nysalogs | (open) this time i know

Entry tags:

(open) this time i know

Who: mikazuki augus (

sparsity) & various & you!
What: january catch-all, open prompts/closed quests.
When: throughout the month.
Where: mostly wyver, a smidge of olympia.
Warning(s): none as of now!

I. WITHIN WYVER

A. ODD JOBS:
[ Calling Mikazuki a workaholic wouldn't be an understatement. He seems to sleep as little as he can possibly get away with and spends the rest of his time either training in the jungles or picking up odd jobs around the dense, vibrant marketplace. Constant movement comes to him easier than being inert, though no one would really figure him for a restless sort. Whatever the case is, he's been hefting deliveries for different shops, earning some silver and a snack or two along the way.

His current task, one that has him parked outside a café with a carved facade depicting a dragon and a few spartan teacups wreathed in steam, sees him cleaning up a pretty tenacious gnarl of plantlife. Foliage grows freely in Wyver, but overgrowth can be a nuisance. He doesn't seem to mind doing the job barehanded, peeling back vines and thorns from bright red blossoms. Luckily his hands are tough and show he's been at this a while as a result: dirt darkens his wrists, fingertips sticky with sap. At his side is very small deer who daintily steps over the carnage, picking up fallen leaves to chew on. With a flat look, he reaches up to push at its nose. ]

Cut it out. You'll get a stomach ache.

[ While most of the unruly vines have been snapped and put aside, there's a pile of flowers neatly laid out, separated from the bulk. Mikazuki sits back on his knees if approached, reaching up to wipe beneath his bangs with the back of his wrist. There is now dirt on his face. ]

Take them if you want them. [ He places another one down. ] It's a waste to throw them away.

B. FIELDS OF THE EXALTED:
[ Working with animals had taken some more getting used to. Mars had no animals to speak of; insects and birds were rare, strays and rodents a little less so. He'd never seen livestock or working animals, so the abundance of wildlife on El Nysa had been drastic change in pace. But Mikazuki seems to thrive on new things, even (or maybe... especially...) when they're wild, strident, and bloody. Which is why he's parked on an outcrop of rock in the fields where he has his main job babysitting dragons. He tends to be not so good with small or sick things, so he spends his time with the older beasts. They're a pretty cavalier bunch, proudly turning earth and whipping the air with their wings. Squabbling over the last sheep, things like that.

Right now, it's fairly peaceful as the early afternoon sun arcs overhead. Mikazuki lets his legs dangle from his perch and watches over the windswept fields below where the dragons come and go, some napping, others blustering about proudly. He's never really approached one, but he's patient. ]

I heard you could bond with one. [ Whether it's a coworker within earshot or a visitor come to sight-see, it's the same statement. ] Somehow.

[ Though he looks relaxed, he's pretty alert, considering where they are. ]

C. LHONGHA STABLES:
[ Things Mikazuki has done: knife fight moon-crazed wyverns in his underwear. Things Mikazuki has not done: actually ride a wyvern. He's interested in seeing more of the place he's chosen to live, but the insistence on it being done with mounts leaves him skeptical. Still, it was supposed to cost lots of money to do this normally, and maybe he won't get the chance to again. Not that this makes him look any more sure about it despite the calm lay of his features. He lingers outside one of the pens where a wyvern is lashed to its fence. It dips its head over the side and tries to take clips at the edges of his hair with its pointed snout.

He doesn't look nearly as alarmed as he should at being so close to an animal that could fit his whole head in its mouth. ]

It's not that I haven't flown before...

[ Just, you know. A talented pilot doesn't necessarily mean he'd be a talented rider. ]

D. LAGOONS:
[ Whatever or whoever convinced him to go, Mikazuki did in fact take to the wilds with a large reptile creature in tow. Whether he actually rode it or just walked it along with him isn't immediately apparent, but he's stopped by the lagoons for a spell. He's left it tethered to a tree where it idles with brief flexes of its pliant wings. For his part, he's, well. Poised over the edge of one of the cold springs, his head entirely underwater. It's a sight.

