WEEKS 11 & 12

[linkupmods]

WEEKS 11 & 12

YOU CAN'T GET OFF THE RIDE...

The dream king has been vanquished, and with it, everyone’s dreams have returned to normal. For those who have had trouble sleeping in the past few weeks, that’s a relief, right?

You know what they say - one step forward, two steps back.

The border between the Nekyia and the real world is thinning - watch your step, Chosen. With your Shadows still haunting you at every opportunity, turn the corner and you may find yourself suddenly in the Nekyia, tendrils of dark fog curling around your feet even though you’ve spent so much effort trying to clear the previous districts of fog and shadows. Blink, and you’ll find yourself back where you were in the real world, with everyone looking at you quizzically because for a moment, you disappeared.

Braphine’s temple is oddly silent. Where there were once priests and priestesses around the courtyards and the main building, now, when you visit, there is nobody around to attend to you. Walking through the halls of the temple now feels fraught with danger, almost - look into a mirror for too long, and your Shadow may end up looking back at you.

Speaking of attendants – maybe you should check in on your local priestess.

Thanks to everyone’s help with the Business District, it is now... actually, it’s more or less the way it always has been. People are still standoffish, and there’s a tension in the air - it feels like just one little spark is all that’s needed to start an argument or a fight.

In fact, it isn’t even only the Business District suffering these effects. Though specific individuals may retain a fondness for characters who helped them, the population overall seems to have regained its old vitriol towards each other. The Chosen saw for themselves the positive impact they were able to have on the City - what in the world could have reversed it all...?

TEMPTATION TOUCHED MY TONGUE...

You blink, and it’s there. Blink again, and it vanishes.

Perhaps your eyes are playing tricks on you, but where there used to be a park just outside the dorms, now lies a large orange grove. It does, however, look a little shadowy around the edges, like it’s not supposed to be there - and the strange thing is that it can only be seen by Braphine’s chosen. Asking any of the passers by will just net you bewildered looks.

Despite the roiling storm and the grey clouds outside, the sky in the orange grove is clear when you enter into it.

You are surrounded by the smell of orange blossoms, and as the scent envelops you, a strange feeling of unsettlement starts to build.

The oranges are in the right season for harvesting, and somehow you get an irresistible urge to pick one and bite into it. But biting into it comes at a price– you start to forget. It could be a memory, a part of you, or worse, one of the bonds you have made here.

The more of the oranges you eat, the deeper you fall into the grove, and perhaps, just perhaps, you might come into contact with a familiar face that gives you a warning before you fall too deep into it. Keep eating and you won't just forget. You’ll start wanting to eat things that aren’t meant to be eaten too.

After meeting with “Schneider”, you realise there’s only one way out of this hazy mess: help others to help yourself. It could be collecting little memories that glitter like “stars” amongst the trees, and walking people back to the scattered fragments of themselves.

Or it could be helping the shadowy farm workers, who look at you with disdain and ask:

“You city folk here to do some real work for once? Hurry up.”

They ask you to do a number of chores: chopping up firewood, cleaning stables, harvesting the oranges (but don’t you dare eat them without permission) and planting new trees. There’s also a church that you could help clean up and donate your funds towards which makes the shadowy figures very happy. Schneider will not be.

Each successful chore completed is another “part” of yourself returned, and the better equipped you are to help the people around you. Better start working.

It’s odd though. When you look outside the orange grove, it’s almost like the raindrops are moving in reverse.

(OOC: Schneider's top level is NOT time sensitive, nor is it a mod-run event. This can be treated like a regular top level to be tagged at your own pace! Welcome to your memloss event!)

WEATHER FORECAST

Gloomy. Grey skies about, and the sun seems to have hidden itself away for some reason. When it isn’t raining or storming, there somehow seems to always be the sound of thunder rolling in the distance. Eagle-eyed characters may even notice a metallic glint through the clouds, every now and then...

Characters that venture into the Nekyia during these two weeks will find themselves occasionally being afflicted with Dizzy during combat. Watch your step.

COMMISSIONS

TREASURE THE TEMPLE

Without the Priest or Priestess to care for the temple, it continues to grow dustier and more dismal by the day. Characters who work together to help with upkeep - dusting, sweeping, wiping down surfaces, even airing it out by opening up the windows - will not only receive the regular rewards, but also find themselves imbued with a gentle desire to spend some time taking care of those they care about, too.

