WEEKS 9 & 10

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WEEKS 9 & 10

AS YOUR BONDS DEEPEN...

The charity event and the dreamscapes have come to an end... and the Fashion District seems a little better than it once was. Your efforts are being recognized, acknowledged by the environment and by Braphine herself. There's still work to be done - the thinning fog allows you to venture even further into the Office District, where there are stronger foes lurking around the corner and in dark alleyways.

Speaking of Braphine, she is pleased by your progress as a group thus far, and has given characters a little blessing: If there is something you've always wanted to tell someone – whether it be how you feel about someone else here, someone at home, a secret you've been holding in, or something else entirely – but have lacked the courage to do so, you may find the strength to say it now. While the God of Conflict forced ugly truths out of you, Braphine would like ones that come from a place of willingness without fear. This sensation will last until the end of your stay here.

How nice, isn't it? To feel like you're finally starting to get somewhere with your fellow Chosen.

The God of Conflict, however, thinks otherwise.

A LOOK IN THE MIRROR...

The world around you has seen a few changes. There are the positives, thanks to your efforts in completing commissions and forming connections, both of which aid Braphine.

However…

If you look in any sort of mirror, window, puddle that will give you your reflection, The God of Conflict is there, looking back at you, gazing at you eerily, freezing you and holding you in place.

"Well, well, well. Fancy running into you here, Chosen. Tell me…do you really believe that you're aiding Braphine in her mission? Do you really think any of the bonds that you've made here matter all that much, so much that it'll stop me, in the end? Don't make me laugh. We'll see how much your flimsy little chains hold up in time."

And then, just like that, he's gone…not without another little gift, though. You will be surrounded by 2-3 Nekyia Shadows once he disappears…in the real world. The Shadows, notably, will not attack unless provoked, and the locals will not be able to see them. As always, the only way you can attack them is through using your Personas; as soon as you engage in combat, you will also disappear to the locals like the Shadows.

For those who decide not to fight them, they will simply stare at you as you leave... but they will each briefly flicker into another form: The God of Conflict. But before you can say a word, they’ll disappear.

However, should you choose to engage in battle with them, any harm done to the environment or the locals themselves through the battle will be tangible. If you slam a Jack Frost into a building, it will leave a dent, in other words. The locals will not be able to see the actual fight, but they will notice the weird explosions and damages happening to them and around them. An important thing to note is that, being outside of the Nekyia, you will drain energy faster as you fight them, but you can defeat them with your Personas as usual otherwise.

THE DARKEST BEFORE DAWN.

So, maybe you didn't spawn a Palace, or even create a weird Nekyia environment like Soujuurou and Joshua have. That, however, does not mean you are free of your Shadow selves.

However, you are trapped with them. If you venture into the Nekyia, every so often when you look over your shoulder, they may be there, watching you, taunting you, following you around, even interacting with people (yourself or others) as if they were corporeal-- blink and you may miss them hovering over your shoulder, and turn the corner and you may just see them in the distance.

What follows your Shadow selves even after you return back to the safety of the dorms are the nightmares... which you find yourself having a little more often than normal. If you happen to stumble into a shared dreamscape, it looks... slightly different from when you last saw it. The nightmares always end the same way, though, even if the dreams are different: your Shadow self is staring back at you, haunting you before you wake up.

For anyone who has already confronted their Shadow selves, however, there is a glimmer of hope. In the Shadow's place is the best version of yourself, reminding you that although this is a nightmare, it does not have to continue forever. You have changed thanks to the people around you. Perhaps this is Braphine's reminder to you that she is still here, and despite her quiet, she's still watching.

Speaking of quiet, though…

…Has anyone checked on Mina lately?

And why does a certain brown cat keep on pacing in the dormitory hallways?

( OOC: A few limitations to keep in mind regarding this prompt:
• Shadows can now appear exclusively in nightmares, in the Nekyia, OR BOTH.
• Since the Dream King has not been vanquished yet, those who want to continue the dreamscape prompt as your nightmares are free to do so (this is optional though). Your Shadows are going to be here regardless!
• In this prompt, Shadows are NOT going to possess any characters. They are haunting you in the Nekyia (and may engage with other player characters, should you desire to go that route)!
• On that note, you can let your Shadows manifest however you'd like – they can yap, they can be completely quiet and stand menacingly, they can appear in quick glimpses and jumpscare you or linger for as long as you're in the Nekyia. They can stick to you or talk to others. Either way, everyone will see each other's Shadows.
• At this time, Shadows cannot be defeated outside of Palaces and mod-run mini-events.
• The same limitations apply to those seeing their best selves over their Shadows. )

WEATHER FORECAST

Balmy weather with a light breeze. Weather looks fair and comfortable for the next two weeks but don't forget to wrap up warmly or risk catching a chill! You wouldn't want to fall sick, would you?

Characters who journey into the Nekyia when it is getting chilly may find that Shadows in combat may be randomly afflicted with Freeze during combat.

