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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The fog is...? Oh. Ohhh no, no, nope, let's. C'mon.

[ Bruno grabs for one of Ahito's hands and immediately turns to drag him along, away from this spot. ]

It's the forest. It's about to do something weird again.

[ They can't actually outrun it but, damn, Bruno is sure going to try! ]

[Grabbed and dragged????]

Wait- huh? Like what?!

Just... just weird things! Like! Visions and stuff! Maybe we can out... outrun... it?

[ Only they've run right into what Bruno was afraid of. There is no longer snow crunching underfoot, but the cold brick of a dark, lifeless town square. This causes Bruno to freeze, his grip on Ahito's hand becoming rigid and far too tight.

From there, the fog draws back, revealing a once vivid and lively Colombian village, only now dark and empty, beginning to crumble. Trees wilt, flowerbeds are filled with dead plants, and doors of buildings, of homes, sit ajar. Overhead, the sky is dark and cloudy.

Nearby, through what must be the very center of the valley, a huge crack — a rift, even — cuts violently through, knocking aside brick roads and houses alike. ]

...no... [ Bruno says, voice hushed and full of horror. ] ...oh no, no, not here... not this...

[How did they end up- wherever this is, what the hell is going on-? All questions Ahito has in mind, although he decides not to give voice to them when he hears and sees just how distressed Bruno is.]

...What is this...?

It's... this is home.

[ His village, once so beautiful and peaceful, and now, this. The further the fog withdraws, the more is revealed. In the distance, more shattered ruins. Even the mountains, where the rift cleaves the valley in two, have been broken in twain. ]

Or. Or was. I. I don't know if. [ His grip on Ahito's hand loosens and soon enough, his hand falls away from his completely, coming to hang at his side instead as he bows his head. There's a despair in the air, weighing down on both of them. ] If this is how it is now. Everything was falling apart when this place brought me here but this is the vision I had, of its future.

[ What he'd been trying to prevent all that time. ]

[Bruno's beloved home, which he fought so hard to protect, even when despised by his own family...

...

It's not fair. But life rarely is.]

Do you know what causes it? ...And are the futures you see always set in stone?

Kind of. It's... it was Mirabel's future. She's my youngest niece. She, um, well, the miracle, it didn't give her a gift. I don't know why. It shouldn't have mattered but they asked me to try and find out. This is... it's the outcome of a decision she had to make. That's what I saw.

[ But that makes it sound terribly like poor Mirabel's fault. He sighs and turns, looking back towards the cracked mountain range in the distance. ]

But I couldn't tell anyone. I knew her life was already gonna be rough without a gift. She was only five, Ahito. If everyone assumed she was going to destroy everything on top of that? So I left. Well, kind of.

[ Though that hardly explains things. ]

I guess she started seeing our home tearing itself apart, too, as she got older. She came to me for answers. I thought... we thought... we thought we'd found the right way to fix this. There was a way, the vision had two outcomes, but. I don't know. I don't know where we went wrong.

[...Yeah, after hearing how people blamed Bruno for bad prophecies, he can see why he'd want to hide this info from everyone, too.]

...It's only a possibility, right? And there's no way of knowing what's going on back home. ...I still think this is just the forest messing with you.

[ He shakes his head. Is it, though? Really? ]

C'mon.

[ Without much more explanation, he'll turn and lead Ahito up the winding way to the house that once sit up high on a hill, overlooking the entire valley. It's the worst hit of all the buildings they've seen. It isn't only abandoned but thoroughly destroyed. ]

This is... my family's house... Casita.

[ The magical house he's mentioned before. ]

If it's like this, then the Miracle that powered it, that kept this place safe, it's dead, and that's the last thing I remember happening. Casita falling apart, dying along with the Miracle. I don't see how we can fix this.

[He falls quiet as he follows Bruno through this... sad and twisted rendition of his home, gazing at their surroundings and trying to imagine them in a brighter, livelier time.

It's incredibly hard to do once they get to Casita, the ravages of... whatever it was having laid it low so completely, he can't even imagine what the original shape and layout was meant to be.]

...What was the miracle? How did it even begin...?

