promittere: (Default)
lunae calamitas mods ([personal profile] promittere) wrote in [community profile] lunaecalamitas2024-05-04 01:06 pm

look at me, i'm the wound you tried to hide

ANDANTE ALLA WANING CRESCENT
Another day dawns for the Sage's wizards. It's been a month, now, since arriving in this world and being given a task nobody seems to fully understand—though after the jobs the Southern and Central wizards have taken on, it seems like it might just be possible after all.

And it seems like there's another task for the wizards, from the Eastern nation. However, unlike the other requests the Sage has been fielding, this task is far too big for five wizards alone. This is a task everyone will need to help tackle, whether they like it or not. Those that aren't particularly altruistic will still be whisked together by Tatara and Lazuli both, and they may still find the journey...illuminating. Answers to what happened to the original wizards may be just within reach.

Traveling via the elevator at the manor is familiar to some of you, at least, Lazuli setting a mana stone into the control not a surprise in a the slightest. The fact all of you can, somehow, fit in the elevator comfortably may be a surprise, but it's best not to dwell on it too much. You'll be staying at the City of Rain, Lazuli tells you with the air of someone reading you a court sentence, but you've been tasked with clearing up the site of some sort of disaster. He doesn't have much information beyond that—a fact that seems to greatly annoy him—and he warns you not to break any of the City of Rain's laws well before you're out of the elevator.

Which that shouldn't be too difficult, right? Right...?

Perhaps not, as the rules of the city are extreme. There are certain areas which forbid socialization and talking entirely, some areas where only talking to strangers is forbidden, only a handful of businesses allow chatter of any sort, and the list goes on. The most pressing law of all, though, is very simple: no use of any sort of magic within city limits. Do your best to follow the rules because breaking them will result in an arrest, and do you really want Lazuli and Tatara bailing you out? With the rules laid out and lodging sorted, Lazuli ushers you to the site you're tasked with dealing with. You will have downtime to explore the city, though, as it's expected to take several days to clear things up.


The site is a terrible, terrible mess. In what must have once been a peaceful patch of wilderness, there now sits a terrible gouge in the earth, several meters deep and twice as wide across, hollowed by what must have been a powerful force. The dirt is gray and sandy, dead in the manner the Southern wizards will recognize. Plants on the edges of the crater are dry and withered and splintered and broken. Permeating the air is a lingering dread, one both Southern and Central wizards will immediately recognize...

But it is clear now, now that your magic is considerably stronger, that the spirits are agitated by the disturbance in the fabric of magic. Dark clouds hang low over the site, and low thunder rumbles in the constant threat of a storm that will never come. The spirits' agitation, coupled with the dread hanging in the air, will feel uncomfortable, and perhaps leave the more sensitive of the bunch feeling on edge. This is not something that can will resolve on its own, so your most important task is to calm the spirits. That means doing the things they like: playing music, dancing, praying, telling stories, wearing fanciful and whimsical clothes to soothe their temperaments.

Your second most important task is to clear out monsters. The unusual energy in the air is attractive to beasts magical in nature—they slink out of their hiding places in the deep wilderness to the area, and their presence is threatening the humans who regularly use the nearby routes for trade and to commute. Kill them, take their mana stones for yourself. Win-win.

The third task is general clean-up. Remove the dead plants from the earth, remove the broken trees and any natural debris that might prove to be a hindrance. Characters are more than welcome to search inside the crater for any hint or clue as to what might have caused this strange explosion, but they'll find the site picked clean, earth having fallen into cavities where there might have been larger objects present at one point...like someone was here to clear out any evidence.

JOB BOARD
Reinforcement. Peace in Granvelle Castle has been restored. A liveliness and energy has returned to the castle and the surrounding parts of the city that hasn't been seen in nearly a month. Thank your Central friends for their hard work!

