WEEKS 5 & 6

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WEEKS 5 & 6

THE CALM BEFORE...

The city has more or less bounced back after the disastrous Go-Kart race. While there are still some people recovering, no one’s hospitalized and there were thankfully no casualties - although there were more injuries than might have been expected, on accounts of some brawls that broke out among the competitors and the audience.

In spite of that, the Shopping District is feeling distinctly friendlier these days. Shopkeepers will take notice of repeat customers and be openly happy to see the better-behaved ones. They may even cut characters a discount on the sly for their patronship!

Perhaps as a result, the Nekyia Shopping District has become clear of haze much like the Nekyia dormitory started. While Shadows still lurk there, they are much fewer in number. Should characters choose to explore some more, they will find that the haze has become thinner in the Nekyia Entertainment District, allowing them to work on cleaning out the various Shadows that reside in that area.

WHAT THE FLUFF.

Meanwhile, back at the dormitory…

…trouble is amiss, but the fun kind of trouble.

On Sunday, September 1st, it seems like there's an event for pets being hosted at the parks near the dorm! That's fine and dandy, but the trouble comes from owners being careless and letting their animals run loose. That's right, some of them have been given free rein to explore, and a number of them have taken a liking to the dormitory!

You might be able to blame Dawn – that cat from the Nekyia who also appears to give you strange items! – because she's got bowls of cat food around her that she's feasting on. It's attracted some pet cats and strays alike. As for the dogs, well, they like people. Enough said.

Why not treat yourself to some animal therapy while you can? And if not, wrangling any animals that manage to get free works too!

SUMMER DAYS.

As summer break draws to a close, the Arcade is desperate to not only redeem its reputation, but also squeeze the last bit of pocket change out of people while they’re still on vacation. As a result, there is an ongoing discount on point cards allowing people to play competitive arcade games - Classics like Mirmo Kart and Street Slayer, as well as shinier rhythm games like Dancerun Stardom and LaiLai Universe Plus!

Of course, the hope is that characters drawn in by the arcade games will stick around for the other offerings - karaoke, bowling, ufo catchers, and even a bar (for those 21+!) And if none of these attractions are enough to catch a character’s eye, there’s plenty of other activities to be found in Carnation Court. Besides the restaurants and bars, there are many themed pop-up cafés and events, and even a few empty buildings with a very reasonable lease fee, should someone want to run an event of their own...

While the mood isn’t as open and friendly as the shopping district, it’s still worth a visit to relax and unwind a bit, preferably alongside Braphine’s other chosen. After all, there are Shadows looming on the horizon...

MESSAGE FROM YOUR RA!

Huh...? That's weird. It looks like a really big Shadow took up residence in the Nekyia. Hold on, I'll set things up so the app will give you the coordinates! Could you please check it out?

COMMISSIONS

NEKYIA COMMISSIONS

FETCH QUEST

I messed up…Mom's gonna be so mad at me for losing track of her dog at that event…

There's a shadow in the Nekyia that's taken the form of a Level 25 Nue. It seems to be growling in despair, and echoing the thoughts of this commissioner. Apparently this person lost his mother's dog at the event and hasn't made an effort to find it yet. Fight the Nue and try to knock some sense into this guy, either by shaking some sense into him or by defeating him; they've got a dog to find, after all.

YOU KNOW THAT WE'RE TOXIC

Leave, Braphine. Leave this world to the people. We don't need anyone. We've only got ourselves.

Seems like someone who might be involved with the vandalism incident might have a shadow here, too, in the form of a Level 24 Mokoi. She sounds like she's going to do something more extreme to the place if she isn't stopped. However, be careful… characters hit with Dazzler from this particular Shadow cannot be cured with magic, and must instead be healed by another person’s touch. It’s time to get cozy with your companions.

GET HEE OUTTA HERE

A powerful Shadow has appeared in the Nekyia and needs to be eliminated asap! Black Frost is a tenacious (if cute?) little guy, and can only be fought after taking down three Level 28 Jack Frosts beforehand. Make sure you ration out your spiritual energy and healing spells, this little Shadow can pack a real punch, being at Level 30! That said, for those who manage to defeat him, he should drop a mascot trading card. Turn this in to the priest or priestess at the temple to unlock a bonus new skill for your Persona!

(OOC: Please turn in your threads for this commission on the rewards page to unlock the new skill, which is separate from your leveling skillset! You may select one elemental skill for light damage to apply permanently to your character's persona. When turning in the skill will be effective immediately once rewarded.)

REAL WORLD COMMISSIONS

FINE DINING

Various restaurants, from fast food and fast casual grub to the fine dining establishments in Carnation Court are trying to outdo each other in terms of promotion, and as such are on the prowl for any free hands to help entice potential customers with free samples and food challenges galore. Grab a buddy and help hawk some bite-sized treats! Or maybe try to beat the record for the biggest burger ever eaten, if you dare.

ALL HANDS ON STAGE

A number of performers were involved in the Go-Kart incident and have yet to fully recover enough to do their parts for the show! For the next two weeks, the Sunset Grand Theater is looking for understudies for roles, as well as stage hands who are willing to ninja around and maneuver props and sets for the actors. The production is a fanciful tale of starcrossed lovers, evil stepmothers, political feuds, and for some reason, a dragon.