[ Bruno crouches down briefly to retrieve a piece of rubble, small enough to fit in his hand. It's an adobe tile with a butterfly design on it. That, he looks down at sadly, turning it over carefully in his hands. ]

It. It was what saved everyone who lived here. That was fifty years ago. [ Which is, oddly enough, the same age that Bruno is! Wow! ] The army was going through the countryside, burning down towns, and my dad was trying to lead everyone somewhere safe.

[ Weird. He feels this is the first time he's mentioned his dad in this place, but why would that be strange? He never got to know him, not directly. ]

Only the soldiers still caught up with them, even in the jungle. They didn't care what side they were on which was... not really any side? At all? [ Just a bunch of collateral damage, in the end. ] But they caught up at a river, so dad went back to try and stop them. Or. Or distract them or. I don't know.

[ How does he even explain how the Miracle happened? He was only a few days old at best during it. He has no memory of it of his own. ]

But... they just cut him down. [ Which, normally, would mean the end, right there and then, only— ] No one's really sure what happened then. I don't know if his sacrifice caused it or mom's grief did or... or if it was something bigger, deciding to intercede... but there was a bright light that blew the soldiers back, and then the mountains rose all around and created this valley, and then created this house. This was the first building here, and I'm pretty sure it was the first thing destroyed, too.

[ He gives the butterfly tile one last mournful look before setting it back down with the rest of the rubble. ]

We wouldn't know about the gifts we would get until my sisters and I were five, so that came later.

[His expression turns, if possible, even more grim at the explanation of the soldiers.]

...It almost sounds like a spell of protection or something. Is your family sure it didn't just run its course...?

If that were all, I don't think it would be this... I dunno... catastrophic? Besides, it was my niece's future. There was. It had two outcomes. One that causes this and. And one that stops the destruction.

I guess, yeah... Especially if it wasn't a wreck like that before you got there.

[Damn. He doesn't know enough about this kind of magic to give any good advice. All that's left to really say is just...]

...Sorry.

[That this is how it turned out.]

... [ What else is there to even say? Bruno turns to offer Ahito a smile, albeit a sad one. ] Thanks, kid.

[ That's about all, isn't it? He follows that up with a quiet sigh and turns away again, looking back out across the ruined, desolate valley. From up here, where Casita used to sit, they have the best view of it. ]

I've been wondering if I should even go home, if we get that chance, y'know?

...If you're happier here... I don't see why you have to go back.

[Ahito knows what he'd pick, were he in Bruno's situation. But...]

I... am, in some ways.

[ But not all. ]

There are a whole lot of "what ifs", though. The rest of you are going to go home when given the chance. I realize that much. I may not get on well with the real wizards who belong at the manor or in the South. I. I might regret staying.

[ But won't he regret going, too? ]

On the other hand, I can't just leave Mirabel to deal with this alone. She. When she tracked me down and we thought we found a way to fix this, she was so excited. She said she wanted me to come home for good once everything was settled and... and I wouldn't have to be alone anymore... She wasn't afraid of me, not in any way, though all she ever knew about me growing up was the scary stuff.

...If you do end up going back, maybe you could end up striking it out together? [...If there's no home to return to.]

Nah, I think she'd want to stick with her family. Like, her direct family, I mean. Julieta and Augstín care a lot about their kids, so they would stand by her no matter what, even if it means they all end up leaving, too.

Edited 2024-05-31 13:16 (UTC)

...Really?

[That's a surprise. But...]

...Good. At least there's that.

Is there any reason they wouldn't take you too?

Yeah? Really? Look, my family and I may have our issues, but. But my sisters? They aren't bad parents. I know that they love their kids.

[ It would have been infinitely more difficult to decide to vanish for a decade if they hadn't, oof, what a dreadful thought. ]

And the reason they wouldn't take me too iiiis... because... [ There's a long pause. He's trying to think of a reason. However, the best he can do is, ] I can't think of a good reason but if I had one, you'd be like, oh, yeah, that makes sense, so how about we leave it there?

...

No? Even with their beloved daughter vouching for you?

I... I don't know. I want to think they would but then I'm just being a burden.

Edited 2024-06-03 07:20 (UTC)

I think you're allowed to be a bit of a burden after you spent years and years hiding in the walls trying to fix things for everyone.

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. ]

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