Their issues aren't quite resolved, however. The castle is asking for help in creating and then reinforcing a magical barrier around the castle. The barrier is a bit bigger than what one wizard alone is capable of at this point, so band together to create and reinforce what parts you can. Perhaps it's not a bad idea to use your own hair or blood as a conduit.

The type of barrier is specific, however—they want one that masks magical signatures. If you step inside, you'll feel a faint, but powerful presence within... What are they guarding?

Recycling. The Eastern country is known for its expertise in all things mechanical, particularly when it comes to clockwork. While not as bombastic or flashy as Western technology, the use of magic and mana stones being deeply frowned upon and rejected, Eastern artisans can create truly fantastical things just with gears and cogs and a bit of know-how... But, of course, sometimes it's better to scrap something and create something new than let the old items waste away, so some Eastern craftsman have asked for help gathering clockwork automatons and other creations in order to melt it all back down. Some of them seem a bit nervous and harried, but it's an easy enough job to scrap automatons and cart junk around.

Monster hunting. The few settlements in the North have been sending in frantic request after frantic request. There has been a disturbing increase in monster activity in the North, and the native Northern wizards are as unreliable as ever. They need your help in thinning the numbers, and that's all they really ask for—you can keep all the mana stones you earn.

For those of you who haven't been to the North yet, the weather is harsh, no matter the season. Protection on oneself to survive the negative degrees is crucial; make sure your magic is up to snuff enough to keep yourself at least room temperature. And using your magic to battle on top of that? This isn't going to be an easy job, not at your level. Be cautious, and good luck.

Mana areas & amulets. You've been here for a month now, and living in an unfamiliar place, alongside unfamiliar people, using unfamiliar magic must be wearing you down. Isn't it? In that case, it's time for the last piece of your wizardhood puzzle: your mana area.

Mana areas are spots where wizards feel most at peace with themselves, most whole, and a place where they can refill on the emotional load they've been chipping away at for their magic. It can be a specific location, or a conditional circumstance. Find more detail on the magic page. Your task—given to you by your sage and your mentor—is to traverse the continent, find your mana area, and recharge your batteries, so to speak. While there, make an amulet to take back with you, like a portable battery.

WANDERER TASKS
Listen to the spirits.

You've been here long enough that it's time to see if you can actually communicate with the spirits who've laid claim on you and have been empowering your spells. Try your listen and see if you can hear what they have to say to you.

OOC Note: For those attempting this task, ping one of the mods and roll a dice! Based on the dice roll, your character will get a little tidbit from the spirits... Or they might not hear anything yet, but they can always dedicate themselves to their studies and try again after leveling up!

TATARA ACTIVITIES
Don't make promises.

If you've made a promise, don't break it.

If you break a promise, you'll lose your magic. And I don't know if I can help you anymore or send you home if that happens. I'm sorry this is so late. But please...be careful.

OOC NOTES
🌙 Welcome to your third event! Everyone's lasted a month, congratulations! Keep working on your magic, keep forging those bonds.
🌙 As your characters settle into the world, they might find themselves irresistibly drawn to crowds, to music, to dancing. It's hard to resist the allure of a gathering, and it's hard to keep yourself from swaying to music when it fills your ears, no matter what sort of person you used to be. You're changing...
🌙 As we enter the second month, we are announcing a deadline for finding your pairs. This will be Friday, June 14 at 11:59 PM EDT. Remember, you may submit a guess at any time, and there is no penalty for getting a guess wrong, so long as you have a thread to back up your guess and consent from your partner. The pair page is here.
🌙 Your OOC plotting post is here! Remember to keep all wider plotting on this post, as not everyone checks plurk or discord frequently.
🌙 Next up for missions is East. Let's hope they don't have to talk to anyone for this one.
impacter: (002)

[personal profile] impacter 2024-05-05 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
[It's like straining to hear against the wind and rain, against the wide span of a canyon - silence drowns out everything else. But he reaches, reaches, sweat beading at his temples from the effort like he was still a green branch of a sorcerer. Those behaviors that got him into so much trouble, that let his power bubble over too often before he knew his limits.

