Azarion

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Assemble

Started by Lucius Vipsanius Roscius · January 2

December 22, 76AD, evening (after The hunt begins)
In retrospect, they could have tried to find a bigger place for this, Lucius thought. They barely fit inside Alexius' apartment, and his son was not even home yet. But it was still better than nothing, and the place was inconspicuous enough not to raise any suspicion of the ragtag gathering of slaves, freedmen, plebeians, and one former patrician. They really looked like an unexpected group of people as they all filed in. Lucius, still in his vigiles uniform (he had to go on patrol while the others looked for more clues, and he jut got back for the evening). Alexius, the ex-gladiator, towering over the rest of them. Jason, the imperial body slave, and his cousin, the mute charioteer, who was leaning against a wall with his arms folded, sizing up everyone. A girl - Didia? - who had been attacked by the killer, and apparently also lived next door. And she brought another, soft-spoken older man along, who introduced himself as Theodorus. Medicus for a ludus, apparently. Well, Lucius thought, there was a possibility that a medicus' services were needed before this was all over.
Lucius had brought some wine for everyone, and also a rolled-up map of the city. It was a little dated, and barely marked more than the main streets and the regions, but it was the best he could rustle up on a short notice. He also had a new writing tablet, instead of the one he'd borrowed.
"Is this everyone?..." he asked, glancing around at the assembled people. How were they even... supposed to do this? "I know we don't all know each other, but apparently we have a common enemy. Someone who has hurt... and killed... a lot of people." he glanced at Didia, and cleared his throat. "Someone no one has paid attention to, or connected the dots, for too long. And we need to find him, fast. Before he hurts someone else."
@Sara @Atrice @Sharpie
Party People

Started by Vibia · December 22, 2021

December 19th - Saturnalia - 76AD
Vibia loved Saturnalia, if only because it meant her coin purse was fatter than any other time in the year and the men she serviced were more pliable. So she suffered through the parties and the late nights, stifling yawns behind her hand and blinking sleep from her eyes because it'd be worth it in the end. It's how she found herself in a domus on the Quirinal surrounded by rich men; their wives shunted off for the evening. There were others here too, not just prostitutes for the inevitable orgy but Gladiators - dressed up in their regalia, and Charioteers too - undoubtedly plying for patronage as much as the girls and boys she was with were.
Most of the men were in the gardens, downing their cups of wine and grinning lovely, lascivious grins at their guests. Vibia sniffed and made a beeline for the triclinium, hoping to find something more interesting to do than a sweaty old man - no matter how rich he was. Picking a cup of watered wine from a slave she made her way to the corner of the room, surveying the scene. There was a big burly gladiator in the centre being pawed over by men - ostensibly to check his pedigree for patronage but only a fool wouldn't see that the men were taking their sweet time checking his muscle tone. There were a few people in idle conversation and in the opposite corner there was a little man who seemed to want to be anywhere else. Or at least it seemed that way to her. Curious.
Taking a sip and weaving through the crowds, the flimsy cut of her dress leaving trails of fabric, she sidled up to him. "You don't belong here, do you?"

TAG: @Chevi
Not Looking For Trouble

Started by Cynane · December 19, 2021

Saturnalia, 76 AD
Cynane was waiting just outside the palace and hoped that Tiranês would show up soon, as they had decided. It was, after all, Saturnalia! The one holiday the Romans got right, at least. The one holiday where slaves got to feel like free people and could do (almost) anything they pleased. As long as they’d show up for work the next day. Well there was always the next day. Sometimes she’d thought it was a way to mock the slaves, tell them to go and have fun, but remember, you are still slaves. There’s always tomorrow!
But tomorrow was not now. She was unsure of where they were going, but her blood-brother said he had a good idea and she’d happily see what he had in store. And keep him safe on the way. She had tried to dress up, but she still didn’t want to look like someone she wasn’t. So she still wore breeches and a thigh-long tunica, easy to move around in. She’d dropped the leather armor for tonight, but she still wore her braids. Maybe a bit fancier than on a daily basis, since it was Saturnalia. She recalled Tiranês speaking of many smaller braids in the hair, she didn’t know if it was a style the women among his people kept, but she’d tried to recreate it.
Casually she leaned against the wall, ignoring the stares of anyone passing by, like she always did. If they glared at her and she did look back, they’d wish they didn’t. She didn’t want their attention. All she wanted was the company of someone she liked, and she didn’t like many people in Rome. And luckily, soon enough it was Tiranês who joined her and she greeted him with a smile, “Finally! Shall we go? And... where are we going?”
@Sharpie @Chevi ( @Sara )
At the edge of the world

Started by Jason · December 15, 2021

Sarmatia, 76AD, near the border of the Roman province of Pannonia

Tiranês' clan and his cousin's tribe had come together, as they did occasionally, to trade and meet with friends and relatives. It meant that Tiranês and Azarion could spend some time together, go riding and hunting together. Today was going to be different from usual, though - they were close to the Romans and Tiranês wanted to see them, to try to understand what all the fuss was about them, and he had persuaded Azarion to join him. Not that it took all that much persuading, Azarion being who he was.
Tiranês swept his hair out of his eyes and tended to his horse, Burdukhan, as he waited for Azarion to join him over the brow of the hill from the encampment.
"There you are! I thought you weren't coming," he said as his younger cousin drew up to him.

