< atton revisited > The information page for Atton has been fully revised and updated with the new map!
< updated calendar > The Fortuna calendar has been updated in the "Other" lore section! This includes a document which displays the calendar for you to see, making it much easier to understand.
< moving map > The first functional map has been released in the News section! This map is also interactive, allowing you to drag and drop between points in order to determine distances. This is the first iteration, and there's more and better to come!
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< human lore update > Humans have been updated with TWENTY-FIVE subraces/subcultures which add numerous options, and a little extra lore and flavour.
< magic lore update > Magical Lore has been enhanced with the addition of a post on Magical Education. From Beginner to Expert, this is how you learn the spells.
< a change to member groups > Member groups are now based on storyline! You can change your displayed storyline by editing the settings in your profile.
Welcome to the world of Fortuna, a land of fantastic proportions. This is an original fantasy roleplay that takes place in a world developed over nearly a decade of work and collaboration. We aim to encourage all participants to have a hand in the stories of the characters here, and the world around them. Your choices are key - so make them with pride. You decide who wins the wars, you decide who becomes King, the world is ours, and together we will bring it to life!
Post by Thomas Dunn on Dec 20, 2016 15:40:18 GMT -7
If Vincent had just left Tom with the package, he likely would have flown directly to the hospital. He wouldn't have wasted time. Wouldn't have done exciting air tricks. So, in one way of thinking - Tom ought to thank Vincent. It was absolutely exhilarating and he'd forgotten just how much he loved it. He spared a few glances back at Vincent through his rear mirrors, smirking whenever the man seemed pleased with something - smirking even greater when he seemed displeased. He was having fun with Vincent.
And even more fun when he pulled the loop and Vincent had to raise his voice. "Just making sure you were awake back there!" Tom yelled back over the propeller, enjoying a good laugh. Vincent didn't think it was funny, of course. "Landing's a bit bumpy --" He called back again, "Not a proper runway, so hold on!"
He aimed the plane down, and Vincent - who Tom didn't realize was an Artavian native - likely recognized that they were passing into the Mutant Fields. Beyond the fences that kept citizens out. And were heading towards the old hospital. Tom tugged and pressed some more dials and buttons, and the plane went down to the old road. It was cleared of the things that were usually on a road, it was clear that Tom had done a lot of work to make it aeroplane-friendly.
The landing was a little rough, as Tom had advised, but he still managed to make it as smooth as possible - a matter of pride perhaps. The road was fenced in - a new fence, it seemed - blocking the entrance to the hospital from the rest of the Mutant Fields - and the plane stopped when it reached closer to the entrance of the building.
"Home sweet home," Tom commented as he tore off his cap and hopped out of the cockpit. He offered a friendly hand to Vincent, knowing that after a flight like that, one occasionally loses their legs.
Post by Vincent Laeretti on Dec 20, 2016 16:34:42 GMT -7
Vincent stood and dismounted from his own seat without the assistance Tom offered (feeling rather disinclined to accept the hand even out of politeness, of course), finding no difficulty in doing so. Vincent's lifestyle saw to it that maintaining the strength and balance of his legs in any given situation save for dire injury was hardly a challenge. He removed his helmet and goggles, replaced his glasses on his nose, and then took a long, solid look at the hospital for a moment. He was not impressed at their location. When he returned his gaze to Tom, it was critical.
"You've situated your facility in the midst of the mutant fields?" he asked, his tone dully incredulous. Was he some kind of imbecile? "I'm assuming, given the mantle of doctor you claim to wear, that you cannot possibly be unaware of the numerous reasons that that is inadvisable."
Post by Thomas Dunn on Dec 20, 2016 16:54:34 GMT -7
Tom grinned. Vincent was either well-studied, or perhaps from Artavia himself. That was interesting. Perhaps Tom could pester Violet to do some digging for him. The girl was usually amenable to Tom's requests if he offered something in return, and her demands were usually of the more pleasurable variety. Her information was always top-notch, too. After all - she had lead him to BLACK.
