#anyway everyone is absolutely suffering regardless of their status in the City or their loyalties or lack thereof to it lol! teehee!

[neathbound-fiends]

Don't wanna actually try and write and also don't wanna like spam Discord servers w this anymore since I haven't actually written much of it but like. Horticultural Show + the blorbos (sticking under cut bc this is gonna be a long post and also spoilers)

Elliott is AT the show. He spends the whole day happily gardening and swapping tips with people and sharing gardening implements and generally just having an absolutely grand time of it. He has never been more excited about any festival before, and then it just gets DESTROYED. His daughter is there. He knows that they won't escape the glasshouse. The only thing he can do is grab her in his arms and try to shield her from it and shout not to be afraid, to hope that if this all comes down, it will actually make a difference for her. It misses them, mostly, and though he is injured, he ignores it for the time being. There's more important things to be focused on than cracked ribs or likely head trauma--as long as he's upright, he intends to pitch in. He ends up helping with the relief efforts, doing whatever he can to make things work, running triage, helping search parties, directing people--whatever Jenny has for work, he's doing it, because they need all the help they can get. He can't just do nothing, not when the City is falling apart and no one in power is doing anything to stop it. The ship ends up doing what it did during the GCO, serving as a shelter and meeting ground and field hospital for anyone that wanders on board. He's among the exhausted zailors that are clearly out of their depth but are among the numbers that have agreed to give it their all for however long it takes. When it eventually becomes clear that this isn't working, when they finally change the playing field to the air, he is coaxed into helping there, too, even though he is terrified of the dirigibles. He is going to give his life if they ask him to, because the City is worth more than him. If it secures everyone's safety, it's more than worth it. The airship doesn't make it, but they manage to land it safely (more or less) without suffering any casualties (only injuries). He is watching the roof and knows that people he loves are still up there. He doesn't know how this is going to end

Warren is at the show, too, when the stalactite comes down. She knows that something horrible is going on, and she doesn't know what it is, but all she knows is she's petrified and can't run away and her father is grabbing her and shouting in terror not to be scared, and that scares her even more. Whatever it is, he is afraid for his life, and hers too. The stalactite misses her, she's scared but mostly unharmed, and everyone is rushed outside as quickly as possible to get them away from whatever is happening, and the sounds of it are seared into her mind. She is dragged into Parabola briefly, but she won't stay there. Not when everyone she cares about is out there. She does what she can to help, but mostly she huddles with other survivors to keep out of the way. Arthur wishes her a happy birthday, and so does everyone in the room with them when they overhear it. She doesn't feel like it's really much to celebrate, huddled in this building with a bunch of strangers. It isn't exceptionally festive in any case. Someone scrounges together a couple sweets as a gift, an apology that THIS is her party. Elliott wishes a happy birthday to her, too, when she sees him, and seems surprised that it's already Friday. The time is slipping away from him. She doesn't see him much, though. He's constantly busy with work right now, sleeping on the ship during the brief moments he does, and then going right back to work. She feels terribly alone during this except for Arthur, and she would never slight him by implying that he isn't enough, but she is reminded very poignantly of being on the streets with no one but eachother to rely on, and wants some reassurance this won't be the case again. And then everyone is going up, up where she can't go, where she won't go because it's a place for grownups, because she's afraid, because there is the very real chance she won't come back if she does. The missed birthday doesn't feel very important right now, but she is reassured before everyone leaves that they will return for a makeup party. She wants to believe it's true

Arthur hears the sound of the stalactite from home. He doesn't know, but he knows that that's where his kid is. He's running the rooftops in the opposite direction of the urchins fleeing the destruction, and there is the wreckage of the glasshouse. His kid is in there. The pair of them stumble out of the wreckage, and he scrambles up onto her shoulders to purr as hard as he can and reassure her. He's getting them out of here, NOW. There's no time to wait for Elliott--he'll find them, the first priority is getting the kid into Parabola, getting her into his territory where she'll be safe. She won't stay here, and he knows it, but he can keep her here as long as he can. He can prolong the safety as far as he can stretch it before they're back out in the thick of it. He picks through wreckage, bringing back supplies to barter and food to eat, whatever he can get to try and keep them both taken care of. Despite his dislike of him, he's regretful to see Elliott go. He's even more regretful to hear word that the ship's are being destroyed, that only a slim percentage are landing with crew intact enough to revive. He's frightened by the prospect of them having to forge a new family. He's worried about his kid pulling through this

