[ OPEN/CATCH-ALL ] the moon will always dwell in darkness,

[regrede]

WHO: sierra mikain and (YOUR NAME HERE).
WHERE: the town, and the forest!
WHEN: early july for the bloodsucking, the rest of it is just throughout the month.
WHAT: an open post for sierra to suck your character’s blood, and then some other questy stuff in closed comments below!
WARNINGS: she’s a vampire, so all of that, plus talk of death and possibly actual death.

i. voluntary blood donation

[ sierra is not trying to be a villain here. she’s just doing what she finds necessary, and what she finds necessary is drinking up as much blood as she can muster from the people in town. after a public plea on the network, sierra is now set up outside the church with a little bell to draw attention. ]

If you let me bite you, there might be a present waiting for you at the end of it all. ♥

[ said as sweetly as possible. ]

ii. the long sleep

[ and… after all is said and done, sierra is wiped. she made a big show in public of the certainty that she would be completely fine when the ritual was complete, but the reality is that she’s exhausted and it shows. although she spends plenty of time at home trying to recuperate, it’s also easy to find her snoozing pretty much anywhere around town, especially in quiet places like the library or the church.

she won’t be happy if you wake her up, but if you can perhaps entice her with blood or vegetables, she might be a little more amenable. she’ll be out of sorts for a few days, at the very least. ]

iii. placeholder/wildcard!

( just like it says, sierra will be a sleepy peepy for a few days following the resurrection of the skeletons, but she’ll be back on her feet for the rest of the month. give her blood, or don’t, and if you’d like to plot some quests with me feel free to contact me at pavaal! )

Comments

ii - church

[troubadamsel]

[Honestly, you give her so much to worry about. You'll turn her golden locks gray.

As she spots Sierra snoozing, she sighs, and comes by. She doesn't wake her up, not intentionally - instead she sits by her side and gently strokes her hair.]

Really now...

[regrede]

[ sierra looks much more peaceful when she’s sleeping than she ever does when she’s awake, and despite her pale face, she looks somehow younger when she’s having her hair stroked. ]

Mm…

[ she stirs slightly, under maribelle’s gentle touch. ]

[troubadamsel]

[She speaks in a soft whisper, still not wanting to wake her.]

All is well... you don't have to do anything.

[regrede]

[ even so, sierra knows if someone is here, she probably shouldn’t be. that said, she’s comfortable, and maribelle’s fingers are soothing. ]

I’m sorry…

[ it comes out in a sigh. ]

I’m so sleepy.

i

[holycurse]

[To this day Xie Lian is still not the best at keeping up with the network, but. He's heard about this particular plea! And so here he is, curiously approaching the blood drive.]

May I ask what sort of present that would be?

[regrede]

Heehee… that’s the fun of it, isn’t it?

[ in other words, it’s better not to ask, and it’s also probably better not to receive. ]

I don’t want to ruin the surprise.

[holycurse]

...I suppose you have a point there.

[Does she? Does she really?]

I'd heard you were hoping to communicate with the dead...present aside, I'm quite interested in the results of such an endeavor. It seems like something which would take a good amount of experience to complete successfully.

[regrede]

It does. I’ve some experience with it back in my home, though I imagine the rules are different here…

[ she doesn’t like disturbing zombies, but it’s one thing to merely deal with them once they’ve already been, well, disturbed. someone else found the skeletons and mishandled their grave, so sierra is merely taking advantage of the situation. ]

ii

[dreamsky]

[ When she isn't home, Uki tends to spend time at the library - it's quiet, it's enclosed, and the smell of musty books makes her feel some sort of comfort - which is why she quickly notices when someone she hasn't seen before is not only in the library, but... also collapsed. Worried, Uki tiptoes over to the sleeping woman, trying to keep from startling her awake. Uki decides to help the only way she knows how: with care and her familiar bedside manner.

A little bit later, she's procured a small basket of food she could find around town, close to the library - potatoes, broccoli, radishes, any vegetables with color, though it's nothing special or overly grand - in an attempt to give the woman something to keep her strength up.

And so Uki leaves the basket next to her for when she wakes and returns to inspecting the books, retreated slightly but still close enough to keep an eye on her "patient". Hopefully this will help? ]

[regrede]

[ sierra doesn’t wake up naturally. she wakes up only because she hears someone shuffling around her, and she can inevitably sense the presence of another person even when she’s asleep. one eye peeks open, and she’s surprised to find herself face-to-face with a… basket of vegetables.

with a yawn not especially befitting of her pretty face, sierra sits up. ]

Mm… is this for me?

[ she’s addressing whoever will listen. ]

[dreamsky]

[ Oh, she's awake! Uki startles at the voice, but eventually skitters back, her tendency to shrink into herself making her tiny frame all the more obvious. ]

A-Ah! Um! Yes, ma'am. I thought it might help, since you seemed exhausted... You can eat them if you'd like. I-I'm sorry if I disturbed you.

[regrede]

No. [ another yawn. ] You didn’t disturb me at all.

[ she stretches, and leans over to look over her bounty. though it may not be such a strange thing to receive vegetables, she’s pleasantly surprised that this girl managed to pin down her tastes. ]

You did wonderfully. What’s your name, child?

/slides in here ayyyy

[noholdsbard]

[ He’d promised to come at her summons no matter what, in what feels like so long ago. And yet now he feels apprehensive, clutching a spray of pink larkspur, for fickleness, though he feels quite differently upon entering the church.

