The Rain

Old idea converted from a Microsoft Word document, prepare for messiness below.

                                                    Overview:

The story is set in Victorian England and steam power has revolutionised the country, thanks to the Adley brothers.

 A few years ago when war was declared a law was released that people were not to go out in the rain, and it wasn't just to save their petticoats.

  The Adley brothers had discovered that their extreme harnessing of the steam had resulted in a consequence they never expected; the steam began to fight back. Of course the steam was harmless in its vaporized form, but steam is water and water is everywhere. Water is in our bodies, the air we breathe, the lakes we swim in and the seas we sail.

 Water absorbs itself instantly but not only that. Every emotion we feel with water, every memory, every kiss in the rain, every splash of cold water to clear your mind or tear that fell down your face, is absorbed by it. Every emotion of every living thing that ever touched it is recycled around the world infinitely.

 However it has always remained passive, it's just water and remained that way. But then Nicholas Adley found a way to stimulate it and make it do things that were never thought possible, and the rain, now broken from its state of passivity and imbued with the emotions of all humanity, began to take form and attempted to stop this corruption of itself.

  And so the nation took to the skies in their steam-powered airships and balloons and attempted to protect their people from the onslaught of the rain. For a while Adley utilized a method of neutralizing the water-forms with steam in the air, but then they started forming on the ground and nobody can stop the rain...

                                                          Protagonist:

Lorenna Adley is the 18 year old daughter of steam entrepreneur Nicholas Adley. She takes after her father in their love of inventions, gadgets and gizmo’s but her relationship with her family is frail to say the least. Having always been ignored in favour of her spoilt older brother, Harold, she holds a deeply-set grudge and resentment against her father.

 She intentionally disobeys any biddings from Nicholas or anyone connected to him and grew up as an independent girl who spent more of her time in her father's old workshop than she did at her very large home. The only exception to her dislike of family is the other Adley brother, her bumbling Uncle Edward, who handles the business side of the company, and her niece Nellie/Nora/Natalie who she tries to work her brother's influence out of to little avail. Though contempt, jealousy and being the complete opposites of eachother frequently runs between the two siblings, Lorenna and Harold have been known to have civil conversations on occasion. When they aren't tearing out eachother’s hair out and ridiculing the other as much as possible between quarrels that is.

 Though she could have if she'd put her mind to it (according to her mother and female peers) people have long since given up on hopes of her becoming a flower of society, and she is more than happy to be “doomed to become a decrepit old spinster who wrongly meddles in the male-dominated realm of machinery” in their eyes. For in her spare time she frequently conspires with a close friend of hers, Tim Mathers, who works at the workshop, to one day form a business that he heads and makes the inventions while she secretly comes up with the ideas, despite having all the opportunity she could ever ask for with her father's company. Her unrelenting defiance of her father often baffles him but he amusedly accepts it as one of her many quirks, and eagerly saves up his wages until they have enough to buy a workshop of their own.

 After witnessing the death of Tim by rain-forms after her younger brother's funeral and inadvertently alerting them to her knowledge she is drawn into her father's world in ways she cannot get out of unless she sees it through to the end. She flees to her Uncle's nearby home and that night witnesses him alerting her father to the event, via a cloud of steam that both looks and sounds like her father, a secret form of communication between the brothers. In the morning she escapes the house and tries to wrap her head around it all when she notices a man trying to follow her unnoticed, and poorly. She escapes from him to find herself at the edge of a path leading down into the company name's workers' housing in the slum pit below, just as it begins to rain. James Farlan then finds her and as the fight with the rain-forms begins below, opts to take her to safety. However upon realizing who she's the daughter of and that she's been touched by the rain-forms he takes her to GHQ instead, Lorenna having little choice in the matter.

 Though initially planned as being held as a hostage to threaten her father to shut down the technology, Lorenna proves her worth to the Guardians and how he'd never give the technology up for her anyway. Her technological savvy combined with James' knowledge of the water results in not only a significant advantage against the rain-forms and the air fleets but also a relationship that will withstand the tests of time.

 From a deplored captor, shaky friendship, trusting colleagues and eventually lovers Lorenna and James find in eachother what they could not in themselves. In order to bring the world back into order and even find her own happiness Lorenna must learn to forgive, trust in others and finds value and importance in things she'd once never considered.

