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

[emptyself]

I feel like I've run more before. But the fighting might have been it. At least this one seemed to end with most of my injuries healed.

[ he nods. ]

You don't want to be alone in the dorm, right? Alright, I'll follow.

[townmusician]

It's not that I don't want to be alone! It's just that...

[,,,]

We're due for watching that movie. That's all.

[emptyself]

Oh, right. The movie.

[ he nods ]

Is there anything you have in mind?

[townmusician]

[Yeah!! The movie!! That's it, not any lingering worry about Soujuurou or anything.]

There's a few movies that people think are classics that would be a good start, but it'll depend on what we have available here, y'know? There's some stuff that's familiar but not quite the same in this place.

[emptyself]

Then I’ll let you choose.

[ soujuurou smiles, relieved to see that things haven’t changed between himself and his roommate. ]

Thank you, Haruka.

[townmusician]

[For the first time since this conversation has started, Haruka gives Soujuurou a look like he's insane.]

For what? You don't have to thank me for anything. It's not that big of a deal...

[emptyself]

I think kicking you the way I did is actually a pretty big deal?

[ now soujuurou is the one staring at haruka like HE’S the insane one. ]

[townmusician]

I dunno, I got off pretty easily compared to the other guys.

[RIP Sou...]

And it's not like I'm injured right now.

[emptyself]

That’s true. I only hit you once. Some of the others…

[ he sighs heavily, shoulders slumping at the thought. he knows that amount of force he put had to have been enough to injure them pretty heavily. thank the heavens they were able to heal from that. ]

I should go apologize to them. Jesse, Okada, and Sou especially.

[townmusician]

...Probably.

[Though should he do it right now? Probably not.]

Maybe not at this very moment, though. You should give people time to like... process all of that.

[and for izou to try killing a man, ig]

[emptyself]

Right.

[ well he'll go apologize to them at some points in this thread, but... ]

Are you sure you're alright then? Even if you're not injured, you saw the same thing as all of them. You don't have to act strong for me.

[townmusician]

I'm fine.

[He looks over at Soujuurou, frowning (pouting?).]

...I mean, the stuff I saw was your life, wasn't it? So why would I be the one hung up on it? Yeah, some of it was... a lot, but ever since I got here I've been dealing with a lot getting thrown at me.

[Considering one of the first things that happened to him was having a guy die on him...]

[emptyself]

Well, it's not the weight of my memories alone. I don't think much about them either, so I'm sure they're nothing to someone that didn't go through them, but you also had to deal with Jordi dying on you. It must have been horrible.

[ if it was horrible for him to simply see it, he can't imagine what kind of weight haruka must be carrying on his shoulders about that. and while soujuurou figures that his memories are featherweight in comparison, even just a small feather can send someone over the limit if they're already carrying a heavy weight.

he hums softly, nodding. ]

But maybe you're stronger than I am. No, you probably are.

[townmusician]

I don't think it's because I'm strong.

[Truthfully, Haruka is a very weak, very emotional person who lets himself get carried away by his feelings... but everything happening here is so beyond what he knows that it's made it hard to react to it all.]

...I think it's just that so much of this doesn't feel real. Like, being dragged in to some sort of divine conflict, the personas, what happened with Jordi-san... It doesn't feel like it's really happening, so maybe that's why it hasn't really sunk in, yet. I keep feeling like maybe this is just a bad dream, or I can... look at it like it's just a drama I was cast in, and I can be someone else for it.

[emptyself]

[ that is a lot of thinking that you're doing there, haruka. soujuurou doesn't respond immediately, only humming in acknowledgement to the other's confession. he's not really what to respond to this...or, better put, he doesn't know what haruka might want to hear from him.

after a few seconds, soujuurou decides to simply be himself. ]

A drama...so part of you wants to think it's fiction? [ hmm... ] I guess it is pretty crazy sometimes, even for modern society.

[ does that mean that he just thought that cities could just Be Like This? ]

Is there any role you'd like to play?

[townmusician]

[Soujuurou, sometimes people just want to hear what you really think!! Which is... nothing, in most cases? But that's fine.]

It's easier than accepting that this is really happening to all of us.

[Modern society is usually not like this!!!!! Sir!!!!]

...I don't know. I wouldn't be a very good hero, but it's not like I want to be the villain. Maybe I could just be a side-character who doesn't get much screentime.

[emptyself]

Huh...that's not what I was thinking of at all. But maybe it's because I never read fiction until I was in school?

[ and even then he means the japanese classics that they teach at school... ]

I always figured you'd want to be the main character.

[ a side-character feels more apt for someone like soujuurou-- someone boring and unremarkable, without a talent to his name. ]

Are you afraid of being the main character? Is that why you want to hide away?

[townmusician]

Wh- it's not about hiding!

[It's about being smart and AVOIDING DEATH—]

If I wanted to hide, I wouldn't be an idol. I'm just... not cut out to be a hero, and that's what main characters usually are. Throwing myself headfirst into danger would just be stupid.

[That and the fact that he's not a good person.]

That kind of thing is for the people who have a death wish.

[emptyself]

So heroes are people that throw themselves headfirst into danger? Heh, Aozaki would make a good one, then. She does that a lot. But she doesn't have a death wish, she's just very strong, like a storm.

[ soujuurou chuckles at haruka's description despite himself, his roommate from home coming into mind. ]

I don't mean hide as in hiding your whole self. I guess I meant it more like...hiding who you really are. Even as an idol you're just performing, right? So you just become someone else again.

Well, I don't think that's really a bad thing, though. Even in the wild, lots of animals will camouflage. They wouldn't survive otherwise. [ he pauses, thinking... ] But it'd be nice to see the real Haruka one day.

[townmusician]

Usually, yeah, because a good person doesn't just wait for things to change.

[Then he falls quiet, looking away from Soujuurou. He's not wrong, really, about everything being a performance. He's in an industry where image is everything, and acting outside of that image could cost you your career. While he's luckier than most in that his image isn't carefully constructed perfection, there's still an expectation placed on him, a presumption for how he'll react.

But even beyond that...

He's not sure that a "real" Haruka even exists. It's not something he can picture, at least.]

Is that really something you'd want to see? It would probably just be disappointing.

[emptyself]

Why would I think you’re disappointing?

[ soujuurou tilts his head to the side, eyeing haruka as if he were looking for something in particular. ]

I think you’re an incredible person. You can become someone else entirely by just reading a few lines— that’s a unique skill.

[ unlike soujuurou, who will never be anything beyond “himself”. and while that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it still means that he’s amazed by the things which he cannot do. ]

And you say you want to be a side character, but you still came to help me. You didn’t have to do that— you could have just stayed in the room and waited until I came back. Though maybe you’ll just say that you did it so you could get the reward. [ soujuurou shrugs his shoulders. haruka’s excuses aren’t his problem. ]

But even so, that means you wanted something enough to put yourself in danger and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

[townmusician]

[...He has no idea how he can say all of these things so sincerely, but he saw how Soujuurou ended up the way he is. They're from two incredibly, wildly different worlds and Soujuurou has seen and done things Haruka could never imagine... so maybe that's why the things Soujuurou says aren't things people he knows from home would say.

He chews on his bottom lip, brows knit together.]

...You really just say things that you think without ever second gussied yourself, huh.

[Trying to change the topic?? He would never.]

It must be nice to not worry about your words.

[emptyself]

You're wrong. I'm worried about what I say and do all the time.

[ he says it so simply, with almost no change in his expression. as if he were staring haruka down. ]

And while I try, sometimes I just can't help it and say what's on my mind. And I think that just shows people how different I am from them.

[ and soujuurou does not say this as a good thing. ]