ya gotta wanna be a battering ram

[headandhand]

WHO: The entire dang city.
WHAT: Dualis Days, a week-long summer celebration.
WHERE: Central Square Park and the rest of the city.
WHEN: June 17-23.
WARNINGS: Terrorist violence, likely some blood and injuries. Please warn in individual threads!

June 17; Central Square Park.

Every year for as far back as anyone can remember, the start of summer is heralded by the week-long festival known as Dualis Days. This celebration officially kicks off at midday in the middle of Central Square Park with a commencement speech by the current mayor. This year marks Marcelina Dubanowski's third term as mayor of Dualis; she is an average-sized, middle-aged human-presenting woman with blonde hair styled in a short bob and a plastic, toothy smile that never seems to turn entirely off.

"Welcome, one and all!" she begins, with the practiced cadence of someone who is quite comfortable with public speaking. She invites all citizens, new and old, to spend the next week indulging in festivities in all districts of the city and getting to know their neighbors a little better. This is a joyous time of celebration, and the crowd responds with enthusiastic applause as the mayor finishes her speech and introduces this year's parade marshall, Peshtigo Tengfei.

Tengfei blows a whistle six times to signal the start of the parade - and this is where the celebration goes sideways.

A loud explosion tears through the air, and it's followed by panicked screams and the sharp screech of microphone feedback. A bomb has gone off at the platform where the mayor was standing, collapsing the wood and tearing it to splinters and dust. Chaos erupts in the gathered crowd, and as the people shift in all directions to get clear of any possible additional bombs, a loud siren cuts through the cacophony, calling attention to the sudden crackle of video feed present on all television screens throughout the city, including those set up in the park to broadcast the mayor's speech for those standing far from the stage. The picture is plain, a black background and bold white block letters filling the screen:

WAKE UP
WAKE UP
DON'T BELIEVE THE LIES

The final image is an anatomical graphic of a human heart, displayed for about three seconds, and then the feed goes black again.

Confused murmurs sweep through the crowd as citizens resume tending to the injured and evacuating the area until official first responders arrive.

June 17-23; aftermath around the city.

Dualis Days continues as scheduled, though Mayor Dubanowski is unable to enjoy the festival, as she is spending the week in the hospital recovering from her injuries. A team of Iterations guard her door - no visitors allowed - but the news media frequently report updates on her condition. Nothing to worry about, folks! Return to your celebrations, and don't mind the increased visible presence of the Hand as Iterations are stationed every few blocks throughout the city. It's only for your protection, after all.

Comments

CW: the stuff that happens around bombings

[firacrux]

Central Square

Come to the celebration, they said. It'll be fun, they said. It's tradition, they said!

New as he was to the city, Seifer had taken the time to pause somewhere to watch the mayor's broadcast. It was generally a good idea to get a feel for the climate for anywhere you lived, and new science experiment or not that still held true. This place was significantly different than the Iteration he'd just come from, leaving him to wonder what exactly the point of this experiment would be. Maybe the mayor's speech would shed some light on things. Or just be an attempt to pull the wool over their eyes so their reactions would be more "genuine." His opinion leaned toward the latter, judging by that incredibly plastic smile of hers.

Just when he was about to write the whole speech off as boring and find himself some food all hell broke loose. An explosion, a siren, panic erupting in the streets and above it all that strange broadcast.

"The hell?" He asked of no on in particular, gawping for a few moments too long at the message and its beating heart. To say it was weird and alarming would be putting it mildly. However, now wasn't the time to dwell on such things, now was the time to act. While others ran in panic from the point of the explosion Seifer moved toward it, trying to keep to barriers and walls in case a shooter decided the bomb alone didn't get the point across.

Here was where training kicked in. Seifer went to work doing what he could to help direct people fleeing the area to clear streets with law enforcement in an effort to keep them from trampling each other. While without Cures or Potions he was severely lacking in the emergency medical aid department he did have some training there as well, and quickly made a rush to secure wounded and patch what he could before medical teams arrived. Mostly it was a matter of keeping them from bleeding out or being trampled in the process. "Hey, you! Yeah, c'mere and put your hand here. Don't just stand there, move." He barked at someone who didn't look too panicked to be put to use. Directing them to help staunch the blood on one of many injured in the blast.