                                                    The Love Interest:

 James Farlan is a 20-something young man who's content with his life, but never satisfied with it. He's the son of bolshy and eccentric Guardian leader Kincaid Farlan and a young actress who eloped with a theatre director when James was 3. He was brought up in the headquarters by both his father and the other Guardian members whom he considers his extended family, and is close friends with the children of some of them. Luckily enough one of the female members, “Aunty Meg”, insisted that he went to school as despite living on the edges of the poor quarter of the city, they had an extensive reserve of funds that rarely got used.

 Though growing up in such a surrounding had its advantages he was also closed off from things a boy his age would have taken for granted, and certainly could never lead a “normal” life, much to his disappointment. So instead of going to friends houses to play he explored every street, area and tree that he could as a child, inevitably knowing the city better than his own name by the time he was 17.

 Growing up among the Guardians also meant he had an extensive knowledge of the technology[Unknown A1] 

from a young age. Though he never was a whiz with technology, or had any interest in it, the idea of the absorbent tendencies of water interested him greatly and at 18 went to university to study it. At university he was finally free from his restrictive, privacy-lacking home and gained a reputation of being quite a wild/rugged one. He made many friends and acquaintances, as well as accumulating much knowledge, but when war broke out his ties to his eccentric home pulled him back.

 It was thanks to James' knowledge on the subject that they invented a way of neutralising the stimulated rain-forms similar to Nicholas Adley's by using concentrated and non-stimulated steam harnessed in a gun of sorts on them.

 Though his duty to his family (and in a way, the country) holds him there he dreams of the day that he can get out into the world himself and break away from the ties of his large, extended family as he wants no part in taking his father's mantle as expected. He knows however that unless the rain-forms are somehow stopped before they destroy the country in doing it themselves, he never will, and it is while pursuing that frame of mind that he finds more than he was ever looking for.

                                                          The Guardians:

Formed in 1853 when the inventor of the technology realised what he'd done could never be found by anyone, lest it would fall in the wrong hands and the sheer power of what they held would corrupt even the most well-meaning of people. But he also couldn't bring himself to destroy the incredible machine he'd invented and before hanging himself he entrusted it into the hands of a group of 12 people to keep it hidden as well and long as they were able, until the time was right.

 Once, filled with purpose and no small degree of pretentiousness, they called themselves The Supreme Guardians of the Occultus Aqualus Infinitum but eventually when countless tongues were tied and time wore on they became known simply as The Guardians, a crackpot organisation who sat around doing nothing in a large ramshackle, awfully decorated building with an absurd amount of money while they preached their secret cause and worth to any pretty and gullible soul who'd listen. In short, nobody paid them any attention and eventually were completely forgotten.

 Despite their lowly reputation they simply pretended that was precisely what they'd planned as they fell back into the shadows and went happily along with their dedication to their cause, firmly believing that their children and their children's children would follow in their footsteps. Then when middle age began to set in, the first grey hairs submerged and the children of those who'd actually managed to fish out a partner ran about they began to wonder if there was any point in it all. Nobody had come for the technology like they'd been made to expect, and protect with their lives, and they doubted anyone even knew of it. They didn't deviate from the organisation however (where else would they live or have that much money anyway?), but convinced that there wasn't any need for it they went on with their own lives, and the technology was abandoned and presumably buried under one of the many piles of trinkets and junk around the house.

 The members had become careless and one of them accidentally spilled all during a heavily liqour-influenced night at a pub. He cursed himself relentlessly for it but nothing came of it, nobody found out and he assured himself that everyone heard thought it was all codswallop. Butt what he didn't know was that one of the depressed patrons trying to escape from their dull lives was Nicholas Adley, and the revelation suddenly had him inspired and determined to find it. Of course he never did, never suspecting that it was right under his nose in the city's sprawling slums, until the day one of The Guardians' members decided to make some money out of a clean-out and accidentally sold the technology to a foreign collector, and through him it reached Nicholas Adley in Sweden.

 Nobody noticed until the steam revolution came to be and when they couldn't find the metal box that was the technology, they realised what they had done. Racked with guilt they vowed to secretly protect the citizens from below as what James humorously calls the Ground Patrol and stop the stimulated rain-forms completely, the problem is they don't know how.

                                                        The Rain-Forms:

Made from pure water that has been stimulated by Nicholas Adley's technology, the rain-forms take the form of a nondescript man and having no thought or conscience, exist only to eradicate the technology that is using the water in ways that defy its very purpose and nature.

