❪ event ❫ THE DESCENT: PART TWO.

[natha]

JULY 16th: THE MORNING AFTER     In the early morning, your characters' phones will buzz with a text from an Unknown ID. It contains an audio file as well as its transcription: DARMA'S MESSAGE It worked. By the miracles of all universes, you survived. It was not ideal by any means, but it was all we can muster with limited time. We hope you can forgive us for your injuries and headaches, and we thank you for working together and helping one another. But now, your journey is just beginning. You must head east to find the Outpost. That shall serve as a fine rest stop. However, there will be danger ahead yet. The beasts you encountered in the simulations are now very real. They will attack, as you are seen as meat. Please exercise caution, Refugee. This shall be my last message for some time. The Moons are protected, but I must rest... I leave the rest to you. INTO THE WOODS     Head east, Darma said— and so you do. That seems to be all you can do. Traversing through woods is not a simple task. Hopefully you have taken advantage of the camouflage outfits offered prior to the start of this great migration. Naturally, for those of you who have done the training modules, some things will be a bit familiar. Some wildlife will mimic what you've seen there. Nevertheless, it'll be crucial for one to keep on guard. While Sael selected the Outlook as the ideal place for landing due to its direct removal from Olympian or Wyver soil, it doesn't come without its own dangers as you venture east. Perhaps it's time to face your fears. PROMPT A. There are many creatures roaming around these parts. Some will blend straight in with the woods, others will be bold and loud. While traveling as a party of about 180, it's quite easy to become targets. Fortunately, that also means strength in numbers. Maybe you've got someone's back on this, perhaps they have yours. Either way, what's quicker way to bond than to face a couple of questionable beasts? Maybe you've ran into a Arache (CW link: arachnophobia), a creature known for mimicking voices, even ones they haven't heard. They weasel their way into your subconscious and pick out voices from your memories, luring their victims deeper into the strange woods with the voices of their loved ones. Sometimes, it's a cry for help; other times, it's a replay of a striking memory. Once its victim steps into its large, barely-visible web, the Arache will store them or start its feast. Or, perhaps, you may encounter a Ditz Moth, as large as a rabbit who are relatively easy to kill, but they leave an awful scent on you the moment they flee or die. Be sure to mask this scent immediately, whether by covering yourself in fresh flowers or soaking in river water for an hour, because it's been known to cause extreme confusion. You'll end up dizzy, you'll confuse your friends for enemies, or enemies as loved ones. Or, you run into something else entirely! The forest is the home for many creatures from many worlds; who knows what you may encounter? PROMPT B. You've been traveling for a fair distance. While this is by no means a desert, the sun begins to settle, leaving an unprecedented heat. Perhaps it's the contrast against the night, but you find it almost unbearable. Lucky for you, the goddess of fortune is smiling upon you. At a distance is a clean lake. One full of lush scenery, and large trees canopying the immediate area. There is lots of shade, and maybe this is just the break you need. Or alternatively, the rations were sparse last night. It barely covered a meal each. Fortunately, this area seems full of wildlife one can hunt. Perhaps, that three-headed rabbit in the distance? Maybe that frog that smells a bit like lavender and vanilla? Additionally, for those who find themselves more inclined to leaving it up to fate— ENTER: OLYMPIA'S WEST OUTPOST     After a full day of travelling, you finally make it to the West Outpost as Darma instructed. You can tell by the way the trail gets neater, flatter. There are some small shops all along the sides of the road, offering trinkets, precious stones, and food. Unfortunately, you don't seem to have the money to purchase anything. The only thing you can do is watch wearily as you approach the West Outpost Gate. Near the gate, you're expected to form a line. The guardsmen seem to be inspecting every person entering. When it's finally your turn, the guardsman seem to know exactly what group you are. He immediately calls you Refugees, then proceeds to open a folder specifically labeled Refugee Group D. You might assume the "D" stands for Darma. He seems to be happy to see your arrival — Anyway, we've been expecting you. You're in luck! You refugees arrived the day after Thesa's blessing, y'know? That meteor shower was a sight to behold! What's your name? Oh, there you are— here, take take this. It's your passport. Gonna need that to get to Olympia. Your sponsors paid for your inns for tonight, so get yourself a room. You're at the last leg before the Capital. Keep your head up, all right? It seems now you are an official Olympian citizen with this passport. As you walk around, there will be an old man about. He sees you holding your bags and passports and approaches you. He has seen the fiasco in the skies from the day before. Naturally, he believes it to be a divine sign, and you the product of that. Which translates to free food. It must be relieving to eat (relatively) normal food after so long. There's also a very special visitor at the Outpost today: a woman by the name of Lysa, who happens to be a renowned healer in Olympia. Following the strange meteor shower, she’s come out of the city and into the outskirts to see it all for herself, this divine phenomenon brought upon by Thesa. While she has no explanation for the sudden occurrence, she stays, because she can sense that her services are needed. Healthy characters will taken by the hand and brought to a wounded fellow refugee. Lysa will then urge them to stay by that refugee’s side, to care for them. Please, do not go. I need a little of your compassion and patience. PROMPT A. If the wounded party has lethal injuries, Lysa will give the healthy character a vial of Screaming Draught to feed to them. It's a strong healing potion known for its ability to regenerate cells. It can close up almost any sort of wound, no matter how large, and can even regenerate limbs. However, its ability comes at a costly price. Seconds after taken, the wounded character will experience an excruciating, constant pain as the healing takes place. Some who have taken the potion may even start to become delirious, seeing hallucinations. If asked about this effect, Lysa looks solemn, remarking that her clinic is too far away and she does not have anything gentler on the body on hand. She urges your character to help the suffering one through this, giving them their comfort and any kind of support. PROMPT B. If the wounded party has smaller injuries, Lysa will give your character a vial of some basic Proliferation Elixir, a weaker healing potion with less devastating side effects. It can heal cuts, bruises and minor fractures. Characters who take it will experience side effects such as dizziness, nausea and a persistent chill. They are still in need of attention, and Lysa will urge the healthy characters to tend to them. Warm them up. Feed them something nice. Keep them from wandering around when they should be resting. Show any kind of care and you'll make Lysa a happy woman. Characters who answer Lysa's pleas will be given a small vial of Proliferation Elixir as a token of gratitude. It's good for one-time use. NIGHTFALL AT THE WEST OUTPOST     As dusk approaches, bustling Outpost quiets down as the flea shops pack up their things to go home. But it seems this outpost is not one that simply sleeps at night. Thesa is high on the skies when the Outpost square lights up. There's music, dancing, and laughter. They seem to encourage you to join them as well. "This celebration is for you! Come, join us!" Perhaps their enthusiasm is infectious enough for you to succumb to it; perhaps you don't understand at all why they're this happy after the hell you went through to get here. It's not like you can tell them what the "meteor shower" actually had been. At least they offer free alcoholic drinks and a great feast similar to those you remember from home. You may find that the drinks are far stronger than any alcohol you've ever had, but it taste like a typical cocktail, or whiskey/scotch/vodka/your flavor drink. Nothing particularly special until you make your way back to the inn. Let's hope you won't walk into the wrong room. FINAL OOC NOTE     This is PART TWO of our three-part intro event. PART THREE will be up on JULY 22ND, at 6 PM EST. In the event of CAPTCHA, we will be providing an overflow. In the event of a second CAPTCHA, players are advised to move threads to an overflow post on their character journals. These threads remain eligible for AC, AC Rewards, and REP. The NETWORK is still down. Characters may still message each other's personal IC inboxes. REMEMBER TO USE COMMUNITY TAGS. RECOMMENDED LISTENING: Nocturn OOC PLOTTING may be continued here. PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE (coming soon) QUICK NAV premise ● faq ● world ● map ● reputation ● npcs taken ● reserves ● application calendar ● hiatus/drops ● modbox [ FULL NAVIGATION ] elnysa nysalogs nysaisles nysaooc elnyan

