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

[shortleash]

( Mika has been in the library, perusing the shelves for a fairly specific subject; however, he does not pull out the books he thinks are relevant and set them out in a pile, but instead has slowly spent his time scouring the shelves slowly, extracting each book he thinks is relevant, and skimming them one at a time - before setting them back. He hasn't found a lot relevant to his search, so he hasn't needed to sit down and read much.

He glances back when he hears Khun's idle remark. He'd been aware of him, but did not particularly have business with him (in fact, unlike their meeting before, directly after the beheading incident, he seems very faintly on his guard with Khun in the room).

After scanning Khun's pile, he will, after a moment, turn just slightly more toward him to address him. )

... Were you looking for something specific?

[lighthaus]

[ khun on the other hand hasn't seemed on guard at all, or more realistically, more than his baseline. he's really invested in whatever this research project is.

he looks at mika with a tired sigh. ]

Holidays. [ he snaps the book he was reading shut. ] There's so many of them for anything and everything.

[shortleash]

( Mika shrugs. )

Humans like excuses to celebrate. I'm guessing yours don't.

( By "yours" he means the humans where Khun lived - in that tower - relative to the average human here. Mika's definitely overheard all sorts of talk of varied festivals and celebrations in crowds while in towns here. )

You can just ignore them.

( ... but he's guessing there's a reason Khun is quite specifically researching them, instead of taking note of the quantity and moving on. )

[lighthaus]

Everything is dictated by the King and the administrators of each floor.

[ his world is very rule specific in some areas despite being the wild west in others. though this isn't about his world, so he moves on. ]

I can't. [ does he explain why he can't? absolutely not. ] Most days have more than one holiday—that doesn't even make sense.

Book Giving Day, Library Lovers Day, National Ferris Wheel Day, Valentine's Day, Bonobo Day, Welsh Music Day...

[ they're all foreign to him and he has no idea that one of these is the only real relevant holiday on February 14th. ]

[shortleash]

( ...? )

... You're looking up earth holidays?

( Interesting choice. He's not familiar with all of these things (tf is a bonobo), but he knows the sound of weird earth celebrations when he hears them. )

... Most of those are just... themed days. For promotion and stuff. Like they'd probably let you on the ferris wheel for free on ferris wheel day. But most people don't pay attention to them.

( Free - if that. But the world ended befor Mika could understand the nuances in depth. He definitely remembers ferris wheel-adjacent type days because, as a little orphan child, those promotional days would be the only way they'd gain more affordable access to certain services.)

("He definitely remembers" - or so I wrote, but, really, he'd entirely forgotten until now.) )

... Valentine's day is a real celebration, though. You give chocolate to the person you like and some friends. They'd have to return the favor on White Day.

/idk

[lighthaus]

You give chocolate—

[lighthaus]

—to the person you like...

3/4

[lighthaus]

You give chocolate to the person you like.

[ he repeats again, though this time in full and not sliced into pieces. he also colors, part of out embarrassment, part where that conversation actually went, and part just :meowno: cat. ]

[lighthaus]

Why would they celebrate that? What's the point? [ he might be part of the "but if you love your partner you shower them with gifts regularly?" team or

he might just be annoyed at himself and also figuring out where he can get chocolate from asap. ]

[shortleash]

( Mika watches Khun manage a spectrum of emotion, faintly surprised to see that kind of expression on Khun's face of all people's, and then figuring - Tatara probably did something, huh.

He doesn't think it's a terrible question. Mika also doesn't need a special day to celebrate... certain people. He studies Khun. )

You'd have to ask the people who came up with it.

( Fundamentally, all holidays are pointless.

But, well... He'd still want to do... something special that day himself, right? Assuming the subject cropped up. So maybe there is some merit to these landmark days. If he has to think about why he'd bother...

... )

... I guess it's not about everyone celebrating a holiday, but about dedicating an entire day to celebrating your partner.

( One could say "dedicating an entire day to the two of you together," but Mika is more on the obsessive end of the spectrum. He's definitely giving Ginger an entire day to himself. He deserves it. )

Out of all the people in the world, you choose them and you want them to know they're special. And I guess doing it on a specific day is like reaffirming it to the world, like a wedding vow.

