lunaecalamitas | thousand dreams, lotus boats upon the waters

thousand dreams, lotus boats upon the waters

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

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Nah. I grew up in a shrine but ditched lessons a lot. Used to give the monk headaches.

Ain't even the same religion. Shrine back home [ A word he uses without a second thought. ] is for Sextes Jylis, one of the dragons.

That's a surprise. You seem so straight laced now.

If you didn't follow them, then why did they choose you, I wonder? Was there ever any reason given to you?

[ khun grins. ]

It wasn't for just that. [ the look in his eyes says "Do you really want to know?". but Mika probably knows already given his hearing and the proximity of rooms.

sometimes you dont know what valentines day is and act dumb as a result and sometimes that goes places, heh. ]

Man, that feels a little insultin'.

[ There's no heat to it, though. ]

And honestly...I don't think any of us ever know for sure why we're Chosen. Like, gods are sometimes ineffable, but the Maidens are especially ineffable. Hard to say if we get Chosen 'cause our lives are touched in those ways that match their purviews, or if it's 'cause they Chose us that things turn out that way.

[ There's a pause, like he's debating if he should say what he ends up saying next. ]

...The one who fetched me told me that maybe it's 'cause I would keep lovin' things. Despite everything.

[ Day quite possibly hasn't eaten any stones yet, even though he has a sack of them in his room. He summons his broom too, and hops on. ]

Oh, right. Can I ask you something?

[At least Solomon clears that up-- this is not punishment from the local spirits (even if Solomon would have deserved anything they threw at him, anyway), thus Ithaqua is not caught in a situation where they, too, are displeased with him for whatever reason.

He has to growl when Solomon slips away from him again, but try as he might, he can't muster the strength to swim towards him.

He is! So tired! Of this!

Eventually, without an outlet, he stops trying to fight what his body is doing, he tries to untangle the metaphorical puzzle before him. Then, he barks at Solomon:]

How much longer is this?

[ He's just like this! He just seems innocently confused. ]

I could move?

[ Blinks— ]

Oh, did you want to use the table, Special Inquisitor?

Our future audience! Shh!

[ Tatara peels the paper off, and then waves at Ahito in a signal to quiet down. Stop breaking the fourth wall! ]

It seems he has no aggressive intent yet, but we have to be on our guard... He doesn't seem to be warmed up to us yet.

[ Zooms in some more... ]

[ There's nothing magic about the tome itself, sadly. If only they could read themselves... ]

Mm-hmm. [ Tatara nods, a bright smile on his face. ] My native language, Japanese. The last two sages before me were Japanese, too. Isn't that funny?

A century, at least. I lost track, very quickly...

[Even with no food, no sleep, somehow you are not dying. But of course you are not dying. You cannot die, and they know it.

So you coast on the brink of it. They drag you across the world and back again, over and over. Spells you had done to learn. Spells you had done to help. Spells that had been accidents. Spells that had ended in disasters. It doesn't matter to the spirits. You cannot reverse the passage of time, nor the scars you have left. So you reverse what you can, as often as they deem necessary. Days into months, years into decades, with no way to pass the time outside the claim of sleep and the trips across the ocean floor.

Indeed, it feels like it stretches. And you wonder, at times, if they very well might let you rot. You are still young... or, rather, you were. You used to be. Perhaps you're learning a very cruel lesson for a curiosity that was too inconsiderate.

Is your family still even alive up there, beyond the waves? Do you remember your father? Your mother?]

[ "what ... what happened?"

younger ... yes. not the most obviously so, as the current robin doesn't look his true age, maybe seems a few years older at most, but... ]

... I know how this all goes. [ says robin, his expression carefully blank. ] Watch, if you must. I'll attempt to maintain watch on our surroundings despite the illusion.

