lucetimods: (Default)
Luceti Mods ([personal profile] lucetimods) wrote in [community profile] lucetilogs2012-08-17 11:40 am

Mission # 9 - Festival at Rataneran Keep

Who: Jack Sparrow, Pao-Lin Huang, Remy LeBeau, Buffy Summers, Maron Kusakabe, Raine Sage, Albert Silverberg, Trafalgar Law, Neferteri Vivi, Rogue, Pepper Potts, Cloche Leythal Pastalia, Temperance Brennan, Norma Beatty, Raven, Grune, Sokka, Kiba Inuzuka, Eusine, Peeta Mellark, Yamanaka Ino, Jiro Kusano, Rainbow Dash, Steve Rogers, Booth, Joshua Bright, Leonhardt, Syre Atries
What: MISSION # 9 - Festival at Rataneran Keep
When: August 17th to 18th
Where: Rataneran Keep
Summary: Volunteers have been summoned to Rataneran Keep to put on a festival for the time-honored “Founder’s Day Festival”. However, three assassins have been assigned to put an end to a certain Count.


Upon being deployed from Luceti, the group of volunteers were transported by private jet for three hours. Due to containment requirements, the windows were blacked out, preventing them from seeing outside. These few hours went by rather quietly, as they were given food and other necessities by a staff of worker droids. When they landed, they were greeted by a businessman in a brown suit, attended by several aides and a security detail. He looked frustrated, overworked, and unhappy to be there. But when the group had all arrived, he spoke to the lot of them.

“Welcome adventurers, heroes, and whoever else the rest of you might be. I’m CJ- that’s short for Cave Johnson. I’m the RP Manager for the Malnosso Assignment and Reward Service. That’s right, Service. Starts with an S. Makes the MARS acronym work that much better. Now, today you’re not here to save any lives or fight cultists or anything in the pursuit of science. No, tomorrow you’re going to put on stupid costumes, face paint, and put on a damn good show. Big wigs from the organization are going to be at this festival, just like every year. Now you might be thinking to yourself this is your big chance to get to know the Commandant. Or that you have a shot at rubbing elbows with the head of the science department. Well time to get that thought out of your head. You’re here for one reason. Information. Information about things that have nothing to do with those people.”

Deep breath and Cave Johnson stopped to continue, but his cell phone rang. Shushing the volunteers, he turned away and started talking. Those with especially keen hearing overheard something like, “No, Janice. I said no- okay, fine. Fine, yes. If those damn Segretarians want to keep escaping, then we’ll stop working with them. Alright. Alright. I heard you. Okay. Bye.”

Entirely unapologetic, he turned back to the group. “I’ll lay this out simple for you folks on how this is going to work. The lot of you? You’re not from Luceti. Or any other enclosure. You’re a traveling circus known as the Feathered Phenomenals. A real popular group that’s been paid to not show up. You people will be filling in for them. That means taking over their caravan, their costumes, their animals, and all the hard work that comes with it. You’ll be sleeping outside of Rataneran Keep for your first night, so if you don’t like sleeping on the ground, then you should have thought of that before signing up.”

“So what are you keeping your ears out for?” He asked. “Well here’s your spoilers, kids. Count Zompano is the one running this gig. You know him already. He’s the son of a bitch running the enclosures now. That puts him in charge of experiments, the authorization of abductions and arrivals, and whether I keep my job and the MARS project keeps going on. So you bunch need to find any dirt you can on him. Talk to the servants and guards, but don’t give yourselves away. If we can blackmail the bastard, we’ll put him out of a job and we all go home happy. Now, if you’ll talk to my aides, they’ve all got identities and roles set up for you to fill. Don’t go complaining if you don’t like what you get. Any questions?”

Cave Johnson stuck around a little longer to answer any questions in his stubborn, blunt way. But eventually his cell phone rang again and he was summoned away. This left the volunteers to get their badges that would reveal what roles they would be playing in the troupe. They were strictly forbidden from trading or to use their real names. They were also given see-through adhesives to put over their barcodes, for those with short enough hair to be exposed. These effectively made the barcodes vanish and be imperceptible.

While that lot was busy, the security quietly picked out Joshua Bright, Leonhardt, and Syre Atries at different times, separately and done to ensure no one noticed anything awry. Each were taken to a private black van where Specialist Davis was waiting for them. Each one received a private primer on what they would be doing. Perform as unimportant members of the troupe. While the show was running, they would assess the security, make preparations to corner Count Zompano, and at last knock him out and abduct him. They would then meet with Davis again, at night time of the second day, to deliver the Count for delivery to the cultists. If the assassins succeeded, they would receive an extra reward.

However, each assassin was not made aware of the other two, leaving them under the impression they would be working alone and without competition. They were sternly warned not to reveal their role to ANYONE. Should they do so, Cave Johnson had already arranged specific punishments for such an occasion.