"Ah Vincent, hold your breath until you see inside, alright? Besides... I've yet to see a single mutant. The radiation tests have come back negative... All in all, seems like more of a conspiracy than anything. Dead space that the government couldn't afford to keep running. Thankfully, I don't have the same limitations."
Tom began to lead Vincent to the doors, which were barred - which he unbarred; locked - which he unlocked; and finally trapped - which he untrapped. "A precaution, for the unlikely case that the conspiracies are true," He offered, bringing Vincent inside. The inside was pristine. Everything had been cleaned - by Green and Black, of course - to Tom's exact specifications. The two would be where he had commanded them, of course. And Tom would take Vincent there shortly. First, he needed to gauge Vincent's reaction to the inside of the building itself.
Post by Vincent Laeretti on Dec 23, 2016 2:14:35 GMT -7
Vincent hated to admit it, but there was nothing about the hospital's interior that was out of place or not up to code, as far as he could tell. Vincent had a rather learned understanding of laboratory safety, medical sterilization requirements, and had a general eye for scrutiny. Vincent was keeping a mental checklist of everything he had seen or judged, and thus far, the Hospital's placement was the only objective issue. Tom claimed that the radiation tests had come back negative, and Vincent had remained silent at that, but Tom was a fool if he thought Vincent didn't know this area. He had become quite well-acquainted with it in his time in Artavia, and though he knew rumors certainly got away from many people regarding just how irradiated the place was, he also knew it wasn't just a conspiracy either. Tom had likely managed to sterilize the surrounding area, but that did not eliminate the risk of potential infection.
But sadly, aside from that, the hospital was pristine. Tom showed him multiple areas, medical spaces, hallways, waiting areas. Vincent hadn't seen it all yet, but they had to have gone through roughly half the facility already and there had been no objective issues. Subjectively, of course, Vincent found it extremely suspicious that Tom had apparent ownership of an entire hospital and yet no patients that Vincent had seen. Tom assured him that he did indeed have some - he'd even picked up a few on a recent trip who had come to him for surgery - but that he was just showing off the general facilities first.
"I think I've seen enough of those, for the time being," Vincent answered, quite unamused. "If you would like me to properly judge the merits of your facilities, perhaps you should show me what is actually in use."
Regardless of whether he did or didn't, Vincent still found it suspicious. An entire hospital situated in the Mutant Fields, with no staff, apparently only a handful of patients given the relative emptiness of the hospital, and no conventional means of access. Vincent hadn't missed, either, how he could have easily arrived here via Airship if he had really wanted to. Sure, there wasn't a proper landing dock for one, but Vincent had not taken a large craft to Artavia; he could easily have had his pilot simply come in low and jump from the exit bay, and then had him circle around for a while. It wouldn't have been the first time Vincent had made such an exit from a ship, and it likely wouldn't be the last given his line of work.
The point was, Tom clearly had just wanted to take Vincent here on his own terms. That was fine by Vincent, though; Tom would not have Plague unless Vincent gave him the green light, and Vincent was not afraid of the man should he try anything.
Post by Thomas Dunn on Dec 23, 2016 10:52:49 GMT -7
"Impatience is a flaw," Tom playfully chided, wagging a finger at Vincent like he would Green. Ah, Green. She would leave a good impression, he was certain. She always had the best of manners in the presence of guests... But now was not quite the time. He had some happy patients to show his inspector. "But I suppose Lord Woodrow would desire your presence back home, so come along."
He lead Vincent down a corridor lined with doors that had places for file folders. Most didn't have any - the rooms were empty, but there were five that did. "I'm only one doctor, so I'm a little limited... But," He knocked on one of the doors and opened it, handing the file in the door to Vincent to look over. Inside the room was a human man who was stabbing away at some green jello with a spoon. As the door opened, the man looked up and his focused expression turned to a giant smile. "Doctor!" He exclaimed, moving aside the tray. "Good day Mr. Schumacher! This is my associate, Vincent. He wanted to come by and see how some of my patients were doing... Recovery still going well?" The man nodded his head, "Gets better every day. I can read again, which has saved the wife from having to sit and read to me all day. She was thinking I might be able to start making sense of tools again, soon... Maybe I'll be able to go to work again."
