[Game Thread] The 1,000 Year Imperium

[kingmonkey]

The 80th day of the Harvest Season,
Year of the Hurin Dynasty 1,123 under his majesty Imperator Selil the Second

The city of Hran, Duchy of Orum

Sunrise

A fitful dream shakes you to sudden alertness. All is quiet in your sleeping chamber, except for the last gasps of panic that escape your throat. Your hair is matted with sweat and your skin glistens in the yellow light of the small moon which filters through the polarized glass of your window. Your blankets lay around you in a knotted wreath from your thrashing.

The door opens and a path of light shines from it to your bed. Gerit's silhouette stands at the entrance. Her hair is long and falls in curls around her shoulders. Her hips are sturdy and her breasts are large-- in the stark relief of the doorway, her shape has never been more clear to you.

"Is everything... are you all right," she asks.

Gerit has ever been like a mother to you. At least, she has been what you assume a mother to be like, since you are rarely in the presence of your true mother. Or perhaps she's just been what you would like a mother to be like. It's hard to tell. You can't talk to your friends about this sort of thing, after all, and you are left to imagine much.

The last remnants of the night terrors -vivid images that even now begin to fade- stand in your mind's eye. The grasping hands that settled about your throat, the heavy and stinking breath of a man you've never seen before, the feel of an unnatural heaviness in your limbs and shortness of breath: these begin to wash away under the light from the hallway, even as you struggle to find the words to describe them.

[Aethera]

"I... Gerit, I..." I struggle to sit upright in my over-decorated lace negligee (whose ribbons may have had something to do with the strangling feeling in the dream), and finally throw most of the blankets to my feet. I sit up, shaking, then look down at the negligee and toss it too, hugging my nude body, freed of any remotely encumbering items. "I was dreaming," I decide at last, and look up at her. "Find me another nightgown. Something plain. I don't have to impress people in my sleep!"

[kingmonkey]

"Of course," is Gerit's soft-voiced reply.

The door closes and you are left once more in the dark. You wait impatiently while Gerit fetches you a new nightgown. While you are still alone in the darkness of your room with only the blow of the city below your window, and the occasional aircraft whirring by on bright blue antigravity pads to keep your mind from imagining what terrors had lurked in your dream, you hear a scream from the hallway.

Gerit's normally whisper-quiet voice pierces the night. A crash of metal hits the marble floor outside. Footsteps run past your door. They stop. Suddenly there are three more steps and the door bangs slides open on magnetic rails.

Instead of Gerit, sweet Gerit standing in the light of the hallway, there is a man's shadow as he stops in his tracks. His silhouette gives no clues, but you can imagine the awful man is staring at your nude body.

His shadow suggests a lean, muscular man, tall and athletic. No doubt he's of a low caste, else he'd have little need for the pants and tight-fitting jacket he wears instead of a fashionable flowing robe.

"Pardon me, miss," he says as he bolts into the room, closing the door behind him.

He sprints across the room and makes his way past you to the window.

[Aethera]

The awful man has looked his fill, but I am not ashamed of my nudity. No, I am daughter of Orum, and I know my body is flawless. No shame should I feel in his glimpse of it, unheard of as it may be. "Stop. How dare you enter my chamber? Who are you? What did you do to frighten Gerit so?" I'm sitting up in bed, legs over the side, ready to grab him for his audacity--there's an almost righteous feeling bubbling up, fueling this.

[kingmonkey]

The man stops to glance over his shoulder at you. His only sound is a single amused chuckle. He turns away, ignoring you as he taps on the release button below the window. The thin white line that indicates a sealed window turns red and the window slides upward, the night air wafting in like the warm breath of the city itself. It smells of the ozone of passing aircraft and the general background pollution of Hran.

The air also carries the scent of something else. Flowers, perhaps? The scent is reminiscent of jenne flowers that grow in the gardens that dot the city.

"Sorry, sweetheart," he says, "didn't mean to frighten anyone. Just passing through."

He leans out the window, preparing to escape into the night.

[Aethera]

"And this gives you the right to barge into my chamber? I could have you arrested for this. Don't you know who I am?" Standing now, the righteous anger of the young flaring in my eyes, I don't know why I wanted to stop him. Perhaps I should just kick him out the window and let that be the end of it. But he was disturbing the peace, and more importantly, disturbing MY peaceful existence, which while often taken for granted, I truly appreciated and wanted to remain intact.

