March catch-all

[youwillbeunequaled]

WHO: Tonbokiri and others
WHERE: All around town
WHEN: March
WHAT: Events, quests, and etc
WARNINGS: Nothing

A note that I prefer "prose", but I will follow with whichever style.
Please put the date in the starting comment subject.
If you'd like some 'etc' of your own, feel free to message this journal!

Comments

March 6; quest 48

[scooptimistic]

It had seemed like a doable quest-- though, in Maya's opinion, there had been very few quests that hadn't been doable, even the difficult ones. This one, however, was something she could pull off with aplomb. She was sure of it.

But not alone, and that had brought her to seeking out a partner-- not in crime, at least. Spotting a familiar face not too far away, Maya brightens and lifts one hand above her head.

"Tonbokiri! Hey!"

[youwillbeunequaled]

"Ah, Maya-dono!" Tonbokiri turns to face her fully, also raising a hand in greeting and smiling brightly. "It has been a while. I trust you are well? What brings you this way today?"

[scooptimistic]

"I'm as fine as ever!" Which wasn't really too difficult for her, but probably also something she'd insist even if she wasn't feeling like her usual self. This time, however, she does indeed mean it and stops in front of him with an equally happy smile.

"But I was wondering-- would you be up for doing a quest for me? I figure as a spear, you're probably in sore need of a ton of experiences."

[youwillbeunequaled]

He is relieved that she truly does sound fine. The image of her while she was ill seems even further away in the face of her normal energy.

"Haha, that quest is it?" He laughs honestly, because she's right. "It is true. I have many memories but not much experience. I would be honoured to experience something with you, Maya-dono. Did you have something in mind?"

[scooptimistic]

"Actually, yes!" Surprise, surprise. Maya has possibly been forming a list of potential experiences in her head ever since she'd read that quest on the forum.

"How do you feel about being interviewed?"

[youwillbeunequaled]

"Interviewed?" Although he had no particular expectations, that request still takes him by surprise.

"Well, yes. That would be a new experience, so I'm quite willing to try it. I shall be in your care." He gives her a small but polite bow.

[scooptimistic]

In response, Maya's smile brightens even further. "Perfect! Now, the goal of interviewing is to not only educate the audience on your personal experiences and knowledge, but to teach them about who you are and what makes you special. It's incredibly important that you be as honest with me as you can."

It's not something she thinks Tonbokiri would personally have a problem with, but she also thinks it ought to be said.

[youwillbeunequaled]

He nods along to her explanation, although it makes him raise a hand to rub the back of his head in embarrassment.

"It is my masters who make me what I am. But yes, I shall be entirely honest with you as always, Maya-dono. Thank you for explaining it to me. ...It makes me wonder just what kind of questions you are going to ask me, though."

[scooptimistic]

"Oh, just the basics! For starters, what do you think is the most surprising thing you've learned since gaining a human form?"

... Maybe it's not that basic of a question, but Maya's bright-eyed anyway.

3 March, Quest 48

[tosa]

It's early in the month when Mutsunokami tracks down Tonbokiri. When he saw the quests, he knows exactly what he should do. They'd promised to do it in the previous month and now seemed like a good time after putting it off for a little while. He'll track down Tonbokiri and call out, "Tonbokiri!"

Hopefully he isn't busy right now.

[youwillbeunequaled]

Never too busy for his comrade!

Tonbokiri lifts his eyes from where he was sweeping the floor of the stable and smiles warmly.

"Mutsunokami-dono, good day. Are you on stable duty today as well?" A little levity, but he does miss the routines of Honmaru.

[tosa]

"Gaha! Don't ya wish?"

He isn't on stable duty but he gets the joke. If there's another broom or something, he'll get one to help clean up some. It's natural habit, really. If there's something that needs to be done, he'll do it. That's the kind of sword he is.

"Working hard today too? You're always doing something when I see ya... but that's Tonbokiri for ya."

[youwillbeunequaled]

When Mutsu finds another broom and lends a hand, Tonbokiri thanks him. It certainly makes for quicker work. And truth be told, he just can never quite get used to the movements of sweeping. It always seems to take forever to do this one chore. There's always bits of things left behind him...

He chuckles self-effacingly at Mutsunokami's observation.

"I suppose I cannot stay still for long. But you are often out-and-about as well."

[tosa]

"Well, I guess after being still for so long, I gotta make up for lost time." He's joking! But he'll make sure to clean up behind Tonbokiri when he can so they can finish sooner rather than later. It's not that he's particularly good at cleaning or anything, he's just good at working with others.

[youwillbeunequaled]

Tonbokiri chuckles more lightly this time.

"I can understand that feeling as well."

Sweeping the debris he's collected through the doorway and out into the backyard, Tonbokiri can look back and appreciate all that he'd missed Mutsunokami had swept up for him.

"Thank you again, for spending some time on this. It helps me tremendously." He sighs at the broom as he places it back against the wall. "Some things definitely take more time than others, no matter how many times one does it."

[tosa]

"Don't think about it."

Really. He wouldn't have done it if it was a problem or an annoyance. He won't put his broom away just yet, instead, tapping it against his shoulder for a moment before putting it back.

"I was thinking about ya though! I figured you'd be doing something today. So I wanted to help ya take it easy."

[youwillbeunequaled]

"Really?" He is surprised, and touched, that Mutsunokami was thinking of him in that way.

"That is very kind of you. Since the weather has been getting warmer I have been thinking about all the things that might need doing for the spring... Did you come just to help me with chores today?"

