let fury have the hour,

[agogemod]

WHO? Everybody!
WHAT? Agoge's third TDM! And the death of an important guy. And some very upset royalty.
WHEN? Late 1792, Paris.
ANYTHING ELSE? Violence, as always. Please warn in subject lines for anything beyond physical violence, and move to a personal journal if things go beyond PG-13.

IT'LL BE FINE;

Paris, 1792: revolutionary france.

read the France setting infopages

arrival for new recruits

(Note: If you were one of the people who used the previous TDM and want to use that as canon while still participating in this one, feel free! The following will still happen, though the guide will apologize for a malfunction in your BCE causing you to zap through the intervening month instead of joining your comrades like you should have. You'll be assured the glitch is fixed now, and it probably is. Probably.)

You wake up in a Parisian hotel room with a kind woman standing near the door, waiting for you to awaken. You have none of your clothing, just black military-issued underwear, and none of your previous possessions beyond the one you chose (if you remember choosing) to bring with you.

The woman by the door speaks French, and if you didn't understand the language before, you do now. If you have questions as to what's going on, she'll answer: you are a member of COST, a paramilitary organization of time travelers fighting against the Regency, a tyrannous kingdom of the future who are trying to stamp out freedom and individuality in the name of peace.

She will provide you with the clothing necessary to fit in at this time, and show you how to use your BCE implant to look up information on this time period and its social and political mores. She won't let you leave until you're properly dressed to fit in, but once you are, she'll wish you luck.

KILL THE KING

It doesn't matter if you're new, or if you've been here a while. You'll hear about the execution going on today. It's as though the barely restrained urban chaos of Paris has ground to a halt. Everything is about the king. Is it really going to happen? Are they really going to do it? Can they do it? Is it even possible?

Anyone out of the loop will be filled in, but with no small amount of ridicule: Today is the day of the king's execution. His trial has wrapped up, and the National Convention voted to execute him for treason and tyranny.

The crowd at the execution is enormous, a riotous mob of passion barely restrained. Everyone is jockeying for a better view, with children and adults climbing up on nearby statues, lampposts, the sides of houses, rooves, some even hang from windows. Everyone watches the scaffold.

The prison cart arrives with no fanfare save the yells of the crowd. Within it sits a small, fat little man, looking like he's doing his best to remain composed. He's brought to the scaffold, and his crimes are read out: colluding with foreign powers, and the crime of royalty, which is anathema to the republic of France.

When asked for his final words, Louis Capet, known to some as King Louis XVI, speaks in a quiet voice. "I forgive my enemies."

When the blade comes down, the crowd errupts into cheers. Many rush forward to touch the blood of a king, dipping bits of cloth in it in an attempt to save it.

I PREDICT A RIOT

It's as though all the built up tension in Paris exploded when the king was killed.

Who knows what started it. Rumors spread like wildfire, and it doesn't matter, does it? In the end, most of Paris is swarmed with chaos, especially in the areas nearest to where the king was executed. There's no doubt that the riot and the king's death are directly related; no peasant currently throwing stones and breaking windows will deny it.

Fights are happening with great frequency. It only takes a word, a half sentence, for someone to decide you're some kind of counter-revolutionary. There is a current of anxiety in Paris that hasn't gone away; after reaching a fever pitch, it has expressed itself with violence and chaos.

let's visit the tuileries

The Tuileries was the royal palace in Paris, the last residence of the king before his death. Of course the people of France end up clamoring at its gates, screaming profanities and attempting to scale them.

The majority of the guard let them do this, making only the most token of efforts to keep the peasantry back. But one guard, a man by the name of Antoine Colin, seems to become spooked and shoots repeatedly into the crowd before someone knocks him out.

By then, though, it's too late. The crowd was rambunctious, but not murderous. Now it's bloodthirsty, and the gates are stormed. It isn't long before the common people of France are trampling through the corridors of power. Inside, they'll mostly find servants running and hiding, and lots of valuables to steal.

Most are content with that, but not all. Some clamor for the deaths of the queen and the royal children-- per the laws of inheritance, Marie Capet's remaining son is now King of France. Should he not die as well?

