catch all for august!

[mythratastic]

WHO: Pyra/Mythra and Various
WHERE: Around
WHEN: throughout August
WHAT: catch-all!
WARNINGS: none so far

[ Top levels below! HMU if you'd like a thread with Pyra/Mythra via PM or drinksteapots! ]

Comments

for cairngorm!

[mythratastic]

[ The library is a place for books, not weaponry, but that doesn't stop either of them from bringing the glowing trident to the building and setting it upon one of the reading tables. If nothing else, it makes for a nice ambient lantern as afternoon light wanes through the windows.

Mythra picks up another one of the restored books, opening up its heavy leather-bound cover. Logs about harvests and farming, inaccurate and archaic "science" books, details about various fauna found within the forest.... she's not too interested in those, at least not right at this moment. Instead she's reading upon one of the anthologies of the people that had lived within the town-- in particular, for those who were fishermen and merchants. ] If there is an underwater city so close to this place... you'd think that would be some mention of it by the people here coming in contact with that city. Or trading with it.

[ Casually, she flips through the pages with gloved fingers. ] Unless this underwater city appeared afterward the residents left. [ Her lips purse, and she lifts her head to look at her companion. ]

Did you just happen to discover it? Or was there something leading to its discovery, like those cursed thorns leading back to the thorn-castle?

[unghost]

[ To be honest, they're glad someone else takes interest in the spear - they weren't sure what to make of it, exactly, which is why they hadn't brought it up to anyone else all this time. Thye'd keep restoring the books and bring it up if it became relevant, had been their plan of action - which is what is leading them to search these new ones for some sort of hint. ]

Well... we had to break into the room to get it, so I wouldn't say we just happened upon it. [ They explain, with slight chagrin. ] My partner thought that since everything else in the city was left in the open, something that was guarded so heavily might be something worthwhile.

[ They, too, flip through their own texts, scouring the pages of the books they've already read since restoring them with eyes focusing for hints about this specific topic as opposed to just new information. ]

There wasn't anything that really led us to that room specifically, like those thorns... the only thing I can think of is that we found the room it was in in the center of the city.

[mythratastic]

[ Perhaps the underwater city had been more akin to the ice palace from months ago.... That it was only a one-time occurrence. ] I see...

[ Mythra passes another glance at them, her gaze level. ] I never even knew there was a underwater city until hearing about it from you. [ Her weight shifts from one leg to the other as she appears to think to herself, a frown forming. If Cairngom had vanished, this information regarding the trident might have been lost forever; and considering how so many others have left already... ]

You wouldn't happen to have anything else, would you? [ She had asked Dextera earlier about his grimoire, and he had said others had received pieces of items, although he hadn't known who. ]

For Xie Lian

[pyrafect]

[ One morning she invites him over private message to meet her at his shrine she had built months ago, still standing strong today. How the cursed trees have not overrun it is anyone's guess, but the added shade from the branches above give the structure a much more mysterious look, as if it had been a sanctuary of the forest the entire time.

When he arrives, he'll find the incense already lit and Pyra standing just at the beside the statue. She holds a long parcel warped in cloth and bound with a cord, and as she sees him, she greets him with a soft, welcoming smile. ]

You made it. We have something for you.

[holycurse]

[He doesn't know what to expect when arriving at the shrine - is it another quest? A friendly meetup? Or--

The shape of the parcel in her hands is hard to miss, bringing to mind a promise he remembers from some time back. Is this it? It isn't, is it? It feels safer to confirm before jumping to conclusions, anyway.]

Hello...what's this? It's, ah. Rather large for an offering.

[pyrafect]

An offering....?

[ She repeates the word lightly-- honestly, she hadn't considered making it a formal offering.... but wouldn't that mean he'd need to give something in return as a god? Like incense in exchange for a prayer being granted?

No... no. ] Mm-mm. [ She shakes her head. ]

It's a gift. [ Meaning, she's giving it to him freely, offering it to him. ] Go on. Open it.

For Somnus

[pyrafect]

[ Form bonds with the others in the Town.

Only one quest, one single quest, whereas all the others before it had seemed to only increase in intensive and severity-- up to requesting one kills another. But now it is only that the people form bonds.