 The stimulation is a way of harnessing and “stimulating” the emotions, memories and energy that is passively stored in water. Though it is just water and nothing more, water instantly absorbs itself into a whole but not only that. Imagine every experience or emotion you've had in the presence of water. Every kiss in the rain, every relaxing bath, every tear, splashes of cold water to clear your mind, traumatic deaths in the sea or the revelation of saving somebody's life. All that and so much more is absorbed by it, every single emotion and memory experienced with water is infinitely cycled around the world[Tara Oake2] . However it has always remained passive, never noticed and never utilized as it is only water. But then a scientific genius found a way to exploit it and after many years the technology was born, a way to stimulate those emotions to force the water into shapes and things never thought possible. Upon the appalling realisation of the incredible power he'd exposed to humanity that never should have been, he hid it just before he was murdered by rivals. 31 years later it was found.

 As all water is essentially one body of water they attain information by “absorbing” the memories and emotions of whomever they touch, that information is then shared and known by all of the rain-forms and the absorbed person is no more. They seek only the memories of somebody who knows where the technology is located, or how to destroy it, so that they will therefore know where to find it but until they do all they can do is absorb people at random. Purely through sensing the rough location of the “corruption source” they know to focus on the areas around  the main workshop/workers' housing[Tara Oake3] , the Guardians however have also caught onto this and try their best to defend those areas when the dark clouds form in the skies. It is when they were anticipating a heavy attack on the workers' housing area that the rain-forms absorbed a worker and friend of Lorenna's. Normally it would have come to nothing but then Lorenna touched one of them. It wasn't long enough to be absorbed herself but the rain-forms saw her emotions and memories, and how much she knew of her father’s work. She's then protected by the Guardians and it is because of this, and the humans insisting on war, that the whole situation is so drastic. If they had been left alone they would have found a way to destroy the technology on their own and everything would have gone back to normal, they pursue Lorenna only because they know no better.

 They cannot be killed as they still are just water. However they can be “neutralised” by non-stimulated steam which interferes with their stimulation, resulting in them collapsing into a simple puddle of water once more.

                                                The Adley Brothers:

                                                          (We need to name their company)

Born in 1838 and 1834 respectively to an engineer and his wife, Nicholas and Edward Adley were familiar with machinery and business from the moment they came into the world. Their father's company was small and somewhat mediocre but nevertheless they made a living from it and both were enthusiastic about inheriting it. Rather than the eldest just inheriting it they both planned to joint-run it. Because even though Nicholas was the one with all the ideas Edward had the head for business, not that Nicholas couldn't but he tended to make a terrible mess and give up after 3 weeks.

 As the better looking and more dashing of the two Nicholas had more than his fair amount of flirtations with women as a teen/young man but never for long, as he was always drawn back to his gizmos, drawings and plans of great technical achievements, which he loved far more in the long run than any baffling needy female on his arm.

 Edward however, despite being the eldest, was less socially outgoing and more a humble man of the mind who had a inclination to eat one too many cream cakes. Though unlike his younger brother he longed to be loved by that special lady, unless it was a meeting amongst men of business where he knew his ground he was awfully awkward and bashful at social occasions.

 Their mother often despaired at the two brother's inability to attract a wife and breathed a sigh of relief when they finally inherited their father's company and had something to focus on. Though initially let down by the company's small potential they both agreed to work on it and for the next several years applied their area of expertise to it tirelessly.

 By the time they were in their early thirties Nicholas still showed no interest in making a wife of any of the women available to him, and had begun to tire of the slow business. Edward however had been seeing a young lady, unnoticed by his brother. She was a green-eyed socialite with a sensitive streak and pretty ginger curls. They married in 1866. Though somewhat happy for him Nicholas saw it as a betrayal as he now had to handle the business on his own, and sulked his way through the next two years. Especially as he realised that his grand plans and inventions would never be realised in their father's small workshop.

 Tired of his moping and fleeting about their mother forced Nicholas to find a wife or she'd stop the funding he needed to continue the company, already having squandered all business opportunities months before. So through his brother's wife he found Helene Sinett, the middle daughter of a lawyer who was approaching the age she wasn't so sought-after by young men. She was attractive enough, though a bit dull, she needed a husband and he needed a wife. They were married in a matter of months and their first child, Harold, was born the next year.