Although Mutsunokami is a diligent sword when it comes down to it, he's also more the type to play before volunteering for work.

3/29

[noholdsbard]

He’d always known how dangerous it was to enter the forest alone, hence why he’d enlisted the help of a comrade. But even then, after what feels like hours, he’s beginning to regret that. It had been his foolish idea to seek out the dragons’ lair by means of his harp, after all. Tonbokiri need not have suffered for it.

“It appears that we’ve passed this way again,” Tristan sighs, motioning toward the marks he’d left on a nearby tree to indicate their passing. The dragons have long since cleared the skies, having outpaced them by a considerable margin, until only the tenuous thread of his music seems able to follow the thread of their passing.

And even this won’t last for more than a day. This is frustrating. “I’ve a mind to simply give up the enterprise and return to town. Surely our strengths are now better suited to its recovery.”

[youwillbeunequaled]

"I believe you have the right of it," Tonbokiri agrees. Although he is also disappointed that this attempt didn't bear any fruit, he is also pragmatic about it, so he tries to encourage his friend.

"Izuku-dono and I one had this happen to us, and he thought that the forest sending us in circles was also a type of answer... although what exactly it means, I do not know." Perhaps not as encouraging as he could have wished. And thinking about what happened after that, he tightens his grip on his spear. Still, he keeps his tone light. "Anyway, yes, let us return. Leave the heavy lifting to me! We will rebuild what those dragons tore down in no time."

[noholdsbard]

An answer, is it…he’ll believe it, given what he’s been through in this town.

“Yes,” he says after a moment, to take one final glance around the forest before turning toward the way they’d come, hoping that they won’t be locked in another loop on the way back.

“It is growing dark. We must—” There’s a clanging noise, and Tristan stares down to where he had somehow stumbled over a bright and golden shield, polished to such a magnificent sheen that it seems as though the Moon itself had dropped out of the sky to greet them at that moment.

[youwillbeunequaled]

The abrupt noise and change in Archer's movement makes Tonbokiri snap into a defensive posture, his spear at the ready. But it is quickly obvious that they are not under attack. His eyes are drawn to the shield, more a work of art than just a piece of armour.

"Where did that..." he trails off as where the luminous shield came from becomes obvious. There is a huge pile of weapons and armaments spilling onto the pathway, and it had absolutely not been there just a moment ago. He gazes at the spears in the pile with admiration, knowing without even having to pick one up that they are weapons worthy of the Emperor himself.

"What is the forest telling us now, I wonder." There is a sardonic edge to his tone, although he is honestly curious.

[noholdsbard]

“Whatever it is, I like it not,” he replies, quickly skirting around that shield and all the other treasures strewn so carelessly about the pathway. Somehow the forest is littered with all manner of precious things, glinting in the waning sunlight as if they’ve been sitting there for eons.

Tristan surveys the forest in wonder, his eyes glancing past the road to home in favor of all the riches strewn about them. Here and there—gold, silver, and jewels. Alongside the spears Tonbokiri is admiring are longswords and shields and bucklers and armors of surpassing quality. He sees fair instruments like unto his Failnaught, but of such fine make that they seemed fashioned by the hands of fairies.

Xie Lian and Wei Wuxian would enjoy such gifts, he thinks. Or perhaps Nero might enjoy that fine statue. Or he can lug home that inexplicable modern 21st-century oven for poor Jim who’s struggling with their old-fashioned kitchen.

He shakes his head, trying to break out of their spell. “I…I cannot see the way home, Tonbokiri.”

[youwillbeunequaled]

Tonbokiri, in the midst of gently taking the cover off a lacquer box intricately inlaid with gold and iridescent shells, pauses at Archer's voice.

"The way home?"

Like the moon against a black sky, smooth mochi is within the box. Tonbokiri sighs slightly, longingly. Certainly the taste would be unlike anything he could ever hope to experience in a hundred lifetimes, and the box itself is incredibly lovely...

But that his perceptive friend cannot see the way home - worry needles underneath his desire to look through the mysterious treasures further.

"Archer-dono..." Replacing the lid as gently as he'd taken it, Tonbokiri at last takes his eyes off the box. For a moment it feels like his heart misses a beat, as he too cannot see the path they'd just been on.

"Archer-dono, have you read the tale that precedes the quests on the forum?"

A temptation in the forest, and the wrong choice leads to a curse. Is it already too late?

[noholdsbard]

“I have, but—” his voice is trembling, as he quickly backs away from a flat stone, upon which a lock of golden hair sits, like a streak of lightning in the dark. This out of all the treasures they had seen thus far causes him the most disquiet, and he can’t—he can’t think. What about that silly little tale?

“I do not understand.” At any other time when he isn’t as shaken, Tonbokiri’s remark might have given him pause. For now his inner turmoil wins out, and he finds that he has to focus his mind toward tearing his gaze away. Though Maribelle is unlikely to be the owner of that fine lock of hair, her words come echoing back to him—

Damn this place! What is the bloody point!

“Why torment us with such things at all? We have already given up pursuit.”

[youwillbeunequaled]

Seeing Archer in such a state, voice trembling and clearly shaken - in torment, even? - it is very near alarming. Tonbokiri moves carefully through the treasures until he can reach out and place his hands on the man's shoulders, ensuring that he will look right at him and not the things around them.

"I do not know. But we must get away from here, not take anything, and not waver from the path home. Else we may become cursed, like in that story." If they have not been already. How would he know?

At least, turning his mind firmly away from the alluring distraction of the treasures, he can see the path again. Clasping Archer's hand, Tonbokiri takes the lead.