But he's older now. Wiser. He doesn't lose his composure. And when the echo comes, he lets it settle.

He doesn't speak back, lest he lose his concentration. But he lets his breath settle, in and then out, letting confidence settle in his unvoiced acknowledgment.

I hear you. Speak to me.

I hear you. What is it you long for?
]
lustro: (121)

[personal profile] lustro 2024-05-05 01:35 am (UTC)(link)
[ It takes Ginger twelve (12!!) tries, but maybe something happens this time?! ]
troublereduction: (day12)

[personal profile] troublereduction 2024-05-05 01:46 am (UTC)(link)
[ ...Kind of reminds him of home, is what he finds himself thinking. The one he left a long time ago by now. ]

Do you mean here? [ This country? This world? Something a little more abstract than that? ]
jokey: (1591591 (58))

BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS, SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

[personal profile] jokey 2024-05-05 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
[Morning is met with the acrid and pungent stench of burning embers. On the day before the wizards depart on their next venture, a great fire roars in the courtyard, a stake built upon logs waiting eagerly to be fed. If the smell of impending death on the wind doesn’t rouse you from your sleep, perhaps the cacophony of noise coming from the courtyard will.

Specifically, Ahito is trapped in a chokehold as he’s dragged along, betrayed once again by a body made frail from sacrifice after sacrifice for the sake of magical research that turned out to be no more than another failed experiment. It’s strained, but his voice can still be heard over the blaze.]


-the hell are you?!

I owe you no name. Cease your struggling and accept your fate.

Like hell I will!

[Bold words from someone who clearly doesn’t have the strength to escape, but if there was ever a time to fight to the last, now is surely it.

First on the scene is the Sage himself, but it isn’t long before a crowd begins to form behind him.]


Ahito-kun, are you okay?! Akira-san, please, you don't have to do this—!

[Welcome, wizards, to your grand and untimely funeral. The voice that booms from Akira is that of an embittered old soul, nothing at all like the sharp-tongued and witty boy you used to know. Something, evidently, has gone very, very awry.

In one hand, Akira clutches a butcher’s knife, bringing it to rest against Ahito’s neck. The other manacles his wrists behind his back.]


Wait your turn, vile wizards. There is but one stake on which to burn you all, but I’ve all the time in the world.

(Welcome to whatever fresh bullshit is going down this time. “Akira” is holding Ahito hostage and is liable to hurt him, so think carefully before reacting with immediate violence. Dani’s been to the graveyard once, don’t send her back by pissing off whatever thing is currently possessing Akira.)
Edited 2024-05-05 02:05 (UTC)
foresightis2020: (30)

[personal profile] foresightis2020 2024-05-05 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
[ Jing Yuan isn't expecting that there was something to happen in the middle of a gods damned courtyard because this is where he usually is, actually! It's so funny because he was already heading this way and things are like this, so the noise only hurried his steps out of necessity.

Ahito?!

He acknowledges Tatara is here before they are out of the corner of his eyes as he is careful not to make sudden steps, looking at how Ahito is restrained. ]


Why are you doing this?

[ This is an exceedingly dangerous situation. One in which they have to act carefully. Yet, Jing Yuan speaks up quickly, in hopes of thinking of a solution, or to bide time so someone else might. ]
annihilator: (➤ 92)

[personal profile] annihilator 2024-05-05 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
[Ughhhh who causes chaos in the morning, this is when all sane people sleep(?)!! Malice rises even before the noise starts up; that smell is what's attracted him more than anything else, though he is hardly the first on the scene when he arrives.]

The hell—

[Oh. Well. This is bad. What on earth is going on here? Ahito's caught by Akira, who... really doesn't sound like Akira at all, actually? But this should probably be approached with caution. Even at his speed, he's not sure he could get there before Ahito's bleeding everywhere and possibly dying or dead, so it's better to try to talk Akira down, right? Wait for an opening that someone can take advantage of, whether that's him or one of the others.

