007 ✤ audio - a few hours after Malicant's message

[akito]

[ Akito has had enough of this. all these people getting hurt - and now killed - and there being no apparent organization whatsoever. he knows he isn't a leader - has never wanted to be one, either - but something needs to be done. if they all stay scattered like this then they'll just keep continuing to play into Malicant's hands and more people will get hurt. ]

The Palace is appears unguarded and unoccupied, and if no one has gone in to investigate it yet I'm sure they will soon. It should go without saying not to go in alone because even if it's no longer occupied that doesn't mean it isn't filled with traps. If you were Tainted with Mal-nyan's poison don't go without someone who was not Tainted. We still don't know enough about the Taint to be sure the symptoms won't recur after going dormant.

With Evandau murdered things will be chaotic for a while, and it doesn't look like an interim government has been implemented yet. The Kedanese were already suspicious enough after the cultist attacks - now with what Mal-nyan has said any trust they had in us will likely be non-existent. They're going to blame us.

If you don't know how to fight stay with someone who does. I suggest avoiding your workplaces for now as well. Avoid the streets until things calm down. If you have to travel, don't travel alone. Healers... It might be too dangerous to work at the hospital. If we could organize a temporary location to work out of and offer help that would be a better option in the current situation.



What happened is unacceptable. It's also no one's fault except Mal-nyan's, so anyone who is blaming themselves for what happened don't - it's a waste of energy that can put to better use. It's okay to be sad, and to mourn, but... Don't let yourself drown in it. I wasn't as familiar with the children who are gone, but I don't think they would want anyone to blame themselves for it.

The hatchlings that are still here... They need to see each other. They can communicate with each other from a distance, but I think they need the physical comfort of their siblings now more than ever. They need to commiserate with each other because they're affected in a way that we can't understand. There is only so much that we, their chosen families, can do for them.

If we gather them together - and I think we should - it's obviously going to be a risk. All of their chosen family should be present, including those of the ones we lost, as well as volunteers to help guard them. The sooner it can be done, the better. They are more important than us, and it's surprising Mal-nyan left them alone for so long.

Like I said before - there's only so much that we can do for them. And we can't always be here for them to rely on even if people didn't keep disappearing. So I think we need to train them in ways they can defend themselves. They are big; they need to know how to use it to their advantage. They're still children but that doesn't mean they're helpless, and they need to know that just as much as we need to keep them safe.

Those of us who don't know how to defend themselves also need to learn. You don't have to fight if you don't want to, but everyone should know how to defend their lives if the situation calls for it. I... I have experience training people in mixed martial arts and how to use knives and daggers. [ and however much he misses Sarah, he's glad she didn't see what happened. ] I can also teach how to use firearms if it's needed.

Anyone who wants to learn is free to contact me. If anyone else can offer any training services you can contact me as well and I can try to help organize something.

To the parents of the remaining hatchlings, please consider both a meeting for them all as well as defensive training. Ask the children their opinions on it - see what they would like to do. Get in touch with me ASAP with your decisions so I can try organizing a meeting right away.



On the whole, we need to be more organized. All of us have our own skills we can offer but we don't know how to use them effectively together yet. I think getting as many of us training together as a group is important, and I would consider it a high priority.

I have a few years of experience managing SWAT teams, so I'm not entirely clueless about things but I know I'm no good as a leader. Despite that, please don't just disregard what I'm saying! I- That is... With everything working against us now, it's even more important for all of us to work together. If we don't, we're doomed to fail. I want to do what I can to help.


Anyone who has any ideas, or can volunteer to help with anything, please contact me.

We're also going to need people who can sort out the riddle that Mal-nyan left us. Is there anyone who can volunteer to help dedicate time to that?

I need more information about the 'vilii'. I haven't been able to find any, and it is critically important that I do. Any help would be appreciated.


Sorry for the long message.


{added a short while later:}

If anyone would like to learn how to see the Taint Mal-nyan poisons people with, contact me and I will set up a lesson as soon as possible.


{and another one:}

Basic defensive training starts at 7:00am in the Wood district. If interested, wear loose clothes and make sure you're well hydrated. If you want to prepare in advance, stretch your body twice a day until then.



[ private to KORRA, AANG, WAN, KATARA, ZUKO ]

I don't really know any of you very well, but I think it would be good for all of us to train together at least once a week. If there are any other Benders that I didn't send this to, please let me know! Even if everyone uses different elements, it would be good to train together and find ways to use them with each other.

Also I don't know how many non-Bending forms of defense you know, but if you don't know any it would be good for you to learn new methods of defense, for times your powers aren't reliable.



[ private to KORRA, BUCKY, SOLOMON ]

The skill we learned from Karanea will be indispensable. Keep using it as often as you can and if you notice an increased number of Tainted please let me know. He is likely trying to build an army if he doesn't already have one.



[ private to ANTON ]

Is your hotel still secure?



[ private to SKULDUGGERY & HAWKE ]

Quintus is going to learn self-defense. [ no argument. ]



((ooc: so... yeah. :x that's that. if there are any problems with this, please let me know!! sorry for the tl;dr. and for posting again so soon!))