"That's the hope," Tom's smile was proud. Genuine. "Mr. Schumacher had a tumor in his brain, Vincent. Outside of Artavia, there isn't much treatment for it. In Enezenn, Dirys, things are a little more dire than that. None of the doctors are capable of brain or spinal surgery. They told him he ought to say goodbye to his family--"
"And then Tommy Dunn came along," Schumacher's laugh was hearty, from the belly, "The doc's got me fixing right up. Tumor's out, recovery's been swell... And his assistants are great, too. My family's been treated real well here. If I didn't have a shop to run, I'd start payin' rent!"
Post by Vincent Laeretti on Dec 27, 2016 16:25:15 GMT -7
Vincent's demeanor when he entered the hospital room had changed.
He greeted the patient, Charles Schumacher according to the clipboard Dunn had handed him, with a warm smile, and he listened with attentive grace as Thomas explained the man's condition, what he had done for him, and then listened to Schumacher himself offer his praises. Vincent laid a hand on the man's shoulder and gave it a good squeeze, something the bedridden fellow seemed to appreciate.
"Well it certainly sounds like he's done a considerable deal for you," Vincent observed, pulling up a chair beside his bed and taking a seat. "Mr. Schumacher, would you mind if I asked a few questions, performed a few basic tests?"
"Phah! Go right ahead, I'm used to it after all the doc here has had to do for me. You a doctor, Mr. Vincent?"
"Not quite so impressive as the good doctor," Vincent replied as he flipped through the clipboard some more, his eyes devouring every line. "But I've a few specialized areas I wanted to follow up on."
Medical science was not Vincent's strongsuit, but there were a good number of things he knew to look for when a person had been... meddled with. Vincent was not prepared to rule out the possibility that Thomas Dunn, a man who was offering mind control technology to Vincent and Woodrow, may have used that very technology on his "patients" to make himself look more reputable. Nothing in his clip board appeared amiss - all the documents detailed his status, medical procedures that had been performed, and other diagnoses. If they were a forgery, Thomas hadn't missed any details. Of course, the underlying problem here was that there was no way to know for sure if they were forged documents when Thomas had no other doctors in the facility to answer to. Vincent found himself continually baffled how he was even legally allowed to practice medicine on Artavian soil in this hospital.
He would need to look into that later.
"Look this way please, Mr. Schumacher," he instructed, shining a small flashlight onto the patient's pupils. The man chuckled and said something about warning a guy next time, and Vincent simply laughed back. "Now where would be my fun then, hm?"
Nothing appeared off about his pupils, Vincent noted. His behavior was bereft of any bizarre ticks, too, and he hadn't had any weird reactions to the sudden light on his eyes. That cleared a few of the basic tests.
"Why don't you tell me a bit about your family?" he suggested, setting the clipboard and flashlight aside as he busied himself with grabbing a stethoscope off of the bedside table. Mr. Schumacher did as asked, beginning to regale Vincent about his wife and kids and how they'd had a dickens of a time visiting with how hard it was to get to the hospital, and while he spoke Vincent listened to his heartbeat in a number of different places. He laughed along with Schumacher's jokes and checked his skin condition, his hearing, and all the while watched for any unusual reactions to anything he did, listened for any inconsistencies in his tales.
Fortunately, he supposed, Mr. Schumacher was a completely normal, and now healthy, fellow. "Thank you, Mr. Schumacher, for putting up with me," he told him, getting back to his feet and collecting the man's clipboard. "Tell your family hello for me."
"Will do, Mr. Vincent, will do!"