MASTERS OF THEIR ELEMENT

There are Level 50 Shadows to be found in the Nekyia, though thankfully they are not on the prowl. One can be found in each cardinal and intercardinal direction: Garuda in the East, Surt in the South, Scathach in the West, and Fafnir to the North, as well as Dionysus in the North East, Michael in the North West, Alitat in the South West, and Belial in the South East. Each of these enemies has punishing attacks, and will need to be taken on by groups of three or more characters. However, upon defeat they will drop a stone that glows with a soft light that corresponds to an element colour (e.g. pink for Psy, red for Fire); offer these to Braphine’s temple to give the goddess strength, and receive a Magatama in that particular element.

(OOC: Please turn in your threads for this commission on the rewards page to receive an Elemental Magatama which deals medium damage to one target in one specific element, and is valid for one time use during any battle. This is only valid for the first turn in of the commission.)

BONDS AND CONNECTIONS

”My connection to Sunset City has been interrupted... I no longer have the strength to support you as I did before. Look out for each other, and keep forging new bonds; they will protect you when I cannot.”

While characters have gained strength from the bonds they’ve forged, there are still those who are freshly arrived with no such defenses; characters who make the effort to establish relationships with faces they have not interacted with much so far will be rewarded. If the character has not been used for a Social Link writeup, they are fair game! Characters may choose what activities they partake in at their own leisure, whether that’s battling alongside one another in the Nekyia or using one of those coupons for a free dinner at a fancy restaurant. They should, however, have a focus on getting to know each other during the activity.

OOC

READ ME!!!!

Welcome to your log for Weeks 11 and 12! Feel free to use this log for any developments that happen during the next two weeks.
Please note that there will be no log next week BUT there will be a network post going up for endgame plot purposes going up once Week 11's palaces are complete!
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 Haruka's palace are underway and will start later today, and our Clover (capped) and Moon (FFA) palaces will be going up later this weekend!
Don't forget to check in with AC to get your endgame unlocks and submit your rewards/Rank 10 social links before 20 October, 11:59PM EST!

ic comm | inboxes | ooc comm | full nav

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Comments

BURGER TIME?! (OPEN TO ALL)

[fullmoonmutt]

[ A post comes up on their little message board from Eli and -- and this may not be surprising considering how often people go get food together -- it's an invitation out to the Big Burger Joint! ]

hey all
i won a big book of free meal coupons back near the start of all this
since i managed to eat that giant burger in one sitting???
there should be enough forever everyone and Kirumi told me to invite folks im fond of
but i think maybe everyone should come?? and just hang out??
so yeah, if you want a free meal, come to the big burger place at [ insert time here ] and we can eat

[ And he will be there! He even had the good manners to call ahead for once and tell them to save a big group of tables for them. Admittedly, having a bunch of people eating for free off the booklet win is less appealing, but hey, that means Eli will be out of tickets and can no longer eat them out of house and home.

Feel free to join! Tag in, threadjack, it's a free-for-all! Use this as the top-level to tag under. It's a burgers and shakes kind of restaurant and everyone gets one free meal ticket. They can certainly order more on their own dime, though! ]

[fullmoonmutt]

[ It's a given Eli is here. He's taken a spot more or less central to the tables he's taken over for them, and he's grumbling at one of the menus. ]

...can't believe they won't let me do the giant burger challenge again. I could do it! I could eat the whole thing for sure!

[needsteaplz]

[Hopefully no one is going to judge Saori for ordering extra-mostly onion rings and a hefty looking cookies and cream milkshake. She can't help but laugh at Eli's predicament.]

It can't helped, you know! If everyone were allowed to do the challenge every single time, they wouldn't be able to stay open.

[fullmoonmutt]

But no one else had finished the challenge for a while before me, so it'd be fine if they let me do it again. It's not like everyone else here will eat something that big.

[ Eli's a bottomless pit when it comes to food. Maybe he was just hoping for an excuse to get another comically huge burger... ]

[needsteaplz]

[She nod as she listens to Eli's plight.]

True. Don't think I could pull it off myself. I do better with spicy food challenges. Hmm... Mind watching my food real quick?

[Saori goes back to the register and sure enough she comes back with the ridiculous large burger. She puts the tray in front of Eli with a wink before sitting back down to put the onion rings on her burger and get some hot sauce on there. Where did the sauce come from? She brought it, of course because no sane eatery would have something this strong.

What they don't know won't hurt them. Enjoy.

[fullmoonmutt]

[ The burger!!!! But wait! ]

Wh-what?! Are you sure?! You have to pay for it for real if you don't finish it! That's the whole challenge!

[ Of course, the burger is already here. It's a little too late for that. ]

[prozaic]

That's because these places hate losing money.

[He's already put his burger away deep into his stomach and is considering more. He's just like that. A man like him has a big appetite when he needs to because he has a lot of energy to burn... or conserve for later.]

