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

[promittere]

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.

» NAVIGATION

Comments

[jokey]

[Was his promise not enough? He has subsisted this long on his lover's promise alone. No matter how much he hated the man for betraying him, for letting his love of the arcane be his undoing, he could never turn abandon his mission. He could never leave his lover unfulfilled.

Pain floods his cold, hollow body. Sensation returns to him only to ache, only to burn, boiling beneath the holy light of Phil's magic. He doesn't stand a chance. His promise simply isn't strong enough, sliced to ribbons by Yodarha's blade. His spirit, torn from its host, bursts forth from Akira's chest in a mighty gust of wind. Everyone in the immediate area will feel the icy sting of their worst nightmares coming to life, but if their spirits are strong, a little PTSD won't be enough to put them down.

What remains of the ghost flounders about in the air. Getting rid of it now would be a simple matter.

The winds die down and Akira stirs, vision blurry and unfocused. He struggles to keep his eyes open, much less speak. His throat aches, and as his consciousness stitches itself back together, it's no wonder why. It's no wonder why, all around him, everyone is in pain.

Akira mouths something, but the words don't follow. He falls limp in Kiryu's arms, alive but no longer conscious.]

[shadowkin]

Okay, okay. That's enough of that.

[Cid, having missed every single heartrending moment of exposition, negotiation, and whatnot (though he didn't miss all the violence, which may be the important part, or might not -- since that really doesn't factor into his overall course of action), has nevertheless snuck over sometime during the proceedings to properly rubberneck the exorcisms.

That's the most interesting part, really -- it's a pity he can't do much as Shadow around here, because it really would have been exciting to get a new guinea pig-- er, a chance to try out some modified techniques. But maybe it's not the end of the road!

After all, there's a ghost out there free for the taking?? He thinks??

Rummaging around in his coat produces: a firework, three wallets, a pack of biscuits, in that order, and a chair that accidentally expands to full size. Whoops. But most importantly: there's a nice little empty milk bottle for no real reason. It's a good companion for long baths.]

Thanks for waiting! Not that you have anywhere to go, huh?

[POP!

He snatches the floaty thing out of the air like a particularly pathetic firefly. By the way, the milk bottle has been enchanted to be self-chilling, so not only do you now have a bottleghost, you have a fridged one. Huzzah...?]

[chronosynthesis]

... Huh. [Well this exorcism has been. Interesting. Syrlya looks at the bottle curiously.]

You've really got him trapped in there. I think it's best to keep him contained until we can force his spirit to pass on properly... perhaps Tatara has ideas?

[If not, there's always hope and pray going through the library.]

[shadowkin]

[Isn't it an interesting exorcism???? Cid looks very self-satisfied, but whether that's because he now has a bottleghost or because he got to enjoy the exorcisms, or because the PTSD wind thingy that I totally didn't forget to write about in the heat of the moment just sort of knocked on his skull, found an echo and waltzed off...... maybe all of the above?

(It is surprisingly difficult to remember the last nightmare-like nightmare, must have been years ago? To tell the truth, the sleep paralysis demons are way scarier.)

He holds up the bottle and just sort of rattles it around. Lord help this poor ghostie, it is well on its way to becoming a particularly unfortunate milkshake.]

I wasn't planning on using this bottle for this... but I guess what's done is done. [is he really complaining about being out of a bottle] If all the... yelling and the sword stuff didn't do anything to make this guy pass on, does Cult Leader really have what it takes? Is he an underground exorcist?

[1145pm]

[ Phew, it's over...

Though Tatara is normally pretty flighty and detached, that seems to be working in his favor in this particular moment. He watches Cid catch the spirit from across the courtyard, then strides through the carnage, level headed and unshaken. ]

Cid.

[ He holds out his hand. ]

Thank you. I'll hold onto it, if you don't mind.

[shadowkin]

[They should start a flighty & detached club, population: like 3.

Cid blinks when he sees Tatara come gliding in like some sort of minor Buddhist deity in a hell painting. Nice! He almost looked sagely for five minutes, Cid makes a mental note that sometimes you can look totally cool as a cucumber in civvies if everyone else is dressed and acting like crazy people.

He also looks from the outstretched hand to his own hand with the milk bottle.... somewhat reluctant but not recalcitrant. Mostly it's like:]

Nobody told me you were an underground exorcist. Did you have something in mind for it?