[kingmonkey]

"Hey, I didn't come this way by choice," he snaps back, "I know who you are, but I don't care. Just stay out of my way and I'll be out of your life for good, sweetheart."

Even if you hadn't seen his tight-fitting clothes, and the silhouette of his short hair, his very speech would give him away as low-caste. He turns away from you and dives out the window-- 38 stories up!

Behind you, Gerit rushes into your bedroom and turns on the lights, blinding you momentarily. All you can see of the intruder is his dark red boots as he dives out of range of the lights, into the shadow below.

[Aethera]

OOC I think I'm going to switch to 3rd person... I'm unused to RPing in 1st.

This is the second time in minutes that Gerit has entered the bedroom to find Annamichelle speechless. This time, however, the nurse's charge is standing at the window in the nude, staring after the rough low-caste intruder who had disappeared into the the night's shadows.

[kingmonkey]

"Come away from there, my love," Gerit cries as she rushes to your side, quickly wrapping you in your discarded blanket. She pulls you toward your bed and sits you on the side, carefully brushing back your hair. Her eyes are wide and her mouth is pulled down into a worried frown.

"Are you hurt, my love? Did he touch you? Oh, come here."

Gerit takes you in her arms and holds you tight. Her heart beats hard in her chest.

[Aethera]

Annamichelle shakes her head, allowing herself to be led back to the bed and comforted for her nurse's comfort. "No, I yelled at him and he jumped out the window." She stared at her blanket-wrapped knees and the space beyond them, committing the accent, the sound of his voice to memory. His clothing (what she could see of it) had been what any low-caste worker would wear, they didn't wear anything special enough to distinguish family marks or region from. He had worn red boots. Was there a significance to red boots? She had no idea, never having had much contact with the lower castes before.

"You had best find me a gown and dressing gown, Gerit. Your shout will have raised an alarm, and I will not speak to any authorities in a blanket." She tried to make her voice more like her mother's (the few times she'd heard it), brooking no question, and reminding Gerit that she is still a servant, despite her place as dresser, nurse, chaperon, and the million other duties that came up in a day. She didn't really want to be babied right now, she wanted to clear her head enough to figure out what she thought about the past few minutes.

[kingmonkey]

The authorities arrive quite quickly, as it happens. Naturally. It wouldn't do to dilly-dally while the daughters of the upper castes might be in peril during some criminal assault. Gerit has you suitably dressed in time, of course. It is a matter of some professional pride for her, no doubt, that you be in the most presentable condition.

When they arrive, the authorities, in their long velvety jackets of dark green, with their waistcoats and gold epaulets, and their silvery ion staffs, they are almost unbearably polite. They are an older woman, possibly as old as 30!, and a round-faced and cross-eyed man of 23-ish. They both wear their hair so short as to hardly warrant calling it hair anymore. Stubble. The strict military regiment of city militia is evident in the woman's every word and motion. If she weren't being so carefully polite, she'd almost be intimidating.

They collect some answers, and scan the windows and floors and doors of your room, and question some staff before assuring you that all necessary steps will be taken to ensure the quick capture of the criminal and that additional security can be posted at your house if you so desire.

The rest of the night passes slowly as you fail to find much rest in your sleep. When dawn arrives, you are still tired. But you have responsibilities as a daughter of the upper caste. You must meet with your friends for late breakfast. It doesn't do not to be seen in all the right places with all the right people. Of course, you don't actually like all of them, but this is simply what is expected of you.

Breakfast, as usual, is held at the Golden Herald-- a restaurant with a view of the Great Fountain and the golden pillars that ring the arboretum. The view of the park, four storeys below, is magnificent. Your friends recline on divans and long chairs, draped in the finest clothes that money can buy. They eat delicacies from across the planet-- rare, cured meats, exotic fruits, expensive pastries.