COMMISSIONS

REAL WORLD COMMISSIONS

NO HORSING AROUND

The zoo is looking for volunteers! They need hands available to feed and clean up after the petting zoo animals in particular. You won’t be dealing with lions on this job, but you will be face to face with goat kids with a penchant for headbutting, so do take care while you work!

ONE FOR THE BOOKS

A new writer is in town to promote their book at the library! The problem is... very few people signed up for the meet and greet. Library workers are looking for volunteers or, really, anyone off the street who can be convinced to at least attend the poor author’s reading and fill out the room a little. Those who do end up attending will be treated to a reading of a high fantasy tale with romance, trysts, and a surprising number of werewolves, but those who manage to stay attentive may just notice a suspicious individual slipping in partway through... A disgruntled netizen has decided to make a mess of the author’s first meet and greet, and will get violent unless someone stops them.

DABBLING IN DELINQUENCY

Some of the students on the island have decided not to return to the classroom after all - instead roaming in packs around the city and causing general mischief. Try to turn them back on the path of decency! Especially when the boldest of them decide you’re a prime pickpocketing target...

NEKYIA COMMISSIONS

FANDOM WARS

“Disgusting... Anyone could pick up that slop and read all kinds of depraved things... People who write that stuff should just die.”

It seems someone got a little too into fights online about books - because their gripes about today’s tales has created a Shadow in the form of level 39 Thoth in the Nekyia. Worse yet, those who are inflicted by Rage by this Shadow cannot be cured with a simple spell - instead, those afflicted will find themselves venting out their frustrations for their battle companion to hear. The effect ends once the battle is completed, or they finish getting everything off their chest, whichever comes first.

KILL THE LIGHTS

“Don’t they see? There’s so much money to be made! If we just expanded our influence...”

A crooked politician trying to drum up support for military activity has generated quite the shadow. A level 40 Eligor can be found deep in the Nekyia’s business district, muttering to himself about all the profits to be had with a little conflict. Needless to say, things will get very, very bad if he goes through with it - take him down before he can start anything!

HORSING AROUND

The Nekyia business district is overrun with Unicorns teaming up with Ganesha to make quite the formidable team of a fierce fighter and a powerful support. That said, those who defeat the pair may just find that their foes have dropped quite a useful healing item...

(OOC: Please turn in your threads for this commission on the rewards page to receive a Bead Chain, which fully restores HP to all allies (maximum 4 including the user) and is valid for one time use during any battle. This is only valid for the first turn in of the commission.)

OOC

READ ME!!!!

Welcome to your log for Weeks 9 and 10! Feel free to use this log for any developments that happen during the next two weeks. There will be no log next week.
We're heading into endgame and AC is due 30 September, Monday, at 2359 EST! The boon for this month's AC has been updated as well - please have a look!
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 are still going strong - sign ups for Atem (here) and Kirumi's (here) capped palaces are still open, and sign ups for our FFA palace will be going up later today.

ic comm | inboxes | ooc comm | full nav

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[emptyself]

Because the water absorbs the flavor from the dried leaves.

[ he worked as an attendant for a tea shop. he knows this! ]

Would you like some?

[prozaic]

Do not tell me how to make tea-- I make it every day, and I do it properly.

You're not only ruining the tea leaves, but you're also wasting it-- no wonder we're forever running out of it so quickly!

[emptyself]

I'm not telling you how to make anything. I'm asking if you want some.

[ which, clearly, shalem does not. it reminds him of alice and all the times that she has gotten angry over his methods of brewing tea (or lack thereof), so he figures that, for his safety, he changes the subject slightly. ]

What's gotten into you, anyways? You seem like a completely different person.

[prozaic]

That is not the point. You are ruining resources, and ruining flavour, and you think that's fine?

[Indignant! Just watch him. He opens a new box of loose leaf, finds his strainer, and goes about his business. Pour water, place loose leaf into the strainer, and then place the strainer into the piping hot tea. And then points at it.]

Steep for five minutes, and it's ready, and you can reuse the leaves afterwards.

[emptyself]

[ 'it tastes the same anyways,' is on the tip of soujuurou's tongue, but he knows better than to say that. the last thing he needs at 3 am is a lecture on tea.

he nods obediently, starting the mental timer of five minutes in his head. ]

Okay. [ he pauses, taking the kettle again to the sink to fill it with enough water for a cup. ] But, really, what happened?

[prozaic]

[He turns back to his meat because he doesn't want that to grow bacteria while he fusses over Soujuurou not knowing how to function as a person.]

I don't know what you mean. [He really doesn't! Because he failed his perception roll ... (9).]

[emptyself]

[ soujuurou sets the kettle down on the stove plate, turning it on once more. his eyes aren’t on the snake, but on the light of the fire that flickers underneath the kettle.

maybe he should leave it alone. he should definitely leave it alone. no one that doesn’t have a death wish would go sticking his head in a snake’s nest.

but considering how shalem had acted with him… something seems amiss. ]

In Atem’s palace you helped kill people. In Tojo’s you told her that she should embrace being a murderer.

[ these aren’t accusations. they barely sound like they could even count as criticisms. soujuurou might as well be commenting about the weather, with his tone. ]

Also the way you talk is different.

