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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!
no subject
... I'm used to being thrust into situations like this. Being told to set aside all the things from before and do the task I'm given now. It's annoying, but it is what it is.
( He was on his way out, anyway, or else he'd be much more agitated, given Yuu-chan. But the way things are now... he can simmer in his general discontent for existing. )
Do you?
( Hold resentment for this world for this sudden errand, and all. )
no subject
Solomon, similarly to Mika, doesn't answer the retort right away, finger running idly against the piece of charcoal in his hand as his exhale flutters the candlelight in front of him.]
I wonder.
The amount of power that would be needed to bring us here is alarming. We can't speak to the beings that control that power. Not yet, anyway. There's too many holes of the unknown to connect anything firmly. So we're at a severe disadvantage, claimed by a magic that chose us rather than the other way around, with an enormous amount of responsibility on our shoulders and some incredibly high stakes that we only know in vague strokes.
Besides that... I don't think anyone would enjoy being under an invisible boot.
[There's a slight tinge of exhausted offense in his voice at the last line - towards the air, the space, the situation, and not Mika.
A beat, and he exhales again, smoothing his free hand through his hair.
...]
I want to have a dialogue with the spirits sooner rather than later. Patch this puzzle enough to see a picture. My feelings on the situation can wait until then.
no subject
( A joke? From Mika? Maybe So.
That said, it doesn't seem like he disregards what Solomon says— quite the opposite. It's a thought process he agrees with, shedding light on an additional dimension of the whole affair he hadn't yet considered. His world isn't very magical, so he doesn't have the greatest sense of magical scale - but he's right, this task asks for a great amount of power, and that's one more blank space on an otherwise pretty blank page of answers. )
If you can figure out a way to commune with them, be my guest. I spoke with Tatara, too— he said that he was summoned here while the previous sage was already around, which isn't supposed to happen. They showed him the ropes, then the other sage and all their wizards up and literally disappeared all at once.
It sounds either like something, spirits or otherwise, knew the sage and their wizards were going to disappear, so they pulled in Tatara really fast, or... something—the spirits—are going out of control, and summoning things on accident. Apparently the hat guy was here before Tatara showed up, too.
no subject
I'd prefer to call it "not worrying about tomorrow".
[He listens with intent as Mika continues, though, drinking it in. Dhor was here before the Sage, hm? He'll have to remember to ask him a few follow up questions.]
Mm. Our sparrow said our summoning was not one lone being's effort - there is no one spirit that's responsible. They also seem cognizant enough to still have the say in their preferences of representation. [So the amount of control present is debatable... but he's not eager to dismiss the chance of a general instability just yet, especially given that Tatara had explained that what was going on was, in all avenues, wrong.]
Perhaps it was less an accident, and more an act of desperation.
no subject
( If the moon Majora Masks into the world, there goes all the spirits— or so Mika assumes. )
But not so desperate that they couldn't pull in an orderly number of people here. Every country's spirits claimed five people each.
( He was watching the coats get handed out when that happened. )
no subject
single spirit with very little power, they may not succeed. But that's not what we seem to be dealing with.
[He continues with his seal, the movements of his hand focused as he speaks.]
Twenty-one, I believe, is the amount of wizards that went missing. That isn't evenly divided. Not unless they had a mentor in place, just like our sparrow is for us.
Five possible sets of four, five current sets of five... maybe there's more importance in an equal response from every group of spirits, not the full quantity of wizards themselves. Order would still be a high priority if that were the case.
[He thinks this would be so much easier if he could just talk to them and ask about all this, but nothing in life comes easy. Hmph.]
no subject
( Clearly, Solomon's done his own snooping, so maybe he knows, and it'll save Mika the trip. (He just doesn't want to talk to people more than he absolutely has to...) )
It's possible, though. Every spirit pitching in ends up pulling in a roughly equal number of each... but only roughly.
( Hence why they have an extra in both cases. But that seems... a little lazy, to write it off as just that - at least, to Mika. He's not satisfied with that conclusion just yet. )
It wouldn't explain why he showed up so early, though. A failed attempt to summon a sage?
no subject
Our sparrow? [He briefly mimes the brim of the hat in an exaggerated way. Hat guy = sparrow.] No, I don't have a clue. He isn't much of a conversationalist.