So Malice steps forward, holding his hands out as if to say he's not a threat. Of course, one of them is the clawed prosthetic that looks dangerous at even the best of times.]


You mind tellin' us why you wanna spill our blood? Think we've gotta right to know, yeah?

[He's going to keep moving forward as well - a butcher's knife won't do much damage to him, so he can take the attack just fine if "Akira" turns his attention on Malice instead.]
chronosynthesis: (âť– Delayed Reactions)

[personal profile] chronosynthesis 2024-05-05 02:10 am (UTC)(link)
[He had smelled fire, still awake, and rushed out with the expectation of danger.]

Akira? [Syrlya hears him before he sees him, moving until he's got the scene ahead in view. Taking it in, he wishes it had actually been the fire that was the danger.]

Wait, wait-[Syrlya takes just one step forward, hands raised in a placating gesture. Is this Akira?

Well, there's one possibility if it's not.]
You--were you in the castle?
fellheart: (yeѕтerday ι ѕaw ѕoмeone)

[personal profile] fellheart 2024-05-05 02:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ he will not be part of the crowd amassing behind the sage, but he is there nonetheless. the fell dragon finds himself perched on some convenient roof or balcony overlooking the scene, watching the goings on from above and letting the others have their say first.

how pedestrian a scene. how pathetic. some petty being nursing delusions of grandeur thinks to declare itself an arbiter of fate? it'd be almost funny if he weren't so insulted.

there is but one end that is meant for all, and it won't be something grima meets today. not from a creature such as this, that must borrow and puppet another's body to be able to affect anything. ]
Edited 2024-05-05 02:12 (UTC)
serenesinker: gettin' serious now! (serious combat)

1/2

[personal profile] serenesinker 2024-05-05 02:11 am (UTC)(link)
[Yodarha is one of the first to arrive to the scene. Both of his hands tightly grip the hilt of his swords as he surveys the scene with a stoic expression.]

This clearly isn't you, laddie. Drop the knife and we can talk about this civilly.

[He goes to take a step forward from his current position-
fallingsand: (13; they couldn't understand)

[personal profile] fallingsand 2024-05-05 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
[ Why does this keep happening? Bruno's out the door along with the rest rushing outside and he can already feel panic closing in on him from the very second he lays his eyes on what's happening. ]

Akira?! Wh-what are you doing?! [ Is that even Akira?! It didn't sound like him! ] Let Ahito go! He's just a kid!
serenesinker: uh oh. (danger)

2/2

[personal profile] serenesinker 2024-05-05 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
-and two gunshots ring out, hitting Yodarha in the arm and the chest respectively. A spurt of blood manages to escape his lips as he collapses, unconscious.]
impacter: (132)

[personal profile] impacter 2024-05-05 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
[He smells the smoke before his eyes even open, drained and dry and stressed from the whiplash of the evening. Still in Akira's room, his eyes drift over, trying to see if the boy has made it through the night--

--His abandoned coat is answer enough.

Solomon doesn't even bother fetching it. His attention is to his wand and his wand alone, throwing open the window to Akira's room to hoist himself out into the courtyard. That's Ahito's voice, Tatara's, and--

...

He stays at a distance. But he looks incredibly, incredibly cold.]
dyingtohealyou: ([Serious] I'm a transparent person)

[personal profile] dyingtohealyou 2024-05-05 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
One of the ghosts you guys failed to deal with, maybe?

[Angry, exasperated - gee, I wonder why he would sound like that, keeping his head back even as he feels the light touch of metal against his neck.]
jokey: (1591591 (58))

[personal profile] jokey 2024-05-05 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
Why else? To rid this world of scum like you.

[The knife grazes Ahito's neck. Beads of slick red blood bubble to the surface.]

