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

[1145pm]

Is it backwards? [ :D???

Tatara looks at his book again, the one belonging to the previous sage, and then lifts it for Jing Yuan to look at. It's in Japanese but otherwise normal. ]

[foresightis2020]

[ There's a moment of pause on his end, and then... ]

I see.

[ Jing Yuan says in the very learned tone of someone who has no earthly idea about what these little Japanese characters say, but he certainly did try to read them on reflex. Alas, Xianzhou Alliance is not Fantasy-Scifi Japan, but definitely China-esque. ]

...What are you reading, anyway?

[1145pm]

[ Tatara places the book back on the table. ]

The last sage's tome. There's still some stuff I'm trying to figure out, but I'm hoping...

[ He smiles, runs a finger over the page to smooth it. ]

I'm hoping what I've found can help us get home.

[foresightis2020]

[ Jing Yuan still looks curiously at the book for awhile, as if simply laying his eyes upon it a little longer will divine its ultimate secrets.

Then, he looks back over at Tatara. ]

Ah, I see. That would be most certainly convenient, if so.

...It appears to be written in a strange language unfamiliar to me, though. But, you can understand it?

[1145pm]

[ 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?

[foresightis2020]

[ If only...

Though, Jing Yuan does find it intriguing that those commonalities happened to be present in the previous Sages. ]

Japanese, is it?

It does sound like quite a coincidence. Though, nothing divined or orchestrated by fate itself is ultimately and truly coincidental — only meant to be, fickle as it may be.

Therefore, perhaps there is a reason why those of your nationality are chosen? As in, there is a certain aspect that may be the reason for it? Though, I doubt that has always been the case.

[1145pm]

[ The look on Tatara's face makes it difficult to tell if he likes talk of fate or not; he tilts his head, curious, and his feet lazily kick through the air. ]

Hmm, I dunno. We all have really different personalities and our backgrounds are all different, too, so I can't say there's anything in particular we have in common besides where we're from...

[ Curious! ]

What do you think, Jing Yuan?

[foresightis2020]

[ Jing Yuan certainly can't tell, though all the same, a neutral look to him speaks that he may have complicated feelings on it, perhaps.

Still hard to say, so he focuses more on the subject of these particulars. ]

I simply believe that there is something to it. Two Sages in a row from the same place of the same nationality is an indication of something.

Though, the particulars behind it are still an unknown. Unless it's indicated in the book elsewhere, or someone in this world knows otherwise, we won't be able to easily identify what exactly has been the reason for this recent pattern.

Other than, of course, that it is beyond happenstance. Would that I could give you a more satisfactory answer than a mere elaboration of my previous thoughts, however.

[1145pm]

[ Birds of a feather, neutral looks not a mask, but a signifier for complicated thoughts. Tatara, similarly, looks up at Jing Yuan mostly blank, mostly neutral. ]

Hmm... [ Tatara thinks back on what he's read, and gestures to another tome haphazardly left open nearby. He'll clean up later. ] The sage before the one before me was supposedly the first Japanese sage. He wrote that he used to work in an office. That means he was probably pretty well educated... [ An important distinction, in his mind. ] But what he wrote wasn't very serious. I think he just had fun playing with his wizards and witches.

[ There was, in fact, a sage who did not take his job seriously.

Tatara pats the book open in front of him. ]

The last sage didn't write much about himself, but I did get to see him in action. They used to call me the animal tamer at home, but it's a little different when you see a plain-looking guy get all the world's most powerful wizards to follow everything he says...

[ He laughs at the memory. ]

But I never even went to high school. My gang was my world. Honestly, I didn't really care about anything beyond what happened to any of us. I've done everything I can to show that I'm working with our best interests in mind, but it isn't easy.

[ And so, he smiles. ] Do you see anything in common between us three?

[foresightis2020]

[ It's totally fine...Jing Yuan does close his eyes in thought as Tatara gives out the kind of personalities and attributes of the others, though.

These descriptions are all bare, from his point of view, or rather, it is the second sage in particular that seems lacking.

On, perhaps, the surface.

This isn't exactly battle tactics, but he will try his hand at it regardless. ]

Yes, there is something in common between the three of you, once I have gathered the information that you have given to me.