[prozaic]

[Shalem takes up the knife to start dicing meat.]

I advocate for people to find who they are, and what they want to be. [Punctuated with a scrape of the back of the knife over the cutting board, to set it aside for the next chunk.] If young miss Tojo truly did relish being a killer, then restricting her would have been a disservice to herself, and the goal everyone was trying to accomplish.

After all, the shame of killing when it is not moral is the core of her troubles, in her perception, and were you all not attempting to say that you would accept her, no matter what? [Hence why he did that. Given the reactions to him, he knows Kirumi would have been miserable with this lot if she accepted the abyss in her.]

[emptyself]

Mm.

[ soujuurou responds with a short hum and, for a while, nothing else. he watches the space ahead of him and nothing at all at the same time. is he deep in thought, or is he just letting time pass and ending the conversation? he supposes that what shalem is saying would make sense in a vacuum, but something about it still feels like a thorn on the young man's side.

the only problem is that he can't define what it is.

either way, shalem, how good is your timing? because once again, right before the kettle begins to whistle, soujuurou takes it off the flame, and places it closer to shalem. like last time, it's only after he puts it down that there's a soft whistle indicating that it had just begun to boil. at five minutes exact, he pulls out the strainer from his mug, and holds it in his hand. ]

What do I do with this?

[prozaic]

Place it on a paper towel to dry. When the leaves have properly dried, take the dark glass jar from the refrigerator and place the leaves in. Without the strainer, mind, that one goes into the dirty dishes for washing.

[As he speaks, he's finally finished cutting and is starting to heat up the wok. He's... not actually Yanese or Lungmen, but he's watched the cooks at Rhodes Island enough.]

You'll find the taste much better than the sort of grass-filled water you've been having up 'til now.

[emptyself]

[ soujuurou does as told obediently, setting the strainer to dry.

when he goes back to take a sip of the tea he... finds no difference to what he drank before, really. he figures that it must be some taste that he hasn't acquired yet, but with how shalem's reaction was, like hell he'll bring it up right now.

... ]

People normally don't enjoy cruelty, you know? Or murder. [ resign themselves to it, sure. accept? perhaps. but embrace has a whole different meaning for soujuurou. and in this context, it's unpleasant. ] In the city, people can cheat, steal, kill, and be insensitive, but they don't do it because they enjoy it.

[ he remembers aoko and alice, both two that would consider themselves outside of the human world. the two of them were merciless, but it wasn't due to them enjoying the act of murder. no one understood the weight of life more than those two girls. ]

But I guess I'm surprised. You told me that I still had a chance to live my life in a different way than what the elders in the mountains were teaching me. So to tell her that she should try enjoying living life as a killer... it just seems cruel to do that to her. So, if you don't mind me asking: what changed?

[prozaic]

[Shalem tosses in the meat into the wok, and waits for the chunks to brown on the outside before throwing in the rice.]

Because, young man, it's clear that you dislike what you were trained to do-- remember, you do not like to fight. [It's so obvious what Soujuurou is like. From the very beginning, he's been fight-averse.] She on the other hand, what does she want? Who knows? I was simply showing her that there are more choices-- choices that are not available to you because you have already rejected them.

Of course, what she wants now is also different, now that her script has been revealed to be blank.

[There's a lot of difference between Soujuurou and Kirumi, really, so offering them the exact same choices is doing both children a disservice.

An egg and soy sauce for good measure and flavour.]

[emptyself]

Mm, that makes sense.

[ a genuine nod, and then another sip of his tea. he watches as shalem assemble the ingredients with an intensity that may have rivaled shalem’s with his ‘tea’

…


………… ]

Start mixing the ingredients together. They’re going to start burning.

[prozaic]

Trust. [He doesn't have a spatula in hand. Instead, he starts shaking the wok and tosses the ingredients.]

An associate of mine is a good cook-- I've watched him work several times, and doing so has helped me get better.

Besides, a bit of char on the rice is also good.

[emptyself]

Mm.

[ he worked at a chinese restaurant, but sure, he’ll try to trust.

but how do you trust a predator?

he takes another sip of his tea— maybe he should have just gone to the convenience store. ]

So why are you talking differently?

[prozaic]

You'll have to elaborate for me.

[He turns the stove off, and gets to moving his quick meal into a bowl.]

[emptyself]

Seriously?

[ soujuurou sighs, exasperated by the evasive answer. he knows there’s things that he doesn’t know as well as others, but, he is annoyed about being treated like an idiot at times. ]

Your accent has changed.

[prozaic]

I would argue that it's reverted. Rather, I'd been speaking in an entirely different one until recently in order to fit in with my coworkers.

[Then he waves a hand at his face before rinsing the wok off to prepare it for washing later.]

This? This is my boyhood accent.

[emptyself]

I know.

[ a beat. ]

So does this mean that you’ve stopped suppressing yourself?

[prozaic]

In a way. My accent slipped back then, and I don't care to put the other one back on if I don't need to.

And here, I figure I do not need to.