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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[ his smile on his lips is cool though his tone is unchanged. ]

Kiseia thought we were family, but that word loses meaning when you're a Khun. And when you were born solely to aid someone else.

The scars of the past may be far greater than the help we can offer. Without knowing the history and purpose behind all this for certain, I don't particularly care to judge.

... did a chair kill your sister, or the like?

[ Tatara squeezes tight, hugging him and his warmth and his past and his words with unconditional affection.

It's a no-brainer to him. Part of who he is and where he belongs is in a sunlit forest not far from the manor, dozing on Aguero's chest.

With a little smile, Tatara pulls back to grasp his hands, and together, they'll leave the forest and head home. ]

And you're still you, after?

[ Which Day realises must be a bit of a strange question to ask, but he got the sense that if it weren't for that resolve, Kurapika would have been against killing. ]

[ Day realises that, perhaps, it is terrible timing to be thinking this, but he still has the thought anyway: he's glad that Tatara loved and was loved in return. And he hopes that this is still true of him, even now.

He lets Tatara cry on him, rubbing circles on his back with one hand to try and comfort him. ]

[Urianger joins the girl in her confusion as he takes in the surroundings with her. This is where Bruno lives? But...as quaint and cozy as it looks, this is in the walls of a house. What is the meaning of this?

His attention is drawn back to Bruno and the little play that he's putting on with the rats, his eyes softening with...he doesn't want to call it pity, but what else can he call it? This isn't quite how he wanted to learn more about the one-off comment Bruno made about writing plays. Have these rats been his primary company until now?

So many questions. He prays this vision will tell him more.]

Maybe but it's not something I want to be. All I've ever wanted is to actually be useful.

[ Which he has been! In this world! This one! Which sure doesn't help the side of "going home" here but... In any case, there is no more to see in this vision of the future, and it begins to fade away into the fog. ]

[ Luckily for Urianger, Bruno's niece is here to say everything he's likely also thinking. None of this makes sense to her and she's left watching her uncle's antics with growing worry. ]

I... I don't understand.

[ Which Bruno takes the wrong way, assuming she means the show the rats are (not actually) putting on. ]

Y'know, because she's his aunt and she has amnesia, so she can't remember that she’s his aunt, you see it’s like a very forbidden kind of-

[ But the girl interrupts before he can go on about that for too long. ]

No, I don’t understand why you "left", but didn’t "leave"?

[ Oh. Bruno pauses in his explanation and shifts uncomfortably in his seat. A glance is thrown her way, then away again, gaze flitting elsewhere around the room to avoid eye contact. ]

W-well, the mountains around the Encanto are pretty tall... and uh - you know like I said, free food... and everything... [ He shoots a look towards the rats on that point. ] Yeah, you guys, you guys love the free food, don’t ya? Always hungry, never satisfied...

[Okay Urianger is absolutely not thinking about it in the moment but he's going to sit upright on his couch later and think very hard about that telenovela plot. God-tier melodrama right there.

But no, what he's actually thinking about is the bigger picture. Did the negativity surrounding himself and his power become so overpowering that Bruno felt forced to leave his home? Or, well..."leave" in some sense of the word. That's troubling, to say the very least.

He looks on with growing concern, hoping that the girl will be able to squeeze more information out of Bruno.]

[ The first thing Day has to ask himself is what on earth are they wearing? Is this the sort of clothes people wear to the beach? Huh???

The next thing is he sees Shinjiro's reaction and connects the dots. ]

Friends of yours?

[ It is God-tier melodrama and that is why he and Urianger should be best friends, okay? ]

...and... I...

[ While Bruno is shuffling through his excuses, his niece has taken to walking around the makeshift hovel between the walls. She pauses by where there's a sort of table that's been added jutting out of the wall where the panels thin out and allow a crack of light to seep in from what's beyond.

She leans down to peer through it and seems to come to some realization before drawing away. She turns to look at Bruno with about the same amount of concern that Urianger himself is feeling.

Should Urianger go over and take a look himself, he'll see a gorgeous dining room beyond with a table long enough for a large family to all sit there. Looking down from there, at what Bruno's added on his side of the dining room wall, is his attempt to mimic the table design, as though he might have been pretending like he could still be joining his family for meals even... even without being there...

Bruno, however, just looks embarrassed. He looks down, unable to meet her eyes. ]

...I... um... look, my gift wasn’t helping the family... but... but I love my family, you know... I just don’t know how to... I just don’t know how to...

Then they just owe you.

[-Is his smartass response, though his expression quickly cuts to one of surprise when he hears the soft laughter of children somewhere in the fog of the forest.]

-Was that...?

Kids? What are kids doing out here?

[ Bruno's already moving towards that sound. Oh no, are they lost? ]

[He holds his hand out to stop him.]

It's not kids. It's the forest. Careful-

[But the word dies in his throat as the illusions take shape: a familiar, if younger boy with silvery hair and light brown eyes as he's led into a lab by his parents, the interior of the lab itself seemingly growing to surround them in order to set the scene. The child is swiftly taken to meet a robed man who promises him magic, shown a lonely girl kept isolated in a room, her tiny body covered in bandaged wounds--

The next time the boy appears, his eyes are bright blue and his smile infectious in its cheer, all contrary to the unfortunate tale that unfolds soon after.