PREPARE THE PETS

The pet store in Vermillion Village is looking for some volunteers to help socialize the pets through playtime, as well as feed some of the more persnickety ones. Those who want to pet some adorable balls of fluff and energy can work with the kittens, puppies, and bunny rabbits, while those who are brave enough can try their hand at feeding the reptiles their meals of live crickets and frozen rats.

OOC

READ ME!!!!

Welcome to your log for Weeks 5 and 6! Feel free to use this log for any developments that happen during the next two weeks. There will be no log next week, but we will still be posting a small mini-event on Saturday.
For plotting, please feel free to head over to this post on the OOC comm to post your plotting top levels.
For Nekyia commissions, you can assume that the Shadows will respawn until they've been beaten enough times to go back to normal.
Palaces start this week! Please refer to the Palace schedule here and sign ups for this week's capped Palace here

ic comm | inboxes | ooc comm | full nav

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Comments

[strawsandals]

...?

[ Yoon attended the funeral and meeting, looking a little worse for wear but still somewhat in tact. On Saturday night (9/7) however, something changes.

For the rest of the week, Yoon is around the dorms a lot less; he's usually found making something in the kitchen around dinner time, or reading books in the lounge, but he's mostly absent this week...at least inside the building.

He can be found training outside, whacking the training dummies relentlessly with his rolling pin. His expression is one that Soujuurou might've seen before - dark, intense, angry.

If he's not with the training dummies, he'll be eating instant food (?!) in the park near the dorms, even sleeping out there some nights.

Anyone is free to approach him, but he may not give them the response they'd expect...or like, even. ]

[emptyself]

[ at some point in the morning, soujuurou is headed to train with the dummies, but is stopped in the his tracks the moment he spots yoon.

it’s those eyes again, which cause him to pause and observe the young man from a distance.

and after a while, he calls out: ]

Is everything alright?

[strawsandals]

[ He momentarily pauses to glance at the person addressing him.

A few days ago, he didn't want to look at Soujuurou like this again – but he is here now, giving him the same stare as before. No remorse.

He goes back to the dummies and keeps striking. ]

[emptyself]

[ soujuurou doesn't mind being glared at. he's been glared at countless times since coming down from the city, from both alice, aoko, and a multitude of both bosses and customers alike.

what unsettles the him, however, is the feeling of wrongness that yoon's look gives. something is clearly wrong, and soujuurou doesn't know what to do to solve it. ]

Yoon. [ he tries again, voice level. he doesn't know how to help, but he doesn't feel like he can stand there and watch either. ] What's wrong?

[strawsandals]

What's it to you?

[ His voice is low and alarmingly hostile. He doesn't stop his training, either. ]

Does it matter? We barely know each other.

[ Which is true - they are still newly met - but they'd just been through a lot together, with the others. That sure is a statement and a half from someone who spent his first day cooking for everyone. ]

forward dated to wednesday

[cirquedesang]

[Despite being roommates, they've yet to get to know one another well, yet. Their interactions have been positive, sure, but for a place intended to foster bonds, they've been more distant than the goddess would probably prefer.

In their defense, Yoon has had a lot to get used to, and Celeste, along with generally being a workaholic, was pulled into two of these palaces already. They've been busy! And their room has been mostly for sleeping.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't notice when Yoon starts growing... distant. Not from him, specifically, but there's a look in his eyes more often than not, now, that's cause for concern.

It makes him wonder if Yoon is brewing a palace of his own, from what he knows of how individuals act before they manifest... but then again, he truly doesn't know the boy well enough to tell, and he's grieving besides. Grief manifests differently for everyone - perhaps Yoon reacts to it by growing sullen and withdrawing.

Regardless of the circumstances, when he doesn't return to their room for a second night in a row, Celeste makes a mental note to keep an eye out for him when he's out and about himself. It's not a search, per se, but if he finds him--

Ah. There. Sleeping in the park.

He approaches quietly, so as not to wake him, if possible, and in something of a mirror of their journey "home" immediately after Jordi's palace, he scoops him up gently in his arms, fully intending on putting him to bed properly, if Yoon doesn't wake up along the way.]

[strawsandals]

[ Celeste is perceptive -- there are times when the look in Yoon's eyes isn't overtly hateful; rather, it's cold, aloof, lacking the usual warmth and compassion that he carries with him. That's who Yoon is (was?) -- who he should be -- but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. He really doesn't seem to want anything to do with these people. Celeste may also have noticed that Yoon's books, which he is normally seen reading, have been left untouched on his side of the room.

Yoon is sleeping, unaware that he's been carried back to his room -- that is, until he wakes up.

...

He can't understand why, but he's not happy about this. Perhaps he would've been touched by Celeste's (is that who brought him here?) consideration, but this is not one of those days, and he hurriedly gets out of bed and moves to brush his teeth so he can get out of the dorms again.