 It seemed like everything was working out perfectly but depressed with the responsibilities a family life he never wanted pulling him down, a wife he never tried to get on with once the first few months of excitement passed and a company that was going nowhere, Nicholas tried to do everything he could to get away from it. As for Edward, well after five years of failing to conceive his wife left him for a sailor to live abroad and he went back to his brother.

 Frustrated with the company's lack of success and wanting to get away from his home life Nicholas desperately began to chase a myth he'd heard of in a pub with his brother. An amazing technology that could take their lowly steam company in leaps and bounds. They both doubted it even existed in the beginning and just wanted the trip, but as time went by Nicholas became obsessed with finding it and staying away from the family that he barely knew. Then 5 years later they actually found it in the hands of a clueless Swedish collector. They brought it back home triumphantly and Nicholas devoted his life to cracking the technology that 5 years ago he never even believed in. It took them another 4 years to figure it out but when they did their lowly steam company became a household name in only 2 years, as time went by and their infamy grew even the government became interested.
 Suddenly the Adleys were rich and Helene Adley embraced her unexpected fortune and social status. Though when Lorenna was born[Tara Oake4]  (named after the ship Nicholas and his brother sailed on) the couple still were not close[Tara Oake5] . Again Nicholas was not ready for parenthood and relieved to find the infant years over he could focus on his 11 year old son as his heir.
 Lorenna doted on her father but he found dealing with a daughter even more daunting than a son and yet again took the easy way out, ignoring and focusing on his work. It was only the single and childless Edward that saw the virtues and potential in his brother's daughter, becoming very close to her and even showing her the ways of the company's business at times. Whereas he only observed from a distance at how Howard was echoing and even worsening his father's flaws.[Tara Oake6]
 When the technology went out of control and the invasion broke out he was appalled and determinedly took to the skies with his country to repel the forces and yet again escape the family life he never wanted while Edward oversaw the company from the ground.

 Nicholas believes he can bring the technology under control even now, once the war is won, and refuses to acknowledge that destroying it would solve everything. However in order to save, well, everyone he must come to face all he's done and try to fix it. But can he make the ultimate sacrifice for the daughter he never got to know? Or will he even realise it in time?

                      The Story:

On a dark, late afternoon in England, 1886 the streets are pouring with rain and deserted. Not only because of the awful walking conditions however, as of a new law it is a crime to go out in the rain whatsoever, due to newly discovered “health risks” and “killers in the rain”. The first panel focuses on a funeral procession consisting of  Helene Adley, 4 pall-bearers carrying the deceased 10-year-old Thomas Adley, and whomever the mourning mother could persuade to join her and risk their necks on the walk down to the church. Her daughter Lorenna follows behind dragging her feet, glumly cursing herself for not getting to the cars quickly enough like all of the other funeral goers.

 After the ceremony, or rather as they wait for the rain to stop to perform the burial, Lorenna's old friend Ellie, who is soon to be her sister-in-law, loudly marvels at the mechanical fan she made for her to the other women and attracts the attention of her daughter and fiancé to Lorenna's presence. Nellie/Nora/Natalie asks her aunt why so many stories have an “impractical” kiss in the rain, to which Lorenna sighs at her brother's influence on the girl and playfully replies [Tara Oake7] “because it's the most romantic thing in the world.” before shooing her off to her mother. Lorenna is then caught by her detested and spoilt older brother, Harold.

 Though with underlying jibes and threats the siblings converse somewhat civilly, having been brought together by an event that they sympathise with eachother in. Meaning that they think their mother is mad for insisting on an outlawed procession in the rain for Thomas rather than in a roofed car, just because he was run over by one, and that their father couldn't be bothered to come anyway, despite his duties in the war. As Lorenna never paid much attention to laws or rain anyway Harold shows his disregard for the whole affair and wonders why she hasn't slipped away already, as she always does, as neither of them barely knew their late younger brother due to his mother hogging and babying him. And so after chiding him for still not having married her old -and slightly gullible/naive- friend who's the mother of his child, (which he ignores) she does.