There were better ways than this to make yourself heard damn it.



Aftermath

Eerie how things just... went back to normal. No one called off the celebration. The alarm of the day seemed almost nothing more than rumor and nightmares, not an event that actually happened just a few days prior. The most solid reminder the almost disturbingly cheerful way the news covered the mayor's recovery. Great, she's well, but there was something decidedly off about the whole thing. Well, her, and the significantly increased police presence. That was a good clue they were taking it seriously.

One would think all the robots would put a damper on the mood. They sure did his. It was probably stupid still being out there at all, yet he'd been mulling on that message for a while. Wake up. Wake up to what? What lies were they telling that someone felt their message had to be painted in blood? Frowning to himself he moved, not exactly partaking in the celebrations but instead listening. Seeking gossip, watching for anyone looking more suspicious than himself, anything.

Although he totally had to stop and get something to snack on because come on, how can you pass up carnival food?

Wildcard

[Got something else in mind? Go for it!]

Aftermath

[skyward_eyes]

Robots? Definitely put a damper on the mood. Then again, Nida's fought more than his fair share of them and they make him almost more leery than the AI running this place. And that mostly has to do with not really knowing much about AI. They aren't an issue on his world. Yet. Frankly, he isn't sure he wants to be here, doesn't want to interact with this party, not even almost with his boyfriend. But Seifer?

After everything the last few days has revealed to him, after everything they've been through, after bombs and Jason and Squall and all the mess that was everything? Well, he had to just get out and do something, and watching Seifer's back was decidedly something.

"What in the world is even an 'elephant' and why are we supposed to eat its ear?"

[firacrux]

Robots were unnerving. For the moment they appeared to not be hostile, Seifer only hoped they remained that way. He also knew far less what to expect from an AI, the concept belonging to the territory of science fiction as far as he was concerned. Granted being here it was a lot less fiction now, wasn't it?

As for everything else? It was a fucking disaster and a mess. Full of anxiety, uncertainty, a little bit of terror, and mostly a lot of confusion. And you know what? Seifer didn't want to think about it or worry about it right now. He'd listen, he'd try to pick up any information he could, but by Hyne he was going to eat some terrible for him carnival food because he's never had that until extremely recently in his life. And damn it he's going to drag Nida along too.

"I dunno but I'm gonna find out. You in?" Seifer is all about trying new things today. Come on, Nida, time for adventure.

[skyward_eyes]

“Definitely. I hope it isn’t too savory,” Nida sighs, hand coming up to massage his temple. “I need something stupidly terrible for me after all this. Did I tell you that my roommate showed up after we came back from picking up Jason? Hyne I wish I had just gone home with you.”

Squall Leonhart. Can he not think about his young boss and how he is going to handle that situation? Or how quickly he defaulted to SeeD after the blast? Or how badly he wants a weapon?

“Actually, I hope it is fattening. And if not, we are buying candy. I want to do fun, stupid stuff and tell SeeD Nomura to fuck off. He’s just a little too close to the surface right now.”

And Seifer was one of the people trying to help him not be that person. So he didn’t worry too much about admitting the pressure of it. “Maybe find a competitive fair game for me to kick your ass in.”

[firacrux]

"From what I can see they look like pastries." Sometimes being as tall as a tree came in handy for spotting things others couldn't see through crowds as soon. They also smelled deep fried which he could really go for right about now.

Weaving his way through the crowd to act as a crowd icebreaker for Nida, he paused enough to make sure he hadn't lost him. "Oh yeah, who's your roomie?" Seifer had forgotten to mention his run in with Squall, or with Aqua, he should probably make a mention of both at some point. Oops. "So what's got SeeD Nomura back out in the open, the bomb?" That and worse, Seifer just doesn't know it yet. The final comment just earned a chuckle, the kind that clearly said 'bring it on!'

