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

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Have you summoned your broom, yet?

[This is the first thing she thinks to ask as advice, particularly since this Gormotti-alike looks at least familiar with the concept of magic. She might get more out of this than he does.]

[What an odd question.]

I don't particularly enjoy it, but I have no problems with it. Is there some concern I might not be all right?

[Architect's sake... Mòrag shoots him a glare sharp enough to cut, then jerks a finger across her throat to signal him to shut up. This is the last thing they need...]

[As a soldier, blood is nothing unfamiliar to her. Is anyone here truly that innocent, she wonders?]

[Well, no matter. She'll spare them by preference if not necessity.]

Indeed, this is a problem. One we may need to solve with magic if we wish to be completely safe.

[After a long moment of mental struggle, Mòrag can only sigh, and reach up to touch the brim of her hat.]

Why are you this way?

Overall, very convincing.

[Bruno looks much more like a woman than Mòrag ever did, if we're being honest here. But she has some insights to offer, believe it or not...]

I suggest some attention to the exposed skin, ideally with a moisturizing cream or similar substance. Increasing the softness will assist your disguise.

[Ithaqua tilts his head down, considering the person before him and what she's just responded with... and decides that he shouldn't trust anyone who claims to be fine with the cold unless they're something like him, or full of fur.

Then he pulls out a thin vial of orange-brown liquid from his cape.]

Take this if you fee a head cold coming on, then. In the North, of course. It shan't be preventing anything, that's not the formula I brewed it with.

[ With how much healing he's been doing these past two months, it's only natural for Bruno to step up to Solomon and reach out for his face, offering a gentle healing spell to sort him out. This, of course, depends on whether Solomon will allow a hand to rest against his cheek like that, but hey, it's worth a shot. ]

Everything else in here being dead would imply there's still danger, y'know.

[ Case in point, when the scene around them flickers and his senses begin to betray him. Smoke, blood, debris, desperate, afraid. Bruno turns, far more easily panicked than Solomon. This could be... Is it? Is this his? That powerful feeling is off. That isn't anything like Bruno, back home, but he knows how this forest plays tricks.

Present, past, future, and everything in between.

Which is this? ]

...is... is this one mine or... or yours?

[ Yes, Solomon. He's aware of it and sadly, it feels like one of his biggest fears. ]

Is there a usual level of cursed? [ don't mind khun he's just cranky because he doesn't like the cold much. mana stone gathering calls though, because he's also here pocketing whatever stones he finds. ]

Of course I am. There weren't even any... threats...

[His words trail off as he notices the changes around them, glancing about in alarm.]

What the-

[ it's late at night but khun's still in the library, maybe up to no good? he's up to something going by the pile of books, which oddly enough seem to be on less serious topics than you might expect from him: pop culture and village traditions, and other daily life topics. ]

This would be so much simpler with an actual database...

[Solomon, meanwhile, holds his alert nature calmly, even more so when the increasingly smaller space filters out all its light, darker and darker, save through a small opening. High, higher than they can reach. There's a ceiling now, a cold floor beneath, a thick door to one side and a thin bed far underneath the window, a wall completely coated in shadow. The air smells thick of disease and smoke, the sounds of galloping horses and clanking metal reverbing through the space from above. Above. They're low, below, cold and dark and damp.

There is a figure curled up under the blankets, small with their hands clenched tightly to their face. But Solomon won't give Ahito a chance to look. Instead, he grabs the boy firmly by the arm and drags him towards the wall under the window, slapping a hand over Ahito's mouth with his own eyes pinned towards the light.]

Edited (clarifying) 2024-05-20 19:09 (UTC)

[Fucker-

He tries to cast, muffled though he may be by Solomon's hand - attempting, at the very least, to summon a small, sharp ice fragment to bury itself in Solomon's wrist (10), enough to get him to release Ahito's arm.]

Don't--

[It's a hushed and urgent tone, but not fast enough to stop Ahito's magic from going off anyway.

The sound feels like a firecracker in the small space, abnormal and unnatural and nowhere near what one would expect. Like the creak of a floorboard at the dead of night, amplified in the fearful mind of a young child. While Solomon immediately lets go to instead press his non-injured hand to his mouth to stifle himself, the lump on the bed screams, the shrill pitch of a child--

--and commotion starts to echo from above. "Where was that??" "Did you hear?" "Search the premesis, flush out these heretics!"

Eyes pained, Solomon quickly swipes his hand back and forth by his neck, shaking his head furiously. Be quiet.]

Edited 2024-05-20 19:23 (UTC)

[ Considering everything that has been put upon display, Jing Yuan finds it quite unsurprising that Ahito is reacting as he is.

Regardless, he lets the moment settle in for a little longer.

There is no need to ask senselessly foolish or far too tactless questions, if he can help it. But, all the same, he mulls over what he has seen firsthand, trying to find a place to start. ]

...Even if it has been long ago, and that it has been long since you have seen her [ Since Ahito must have been so, so young since he had seen her, given their sizes in the memory. ] I give you my sincere condolences for such a loss. I can only hope that she continues to rest in peace.

[ For him, the implications seem clear. That this young girl is no longer among the living...isn't she?

