Julen City positively buzzes with activity, the heart of a "small" megalopolis and overflowing with millions of people's lives and businesses. It's full of businessmen and lawyers and taxi drivers...and also has its share of misfits. The residents' many idiosyncrasies make it an ideal place for individuals who are genuinely different to blend in and give no indication that they're part of this modern world's second, magical, and largely unheard heartbeat.

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Julen Archive
Julen Archive II
Julen Archive III
Julen Archive IV
Julen Archive V
Julen Archive VI

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"You're acting much more introspective than you ought to be," Petrovic notes about halfway there.

"I have a lot on my mind," she notes after a few moments. She finally slips off her glasses--the car's windows are tinted, of course, perfectly believable for some middle-eastern diplomat--and leans her head back, gazing at the ceiling. Is quiet a few moments. She's not sure exactly how to characterize her relationship with petrovic, really. Mutual respect, she likes the man. Their relationship is so strictly business-aligned, though, at all times, she's not sure she'd really call him a friend. He's something close to it, though.

"I used to think of Julen City the same way most wyverns think of Okarthel," she observes finally. "Not a city at all, so much as a symbol of an enemy with no face stronger than a hundred generations of disparaging propoganda. I don't think that anymore. Now there's just the rest of the planet to convince."

"Yes. Did you know that Revilier has been the sole reason the 'war' has gone on as long as it has? Without his leadership Wyverns would have surrendered long ago."

"Yeah. And I admire him for it, I do. The conflict aspect is bad, sure, but both sides are fighting for their very right to exist. They're just...taking it out on one another when that's not the core of the problem at all. When you get right down to it and strip the bullcrap, dragons have been a dwindling race for a long time. Then along comes a similar, young, vibrant race that looks like it may very well replace them when they're gone, and it just scares the fuck out of them. Then wyverns sense the animosity from a force still power enough to stamp them straight out of existance if it ever made a real effort...several times over, actually. The tension led to blows and it never stopped. But if you get right down to it, all either race wants is to exist. Nothing more. No one wants to control everything...that's a means, not a goal."

She sighs quietly, and examines her glasses. "But the world just changed. In a huge way. And if wyverns and dragons keep pushing this blind struggle and draining their resources against one another, they're going to find themselves blindsided one day when the 'weak little humans' step up and take everything. Without solidarity...we're both going to lose."

"It's the species with short lifespans. Those are the ones that revolutionize, you know. Always wounding the feet, so to speak, of the great and tall." Petrovic sips a bit of brandy straight from the bottle--nothing unusual there-- and replaces it in the box under the seat. "Do you ever wonder if it isn't time for Dragons and Wyverns to step aside? Honestly, humans have blown us to bits in technological advances. Grace tower is full of human technology."

Yin has to nod a bit at this, appreciatively. She does like Petrovic. He's incredibly forward-thinking. "It's occurred to me. I'm not sure how it would play out, though. Humans are amazing creatures. Innovative, adaptable, resilient. But take it from a vampire that they can be astonishingly hateful as well. If there were only some place else we could go and let them have it, I would agree...but without other options, their taking dominance may mean the end of all of us. Heh." She smirks, and slips her glasses back on. "That's why they're so up in arms over this marriage. They know the danger of wyvern-draconic solidarity. They know it, they see it, and the scaled races by and large either don't have a clue or don't care enough. That's where humans really step ahead. They lack wisdom, but grasp new concepts amazingly quickly to make up for it."

"You and the general seem to have some fairly unusual connections. That black-lipped man, and a banshee fire spy, attest to that. Perhaps one of them knows a place." Petrovic glances out the window. Almost there. "I don't think humans will wait long to concoct excuses to attack us. The age of dragons destroying cities is over, now that the peasants have nuclear weapons."

She smirks sidelong at the soldier. "That's a brilliant enough analogy that the dragon in me hates you for it. Well done."

"Phep. At least your kind appears in the mythos often enough to have stereotypes." He smirks right back at her.

