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lunaecalamitas2024-04-04 11:33 pm
promittere) wrote in 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.
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.
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.
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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[And he doesn't imagine that Dror will react well to being woken up at late o clock.]
If you're that eager to try to find something, I suppose we could go back into the library for a little while. There is quite a lot to look at, though.
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[He's unenthused about it, but it's better than being alone, so! C'mon, let's head on over there!]
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[For a moment, his wand comes back out with a silent flick towards the circle as he lets one of his shoes drag through the ashen lines. Obviously, nothing happens, but he still pouts.]
I suppose some of my old habits will really have to be adjusted here. I don't think I've had to go actually find a water source since I was a child.
Ah well. It shouldn't be any harm to leave here. Come, let's be off. [Just two tall northies going to the book club at 1am, nbd.] Do you have any languages you're proficient in, Malice? There's numerous ones across the entire library.
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Languages? Nah. Just common. There's a few where I come from - humans have a bunch of 'em, I think? - but I don't have much of a skill for it, apparently. Rosalie tried to teach me some of the old tongue but...
[He waves his good hand at that. Given the wry look, it's pretty obvious it didn't go well.]
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Humanity does tend to morph around a lot with how they choose to talk, don't they? I wouldn't feel bad about it. So long as you can communicate your needs to the people that matter, that's all that's important.
I take it you don't count yourself as a human, then?
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[Obviously there's no point in keeping it a secret, partially because they're all supposed to work together and partially because it isn't a secret back home and most vampires are too proud to even pretend to be human, so.]
I'm a vampire. You got 'em where you're from? Seems like some people think of us as some kinda weird cryptids.
[He is so glad Akira taught him this word, he has gotten so much use out of it!!]
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[Suddenly Solomon seems far more interested in his company, looking Malice over with a more intentional eye.]
I can't say I've ever met one in the flesh, but tales about them have always been very popular! Some roaming diseases even mimic the need for blood you hear about in those stories.
It would be nice to hear what they're really like, though.
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[...no.]
That much is right, though there's a lotta other rumors that are way off the mark. A lotta humans think we can turn into bats or fog or that we can teleport an' disappear at will or whatever. Only certain vampires can do things like that, 'cause of their Domains. Each vampire's got one, an' these Domains give a vampire a special power, so to speak. It's kinda-sorta like magic, but they're two different things where I'm from. An' vampires can't use magic.
[So this whole thing has been a bit of an adjustment, to say the least!!]
If you've got any other questions, I don't mind answerin' 'em.
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[Anyway, back to the more important topic! He leads them inside from the courtyard to follow the halls to the library, keeping a slow pace.]
A specialty that isn't magical... This must be an interesting change from your norm, then, right? I hope you don't get discouraged.
Are these Domains of yours a location, or something else?
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Hah, it's been a bit of a struggle so far.
[But his expression is wry rather than annoyed - it's going to take a lot of work, but he can put in the effort.]
Nah, just a skill. Locations don't have anythin' to do with it, vampires are just pretentious when it comes to namin' things.
[They're either pretentious or edgelordy or both.]
Though now I'm curious... If humans can't catch it, then what else d'ya have? We've only got humans an' vampires where I'm from.
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Some say it spreads the worst in the worlds of the afterlife~
[Pause for dramatic effect.
Anyway! Where were we.]
Is this Domain something you can still perform here? You have me awfully curious now.
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just gonna move on, huh. ok.]
Uh, yeah? Should be? I don't see why it wouldn't, it's a part of me. My Domain's the ability to reflect damage, so like... if you were to stab me, I'd be able to reflect that back onto you. So we'd both have the same stab wound, mine wouldn't just vanish.
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Is it something you have to intentionally use, or is it just a reflexive ability?
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[Malice grumbles that last part before shrugging.]
But that ain't important, I've got it now an' that's what matters.
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...]
If you don't mind me asking, were you missing any abilities when you walked out of that elevator the first day?
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[Malice blinks, confused.]
To be honest, I ain't tried anythin' out since I got here... but my Domain's a part of me so there's no way that'd be gone?
[that's not how it works—]
What 'bout you? You missin' somethin'?
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[Anyway, LIBRARY AHOY.]
It really makes me wonder about the scale of power for the spirits of this world.
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[Though his Domain is a relatively new thing, so it might not be as bad for him. Still! Weird.]
I'm interested in learnin' more 'bout these spirits...
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[At least Ibuki was with him last time, in a realm of their general understanding with less dire consequences.]
Well, we're going to the right place! [Which is probably like two doors down at this point given how long they've been walking.] I don't think our mentor would have assigned us an entire research paper if there wasn't some way to learn about them.
The ones from the North are apparently rather aggressive.
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[Malice laughs at that. Between his name, his species, and his general... everything, yeah that scans. He doesn't need to question it.]
You think we'll be able to like... actually talk to 'em at some point? I dunno what I'd say to a spirit, but they sound interestin'.
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[First impressions don't make Malice look aggressive, despite his name... but appearances are always deceiving.
Since he is the one with both arms intact, he'll go ahead and grab the library door to usher Malice in. Enjoy the bazillion books everywhere.]
And yes, once we get stronger, it should absolutely be possible. Our mentor said he could hear them rather clearly.
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[He is just remarkably chill about 90% of the time... But anyway, he nods in thanks when Solomon gets the door and in we go! Ugh. Books. He'll at least try to make himself useful and flip through a few but... man...]
Yeah? That's great news. I do wanna get in contact with 'em, they seem interestin'.
no subject