Maybe Celeste will run into him along the way. ]

[cirquedesang]

[He will certainly see him along the way, but will not initiate conversation, this time. Call it something of a test, if you will. The Yoon of his initial arrival would have said hello, or waved at the very least. The Yoon since the palace has been cold, seeming to ignore everyone.

It would seem today is the latter.

So he goes about his day - works on commissions, interacts with others who seem more themselves, bides his time until the early evening, when the sun is low in the sky and casts a red glow over the world. It's early in the evening, but sure to be just late enough...

And then he checks each of his little roommate's new haunts in turn, until he comes across him in the training grounds. As the night prior, he approaches too-quietly, watches him absolutely pummel a dummy, until there's one large, reckless swing of the rolling pin-

Which he steps around Yoon to catch easily in his hand, holding tight so the tool-turned-weapon can't be jerked away so easily.]

What's wrong?

[Right to the point.]

[strawsandals]

[ The dummy is looking worse for wear, but whether that's because of Yoon's strength or persistence is easy to guess. Still, he's been at this for a while, longer than a normal person should be whacking a training dummy. He prepares for another strike, which will probably be one of his last, given how tired he's starting to feel. Yoon winds his pin backwards and prepares to swing-

it's stopped. He almost stumbles backwards, what with his weight being thrown off. He turns his head. ]

You-

[ Annoying. ]

What do you want, Celeste. I'm busy.

[beathollow]

... Yoon?

( as always, mafuyu is a quiet thing. but this time it feels more- wary. anger is... dangerous. ena's was like a firecracker, familiar and true. but this is different. )

[strawsandals]

[ Mafuyu runs into Yoon while he's at the park, sitting on a bench, doing nothing but staring angrily at the ground. When she speaks, he glances up, but he doesn't move his head with his eyes. ]

What.

[beathollow]

Did something happen?

[strawsandals]

Nothing happened.

[ He looks back at the ground. ]

Why does it matter, anyway?

[finalmix]

[ joshua is a people watcher. so for a while he just watches yoon go to town on the training dummies, hitting them with a kind of ferocity that he hasn't seen even in the lighthouse palace earlier in the week.

it's only when yoon is taking a momentary break that he makes his presence known. ]

Are you just hitting them for the sake of hitting them? Because your form looks kind of sloppy.

[strawsandals]

I don't care.

[ He says it without sparing Joshua a passing glance. He's not interested in conversation, clearly, but it's Josh...he'll make it happen......

Yoon won't answer his question, either. Hm. ]

[finalmix]

[ pokes him with a figurative stick!!! ]

Do you? If you didn't care you would be probably lying around somewhere and taking a nap, not beating the shit out of a poor training dummy like it owes you money or something~

[bloodandstars]

[ Maika is no stranger to hitting things pointlessly, just to release some tiny amount of frustration — enough to not combust, at least this time, at least for a little longer. But she wouldn't have figured the kid from Aubrey's palace to be the type.

Well, what does she know? What does she really know about anyone here? She's deliberately a little loud in her approach, making more of an effort not to sneak up on anyone just this once. ]

Is it more fun to hit something that can't move? If you're that bored, I'll go a few rounds with you.

[strawsandals]

I'm not going to fight you.

[ He sounds insistent, like he's turning down her offer and he means it. Weird, isn't it? For someone who's set on violence, for someone who's hitting these dummies as hard and as much as he is. It seems like a silly sentiment, coming from him right now. ]

Let me be.

[bloodandstars]

[ All these grumpy people who clearly want a good fight to clear their heads, and just as clearly won't take it. Maika doesn't know what the pattern is yet — except, probably, that Braphine enjoyed grabbing stupidly stubborn people for no fucking reason. ]

Suit yourself. If that's as unsatisfying as it looks, you'll be out here all year.

[ And the dismissal just gets a raised eyebrow and a stare, for now. Where does this kid think he is? ]

[cleansewithfire]

[ It's Yoon eating instant food that makes Sunrise pause because by now she's associated this sort of thing with her roommate's poor eating habits. ]

...Mr. Yoon?

[strawsandals]

[ Sorry, Sunrise...he's probably been neglecting bandage things...

But he looks up from his food and gives her a cold stare. ]

What do you want?

[cleansewithfire]

[ Thank goodness for Richard, at least.

But Yoon's reaction makes her pause, like for a moment she isn't sure if she should keep talking. A part of her expects to be scolded, whether or not that actually makes sense to expect. ]

...If you wish to eat, I can make some food for you.

[gardenful]

[ Though they don't know each other well, the change in Yoon is obvious enough that Aerith tunes into it in the few times she happens to see him around the dorms. It's why she approaches him at some point, smiling a little. ]

Hey, wanna make that meal you promised?

[ Maybe that will serve as a little pick-me-up for him? She hopes so. ]

[strawsandals]

[ He was planning on making his way to somewhere quiet, but Aerith catches him at a good (?) time. Too bad his mood doesn't quite fit the timing. ]

No.

[ His answer is quick and easy. ]

[gardenful]

[ She raises her eyebrows, mild surprise washing over her face. She could tell he was in a bad mood, so she half expected, but still... ]

You busy?