With some bubbling, he finally pops his head above water with a breath and a splash, not unlike a dog shaking off. Sorry if you get the brunt of that? Glancing over his shoulder, hair now dripping and mussed every which way, his gaze hones. ]

What? It's hot.

II. WILDCARD

[ what to do something else using the jan outline or unaffiliated quests? go for it! plotting comment here or hit me up at rivalry! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ was shamwow her gateway drug ]

I came here a lot when I first arrived.

[ Though it's hard to see what would be of any interest out here, winter's grip making the landscape even more barren than usual save for the dense forests that climb up into the higher areas of land. Twisting, his grip on Clair's waist slacks as he looks around. ]

It should be okay, probably.

[ He doesn't sound too concerned, even when he glances down at the sudden fidgety tiptoe Jean makes now that they're on the ground. ]

Ah! Then do you know whereabouts we should begin searching?

[ She descends now, swinging one leg over the pegasus and then sliding down his withers to the ground. There's a feeling of... disappointment that strikes her as her feet touch down, if only because their flight felt far, far too short. Well, at least there is the flight back...

She turns and looks up at Mika, her arms open so that she can help him down. ]

I know where the caves are. I've never been inside though.

[ It'll be a day of firsts. Following suit and swinging one leg over, he perches on the saddle for a moment before Clair's hands interject from the side. He pauses, but eventually reaches out to take hold of her wrists so he can steady himself as he hops down.

There's something that seems to suddenly catch him and bring his attention back to Jean, making him stop to look up at the pegasus. ]

Will he be okay?

Wonderful! Then this should be a rather simple expedition, no?

[ She basically just jinxed this whole endeavor. Still, there are no mishaps as she helps him down from the saddle, her hands curled around his wrists. And he looks no worse for the wear from the flight, so that's good.

As for Jean— ]

Oh, yes! Pegasi are quite intelligent creatures. He shall be waiting for us exactly in this spot when we return, I assure you.

[ About that... ]

Now lead the way!

[ No wood to knock on to remedy this, so Mikazuki is just going to have to deal with it as it comes. Not that he isn't curious, not that he doesn't have the slightest thrum of anticipation in his nerves. With a glance at Jean, he finally nods and breaks away from the creature, wondering why his concern seemed so... immediate.

rest in pieces kids ]

It's closer to the the statue...

[ Stepping out from beneath the great skull's shadow, he orients himself and points to a rocky outcrop that rises up out of Edrathe's valley. There's an image of a woman carved into it, overgrown and worn with age. It cuts the arc of the sky over the landscape. ]

Over there.

[ Time for a trek! ]

Very well. Let us proceed!

[ She pats Jean on the neck and gives the giant dragon skull one last, long look, drawing in a deep breath. The sight of it rips an almost nostalgic memory from her: the dragon-god Duma's great bone skull, left in the earth right where he was slain. His demise was meant to usher in a new era of peace to all of Valentia—it did, for all too brief a moment.

It inspires a more subdued feeling in her, so that she's a little uncharacteristically quiet as she follows his lead to the statue. ]

[ Mikazuki is content to let the silence persist for a while as they follow the slope of the hills down across the valley. Despite being so early in the year, the sunlight gleams overhead, brightening the wind that pulls over the swaths of grass. Eventually, when the crunching sounds of footsteps gets a little too loud, Mikazuki ventures: ]

Do you feel okay?

Ah, yes!

[ She didn't even realize—well, she stops and turns halfway to gesture to the dragon skull, now lingering in the distance. The gentle wind pulls at her hair, making her reach up and tuck her bangs behind her ear. ]

The skull there is not so dissimilar from the one left by the dragon-god Duma after we felled him. I was merely reminiscing... though I suppose it is gone now, naturally.

[ She shrugs one shoulder, as if to shrug away the past, and continues walking. ]

[ Not always as lacking in emotional capacity as he seems, his pace slows so he can look over his shoulder at the silhouette of the skull. It seems almost washed out and unreal against the skyline. Something that big was once alive to breathe and fight. It must have been amazing to go up against. ]

You must think about being home a lot.

