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

aftermath!

[lonelywar]

[By this point, having watched the paltry defenses of the palace guard almost willingly buckle before the crowd and allow the riot of the common people into the very halls they were meant to protect, Ashitaka is feeling very similarly. After doing everything he could to get a woman who had once been a queen and her children out of ruined vestiges of their former luxury, after having seen so many people so willing to direct their hate to this figurehead of their inequity despite any clear line of fault between them, he simply felt tired. None of it was rational; none of it made sense. Innocents died just so others could stand upon their corpses and feel tall. He'd hoped hundreds of years into the future, he would find that people had grown more compassionate than he had found within the walls of Irontown, but it seemed only the opposite had managed to happen.

After what had happened at the palace, he had set off into the streets. For the most part he has deliberately chosen a path devoid of others, though occasionally he can hear shouts, cries of anger at supposed counter-revolutionaries or secret loyalists to the royals. There is a part of him that yearns to help, to safeguard innocent lives as best he could, but side of him driving him forward now accepted that it would be impossible.

Later, he wouldn't really be able to recall what exactly brought him into the store, hollowed out from looting and riots. Perhaps it had been a twinge to the demon mark that twisted around his right side; it reacted to fear and pain, like a slavering beast reacting to blood, but the whole city was awash in that, so it's difficult to know for sure.

Regardless of reason, Ashitaka finds his attention drawn to the building, and careful inspection yields the young man crouched and hiding inside.

He is still at first, then slow to move, taking a few careful steps forward before he lowers himself to kneel a short distance away. His hands are empty, outstretched in a pacifying gesture. Once Ashitaka had worn a palace guard uniform, but since then he had torn away all distinguishing pieces; it was hardly recognizable now, marred as it was with dust and dirt and a few splashes of dried blood.] Are you hurt? [Ashitaka looks tired, though there is genuine concern written on his face as well.

It seems he can't quite quell that part of him that wants to help whenever possible.]

[canadese]

[The first thing Aximili feels is a cowardly urge to bolt, to hide the shameful way he's acting from observers. Thankfully he doesn't, as that would be probably disastrous for whatever cover he's trying to maintain. He tells himself that he is just acting the part of the scared child that most people think he is.

Totally just an act.]

I am uninjured. [He lifts his head up to look directly at Ashitaka, trying his best to look helpless and frightened.] I'm just very scared.

[lonelywar]

[Regardless of its veracity, Ashitaka is fairly easily convinced that he's frightened—even without the verbal confirmation. He nods as reassuringly as he can manage.] It would be stranger if you were not. [It's good that he is uninjured, though; he could help bind minor wounds, but anything past that would require different attention.

He reaches into a pocket on his jacket and produces something, showing what it was to the young man before offering it. It was a waterskin, slightly worse for wear but still in-tact.] Water. [He nods again.] Even if you do not feel thirsty, you should drink.

[Fear tended to make the body forget about other necessities.]

sorry for the delay!!

[canadese]

[Aximili takes the waterskin, eyeing it dubiously--he's unfamiliar with this sort of container (and he's struck again by how needlessly complicated humans always insist on making things; why have multiple types of anything when just one will suffice?), and he isn't particularly thirsty anyway.

But he has to do something, because Ashitaka is watching him and he's supposed to be acting like a regular human. So don't mind him if he sort of

chews on it a bit.

It reminds him of the time he'd attempted to eat shoes. The reactions of his teammates had indicated they were not meant to be edible, which means the same is probably true of this. So he stops.]

I am Philip. [He says, as if he hadn't just done something completely bizarre.]

[lonelywar]

[So far, Aximili had been doing a pretty good job at convincing Ashitaka that he was human. He looked human, and hiding from the unrest and violence out in the streets was also a fairly normal response.

Chewing on the offered waterskin, however, did dampen that human impression.

Ashitaka's usually quite impassive, so his expression only takes on a few more shades of confusion for a moment before he seems to accept it. He holds out his hand in a halting gesture.] Keep it. [Maybe if he holds onto it he'll figure out how to get it to work... hopefully before he actually needed it.]

You are not from here, are you, Philip?

[Because he's starting to strongly get that sense.]