Day 1:

The first day of the mission, besides transportation and being informed of the situation, will be spent allowing the volunteers to get into the roles designated for them. All of them will be expected to do their part in setting up the stage, high wires, cages, and other parts needed to put on the show. Some of the work by the castle’s staff will already be completed, but most of the first day will be spent doing the finishing touches and, of course, rehearsing. They will not be permitted to wander around the castle at this time. At night, they will set up tents outside the walls of the Keep.

For a ten mile radius around the castle (which extends far beyond the castle walls), a Shift preventing the use of any special powers has been erected. This will prevent anyone in the group from using special abilities that cannot be performed by an ordinary, mundane human being. Along with having no weapons, this puts the group at a severe disadvantage should they try to pick a fight. The castle is itself host to a large and efficient security detail. Although they are not members of the Malnosso Security Force, they are armed with the same sorts of weapons and use radios to relay information. Notably there are no droids being used among the castle staff. Every task is performed by a multitude of underpaid servants.

During this time they will have ample opportunities to talk to the servants, some of which will be more forthcoming than others. The security will be less talkative, but that’s nothing that they can’t handle if they’re willing to flirt a little, invite them to a drink, and lull them into a false sense of security. Examples of snippets they will provide in the comments below.

Day 2:

The majority of the Founder’s Day festivities will be taking place in Rataneran Keep’s grand hall. Although normally kept austere and severely underdecorated, a large battalion of underpaid Malnosso underlings have truly outdone themselves. There are tapestries on the walls depicting famous scenes from the Organization’s history, hanging chandeliers filled with smoky, wax-dipping candles, and great wooden tables piled high with delicacies culled from a variety of the world’s most profitable enclosures. But don’t even think about snagging a pastry or cut of meat for yourself! The help has been strongly discouraged from sharing in the master’s feast -- such pilfering will come with stern reprimands and, in severe cases, lost digits.

Squat, raked seating fills both ends of the hall and servants scurry back and forth between the food and the guests, serving them with gusto. The count and his more esteemed guests sit in a box-like seating area, flush against the long east wall. Security is also present. However, the center of the room is empty and so houses the real entertainment; it is in this space the volunteers would have set up as their stage on the previous day. Before the Feathered Phenomenals perform, there comes a choir that seemed to be made up of captured cultists. Their otherwise majestic, long wings are clipped and bound together. Most of the festival’s guests seem mildly troubled by the display; the count, meanwhile, guffaws and applauds the loudest. The man appears heartless. Why -- one servant whispers wide-eyed to the gathered Lucetian troupe before they went on -- apparently just the night before, the count had ordered the execution of an entire company of painters, one of which had displeased him by painting his nose just a little too big. It didn’t matter that his nose was big to begin with, she clarifies. Just that the count had been insulted, and that he’d felt a week of being dead would lend the painters some additional perspective. And so, she warns, the circus performers had better do their utmost best unless the count should also choose to put these mice through their paces.

Count Zompano himself will not be difficult to spot. A man with a gaudy sense of fashion, he dresses in foofy clothes and wears a pompadour wig. What makes him particularly distinctive are his pink-ish skin, yellow eyes, and large pink wings, which he decorates with glitter. With a foppish attitude and a tendency to refer to anyone he does not consider his equal as ‘little mice’, he is a man who makes himself the center of attention wherever he goes. Typically surrounded by a security detail, there are few times when he is ever alone and not basking in attention. He is extremely brutal to those who interrupt him, displease him, or otherwise annoy him. Guards who fail in their duties to him are swiftly executed and servants are often sent below the castle to be ‘re-educated’ of their role.

In the evening, before the final act, is when the Count will be successfully abducted. This final act will be the play about Founder’s Day. As the four actors put on their show, the rest of the troupe will be packing up to leave. At its conclusion, the group will be ready to leave. With the help of the Security Forces, they will be allowed to depart without incident, despite the castle security doing a sweep to find their employer. The remaining assassin will rendezvous with them later after delivering the Count to Specialist Davis.

---

OoC Information:

-You can make up fake names and identities that your characters will assume. They’re just locked into the professions revealed before. Feel free to come up with your own costume and makeup ideas too!
-Any attempts to escape or fight their way free will result in them being detained by security. Specialist Davis will arrange for them to spend the rest of the mission in MSF custody.
-For the assassins: Leonhardt is the designated assassin to succeed in capturing Count Zompano, Joshua Bright will fail but be otherwise undetected, and Syre Atries will be killed after being discovered by security. For these three assassins, we will set up threads for you to interact with the [personal profile] malnosso account so we can react to your character’s actions and set up the scenario, leading to their conclusions.
- All volunteers can talk to CJ before the mission for any additional questions they have. He will be unavailable to speak with after that point. What they do at that point is all on them, since he’ll be watching in the audience.