"In any case, I'll think on the whole 'move' thing. I don't know that the draconic council would ever go for it, but...who knows? Yes, we do have some interesting connections. She looks out the window as they pull up to the airport, and straightens her hijab. She really does look like an anonymous foreign diplomat.

Petrovic hands the driver some money when they get out. "It's worth looking into. Anyway. Do you remember the password to get in to this place?"

"Sure. When things are less militant, I sneak down to visit friends regularly, sometimes under your nose and sometimes intending to be but finding out I magically have surreptitious protection." She steps out of the car, and heads that way.

Petrovic walks just behind her, eyes open for trouble as always. There isn't any, though, and before long they wind up inside, at the front gate, where a fellow in glasses is playing Super Mario's Sister.

Security has certainly been stepped up since four years ago, certainly. Yin recognizes the guard as the right guy, though. "Hello," she greets politely. "Can you tell us where to catch flight Six?"

He doesn't even look at her. "Yeah, it's boarding at gate nineteen now. Down the hall."

"Thank you so much." And she heads that way.

The usual guards are there, but they don't stop them. In fact, security is ridiculously light-- and it has been since a few months into Yin's adoption as a diplomat. Spiders have become a true neutral party, doing business with humans (who don't see them as a threat and admire women with four legs and two sets of buttocks), Wyverns, and Dragons equally.

"I've never actually gone into Tarantella this way," Petrovic admits when they're at the elevator shaft. "Scenic?"

"Quick, uneventful, and unobtrusive," Yin corrects as they step inside and she hits the appropriate buttons. "Also, close to where we're going."

The elevator groans to life, and shoots down the corridor. It's self-encapsulated this time, wrapped in a solid bubble of... something. 

In moments, they stand at the entrance platform of Tarantella, where multiple elevators like that one are shooting into place.

To Tarantella

---

..."I said let me through!" Yin finally thinks to unwrap her hijab, leaving it to flutter to the ground along with her glasses, and shoves past the guards at the scene, sprinting towards the front lines of disaster response, staring up at the tower.

What used to be Grace Tower is gone. Only the bottom ten floors are standings... and the damage to the surrounding area is enormous. Rubble and gas is everywhere; the hazy, smoky sky still pops with flickers of fire now and them, but the enormous crowd of people out front is quite the good sign.

The shock wave from the Aribiter's cannon damaged buildings nearby, but Yin might be able to see that cause of most of the collateral damage; a TV satellite has crashed to the ground in the parking lot of the tower.

Yin shudders, just...trembling. She spots General Renoir, a general of the wyvern Army, and forces her way through the crowd to catch his sleeve. "Etienne! Revilier...he was in the lower nuclear shelter, right? He got to the lower levels. Knowing the threat, he must have been. He was, right?"

Really, she's never been this close to breaking down. And she's been through some really seriously bad shit with the same stone face as her fiancee.

Renoir shakes his head. "I have not seen Revilier since the press conference. I am sorry."

Yin just stares a few moments. It really takes her that long to comprehend. She looks back up to the tower. Wait... "Were you in it, though? I mean, can you confirm he wasn't? Has anyone...?"

"Mme. Iejir. Calm down. Revilier has survived worse than this, if you can believe it. He is alive. I promise you." Renoir takes her arm, gently.

"Yes, yes. Promise away. We'll find out." Radivishe Moorn's voice calls just behind Yin's shoulder. "Won't we."

She had almost calmed a little at the arm and the words she'd been needing someone to say...until Moorn's voice gets her attention. She stiffens, and whips arounds. Finds herself without words. Finally..."You have what you wanted. You should leave now."

"Ye gods, but you're annoying. Kindly shut your spout." Moorn looks into the wreckage. "Quite a mess. It does look like most of the upper floors are intact, though. On their side. Hm. You two had a nuclear bunker on the seventy-seventh. Didn't you."

Yin rolls her eyes. "That makese no sense. Of course we didn't. You can't stabilize a nuclear bunker almost a thousand feet into the air. They need to be surrounded by rock to absorb the impact, always underground."