[ the difference is perhaps made more starkly apparent when the two of them speak shortly after one another. there's a distinct sense of sincerity to the younger, a sense of earnest feeling not yet worn away into the jaded detachment so often found in the older. he wears his stress freely. he wears his frustration clearly. he blanks his expression well but not nearly as well as his older counterpart, forcing on himself a calm he doesn't remotely feel in order to answer the question asked him.

and day knows that, because there's feeling, now, leaching through the walls. these are someone's private chambers, and they carry with them a lack of the warmth or comfort one would expect from such a space. instead there's the sense of a place that should be safe but isn't anymore; the uncertainty of not knowing where to go from here. he cannot be calm when his thoughts are racing, rushing through possibility after possibility.

it's the sensation of he should have done better, should have been able to plan for this eventuality somehow. what is he good for if not his ability to do just that? a whirlwind of thoughts on the multitude of ways things might progress from here, the fallout sure to come, but nothing to change what's already been done.

"... right." fingers curl, gripping at the sheets before releasing them. "they came through a fault in the castle wall, behind the maple grove. their targets were— well. i'm sure you can guess.

"you were gravely wounded in their initial attack, which is why you shouldn't be sitting up—" says robin, reaching out a hand to forestall chrom's response. "it was all i could do to force back the ones who ambushed you and keep you from bleeding out until reinforcements arrived and the healers found us. ultimately, we drove them to retreat, but not in time to prevent them taking the emblem."

"... and emm?"

gods, he's going to have to say it, isn't he?

"... i'm ... i'm so sorry, chrom." ]

[ Oh. Funny how this younger Robin is, in a lot ways, how he felt when he first started going on missions and he wasn't terribly good at being serene. AndtThis is a feeling that he's had before, though he often tries to not dwell on it. When you're tied to fate and can foresee possibilities up to a point, it is easy to think this whenever sometimes goes awry and you can't easily iron out those creases.

He puts that aside, because something more painful is unfolding right here. Day tries to maintain a neutral face, but his brows start to crease. ]

...She's gone.

[ Ithaqua raises his hand and Tatara does take a step back. He tilts his camera to the side so he can give Ithaqua his full attention. ]

This is a camera. [ He taps the device. ] It records moving images and sounds to make movies, so we can watch them later. A documentary is like... I guess it's like a biography, but in movie form.

[ He smiles! ]

Sages usually record things in writing in their tomes, but I figure I can be the first to make a sage's documentary!

Neither do I.

[ Tatara says this quietly, almost under his breath.

They reach the top in what feels like an instant. Tatara pushes open the door for both of them, revealing a small rooftop area. There's a lovely view here, one of the city lights stretching endlessly in to the distance. They almost mirror the stars above.

Tatara sighs, nostalgic.

Standing here already, leaning against the railing, is a young man with white hair, dressed in black. He hums, pleased, and doesn't seem to notice their presence.

Tatara looks at Day, at once apologetic, and proud. ]

I loved this scenery. [ He says quietly, glancing out over the city. ] I loved taking night shots on clear nights like this. Especially this night... See over there? [ He points in the distance, little red lights scattered in the distance, blinking high above the others, at irregular intervals. ]

[Recording history not through the written word but through... picture? That also captures voices? Without paint or anything else? That is odd.

But then again, they are in a world of magic, surely he can suspend his belief for many, many things. So he relaxes enough to put his hands down onto the table, putting his hands together with fingers interlaced.]

Surely you are searching for specific things to record from us, then. [Which is a blatant prompt for Tatara to say what he wants from the abominable snowman.]

Candles could work! Oh, or maybe make some crystals glow and have them in lanterns we can close when we want less light?

[ That has a very nice wizardly knack to it, he thinks, but he won't say that out loud. They're just here as regular non-magical ladies, after all! Yep. Nothing strange about them whatsoever. ]

[ Day comes a kind of era where even when the cities are lit up, they would never be as bright as this. He looks at it in awe, though his eyes shift to the other man already present. Also ominous, huh...

He looks over to where Tatara is pointing. ]

What're those?

[ Aguero's approval in turn warms Tatara's heart. To see him treating her so kindly does a lot to ease the faint bit of nerves he feels at the approaching footsteps.

Which reach the bottom of the stairs and lazily make their way over to the couch. Tatara leans back, and looks up wide-eyed at their new guest.

