Mobilization (TWI ONLY | IC)

[Athara Magarat]

OOC

April 16, 2020

Alexander Bay, Tapu Sahar

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Alexander Bay. This district lay on the southern end of Tapu Sahar (literally "Island CIty"). Even in the heavily populated 12 million city of Tapu Sahar, Alexander Bay was overcrowded. Perhaps it was because Alexander Bay had historically been a crowded cosmopolitan district even back when Tapu Sahar was known as Myagdi (Noronnican spelling of Western Kirati "Mer-ma-shang-di" which meant "Island With Mystical River"). Perhaps it was because, the Tapu Sahar International Airport had been built in an artificial island right next to Alexander Bay. Whatever the case, it was easy to disappear in this section of the island city and that was what Param Kulung loved about it. Which was why he had left his ancestral town of Hongu in Khumbuwan. Here in Tapu Sahar, he could live and work without the rotten traditions and clan wars that afflicted the mainland. Here, he could be any one of the 12 million Tapuans that had greater individual freedom than anyone else in Athara Magarat (and perhaps than in most nations of the Isles).

Or so he thought.

Two years ago, he had nearly become a local celebrity after entering in a relationship with the mother of one of his students. The school he taught at had done a great job at covering up the scandal from being reported by any pesky journalist but almost everyone else in the neighborhood knew about this affair. After all, their kids had heard the then ten years old Huchuyisa Qhispi call Mr Kulung her "dad" in the classroom. For nearly three years, the fact that he had been seeing Huchuyisa's mother Kukuli and even been living together had been a closely guarded secret. Huchuyisa was an energetic girl even after she had faced great adversities (like she and her mother being trafficked into Athara Magarat from Corindia). But the girl was not the brightest bulb out there.

Technically speaking, neither Param not Kukuli had done anything illegal. But back then, almost no one acknowledged the fact that the Iza men, women and children stranded in Tapu Sahar were victims of human trafficking. The general belief back then was that the Iza were some "economic refugees" who had arrived "illegally to steal jobs from Magaratis and legal immigrants". Tapu Sahar was supposed to be a heaven where "clan-based and tribal identity that plagued the mainland" did not exist and yet, the Tapuans (regardless of their ethnicity) were forbidden from marrying "Iza refugees". The gossip had become less about "him as a teacher being romantically involved with the single mother of his student" but more about "a dashing bachelor from the prestigious Kulung clan sleeping with an Iza refugee".

But there were many who were supportive of Param and Kukuli; including the school's principal who did not fire Mr Kulung (like he had feared).