Are you volunteering to go next?
revengier: (29)

[personal profile] revengier 2024-05-05 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
[ Of all things, this isn't what Kurapika had expected.

It's why he can't do anything, can't even reach for his own gun in his pocket as he takes in the scene.

What does he do what does he do what does he do— ]


...Akira. You're still in there somewhere, aren't you?
fallingsand: (13; they couldn't understand)

[personal profile] fallingsand 2024-05-05 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
[ Oh god, oh god, this is not happening, this can't be happening?! ]

Yoda! [ Bruno's attention is torn from Akira and Ahito and he makes a run to be by Yodarha's side instead. ] H-hang on! I'll... I'll?!

[ Stammer his way through his incantation and try to stem the flow of blood from the wounds, placing his hands over them. What else is he supposed to do?! Aaaa?! ]
dyingtohealyou: ([Serious] since a long)

[personal profile] dyingtohealyou 2024-05-05 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
[-!

Trying to tilt his head back further but - naturally, it's no use when he's backed up against Akira's body, and with his wrists manacled no less.
]

Not like we even asked to be wizards.

[It's said through grit teeth, seething.]
themanwhoerasedhisname: 13 (Default)

[personal profile] themanwhoerasedhisname 2024-05-05 02:18 am (UTC)(link)
[Well this is an immediate priority! Kiryu had approached once he saw the commotion. When Yodarha over there falls, Kiryu hurries, knowing how bad getting shot is. Trust him, he knows.

Immediate attention is needed. His immediate move is to try to stem the bleeding. There's got to be some way to do healing magic -- and Kiryu doesn't trust he has the skill to do that]
jokey: (1591591 (58))

[personal profile] jokey 2024-05-05 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
"Akira...?"

["Akira" grins, lopsided and all teeth.]

There is no Akira anymore. Only a hollow vessel of a wizard who, like you soon shall be, has been banished to hell where he belongs.
fellheart: (тнe wιnder oғ тнιѕ вroĸen world)

[personal profile] fellheart 2024-05-05 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
[ ok but like, from what direction was he shot. can we track a vague direction back to at least have an idea of which wall the sniper's nest is on

or are they on ground level. ... Yoda's small enough everyone would have to aim down anyway, wouldn't they. ]
jokey: (1591591 (58))

[personal profile] jokey 2024-05-05 02:21 am (UTC)(link)
[Oh, Akira is more than happy to provide Malice with an answer. There’s a bit of a shuffle, the blade of the butcher knife pressed shallowly to Ahito’s throat while he releases his hold on the other’s wrists to withdraw something from his back pocket.]

You lot are a sickness! An ailment which must be purged! I will not cease until every last one of you have been expunged!

[In Akira’s left hand is a gun, the very gun that belongs to Ahito. Without another word, Akira takes aim directly at Malice. Thank you for preloading your gun, Ahito! That’s not safe at all, but Akira appreciates you for it.]
foresightis2020: (63)

[personal profile] foresightis2020 2024-05-05 02:21 am (UTC)(link)
...There is no rush for any single one of us to toss our lives away so carelessly.

[ Jing Yuan watches the way that knife grazes his neck, and considers his options. Illusion and transformation magic is at his disposal...if he can transform that knife, perhaps he can save Ahito.

He is prepared to make a dash for it, or to ready a spell at any point in time, though there is no guarantee that will go off in time either. Whatever the case, Jing Yuan himself is willing to brave the consequences upon himself as soon as he believes he sees an opening, if it can get Ahito free. ]


Scum? You judge us without knowing who we are?
Edited 2024-05-05 02:24 (UTC)
dyingtohealyou: ([Serious] since a long)

[personal profile] dyingtohealyou 2024-05-05 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
[He sees that gun, wonders what would happen first, Kurapika actually getting a shot in - or Akira slitting his throat on the spot.

The bite of steel and the wetness of blood against his throat leaves him cautiously silent.
]