His king.

He's very tall, lean with muscle, much like Aguero. His bright red hair has been wildly pushed back, golden eyes sit fixed on Tatara, and a cigarette rests lazily between his lips.

Tatara smiles, but it's not the bright, innocent type Aguero is met with when they run into each other. There's a sadness to it, a hint of guilt. ]

Hey.

[ There's a short pause before the taller man pulls his hand from his pocket and lightly bonks Tatara on the head with his fist.

"Where the hell've you been?" he asks, his voice is low, gravelly, lazy. One that, even with an offhand comment like this, commands respect. Tatara chuckles quietly, perhaps a way to mask his nerves. Aguero can tell, by the way he clenches his hand. ]

On a little trip. I... [ He breathes, surprised by the words he first finds. ] ...don't know if I can stay.

[ "...I see."

He disengages, and begins to round the couch to the other one that sits opposite theirs. When he does, Tatara turns to look at Aguero, smile small. ]

That's my king. Mikoto Suoh.

[ When the redhead takes his spot on the couch opposite, it seems only then that he realizes Aguero is there. His golden eyes turn to rest on him, and he stares. ]

[ Another crack of thunder, soon followed by a wind picking up, warm and humid and full of the threat of rain. The forest's foggy scenario rolls away, the ground creeping off into worn brick under them. Water dapples the dusty surface, but that's hardly the main point of interest here. Before them rises a chapel, adorned with flowers and wedding decorations, and that's when Bruno realizes exactly what this is.

Overhead, a ferocious storm brews, clouds dark and heavy. ]

...oh no...

[ Bruno whispers and struggles away from Solomon, stumbling to his feet as the gut-twisting terror and guilt set in. Similarly, the feelings will assault Solomon and they lay like a heavy burden, constantly on the edge of a panic attack. Once that sets in, the rest of the memory is kicked into motion, forms in the fog becoming clear.

Pepa, calm down, calm down! Who cares if it rains?

A short, stout man in formal clothes is just inside the doors of the chapel, trying to calm down an angry, yelling redhead in her wedding dress. She's in the midst of a nervous breakdown and that realization makes Bruno — and, unfortunately, also Solomon — feel ill.

It had only been a joke! A joke! He hadn't meant it! He wasn't predicting rain! He had just... he thought he could be funny and... but they assumed... again!

Panicked thoughts filter in but there's no way to approach, feet frozen in place, afraid to make things worse. ]

Yeah, I think it should be fine. I-

[ There's someone – a figure, a phantom – that runs past them, at the corner of Ahito's eye. Yamato catches a glimpse of him: A young boy with the same olive green hair as him, with a similar eye color. The boy looks...happy. Happy, as if he's enjoying himself.

Huh. The resemblance to Yamato is uncanny, though, and it's telling that Yamato can't stop staring at him. ]

Yeah, I guess I am. Even if you messed with my robot.

[ He will not forget this crime against humanity, Khun.

Anyway, he holds out a bottle of blue paint towards the other guy. ]

Gotta get your hands dirty for this, though.

Of course. I'll be careful.

[ Especially since Kiryu is here. He'll be vigilant!

That is, until there's suddenly a strange mix of noises: Sneakers squeaking, the sound of something hitting the ground repeatedly, a whistle being blown. It al sounds like some kind of modern day sports game. ]

... Do you hear that?

Y... well, yes? How else am I supposed to know if it worked? [ ????? Mika??? Hello??? ] It's fine! It. It was my blood, okay? That should be fine?

[ If there's anything that's going to make Bruno sick in his own blood, then it's a little bit too late to worry about that. He is full of his own blood, after all. That's how blood usually works. ]

[The wiggles are her best quality...]

Ah... Well, I'm not sure.

[Things only get more complicated from here, surprisingly!]

He was on the Isle of Val, which disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The only one who was recovered was his granddaughter, Krile.

[The whole island just. Poof...]

Oh- yes! Hello, there. How can you help us?

[ BACK INTO CHARACTER IG!! ]

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thousand dreams, lotus boats upon the waters

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