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

[fallingsand]

...geez, I am really beginning to feel young hearing about how old folks are or can get in other places.

[ Fifty isn't so bad after all, huh? ]

Mm, supposedly wizards can live for hundreds of years, too, but uh, on Earth? Nah. I'm probably clocking out at eighty-something.

[lighthaus]

Then time to make the most of it.

[ he spins around with two dresses, one of which is way too frilly and probably too Much for Bruno, and one that's a way more reasonable option. ]

[fallingsand]

[ Oh, the one dress... ]

Uh, demasiado. [ He says that very distinctly when looking at the frilly one. ] I mean, that one's a bit too much. Maybe the other one?

[ Is it green, though? ]

/2

[lighthaus]

Maybe next tim—

[ he's already answering before bruno repeats himself because-

wait




what. ]

[lighthaus]

Repeat that. What you said the first time.

[ he did not just hear his actual native language?

every single one of the Ten Families has a native language, and the Khun family is no exception. usually though, it's only spoken in conversation within a given family, with Macsethian being the universal language for 99% of conversations. plus with a pocket, there's no point in trying to hide conversations between languages regardless.

also yes, the dress is green! ]

[fallingsand]

[ the dress being green is the actual important thing here i mean ]

Huh?

[ At first, Bruno is perplexed by what Khun is asking. Repeat... what? Too much? His brow furrows briefly but even if he can't understand why that stood out to Khun, there's no harm in it, so. ]

Demasiado?

[lighthaus]

Lo sabía.

[ the switch is effortless even if it's been a bit since he's talked to anyone in it. his accent is a bit hard to place, but it sounds closer to Spain than Latin America. ]

Why do you speak the Khun family language?

[fallingsand]

¡¿Tú hablas español?!

[ Bruno all but yells but in his feminine form, it comes out as a surprised squeak. Oh. Okay, calm down, calm down. He switches to Spanish completely, although Khun might notice a few discrepancies here and there as there would be between Spain and Latin America. ]

What do you mean the Khun family language? It's Spanish. Tons of people speak Spanish. It's all we speak where I live.

[lighthaus]

It's what?

I grew up speaking this, but we never called it "Spanish". It doesn't have a name beyond being known as our Family language—all the Ten Families have their own. Not that we use it much since Macsethian is the common language and we all have Pockets anyway.

[ that's not the point though, and his brows furrow. ]

My father is originally from the Old World. So maybe...

[ Is his father Spanish???? whatever that means??? ]

[fallingsand]

Huh...

[ Okay, so some parts of that he doesn't understand since it's out of context, but he has the idea. A bunch of families from some "Old World", which must be Earth, have specific languages they brought with them? ]

If by Old World, you mean Earth, then there are a lot of places he could be from if he speaks Spanish. I'm from Colombia, which is in South America.

[lighthaus]

I don't know what an America is.

[ this is hurting his head. ]

There's not many records about what's outside the Tower, but that's where humans were originally from.

[fallingsand]

It's a continent. Uh, which is a big mass of land? Like, really big.

[ Hopefully that helps. ]

But Khun isn't a name I've heard before, so I can't guess at where your dad is from exactly.

[lighthaus]

It's whatever, that would have been more than several thousand years ago.

[ also talking about his father so much is just urgh.

he might need a moment. ]

What did you think of the second dress?

[fallingsand]

[ Oh! Right! The dress! Bruno takes a moment to look at it a second time. It isn't frilly, so that's one plus. It's also green, so that's another! ]

I do like that one better. Should I go try it on?

[lighthaus]

Yeah. If you like how it looks, I can help you with your hair too.

[fallingsand]

[ Bruno will take dress number two and slip behind the dressing screen already in the room. ]

I've never done anything with my hair ever, so go wild if you want. You know, apart from shaving it all off, ha... yeah.

[ Anyway, yep, those curly locks exist entirely without any effort, that's right. ]

[lighthaus]

Don't you do your hair in the morning?

[ khun will wait patiently but also wtf. ]

[fallingsand]

I comb it when it needs it but otherwise? Nah.

[ Bruno does have to take his time figuring out the whole dress thing but eventually, he'll slip back out from behind the screen wearing dress number two. It's a little long on him due to height but otherwise, the fit isn't too bad. ]

How's it look?

[lighthaus]

...you're ridiculously lucky.

[ he spends way too long on his hair each morning! mostly because he's a perfectionist, but.

he's absolutely giving bruno a complete lookover when he emerges walking around him in a full circle. ]

Not bad. We'll need to adjust the length, but I can do that pretty quickly.

[fallingsand]

I mean, sort of? It's the only good thing I picked up from my dad, I guess.

[ Hair aside, Bruno will hike up the dress an inch or two. ]

Maybe up to here?

[lighthaus]

Yeah, that looks good.

[ he'll crouch down to make a guideline on the dress with magic. ]

...does anyone else speak this "Spanish" here?

[fallingsand]

Solomon can.

[ Wow, Bruno doesn't sound impressed about that at all, wonder whyyy. Anyway, he'll keep the dress hiked until the guideline is drawn, then he'll let it down again. ]

[lighthaus]

That guy...I don't trust him.

[ actually that goes for everyone here besides the very obvious outlier? though the degrees vary, of course. it's more notable that he's saying it to someone like bruno than anything else. ]

Well if you want to have a mostly private conversation at any point, come find me. It's not foolproof but it's not "Japanese".

[ a lot of people speak that here for some reason??? he stands up, pulling a notepad from thin air to write down measurements. ]

[fallingsand]

He's alright, most of the time? I guess? But the rest of the time, he can be pretty frustrating.

[ Solomon's a weird topic. Bruno doesn't want to dislike him but at the same time, he makes it hard to like him. ]

Sure. I'll keep that in mind. Huh, how many people here speak Japanese, anyway?

[lighthaus]

A bunch, it's what Tatara speaks too.

[ he snaps the notebook shut and looks at bruno. ]

Give me twenty minutes to hem the dress. Do you know how to do makeup?