[skyward_eyes]

Nida hadn’t mentioned Steph either, so not mentioning Aqua was fair. And he had his own, unexpected meeting of her due in the future. No, it is the other part that draws a displeased sneer to his lips. Which was sad, because deep fried pastries sounded perfect. He followed after Seifer closely, carefully waiting for a moment where Seifer might be off balance. His brother deserves to trip up for this one.

“The bomb. And my roommate. One Squall Leonhart. Who mentioned running into you. I know we were in that damn interview room long enough to tell me that!”

Probably best not to mention threatening Squall. Maybe even good not to mention how hurt he was until Nida tests the waters here. This is the tricky part, figuring out how Seifer is going to take an accidental replacement of Seifer as his roommate with Squall fucking Leonhart.

[firacrux]

What, what's wrong with pastries? Seifer just raises an eyebrow at that look, not even thinking about the fact that he'd forgotten to mention a very important detail.

One which Nida very nearly did indeed make him stumble over, well there was a stumble, not a full tumble. He coughed, looking alarmed. "Shit! That's right," It would appear he'd only just recalled his fateful meeting with one belted up Leonhart. Which did earn a barked laugh, probably not a reaction Nida wanted to hear right now.

"Hyne, they must hate you here. Yeah I ran into him, all tied up like a fuckin' mummy in those belts of his." Which, with the encounter being so humorous, made it stand out a lot less in the heat of bullshit. "Sorry, Nids, gotta admit it slipped my mind what with the whole bomb and Jason back from the dead thing."

Surprisingly well. It helped he got to screw with Squall for a good long while and get his "revenge" for Squall having the audacity to exist. It was very petty.

[skyward_eyes]

Later, later he was going to have fun with the mental image. For now he has to process the apology. Which is taken with a simple nod, even as his hand reaches out to lay on Seifer’s arm. The other goes to where his tags are under his shirt.

“He may have been my boss, and could probably get me to jump to orders before I thought about it, but you’re my brother before that. You’re my brother before I’m Billy’s boyfriend. You’re first. I need that to be clear here and now. Only other idiot that gets that priority is the one back in our hands who has the same rights.”

And Hyne is his face serious. This isn’t discussed. This isn’t anything but felt from the heart. And the weight on him over waiting for an answer is almost scary. Because he could lose something here, and he doesn’t want to.

“You don’t get to run or assume I am his man or any of that shit. You do get free reign to come and annoy him if you want it. I just... I need to know you aren’t going to freak out on me.”

[firacrux]

It was pretty hilarious, especially watching him drug along by two massive individuals hell bent on making him have some fun. Best way to run into the asshole, honestly. Seifer paused at the hand, frowning over at Nida. So serious all of the sudden, and here he just wanted to eat something fried and full of sugar.

He offered a small, reassuring smile. One of the few genuine ones he ever wears. "I know, Nida. You ain't goin' anywhere, and neither am I," He nodded to himself, as though reaffirming and sealing that claim within his mind. He's not leaving. No one is leaving.

"I think I'm alright. Funny, it's easier now I was able to look him in the eye, all spittin' like a pissed off cat, than imagining it." His mind had made it worse for him. Now that he could pick on Squall directly it was easier to remember that once upon a time he could put Squall on his ass. That he could keep him on his toes like no one's business. That, deep down, he wasn't some mythological being or even the one responsible for the shit they face.

Squall's just Squall. Ever pulled around by the tides surrounding him. "I'm gonna be okay." He repeats.

central square

[aguidingkey]

By sheer chance, Aqua is close enough when the bomb goes off that she is one of the people Seifer turns to. At first, she doesn't recognize him, mostly because of the utter chaos, but once she kneels down to help. She places her hand where directed, helping staunch the bleeding before deciding to try something she hasn't tried in months. But since some of her other abilities seem to have returned, she figures why not try?

"Here, let me try something."

So she summons Stormfall for the first time since she found herself back in that strange other world, the Iteration, and points it at the injured person. Hopefully Seifer trusts her enough to let her do this, because even she has to admit, if she didn't know any better, what she's doing would look extremely suspicious. But rather than attacking, she focuses her energy into one single spell: Curaga. It'll take her a while to recharge her energy so she can use the spell again, but if she just saved someone's life, it will be more than worthwhile.