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ii-a

[sparsity]

[ While teeming with unfamiliarity at every corner, Mikazuki is faring the West Outpost as best he can. At least, he had been, when it was still daylight. Night descending turns the place into a whole different kind of beast, full of light and laughter, allowing rogue memories of better days to flicker up and extinguish just as quickly. Much like stories of their landing, the burning lights in the sky that preceded them. It feels a little disingenuous to him, but maybe Mikazuki is just irritated and tired —

...his stomach makes a rude noise, which stops him in his tracks. So hungry, too.

Which is how he's ended up with a plate full of stuff, foisted off on him by a happy woman with cheeks reddened by cooking fire, who probably took his diminutive size beneath Darma's robes to mean that he had never been fed properly. Which was partly true, he supposes.

That plate is also chock full of what looks like meat, making Mikazuki frown in the space between this realization and someone else's vocal food lamenting. Glancing over, Mikazuki watches the skewer wave around, displaying something that looked slightly less. Meaty. Good enough. Silently, he reaches his opposite arm over to pluck the stick from Noctis's hand. ]

No, but I can find out.

[ He holds his own plate aside to him. ]

Here.

[noctsout]

[ Hunger is definitely the lesser evil on a list that also carries the words of exhausted and displaced, maybe even misplaced for all that this festive atmosphere can be argued to be familiar to Noct, an echo of a city-town that now lay in ruined slumber in the aftermath of the Storm. Lines of thoughts that does little but to add dispiriting to that awful list of things that Noct is pointedly trying to avoid personifying, focused on the simpler distress of trying to face down a possible vegetable skewer that's still horrifically orange.