The queen is hidden in a safe room, a hollow wall inside her apartments. Do you try to find her? Try to save her? Try to kill her yourself?

...And what about those kids hiding in there with her?

BRING IN THE TROOPS

The riot in the Tuileries lasts several hours, well past nightfall. It's beginning to peter off, people loosing their energy or vigor, when the sound of gunfire echoes from the front courtyard.

General Lafayette has arrived to save the queen, and brought with him a retinue of personal soldiers. All on horseback, brandishing firearms and sabers, they stream through the expansive halls of the Tuileries and attack anyone who looks out of place. They're here to clean up this mess with no concern for more filthy peasants getting in the way.

Aftermath

The night is a long one. Several fires break out in various parts of Paris, shops are looted, and several die in the Tuileries. The queen has disappeared, along with Lafayette. Some say she and Lafayette died, and they'll show you the bodies for a couple sou. Others claim they saw them riding off into safety just before sunrise. There are already talks of hunting them down, trying to find the traitors.

Only one thing is known for sure: It may be advisable to stay inside for the foreseeable future.

read the France setting infopages

NAV NETWORK LOGS OOC PLURK DISCORD

Comments

the king is dead

[mylawn]

[Reading about this in the history books is one thing--experiencing it is another. He can't accurately say whether or not the fact that the king has been executed early has made the rioting worse, but it's hard not to feel like he's partially responsible. That, and it's difficult for him to ignore chaos, even when his every move might further alter the course of history.

But he's hard pressed to stand by in the face of people in the middle of preventable danger. It helps that he's just trying to get from point A to point B himself, and he's going to have to displace some of the rioters if he wants to get out of this alive himself. The fight that breaks out in front of him is a little impossible to get past, though it's not without some reluctance to get involved on his part.

Not that he has much of a choice. This gets fairly heated fairly quickly, and 76 finds himself moving before his mind catches up. Setting the crowd off is an easy mistake--this woman likely didn't know what she was getting herself into, and shouldn't be overwhelmed for that. Whether she can hold her own or not, 76 is body-checking one of her assailants out of the way, giving her an opening.]

Move.

[The implication, of course, being that she should get out of here while she still can.]

[rebelqueen]

[She almost takes half a step in surprise upon seeing a man quite literally crashing through the crowd to clear a route.

Once, Dinah would have barked back. She has no time to argue a stranger now. In a quick rush, Dinah falls in, reaching for a sword that she doesn't have.

Of course.]

Thank you!

[A young man, not much older than herself, steps in the way, ready to blockade the escape route. She very nearly crashes into him. The only thing that prevents it is his grip on her waist, lifting her.]

Let me go!

[Her elbow comes crashing down, and she tumbles out of the way.]

You! This way!

[At least she could return the favor while she pushed her own fair share of rioters and darted through the crowd.]

[mylawn]

[He's surprised to hear a thanks--that's not something he expects in chaos such as this, but he'd be a disgrace to his own training if he let something like that catch him off guard. 76 presses forward, not about to stop moving and let the crowd overwhelm them. Luckily, this woman seems to get the hint, pressing on herself before she's caught again.

But he's not even given the chance to help before she takes care of it herself. It's appreciated, given the fact that he's pushing through the crowd himself.

He knows he should disappear. He has no idea who these people are, or if they're supposed to live or die, or what their descendants might do, but 76 starts very little that he can't finish. Heeding her command, he follows after, if only to keep the path clear.]

[rebelqueen]

[Dinah has little care for the future consequences right now. The point is to live to even see those consequences.

Every so often, she sees children crying and clinging to feet. Pangs of guilt and sorrow fill her, but there is nothing to do but to keep moving forward. The crowd seems endless, like an ocean. She fears she may suffocate.

But finally, it all starts to thin out. As soon as she can, she runs into an alley between buildings, not a tight fit, but nothing inviting either. Dinah peeks out and whistles shrilly.]

[mylawn]

[76 keeps an eye on her as best as he can, given the throng of bodies and their insistence on pushing in the opposite direction that he's trying to go. She appears more than able to hold her own as he brings up the rear, using his not insubstantial bulk to shove his way through the crowd until it finally starts to disperse.