@Chevi
When in a Roman bath

Started by Azarion · December 15, 2021

Early December, 76AD
Even though Azarion had been living inside the city for more than a year, there was still a staple of Roman urban living that had eluded him so far: the baths. Sure, he knew how to bathe, and kept himself clean using the facilities that belonged to the stables. But if everyone else could be believed, that was a far cry from the bathing culture the Romans invented. In the eighteen years of his life, Azarion had only been familiar with washing, first in the rivers and lakes of Sarmatia where he learned to swim, and then more or less improvising as much as slaves were allowed.
Now that he was a charioteer, slowly rising out of the masses of slaves in the city, Marcus kept reminding him that he was allowed to go to actual thermae if he wished. A real Roman bath house. Azarion avoided the issue as long as he could, but eventually Tiranes found out too, and somehow now here they were, in the doors of the part of the thermae that was open to slaves, and the freedmen of the nearby faction stables. Azarion frowned, but very enthuastic about the visit. He looked at his cousin, shrugging. Do we have to?
@Sharpie
In The Darkness [M - V]

Started by Marcus Barbatius · November 14, 2021

Early October, 76 AD
It was dark in Rome this night. The moon wasn’t shining, there was not just a veil, but a thick blanket of clouds over the city for once. That made it all seem quite dark this time of year and Marcus enjoyed it. He had gone out with a purpose tonight, the usual purpose, wearing a cloak over his head and a proper knife by his belt, hidden by the long cloak that went all the way to his knees. He was ready for something to happen. Something he would like.
There had been a few attacks he’d failed at recently and he wasn’t very happy about it. At least none of the women had been talking about him, no one had found out about him, so that was good. Even if they escaped, the next best thing was them not talking. He preferred that. Else he’d have to find them again and make sure they wouldn’t talk. He’d like to find them anyway. Maybe he’d find one tonight?
Quite randomly he was walking around for some reason, ended up near the racing court. Not that he had any connection to the place, and yet… as he walked by a certain house with a few barrels in front of it, he stopped. Didn’t he once kill a girl there? It had felt so good. He didn’t mean to kill her, but she struggled and she hurt him and she wouldn’t shut up. So he made her. He’d slit her throat. And stabbed her chest.
He realized he was standing still, as the memories flowed through him. He licked his lips, thinking about it made him want more of the same. There had been so much blood. Maybe some of it had sprayed onto the side of the house or something… without thinking twice, he walked closer to the scene.
@Chevi
Don't get all emotional on me

Started by Jason · October 26, 2021

Two days after the races at the Circus Neronianus (stupid name), and Jason had tracked down the boy he'd seen racing, that he thought looked remarkably like his cousin, last seen being hauled off, kicking and screaming and with blood everywhere, to be sold gods-knew-where to gods-knew-who. How and why he'd ended up here in Rome, the same city Jason was now living in, was a minor miracle. The fact that he'd seen and recognised him was a bigger miracle - how close had they been, for how long? They could have passed one another a hundred times in the Forum or the streets and never seen one another, and for Jason to have seen his cousin racing a chariot for the Whites... He had followed his master home docilely and slipped out to the garden during the night to give thanks to Tabiti for the preservation of his cousin, the last member of his family he had seen and to ask for her continued blessing on the boy (chariots were not horses, but it was closer to actual riding than Jason himself had come for several years), as well as for her favour when it came time to speak with his master.
He had left as an offering a bronze coin of indeterminate provenance, whose reverse showed a horse. Tabiti would understand.
That had been the night after seeing his cousin at somewhat of a distance. Today, he had permission to come to the Whites' stables to try to see his cousin from a lot closer up. Maybe even to actually talk to him, if the gods smiled on them and Azarion's masters would allow it.
He entered the stable-yard and was hit full-force with nostalgia - the layout was all wrong but the sounds and scents were all right. He hadn't been so close to this many horses for the best part of ten years, and had to swallow.
"I'm looking for Azarion," he managed in accented Latin, addressing the first person he saw who might spare him enough time to point his cousin out.
He was in luck; the other waved him towards a stall where he could see his cousin's dark head as he moved around the horse. Feeling relieved that he'd been right in thinking the boy was his cousin, and somewhat jealous that he hadn't been renamed - though how he would have asked for him if he had been was anyone's guess, he crossed to the indicated stall. He would not interrupt Azarion's work; simply waiting would allow him to spend that bit longer in an environment that took him straight back to his childhood.