Until it's not. Until it's not in his hand at all, daftly plundered from his fingers as if he hadn't been holding onto it in the first place. It swerves his attention in Mikazuki's direction almost immediately, focusing it into something pointed and-- not annoyed, not really, not when he'd just been saved from the personal offense of having to try a vegetable, but-- ]

Hey, wait. Just-- hold on.

[ Stop that, he'd (almost) literally put his nose all over that, trying to sniff out its origin and identity, no one should have to eat that!? Here, let him try to snatch it back. ]

[sparsity]

[ Small as he may be, he has a decent reach on him, but it probably doesn't make the sight any less amusing, especially for a pair of newcomers. Mikazuki still attempting to keep the skewer out of grabbing range (and being surprisingly deft at it) while using the plate in his opposite hand as a stubborn buffer. There's something that finds itself settling in him, being able to focus on something so small as a squabble with a stranger. ]

It's not a big deal.

[ He'd eaten out of the actual garbage as a child. A nose isn't nearly as offensive. ]

I don't want this either. Take it.

[ Half a roasted bird of some kind, still steaming. ]

[noctsout]

[ Half roasted non-vegetable, which looks much more appetizing than the orange skewer that's being used as a way of playing keep-away, and-- sure, alright, Noct will accept the plate to help move it out of the way. Seriously, this guy was tiny, how the heck was he so fast? Noct makes another few aborted attempts at sniping it back, and--

And it's not even that he wants it. He doesn't. He's happy to share this orange veggie as long as none came close to his own mouth, but losing at this game kinda... rubbed him wrong. ]

That's-- fine [ and much appreciated ], but. Give it back already. What if I--

[ quick, what's a gross thing ]

Licked it? Or something.

[ That's gross enough, right? Give it back now. ]

[sparsity]

[ One impressive brow raises, head canting aside to get a good look at the orange thing while he can hold it still enough in between grabs. A hum rolls in his throat, as if appraising the grossness of that statement. Give him a moment, because he's a master of gross, and has to pit it against other gross things in his repertoire — ]

Is your mouth that disgusting?

[ this

this is how you make friends, right ]

[noctsout]

[ what ]

What, no! [ wait, that's not ] I mean, I... guess? Can't say I've brushed my teeth in--

[ Since he and he bros crashed his dad's car, romped their way through a fortress, got tricked into falling into a magical crystal, and cycled through cold sleep 'til Darma shot them out to El Nysa in their sleeping pods, so. How long was that? Not that it makes a difference in how it's starting to make his mouth feel a little gross, like actually. Ugh. ]

... Look, that doesn't matter. They're not exactly shy on the whole. Sharing, thing. [ They're not. Too bad Noct's a little fussier. ] Can't I just get you a new one?

[sparsity]

[ If he knew, he might be marginally sorry he called attention to your teeth, Noct. As it is, he's not exactly a paragon of cleanliness himself, and you know what makes a great remedy for gross mouth feeling? Meat grease. (Work with him here.) ]

Then isn't it better to not be shy either? [ He pauses, bringing the assumed veggie skewer down to eye level to get a look at it. ] There's no reason to waste this one.

[noctsout]

[ They could even bond over how gross they could be, if only Noct was inclined towards grossness. He'd be beaten out of that game pretty fast.

Also, meat grease is great, it's-- delicious enough when it comes attached to real and steaming meat, but he can't justify getting steamrolled by a stranger, okay. Even if that's... precisely what might be happening right now. ]

Fine, then I'll eat it. [ Uh. ] After-- you try your own.

[ See? He's not being shy. Give it here. ]

[sparsity]

[ A hum passes through his throat, not precisely hesitant, because Mikazuki isn't that person, usually... (but really, it's little hesitant.) ]

Usually, I'll eat when there's food. But meat is...

[ Not his favorite. ]

Either way, I thought someone else would want it more than me.

[ Look at this plate. Don't let it go cold and abandoned while Sarah McLachlan plays in the background. ]

[noctsout]

[ Stop doubting him, he's royalty!! --or something. Okay, so maybe there were only so many ways a guy could look lost with a veggie skewer in hand, and maybe Noct had managed to look the part, but that still didn't forgive this stranger for trying to eat a (possible) veggie skewer that might have nose cooties everywhere.

Mika's pause brings Noctis to also pause, eyes dropping to that plate of food. It did look really good... Okay, fine, let him just. Pick it up. There, happy? ]

There, happy?

[ This is definitely a guy that's used to fussing until he gets his way. ]

Come on. The skewer lady should be just around the corner.

[sparsity]

[ Mikazuki has a formidable defense against fussers, though his expression doesn't shift much even in light of getting Noct to take the plate from him. Is he happy? Stay tuned. ]

Yeah. [ A nod. ] That's fine.

[ eesh though, not even a thanks. ]

...were there more kinds?

[ Than this orange thing he's still holding, though whether or not the answer is a yes, he's still making to follow. ]