"I can't believe someone would do this," she says, gazing out at the carnage. It's unthinkable, even after everything she has been through on that other world. At least she knows she hasn't arrived here alone this time. Even if it is still a dangerous situation.

[firacrux]

It took a few moments before Seifer himself realized it was Aqua he was shouting at, but that blue hair of hers is impossible to forget. There's a lot going on, easy to not immediately realize who you're talking to.

"Huh, wait what are you-?" Oh, it's Aqua! But still, what was she doing? Well he wasn't about to stop her, although he did look deeply concerned about the whole suddenly having a giant metal stick thing she was pointing at the injured person. However, he absolutely recognized magic use when he saw it, so he was going to go ahead and let her see what she could do.

A Curaga should do the trick to pick the person right up. Talk about a potent spell to have on hand. How many more of those was she willing to spare for the wounded. "Shit, Aqua, I didn't know you were here too." In experiment land the second. Welcome to the party he supposed. Though he did feel better knowing there were a few more of them around, and Aqua had already proved herself more than capable in the Iteration. "Yeah, I dunno what the hell's goin' on." Even if bombings like this weren't that surprising to him. Still horrific.

"So that your keyblade? I didn't know you knew magic."

[aguidingkey]

Well, the magic itself worked in a way, but Aqua frowns. Leaning over a little bit, she checks the person's pulse. Some of the injury has been healed, but not nearly enough.

"Why didn't that heal more?" she wonders. "It was supposed to be a potent healing spell, but it hasn't done more than a Cura." It's almost like her magic is at half power here. Which is better than the last world, at least.

"Yes. It will need to recharge, but I should still be able to use it again. Let's get our friend to safety first." And then she'll show Seifer her keyblade, now that she can.

[firacrux]

Not nearly enough at all. However, the bleeding's slowed and the person might just live through this. Tearing up a bit of the person's clothing and stealing a belt he goes about trying to make enough of a makeshift bandage to hold them together a little longer. They can be mad at him for tearing up their shirt later.

He frowned at her words. Cura, he's definitely familiar with that spell. "Sounds like we use, or used, a similar magic system. Paramagic? Anyway, ain't important right now let's get 'em over to someone who can help 'em." Which isn't really them. He's trained in some very light field medicine, first response first aid, really.

With the person patched as well as they're going to get Seifer checked them over for any obvious signs of head trauma before very carefully loading them up in his arms. It's a bad idea to move someone injured. Might be a worse idea to leave them under foot of a panicking crowd.

[aguidingkey]

"It's just magic in my world."

In every other world Aqua has been to, it's just been magic. This word "paramagic" is new to her. But she files that away for later. Right now, the most important thing is helping the wounded person. As Seifer picks the patient up, Aqua takes the lead, pushing a path through the crowd so Seifer can get the patient to safety. It helps that she has a giant metal weapon in her hand. Once they've handed them off to someone more medically trained than the two of them, Aqua steps off to the side out of the way and then turns back to Seifer.

"I've never heard of the word 'paramagic.' Is that what it's called in your world?"

[firacrux]

There is just normal magic in his world as well, which he'll explain later when they're not trying to haul a person over to the nearest emergency service. Fortunately they were starting to roll in, and it didn't take Seifer long to find someone to hand off the wounded person to. Time to go see what else they could do to help. "Hyne this is a mess," He muttered, motioning for Aqua to follow him. They could help steer the fleeing away from stepping on anyone or getting hurt.

"A type of it, yeah," He offered after the hand-off. "We have normal magic too. The type people use is paramagic. It's not your magic, exactly, more like borrowed. Taken in from external sources and stockpiled for later use."

It was weird to try to explain Drawing to people who didn't know.

[aguidingkey]

"It really is a mess," Aqua agrees, glad for the chance to help out, even if she isn't glad that help is necessary at all. With the entire situation at hand, she doesn't let Stormfall fade from her hand, keeping it at the ready just in case with the end pointed at the ground as they walk.