And as she thinks of her bonds, both past and present, she wonders if she's done any of them justice, what with who she has hurt, what with the mistakes she made, and she wonders if she's somehow contributed to how terrible the forest has gotten to taking over the town.

To this day, the town waits for someone to break the curse, to restore color and to demonstrate once more the true strength of bonds.

It's foreboding...Even after all of this time-- what is supposedly the true strength of bonds? But she wants to help. She wants to try to help. She realizes that she's become scared of helping, that what she's doing is only making matters worse, but if it's for the good of the town and bonds-- perhaps she can do something.

She can apologize again-- this time to Somnus.



She has just been thinking about how when the opportunity simply presents itself: one evening as she's at the harbor, tweaking the bolts of the shaft that connects the generator to the propeller, she spots a familiar figure approaching from not too far away. Straightening up, she greets him with a nod, a smile. ] Your Majesty.

Enjoying an evening walk, I hope?

[ There is no tide in Chroma, no change water, no wind to ripple its surface. Long ago, this place must have been industrious with the fishermen reeling in their hand-woven nets and bounty of the depths for the day. Now, the harbor remains as quiet as cemetery, the houseboats like gavemarkers. ]

[meridio]

[ In spite of everything, Somnus feels a burden has been lifted from his shoulders. The Chosen King has returned to their world, likely without the note Noctis was hoping to bring with him. That isn't surprising. History will unfold as it is meant to, even as those left behind here continue to serve this world.

But here he finds himself at an impasse. Doing his part by completing quests has become something of an issue now that he's being made to do what he turned away from before. Someone like him isn't suited for bonding with others; he's only ever excelled at breaking them for his gain, and he knows all too well how damaging that can be.

It's going to be a difficult month. ]

Hail, Pyra.

[ Slowing to a stop before her, Somnus gives their immediate surroundings the once-over. It is heartening, in a way, to see her back on her feet and busy. This is how they should be: alive and productive. ]

A new project of yours?

1/2

[pyrafect]

Mm. So many have explored the forest already... and only a few have explored these waters. Apparently, there was once an entire city down below, but it had collapsed as soon as someone removed a trident they found there. Then, two others had taken a boat out together, but after a certain point they were transported right back to the town.

With this... [ Her fingers brush over the face of the propeller. It had taken many sleepless nights to obtain the right angle when forging it. ] and Duo's generator, we hope to explore this area more thoroughly, and quickly.

[ The forest is even worse now, they're running out of time. Perhaps they can find some other land they might reach, or-- or maybe there is no point to exploring the waters. The answers might all be in the town, really.

...Explaining this is a distraction, however, and soon her expression falls. ]

[pyrafect]

Your Majesty.

[ Her hand leaves the propeller to clasp at her opposite, upper arm. ]

I wish to apologize for... [ Turning into a tree. ] ...burdening you, that you went so far as to find someone to help me.

[meridio]

[ The sun has fallen, ushering in a cold evening breeze. The stars are bright, and two townspeople sit beneath the blanket of the dotted sky to gaze upon it.

It's certainly not the first time that Somnus has looked up at this late hour. Sleep is unnecessary for a soul preserved after death, no matter how much he used to close his eyes and steal an hour here or there in his youth. Exploring the town and the forest edges in the night, he's had plenty of moments to glance up at the picturesque sight overhead.

Those moments were always short. This time, however, he maintains it. And he is comfortable to sit in silence next to Pyra, who must see something in these stars that he doesn't. ]

[pyrafect]

[ It had always fascinated her, the world her Father recreated, but the stars hadn't been her focus-- they were inanimate, gargantuan furnaces of hydrogen and helium, of oxygen, carbon, neon, and so on. Her attention, her directive as a crystal had been primarily upon life as it evolved once more. Then when she had awakened, she had been able to look up at the stars for herself as a human. For the better part of the entire year, she had spent most of her nights-- as Mythra-- sleeping without a roof beneath the stars.

Here, she sets up the humble, homemade telescope upon a tripod, adding an extra piece to its seeing end. She leans over, tweaking one of the gears as she positions the telescope to north-eastern part of the sky. At her feet is an open tome, which she would have told him she found within the thorn-castle months ago. It details a number of constellations and heavenly bodies, horoscopes, and so forth. ] ...You refer to your world as a "Star". [ She will break the silence between them as she seems to search for something. ]

That's a... very lovely way of putting it, I think.