It's the fact that neither single one of you have anything much in common at all. Your variances are the commonality; the fact that you were from differing facets of life, and held different points of view that seem to have been potentially wildly different from one another.

That could be the kind of quality that is desired from a Sage. How they will, as a different person from the last, handle the challenges before them.

...Regardless of the fact that they hail from the same nation.

[ And so, that is what he thinks. ]

[1145pm]

Mmm.

[ Tatara taps his pen to his nose and lets his gaze drift upwards, contemplative. He kicks his feet again. ]

So you mean that...the significance is in that we're all different? Like...do you think we were chosen specifically to suit the wizards we have?

[ He purses his lips in thought again. Because then he just goes back to his original question of why him. ]

[foresightis2020]

[ Would that it have been any easier answer.

But oftentimes, in situations like these when someone is chosen for a given role, there are hardly many simple conclusions. They end up merely non-existent in the face of something more abstract, seemingly small, or insignificant, when in truth it is not. ]

I believe so. Both would certainly make sense.

I suppose in the grand scheme of things it could seem underwhelming or unsatisfactory...though this is also only speculation.

[ So it isn't like he knows for certain either. Though, he does ask: ]

What do you think of it?

[1145pm]

[ That's doubly so when it comes to the nature of being chosen for this role—perhaps it is, as Rustica put it, "Chosen by the moon." ]

I guess I do agree. I guess there really doesn't have to be a grand or dramatic reason...

[ He scratches at his head with a sheepish smile. ]

In that case, I hope I've been an okay enough sage for you all so far.

[foresightis2020]

[ Luna roulette...especially for those who have no magical fantasy land experience if one is selected for a Sage!! ]

I believe you have made marked improvements from before.

At the least, I could tell you have been visibly making more efforts based upon the last time we spoke.

[ He is thinking specifically about when they spoke that the other responded well to the report and he does not doubt the man made his follow-up where needed. ]

Whether or not everyone thinks so is truly up to them entirely, and, of course, your own efforts. Though, a good indication of how people think as much are their own actions and words. Have the others been keen on approaching you more often for guidance, at the least?

[1145pm]

Hehe, yay.

[ Lion neighbor approval! He does vaguely remember Jing Yuan giving him advice on what to do to lead before, but there were a lot of other things in that meeting that lead him to promptly forget about what he said. So at least something is different now, even if he can't pinpoint what it is. Yay!

He nods. ]

I find a lot of people come to me for advice, even though I can't use magic. And a lot come to me to report in things they've found that might be relevant to our situation, which I also appreciate. [ He chuckles. ] The Northern wizards are the most diligent about that. Isn't that funny?

[ He has the context for the native Northern wizards, however, and that's why he thinks it's funny... ]

[foresightis2020]

[ Yeah, that sure happened, didn't it? Whoopsie daisy!

Anyway, Jing Yuan certainly is glad that things seem to be working out now. And, oh, what a coincidence that the Northern wizards are quite diligent in that too. Or maybe it isn't much of one as a sense of responsibility. ]

Perhaps it may seem quite ironic indeed, considering how they might be quite distant in comparison to the others, but those within our Northern grouping are quite efficient and reliable individuals.

...Though, I do wonder what makes you find it amusing, in your own words.

[1145pm]

[ He laughs. ]

I don't know if you got to read any of the other past sage stuff, [ he gestures to the shelves of books around them, ] but native Northern wizards are notorious. They're really independent and dangerous, and they hate being told what to do... Sometimes, when the old ones were still around, I thought they would explode me with a look alone.

[ He laughs! One reminded him of his king, and this is funny to him. Please help him he is not normal. ]

So for my Northern wizards to be so cooperative is funny. But I still like them.

[foresightis2020]

[ . . . ]

Well, I certainly had the opportunity to read upon them at one point, so I did at least know of the original ones'...reputations.

Though, I hadn't known that you were, at times, a target of such unfortunate gazes.

[ Tatara secretly at times having nerves of steel even in a potential dangerous situation...check. He has concerns but at least not one of their group will try that here. ]

Either way, I understand. I am also ever the more grateful in the differences, and that you are able to get along quite well with them.