"Ours isn't like that at all. There's no set amount. You either have it or you don't." She can't really fathom the idea of having an amount of spells or a set amount of uses. Stockpiling it sounds... stressful to keep track of. "I do have to let the spells and my magic recharge sometimes, but some potions can help with that." Hence why she isn't using her Curaga constantly even now. It still has to recharge from the last use.

[firacrux]

Helping was great, the circumstances weren't. Thanks to Garden Seifer was very capable of turning off any kind of panic, or even right now righteous anger over what had just happened. Cold, military training took hold. Almost automatically he'd redirect people running past them toward exits they'd passed that were clear, stop to lift a fallen person to their feet and determine if they could be sent on their way or moved to the side to wait for emergency services to arrive.

When he spotted the Iterations arriving and taking control of the situation something uncomfortable stirred in his gut. An uncertainty about their motivations, or the way they'd read the situation. "Better put the weapon away," He warned quietly. They didn't look like they'd care much for excuses. Then, back to a lighter conversation to distract from all that was going on around them. Multi-tasking was easy when you were trained into it. "Humans don't really naturally have magic where I'm from. Not like this anyway, there are some odd cases but it still doesn't work the same. So we learned to use external sources."

At least, in his case, if he had 100 Curagas he'd have 100 Curagas, all identical, all the same. Utilizing paramagic was draining in a different way, once trained sufficiently however they could more easily ignore the fatigue.

Aftermath

[yondu]

Do you know how Yondu Udonta is dealing with the aftermath? Like there is no celebration. He honestly didn't give a damn about the thing in the first place. Parades put a bad taste in his mouth after too many years watching pontificating Kree talk about how amazing their home was.

Work was basically canceled for most people. Yondu just decided to stay on for extra wages and sheer lack of fucks to give about the event. When Seifer sidles up to one of the food trucks, Yondu's down by the heating system of the next one over, working his way through the whole cruddy rig of it.

"Oh shit, don't y'all ever clean this!" Is the first thing Yondu yells. Then a, "Get back!"

And a plume of steam erupts out of the exposed components. Not fire, luckily, but steam that's hot enough that it's both difficult to be near and has pissed Yondu off. "Hell, y'all need to get the hell out of this line of work if you can't do basic fool maintenance!" Even his worst guys could still take care of the ship's machinery.

[firacrux]

Parades came with some conflicting emotions for Seifer as well, even if he was determined to find some enjoyment before having to buckle down and figure out what the hell to do to survive here. And deal with apparently crazy bombing people talking about waking up and lies. Conspiracies! Very curious.

Uh oh, that sounded like a commotion. Some people were skillfully ignoring whatever Yondu was up to, but Seifer could never quite pull off that level of casual indifference. That's Squall's expertise. So of course when the damned thing blew and out came a shouting blue man stormed out of the guts he couldn't help but move a little closer to check things out. Just like Seifer to be stupid enough to go toward an explosion again, rather than away. Not too close, mind, he's not eager to find out if the blue's natural or steam damage, thanks.

"So on a scale of one to I'd rather lick the street, how much would you trust the food outta that one?" He called over to the very angry blue man. Fortunately, by now, he'd seen enough weird looking beings and people to not be completely shocked.

Still very novel to experience, this extreme melting pot thing going on here.

[yondu]

"A round five. But my standards are somethin' differ'nt than your usual restaurant critic."

He shakes out his hand, not that it's gravely injured but because it's now hot from dealing with hot metal. And when he gives his analysis of the available food, it's with a mouthful of sharp fangs. Then he just seems to give up for now, tossing his wrench into a half-discombobulated toolbox near the food cart.

"I'd say ever'body had their fill of explosions. So I'd prolly pick one with a little less spice in the actual works, if you catch my meanin'."

The blue man has a very strong 'southern' accent, a particular brand of rural that his universal translator carries to any language. So there's really no hiding the sort of background he most certainly came from- violently yokel, thanks.

[firacrux]

"I dunno if you've ever had rations, but questionable street food's probably better." Good thing he didn't have a particularly delicate stomach. Outside of standing on a ship, at any rate. As long as he's not on the water he'll be fine.