[ She swivels the telescope more north. ] I wonder... if we were to find your actual Star in this sky, would it shine more brightly than the rest?

[meridio]

My world is now veiled in darkness. Even if you were to find it, it would not be shining.

[ If his Star really was to be reflected in the sky, which era would it represent? There are those who've been here before the long night. He himself hails from the period after it took root. Time is a tricky thing in Chroma.

He cranes his neck to watch Pyra. Is she looking for a certain constellation? He wonders briefly if the tome and its contents are native to this world. ]

for berkoot

[pyrafect]

[ Out of respect for him (along with heaps of embarrassment and shame), she has done an excellent job of avoiding the young lord of Rigel... But that also means she has not apologized to him this entire time. With the book being investigated by others, with the forest all but engulfing the town, and with the pressing sense that they're running out of time even without the effect of the flower-- she feels as if she cannot delay any longer.

And it just so happens that during one of these more heated days of summer, in the Flavo district by the ever-frozen lake... she happens to see him. ] --Lord Berkut.

[ She calls his name but stops at saying anything more. Yes, she wishes to apologize... but when she apologizes to others, she usually brings something to them-- an apology gift of some sort. Here, she has nothing with her to give. Here, she's said his name in hopes that he will actually speak with her, as if he would want to. Here, she doesn't even know how to begin her apology to him, let alone end it.

She knows she's hurt him, and this is the second time. One time is too much, a second time is unforgivable, so why bother apologizing at all? Because she feels she must. ] We.... please, we should talk.

[superioritis]

It's you . . .

[ The words are whispered to himself as he looks up from the frozen lake. He'd just caught a bare glimpse of the icy surface when he heard his name. It's the familiar voice more than his name that turns his head, however.

The morning after the curse had faded, he'd been furious. Now, faced with the other party responsible for the disaster that had transpired, Berkut can only harden his face and stamp out any idle chatter from the start. ]

Well? State your purpose.

[pyrafect]

[ She stumbles about her words to start an apology, looking him over. He seems no different than before— still staunchly impassive, carrying himself with all the dignity of an emperor. But she knows better now, she knows many of his insecurities, what he worries about in his home world, ...and how caring and soft he can be, despite the harsh culture of his land. But seeing him regard her with the same demanding, forthwith tone from before at least gives her a sense of normalcy. This is how it should be, a glare instead of soft glances. ]

I... I wish to apologize. [ She says, urgently. Apologies for others are all she has lately. One after the other, cascading from her lips as if they might do something to make things right— when they don’t. ] For what happened with the flowers, and... [ They were both enchanted, but that’s no excuse for her. Shouldn’t she have known better? ]

Lord Berkut.... [ She repeats, hanging her head. ]

I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.

for duo

[mythratastic]

[ Captain's Log, Day 4 at Sea:

The water is still an inky black, there is no natural breeze, it's hot.... but their motor-powered small boat works! And they're maintaining a nice, steady course upon the water as they head towards the horizon, which offsets the heatwave that's settled in. Standing upon the bow as they speed ahead, her long, golden hair tosses behind her in the wind. Mythra takes out her telescope, scanning the expanse ahead for any signs of islands or ships. ]

Damn, still nothing. But I don't even think we're close to the edge yet.

[ Every so often, she's been shooting beams of light ahead of her, testing to see if the power hits a wall or barrier. So far, nothing. ]

[deathscyther]

[Duo didn't know what he expected to happen once he set off on this trip, but he had found a bit of excitement beneath the worry over all the what ifs. To potentially see what lay beyond these shores he had been grounded on for so many months was actually something to look forward to, and they had both done a great deal of preparation to go out on the boat for however long it took.

But four days later and nothing new was beginning to temper that small spark, an uncertainty gnawing at his gut. There was no sign of a wall, another shore, anything. How could they be so solitary? Where was the rest of this world?!

He sighed, arm draping over the edge of the boat while his chin rested on the other, violet eyes staring as the still mutated fish swam by in schools.]

Thia place doesn't make any damn sense and it's honestly starting to piss me off...

