faderift | OPEN ↠ HARING EVENT

WHO: All
WHAT: WINTER IS HERE
WHEN: Haring 15-Wintermarch 1
WHERE: The Gallows, Kirkwall
NOTES: You can use this post as an event-style mingle log, or just use it as background information for your RP elsewhere!

It's been a chilly month already, but in mid-Haring the temperature suddenly plummets. One day it's merely cold, and the next morning the Inquisition wakes to frost on the inside of the window panes and an icy draft whistling through every crack in the tower's masonry. Downstairs, the pipes that feed the bathing chambers and the kitchens creak in the walls, loud enough to be heard even out in the courtyard, where they run beneath the stones, and around midday, when the sun has failed to raise the temperature above freezing, a blocked pipe finally gives, cracking open to spill water across the central court and send it running down side passages. The whole area floods several inches deep and almost immediately begins to freeze, presenting at first a gigantic, treacherous slush puddle and, after a few hours, a sheet of sheer ice.

Melting a safe path from door to door and laying down sand or wood to keep it from becoming slick again is a simple enough undertaking, but before the entire courtyard can be thawed, someone appears with ice skates—and that’s a better idea, surely, for at least a few days. Anyone who complains about the frivolity can be assured it’s good exercise, not to mention good training for a force that may have to travel or fight on ice in the future.

Temperatures remain cold enough that even some parts of the harbor begin to freeze, first just at the calmest edges of the shoreline, and then the more protected nooks and crannies of the bay, inlets and the spaces between piers and beneath docks. It snows most days--not real storms, just a couple inches here and there--little enough for the window to blow most of it off the icy plain of the courtyard and other wide open, paved spaces, accumulating on branches and in alleyways, and creating growing drifts in corners and against walls.

After a week or so actual chunks of floating ice begin to fill the narrow channels of the harbor, threatening smaller and less-sturdy vessels, and the situation in the poorer parts of the city begins to grow dire. With the Viscount's blessing, Inquisition teams (particularly mages) are called in to help. Some are assigned to the docks, to clear ice that makes landing and unloading treacherous, others to help escort ships into harbor by melting a path ahead. Others are sent into Lowtown to clear ice and snow and to provide warmth and medical attention where needed. At least one mage is sent with each team, and while many neighborhoods are pleasantly surprised and grateful for the quick work fire glyphs make of cold hearths and frozen streets, a few are unable to overcome their distrust, and refuse the teams entry, determined to take care of their own without the help of dangerous outsiders.

In the last week of the year, a true blizzard strikes, snow falling steadily for more than a day, blanketing the city at least three feet deep. Digging out the Gallows will be a group effort, and most non-essential trips outside the base will be cancelled for a few days until travel is less difficult, while those who reside in the city or elsewhere may be encouraged to stay a night or two in the fortress so they might continue to work without traveling through the storm. But on the first day of Wintermarch the First Day feast goes on as planned, with modest but plentiful food and ale served in the Gallows' dining hall for anyone who wishes to celebrate the new year.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Man, a couple years of being here, I'm getting used to magic, but I dunno that I'll ever get used to magic, you know?" He grunts in frustration as he hits ice instead of snow. "Or, maybe you don't know--you've got magic in your world, right? Man, this blows, I want magic bullets and magic lasers and shit."

Prompto hears him hit ice. He shifts over to help hack at it with his shovel. "We've got it, but it's... kinda different than here. Only the Lucian royal family can use it, though they've got a way of granting people the ability to use it or something like that." Noctis just stores his magic in flasks so the rest of the bunch can use them.

"Whaaat, so you gotta be magic royalty or a friend of magic royalty to shoot fireballs? Laaaaaame." And honestly, he'd probably think nothing of Noctis if he saw the kid and make a lot of Hot Topic jokes. "When I was stationed on a fucking ice planet made of ice, you know what we had? The inside of the base. And you know what that had? Almost nothing. It was bullshit. Like, the suits of armor we get, they're thermoregulated and shit? But sometimes all you wanna do is take that off before you get a rash somewhere the sun don't shine."

He might be making some of that up. It's Unclear.

"Yeah, kinda. The royal family gets it from the crystal is why." At least he thinks that's why, anyway. Ignis said something about it to him once. Besides, what other reason would there be? The crystal is the biggest thing that sets Lucis apart from the rest of the world, and why the Empire wanted to conquer them in the first place.

He scrunches his nose at the scene Church paints for him. "Eugh. They couldn't even give you space heaters or something?"

"Magic crystal bullshit, of course," he mumbles. Because there's magic crystal bullshit here, too. It just...happens to be not good magic crystal bullshit most of the time, ie red lyirum or the shards in their hands.

"A couple space heaters don't do much for a whole base. Listen, I'm exaggerating, but only just a little. Plus, with bases all over the galaxy, supplies get kinda short." He pauses, to wipe away some sweat from his brow and take a look around at what else needs done. "I mean. It's the same thing every time, no matter the war, I guess."

Oh Church, you don't know the half of the bullshit that Crystal involves. Neither does Prompto, to be fair. Not yet, anyway.

"All over the galaxy. Wow. I mean, I guess it's old card for you, but that sounds kind of amazing, being able to travel in space and see other worlds." Eos hasn't managed space travel, and with how things are going, it won't be happening anytime soon. "Though I don't envy you being military. The uniform life sounds rough."

OPEN ↠ HARING EVENT

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