Florence isn't near the glasshouse when it starts, she didn't care about the show at all, but she knows when things start going south. She can hear the destruction and the screaming, and word reaches her quickly of exactly what is happening over there. There are a couple people she checks on, but she's not about to risk her own neck needlessly. She hits the Flit and is up as high as she can get, away from everything that's going on in the streets. And it takes some time, but eventually Jenny gets things moving in the right direction, and they need extra hands, and she considers Jenny her rival, but this is a little more important than her grudge. And then she's running the search parties, and then she's lying when they ask about her qualifications, and then she's captaining an airship she has absolutely no business being behind the wheel of to take surveys. And it's fun! It's exciting! It feels good to be doing something that might actually help, and, she must admit, it's thrilling to be piloting a dirigible at inadvisable speeds and hurtling between stalactites and dodging obstacles (geographic and organic alike). And then she hears the plan. She receives her orders and they say "you're going to push ahead and take it on directly" and suddenly this is very very real. Suddenly these people's lives are in her hands while she's playing pretend, and she can't back out now, but what is she supposed to do? So she goes. They rise with the others, and she pushes through, and as soon as she sees the oculus, everything is brought into sharp focus. This is more real than she was prepared for. That shaft of light falls, and it's the first time she's ever seen the Sun. It is unimaginably bright, searing her eyes and forcing her to flinch and put a hand up to shield herself from it. That is going to kill everyone. The cannons keep glancing off of it, and everyone around them is going down. THEY'RE going down. So she looks at the handful of people in the ship with her and all she can say is "I'm sorry" before pointing the wreckage straight at the certain doom ahead of them. The woman that wouldn't risk her neck for anyone is aiming straight for certain death in the hopes that it will mean something. That it will save the City she hadn't thought worth saving just a couple weeks ago. And when the Boat Man confirms it did something--that plan WORKED--she is beside herself. She is screaming in absolute, overwhelming joy, shaking the Starved Lithologer by the shoulders and reaching to do the same to the Boat Man. She hasn't been an urchin or a zailor's wife for a long time, but that doesn't mean she doesn't remember the shanties and stupid songs they riffed off of Mahogany Hall classics, and her celebration doesn't end when she's back in London proper

The Surgeon is busy when the festivities roll around, and all the better for it. Sitting in a building full of strangers and spore fever isn't exactly his idea of a good time. But there is no denying the sounds that erupt from the site are the kind of utter destruction. The sounds like a fraction of the next City is dropping. He's disgusted to hear it's Starved, their amber tainted presence a blight upon the City. Truthfully, he doesn't care to lend a hand, but he knows Shale does, and anything they want of him is theirs. So he opens the doors of his clinic as another spot to bring the wounded for treatment, distinctly aware of the scars that arc across his chest reacting to the presence of the amber and its bearers. The body never forgets. He doesn't do anything with the airships--that isn't his skill set, and he doesn't intend to risk his own safety or anyone else's by going up there and deciding to try and figure it out on the fly. There is enough work on the ground to keep him busy while other people decide to be heroes

Bolormaa didn't even intend to still be in London, but he's at the Docks when the stalactite falls. They can see it from there, see it plummeting towards the glasshouse and the people within it, and instantly the whole ship is disembarking and sprinting towards it, with him leading the pack. He's dragging people out of the rubble and away from danger, and hoping the entire time that none of these people who are beyond salvaging are ones that he cares about. He is among the first to enlist with the Admiralty to serve as their gunners, using his expertise with a cannon to the great advantage of everyone who doesn't want to see London torn to pieces as much in its defense as in its attack. He is unsure of how long he's at his post, training new people on the fly and keeping at it himself, but he is occasionally dragged away from his station to snatch a little bit of rest before he's right back to it. He doesn't have much sway back at home, he isn't an important political figure, but he sends a letter in Hudum nonetheless imploring them to send support. He doesn't love London. He isn't even sure he likes it. But that doesn't mean that everyone in it deserves to have their homes destroyed and their lives lost. When they ask for help on the airships, he's again one of the first enlisting. They need all the help they can get if they're trying to take the oculus out, missed shots don't count. When the airship starts going down, he fires off one last shot that pings off of it but doesn't do any damage. He knows the only choice is to try and land and hope that whoever is up there can come up with a better plan

Rhoda is in the Shuttered Palace when everything happens--she is in the middle of the horribly dull hobnobbing expected of her at these awful salons, when suddenly the world outside seems to be crashing down upon them. The doors lock so suddenly she doesn't even have time to register what it means, instead pressed to the windows like the other guests, trying to catch a glimpse of what it is. Nobody gets in, and nobody gets out. People who come to the Palace to beg for help are turned away without an audience, without even a shred of hope, and she's so filled with rage and disgust at the lack of any care from inside, that she shatters a window to the outside. She watches in horror at everything happening out there. There are innocent people out there. Her brother is out there. She bides her time in a frenzy of sketches of new ideas for arrangements, fungal and elegant, and then into the grotesque forms of the creatures mutilating the City. The Palace may be well stocked, but it can only hold out for so long. The first time a supply run is made, she's ready. She bolts, taking the cart with her and getting it to Jenny's headquarters where it will be defended by people who deserve to use it. She doesn't know a d___ed thing about flying, she doesn't attempt to join the airships, but that doesn't mean that she isn't busy. There is work to be done until the last plank is put up, the last injury healed, the last ship landed. This isn't her City, she doesn't love London, but she does love the people within it. It's up to its citizens to defend it themselves, and she watches with anxiety to see what happens next