Such that it is, there is hardly much time for inquiries to be asked beyond that. For the topics on that wretched organization to be discussed once again in turn.

Indeed, that is only because their surroundings twist and turn once again. Spilling forth...something. An unfamiliar sight to Ahito, but to the other still in the area, more familiar than anything.

One that makes him fall silent and be witness to pieces of the Beginning, and of the End. ]

Edited 2024-05-20 19:25 (UTC)

[Ahito, at least, does fall silent - though he's also moving away from Solomon while he can, trying to maintain distance from the man without trodding on the child, eyes just barely darting between the two to check himself. Thankfully he can do so with his good eye, else this would be even more stressful than it already is.]

[Go ahead, buddy, he won't stop you outside of just watching the window like it's about to murder someone.

The bundle of blankets that emitted a child sound is curled up tight next to the wall, head down, arms now clenched around their head and trembling madly, choking on their breath in an effort to keep quiet. They're thin, what clothes they have on are plain and not well taken care of...

...and the hair is a familiar shock of white.]

[...

Oh.

He glances between Solomon and the child, clearly making the connection. And- a moment of conflict, now that he knows who the child is, but-]

[...A child, nonetheless, locked up and alone. It's always been his weakness.

He glances at the window. Glances up, where those voices came from. And then just... crouches down for now, still primed to leap back to his feet, but more on level with the young Solomon.]

[He will allow the heal, though will be slightly tired and resigned over it, like he's run out of energy to argue.]

...I suppose we'll know in time.

[The picture grows clearer, in bits and shades, with the sky coated orange and thickly coated with ash from roaring fires. Buildings have been completely flattened. The cliffsides that face the distant sea are crumbling, clean holes carved straight through them by an unnatural force. The bodies are still fresh, still bleeding. But not moving. All blown outward from a single point. Where you now stand.

You can hear them scream. Your distress climbs. No. No, no, you tried so hard. You were trying so hard. And yet your magic bubbles ferociously in your limbs, in your throat, no matter how you keep trying to press it down like you've tried for years. But it hurts. It hurts, and you feel what little grip you have slipping.

They had died because of you. And you want to scream until your throat goes hoarse. There has to be something you can do, something, something something.

Bruno will feel the urge to double over, like his magic is trying to burst from his skin if he doesn't pull himself together.]

[The boy hears the sounds of someone, something, and he shrinks in on himself even more with a panicked exhale, shaking his head violently. Ahito will feel an immediate and crippling dread pass over him - a fear of death, raw and childlike, not quite his own but vibrant nonetheless.]

[...What a strange feeling, for someone who accepted his looming death, for someone who knows he doesn't have long and embraces every facet of it, sometimes to the point of self-endangerment. He closes his eyes as it washes over him, takes hold - breathes in deep to try to reassert his own feelings on the matter, that death comes for all but that the life lived before it strikes is what matters most. What has to matter most.

He shifts a little closer nonetheless, reaching out a hand - palm up, in no position to strike, if the kid dares even look.]

...Not-

["as long as you'd think," he's about to say, when Jing Yuan's memories suddenly take the stage and he instead falls silent. Out of respect for Jing Yuan himself, and by the end...

Out of respect for a group of friends, torn apart by war.]

...Looks like the forest has decided to pick on us today.

[Vaguely, he wonders why it didn't bother them in much the same manner when they were here not even all that long ago.]

[ The power that Solomon wields seems...immeasurable.

He watches the way he cleaves through the demons as if they were nothing but ants to be trodden over, the way those creatures hurl themselves at the deadly sorcerer only to most certainly be truly consigning themselves to a bloody death.

The way magic flows freely without incantation but immediately is brutal. He gives his enemies no quarter; but that in of itself seems a necessity.

He listens to Solomon's words as his reasoning is spoken to him. ]

...I see.

[ Jing Yuan takes pause, and his expression turns unreadable as he watches the carnage...without pity for the demons who fall to Solomon's hand. ]

Such is the case in your world, though it is also not exactly a unique point of view, for beings who consider themselves above humans.

[ That kind of perspective—where one who would choose to wage war for the sake of humanity—conjures a strange sense of satisfaction within himself. He cautions himself to think it can get out of hand, but it's kind of really admirable. Anyway. ]

...But, what was the result of it all, I wonder? We will see, won't we?

For right now. I'll be fine to come back on my own. I'd rather not keep you any longer.

[He's been out of the manor for a couple days by now, looking a little ragged. Thankfully someone (hi Bruno) has tended to what few wounds he had, so Tatara shouldn't have visible need to fuss over him. Ideally.

With a huff as he straightens up from the snow, he'll hold out a hand for Tatara to take if he wants. ]

I can take you back. No need for you to freeze.

[And yet something whispers, a voice light and joyful and relieved, right behind one's ear.

Thank you for saving me back there.

Solomon starts noticeably, head whipping around. His exhale drags from his throat.]

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Page 4 of 117

thousand dreams, lotus boats upon the waters

Magic practice

Prep

Waving!

CLEANUP someone's gotta

liberry

Almost ladies' night!

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memshare

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wildcard

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Cw: mass death

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