promittere: (Default)
lunae calamitas mods ([personal profile] promittere) wrote in [community profile] lunaecalamitas2024-04-04 11:33 pm

if you say it's magic, then you're my wizard

WANING GIBBOUS OVERTURE
The seconds tick by, the elevator rattles. There's a soft, musical chime announcing your arrival before the elevator doors creak open, leaving you and a number of others in the courtyard of a stone manor. The manor is large, looming over the trees surrounding it, and the gardens are well maintained, rows of hedges and beds of blooming flowers as far as you can see. The doors linger open until you clear the threshold, as if waiting patiently for you. Dawdle too long and you’ll feel a gentle push, nudging you out into the yard. The doors shut with more rattles and a cheerful ding!, and if you turn to look at it there's nothing to be seen behind you but the milling strangers.

Then there's a sting, mild at first. But soon, the spot where your sage's crest is starts to burn. It's as though you have been branded, and the searing heat clings to your skin. Should you look at your crest, you'll find it glows a faint red, like the dying embers of a fire, but given enough time it will cool to black and no longer hurt.

Once the pain fades, you notice is that the air around you feels distinctly different. It's hard to say exactly what makes it different, or how. It feels brittle, but malleable. That perhaps if you said or did the right thing, you could command reality to your liking—

The wind blows, stirring leaves and flowers, and that's when you notice there are two people in the courtyard that did not emerge from the elevator like everyone else. The taller of the two looks briefly shocked, before a warm smile blots it out, while the shorter of the two looks remarkably unimpressed—for as much as you can make out his expression under the large hat he wears. He glances at the taller man, the charms that hang from his hat clinking, and crosses his arm over his chest.

The taller man nods, turns to the group, and says, "Sorry. I know you were probably in the middle of something important. But...I need you. My name is Tatara Totsuka. I'm your sage, and you are my witches and wizards."

He looks up to the moon hanging in the sky, still pale and visible despite the light of day, and lays it all out for you: a wizard under the sage's guidance is supposed to fight off the Great Calamity—the moon—when it nears. But you are not meant to carry out this task. The original sage and twenty-one wizards suddenly vanished not long ago. No one knows what happened to them, or where they are. They aren't dead. They are gone.

That you are here, that there are so many of you, that you came from different worlds, means that this is a mistake. Something, somewhere, isn't right. Yet the world has decided to claim you in a frantic attempt to keep itself together.

This world is breaking. If you don't fix this, then you'll be stuck here fighting the Calamity yourselves.

When Tatara looks back down to the rest of you, there's a smile on his face, tinged with apology. "But I think it'll be okay. We'll figure this out... Right?"

The golden light of sunset is oddly cold. It settles over you not in a welcoming embrace, but in a possessive hold. There is a sinking feeling in your gut: whatever your home was before matters no longer. Welcome to a world on the brink of destruction—let's hope it's not for good.


The day begins to draw to a close. You're given the rest of the day to process Tatara's words and to familiarize yourselves with the manor. There are plenty of empty spaces in the manor with sparse furniture where you can rest and try to unwind, and hopefully get some sleep. Everything about today might be a lot to unpack, but surely you can at least relax and prepare for the next day.

The morning starts with the sound of bells. A cacophonous racket of them, ringing in your rooms, in your head, jolting you from whatever slumber you can grasp. The source seems to be a note, unassuming if not for the way it shakes with each toll of the bells, and the noise only stops when you read it.

"Go to the courtyard," it says, and if you try to ignore it the noise returns, growing louder and louder until your vision swims and you find yourself standing in the courtyard with everyone else—and the shorter of the two men from yesterday.

"Practice starts right now," he says, looking bored and just as unimpressed as he did yesterday. The sun has barely started over the horizon—it's early, almost absurdly so. "You need to learn magic sooner instead of later, unless you want to die like miserable worms. If you do, just quit now so we can replace you with someone useful."

His explanation on magic is brief—he explains that magic is a deal struck between caster and the spirits of the world, using a meaningful word or phrase to communicate your will to the as-of-yet unseen spirits of the world, who will respond to your desires and power your magic. A focus, an object of significant meaning, will help strengthen your ties to the land and direct the magic for your spells. If you have nothing that would work as a focus right now, he says, chances are the perfect thing will find you anyways.

