thousand dreams, lotus boats upon the waters

[promittere]

NEW MOON ADAGIO

Between the constant requests from the North and the sense of tension that pervades the manor, Sage Tatara makes an executive decision: we're going North, baby.

Of all the things that have happened thus far, let this be the ultimate test of your magic. Even as we near summer, it's frigid. Protect yourselves and your allies from the cold. Protect yourselves while also fighting off monsters (or other territorial wizards, should you make the terrible mistake of wandering into another's territory), flying through the vast wilderness, or protecting the poor humans who need your help to survive. Time to blow off some of your steam. Just be sure to obey Tatara's one rule: don't kill each other.

One particular problem of note is in the Forest of Dreams. Without its guardian, many of these rogue monsters and dangerous predators, displaced from their normal habitats, have found their way into the forest. Many of them, however, are unable to survive against the fatal toxin, and there are plenty of animal corpses and mana stones that litter the forest. It might be best to clean these up before the forest guardian returns...

That said, the toxin is yet another thing you must protect yourself against in addition to the cold. While you can likely keep yourself from dying from the toxins, you may not be immune to its effects. This deadly toxin causes anyone who breathes it in to dream and hallucinate vividly, be it images of the past, imagined futures, thoughts of the present processed and warped...

Strangely enough, those nearby may end up sharing in your dreams... Did you want the darkest recesses of your thoughts, hopes, and fears unearthed for others to see?

Those who decide to venture far past the more populated (in relative terms) parts of the North may find themselves stumbling upon what looks to be an abandoned bandit hideout. It seems it's been abandoned for quite a while—nothing to loot here, sorry!—but there sure are a whole lot of monsters that have decided to make this hidden corner of the North their home.

While you're at it, you may find a nearby cave. Beautiful crystals dot the walls and the floors, and there are small pools of hot spring water free for relaxing. It seems to be relatively free of monsters, too. So maybe this wouldn't be a bad spot to relax, away from everything else?

However, there's one thing that makes this cave truly unique, and it isn't the vistas or the springs—it's the bats. These bats hear echoes of the past and replay them for visitors. Should you stay a while and listen, a bat may pay you a visit. And when it does, it may play for you the voices from the memories of visitors past, whose stories may hold a clue or two to your circumstances...

While the Forest of Dreams is a memory/dreamshare free for all, the aural memories replayed by the bats in the Cave of Time will come from one of the original wizards only. If you'd like an audio replay of a perhaps significant moment either in their personal life or a clue as to what happened to them (it will be randomized), then please reply to this comment!

JOB BOARD

Clean-up and repairs. While thanks to the hard work of your Eastern friends the worst was prevented, the City of Rain emerged from their short ordeal a little worse for wear.

Buildings need repair, blood needs to be cleaned off the streets, the injured need help. This is, perhaps, the only time you will be allowed to use magic openly in the city (you've been given permits and everything!), but you still are not allowed to talk outside of designated zones. Please, please don't get arrested...

As for the scrap that litters the streets? Unfortunately, you'll have to take it back to the scrapyard. But this time, there's a big, roaring bonfire out there. Just chuck all the scrap and debris in the fire. The city isn't taking any second chances—extreme situations call for extreme measures.

Reverence. Several Northern villages are currently outside the protection of a wizard, and have requested the sage's wizards' presence. They're terrified of the monsters and worried the barriers for their villages will fail sooner than later. They don't simply ask for help for free, however, and these smaller villages are steeped in their tradition—they'll pay you their respects, praying to you, offering you gifts, groveling at your feet, in hopes for a modicum of your time and protection. Do their offerings please you? Then assist them with what you deem appropriate for their worship to you: kill a few monsters for them, or a lot if you're pleased. Strengthen the barrier a lot, or not at all if you're displeased. It's up to you! You have the power here. What's it like to be a god for a day?

Ladies' night. The monthly lady officers' gathering is coming up in the City of Affluence—it's an exclusive meetup for the women involved in and related to Western military and bureaucratic affairs. Anyone is welcome, so long as they meet two requirements: they are outwardly presenting feminine, and they have an invitation to the gathering. Here's your chance to flex your transformation and glamour spells! Infiltrate the meetup with a disguise and a fake invitation, mingle, enjoy the drinks, the jazz, the entertainment, and find out what you can... What's the Western army up to? Be careful, though—don't get caught and kicked out!

The attendees seem to be excited about the new phantasmagoria technology and the upcoming display, and many whisper about the upcoming Venator meteor shower...

G'RAHA TASKS

Greetings, new friends! I am G'raha Tia, and while I hesitate to call myself a mentor or a replacement for the one you had, I am eternally grateful for the assistance I received and will do my best to help your cause in any way I can. To that end, I feel I may need to be caught up to speed on the events and get to know all of you.

We can have some tea and sandwiches and have a discussion! That's the best way to learn, sometimes.

