Aid Returned

[bravenewmods]

The dust hardly settled on the destruction wrought in the streets of Union before the emergency signal hummed to life, a familiar voice beginning to cut through the static.

“...you hear me? This is General Ironborn. We detected an interference with the warp band’s signal. We’re sending a team there to investigate.”

Then another, her voice commanding over the noise.

“Matriarch Frea. Our scouts noticed a disturbance during one of their routine missions in your area. I’m sending a group of Valkyries to investigate.”

Quickly, more voices began flooding the signal, each one nearly running off into each other.

“This is Clement, from Sanctuary. Our oracles noticed a disturbing aura around your city. We’re sending anyone and everyone we can to help.”

“Captain Ingrid from Glacier, reporting. We noticed unusual activity in your direction and are on our way to grant aid. We have a debt to repay the people of Union, after all.”

Soon, voices from all over began to cascade over one another, giving orders, requesting further assistance to the city, inquiring about Union’s safety and sending words of goodwill. It became nearly impossible to discern one voice over the other, and their words ran into one another. But one thing was certain: In their time of need, Union had help on the way.

Frea’s Valkyries were the first to make it into the city, followed quickly thereafter by Ingrid’s troops. The Steel Battalion, led by Ironborn himself, strode through the gates by midday, and by evening aid from those individuals and settlements impacted by Union’s steadfast goodwill flooded the gates. Food, medical supplies, and, most importantly, a much-needed morale boost. Many stayed outside of the city’s gates, both out of necessity, as well as an added assurance that the city would not see another attack; they would watch the back of the city that had done the same for them.

Over the next few weeks, Union will see a surge of aid coming from all directions of the known world, as the city does its best to rebuild. Faces old and new will come together to help ensure that the people of Union will be well taken care of, their homes rebuilt and their lives hopefully put back on track. This was their way, after all, and Union always was the city to lead by example.


[[OOC: This post acts as the final post for the event. Players are encouraged to thread out parts of the rebuilding process, as well as interact with a few familiar faces that they might find within their city.]]

Comments

NPC Catch-All

[bravenewmods]

[ A number of outside assistance will be flooding into the city. Characters find a familiar face here. ]

[sleepingvalkyrie]

Of the five Valkyrie that had arrived in Union with her, two had died in the fighting overnight, slain not by the dragon but in combat against unknown assailants. A third had been hit by falling masonry when one of the residential towers fell, unable to protect herself after using her abilities to knock civillians aside. Though exhausted and her own broken left arm was bound up in splints and bandages, Gwendolyn had stayed the night by her side until Kreela breathed no more.

She had no way of knowing if Ruta and Skuldi had made it past the border. So when word came through that allies were coming, that Citadel was sending more of their own to Union, Gwendolyn ignored the doctors' very sound advice and left the medical tents. There would be time after to seek out Sanae and Mami, to plan funeral services for her wing-sisters..

Muninn napped on her uninjured shoulder, pleased and puffy feathered with his own participation in fighting the God, while Myris chittered disapprovingly at her heels. She knew how tired the silver-haired girl still was. But Gwendolyn was determined to be present near the gate once other Valkyries arrived.

[bnw_mari_npcs]

The Valkyries are arriving, all right, but they aren't alone. Dismounting from her unusual Pokémon, a young woman in her mid-twenties dressed in furs takes a look around the inside of the gate and whistles. The Pokémon just grunts, however, shifting beneath the multitude of packs it's carrying.

"Shivering Sawsbuck, it's warm here!" the woman exclaims before noticing she has company. Her expression brightens when she sees Gwendolyn. "You're from Citadel, right? That's a nice job." She nods at Gwendolyn's arm. "Where're they keeping the wounded?"

[sleepingvalkyrie]

That is a lot of packs. And a very unusual pokémon! He certainly catches more than a few eyes, including Gwendolyn's, though she does make a beeline for her kinsmen first. But once one is addressed, it's rude to ignore the comment of someone in the company of her fellow Valkyrie.

"Yes, I am.. I'm told that their winter only gets a little heavier. It's nothing like the border near the frozen wastes, though." Incredibly mild, by comparison. There's a pause, and silver head tilts. "Or like Glacier, I'd wager."

"You're a healer?" And there's a downward glance at the bindings on her arm. Muninn cheeps at her encouragingly. "There are several. The main hospital is that way," a point towards the central district. "There are also several camps set next to secured areas, such as Ninetails Vale."

Several days after the battle...

[lunchleader]

[Right's supposed to be resting in one of the medical tents setup near the Divine Theater, due to recovering from frostbite and a surprising case (for him) of mild malnutrition. Being trapped under several meters of snow for a couple of weeks will do that to a guy. But after learning all that has happened - both the attack and the aid response - he really couldn't stay still for very long.