While he looks unhappy to do so, he emphasizes that magic—as it works here—is all tied to your emotions and your convictions, and then he assigns you a challenge for the week. He wants you to come up with your incantation—the words you'll use to cast all of your magic—as well as find or draw forward your focus, with the final task being summoning a magic broom you'll use for transportation.
Threading out magic practice and ICly discovering your characters' magic words, manifesting their foci, and summoning their broom will count as three different jobs, and will be eligible for a set of rewards each. While not technically classified as a job this time around, this is a special circumstance. When you've accomplished any of these things, please submit them to the rewards page as a job submission.

If you're having trouble coming up with a focus or incantation, think about your answers for the first and third mandatory questions on your app! Your focus of choice does not have to be in your character's inventory—if what works best for them as a focus did not come with them, then they can focus and reach across universes to bring it here with them.

JOB BOARD
You may have just gotten here, but people across the continent still need the sage's wizards to do things for them. The job board will typically have 2 - 3 requests each event that can be turned in for rewards when completed.
Sugar delivery. Confectionery shops and pharmacies put in regular orders for wizard sugar to the manor, and despite the unusual circumstances, now is no different. Wizard sugar—sugar spontaneously created through a wizard's magic—is said to have restorative properties and said to bless those that consume it, so it's no wonder it's in high demand. It also happens to be one of the first things young wizards learn to do. So once you've perfected your sugar, go deliver it to the shops in Central capital and to the Southern merchants waiting for shipment near the Central tower.

The Southern merchants, in particular, seem rather anxious to receive as much sugar as possible, as soon as possible.

WANDERER TASKS
The wizards' new mentor knows that this must be an incredibly overwhelming experience, so he has a list of things that should help break down the process of learning and understanding magic. Or that's what he says, at least, but it feels like he's trying to make things more difficult...
Nobody is going to hold your hands for you, and the best way to learn is to understand the root cause of an issue. Use that paper being left around for something actually useful and do some research on the spirits of the countries you've been tasked to represent. I'll be expecting some actual thought out papers within the week.

For the idiots who can't research to save their lives, prove you can actually manage the bare minimum. There's a spot you can't reach without magic within the manor grounds—bring me one of the trinkets you find there.

For the even bigger idiots who are overconfident, come find me and we can spar. I won't go easy on you.

TATARA ACTIVITIES
Tatara knows things are tense and uncomfortable for his new wizards, so he'll offer up a few activities each event post to help them relax if things get too tough.
We're all new here, but we'll be friends before long, I know it! There's a table in the dining room with paper, pens, markers, glitter, and pins so we can all make name tags and get to know each other better. We'll go from strangers to neighbors to besties before you know it!

Oh, you should probably get a feel of the manor, too. This IS your new home, after all! And what better way than...hide and seek?! Sounds fun, right? I'd tell you MY favorite spot to hide, but then that wouldn't be fair!

I don't know how long we're going to be here, so it probably wouldn't hurt to settle in. Grab a friend or two and head to the market in the Central capital to stock up on whatever food you like and stuff for your room. May as well get comfortable!

OOC NOTES
🌙 Welcome to Lunae Calamitas's first event post! Yer a wizard, whether you like it or not.
🌙 While not technically jobs, ICly working out your character's focus, incantation, and broom are all separately eligible for rewards. Good luck on your basics, little wizards! You'll need them...
🌙 Your OOC plotting post is here! Please keep all your plotting on the plotting post, since not everyone uses discord or plurk.
🌙 The South will be going on their mission next week to get this party started. Keep an eye out, Southies!
lustro: (041)

[personal profile] lustro 2024-04-06 10:08 pm (UTC)(link)
The sage. He said it's the "Great Calamity."
fallingsand: (11; and the family fumbling)

[personal profile] fallingsand 2024-04-06 10:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah and if I really am the one writing this one, then we absolutely aren't getting out of fighting whatever... whatever the big bad thing is...

[ Even though he sure doesn't want to! He doesn't! He wants to go home! But how can they go home without some epic risk at the end, right?! His shoulders lump and he eyes Ginger, considering.

Could he fix that eye with his imagination? Doubtful. He doesn't know how and just thinking at it hasn't changed a thing. In the end, he can only sigh.
]

If I could, I would, but. I guess finding answers is all we have.
annihilator: (➤ 71)

[personal profile] annihilator 2024-04-06 10:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Huh. So things started goin' strange at some point, then...

[Interesting!! There's a lot to learn about this world.]