Moorn smiles. "You're a fool. But you've grown comfortable with that. Think what you like." And he vanishes, leaving Renwoir blinking.

Yin's teeth are gritted. Damnit. She hopes--hopes--he does not figure out that the answer is yes. And that he's not off to investigate for himself right now. Softly: "If Revilier is found alive," the "if" kills her, "that man can not find out about it."

She shudders, then dismisses it and doesn't let go of the general's arm in any case...though holding it much differently than the comfortable cling she has to revilier's, she badly needs the touch until he's called away on one of the million things he's busy with right now. Her expression finally more or less blanks out, though her eyes are stricken as they gaze upward.

Please, Revilier...please GOD be okay.

"Boom!"

Moorn's voice cracks the sky as flames and glass shards and massive chunks of debris rocket from the walls of the seventy-seventh floor. As fire crews flee, he cackles as the building falls again, just laughing until his sides hurt.

"So I guess it's okay that I did that!"

Yin's fangs are bared into a wide grimace, but she has no idea what to do. She just catches herself halfway through an order--or somethign like one, she has authority with no basis--to shoot him the hell down, sure it won't work but desperately wanting to murder him for this.

That's not to say no one else will give it. She's not sure whether to stop it or not.

"Kill him! That's the bomber!" Petrovic shouts, and in an instant, the air fills with gunfire. High overhead, Radivishe Moorn's pale green shields glow like cat-eyes in the dark, serenaded by his laughter, genuine amusement at their efforts.

Next to the blown out floor, one of the debris chunks begins to move. It stands up, part of it, staring out at the battle with empty gray eyes.

Truce blinks against the light, and takes a step forward.

Dragging something else out of the ash.

Someone.

Yin's eyes had been focussed above, until the shifting gets her attention. She narrows her eyes...and, before she even knows what she's doing, is running. Just leaping over the barricade and running towards the...banshee? Towards Truce.

Truce stops walking at the sight of Yin, her posture immediately defensive.

Above, Radivishe Moorn's hands begin to move. He lifts his right hand to swing, to level the rest of the tower.

Petrovic hits the dirt when gatling guns rip through the air. Radivishe Moorn's shields glimmer, and he turns his attention to the six spider-bots emerging from Tarantella. Lasers, bullets and rockets strike his shields. He grimaces, growling, and flings a wave of pure concussive force to demolish two of them. A bullet sneaks through and clips his cheek.

The sorcerer vanishes.

Yin certainly isn't moving to attack. Her step slows as she approaches, just...waiting to see who Truce is dragging, heart in her throat. It could just be another prisoner.

Truce relaxes a little. She looks down.

"I thought you might. Want this."

She lets go of Revilier's hand. Nudges him with her foot.

And walks away, her back illuminated just slightly by the golden glow in the general's eyes.

"Revilier...!" Yin had wanted to say somethign to Truce. But the cry sweeps heraway, there's nothing else she can do but to cover the last few steps in sprinting leaps, dropping to her knees beside her lover, and just grabbing him, wrapping her arms around his chest to press her whole body to him, spell glowing from its entirety like it's never done for her before. Her tears, they're golden.

Revilier coughs ash. He blinks. Looks up at her. Blinks again.

"I'm okay," he rasps, "I'm okay. I'm okay." His arms weakly wrap around her as Renwoir, Petrovic and a dozen others surround them.

Kash looks on from a short distance.

Yin is just sobbing softly, resting on that knee, supporting his weight. Clinging to him, keeping him safe. She's oblivious to the people around them, and the threat of the building falling or the debris beneath them shifting. She's not even that aware of Revilier's own words, except as a comforting thrum that registers deep in her mind as exactly what she'd so desperately needed to hear. Through all of this, the golden spell glows, and actually transcends that, something like small flames licking here and there in its intensity.

She doesn't notice the strain. And she doesn't notice the moment it finally leads her to slip off of the waking world and into unconsciousness.