[ He says it as if doesn't surprise him: most anyone would, right? ]

[ It's her usual habit to downplay her negative feelings, to smile them away and move on—but this is Mika, and she doesn't feel as strong a need to put up such a... front. Though she doesn't look at him when she speaks—instead, she stops in front of the woman carved into the rocks, touching her fingers to the apple of her stony cheek. ]

Yes. Admittedly, I... miss it terribly, at times.

[ Now she turns her head to glance at him, her chin angling curiously. ]

Do you miss your home as well? What is it like?

[ It's not worth ridicule, if Mikazuki is even capable of it. Asking because he's curious happens more often than asking because he wants to compare lives — it wouldn't be fair of him. It doesn't appear so with the way he shifts to look across the shapes of stone to leverage the topic he brought up. ]

Sounds normal.

[ There's a path ahead that cuts down into the ruins, natural steps carved by the elements. He moves towards it, gaze forward. ]

I don't miss it. There was no where I belonged anyway.

[ Normal, probably—she knows that in her head, but not in her soul. It makes her wonder if there will always be a part of her that mourns the loss of her home—a small splinter of grief that will remain wedged in her heart until the day she dies.

She follows him down the path, trying to tuck away the thought for later. ]

Nowhere? [ As usual, things that sound kind of sad for anybody else don't seem to really bother Mika at all, to her amazement. Maybe she shouldn't be so amazed... ]

Do you think you could find yourself belonging here?

Well... maybe. [ Overhead, the rock starts to close in, forming a tunnel down into the cave proper. He reaches aside to trail his fingers over the uneven surface. ] I haven't tried.

[ Making a living and carving out a small place to survive wasn't really the same as finding a home somewhere. It just feels like he's had to start over, and he doesn't have the same foundations to grow roots in. The Storm took his world, but it was the work of greed and tyranny that took his home away long before that. ]

I belong with someone. But he's not here.

[ Even if he never wakes up, he's alive. He owes the Natha his life for that much. ]

[ How intriguing... perhaps she should've expected an answer like that. Mikazuki might act otherwise, but she knows deep down that he has a fierce and ardent heart—maybe it makes sense that his devotion is not to a place but to a person instead. ]

Oh! Someone special, then? What is he like?

[ She's just a naturally curious soul, what can she say. And Mikazuki so rarely offers up information of his own volition that she has to be the one to ask if she wants anything—and, as always, she wants to know more about him. ]

[ His quiet disposition about personal things isn't her fault, he just assumes no one cares, and anyone who did care to know probably already knew by the virtue of growing up with him. It's a hard mindset to break even when only a few of those people are here. He leverages his silence with his motions: heavy, even footsteps. ]

It's hard to say it. My life belongs to him.

[ Awake or not. But onto business. ]

Will we know when we see the crystals?

[ Either way, he must be very impressive indeed to earn such devotion from Mika—or so she thinks. As for the crystals... ]

Ah, yes! They are smooth in comparison...

[ Anyway, they mine some crystals and shit. TWO HOURS LATER, they emerge again from the cave with their hoard, only to find that Jean... didn't actually stay where he was supposed to, as Clair had promised. After searching nearby for their wayward pegasus— ]

Goodness me. I do believe that he has... absconded.

[ Absconded... that's just a fancy word for — ]

Ran away, huh.

[ Mikazuki had been silently coming to terms with that fact as they searched high and low for their missing pegasus. Not only could it run, but it could fly, meaning it was well beyond them if it didn't want to be found. Remembering how fidgety Jean got, he almost can't be surprised. Hefting the bag of crystals over his shoulder, he shifts, chin lifted, looking towards the horizon. ]

There won't be time to walk back before it gets dark.

[ Between the amount of time it took them just to fly here and the sun's current position just above the horizon—she knows he's right.

That doesn't mean she has to like it, though. Or know what to do now that they're stranded here. Sure, she's done a lot of travelling with Alm's army—up and down all of Valentia, actually—but that definitely doesn't make her the outdoorsy type.

With a sigh, she sets her own sack of crystals down on the ground. ]

My word. What do we do now? I suppose it would behoove us to make camp here rather than attempt the trek back... yes?