@Chevi
A day at the races

Started by Marcus Eppius Parthenicus · September 28, 2021

July 76, the Circus Neronianus*
It was still summer in Rome, still hot, and yet with the advent of a new Caesar, there was a new air of excitement and anticipation even in the heat that pervaded Rome. It was cooler outside the boundary of the city - not a lot cooler, but enough.
Racing was something that everyone had an opinion on and interest in, no matter the season or who wore the purple. Most races took place in the Circus Maximus, that vast stretch of racetrack in whose shadow the Whites' stable lay, but there were other venues in Rome for racing to take place, and one of those was the new Circus outside the boundaries of the city, across the Tiber. It was a venue for less prestigious races, and therefore the perfect place to introduce a new charioteer to the business of actually being a charioteer.
Marcus had made sure that Azarion had had the opportunity to drive around this smaller track so that its shorter length and tight turns would be more familiar during his first race. And now the chariots were lined up at the end of the Circus; behind the carceres, the starting gate. When the signal was given, the gate would allow all the chariots to move forward at the same time, aiming them deliberately to the right-hand side of the spina that ran down the centre of the circus. Marcus would watch this first race of Azarion's future career from near the starting gate, where he could see right down the circus on both sides of the spina, although not the curve at the far end. He had Varica stationed on the spina itself to cover that - being able to hear of any occurrences there would help with the final assessment of the day. Seven laps would tell whether Marcus was right, or wrong, in his assessment of the boy.

@Chevi ( @Járnviðr and @Atrice if you want to include Menelaus and Caeso as either spectators or participants)

*Two things: the Circus Neronianus was begun by Caligula (and finished by Claudius in our own timeline, there's no need to think it couldn't have been finished by AeRo's own Claudius); I have referred to it by the name it has in our world because I don't know what it would otherwise be known as. The thread is set in the Transtiberim even though this circus is technically not in that area simply because it is on the other side of the river and only just outside Rome itself. See the map here
Clueless

Started by Azarion · July 30, 2021

August 76 AD
It had been ten month. Ten months since Safinia was murdered. A lot had changed in that time: Azarion had grown taller and stronger, turned eighteen years old, and was now a charioteer for the Whites rather than a stable boy. He was learning to write to communicate, and he was treated well, if sternly, by his dominus. Rome had a new caesar. And yet, in a way, it felt like time had been standing still all this time.
They never caught the man who murdered Safinia. No one even seemed to care. The sensation had long died off, and no one was much inspired to look into the death of a kitchen girl. But Azarion missed her. She had been a friend, someone who rolled her eyes at him but acknowledged him as a person anyway. And the gods had to be angry, that no one was punished for her death. Sometimes Azarion wondered if her spirit was lingering, waiting for someone to bring justice to her murdered. Sometimes he wished he could talk to her.
It was late afternoon now, the training had ended for the day. Once again, Azarion had slipped out the back door of the stables, and made his way to the alley where the mudered had happened ten months before. Any clues that might have been left were long gone now, and he had been over trying to imagine the sequence of events a million times. Still, he did it again. It was not like he had anything better to do.
@Atrice
Flowers For All

Started by Zia · July 30, 2021

Zia rarely came out in the evenings to watch by her minions as they did their deals and made her gold, but needs must. The problem with having a lucrative business, she'd found, was that it meant everybody wanted a piece of it. Nothing had happened thus far, beyond a few gang low-lifes making offers to her own runners, but she wanted to keep an eye out and she wanted to see it for herself. Being here was a risk, she knew that, but the cloak she wore - even in the summer heat - hid the slave collar she was locked into and she kept her hood up. Gallus was - for all intents and purposes - the front man of the operation and only glanced in her direction where there was something she should see.
In this case, it was a small man who seemed to be gesticulating to one of her young employees. Zia arched a brow and watched from the shadows as the conversation got more heated. She called over to Gallus; "Gang?" And the man shook his head, looking equally perplexed. If this young man was in a Collegia then he wasn't being particularly subtle about his intentions. She slipped from the shadows to get a closer look and frowned when she saw that the man wasn't talking. "What do you want?" She called out and gave him a once-over. "We don't do charity here, if you can't afford it then leave."

TAG: @Chevi