[shortleash]

( His hand already at the scar on his neck - he digs his nails bloody into his skin. (It'll heal in a moment.)

Mika was already dealing with double PTSD and hunger so a three hit combo works just fine 👌 He's still standing and great.

At least it's all over (for now). )

[lustro]

[ Was the wave of heartbreak worse than Ginger had imagined? (Constantly; constantly; constantly - )

No, because a hundred years means he's thought of every possible scenario and replayed them all multiple times, twisting them in new - in worse ways. And at the end of it all, this too is just part of his imagination. It still feels terrible, as though he's been gutted, just an existence with a hole for a heart.

Yet - a heartbeat, faint, when he sees Mika. ]

Mika... [ A hand on Mika's back, the other at his neck. Stop, love. ]

[shortleash]

( Mika's gaze tells that he's in a deep dark place - not very much unlike this one, with blood thick in the air and people injured, people dying (dead, in his mind's eye; his fault, as always; he can never save anyone - anyone, at all).

A flicker as he feels the touch, hears the voice. Seeing the past and present at once - Ginger's outline comes in clear. )

—Ginger.

( His hand comes loose from his neck as he turns his gaze up - fearful, panicked, not unlike when he woke up after the incident with Khun; and yet, right now, it's even more frantic. )

—Did he hurt you!? Are you hurt? Are you—

( Going to die? His chest seizes, tight, but in his eyes it's as though he sees both the truth of the pain in Ginger's eyes and a Ginger full and truly bleeding out - not fully in reality. )

[dyingtohealyou]

[Oh- it's been a hot minute since he saw those nightmares, honestly. But...

They're nothing new, either. And so, Ahito remains sitting upright where he is in silence, watching the proceedings - unable to do much more given the cuffs remaining on his wrists.]

[chronosynthesis]

[The ghost tried this on him five minutes ago, so all Syrlya does is square his shoulders with a deep breath and the purse of his lips.

And then pivot on his heels to approach Ahito. He crouches down where he sits.] Let's see what we can do about these.

[dyingtohealyou]

Oh- thanks. Bruno passed out before he could get them off.

Someone's going to need to carry him back.

[revengier]

[ A little PTSD doesn't put someone like Kurapika down for the count. It's a good day to repress one's emotions, isn't it?

He'll be around to help carry other people back, but... don't mind him for just squeezing in here and getting Akira into his arms. ]

...I almost don't want him to wake up.

[ The guilt that is sure to grip Akira after something like this isn't really something Kurapika wants to see. How the hell is he supposed to help him deal with that? ]

[impacter]

[Now that the ghost has been contained, Solomon finally crosses the fray, tapping Kurapika on the shoulder.]

His weapons are sealed in my room. Once he's had time to rest, be sure to come and find me.

[mirristry]

[Phil has already dropped to his knees, pale and shaky. The stress and adrenaline of these events has strained his already-weak body, made even more frail by the fact that he's finally run out of the medicine he'd already been using sparingly in an attempt to make it last as long as possible. He feels the tickle of a cough trying to rise in his throat...

... but that's quickly forgotten when the memories hit him like an avalanche, one after the other in a parade of escalating horror. All things that he'd been responsible for in one way or another, and that fact is the most horrible of them all.

Why did he ever think he would be able to atone? Nothing he can possibly do could ever make up for those things.

Unlike Bruno, Phil doesn't make a sound save for a soft inhalation that may have been the beginning of what would eventually have been a sob. He simply crumples to the ground like a broken doll, silent.]

[troublereduction]

Phil?

[ Day—would have been in the middle of his own PTSD flashback if he 1) wasn't so tired that it's not nearly as coherent as it could be and 2) wasn't distracted by the sound of one of his neighbours just crumpling. Which is why he's trying to catch Phil, or at least keep him from collapsing like a house of cards completely. ]

[fellheart]

[ oh no, caught in the splash zone of nightmare aura.

and ah, is that what memory it will try to drag up in its last attempts at struggle? is that the memory that would hold enough power to try to cause hurt with? is this the memory etched into his being with jagged lines, that would supposedly act as unhealing and festering wound?