Comments

video;

[wrathfulkhan]

[Gene likes the cut of your jib, Akito.]

Training them how to defend themselves is a good idea. However, I'm wary of gathering them all in one place. That seems to me like it's asking for trouble. Those cultists from the hotel could return. We'd have to set up a perimeter - multiple, preferably - and have decoy meetings.

audio;

[akito]

I'm going to try and secure a defensible location. In the meantime we need volunteers before any real planning can be made, though the sooner it can be done the better. It's still a possibility, but there's less likely to be another attack so soon after he's made this move.

Any discussion of security measures will be done in-person, not over the network.

audio;

[wrathfulkhan]

Fair point. Consider me volunteered.

Text

[redlightgreenlight]

I'm going into that palace. The enemy must have left some clue behind that can tell us more about him and what he is doing.

text;

[akito]

Like I said: don't go in alone. There are likely traps set.

If you were someone who was poisoned by the cultists, stay with an unaffected partner.

Re: text;

[redlightgreenlight]

Don't worry, I won't go alone.

Where would be secure to gather the turtles? I seem to have recently been adopted by one and have to say that I'm not thrilled by the idea of putting him in danger, especially since I cannot be there.

video; private

[gistful]

No. But it should be, soon, if I focus on repairing its wards.

audio; private

[akito]

The sooner you can have it repaired, the better. It would be a good neutral ground for meetings if you'd be okay with that.

video; private

[gistful]

Of course; that is its purpose. I would need only dates and times, and an estimate of attendance. We will have to use the commons instead of the lobby. It will still be damaged even after the repairs to the wards are completed.

audio;

[peacefullywreathed]

Thank you ever so, I would never have thought of that.

[Sigh.]

The four of us alone are hardly a great force. This is a skill that should be spread. Don't merely use it; teach it to others, too.

audio; private to the taint seers

[akito]

[ he ignores the sarcasm. ]

I don't understand the concept well enough to be able to teach it. If someone who does could create training similar to what we went through that would be ideal, but - like I said - it isn't my field of expertise.

If one of you can figure out a way to teach people it would be perfect. In the meantime, finding a way to make due with what we have will have to be enough.

video;

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony doesn't know who this kid is, but he has immediate respect for him, for taking all this on and staying organized and composed in the midst of the crisis.]

I can help guard the turtles. I think I have the most tech-based firepower and defenses of any of the foreigners here currently, so anywhere you need a tank, I'll cover you. A lot of You-Know-Who's nasty surprises seem to affect magic but not technology, so I'm hoping that will be an asset. [Gene outclasses him by miles, but his rings walk a fine line between technology and magic, and Tony doesn't fully trust them to remain unaffected.]

Also: any tech you need, let me know. I'll get it done. Consider Stark Industries and its resources at your disposal. I'm going into the Palace, so if you need anything before I get back, contact Aya.

audio;

[akito]

Tech-based firepower is great! [ seriously. magic is awesome and everything but recent events show that it isn't always reliable. ] There is a shortage of that here, so whatever you can do will definitely be useful!

[ cool tech man. yes. he is curious and excited, but the severity of the situation means he can't nerd out yet. ]

Do you have any experience with radios or cellular devices?

video;

[theideaguy]

[Sokka knows that the sender didn't enable the video switch, but knowing that he doesn't recognize the voice, he's going to enable the video anyway. It sounds like there's some planning going on, and this is a specific point that Sokka can help out with.]

So... I know we haven't met yet, and I don't even know if you've heard of me. I'm Sokka, one of Aang's friends and Katara's brother... if you know either of them.

Look, I'm going to admit that I'm not an expert at any of this stuff quite yet. [There's an eye roll at that; this has been a rough day.] I think you're mostly right about what things need to happen, but I'm not sure it'd be best to take... all the hatchlings... and put them in the same place. [There's a hesitation as he talks, almost as if even saying these things just still seems weird. He's strategizing about turtles, and that's weird, much less the turtles themselves.] I think at most, if you want to bring them together... do it in smaller groups? And then maybe rotate them around? I don't know how bad things are going to get, but...

I can help out with defense a bit. I've... never really taught anyone weaponry or anything but... [There's an implied offer there for better or worse?]

Also... do you know who Tara—okay, this is going to sound really silly. Nah, forget it. [It really is a silly question. He's probably just imagining hearing the name.]

audio;

[akito]

I know them both! Katara is my roommate. It's good to meet you! I go by Gazelle on here.

[ and back to a more serious and less surprised tone: ]

If I can't secure a safe location or enough people to help defend them then smaller meet ups are the secondary plan. If we can't have them all be together, having small groups of them together is better than nothing. I mentioned to a few others that the sooner a get together can be done, the better, because even though it's still a possibility, there is less of a chance for another attack on them to happen again right now.

[ man, he's tired. he pauses for a second before continuing. ]

I can understand wanting to aim for smaller group meetings, and am fine with doing that if that's what a majority would prefer, ne? I just think it would be best for the hatchlings to have a chance to be all together before things can get worse. And if there's a way to safely facilitate that, I'm going to do everything I can to make it happen.

audio;

[onethirdthesoul]

I-I'd like to learn some self-defense...anything.

audio;

[akito]

Meet me at the tree we first met at 7:00am on Friday. Wear comfortable clothing.