[mythratastic]

I still think we're all living in some really, really elaborate pocket dimension. [ Enough to replicate stars and the sky and everything else-- including elementary particles that she's tested for.


At least the boat ride is fun enough. Vroom vroom, motherfucker. ] Did you know that there is no records at all of thorn-castle in the woods? Believe me, I searched almost all of those books in the library for it. It's like it just appeared months after we got here.

for berkut lol event

[pyrafect]

[ She's seen no new arrivals yet, only these hideous, empty puppets crawling up from out of the well. Some of them wear garb from her own world, of a kingdom that has long since sank below the cloud-sea, and for that reason alone she looks after them patiently. She's waiting, wondering if she just might see one who wears the armor or clothes of someone she personally recognizes...

She doesn't.

Instead she catches the sound of a struggle and the voice of someone familiar coming from just around the corner. Breaking out into a sprint, she races to the edge of the building just in time to witness he puppets forcefully pulling at Berkut into the tree line, disappearing into the shadows. Knowing that the puppets' touch renders a feeling of numbness depending on how long one makes contact, she chases after them. ] Lord Berkut--!

[superioritis]

[ It's a similar feeling to the time he wound up in Shen Qingqiu's heart and lost feeling in his right hand—only, his hand is the least of his concerns this time around. His struggling by the forest edge ultimately ends with the loss of sensation in one of his legs and himself on his back, and his mind now races with indignation toward the fact that he hadn't even intended to go into the forest today.

The faceless dolls drag him through the forest floor by his dead arm, while his free hand struggles to find purchase when his head snaps toward the direction of that infuriatingly familiar voice. ]

Pyra?

1/2

[pyrafect]

[ Fire burns.

Her fire blazes.

Summoning her sword, the etherlines upon her body begin to glow with a teal power. She lets her blade fly out from her hands, guided by the momentum of her throw to spin and whirl like a saw towards the first doll, cleaving it in two. ]

[mythratastic]

[ When it returns to her hands, it's already in its alternate form, and Mythra has appeared with a furious, blinding light.

She flash-steps towards his side, slicing another doll clean through before it can lay a hand upon his chest. If a touch upon his arm renders it useless, then a touch upon the chest may have very well killed him.

Golden hair flying behind her, she makes quick work of the other dolls, movements mathematical and precise as if reading her opponents' course of energy upon a graph. Some here may be worrying that the dolls had actually been people; Mythra does not.

When it's over, only piles ash of the dolls surround them. ]

for berkut again

[pyrafect]

[ The forest has always been ominous, but now with the ever-constant seeping of color as more have left, with her growing sense of unease as to the fate of this world, and with a guilt that drives her to be alone, the woods now seem downright hostile. Within the night, the path they had all taken as a group under Tristan and Berkut's direction but a month prior looks nothing like it once had been. Even with a small, hovering orb of fire lighting her path, her flames seem to only call more shadows to her as if they are attracted to the light rather than skittish of it.

But along her path, she realizes that she is not quite alone-- and not just for the shadows, the trees, and the uncanny feeling that she is being watched. There are signs that someone else has traversed this same path, and recently at that, to the point she might only be an hour or so behind them. The original story itself had the young man find the hen on his lonesome in the first place; but perhaps, someone else might have had the same idea to wander into the woods to find the clearing that the hen is said to have been-- and through that, they are connected. Privately, it brings her some comfort that she's not entirely alone. Apart-but-bonded, perhaps she and this other traveler just ahead of her might have more of a chance to navigate the same gauntlet of thorns to make it to the clearing.

They do.

And who does she find there but-- ] Lord Berkut?

[superioritis]

[ Here, no one disturbs him. The forest depths are dangerous for those who would charge in blindly, but Berkut has traversed this path once before. With the puppets' being no more, it wasn't so difficult to find his way back to the clearing, where he sits on the trunk of a fallen tree. He knows that monsters prowl the woods, and he does not fear them; even with their presence and the persistent feeling that he's being watched (when is he not?), it's much quieter here than in the town.

That is, until someone else enters the clearing. They'll be disappointed to find that no hen awaits them—only him. Berkut looks over his shoulder.

Ugh. Not her. ]

Pyra.