Thus, he'll be sneaking out of the Medical tent one afternoon, fingers and small wings still bandaged as he tries to make his way over to anyone that might need an extra hand.]

[bnw_void_npcs]

Shouldn't you be resting?

[Says the Seeker who's been in the medical tent a lot himself with large bandages over his left eye]

[lunchleader]

Wha--

[He jumps a little upon hearing that familiar voice. He turns around to see--oh! It's that Seeker guy from that expedition several months ago. Right quickly flashes him a big smile.]

Nah, I'm okay! It's only a little bit of frostbite.

[untalented]

[Waver Velvet was exhausted. Although he hadn't faced the Dragon directly, he had barely slept or eaten much of anything in the fallout that followed. There were too many people in need of assistance, and not many people with any degree of healing capabilities or who were as talented at Teleport as he was. By the end of the day he had depleted his personal resources...

But there was always work to be done.

Flitting between tents delivering bandages and medical supplies, the skinny Mageling moved without rest. Anxiety and nervousness fueled his movements, but he did his best to manage his curt temper and his shaking hands-- for the sake of the people of Union....the very people who had helped him, and were now depending on support from any possible source.]

[bnw_sheepy_npcs]

[ Moving about almost as much as Waver was the shifter nurse, who flitted between the various medical tents set up around the residential and entertainment districts. There were many who had been impacted by the attacks, but, more than that, those who insisted on going above and beyond during the recovery process. It was easy to injure one's self when they refused to rest.

So when she saw the young mage make his way into another medical tent that she was assisting in, she stood up from what she was doing, putting her hands on her hips.

At just a little over four feet, it was hard to be intimidating, but she would try. ]

Haven't you taken a break yet? You're going to hurt yourself!

[untalented]

[Impressive. He actually had a foot on this young woman, and somehow she still managed to pull off the Stern Mother(tm) role and....incidentally, set the skinny young man on the defensive. Her words made sense-- but there wasn't really time to worry about himself. His friends had been hurt....the Grandparent figures whom he had been staying with for the last several months were hurt...and Union...]

Does it matter? I didn't get hurt, and I can still think-- that's lucky, compared to lots of people here.

[Waver grumbled out his protest, knowing the futility of it even as the words tumbled from his lips. With his mind racing as it was, there was no way he was going to be able to sleep that night.]

[vistapoint]

[Geo can be bad at taking a break sometimes. Between everything that's happened, Geo just wants to keep his mind off all of it, which means keeping busy.

Luckily, however, Maia, Saiph, and Taygeta are good at making Geo take beaks. So right now, he's (reluctantly) seated outside one of the many medical tents with the Espurr and Purrloin sprawled across his lap and his bag (luckily with no supplies that need to be immediately delivered) off at the side, guarded by his Spearow.]

oscillating oshawott, we're sorry for the delay!

[bnw_mari_npcs]

Coming thr---

[ And that would be somebody trying to come out of the tent. Right behind Geo. At a pretty fast clip.

Look out...behind? Above? All of these options? ]

Whoa-----

[actsmagnificent]

[ Heh. So this is what makes Union's way of doing things so attractive, huh? Even Sanctuary is coming to help. Haruka can't deny it amuses her - she might deny the smile that flickered across her face, though - but she's got more pressing matters demanding her attention.

Like how they won't be holding any plays in this Theater anytime soon. Or using quite a few rooms in the dorms. Their Berry tree nearly got split in half, too; they'll need to see if it can be saved.

She's got her Ice-types in particular on cleanup duty, Amara the Amaura clearing out the smaller pieces of rubble and Sky the Beartic handling the brunt of it (Ferrari the Nidoking is doing grunt labor). World Shaking is resting against that Berry tree, with his daughter Super Beauty running in circles around him. Passion the Ninetales is nowhere to be seen, despite living at the theater.

As for Haruka? She's examining the damage with Gene the Wooper dogging her footsteps, Natto, Gold, and her second Rhyhorn having already headed out into the city to distribute aid on a wider scale. For the most part, she's let the Pokémon do as they wish - her mind is elsewhere - but... ] ...Don't move that rock yet. Prop up those beams.

Bear! [ Sky hurries to do as she's told. She's getting all dirty, but what lady couldn't rise above that when her friends needed her? ]

[senpaidol]

[Rise's around, shaken but not wounded. Her two best friends are laid up, and she's been bouncing back and forth between watching over Toyo and Himiko as they recover and helping clean up the Theater. Or in this case, supervising her Scizor helping clean up the Theater and occasionally relaying instructions to the whole team psychically.]

[She's also, of course, taking the opportunity to talk to Haruka about the current situation.]

Well, that was pretty awful, but...it is kinda nice to know our friends appreciate us, right?