---

Yin awakes to a triage unit outside the scene, lying next to her beloved. Doctors are standing over them, and in the wings, Alou and Petrovic sit quiletly, discussing things.

Her eyes open only slowly....deeply, deeply groggy. They stay narrow against the offensive light, as tired as she is. Ugh... It takes her a few moments to realize why she isn't in bed, and several more to realize that she has no idea where "here" is. It looks like a triage tent...?

Then it comes back, suddenly. The Tower. The Arbiter. Revilier. This snaps her to about half-awake, and she immediately looks for him, pulse raising a touch.

He's sleeping comfortably, heavily sedated.

"Relax," her doctor tells her, looking down upon her with cold gray eyes. "You're fine. He's fine. Can you tell me your name?"

"Yin. What's his condition like?" She tries to sit up...fangs glint a little at the effort after a few moments. Even after the sit-up proved impossible and her hands try to join in the fray, her arms just...don't respond at anyone's pace but their own. Her entire body feels like it's made of lead. "Ugh...and what kind of drugs are in my system?"

"No drugs. You're getting a blood transfusion, vampire." The doctor motions to another bed. "There was a willing donor immune to vampirism." He nods his head to another chair, where a certain buggerfly is sitting with a smile on her fairy-like face.

"Hi, Yin," Troix quietly greets her.

It's a surprise, certainly...a nice one, she doesn't see Troix often enough anymore. "Heya, Troix. When..." Pause. Spy defensiveness: on. "Wait. Transfusion? I haven't lost any blood today."

"You burned out your golden power, Yin." Troix stands up, wings glinting in the light. She blinks eyes that are going more and more prismatic, and smiles a pretty smile. "General Omeaux couldn't give you any of his. He was hurt too badly. So... Sidarsis sent me here."

"Oh...good. I figured she was okay, but the confirmation's nice. Thanks for coming, Troix. That's sweet. I wanted to talk to you anyway, I just haven't had a chance." Yin smiles. It fades a bit, and her eyes fall shut without her direct instruction. She's just...wow. She would swear to that she has something paralyzing in her system right now. Burned out her power...hm. Nice. Well, whatever happens with that, doesn't matter so much. The only thing that matters in that situation... "how is Revilier doing?"

Troix looks over at him. "Well. He looks fine. He was burned a little from an explosion, the doctor said. Broken foot. Um... but he's just resting now. You fixed him right up."

A smile threads across her lips. That's all she needed to know, yes. She breathes out. Her eyes finally open again on a pure effort of will. She glances around slowly, taking things in. Petrovic...Alou? That surprises her. Doctors...a colonel off a ways...few others. Finally looks back to Troix. "So how have you been lately, Troix? I haven't heard from you since before I went to Manila."

"The school is tough," Troix admits with an impish smile, "but I'm learning. And Yue told me I've reached physical maturity about a week ago. He thinks I'll get a little taller, but I'm all grown up! And I'm only..." she thinks. "I forget. Eight? Anyway. I talked to Alou. He wants to talk to you when you feel up to it."

"I can talk." She nods. "And, in fairness, I think you're a nice mix of mature and not in your head. Don't rush that side of it too much." Yin smiles a bit.

Troix smiles right back. "Don't worry. The kind of goofy stuff I can do with a pair of boobs in my arsenal is just heavenly."

Troix glances over at Alou, and nods. The spider rises, slaps Petrovic's shoulder, and moseys to Yin's side.

"God, Yin, but you're ugly when you're on your back."

Pause. And she snickers. "Okay. Take a dollar out of my purse, you win this week's 'something I've never heard before' pool." Though her expression fades a touch after a moment. Menayen's in on that game, too. "So...what's up?"

"I just wanted to talk to you about Kaz, now that I know you're okay. Grab us some chairs, Troix. And try not to swing them at me?" He grins when the buggerfly skips away. "She's into pro wrestling. Hey, if I liked guys I would be too."