Friends Arylysbet - Lys for short (Leese), daughter of General Kawdoon. She's haughty and proud, snide toward the enemies du jour, generally a bitch. Huthrieniel - Rieni for short (Reenie), daugher of shipping magnate Andakhar Hruth. She tends to keep quiet, most times, and is a bit of a dreamer/bookworm. Kyandreanaha - Dreana for short (Drayana), daughter of Baron Tiunash, a visiting ambassador from the neighbouring province. She's okay, though she doesn't share much about herself, preferring to indulge Lys' flights of egotism.

"I hear you had an intruder last night, Namiche," Dreana asks, "are you okay?"

"Yeah, did some low-caste force you to do perverse things to his body," Lys suggests with a lascivious grin.

[Aethera]

Lounging comfortably, Nami gives Dreana a pleasant smile and a nod. "Thank you for your concern Dreana, I am fine, and no, Lys, such dirt smears that otherwise pleasant countenance of yours." Making sure she has their attention, she drags out the pause with cheese and grapes. "The man startled my dresser in the hall, so when she shouted the alarm, he had no choice but to choose his quickest escape route. It happened to be my bedchamber. I denounced him for breaking and entering, and for entering my chambers specifically, and he leapt out my window. I expect he fell to his death, from such a height," she added for dramatic effect, though she had a feeling nothing of the sort had happened, there was something too calculated about the man's jump.

[kingmonkey]

"Well, that's too bad," Lys smiles, "maybe you'll lose your maidenhead some day to a fat diplomat from Athothir or some other dreary backwater province."

The girls giggle a bit. Servants, it seems, are the most perfect resource for gathering gossip. You know for a fact that, despite that she still wears a white ribbon around her neck, Lys has rutted with virtually every male house servant she has. You've even heard that she's done it with her maid. Such things aren't uncommon, but they aren't mentioned in polite company. It's a natural extension, some say, of the fact that girls are encouraged to continue breastfeeding until they are well into adulthood. In fact, Gerit has been surgically modified that she can still breasfeed on demand, should you so desire it. This bond often leads to some girls becoming much closer than intended with their maids.

The gossip about some of the other girls in the area flows back and forth like cheap wine, eliciting raucous laughter and crude gestures. Dreana remains silent long enough that Reini finally asks her:

"Okay, what's on your mind, girl? You've been quiet as a mouse all morning."

Dreana blushes and looks down at her lap. Finally, and with some degree of pride, she looks up at the rest of you.

"I'm joining... I've been accepted into the Institute of Spatial Engineering. I think I may become a cosmonaut."

She is met by stunned silence before Lys and Reini burst into laughter.

[Aethera]

While Nami hasn't made her own decisions yet, she knows that she, too, will be doing something with her life, not sitting around gossiping and rutting with the servants till the end of her days. Even if she doesn't know what destiny has in store for her, she is sure it is not here, in these golden halls dripping with deceit. So, despite the reactions (and later gossip) she will receive, she gives Dreana a wide smile, eyes focused on the relative newcomer showing her true eagerness, rather than some feigned emotion for polite society. And yes, completely ignoring Lys and Reini's reactions as she speaks. "Congratulations, Dre! That's quite the step up, I envy you. I must admit I'm having trouble making decisions, but perhaps I may join you. The cosmonauts are our future... everyone looks up to them." Then she giggles, more like the adolescent she is. "Can I have your autograph? That way, when you're doing great things, I'll be the first to have it."

[kingmonkey]

Dreana pulls back, more stunned by your reaction than the mocking laughter from the others. Lys and Reini are also a bit shocked, though Reini gives a slight nod of what might be approval. Lys just shakes her head and chooses to let the subject drop, instead summoning a waiter to refresh her barely touched wine.

"Uh, I- I think it'll probably be some time before I'm, uh, a...," Dreana stammers before finally laughing at your joke, "you know, you should come with me when I go in next week. I'm sure your dad could get you in without problems. It's going to be a great adventure!"

"Oh, Nami," Reini says in melodramatic tones, throwing her arms around you, "won't you come into space with me? It is only there that I, Dreana of House Tiunash, can express my love to you. And once we're alone, I'll ravage you like nobody's business!"

Her impression of Dreana's voice is quite good, and, to her credit, Reini's joking is usually good-natured, as it is now. Dreana sticks out her tongue before laughing at Reini. Lys, however, sits quietly, obviously upset about something. She's not one to revel her emotions beyond greed and self-indulgence, however.