Field Mission 6: A Day in Thay, Part 1

[balancemod]

oh man best of luck out there dudes NAVIGATION Click here for the RNG thread! Ready or not, rested or not, it's time to get moving, Reclaimers. You've got a very, very long day ahead of you. And another one. And another one. And, you get the joke. Early Friday morning, with the Director there to see them off, the Reclaimers load up into the Bureau's transportation orbs for the sixth time since this whole ordeal began, and make their way to about a mile or two outside of Thay. It's important to try to stick to the story, at least — that you're all visitors from a faraway school, here to spend some time with the students and faculty of Boarbumps. As much as Lucretia would have liked to join you, she can't. None of the other leading members of the Bureau of Balance can. Whoever enters Thay, after all, is entering a bubble, after all. A time trap. Nobody will be able to leave until the Relic, the Lamp of Undoing, is either retrieved or destroyed. Someone needs to be able to continue if you all can't. 1. SEVEN O'CLOCK ALREADY As we noted in the OOC post, prompts on this log will be a quick few sentences of specific things happening during each hour. It's expected that Reclaimers will be seeing all of these events multiple times! So feel free to play with them as you see fit. If you're not sure if something you want to do would warrant a roll, please ask us in the RNG thread. ○ The Reclaimers have arrived in Thay, much to the curiosity of the highly intelligent, occasionally highly ... suspicious ... residents. Nevertheless, they recognize you as visiting, esteemed students, and, though perhaps still suspicious, welcome you into their fold. Also, as a note: Every time the relic is used, time is reset to this moment. ○ Boarbumps Academy for the Magically Inclined opens its doors to the Reclaimers. This is your first opening to explore the school — afternoon classes begin in an hour. ○ Rainer Arunsun, The Regent of Thay and Highest of the Hermetic Order of Red Wizards, can be seen watching the new arrivals by the entrance to the Red Keep. It's difficult to discern any emotion on her face. Shortly before 1 p.m., she retreats back inside. ○ Afternoon classes at Boarbumps begin, starting with a lecture on the magical circuits of the common toad. If you happen to sit in on this one, as a visitor from another school, you may be asked to assist in the dissection. You will be heckled by the rest of the class as deemed fit. ○ Erinne and Adriel can be seen within the hallways of Boarbumps arguing in a very heated manner. Some... less than choice words are exchanged between the two before one, or both of them take their wands out and begin throwing magic missiles at each other. No one knows why the fight starts, but the two have had bad blood before, and this isn't the first quarrel to happen at Boarbumps between them. A staff member arrives on the scene and is accidentally paralyzed by a misfire. ○ The town proper, surrounding the Red Keep, is open for a farmer's market. A bountiful harvest of goods are on display, but in particular, Thay is known for its amazing quality of medicinal herbs and magical reagants, many of which are rare without travel to the area. The merchants typically shoo students off, unless they have a hall pass provided to them by the faculty to retrieve something of import for class. ○ The second afternoon class at Boarbumps begins. Are you three or four time loops in and in desperate need of a nap? This class, The History of Boarbumps, is for you. You will be treated to a long and droning lecture about how the students attending during Boarbumps' very first semester banded together to stop a particularly plucky troll. Which you'd think would be an interesting tale. It is not. ○ Someone's enchanted several books at the library to begin rattling and shaking from the shelves themselves. All over the racks, spines pop out from their homes and fall to the ground, magically lift up and return to some other, non-Dewey decimal approved locale. Other books begin dancing — yes, you've read this correctly — dancing on the tables. Leon would be going into cardiac arrest at the moment, but it looks like someone's playing a prank in here. Again. This librarian looks far less tilted by this. It must be a somewhat normal afternoon for her. ○ Over in the center of town, music, a single violin playing a mournful tune, begins to play. It's unclear where exactly it's coming from. ○ The third and final afternoon class at Boarbumps — Fighting with Fire — begins. The professor, known to be slightly more unorthodox in her teaching methods, will recruit any Reclaimer who happens to be there to defend themselves from the students' incoming fireball spells. The potency of the fireballs