"Tights are good," Yin affirms. Her attention isn't there, though. She doesn't elaborate, and doesn't manage to smile at the quip. She doesn't want to say anything, really, she'll regret. She at least lets Alou speak his piece.

Troix comes back with chairs, which are subsequently occupied with butts.

"About... three hours ago, I guess, Kaz sent word over the nets that he's dividing his power in Tarantella and giving it to the Senate. And then... well. It was something to see." Alou glances over his shoulder at a reporter and her camera man. "The news'll report it tonight. The biggest and only mass exodus of robot spiders in history... presumably Kaz was with them. His apartment in Tarantella was bombed about twenty minutes later; probably his own doing." Alou slows down to breathe.

Yin just gazes at the ceiling at first. Thoughtful. Finally nods a little. She's not surprised, really, if she can put her anger aside for a second. "Did he leave you a way to contact him, or is he just going to disappear awhile?"

"He left an alternate phone number, yeah. I think he's headed to Berlin. The Germans have been offering him basically anything he wants to claim amnesty there and share some of his insight... the economy there could use the boost." Alou holds up his phone. "He left you a text message, too."


--Contessa was one of Omeaux's assassins. Fun times, right?   I gave Tarantella's power back to spiders. Just so you know. Dragons and Wyverns should consider Kaz their enemy from now on. I'm sick of this fighting tearing people apart. Yin. You'd better prepare yourself. And tell your idiot boyfriend, if he's alive, to be ready. I'm going to show this planet just how dangerous technology can be in the hands of a pissed off lab geek.--

Yin stiffens. Sighs shakily, and just lets her heads fall back, eyes closing. "...hell of a goodbye," she murmurs. Damnit. Today...damnit. Damnit, damnit, damnit.

Alou snaps his phone shut. "I don't know what happened between you two. Kaz has been really out of sorts for weeks, but I didn't think he had this in him. What do you want to do about it?"

"I don't know, Alou. I don't. I went down to Tarantella hoping to cheer up one of my best friends because he sounded stressed out...and honestly because I love seeing you guys and was stressed myself. It ended with...this. The part that doesn't have caution tape around it involves running through Tarantella with bullets everywhere--half of them in Petrovic--and spending half an hour where I thought Revilier was dead. Now someone I care about declaring war on everything I'm aligned with."

She breathes out. Opens her eyes again. They're blank. "What's the international media doing? Has Okarthel already sent some aid to deny responsibility?"

"It's only been a few hours. Officially, Okarthel's statement is no comment. One thing about it, though." Alou looks outside again. "That guy with the black lips. His attack here basically made Okarthel look silly for blaming Wyverns on the train attack. Dragons officially declared him a marked man and absolved Julen of blame."

"He's taking the whole fall for the tower going down?" Pause. Well. Honestly, he probably wouldn't even care even if that were a concern. "That works. And about him. He's the other one who's promised to kill Revilier." She sighs. Of course, she's going out on a huge limb to tell Alou that. It's a big assumption that he's not aligned with Kaz in any way. She just...damnit. She would not be in a good place if Alou's her enemy now, too.

"Promised to kill him? Why?" Alou looks over at the general.

"Kaz didn't tell you? If not, ask me later." When they're not surrounded by people.

"Kaz didn't tell me anything except to give you the text and expect a call within the week." Alou shrugs. "I don't really know what's going on."

Yin nods. "I'll fill you in as best I can first chance we get." She's actually...pretty relieved at this. It gives her some hope that he's now in on all of this and working with Kaz, if he's not bluffing. She tries to sit up. Still doesn't manage, teeth gritted. "Sonofa..."

"Stay down. Rest. Things are going to get back to reasonably normal soon." Alou pats her shoulder. "Don't worry about a thing."

Yin breathes out. Manages a small smile. Mercurial Wyverns. Astral Dragons. Kaz promising a worldwide notice of his annoyance. Pause.

"I hope so, Alou. I really, really do."

To Fallen Grace.