So you got any tips on how to master this magic stuff? 'Cause I'm definitely strugglin'. I shouldn't even be able to use magic, so there's a lot to learn.
dyingtohealyou: ([Sweat] I was singing to)

[personal profile] dyingtohealyou 2024-04-06 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe. There's some tasks they've asked us to complete [and he already got told off by Wanderer and then some] so it might be worth a look.
lustro: (029)

[personal profile] lustro 2024-04-06 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Was orange an option - ]

Want to settle for blue? We can trade if you'd like.

[ Though he's tall, at least a head taller than this boy. ]
shortleash: (pic#17103485)

[personal profile] shortleash 2024-04-06 10:13 pm (UTC)(link)
My world is riddled with them. I don't like them.

( This is an inadvertent setup for a punchline later, )
fallingsand: (13; they couldn't understand)

[personal profile] fallingsand 2024-04-06 10:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Por el amor de Dios!

[ Why do people keep jumpscaring him?! He needs to sit with his back to a wall, dang. Bruno's pen jumps across the paper he's crossing words that don't work out on, leaving a squiggly line, and whirls about in his chair to look... up... ]

Would you...

[ And up. ]

...people stop...

[ And even more up. ]

...lurking up... out of... ears?

[ Tall man has big ears. What. ]
positivize: (pic#17104058)

iii

[personal profile] positivize 2024-04-06 10:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[That's a slightly odd way of phrasing it, but it also doesn't really set off any alarm bells per se.]

Well, I agree that there is a lot we still don't know. It's hard to figure out how we're supposed to help without knowing more about what happened to the previous sage and those wizards too, so we have our work cut out for us.

But on the bright side, I think that means it's important to have people who can help gather information too! So you don't need to force yourself to fight if you don't want to.
1145pm: (pic#16970046)

[personal profile] 1145pm 2024-04-06 10:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Roger that, Special Inquisitor!

[ He stands at attention (badly), and gives a salute (badly). That's not how you do it? It's fine. There's levity in the gesture but he isn't joking, or making fun of her. He's just happy? To meet her! ]

Glad to have you on our side!
dyingtohealyou: ([Smile] I've known for a long time)

[personal profile] dyingtohealyou 2024-04-06 10:16 pm (UTC)(link)
If you don't mind. Don't feel like you have to keep following if something catches your eye, though.

[Food though, that he can get behind. It doesn't take long before he locates a stand providing freshly made donut holes, which aren't exactly what he's looking for but a close enough approximation.

Honestly, getting sweets is like, the happiest he's looked in this world so far.
]
fallingsand: (53;)

dining hall

[personal profile] fallingsand 2024-04-06 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It takes a bit before Bruno feels up to approaching the sage but he does, eventually, once people have scattered for the night. ]

Er, excuse me? Mr. Sage, sir?
lustro: (050)

[personal profile] lustro 2024-04-06 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
I could - it's just you're here, and... You know, there's something extra depressing about a child looking at you like you're pathetic when you just want to ask questions.

[ His pride... ]

And the sage didn't really know how to answer some of mine.
dyingtohealyou: ([Sweat] I was singing to)

[personal profile] dyingtohealyou 2024-04-06 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, that.

To be clear, I don't think we're going to literally fight the moon.
lustro: (060)

[personal profile] lustro 2024-04-06 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
... They're not even scented...
divineth: (🌒 58)

magic practice

[personal profile] divineth 2024-04-06 10:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[Having learned the basics a bit faster than others, Urianger has found himself helping some of his fellow wizards and witches get up to speed. Seems like Malice might be another potential practice partner!]

I have, yes.

[He lifts his hands and utters an incantation:]

Divinatio.

[The device strapped to his back comes to life and floats between the two men.]

Verily, I began this journey of learning with something of an advantage: prior experience with various magicks.
annihilator: (➤ 58)

[personal profile] annihilator 2024-04-06 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
[Off we go! Malice hangs out nearby, studying the donut holes curiously, and taking note of Ahito's expression. Aww, cute...]

Big fan of sweet stuff like that, huh?
chronosynthesis: (❖ Psychic Force)

[personal profile] chronosynthesis 2024-04-06 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[Arrival]

[It had been, Syrlya thought, an ordinary archway. One he's crossed through dozens of times going entering the pier of Seitung Province. He could see the path into the forest right across from it.

He finds himself instead in the cramped interior of an elevator, two dozen others pressed in with him. Everyone looks equally confused. Syrlya looks between every one of them as his fingers skim the tilt of his blade just to make sure it's still strapped to his side. He nudges his way to the front of the group, passing the open door without hesitation--

And then it burns.