 On a “if it hasn't before why should it now?” basis and disregard of anything her father says (he supported the law) she doesn't acknowledge the “risks of rain” and frequently goes out in it, no one ever notices after all. However while carelessly walking down the middle of the town square she almost goes straight into a colleague of her father's, not seeing him coming up the slope. He's embarrassed to have bumped into her and also is oddly wild-eyed. He chides her for being out in the rain and under the light threat of telling her father he orders her to go to her Uncle's nearby home straight away. She agrees, reasoning that her Uncle's home will be better than her own when the funeral finishes and fills with moping relatives, and they part ways, him practically running. However not caring for the biddings of her father or his colleagues she purposefully goes the long way around through the industrial part of town with the intention of visiting her friend Tim as she goes past. Once she gets there, only somewhat dry by walking under overhangs, however she is greeted by the sight of him being taken by two men and the true reason as to why going out in the rain is outlawed. She's unable to see the men clearly in the rain and runs up to them to pull them off of her friend, just as one of them seems to oddly embrace him. She grabs the shoulder of the one nearest to her and gasps as her hand sinks through him. He slowly turns his head around and she realises he's made of water. Almost paralysed in shock and fear she tries to back away when she sees an image reflected in the raindrops on his back: it's the last memory she has of Tim when he tried to kiss her the other day. Just then Tim lets out a gurgle as the rain-form takes him into itself, his eyes almost popping in fear looking straight at her as he drowns, and then just dissolves. It is then that Lorenna finally finds it in herself to scream and runs blindly at full pelt to her uncle's house.

 Entering the house through the back door, Edward urges her in with open arms and she's grateful it's impossible to discern the tears on her face from the rain as she tells him all that happened.[Tara Oake8]  Not sure of what to tell her he awkwardly pats her on the shoulder and tells her to stay over for the night, also apologising for not being able to make it to Thomas' funeral due to work duties.

 That night Lorenna lies on her back in bed, listening to the now familiar drones of the airships above them and briefly thinks of her father fighting up there wistfully. She quickly scoffs at the thought and gives up trying to sleep. She goes over to tinker with one of her early little gadgets when she hears strained voices downstairs. Wondering who could be visiting her uncle at this time she creeps down the stairs to hear her father's voice to her surprise. While listening to them debating whether to tell her about something, or if she was “touched” by “them” she reaches a crack in the door as they finish (opting not to tell her anything, with some annoyed nonchalance on Nicholas' behalf) to see a cloud of smoke shaped exactly like her father say goodbye and dissipate. Not to say the least she runs back up to her room in shock and confusion, hiding under the covers with wide eyes.

 In the morning she's told by the maid that her Uncle's had to go to work urgently, but she is to stay there until he gets back. This annoys her greatly, especially with all that's happened, and she decides to go for a walk to clear her mind, it isn't even raining after all. She soon notices a young blonde male[Tara Oake9]  trying to follow her without being seen very poorly and realises that she saw him the other night just before she got to the workshop. Understandably alarmed she tries to shake him off (but he just runs after her, therefore revealing himself even more, silly boy) and eventually does but finds herself on the edge of the slum-like pit that houses her father's workers' homes. She notices men (the Guardians) slowly infiltrating the place and watches with some bemusement just as it starts to rain. James then comes up behind her as this is what would have been his vantage point for the attack, but realises he has to get her out of there before the fight starts.

 Persuading her that a big fight's about to start (not elaborating on with who) he offers to escort her home as it's raining. He proves to be unshakable and she grudgingly agrees. They manage to walk down one alley before the first rain-form appears and attacks them. James quickly shoots it with his clumsy-looking steam gun and they take off at a run. Rather than focusing on the fight that's started behind them however the rain-forms go after them to James' confusion. Dropping his all-polite-gentleman front he curses loudly as they're almost ambushed and asks who she is anyway. He curses again after a moment of shock when she tells him. Although knowing that his father has been planning to kidnap her for awhile (not a notion he entirely disagrees with) he also realises she's being tracked by the rain-forms, and makes a split-second decision to take her to GHQ for her own safety, and perhaps even leverage to end the war.

 On the way Lorenna demands to know where he's taking her, and what the rain-forms are. He tries to explain roughly[Tara Oake10]  but is distracted by having to fend rain-forms off. He does basically tell her that she's not safe at home and she mostly believes him, considering their current situation. Despite running for her life she's fascinated by his steam gun and tells him that with insert technical jargon here it could be much more light and efficient, to which he just gives something like a distracted “Whaaa?”

 When they do get to the GHQ James does a complicated knocking code[Tara Oake11]  on the door before being let in by one of the members. He marches off into the living quarters down the hall, loudly demanding to know where Jack is, with Lorenna gingerly following behind and trying not to knock any of the clutter lying around.