Vincent followed Tom out of the room then, handing the man back his patient's clipboard as Thomas bid his own farewells, and once they were out of the room, Vincent's stony demeanor returned. "I would like to meet your other patients," he stated simply.
One cleared case would not satisfy him. Thomas would be in for quite the inspection.
Post by Thomas Dunn on Dec 27, 2016 17:34:14 GMT -7
Tom stood quietly - ever smiling - as Vincent questioned his patient. His smile came from his confidence, and his quiet came from his wish for Vincent to do this as quickly as possible. His patient, of course, passed with flying colours. Tom knew he would -- after all, he hadn't turned any of them into ACACIAs yet. They needed to be healthy enough to accept the implants... Tom wasn't going to waste the bodies, after all.
When Vincent insisted he see the rest of the patients, Tom held back a sigh. He knew they would all pass the test (unless Vincent simply decided to fail them on hatred alone), but it was still frustrating. "Of course!" He smiled, and lead Vincent to the next room in the hall.
They went through each and every patient, of which there were eleven. The twelfth would have been Loark Voden... But alas, the boy wouldn't permit it. Perhaps, however, that was turning out to be a blessing. After all, Relos would have shared in Vincent's suspicion, fanned the flame. Instead, he now had eleven happy patients. Each had varying problems in the spine and brain, the last of which had been unable to walk since a mine collapse four years ago. Today, the middle-aged woman's toes were wiggling, and on a good day she could swing her legs off the bed. "It'll still be a lot of concentrated effort and physical therapy," Tom explained, "But the damage to the spine has been fixed. Now it's a matter of the muscles... Thankfully, I have assistants to aid in just that. Miss Green meets with her twice a day to assist her with her physical therapy...
"Now... Are you content, Vincent? I would very much like to show you where our subject's living conditions will be."
Post by Vincent Laeretti on Jan 3, 2017 3:33:56 GMT -7
Vincent found it all to be just a bit too perfect. Every patient happy, healthy, recovering from astounding injuries, and with no traces of any wrongdoing on them. The rational side of Vincent's brain knew it was, of course, perfectly possible, and that there existed phenomenal medical professionals in the world. It even suggested that Vincent's paranoid suspicion of Thomas was the sole cause of him finding something wrong with all of this.
But the part of him that made him an excellent officer and investigator, however, told him that this was all a facade. As a scientist, Vincent knew how ironic it was for someone like him to ever rely on gut feelings. But he had had a great number of gut feelings in the past that had been right on the money, and they were a large part of what made him so effective at his job. He had an innate sense for when he was being lied to, or at least when perhaps the whole truth was not on display.
The more time he spent with Thomas Dunn, the more Vincent's gut feeling about the man became increasingly insistent. If he had just been being paranoid, the feeling would have gradually assuaged, as it often did with other characters who came across as shady upon meeting them but who hadn't actually done anything wrong once investigated. That was not happening here. Thomas had something to hide, Vincent was sure of it, and the man was practically taunting him with it. Every toothy smile, every smug glint in his eyes; he would have known Vincent didn't like or trust him even if Vincent hadn't been being particularly obvious about it, and either way he seemed to revel in it. He seemed all too satisfied whenever Vincent could find nothing wrong to report on, and the look in his eyes was almost challenging every time they arrived at something or someone new for Vincent to investigate.
This was the behavior of a man who had something to hide and knew he was hiding it perfectly.
Vincent could not, of course, prove any of it. As far as facts were concerned, it was all paranoid suspicion. Thomas's facility was being operated by the books, it was up to code, and despite the questionable nature of its location, there were no indications of infection breech among any of the patients. It all looked squeaky clean. And it was too perfect.
"Lead the way," he stated flatly in response to the man's question. He most certainly was not content, but Thomas did not need to know that, or why. All Vincent truly needed from Thomas was a single slip-up. One bare inkling of suspicion that would give him grounds to terminate their arrangement and elect not to hand over the pirate. He simply needed to wait for Tom to put that chance forward.