(is that the reason his younger counterpart dreamt of it, even when he knew of and remembered nothing else from their shared pasts, a single body unable to contain two of the same heart and memories shattering from the attempt?

if nothing else remains, then know this: you are the one who (past, present, and future) brings ruin to those you love.)

ah, well, there was an attempt. unfortunately for the ghost, he's made his peace with that particular nightmare. ✌️ ]

[fullspbar]

[ Even in the wake of Akira's kicking, screaming, Shinjiro manages to keep his grip tight despite the shake in his limbs. He wishes, in some way, he could be more useful than a paperweight, but magic still isn't something he can handle with ease.

Then something rips from Akira's chest, and with it a chilling wind that sinks into his bones and drags forth uncomfortable memories. It isn't the force of it that does it, really; he's dealt with it for so long, sees it every other night, that it doesn't quite sink it's claws in like it would have hoped. But it still chills, and it sends a shiver up his spine that grinds his teeth down.

That being said, when the struggling ceases and the wind clears, there's a brief moment where all settles. And after that brief moment, it hits like a train; His stomach hurts, the dizziness has gotten worse, and by god, he's tired.

Shinjiro doesn't collapse so much as he just...slowly gets off and lets go, before promptly falling over on the grass. He looks more like he's ready for a nap, and with the way his eyes are closing, he might just take one. He is trying to stay awake, but a near fatal amount of bloodloss will do that to a man. ]

[foresightis2020]

[ Okay, at whatever point, Jing Yuan is definitely circling back to ensure that Shinjiro is definitely okay regardless of what happened.

He definitely had eyes but due to the situation with Ahito he wasn't exactly able to keep them on everyone involved. So, even with the PTSD hitting him hard to make his usual coping skills in full force, it is not too difficult for him to kneel down next to Shinjiro. He will carefully move one arm so it is over one shoulder. ]

...You should explain what happened when you can.

[ Hard not to question his state, but easy enough to notice the other isn't exactly in the state to talk. Here we go, up and at 'em. ]

[troublereduction]

[ Wow, it just had to leave a tiny parting shot right before it got settled, didn't it?

Maybe if Day wasn't just trying hard to stay on his feet, he'd be having more of a reaction right now, his brain parsing whatever he's being reminded of more coherently. Instead, the only thing that sticks out to him is a sense of everything slipping through his fingers, uncatchable and unretrievable, and the only sound he makes is an exhale that could have been a dry laugh or a sob.

—And then he pulls himself together, because even if he can't put on a delighted mien now, the principle is still the same: now is not the time for his worries. ]

[impacter]

[The shock of the blast settles into him deep. But Akira falls, the ghost is contained, and the injured and traumatized alike are quickly being tended to.

He keeps his composure long enough to tap a couple of people. But he is no healer. And perhaps, right now, he should wonder what he's been left with. A wavering in confidence, one that closes him up tight.

He will be spending the rest of his time helping to contain the fire. If other hands are needed to move the injured, he will do what he can. As soon as it's all accounted for, Solomon heads straight for the elevator and vanishes from the manor grounds for the rest of the afternoon.

He needs some time to think.]

[themanwhoerasedhisname]

[Kiryu powers through PTSD through the power of it being a drop in an ocean of regret]

I'll carry to his room.

[Unless something happened and I missed it during catching up, in which case guess he didn't]

[lighthaus]

[ That's a little chilly, but for someone like Khun, it's more nostalgic than anything else. He does need to breath in deep to make sure he doesn't catch the scent of ozone, and scan the horizon to make sure he doesn't see any lightning. None of that, so we're all good here fam (ha.) ]

[positivize]

[Things seemed to be going well, what with Phil and Yodarha tag teaming the exorcism. So maybe that's why she's caught off guard when that blast of PTSD hits, her steps staggering slightly as she instinctively moves back.

But when the flashbacks hit, she finds herself clutching at her right arm with a small cry, fearful eyes staring both at the burning stake and somewhere else altogether.]

No... Not again...

[And as she squeezes her eyes shut, she shakes her head a little frantically in an attempt to clear her head before taking a couple of deep breaths. The color returns to her cheeks quickly enough and though her knees aren't entirely steady yet, she's still standing.

It's fine. She's fine.]

[shortleash]

( Ginger helped him out so he's recovered from the wave enough to be functional, but he glances at Maya as she struggles and steadies herself, too.

He's not really a... comforter, so he doesn't try. Instead, he offers a simple: )

... Maya?

( Maybe not quite an "are you okay" tone - but not really confusion, either. Are you back?, maybe, is the question. Are you still stuck in the thing you saw? )