[actsmagnificent]

[ Haruka has no comment on this topic, so she won't fudge one just to say something. She sticks her hands in her jacket pockets. ] "Ever Grande," they'd said.

[ This is Haruka for "as soon as this place is more inhabitable, we're headed out again, have fun." But. It's a warning? ]

[senpaidol]

[She can just about understand that now.]

Kind of a pretentious name, huh?

[Because Sanctuary, Gigas, Citadel, and Union aren't.]

[vistapoint]

[Honest to Savior, Geo's exhausted, but it doesn't quite outweigh the nagging feeling of worry he keeps feeling. The Theater's had gotten hit pretty badly in the attack and... while he didn't really know Haruka well at all, he couldn't help being concerned.

Maybe that's why he's found himself at the Theater, Maia clinging to his shoulder as always. Saiph is nowhere to be found, but Geo's Spearow, Taygeta, flaps around worriedly. Such terrible damage... Geo himself just kind of shuffles awkwardly in place as he looks around. This place really is a mess...

(Of course, that's to kind of be expected when a dragon god decides to have a temper tantrum in the middle of a city, Geo tells himself).]

[actsmagnificent]

[ Satisfied that Sky's not going to damage the theater further with her cleanup, Haruka glances over and sees the kid standing there. That's the Engineer, right? What's he...

...Heh. She shrugs. ] The box office is closed.

[ Actually, the box office is so very open, there's a hole in the window. But. Details. ]

[vistapoint]

I kind of had a feeling. This place got hit pretty badly, huh? [He shifts awkwardly again, as Taygeta finally lands nearby.]

... Did everyone make it out okay? [But more importantly--] Do you need any help cleaning up?

[child_of_luv]

You survived.

[Minako smiled. She looked tired, but relatively uninjured. How did you fair, Haruka?]

[actsmagnificent]

[ Well, you missed the miniskirt.

But aside from that Haruka seems fine. ] I guess.

[ Amara the Amaura tries to look small as she slinks past Trainer, pushing a pile of rubble in front of her. There are strangers here now... ]

[toxicrevenger]

[Pamela's been doing her part by helping with the plants, mostly. Accelerating growth at the rate she can works wonders for something like this. But even she has her limits and it's a bit tiring to expend so much effort. Proof that she needs to keep training and keep getting stronger in her own way.

She may not be a fighter traditionally, but when it comes to the threat posed to her homeland, even she can step up.

She greets Haruka with a tired smile when she sees her, glad that she had friends to fight by.]

Hello. How are you doing?

[actsmagnificent]

Pretty well for someone who can't conjure a tree.

[ Seriously, Pamela. She didn't have time to acknowledge that since they were all busy trying 1) not to die 2) to prevent other people from dying, but that tree impressed Haruka Tenoh. That is a thing that is possible.

She's fresh out of confetti, though. Sorry. ] You've been working hard.

[ And Haruka has been hardly working. Mostly brooding. And watching her Pokémon step up to the plate. Apparently training based on sheer charisma is good for some things - they all want senpai Trainer to notice them. ]

[flying_chains]

Just because she had fought a dragon god was no reason to stop and rest. Morgiana dashed back and forth across the city, putting her new powers to good use as she searched for the areas that were the most heavily damaged. The body of a fanalis was a powerful tool, and many people who thought they were going to die trapped in rubble suddenly saw daylight silhouetting a girl lifting like ten times her own body weight over her head with one arm and offering to pull them out with the other.

But even a Fanalis gets tired eventually, especially relying on her newly found flying powers as much as she has been. SO if you aren't being rescued by Morgiana or helping her rescue other people, the most likely place you're going to run into her is near one of the various refugee tents around the city.

Not IN the tent. Her home was fortunately not damaged, but just outside of it, lying on a chunk of masonry with one arm flung across her eyes, trying her best to not think about anything that had just happened.

[child_of_luv]

[Minako was running on auto-pilot. Everything she did to help with rescue, recovery, and clean up was practiced and lacking enthusiasm. She was simply going through the motions of what was needed to get some sense of normalcy back.

She'd watched a Pokémon die, left behind by its bondmate after the battle was deemed lost by the attacker. She had wanted to save it, to perhaps set it free to live on its own. Maybe she'd been blinded by her passion to seeing just how badly it might have been injured, but it still hurt. She wasn't finding solace in the idea that perhaps Sanae had done the right thing in helping its passing along.

She wasn't resentful to the others she had ended up with for that fight for what happened. They had done what was necessary, just like she had. They had followed what they had felt was right. And, really, it was right up to that point that they had all been working together to drive off the attacker, so there was nothing to be angry about. But she was angry about her home being attacked and about that woman putting her Steelix into that position to begin with.

And she was angry at herself for not having done a better job at stopping the fight.]