[ Mikazuki nods, unloading the crystals from his shoulder so he can survey the little area. ]

Yeah. We can rest now and start again in the morning.

[ Moving now would be a waste of strength, and he's not very trusting of Edrathe's wilds out in the open. So he walks along the base of the dragon skull's jaw, but doesn't seem to find anything out the ordinary. No weird overgrowth, no animals. Had he not been used to no animals as a baseline thing on Mars, it might strike him as strange that other creatures hadn't thought to take shelter here.

But it's dry at least, though there won't be a lot they can do for food with winter still in the air. Speaking of... ]

Sorry, it'll probably be cold.

[ Fire in Wyver was so plentiful that he doesn't really prepare for not having it around. ]

[ It makes the most amount of sense—they don't want to be trudging around in the dark, susceptible to the wild animals and monsters that roam around outside the cities. Clair has a good idea of which direction they would need to go—but who knows what kind of obstacles they would run into along the way? It's easy to get lost in the dark.

With an air of resignation, she ducks inside the dragon's skull and casts her gaze around their makeshift shelter for the night. It's slightly warmer in here than it is outside, if only because the skull cuts the breeze. When night falls, though...

It's about now that she realizes that she wasn't very helpful when it came time to set up camp. The mages would start the fires, the more culinarily-inclined soldiers and servants would cook the meals... that's if they had to rough it, since most of the time they were able to stop in villages and towns.

Well, she's nothing if not optimistic in the face of certain misery. ]

There is no need to worry! This will do just fine.

[ Maybe it's lucky there's not a lot to set up, in a way. No brush to buffer the cold, no cover to account for the size of their camp. With a quiet nod, he picks up the crystals again and goes to throw them between the massive teeth of the long-dead creature. They fall through and to the ground below where the bone has long since sunk into the earth, as if the structure is slowly descending into the place where it fell. It's old in a strange way, this improper burial, something he feels more than he knows as the wind hollows through the various cavities.

It doesn't take long for the sun to sink over the barren valley, taking the temperature with it. Climbing up to perch himself between two of the teeth, he surveys the tall grass, the tower in the distance. Without light pollution, the moonlight is brighter than he's ever seen it.

Moving his gaze away, he looks down to Clair, body weathering well against the cold. ]

Should I keep watch first?

[ Even with these ages-old bones to provide some shelter from the wind, it's still chillingly cold. She didn't bring much with her to prepared for it, since they weren't planning to stay until nightfall—just a cloak for the ride to and fro, in case she needed it.

But even swathed in that cloak... she finds herself curling up against the gently-curved wall of the skull, knees pressed against her chest in a middling attempt to conserve some heat. Okay, now she's feeling a little less optimistic. ]

I suppose...

[ She glances up at him, her eyebrows pulling together—he doesn't seem to be bothered by the temperature at all. ]

Are you not cold?

[ Noting her posture and the definite downswing in her demeanor, Mikazuki's expression loosens somewhat. Carefully, he lowers himself, hanging off of a tooth until he can drop to the ground below and approach her. ]

The place where I grew up was really cold. [ Streets with minimal protection from frigid Martian rainfall, so many more miles away from the Sun than Earth. ] I'm used to it.

[ He kneels to get a better look. ]

Are you okay?

[ Meanwhile, Clair grew up near the equator of her world, where it was warm and temperate nearly all year round. Travelling north to reach the capital of Rigel had been an ordeal for her, if only because she was so unused to the bitter cold.

She's still not very used to it as of now, but Mikazuki seems so unaffected by it that it becomes a matter of pride. ]

Yes, of course! I am perfectly all right. This is nothing at all.

[ She even looks mostly convinced by herself. This is a simple matter of mind over matter, no? ]

If it's nothing...

[ Though she looks convincing enough, Mikazuki actually frowns. He doesn't intend it, but it's a very accusatory gesture. Wordlessly, he holds his hands out. Extremities get coldest first, a lesson well-learned in his youth.

So, paws up. He's going to see how truthful that statement is for himself. ]

(open) this time i know

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