( Metaphorically. Probably. The institution of marriage is also technically social, because you don't need a convenant to affirm your love and loyalty for one another, but there's still appeal anyway in saying - this is who I love with all my heart, and everyone needs to know. Something like that. )

[lighthaus]

[ wedding vow—there's a mumbled (which mika can hear given his hearing), "if you're trying to kill me-" that khun doesn't finish. thankfully he does not remember the look tatara gave him the last time he said that word in his company or he would actually turn into a very pretty cobalt blue rock here in the library. ]

Alright, alright, I get it—I think. The only holidays we have in the Tower are ones celebrating the King in some way. But obviously we have weddings and that sort of thing.

[shortleash]

( That answer was as much for Mika as it was for himself - working out, as ever, how he feels about Ginger, which will probably never quite end; in a good way. Thinking about him always feels like he's experiencing something new. )

Sounds pretty selfish of him.

( But sounds appropriately human, he supposes. )

... Did you get chocolates or something?

( He doesn't say from whom, but obviously they both know who Mika's thinking of. )

[lighthaus]

No, that's when his birthday is. I was trying to guess it, but I had no idea what he was talking about.

[ sigh! he'll just have to make it up to him. ]

[shortleash]

( Why not just tell him... nvm this is Khun and Tatara, they're weird enough they probably communicate in the equivalent of alien clicking or something. )

... That was a really strong reaction for not being able to guess.

( The blushing. )

[lighthaus]

[ 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. ]

[shortleash]

( Oh my god. )

... Have you considered going into town? There are inns.

( Go torment the vampires with super hearing there. )

[lighthaus]

Speaking from experience? [ he has no idea he was barely a person at the beach camp out because he had major sunburn from one of his date's with tatara. still, he absolutely knows him and ginger are a thing after the east mission return. ]

And we do that sometimes. Variety is the spice of life, isn't it?

[shortleash]

( He reddens very slightly, like he is, in fact, speaking from experience - but he takes on an expression that says "none of your business." (Embarrassed.) )

... How much variety can there possibly be?

( ??? (real question) (also his unspoken question: how often do you guys possibly do it if what I hear isn't everything???) )

[lighthaus]

[ aha, bingo. his smile sharpens into a grin. ]

Shouldn't you be asking Ginger that and not me?

[shortleash]

( oh my god, shut up, )

He has nothing to do with this. ( Well, he does, but - Mika feels like he should protest anyway? Even though it's technically not a secret relationship? (Mind, it has only Officially been A Relationship for a very, very short amount of time, at this point.) ) It's not like he'd have any idea, either. It's you and Tatara that are unusual.

( Defending Ginger's honor...(????)

Granted, Ginger did say he's fantasized... Mika's just never asked what he's fantasized about, specifically. Mika assumed it was regular bedroom stuff in a regular room, because what else is there? But...???? )

[lighthaus]

We're not. [ huff. ]

And I'm not helping you with your love life.

[ is he in some way thankful for the valentines day assist? yeah.

but what are you thinking now mika... and also whatever it is, he's not that generous! ]

[shortleash]

I'm not asking for help. And we don't need it.

( Jeez. )

I was just surprised. Anyway, if you use inns, just stick to them.

[lighthaus]

No.

[ he's starting to get annoyed because no one orders him around and he is very aware that stabgate two is not on the table. he got his answer anyway, so he stands up, fully ready to just leave all the books out and walk out. ]

[shortleash]

( It's not like Mika can't tell there's tension, but Khun's obstinance is annoying. )

Are you a child?

( It almost seems like Mika is waiting for Khun to leave, in fact. Mika (also stubborn) refuses to compromise and go "fine" just because Khun won't relent. )

[lighthaus]

[ khun stops, mid pivot to leave. ]

Children tend to listen to whatever they're told, so no.

I'm not going to agree to things just because you ask or because it would be better for you. You should know this by now, so don't waste your breath.