TATARA ACTIVITIES

Even if we're not here for very long, I think we should leave our mark (not literally! Don't paint on the walls!). I got paint and big paper in the dining hall, but no brushes... Do you know what that means? Finger paint! Finger paint a portrait of yourself with your name and I'll hang it up in the library when they're all done!

Thanks to Cid and Khun, my camcorder works now. The thing is, what's the point of filming anything if we have no way to watch the film?! Could you guys work together to make some kind of projector? Or like...VHS player? We could have a movie night together!

OOC NOTES

🌙 Welcome to your fourth event! It's your dreamshare and memshare event! Ready to open up with your deepest and darkest secrets?
🌙 We're halfway through the game. How do you feel?
🌙 Back at the manor, Kurapika and Maya have set up a bulletin board! Leave comments, argue with your neighbors, have fun. Be nice. Don't set it on fire.
🌙 On the admin side of things, Lav has swapped out Wanderer for G'raha! Please say hello to your new mentor NPC.
🌙 Your OOC plotting post is here! Remember to keep all wider plotting to the post, and remember to check back frequently, since not everyone checks plurk or discord all the time.
🌙 The next country to go on their mission is North. Do you think a PVP-enabled mission will go well?

» NAVIGATION

Comments

[jokey]

[The colors bleed and fade, the air loses its acrid scent. The smell of blood, of pungent death, flees Akira's sinuses. Everything swirls like dishwater down a drain, his own body left lighter, as if his soul's been emptied, and he's next to spill into nothingness.

In the moments before the death of himself, the death of the ego, Akira wakes in the real world with a scream. He jerks upright and is immediately toppled by the pain in his muscles that have been strained well past their limits. He was tense the entire time, wasn't he? Fighting and struggling for a life that wasn't his. How much better would he have fared if he didn't care, if none of those lost lives mattered?

Pain grips him, throbbing in his temples, but Akira pays it little mind. It's not so overwhelming that he can't manage to claw his way over to Solomon and shake him, forcing his hoarse voice past his lips in an effort to stir him.]

Solomon! Hey—!

[He slaps the man's cheek once, twice, the second time hard enough to leave his palm stinging. Tell him you're alright. Tell him you're fine, even if it's a lie.]

[leewards]

Did you see? How she only reacted when she saw my face. [It's as if he's implying that he did it. But no, he's not done.] As it turns out, if you were taken in from the wilderness, there had to be someone who left you in the wilderness.

[Then he tilts his head to look directly at Kiryu.]

And you had to come from somewhere-- a somewhere that had another child, so that somewhere did not feel conflicted about throwing you away.

[He is indeed implying that he had a sibling-- and said sibling was the one responsible for this.]

[troublereduction]

...Feel like Luna would find it pretty funny. [ The moon as a ship...

Then again, it's not like Day can really claim he knows what a goddess is thinking, but he can imagine it. ]

[themanwhoerasedhisname]

[Kiryu catches the implications. So a sibling did this...]

Someone who'd do this to their own mother...

[That's real cruel. Now that he thinks about it...]

So that's what the mask is for.

[He's making an educated guess, at least. Given what's happening and how it seems Ithaqua does care for his mom, that he would wear a mask to avoid alarming her is a possibility]

[impacter]

[Dazed but still very much alive where he's been unceremoniously tossed down into the snow, it only takes the one slap to rouse him, and the second one to force out a choke, a hand reddened from the cold reflexively moving to try and guard his face from further hits.]

I'm-- Akira, Akira, I'm fine... [A second hand lifts, shaking, trying to placate with his palms out despite the adrenaline that still courses through him.]

[jokey]

[It's fine, it's fine, the temptation to slap Solomon into wakefulness leaves him the moment he hears his name rush past Solomon's lips. Whew. Thank god.

Relief, however, turns out to be a temporary feeling. Something settles in its place, a sort of discontent, or maybe it's anger. An emotion too hard to place when the situation demands he ignore it.]

Like hell you are. What was that about? That... dream?

[impacter]

[He rubs the sore spot left behind on his face as he painfully pushes up to a sitting position.]

Not a dream. A memory.

It's the forest. I wouldn't be surprised if something is making us hallucinate.

[jokey]

[Akira sits back, allowing Solomon the space to sit himself up. As for Akira, he's settled on crossed legs, back hunched, elbows on his knees bearing the brunt of his weight. He's tired, but he's felt worse.]

...Your memory.

[Let's be specific here.]

All those dead people. The ruined buildings. What caused it?

[Akira knows the answer in his heart. He needs to hear it from Solomon's mouth.]

[lighthaus]

It's all that matters to him at this point, I guess.

[ or something like that. ]

No, but I'll probably live longer than you. Unless you'll live to at least over five hundred?

[lighthaus]

[ ... ]

Let's see it.

[impacter]

...Mn. You know the answer to that.

It was me.

[He's too tired to fake a smile, though his eyes are soft and pained.]

Did you know there's only so much magical power one man can hold before the world starts to crumble around him?