Doesn't mean they're out of the woods yet, but she gets his attention and he's quick to close the distance.]

Are you hurt?

[She doesn't look it, but sometimes it can be hard to tell.]

[rebelqueen]

No, nothing to be worried about.

[Scrapes, bruises, cuts, none of that mattered. She'd already been nearly cleaved and trampled multiple times. This is nothing.]

Are you?

[His scars are not fresh, that much she can tell, but otherwise, he seems unhurt.]

[mylawn]

[76 won't be surprised to find some bruising later, but the nice thing about being a government experiment is that they'll likely be gone in a day or two. Any injury he suffers is more often than not considered negligible--sometimes to its own detriment. Even now he seems to shrug their ordeal off.]

I've had worse.

[That much is written on his face.]

[rebelqueen]

Yes. It seems to be common to be acquainted with bruises and broken bones.

[And even as she speaks, the pain in her shoulder shoots briefly through her nerves. Mundoo's stab would forever be a mark among friends, and what friends are capable of doing.]

We should find a place to rest, before the crowds find us.

[Not that she's in anyway remarkable here.]

[mylawn]

In this kind of place? Sure.

[He takes a moment to give her a once-over, as if he expects her to be hiding something, or downplaying injuries that she'd been quick to dismiss. She seems okay, at least, enough for 76 to concede that they should get further away from the epicenter of the riots.]

Lead the way.

[rebelqueen]

[Perhaps she should be grateful that even in this foreign place there are people still willing to follow her.

With confidence, she begins to take determined strides towards more abandoned and surely looted homes and apartments. If anything, she imagines the places that look the worst would be wholly ignored.

Still.

It breaks her heart that it came to this.]

There, I think. [And really, it looks more like a skeleton of a home than anything else.] Unless you believe some other place would be better.

[mylawn]

[Were he leading the way, he’d likely choose a similar location—so he has no objections to her choice of location. The abandoned homes are going to be their best bet, as long as the people who abandoned them don’t decide to come back. Even then, he’s confident in his ability to make a quick escape, if things come down to it.]

This is fine by me.

[He’s still casting glances back over his shoulder, as if he expects the riots to change their minds and come back this way, but he knows that’s mostly unfounded paranoia on his part. He tries to shake it off by studying her carefully, perhaps trying to discern whether or not they’re agents of the same organization.]

Just gotta hope whoever owns this place doesn’t come back.

[rebelqueen]

[Her own paranoia is not unfounded: the last time she came across an abandoned village, it was full of assassins.

Her strides cross over toppled furniture and other objects she would rather not inspect too closely. She could not afford to lose her head.]

There is little left for them, either way. We would only be wise to share or make us as guests to their home.

[Dinah wipes her hands on her clothing, looking worse than ever before. She truly wished she had better clothing for movement. She sighs shortly.]

I cannot move in this... dress. [She had gone so long in tunics and armor that dresses were still foreign to her.]

[mylawn]

[76, on the other hand, has no real qualms about searching the house. It seems like someone’s already made a pass-through, but he might find something useful that the average civilian passed over. Who knows what they might be able to dig up?

Now that the adrenaline is wearing off, however, he can’t say it isn’t tempting to just…have a moment.]

Yeah, I can’t say I envy you.

[His own clothing is utilitarian, and he’d taken efforts to make sure it didn’t hinder his movement. One quick glance back at Dinah, however, and it’s obvious she hasn’t had the same opportunity.]

I don’t think anyone would mind if you made it a little more practical.

[rebelqueen]

[She frowns at the dress. The temptation to cut it in half is present, yet she has no means to cut it.]

I should like pants.

[Where she is going to get pants, she has no idea. Likely she will need to ambush someone, or raid a clothing shop. Neither seem appealing, but she has done enough in her lifetime of things she would rather not have done at all.]

[mylawn]

Let’s see what we can come up with.

[They’re on the first floor—presumably, any clothing might be in the actual rooms upstairs, and that’s where 76 heads. He doesn’t wait for her to catch up with him as he ascends the stairs, and he wastes no time picking a room and rummaging through the furniture.]

Not sure it’ll be your size.