...And all Ahito can do is simply watch as his past plays out before his very eyes yet again.]

[When the girl steps away from the wall, Urianger isn't far behind her. It's clear that he's a ghost in all of this since they haven't seen him yet, so he has little fear in stepping right in front of them on his way over.

He finds himself running a hand along that handcrafted table extension by the time he too pulls away from the scene beyond the crack in the wall, a weight of sorrow for his friend growing within his chest.]

Bruno...

[He murmurs to himself, knowing it won't be heard. Part of the memory is clear: Bruno just wanted to help his family, even if something forced him into solitude. What could have happened, though? Is the girl going to ask?]

[ And all Bruno can do is stand by Ahito and watch it unfold all the same. Ahito had mentioned the experiments before, that his healing ability from home would cause him harm, but all of this... this is... He moves a step closer to Ahito, raising a hand to put it on his shoulder, in a way he hopes is comforting.

He's right here. He isn't having to relive this alone, though he suspects Ahito would prefer no one be here to see this at all.

How could his parents do this to him? How could any of these people? Bruno never even knew about his right eye. He never seemed to suffer for its lack. ]

What... what happened to the girl?

[ He feels himself asking that first. Had they simply let her die? Just like that? ]

[ There's a silence that seems to span the length of eons, though in truth, it's only a handful of seconds before Bruno's head pops back up and he segues into, ]

Anyway, I think you should go, because, um, I don’t really have a good reason, but if I did, you’d be like, I should go ‘cause that’s a good reason and...

[ He's hopping up out of his chair as he goes on but the girl moves to stop him, getting to the point of why she had tracked him down to here in the first place. Gently, she asks, ]

Why was I in your vision? Tio Bruno...? I just... wanted to make the family proud of me... just once. But if I should stop... if I’m hurting my family... just tell me.

[ A look is exchanged between the two, a realization crossing both of their minds: they're so much alike. Urianger may not know how, but those words, they may as well have been Bruno himself saying them. To that, Bruno struggles a moment, looking for the right words, but in the end, he can only sigh. ]

I can’t tell you... [ Which earns that kind of frustrated look that's closer to tears than anger from his niece. ] Because I don’t know. You see, it's...

[ Bruno sticks his hands in his pockets, pulling out a series of faintly glowing shards. Made of thick green glass, Urianger will recognize those. They're akin to that same slab of green glass he'd pulled from the vision of their possible futures here that Bruno had shown him all that time ago. This, however, this one was broken for whatever reason, but Bruno begins putting the pieces back together on whatever surface he can find in the cluttered little room.

It begins forming a vision of that same girl, a house in the background, cracked, falling apart, and then not; two paths, but no context. ]

I had this vision the night that you didn’t get your gift, Mirabel.

Yeah, could be they end up thinking we're just stupid instead.

[ Or maybe that's just him. Who even knows? Bruno lets out a huff and resumes fanning himself. ]

Ugh, maybe we should just go get more wine instead and see if we hear anything on the way.

[Though his shoulder is a bit tense under the touch, he watches it all with a remarkable calm, eyes always on Mizuki - it's been a while, since he saw her.

Been a while, since she haunted his nightmares.

At the question, he remains silent for a long moment. When he finally responds, his voice is soft:]

...I wasn't there to heal her.

[Not that it would have been enough to save her anyway. ...Not that the researchers would have let him, when all the work they had put into his magic was deemed far more valuable than the potential magic she might have held.]

To them, it was just a failed experiment. ...And they don't have any need for subjects they've already used up, either.

[That bitterness, that anger - it's well contained, but still ever alight.

He can't let them keep getting away with this. He won't. But so long as he's stuck here in this world...

How is he ever supposed to find them...?]

[And thus she had Comet. What a fascinating story... He wants to ask what happened to their father, but maybe that wouldn't be a very good question right now, since it seems Comet and their mother were trapped here.]

She sounds like a nice woman. Carin' an' gentle.

[Comet's sounding a bit guilty, though. Hopefully they aren't blaming themselves for their mom's choices...?]

... It cost you a lot of blood. And... I could tell you were ( are? ) super squeamish about that kind of injury. You seem like... a normal person.

( Even with the prophecy stuff! Which is maybe a feat in itself. )

You don't deal with vampires and monsters and weird blood stuff normally. Isn't this above your paygrade?

[ And as he turns back through the hallway, retracing his steps, the environment around him slowly melts back into the forest.

...And he comes face to face with Kurapika again. Only this time, he's the one that Jing Yuan has come to know—slightly older and much less volatile. ]

I caught a small glimpse of what happened. You did well, considering I didn't threaten you immediately.

Mm, he was. With enough effort, he could get around, but the condition of his legs and eyes were deteriorating by the day... so I was in a hurry to leave.

[ It's a pen in a sense! And it seems Kurapika is going to use it like one. ]

Your eyelashes.

[ Don't worry about it. ]

As for why I disguised myself... you could say it was for a heist. You see, it's important to conceal the function and applications of your abilities for as long as possible in my world.

[ He tightlines the top of Mika's lashline, diligent and precise in his movements. Hmmmm... would a small wing look good on him? ]

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thousand dreams, lotus boats upon the waters

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gently whispers oh. my god.

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