[lighthaus]

[ there's more than a few reasons for that honestly, but- ]

People who need to hear things like that are the opposite of what they think they are. Weak, inept, cowardly, needy...

[jokey]

[Good. It's better that he can't manage to fake a smile. Unlike Solomon, Akira has just enough strength left to throw a punch.]

Makes enough sense to me. Were you aware of that when your powers started growing?

[revengier]

[ That makes him smile a little bit, even as they continue forward. ]

I'm almost disappointed that you haven't actually picked one—

[ ...Hm.

At some point, the scenery had shifted, the forest trees morphing into something else entirely—the hallways of a large, upscale building. In the middle of the hallway are closed double doors, the sound of a muffled voice speaking into a microphone coming from inside.

The sound of footsteps pattering down the hall come from behind, and if Jing Yuan isn't fast enough, he'll be clipped by someone familiar running past. He's slightly younger and wearing different clothes, but it certainly is Kurapika.

Does he follow? ]

[revengier]

[ He furrows his brows. The color of the dirt, the very smell of it, feels sickeningly familiar. ]

It is. [ ... ] I suppose we should press on anyway, shouldn't we?

[ That's what Kurapika will do, at the very least, even as their surroundings begin to look more and more like they're headed to the precipice of some sort of gorge a distance away, the river having dried out millennia ago.

What's most pressing, however, is the way the ground practically shakes with the force of a giant's steps, and the sound of chains hitting rock shortly after.

Kurapika knows what this is, or at least, he has a feeling. But he says nothing at all. ]

[revengier]

Mm, it is. Let's hope most of these are from animals rather than anything else.

[ He'd rather not eat the stones of dead wizards. Kurapika motions for Ahito to follow, as they're both familiar with their surroundings right now.

However, eventually Kurapika's foot knocks against something, what he presumes is a mana stone. Looking down instead proves that it's a rock, the kind that belongs in a dry landscape rather than a forest.

And speaking of landscapes, the forest has begun to slowly disappear, transforming into something closer to a gorge with a dried out river. ]

...I know this place.

[ He could never forget it, after all. ]

[impacter]

[He shakes his head, a shallow motion.]

No. I didn't know anything.

I wasn't much older than you when that happened. Maybe five years your senior. I'd only had my freedom for a few years. But all I knew was that my power frightened people... and that the more that time passed, the harder it was for me to hide it around normal humans. It grew inside me faster than I knew what to do with. No matter what I looked into, I couldn't find a way to contain it, or to stop it.

Eventually, I lost control.

[revengier]

[ He lowers his sunglasses just a bit, giving Mika a onceover to assess his transformation. ]

You look too similar. If anyone in that party has seen your face before, they'll recognize you.

[troublereduction]

[ It does unfortunately seem like the only way to proceed in these sorts of situations is to press on, in Day's experience. He lingers for a bit behind, almost like a rear guard, as he follows after Kurapika.

He has such a bad feeling about this, but at the same time, that isn't anything new. ]

[jokey]

...So it wasn't really your fault, huh.

[It doesn't sound like Solomon was intentionally seeking to gather as much power as he could with no mind for the potential consequences. To cause such a calamity without ever having intended to, without knowing when or how to stop his powers from growing... Akira sighs. It would be easier if he could blame Solomon for what happened, but he can't.

With concerted effort, Akira staggers to his feet. He holds his hand out to Solomon.]

Well, it's over and done with.

[Yeah, right. There's no forgetting something so painful, so destructive. Maybe they can simply pretend this never happened.]

Let's go back.

[revengier]

[ Kurapika looks over at Khun and nods. It certainly is, isn't it? Even now, he can see it shifting before his very eyes, the trees making way for a clear, dusty landscape and a large crack in the earth... a gorge, devoid of a stream. ]

Have you heard about the toxins of this forest? The hallucinations it can cause?

[ He thinks they just might be caught in one.

Specifically his. ]

[erythropoiesis]

It's certainly one of those things I'll look back on and find completely absurd, which is much preferable than looking back on something horrible.

[troublereduction]

A strange, absurd journey is preferable to a bitter, arduous one, you mean?

[impacter]

...

[He takes the outstretched hand long enough to gingerly right himself to his feet, shaking out his cloak. But he pulls the hood back up, not bothering to turn to the exit.]

...I can lead you back to the entrance, or to one of the towns. But I can't go back just yet.

I'm sorry.

[jokey]

[...Ah.

It stings, as it always does. It isn't the second or even third time Solomon's rejected him, pushed him away, but it still stings as if it were the first. Akira's hand stills in the air, empty, for a long, long moment.

Eventually, he smoothly tucks it away into his pocket. Any trace of hurt in his eyes is swept away just as cleanly. The rejections never stop stinging, but he's gotten better and better at hiding how much it hurts.]

Don't say you're sorry when you're not.

[That isn't an ask. That's a demand.]

Why?

[Why can't he go back? Rather, why won't he?]