NOTE: Details for the play are still in the work. We’ll have a separate thread dedicated to it to be appended to the log later, which should have all the details you need. We hope to have this ready sometime tonight.



That’s all! For any plotting or questions, please use this post
all7seas: (calculating)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-08-22 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
Jack stopped, then. Considered. He didn't like the shoving. This was Buffy, after all. He stepped to the side.

"If you learned it? You've earned it. Side by side, then.

Warily. Savvy? Could be...trappy things."
herotypical: [ neutral ; angry ; crossed arms ] (✝ and through it all)

[personal profile] herotypical 2012-08-22 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
Pre-performance, she would have meekly fallen in line behind a knight in shining armour. But she had gumption, now. She felt capable. So side-by-side was entirely acceptable. Welcomed, in fact.

"Trappy things," she agreed. "Or...security. Jeez. What do we say if we run into security?"
all7seas: (come again?)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-08-22 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm taking you off to marry you in secret."

That was a joke. A sad one, but a joke nonetheless.


"Shh -- you hear that?"
herotypical: [ wtf ; uncertain ] (✝ i was hoping i could just blame you)

[personal profile] herotypical 2012-08-22 02:43 am (UTC)(link)
"That works," she said with no protest at all. Her agreement was ruthless, really. But soon overpowered by her attempt to hear whatever it was that Jack had heard.

Her head tilted. And -- aha. Was that a thing? A thing to be heard? Maybe. She looked up at him in the flickering candlelight with a questioning glance.

Is that it?
all7seas: (calculating)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-08-22 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
Ahead of them, a rat scuttled across the corridor and vanished into a crack.

Maybe that was all it had been....

He looked back down at her, taking in green eyes in torchlight. Jack was liking this expedition less and less.

"Sounded like...sounded like a large balloon running out of air. Slowly."
herotypical: [ neutral ; angry ] (✝ through the fire)

[personal profile] herotypical 2012-08-22 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
"...I think there's a large balloon in act one, scene four."

Buffy was liking the expedition more and more. Maybe she wasn't currently as cut out for it as she ought to be but dammit, it felt righter. It felt more like her element. She knew what to watch for. She knew how to hold herself.
all7seas: (Jack will mock you now)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-08-22 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
"What the hell do they need THAT for?!" His nerves were certainly making themselves apparent. Jack was excellent at getting himself out of spaces like this. Others? Well.

He hadn't perfected that, yet.
herotypical: [ snarky ; angry ; pout ] (✝ earn me a degree)

[personal profile] herotypical 2012-08-22 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
A shrug. "Science, I guess."
all7seas: (they will land at your feet tonight)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-08-22 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
"Can I do something for science? Right now?"
herotypical: [ wtf ; angry ] (✝ and told you goodbye)

[personal profile] herotypical 2012-08-22 03:12 am (UTC)(link)
"...Depends. Does it involve a balloon?"
all7seas: (sparkling and rich)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-08-22 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
In answer, Jack leaned down to kiss her. It wasn't something a ringmaster should be doing to an aerialist who was otherwise "attached" at home. It certainly wasn't something that should be done in a creepy hallway en route to top-secret information-gathering.

Master Kip had been wanting to do this to Orensa for at least forty-eight hours, though. Maybe it wouldn't happen at all, otherwise.
herotypical: [ intimacy ; angel ] (✝ don't speak)

[personal profile] herotypical 2012-08-22 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
Buffy acted surprised. In reality, pretty much most of her mind understood that the moment Jack had asked the question, the scene was plummeting fast and furiously towards kissing. Unavoidably.

Her fingers started winding themselves up in that dotted tie. Tentatively, she nudged him back against the stone.
all7seas: (over the moon)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-08-22 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
"I love you." A kiss. "Me. Your Jack. Love you." Another kiss. He was trying to be very quiet. He hoped the words wouldn't carry further than her ears.
herotypical: [ intimacy ; riley ] (✝ johnny depp would not be unwelcome)

[personal profile] herotypical 2012-08-22 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
"My back-home guy," a returned kiss, "is never gonna forgive me." A deepened kiss. She stretched upwards. There were so very many reasons why not to do this.

And one very good reason to keep on keeping on: "But I kinda love you too. Jack."
all7seas: (you are my dear my annie)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-08-22 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
"I'll talk to him. Let him know that he's got a very impertinent rival."

Her I kinda love you made him feel as though he could float through the stone that was so cold against his feathers.