[Not unreasonable, and Solomon finds he can be managed if one treats him seriously. But getting to know the sullen types is always tricky.]
Unless Tatara was told, I don't think we will learn much about our mentor unless it's from his own mouth.
[He exhales with a little hup noise as he rises to his feet in the center of his now-complete circle, setting his candle aside.]
Sometimes you truly don't know unless you try. Maybe that holds for the spirits just as much as it does for us.
no subject
Maybe.
( He glances up at Solomon, not at all convinced on the aspect of communication, but. )
So it all goes back to seeing if you can summon your friend. And damn them to the same hell as us?
no subject
No need to be worried about that. He's used to it.
[Can't really damn someone that already lives in Actual Hell, after all.]
Stay back for now. This should only take a moment.
no subject
He'll step back to whatever seems like a safe enough distance for... whatever may or may not happen. )
After you.
1/3
Well. Hopefully.]
2/3
Manu Propria.
[There's an immediate ripple palatable through the air, though the seal shows no reaction. Still, the tension pulls as he continues.]
"Hear me, denizens of darkness.
You who are born of shadow and you who give birth to it.
Hear me and do as I command."
3/3
He couldn't even connect to them anymore from here, huh?]
Hm. Well, that answers that for now, I guess. What a shame.
no subject
He says nothing until Solomon declares the ritual failed. )
... And what kind of magic was that?
( Besides the very obvious "summoning of something unpleasant." )
no subject
[He did notice that displeased expression, though he doesn't choose to look towards Mika, instead continuing to scuff up the circle.]
That's an interesting expression on your face. What's on your mind?
no subject
... Just thinking humans are all the same. They all slant toward the worst sort of magic.
( Is he familiar enough with magic to identify its school? Not really. But all magic in human hands is bad magic, and Solomon's incantation didn't exactly promise a more pleasant articulation. )
no subject
[But this also means Mika may not be human. Solomon's attention draws directly towards him, now immensely interested.]
You must have truly had a rotten experience, though, if you don't like seeing it in a human's hands. How are you used to humanity using it?
no subject
( Said flatly, brooking no argument. Yes, all humans. )
Humans will always use magic to satisfy their morbid curiosity, and their lust for power. If there isn't a means, they'll create one, no matter who or what they have to harm. It isn't very different from your own philosophy.
( He draws that curt parallel like a line in the sand. )
no subject
I won't pretend that humans are perfect, nor are they justified in every choice they make - they're just as flawed as every other creature out there. But I don't enjoy generalizing this so broadly without knowing your world, or what you are. [Like, he knows his own motivations, but smearing all of humankind, even across worlds? Nah, that won't fly.]
no subject
( Sounds like human apologism on your part, smh )
no subject
I can only see what is presented to me. And I really don't like to assume.
[His tone hasn't changed a bit, but how he holds himself shifts very carefully, a veil of guarded curiosity, as though he's gauging the reaction of a snake in the brush.]
Will you at least give me your name?
no subject
... Mika.
( He doesn't care for his name, shortened or full, so he'll offer it freely. )
I've seen more than enough. I've seen the consequences of human arrogance destroy their own world, and seen them turn on each other even then, inventing new means of cruelty where they fell short before. If that's what you want to give benefit of the doubt to, then fine. I'm not going to tell you not to sign your name on the dotted line of humanity's case.
( Meanwhile, Mika is fine with being judge, jury, and execuftioner. )
no subject
Again, I don't like to assume. I'd be a fool to speak for the humanity in your world.
Broad strokes are just dangerous things to use, whether you're human or not. I'm not expecting you to quench your hurt, or what you believe. I'm just asking you to be careful.
[He's not here to avoid judgement for being on humanity's side. He's put up with plenty in that regard, and he will for as long as he's cursed to live.]
no subject
All right. I'll humor you. What possible detriment can there be to extrapolating from all the things I've known?
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