent little mice that cower under the boots of enforcers, when they march through your city streets, to enforce Piltover's rules, until you're quiet, and complacent, so they can forget about the lot of you while you starve beneath them.
Helping each other out does a great deal, doesn't it?
no subject
As for how brilliantly it displayed the myopia he'd been talking about, well. He's used to people not really listening to what he says.]
Have you tried it recently?
[His tone is dry enough to suck the oxygen out of the air.]
no subject
Ah yes, one of those ever so "reasonable" types. ]
I'm a pillar of my community, of course I have.
[ He said, knowing full well he did no such thing. The most recent "nice" thing he did, was not kill Marcus's child, and only threatened her, perhaps handed out some free shimmer, but that was for a purpose. No, Silco was firmly in the not a good person camp, as Kim suspected. ]
I'm sure that we could continue, and sing a few songs, while we're at it. See if that does some good, yes?
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God, he would lick a fucking urinal clean for a cigarette right now.]
I don't know, sir. Can you carry a tune?
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[ He said, automatically.
There was kinship between them, if he'd voiced his need, Silco himself would smoke a cigar if he could only find one, but he didn't. Instead, Silco tipped his head, one eyebrow -- his only eyebrow, pulled up, as if innocent. ]
It would be far better, if everyone else followed my lead.
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[It sounds like it should be a compliment, but Kim's tone takes a belt sander to it and flattens it.
As if rising to a challenge, Kim's eyebrow arches, and despite his small frame and this pathetic circumstance, it exudes the authority of a man twice his size.]
How well has taking that up with our hosts gone?
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So far, I'm not dead, I'm getting to ride on a cart... [ He gestured outward, where the rest were walking. ] I've pissed them off enough they won't bother me.
I've been through worse.
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Kim might not be able to see whatever is wrong with Silco's eye, but the void on his face still comes across. More than that, the icy sensation of someone wishing him harm tingles up his spine, but Kim doesn't flinch.]
They won't bother you because they won't have to.
[He knows he won't have to bother pointing out the whip around Silco's ankle.]
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For someone whose entire life has focused on being able to do whatever he wanted, it burned at his core, like a fire that was too hot, and threatened to boil over. His fingers drummed against the side of the cart, instead of lashing out. ]
They were perfectly happy to, when I was inconvenient to them. I would hardly count me out of the running for that. [ A smile, an attempt at a nicety, but it wasn't a pleasant one. None of Silco's smiles were ever as disarming as he pretended that they were. ]
At some point, they will have to take them off.
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Kim doesn't bother voicing the question-- he doubts he'd get a satisfactory answer. There are people who view everything in life as a pissing contest, and Kim has never been the least bit interested in participating. Especially not with the people who may have been responsible for the death of his entire world.]
And what will you have to agree to, do you think, for that to happen?
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[ Silco asked, blunt in the admittance. It didn't matter, to survive. Whether it was drowning, or waking up, struggling out of a crystal prison elsewhere, the point was to survive. If just out of spite, if just to make it that you didn't disappear into the night, the moment you weren't acceptable or convenient anymore.
Instead, you lived, unwavering, without fear, and you made everyone around you suffer the indignity that was your existence. ]
Are there lines you wouldn't cross, for your own freedom?
cw; racism
How many more people would accept him as a true citizen of Revachol if he'd simply capitulated to the jeers of yellow man, and been a cheerful, crooked toothed little Seolite servant to the cocaine addled corpse of the suzerain?
All of that-- that's what really didn't matter. Kim did live in spite of them all, but as unapologetically himself. Deceiving people to gain the freedom he has, stepping on others to get it, would just be selfishness wearing the mask of tragic entitlement.]
Yes. Never. [Though his voice remains soft as always, his words are weighted with finality.]
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Weak is what it said. He wouldn't last a day in the violent pits of Zaun, where you could be knifed for having a nice jacket. That was fine. Silco didn't need people like this man. ]
Change only happens when there are those who can cross those lines. Without bold steps, power can never be wrested from the ones who clutch at it like a lifeline.
[ He didn't even have to know this man's story, or where he'd come from. He'd heard lines like that before, from people like Vander, who were willing to deal with the enforcers to ensure safety, but wouldn't create the violence necessary for change. ]
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The aerostatic commanders up above them all must have said very similar things to their subordinates, before ordering them to push buttons that did nothing more than light up the clouds beneath them, like streetlights shorting out in the fog.]
Maybe so. [But to the civilians left to pick up the pieces, what did that matter?] You seem very confident that yours is the correct power.
[They all always are.]
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[ He said. It was with the full confidence of someone who had bought into their own story, long, long ago. In Silco's twisted mind, it is the only way. Zaun had tiled for long enough, had suffered for long enough. There was no other path to take, at this point. ]
We've already tried be quiet, be complacent. [ A snort. ] Who would want to live like that? Starving, meek, nothing. [ Each word punctuated by further levels of disgust, with each one. ]
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