"Annie." Free. So freeing to say that name, to whisper it against her ear. And then came the strong hand on his shoulder, metal-covered, a grip that was more than strong enough to haul him away from her.
herotypical: [ intmacy ; xander ] (✝ if this is just the beginning)

1/2

[personal profile] herotypical 2012-08-22 03:41 am (UTC)(link)
"So very impertinent." Each syllable was so so crisp. God, she was about two or three thrills along her spine away from forgiving him entirely. Souls? What souls. The past is the past. Bridge? Water. Under. Just so long as he never stops kissing h--
herotypical: [ angry ; sad ] (✝ dance till your dead)

2/2

[personal profile] herotypical 2012-08-22 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
She didn't have her roots. She'd been floating. So not grounded. All those fingers twisted up in his tie got wrenched and -- surprised -- she cried out in pain and frantically worked to free herself and...

And she'd just prioritized her safety over his and although that thought made her nauseous, she didn't have time to indulge in the guilt.

"L-let him go," she blustered and grabbed at the guard's arm. It was thick and sinewy and so very strong. Her hauling did little good. "We're having a marriage here."
Edited 2012-08-22 03:57 (UTC)
all7seas: (freakdown like James Brown)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-08-22 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Sparrow was quick to react to the violence being done against him by Zompano's security guard. The other man quite clearly didn't care about marriages.

"Tell that to the Count, Annie," he sneered, but that was all he got out before Jack's fist smashed into his jaw.
Edited 2012-08-22 19:49 (UTC)
herotypical: (✝ i'll follow suit)

[personal profile] herotypical 2012-08-22 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
The guard reeled. The thin upside to the power-cap situation was that pretty much every enemy was a shoe-in for also being as strong as one could expect from their appearances. Of course, this guy was...big. Burly. He wasn't gonna be reeling for long.

"What? Can't a girl have a middle name?" But it wasn't just the name that was the problem. They were where they weren't supposed to be and Jack had as good as signed their guilt with his knuckles.

Buffy squared up to the plate at Jack's side and then promptly...hesitated. What was she even supposed to do?

Meanwhile, the guard lunged at the both of them.
all7seas: (battle)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-08-23 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
Sparrow went for the sidestep-trip combo. Big ones fell hard, and this one, big as he was, seemed agile. He wouldn't be down for long.


The butt of his pistol, then, was going to be a handy thing: the pirate brought it cracking down on the other man's head, just hard enough to knock him unconscious. It was quick. He'd have a headache for certain when he woke up, but probably not many other problems.
herotypical: [ tired ; angry ; bridge of the nose ] (✝ you're sick with salmonella)

[personal profile] herotypical 2012-08-23 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
In the lead-lined seconds after the pistol butt crunched loudly against the guard's skull, Buffy could only hear her own breathing. Quick and shuddery and panicked. Jack had moved faster than her; she hadn't moved at all.

"Jeez..." She dragged her palms over her face and her fingers felt cold. Soon, she might remember to thank Jack. At the very least, she would remember not to leave a body in the hallway.

But not yet. For now? Adrenaline had to play havoc with a body that wasn't primed to handle it.
all7seas: (ANGERPANTS!)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-08-23 01:17 am (UTC)(link)
"Come on, love. Orensa."

He was already berating himself for that fatal mistake, though for the moment he was mostly occupied with hoisting that heavy fallen body.


"Grab the feet?"

All the apologies he owed her could come soon enough.
herotypical: [ sad ; neutral ] (✝ back into the end of harmony)

[personal profile] herotypical 2012-08-23 01:23 am (UTC)(link)
She wasn't scared. Not really. She'd seen scarier things. She'd been a scarier thing. Her own mortality was something she'd faced and conquered and accepted many many times before this time. And yet? Tonight? She was trembling. She couldn't fill her lungs. She felt distant -- and not in that empowering, purposeful way.

The world was both too sharp and too wrapped in cotton. Buffy stooped and grabbed onto the guard's ankles. Or tried to. Those boots had thick cuffs. So she gripped higher instead.

With an oof, she lifted up. She put her back into it.
all7seas: (your mark is on my chest)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-08-23 01:33 am (UTC)(link)
"A closet," the pirate mumbled, shuffling backward with the guard's body in his arms. "We'll stash him. Tie him. Gag him. It'll be alright, darling. It'll be alright."

It was as though he was reassuring himself as well as Buffy. Jack hauled up on the unconscious man to get a better grip.
herotypical: [ neutral ; angry ; snark ; bite me ] (✝ protège moi)

[personal profile] herotypical 2012-08-23 01:39 am (UTC)(link)
"S-slower? Please?"

One foot slipped out of her hands. It swung sickly, at an eerie angle. Buffy swallowed and gathered the leg close again. "Kinda not a weight-lifter, over here. Right now."

It wasn't even that bad, really. This half of the guard wasn't that heavy. But her heart was pumping so heard and her head was swimming. And it stripped her of one more piece of dignity to even consider asking him to cater to her disadvantage.

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