 Jack pops up with a nervous squeak, switching between ogling at Lorenna and James, as James rails off at him about how he asked him to watch Lorenna, not chase her down like a serial killer, and now he has to deal with the messy and over-complicated situation himself. Almost all of the Guardians have been attracted by the argument ans are now peering curiously around the doors. Wondering what the raucous is Farlan comes downstairs and into the living room, doing a double-take when he sees Lorenna. Thinking his son's finally acted on it and listen to his advice he quickly dissipates the argument and gleefully welcomes Lorenna to the “Supreme Guardians of the Occultus Aqualus Infinitum, the technology your father conveniently stole.”. However before he can say anything about her “capture” James steps in and stresses that she's here for her own safety, as she's being tracked by the rain-forms. Farlan frowns at him suspiciously but he's cut off by Lorenna demanding to know what's going on, they then explain about the rain-forms, how they're caused by her father's steam and the technology he found etc. Bit vague here but some things are said and the female Guardian shows Lorenna up to what will be her room etc.

 Later that night/the next day James asks Lorenna if she really thought she could improve the steam guns and shows her down to the basement where they keep and make all of their “weapons” etc. One of the nerdier Guardians is down there and is dubious that she even knows what a cog is but is proved wrong as she swiftly takes a clunky gun and pulls it apart. Examining the machinery on the inside she wonders aloud what idiot could have had the ingenious idea to neutralise the rain-forms with steam, but execute it so poorly, to which James says “that would be me.”, expecting her to apologise. However she just looks up at him and says “ah” before going back to the gun, causing the Guardian member to burst into muffled laughter. James is taken aback but raises his eyebrow in amusement and watches her re-assemble the gun with interest. After exchanging numerous mechanical parts with the nerdy Guardian she produces a a smaller, lighter pistol than what it first was and hands it to James. He examines it and admits it looks a lot easier to wield, but invites Lorenna to take the first shot. She's only fired a gun a few times when messing around in the workshop, and the Guardian is dubious it will even fire properly anyway, saying a backfire would be lucky, but nonetheless she successfully fires it just next to James' left ear, causing him to comically fall off the pipe he was cockily perched on. He pulls himself back up with a grin on his face and informs nerdy guardian that he's found him a new working partner.

  After a training session of shooting Lorenna asks James if he always lived at GHQ and he tells her his story, to an extent. Lorenna remarks on him trying to get away while there's a war underway and there's an awkward silence. James breaks it by asking her where she learnt to do all of that (tech and gun stuff etc) and she tells him hers. About her father not caring for her (in her eyes), family rarely taking notice of her and her love for inventing etc. Also wistfully about her plans with Tim to start their own business.

  At some point we see Farlan and James arguing over holding Lorenna hostage over her father. James argues that she's proving to be ingenious with the weapons/technology and holding off the rain forms – perhaps even more than her father, and he doubts Nicholas would respond to it as he hasn't even spoken to his daughter in months. Farlan argues however that every father holds a shed of love for his daughter somewhere and wins the argument with no matter how useful she is, this is the only quickest and most efficient way for getting Nicholas to shut down the technology, and for James to be free of it all ASAP as that is what he wants. And it's not like Lorenna could shut down the technology herself anyway. He ends it with reasoning to James that it's only going to affect one girl, instead of the possible hundreds if they didn't end this.

  It takes awhile for Farlan to set up a meeting with Nicholas but after numerous battles with the rain-forms and Lorenna grieving over the death of Edward Adley[Tara Oake12]  he finally does, at the illustrious “Ball in the Sky” which is a grand ball on the largest airship where the posh/middle class soldiers can be reunited with their families and women, meet other people, party, celebrate their success so far etc.[Tara Oake13] 

  Under the guise of them planning to negotiate with her father why it's so important for him to shut the technology down, and she's going to be their ticket in; Farlan, James, Lorenna and three other Guardians go up to the ball in their best clothing. For a while Farlan encourages them to enjoy the party while they track down Nicholas and wait for the best opportunity and makes a beeline for the free wine. Lorenna and James of course end up dancing to blend in and Lorenna quickly shoves her face into James' neck/shoulder as they pass her father, not wanting him to recognise her, and they stay close like that for a few moments before she pulls away and blushes in realisation. To break the awkward ahem-ing Lorenna tells him that it's very unlikely that her father will actually listen to them and James replies that he knows. They're getting physically close for the first time but James is so gult-ridden that he pulls away and disappears into the crowd to Lorenna's confusion. Not long after though she is herded up by one of the Guardians and taken into the metal scaffolding part of the airship where they'll supposedly meet Nicholas soon. Lorenna protests at them handling her roughly when Farlan comes out of the shadows and commands that they bind her. She asks what they're doing in outrage when Farlan explains that she is going to be how they persuade Nicholas, and asks if she didn't really believe that they were just going to chat with him about it. Farlan threatens to gag her if she shouts out and she scowls. Then James steps out from behind him and the pain of betrayal shoots through her. She asks rhetorically if he knew this all along and though he tries to apologise and explain that he didn't know her then she ignores him after giving a look that could kill.