That second comment, however, earned a huff of agreement. "No kiddin'. Somethin' about parades, damned things seem to be bad luck." Assassination attempts are apparently very popular during parades. Who knew?

It's only too bad that Seifer's a unique kind of sheltered that has prevented him from genuinely encountering violent yokels, as such he doesn't know where to place the accent. Or that he should find the accent worrisome. "You're probably gonna get real tired of this question real fast so I'm just gonna throw it out there, you always been blue or the steam do that?" Because frankly he does not want to get caught steam that would turn him blue.

I thought I'd responded to this but it turns out Yondu ranted about rations and then I vanished

[yondu]

"Oh yeah, I know somethin' about rations. That's why I give it up to five," he rubs his nails on his pants, getting some grit out from under them in the classiest way possible, and then his brow furrows up at the commentary about him being blue.

He's not offended. He's just surprised that a situation has been presented where his blueness might be relevant to explosive damage. But fuck, there's a green guy off fighting on Sakaar for the Grandmaster that he heard about that might have some damage, so what the fuck does he know.

"Nah, came out my momma this color, who was also this color. I figure that's fine. I'm Centaurian. Kree are blue too. An' there's a buncha species that come in various shades of brown like y'all. Figured a long time ago it let ya camouflage with dirt ifn' you needed to hunt or hide from predators." That's his best guess.

Oh noooo. It's okay! We return and I'm slow anyway weep

[firacrux]

"Oh good, we're on the same page then." Cafeteria food wasn't that bad, rations usually rebuilt themselves in your guts. Very unpleasant. Yondu really is just the most classy individual here.

Seifer likes him already.

Listen, he's seen people turn into animals and goopy alien monsters that can bite heads clean off. Steam turning you blue isn't that outlandish.

Wait! Alright don't mind the dumb kid who actually looks a little excited about that news. Not so much the blue thing but... "A world that isn't another Earth? Finally! I was really startin' to feel like a weirdo out here with all these different Earths and not too many other worlds. What's a Kree? They from the same planet?" Is everyone on his planet blue? That'd be cool. He did pause to scratch his chin at the thought. "Y'know, you might be on to somethin'. 'Course we're real fuckin' weather intolerant and gotta put on clothing or furs anyway so who the hell knows." He never really questioned why they were various shades of tans and browns.

Suddenly having a discussion about evolution next to some food trucks. Hang on he's absolutely going to get himself a serving of this snoobloo thing from the neighboring truck. "Since I'm buggin' you, you want one?" Sometimes he can have something similar to manners. On occasion.

[yondu]

"Nah, they're all assholes from a different world." Yondu doesn't hold back his judgment. Were there a Kree here? He'd not from them, either. The Ravagers taught him better.

But hey, free food. Might as well. He's also classy enough to abandon his work now that the thing has proven it needs more repair than he has parts available, and he grabs up his toolbox to follow along.

"Yeah, there's a lotta Terrans. Seems to be a preference. Honestly, I reckon this thing was built by 'em an' it's mostly grabbin' from places that got some version of 'em." Even if Yondu isn't a human, he knows there are humans there.

Obviously not all of these places got Centaurians though. "Yeah, might as well eat somethin'." He's not bugged, though. Not by Seifer, anyway. He's pissed at those idiots for thinking he can fix their laziness.

[firacrux]

Yondu's candor is appreciated. Seifer doesn't have the time nor patience for pretty words, that's the specialty for bureaucrats and politicians.

Are they even paying decently, with all those cut corners? Honestly it's what they get for giving him an impossible job with no parts.

"Terrans, that what you call 'em?" Seifer realizes he looks identical and is otherwise indiscernible from what would be described as a Terran, but he's never heard of a world similar to his own. "Did the same in the last experimental terrarium I was stuck in. Lotta humans, not much else. Couple worlds vastly different." But not many, which was weird. He'd never heard of a multiverse theory, now he had no doubts about its truth.

"Cool, I'll grab you one." So it was an odd local delicacy, some kind of snail creature dipped in chocolate and deep fried. He tried not to think too hard about it, or why it actually tasted remarkably good.