Post by Thomas Dunn on Jan 3, 2017 16:04:16 GMT -7
It seemed that Vincent's effect on him had passed it's crest. While just an hour ago he had felt a slight batch of nerves at the situation, at Vincent's suspicion - he was now relaxed. All that was left were Green and Black, Green who had been under his control for so long that she was his willing subject, and Black... Who likely wouldn't return from his errands before Vincent left. Which was good, as Black had only recently been reset. While he was a devoted creature, Tom wouldn't admit to perfection quite yet.
He didn't need a second invitation from Vincent to lead him out of the hallway with the patients, and across the front landing to a second set of stairs. "Up this way," He offered, knowing that Vincent was not one for petty smalltalk. Something Tom quite enjoyed about the man. If the situation hadn't been so tense, he might have offered a game of chess - it would be pleasant to enjoy such a thing with someone who would do so silently.
They arrived in the living area, which attached out to the kitchen. As they walked past the couches, Tom noticed that one of his charges had left a book out. In reality, they would never do such a thing, and he had done it himself - but they would also gladly take whatever punishment he offered. The book was a hard-back paper. One of his favourites. An treatise on the subject of flying transportation by Dr. Laeretti. A shame what happened to them, Tom always thought.
"My personal quarters, my study--" He gestured into the open doors as he passed them, pausing a bit longer at his study so that Vincent could enjoy the impressive expanse of it. He walked to the next door, across the hall from Green's. Black's was one farther down. "This would be our pirate's quarters. You'll notice that the door and locking mechanisms are some of the newest pieces of equipment in the building... So I ensure maximum security." He put in a code, and the door clunked loudly. With two hands, he pulled the door, sliding it open to reveal yet another pristine room. Everything was white, and the room was almost bare. There was a bed, a desk with some blank paper and writing materials, and a book shelf with simple children's books.
"I'd be happy to offer you the code as well, should you feel the need to come and check on our charge... What do you think, Vincent?"
Post by Vincent Laeretti on Jan 6, 2017 6:07:23 GMT -7
Vincent's attention remained peeled for any little thing, his eyes taking in as much detail as possible as Thomas guided him towards the Hospital's more homey areas; it was as though a small manor had been built into the building with how sudden the change was, tiled hallways giving way to a carpeted floor, a nice-looking staircase, couches, a kitchen, bedrooms, and the other common amenities of an Artavian home. None of the details of his surroundings stuck out too heavily to Vincent - none except the book. Though they had merely walked past the couches and had not stopped to sit or look around, the name of the book was something he couldn't miss. Hell, he'd been present when his father had taken the manuscript in for publishing.
This could give him a platform to work from.
Thomas continued to show off all the oohs and aahs of his home, ending his tour at the room that would supposedly be for the pirate. He had offered to give Vincent the code, that he might come and check on her routinely, but Vincent was still aiming to find a reason not to hand her over at all. There were still a few rooms he hadn't seen, but at this point Vincent wasn't going to hedge his bets on finding anything wrong with the hospital itself. Thomas had clearly cleaned himself up very well. No, if Vincent was going to find reason not to hand over the girl, the reason was going to have to be from Thomas himself. Which meant he had to get him talking.
Vincent made a show of browsing the room Thomas had shown him, his finger running along the spines of the children's books on the shelves. It would be too obvious to try and immediately start up a personal conversation. Vincent would need to subtly segue into it. His eyes betrayed nothing of the thoughts running through his head as he paced around, simply repeating the same process he'd done in all of the previous rooms, as though his only interest at the moment was in inspecting every corner.
Finally, he spoke, his tone absent while he inspected the dust on the bookshelf, collecting some on his fingertip and giving it a squint. "I'm curious why you've elected to stock her shelf with children's books. She's demonstrated already that she possesses literacy consistent with her assumed age." He turned towards Tom and wiped the dust on his finger against his pant leg, the gesture looking completely thoughtless. "This mind control of yours; does it cause a regression in the subject's mental state?"
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