The last time had been to make a sacred pact with Mythra. And now that the church has led them to somewhere far more ominous…

He steps across the threshold, peering into the gloom. ]

Lady Sierra?

[regrede]

Sir Archer.

[ she greets him, politely, as cool and confident as ever. whatever effect the moonflower has had on her, it doesn’t seem to be interfering with her composure. it winds around her wrist like a bracelet, light petals brushing against the mark on her hand. ]

You look as handsome as ever.

[noholdsbard]

You flatter me, my lady.

[ He musters a tired smile—it had been a long day and he can’t even begin to figure out what that moonflower might do to her. But he sees clearly enough why she’d summoned here. Obviously it’s to take that burden off her hands—which he would do gladly. ]

But know that I am here at your service, ready to relieve you of whatever burdens you wish.

RAISING THE DEAD WITH WEI WUXIAN

[regrede]

[ the bones are gathered, sierra has blood in her system, and the moon is sitting just right in the sky for her to feel good about using her rune without accidentally overtaxing herself or the target of her spells. she’s sitting, crouched in front of the bones, her knees pulled up to her chin as she examines what she has to work with. ]

Are you prepared? I’ll begin the ceremony.

[ … ]

And, even if I begin to look faint, don’t interrupt. I know my limits.

[espritdecorpse]

[ For reasons known only to himself, Wei Wuxian is clad in an ill-fitting minidress, too tight in the shoulders and gaping at the chest—scratch that, not gaping at the chest. It was gaping at the chest, until he made a certain discovery...

Anyway, he also has long trousers on, under the dress (thank goodness). ]

All right.

[ ...said in a tone of deep skepticism regarding the knowing of one's limits. But that seems to be the extent of his misgivings, because the next thing he does is sit down cross-legged next to the pile of bones and reach right into the non-gaping chest of his dress and draw out a steamed bun, which he munches on noisily.

With his mouth full: ]

Go ahead.

[regrede]

[ sierra wasn’t going to question the outfit until he pulled a steamed bun out of it, but she knows if she starts to ask, she’s going to get an explanation that she doesn’t particularly care to hear. she narrows her eyes at him briefly. ]

…have some decorum.

[ the last time she saw him eating one of those, it was full of maggots. granted, that was a horrible illusion borne from his heart, but she still doesn’t know how he could go back after that. ]

NYX | BACKDATED TO EARLY JULY

[regrede]

[ the quest had been on her mind since she read it, and along with the mention of skeletons and the way the ennui of the forest creeps ever closer, it’s hard not to think about death. to dwell. there are few people indeed that she trusts with her feelings here, and they seem to dwindle further every month, but…

if anyone, she feels she could talk with nyx. so she sends him a message, short and sweet. ]

Would you meet me by the well? I’d merely like to talk.

who you gonna call

[noholdsbard]

[ It’s been a few days since her death and he’d been inconsolable for pretty much all of it. For the sake of poor Xie Lian, however, he’d taken to patrolling the town more frequently. With the memory of the murder still fresh in his mind, he finds that he’s better off being alone anyway, wandering about town until—

Until he catches the glimpse of something ghostly, and his heart stops.

To him, Sierra had always been a lovely pale specter, like the dainty lily or snowdrop, but the glimpse of that apparition had been something else. Something far less…together. ]

Sierra…?

[ He calls out once he reaches her door, wondering if he should simply invite himself over into this house which, as far as he’s aware, has been empty since her death. ]

[regrede]

[ that is certainly her name.

sierra doesn’t have a mirror, so she hasn’t been able to track her progress besides the reactions of her housemate—who thankfully, isn’t at home at this precise moment. she almost wishes he were, though, to give her a reason to turn tristan away. it’s not often that she feels a true and deep shame over what she’s done, but this may have been a mistake.

what had she been thinking? ]

…you do not wish to see me like this.

[ she gives him this, as a response, through the door. ]

[noholdsbard]

I would see you regardless, my lady.

[ It’s a fight to keep his voice even, overwhelmed as he is with a number of emotions clashing against each other within his breast. Surprise gives way to relief to sadness and then, perhaps even guilt.

He’d done this to her, after all. He doesn’t blame her in the least. ]

I owe you penance for my foolishness. If there is to be any justice in this world, then let it be done by your hand, for I have wronged you deeply and terribly.

someone get this woman a pipe organ

[meridio]

[ somnus visits the church again. it's quiet and a fairly familiar haunt by now, so it's where his feet take him after recent events have left him wandering. the people of this world are still missing, cursed to become trees somewhere deep in the forest. those people are on his mind as he steps into the hall, where he comes upon a woman down the aisle.

pale, thin, and unassuming in appearance. yet looks are hardly a fair judge of character. ]

Hail, maiden.

[regrede]

[ sierra is avoiding the forest, avoiding danger. she feels lucky that the dryads did not see fit to sweep her away, and she isn’t looking to get herself in trouble with them by joining the rescue efforts. the church, ironic for a vampire, is her safest respite. ]

Ho…

[ by now, sierra has regained her color, and her dignity. she regards the man entering what she has deemed her domain. ]

I haven’t seen you before.

[meridio]

[ she holds herself as though she is the church's proprietor, yet this is the first time he's seen her since his arrival. ]

I am Somnus Lucis Caelum, a newcomer to this world.

[ he turns toward her with an inquisitive tilt of his head. and she? ]