  She's roughly pulled to her feet and she asks if they actually think that Nicholas will exchange her for the destruction of the thing he loves most, Farlan just says he will if he'll have the blood of his daughter on his hands if he doesn't agree.

  Lorenna walks forward defiantly and into the path of her fancily-uniformed father who has two of his men flanking his sides. He's shocked at seeing her and asks what she's doing here, not noticing that her hands are tied behind her back. She just coldly greets him and Farlan steps out of the shadows behind her with a dagger held to her throat. Apparently having approached him before Farlan says to Nicholas that he knows what he wants, if he calls for help or makes one move she dies, if he doesn't comply, she dies. Nicholas protests, saying that he can't possibly shut it down as it has too many advantages. Farlan says that unless he destroys what he stole, hundreds will die until the rain-forms destroy it themselves, and they can't hold them back forever as they're already forming on the ground. Nicholas frantically looks between Lorenna and Farlan and says that there must be some way to separate the rain-forms from the technology, Farlan says he doesn't understand etc. All the time Farlan is tightening his grip on Lorenna and as time grows thin and the chance of them being discovered increases he slides the knife across her collarbone, not deeply but enough to draw blood. Lorenna can't help the fear and pain slip through her firm expression of withdrawnness/acceptance/reservedness/thingness and the tensions of everyone goes sky-high (pun intended). Lorenna is hurt by the fact that her father, though frantic, isn't going to say anything for her as despite her uncaring attitude there's still a sliver of hope in her. James sees the same and suddenly can't bear it anymore. He knocks the knife out of Farlan's hand with his elbow and is about to cut Lorenna's bonds just as the airship tilts violently and screaming comes from the ballroom. They all manage to grab the railing except for Lorenna and she's saved by James. However she doesn't say anything to him and goes to her beckoning father as soldiers start running around them and yelling “They're (rain-forms) coming through the roof!”.

---

 [Unknown A1]The thing that the Guardians were guarding, and that Nicholas Adley stole and used to stimulate the steam.

 [Tara Oake2]Also there's fact that we're made of, what was it, 70% water?

 [Tara Oake3]Otherwise they would be country-wide, and that just wouldn't make sense in people not knowing about them and it would be impossible for the Guardians to keep them under control-ish on the ground :L

 [Tara Oake4]I'm desperately trying to come up with a fluid timeline for this but I guess it doesn't matter as it isn't the actual story xD Basically Harold is 8 years older than Lorenna and inbetween that time their father was finding/cracking the technology 8D

 [Tara Oake5]Consider her conception as a celebratory night of Nicholas' success and sudden wealth. Nudge nudge wink wink

 [Tara Oake6]As in Nicholas' laziness, cowardice, lack of attention, occasional cynical ways etc.

 [Tara Oake7]Just an important little premise/echo to the ending of the story there if you're wondering why I emphasized such a little detail. ;)

 [Tara Oake8]Should she tell him about seeing the rain-forms at all? Why wouldn't she? Because she thinks he'd think she was mad? Or maybe just leaves the part about seeing her memory reflected in its back out? Hmm :L

 [Tara Oake9]He's called Jack somethingorother and he's one of the young Guardian children. He reported the death of Tim to James the night before. James ordered him to keep an eye on her, just in case she didn't try anything stupid while the Guardians hold off an attack on the workers' housing pit, but obviously Jack doesn't make a good sleuth ;)

 [Tara Oake10]Or he could just ignore her and say it all later when they're in the GHQ?

 [Tara Oake11]It's unnecessary, he's just trying to tease and impress Lorenna which he reveals later on.

 [Tara Oake12]He will die at some point at the hand of the rain-forms, I'm just not sure where to put it. D:

 [Tara Oake13]Or it might be Nicholas Adley's huge birthday party? Idk, whichever works best.