Syrlya staggers with a yelp, slapping a hand over the back of his neck.]
Ow, ow, ow--[He hisses, twisting to look back at whoever's behind him with an accusatory look.]

[Magic Practice]

[Morning comes, and whatever strange experience Syrlya has walked into hasn't simply resolved itself overnight. Though... even if it had, it isn't as though there was anything pressing to get back to. Not now. In this strange world, there's something right in front of him instead.

The methodology is a little different, but Syrlya gets a quick grasp of the intention of the magic of this world. Words, not gestures, and it turns out his sword is still valuable as a focus. He finds something that resonates with him--semper anticus--and summons up the broom.

He perches upon it as it floats, gripping the handle, and then accidentally plunges it straight into the ground. As it turns out, steering a magical broom is not the same as trying to steer a griffon or a skyscale. He coughs, dusting himself off as he rises to his feet and drags the broom with him. Maybe this can wait for another time.

He looks up at whoever just caught that, as if he didn't completely beef the attempt.]
How is your summoning coming along? Do you need any assistance?

[Research & Recon]

[Wanderer's tasks are in alignment with what Syrlya wants to do anyway--get some information about this place, better understand what he's working with when his own magic seemingly doesn't function this far from Tyria.

He purses his lips, humming before turning to whoever was listening with him.]
That doesn't give us much to start with. There must be a library that can tell us more about the spirits and history of this world. Though, since we're already on the manor's grounds perhaps it's best to start with the second task.

[Wildcard]

((Something else in mind? I've got my plotting post over here.))
lustro: (031)

[personal profile] lustro 2024-04-06 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[ You never know with fiction, especially something written by a kid, as Ginger suspects - ]

It would be difficult, yep. I assumed it would crack open and reveal something - or take the form of a cool-looking monster. Um. Let's see what other options - oh, maybe there's a dungeon up there we need to clear.
annihilator: (➤ 12)

[personal profile] annihilator 2024-04-06 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
...Whoa.

[That is in response to quite a few things here. Partially because this guy is taller than he is, and Malice is quite tall already, but it's mostly because this guy really has got it down already. Look at that, that's so cool!!]

So you're a wizard or somethin' back home? My kind can't use magic at all, so all'a this is new to me. I don't even know where to start, really.
mirristry: (11)

A broom with a view

[personal profile] mirristry 2024-04-06 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[Because Phil rolled a 1 in dexterity, the broom clocks him square on the head and sends him sprawling to the ground with a startled squawk. It's only by sheer luck that it didn't manage to dislodge his monocle and make the situation even worse, but the voice that calls down to him as he sits there rubbing the sore spot on his head does a great job at accomplishing that instead.]

... bring that up to you? You don't mean... climb, do you...?

[PLEASE, HE'S GOING TO DIE.]
Edited 2024-04-06 22:27 (UTC)
impacter: (068)

[personal profile] impacter 2024-04-06 10:26 pm (UTC)(link)
They do get rather judgmental over the strangest things, don't they? [talking about wanderer like he's a 6 year old, rip]

It seems we've been assigned our own country to represent in this world by the supernatural. Don't you think that's awfully forward?
lustro: (029)

[personal profile] lustro 2024-04-06 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Mm. [ Yeah, he's pretty sure he's not a figment of someone's imagination, so he didn't think anything was going to happen anyway. ] A pacifist? That's good.

[ He lets out a sigh. Time to get to work. ]

It doesn't seem like they're stopping us from exploring, so maybe we can check out the place.
specialinquisitor: (military)

[personal profile] specialinquisitor 2024-04-06 10:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[And he's summoned a broom.]

[Which truly is a broom, and Mòrag's hopes that the term was metaphorical, however faint they might have been, are now well and truly dashed.]


Very nicely done. Was that your intent?
divineth: (🌒 13)

[personal profile] divineth 2024-04-06 10:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[One would think that Urianger's penchant for jumpscaring people would mean he wouldn't get startled right back, Bruno's fright is so over the top that he can't help but take a step back.]

Ah- Mine apologies, 'twas not mine intent to frighten thee.

[Oh, and he should mention the ears, huh. He lifts his hands up to feel for them.]

Is aught amiss with mine ears?
specialinquisitor: (not happy)

[personal profile] specialinquisitor 2024-04-06 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
In this case, your guess is as good as mine. Thus why I am struggling to grasp how to accomplish this. So far, I have been able to apply at least some logical consistency to all this...

[Mòrag shakes her head, fighting down a spurt of frustration.]