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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ET FIN

[cirquedesang]

[The spotlight clicks off with a finality, plunging those assembled into a deep, inky blackness. The players have all done their part, and there will be no curtain call, here.

Once again, there's a light in the distance.

And then another.

And then multitudes.

As the stage fades away, and as everyone returns to the real world from the Nekiya, they'll notice those lights in the distance are merely the moon and the stars in the sky.

Welcome to the roof of the dorms, friends, lover(s?), chaos gremlins, you've done it.]

[beathollow]

( there is no poetry. only the dam of tears breaking and mafuyu throwing herself into a clinging hug, a strangled wail being muffled just as quickly as it rises. )

[cirquedesang]

[He may just be getting movement back in his joints with the stakes dissolving with the not-palace, but when Mafuyu throws herself against him, he's still quick to catch her, holding so tight.]

I'm so sorry...

[beathollow]

I-it wasn't your fault. It wasn't. I-

( she wants to say that she's sorry, sorry for being one more burden, one more shackle- that she didn't pay more attention, that she didn't try harder whenever her rebuffed her attempts.

she doesn't, and only clings harder. )

[supherb]

Thank goodness...

[It's over. It's finally over.

Arven staggers back and sinks down to catch his breath. That was very, very emotionally taxing and even though it worked, he still feels guilty for having done what he did. He'll apologize to Eli and Mafuyu and Celeste when they've had their moments together.]

[prozaic]

[Shalem isn't going to bother with any of this. He just lets Eli go and wanders off to Haruka, brushing a hand over the crystals on the side of his neck.

Then he leans over and brushes the back of his fingers against Haruka's cheek.]

Find me in my room later, if you'd like. [And then he's off.]

[goei]

[Well. Izou is normally not one to instigate a hug because it's not very manly or cool but. Mafuyu started it so. Group hug.]

Celeste! M'sorry! I didn't understand what you were dealin' with all this time! And I didn't even do my job properly!

[cirquedesang]

[Oof- Is this revenge for sandwiching Izou in a hug after his palace? Maybe not, but it's warm, anyway, and he doesn't mind.]

That... was on purpose, you know. I would not be a very good actor [he's not an actor, technically, per se, but the point stands--] if I couldn't hide that much.

[goei]

[It can be if you want to think of it like that. Revenge is also manly and cool!!!]

Yeah but I never even questioned it... And all this time I thought you were teasin' me, but really it was just...

[The concept of not wanting to get close to anyone when they're just going to have to leave you in the end...]

[vogelfrei]

[ Well, that was it.

Beautiful words saved the day yet again, and McGillis has been proven wrong once more. 'Such soft emotions cannot reach me' he once said to somebody, and yet here he is bearing witness to them piercing through the heart of somebody who's been stewing in the darkness for far longer. (The stake also certainly did pierce through Celeste's heart, but McGillis understands the logic of the Nekiya by now. He knows that's not what truly did it.)

He's glad to have Celeste back. Of course he is. Though he still hesitates to use the word 'friend' after spending two years so vehemently dedicating it to only Gaelio, he's not stupid. He knows that Celeste is his friend by any reasonable definition of the word. It's good that Celeste is back. The fragile balance of their group would have fallen apart without him, and there's still a month of this to live through.

But if Celeste is back, if this was enough, what does that even mean? What does that mean when even when brainwashed, a part of McGillis meant every word he said? Maybe it just means what McGillis has been trying to test this whole time - he'd ended his life with the desperate admission that he'd wanted Gaelio's love and forgiveness, that he wasn't beneath craving that connection-- And he'd spent the past two months trying to prove himself wrong on the matter, because changing is the most difficult thing to do.

Can Celeste change, he wonders? Even after all these years, that horrible eternity he got a taste of in the memory? Can even Celeste change? And if he can, then what's holding McGillis back?

As usual, McGillis hangs back from the victory huddle, looking a little worse for wear emotionally through the smudged stage makeup he's still sporting. Anyone is free to approach him though.

As for Celeste... he's going to approach him in a quieter moment, a little later: ] How do you feel?

[cirquedesang]

[That was it.

Beautiful words saved the day once again, and so McGillis has been proven wrong... it would be worth appreciating the poetry of it happening to his mirror for the sake of turning the thoughts of change onto McGillis himself, if mentioning it in front of others was not an unspeakable thought.

Surely he has to appreciate the drama of it all, if nothing else.

It isn't a surprise when McGillis hangs back. For all that he's feeling, Celeste knows he'd be grappling with much the same, had their positions been reversed. So he will wait for that quiet moment later, and will appreciate what the simple act of McGillis reaching out at all means.]

Truthfully? Exhausted. But you could have guessed that much from the state of us this week.

[And now it's his turn to dodge painful lines of conversation, as McGillis had done not all that long ago.]

[strawsandals]

[ Oh, thank goodness. Thank goodness this has all worked...he was really, really afraid they'd lost Celeste for good, that the God of Conflict had succeeded in causing all the chaos and discord he'd wanted to, and that he'd have turned Celeste to his side...