[fullmoonmutt]

It's not like I'll be here long enough to use another full booklet of free meals. They'd be fine.

[ Huff puff goes the wolf, but he'll let it go... eventually. He'll order a big burger with fries, an extra order of fries, and a large shake, just not THE big burger, that challenge one. Sadly, they aren't giving him that second chance to win. ]

[prozaic]

Like I said, they hate losing money. And you've already accomplished that goal once, why bother trying again?

[vogelfrei]

[ McGillis is here because Eli is his friend (not anymore?) his packmate (absolutely not.) his extended-relationship boyfriend-once-removed (unwieldy.) - - McGillis is here since Eli is one of his favorite people, and all other categorizations are a work in progress.

He's got a burger that he's eating pointedly slowly (because he has a tendency to eat extremely fast and he doesn't like how notable this is in public) and a coffee that is... nicely packaged in an opaque paper cup so nobody can see the amount of sugar and creamer added to it. ]

And they know this, too. They fear your power.

[fullmoonmutt]

[ Eli's obnoxiously happy to see McGillis has decided to tag along, grinning at him from across the table. ]

Yeah, that's exactly what they are! My stomach is too powerful for all these plain old normal folks.

[vogelfrei]

[ Why are you so enthusiastic that he's joining you for burgers... Stop that, it's dangerously endearing and makes him realize how weak he's gotten for his people!! ]

Now we have to decide if it's wisdom or cowardice for them to retreat from a battle they know they'll lose.

[goei]

We're gonna be done here soon ain't we, what would you even do with more coupons?

[fullmoonmutt]

I don't even want the coupons, I just want the huge burger!

[goei]

Wh- they won't even let you order it without the challenge???

[UNJUST]

[cirquedesang]

[You know who hasn't been banned from doing the giant burger challenge? It's Celeste.

...Sure, plunking the tray down in front of Eli automatically disqualifies him from winning it, but it's not like he can eat it anyway or that any of them need any more of the coupons. So. You know. Might as well give the boyfriend the massive burger of his dreams.]

Enjoy~

[No More Public Headpats is still (maybe pointlessly) in effect, so he'll just kiss the top of his head instead before taking a seat across from him at the table.]

1/2

[fullmoonmutt]

[ GAAAAASP, gasp, that's a big gasp right there when Celeste plunks the massive burger down in front of him. Is this the beauty of having someone who loves you?! They'll order humorously giant food for you and also tell them he asked for no pickles?!

...well, okay, the pickles part isn't necessary, but still. ]

2/2

[fullmoonmutt]

[ Surprise turns into joy as Celeste slides into the seat across from him, and he treats him to a huge smile. ]

Celeste! You're the best!

[cirquedesang]

[This is absolutely one of the perks of having someone who loves you, yes. He'd even say he asked for no pickles, if that was an issue!!!

It isn't, but like. If it was.]

Really? Just for a burger?

[Huge smile is met with huge smile, tbh. How many times does he have to say he likes to spoil you!!!]

ota

[prozaic]

Hmm. Pardon me. [Shalem is just going to wordlessly put his fries and ketchup on the nearest person's tray, completely untouched, because he's only here for the burger.

Then he turns his head away from them-- and anyone else, really-- so they don't need to see him opening his mouth wide to take a big, satisfying bite out of that murder. He might not split his jaw like an actual animal-snake, but he does open his mouth wide while eating out of sheer habit. Puts things away faster so he can move on to more food.]

[goei]

[You know Izou was like one of the first people here. Burger. However.]

You shoulda said they don't serve alcohol here, I would've brought some!!

[It's probably for the best since they would have not let him bring that in with him.]

[kandata]

[Kirumi is here and she brought a damn hot pot to this Big Burger joint. No, really, there on the table she put this huge earthenware pot that's been already heated, and full of a great base for hot pot. Nearby there's also a whole bunch of stuff to get into the pot to your taste!

How did she even manage to get food from outside into this establishment? Well, she has her ways.

If someone looks at her with confusion, she shrugs a little]

I had wanted to do this for you all at some point. I thought now was a good time as any.

[And she gets a milkshake for herself because she's not going to take over Eli's invitation]

[fullmoonmutt]

[ Kirumi?! Eli isn't even sure how she convinced them to let that in?! Does he want to know?! Eli stares in minor horror but mostly in awe. ]

Kirumi... I thought you were taking it easy?! Did you make all of this?!

[kandata]

I did. Believe it or not, this is me taking it easy.

[Kirumi may have stopped being a maid but that sure didn't change how clever and persuasive she can be, haha]

[fullmoonmutt]

This is?

[ Amazing... ]

If, uh. If you say so. So, how does this work, exactly? We cook stuff in the pot?