[Video]

[solo_patria]

Any bit of defense that can be learned, I very much would like to be a part of. I am...fairly decent with a foil and a reasonable shot, although I do not have access to either weapon here. Still, whatever I might be able to do in order to protect Taraja, we...

[Enjolras had been to the palace steps himself, and had seen the bodies. Taraja, he'd been able to leave with a guard of kedan who he trusted to keep an eye on her while he'd gone up. While he had known he had to help her understand, there had been no way he wanted her physically seeing what had happened, and bringing her as close as he did was a compromise he felt relatively comfortable, if one could term anything about this entire thing 'comfortable' at least. Thinking of her siblings, not only dead, but broken, had been harder than he would have thought.

Watching those he cared for dead and dying, even Gavroche, and even learning about Eponine later, children as they both had been, was one thing. He had known too that Gavroche, at least, would have wanted it no other way. Seeing the children of this world, seeing Emily-Helen, who he had met and spoken to, who had understood some concepts of nation he had been surprised by at this time, and Napoleon, who he and Taraja had spoken to so recently, as part of the crowd of badly injured children was quite another. He did not feel so gut clenchingly horrible about Evandau, or at least, not in the same way, though that event was a sad one, too.

It was the wrong of his death that bothered Enjolras, not so much any personal feelings about the man whose greatest crime had lain in not being Eshai, and he could not have admitted otherwise, but the Hatchlings, and the idea that it could have been Taraja in their place had pushed everything towards too much, and his exit had been very fast, and, when he'd gotten there, he had promised Taraja two things. One, that while her siblings were no longer able to speak to her, and she could not feel their presence, a part of them would stay with her always, and, more immediately important in terms of work Enjolras had to do, that he would not let her be hurt as they had been. In order to do that, he had to get better at skills he had not actually much needed to use here as of yet.

So, here he is, grief lining his face, but there, nonetheless.]

I think you have some very good ideas regarding the hatchlings meeting as well. Taraja does not seem to have many ideas yet, just that it would be good to see the others. I know she has not rested well, how could she?, since all of this has happened, and I think their presence will be good for her now. Perhaps those of us who watch over them can think a little about what one does to mark the end of life in their homeworlds. It might help if they had a few suggestions to talk about together, and if some of us start by mentioning a few thing. Not to influence but...maybe something will seem right for them?

I do not know if we may ask Asti at this point, either what he would wish for "his" children, or if there is something that we ought to be doing, but perhaps those who are better at meditative gestures...well, it might be worth a try, though I'd not put all our faith in that alone.

audio;

[akito]

Come to the Wood sector on Friday at 7am for basic training in physical combat. If you want to prepare for it in the meantime, stretch your muscles when you can and stay hydrated. Wear loose, comfortable clothing.

I was thinking of visiting Asti after trying to arrange something for the remaining hatchlings, but I don't know if I'm the best choice for it right now. [ he's too exhausted, even after another few hours of napping. ] I'm going to do what I can to make a meeting as safe as possible. So far I still need more volunteers to be security, but I might have a secure location for it.

Once I've organized enough defenses to feel like a meeting would be as safe as it can get, I'll make an update through the radio and we can see if people are still interested.

text;

[skeletonenigma]

[He's skimmed the rest of the message, so he doesn't quite have the context for the one sent privately to him.]

Is he? What kind of self-defence?

text;

[akito]

Anything he can use to protect himself.

audio;

[iwannabeadragon]

And how is he going to do that when all he's got is flippers?

[Hawke can't exactly see Quintus holding a weapon or doing anything more than a playful headbutt.]

private; audio

[akito]

Have you ever met a snapping turtle?

video;

[ruinsprofessor]

I still plan to spend some time at the Hospital, regardless. I'll make myself available elsewhere as well, however. Preferably not my suite, but I can come to those in trouble, and if the Hotel is in good enough shape to serve as a neutral meeting ground, that may also work.

The children should be able to see each other, but I'd be hesitant to gather all of them at once. Perhaps smaller gatherings, in threes or fours.

[That much she makes visible to everyone. With that said, she switches over to a private message for Akito alone.]

Hawke was the last person I spoke to who knew anything about the Vilii. Have you spoken to him?

[She presses her lips together. She has an idea regarding the 'riddle.' But... she doesn't have enough supporting data yet. She's not sure, and so after an unfortunately obvious pause Raine moves on.] If you can teach how to see the taint, I'd like to learn.

private; audio

[akito]

Make sure to take someone with you on your shifts. [ he's pretty sure you understand why, because you're smart, Raine! ] As for the hatchlings, I agree with smaller group meetings, but I'm going to try and see if I can facilitate a secure meeting for all of them. There isn't really a chance for a proper funeral for their siblings right now...

[ he trails off, knowing what he wants to say but how to say it. after a moment he just... drops it and continues on. ]

Everything Hawke knows about them he learned from me.


Does Saturday work for you for your lesson?