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

[promittere]

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!

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Comments

[revengier]

Mm, that's correct. For example, you can create unbreakable chains if you place a strong enough condition on them.

[ A totally casual example. ]

If your targets are specific, you place a rule that you can only use them on those targets, otherwise you'll be hurt. Locking your power in that way means that it'll become that much more potent.

[dyingtohealyou]

Sounds like you'd have to get pretty creative so you don't run out of tricks.

[revengier]

You can get as creative as you want. If you want to have other ways of taking down your opponents, you can create them to supplement your other abilities.

[ It's what he does, after all. ]

[dyingtohealyou]

Got any examples?

[revengier]

I do, actually.

[ He holds up his hand, brand prominent on the back of it. ]

I have a few abilities, one connected to each finger. Healing, analysis, entrapment, etcetera.

[dyingtohealyou]

What do you mean by, "connected?"

[revengier]

My abilities are part of my weapon, which are chains that are connected to my fingers through rings.

[dyingtohealyou]

That is a lot more creative than the mages in my world.

[Tying off another bag.]

[revengier]

Really? Do they only focus on one or two spells?

[dyingtohealyou]

They focus on a field... for example, inventing spells for various uses via magic circles, or potion-brewing.

Most mages don't cast directly from their body, and definitely not tied to individual limbs like that.

[revengier]

Interesting...

[ It sounds a lot less complex, though a lack of complexity has a lot of benefits. ]

Are they restricted to magic circles, or can they cast without?

[dyingtohealyou]

A mage who focuses on magic circles should be able to handle casting basic spells without, but why would they bother if it's not their area of study? The whole point of focusing is to create spells basic magic can't achieve.

[revengier]

Sounds like a real loss of utility to me. But I suppose it wouldn't matter much to them, not if they care more about creating spells than actually casting them in combat.

[dyingtohealyou]

Most magic users are researchers more concerned about experiments to further their spells than combat, it's true. Rather than participate in wars themselves, they're more likely to create a homunculus who can.

[revengier]

Ah... so they'll never face the real consequences of their actions then, because they can create things to suffer in their stead.

[dyingtohealyou]

[He smiles coldly.]

They already use live subjects for their experiments. Expecting them to have ethics about living weapons is asking far too much of them.

[Tying off the third bag a little tighter than necessary.]

[revengier]

[ That certainly doesn't escape his notice, and he looks down at Ahito's hands. ]

You seem to have personal feelings about that. [ ... ] Understandably.

[dyingtohealyou]

[Fixing his gaze on collecting more sugar pieces.]

I was one of the test subjects, myself. Hard not to.

[revengier]

Mm, in that case... I can't really blame you.

[ Ever thought about revenge, Ahito?

Anyway. ]

I hope you've managed to escape being a test subject before arriving, at the very least.

[dyingtohealyou]

[Every single day, my dude.]

The test was deemed a failure, so I was released. But all that was years ago, anyway.

[Finishing off one last bag.]

[revengier]

[ He's tying up his last one as well, setting it down on the ground as he gives Ahito a curious look. ]

Years ago? How old were you?

[dyingtohealyou]

Five or so...? Pretty young. But then again, so was the other test subject.

[He'll get to his feet, dusting himself off before reaching out a hand.]

End of the World.

[...And summoning his broom to begin tying the bags to.]

[revengier]

...Did they ever face repercussions?

[ He stares at Ahito's broom for a second or two longer than he normally would, mesmerized by the colors, before he calls forth his own. ]

Pro populus meus.

[ It's a swirl of blue and yellow, with bright scarlet bristles, creating what's an overall somewhat cohesive mess of a broom. ]

[dyingtohealyou]

...Colorful.

[Apparently the broom's aesthetic is amusing enough to bring back a small smile.]

As for your question - no. I fact, I'm positive they're still operating to this day.

[revengier]

[ Wow... he can't believe his ugly broom is giving Ahito amusement. Kurapika promptly rolls his eyes. ]

Have you considered dismantling their operations?

[ He assumes so. ]