...but none of that seems to be the case. Here he is, himself again, and he's getting showered in love and affection -- he deserves it.

Somehow, Yoon will not be one of those joining the hug pile.

Shadow Celeste's words about him being clueless, not knowing what to do, being helpless -- he's playing them on repeat in his head. He knows better than to do this, but these are the words that send him walking away from the group. Not out of anger. Not out of embarrassment or shame. This may very well be mistaken for upset, and while he is bothered by a lot of things about this encounter in general, his departure isn't an act of resentment.

He's going to make good on his promise. He's going to make Celeste's bed, fluff his pillow, grab some blood bags, grab some of those animal stickers he sticks on some of Celeste's blood bags and decorate the room a bit -- and make sure all of that is ready for him when he gets back to the dorm. ]

[fullmoonmutt]

[ It's cute that Yoon thinks Celeste is resting in his own bed tonight. ]

[cirquedesang]

[Since he is going to be kidnapped for snuggles and will not be able to properly appreciate!! All!! This!! Immediately!! And since Yoon did promise, and Celeste knows he'll keep his promise, he'll get a text much much later.]

I am sorry for not coming back to our room tonight, Yoon.
While I have been spirited away once more...
This time, it is nothing to worry about.

[metagame]

[Atem exhales. Collapses onto his hands and knees. He shakes from exhaustion despite trying to pace himself throughout the whole fight, and the dull thump behind his eyes is now a mad drum. At least his forehead eye is gone.

He tilts his head up to watch Celeste and his family embrace. To see it through despite his pain with squinted eyes, so it remains engraved in his very memory. Even in the darkest hour... The light of kindness will always illuminate the way...]

[fullmoonmutt]

[ Eli's finally free, Shalem letting him go and leaving the roof. Funny that it'd be the roof, of all places. He should rush over to Celeste as soon as he's able. He should, but Mafuyu and Izou have beat him there and, frankly, after all the panic and running around, taking hits, being brainwashed, yelling, and threatening...

Eli's just tired.

He isn't going anywhere, but he's going to sink down to sit on the roof instead, going as far as to flop over onto his back and shut his eyes. Not sleeping, only resting them. ]

...shit, 'm getting sick of these things.

[supherb]

Tell me about it.

[Since Eli hasn't joined the group, Arven decides to pipe up now. He shuffles over to where Eli's lying.]

...I'm really sorry about doing what I did without saying. I just...thought it would help stop whatever he was doing.

[cirquedesang]

[Of course it's the roof. :)

But Celeste is also just. Tired. And sandwiched. But when Eli flops instead of joining them?

Well, his feelings aren't hurt, he does understand, but he wants contact, too, so with a shift here, a wiggle there, he'll stick a leggy out to cross his ankle over Eli's.]

[beathollow]

( guess who else is getting a hug? its you! you're getting a hug a tight hug. )

Thank you.

[idealitas]

[ Pats him on the shoulder, then moves to the side.

Eli's got his eyes closed, but he can hear Yi Sang slowly flop down as well. ]

This is physically and emotionally taxing, yes.

[ The heals and brainwashed AOE spamming... He'd never complain about it when Eli has it worse though. ]

[cleansewithfire]

[ Sunrise is crouching down to pat Eli's head, if he lets her. ]

...At least it is over.

[beautifulknight]

[ Argenti is all for group hugs, though for now he reaches out to rest a hand gently on the other man's shoulder if he'll allow it, giving a supportive, gentle squeeze. There may or may not be a good number of people here - but he does remember how the other man reached out to him in the end, actions symbolizing his relief, and a deep bond. ]

...I'm happy you're back with us.

[ His words are simple, but gentle, and kind. The man is still a dear companion to him, after all. ]

Please, do take the time to rest up after this.

[cirquedesang]

[He will certainly allow it - and will even lean his head against Argenti's hand on his shoulder, in a moment of returned affection.]

Thanks to you.

[And (most of) the others, but... well, Argenti certainly does have a way with words, and it had been words that had gotten through to him in the end, more than the violence.]

I suspect I will have little choice.

[He sure has been pointedly Not Sleeping, but after all this...? Yeah, even if Eli hadn't dragged him to bed later on, he would have fucking collapsed.]

[idealitas]

[ Freedom from his fate as a narrative-encouraged chaos gremlin. Yi Sang sits on his knees from exhaustion (multitarget spells and heals really eat at the SP), staring at the stars once they appear in the night sky. He glances at Celeste, because he know there are those rushing to his side. ]

You are a cherished man. Even if you are tired of giving for what may be nothing in return, if you ache from having to hide your feelings... they are there for you.

[cirquedesang]

I... underestimated how much.

[Or perhaps was unwilling to acknowledge it until now...]

And you are here as well, I see. I... am truly sorry for how cruel I was to you back there.