themselves range from the tickle of a candle, to that one time you ate a ghost pepper, to one particularly fiery spell that might actually hurt you. ○ There's a scream in the girls' bathroom on the 3rd floor of Boarbumps. Anyone who enters realizes, very quickly, that no one is actually in there. Apparently, this particular lavatory is haunted. ○ Szass Astrosz dips class to go visit the local shrines within the town of Thay. He's been known to skip class before, so his departure from the halls of Boarbumps is rather nondescript. He spends time there praying quietly to his god. ○ There's a slight catastrophe over in the Town Square. That is to say, a giant spider seems to have escaped from Boarbumps and is terrorizing the vendors, to everyone's surprise. Subdue or dispatch it, it's up to you. ○ There's a scheduled council meeting to take place within the Red Keep, a usual weekly affair where Rainer, Casariel, Onerion, Gromph, and the rest meet to discuss matters of the town. Today's is canceled, as Gromph is called out to take care of the arachnid chaos currently convening around the Town Square. ○ Someone places a standing mirror around the corner of Boarbumps. If you happen to stand in front of it, it doesn't show your reflection — rather, it shows the person that you desire most. The mirror is gone by 5 p.m. ○ Cleanup of whatever damage the spider did is underway. In the meantime, the faculty of Boarbumps and the Hermetic Order of Red Wizards invite the Reclaimers to a small dinner in one of the public meeting rooms at the Red Keep. Every member of the Red Wizards are present, aside from Onerion Wyvernspur and Brian Darling. ○ The shops around the town of Thay begin to close for the evening. People are somewhere between annoyed and blase — the spider escaping was new enough, but weird Magic Things are, as you can imagine, pretty commonplace. ○ Over at The Sleepy Willow, cozy, fluffy pillows are arranged on the floor around a large fireplace. The owners will also serve you dinner, if you decide to skip the meal at The Red Keep. This may be one of the only peaceful moments you have to study everything that you've learned thus far. ○ No matter where you are in Thay, you'll feel the ground rumble underneath your feet. The residents largely pass it off as an earthquake, but will note that they have become much more frequent lately. ○ Towards the latter half of the hour, the rumbling within the school grounds causes several of the animal cages used in Onerion's Wondrous Beasts class to come unfastened as they begin to escape. Shortly thereafter, various beasts of all shapes and sizes are set free and begin running for freedom. None of them seem intent on hurting students, but they look to make an exit out of town in the quickest way possible. ○ Droves of the skeletal undead that are used around town seem to freeze in place, no longer retaining their animation. Whatever they're holding currently falls to the floor. Whatever task they're working on comes to a halt. No one understands why that is, but even the best necromancers around town can't seem to wake them back up. ○ With a sudden loud roar, the ground of the town square suddenly begins to split. People, shops, and everything else begin to drop into the chasm, despite the Red Wizards, and everyone else's, attempts to save them. ○ In the last split second you remember, if you happen to look down in the chasm, you'll notice a pair of bright, glowing eyes. Whatever exactly is down there begins to claw its way to the surface. ○ And then, just as suddenly, your vision turns white, and you're briefly overtaken by dizziness. When the haze clears, you are standing at the entrance to Thay. The sun hangs directly overhead in the sky. You have returned to 12 p.m. 2. OOC: A SPECIAL SHOUTOUT You are welcome to keep track of how your character experiences these time loops as much or as little as you're comfortable with — we'll also be tracking what you all are doing! Our Minato player Kel came up with some extremely snazzy coding if you would like to track how each loop plays out for your character more closely. Thank you, Kel! Of course, this is completely optional. Keep up with as much as you'd like, have fun as you see fit, and we hope you enjoy this mission! blurb code by photosynthesis

Comments

[conciliant]

[2B's body feels weak, so it doesn't take much for Ruby to pull her away from the mirror, but she can't bring herself to look at the girl next to her. The amount of shame she feels for showing so much emotion, as well as having someone see her like this, makes it difficult for her to make eye contact, or move at all. She shouldn't feel these things, and least of all for 9S, even if these emotions never truly left. 2B just got used to having to ignoring them.]

9S. He's... not here.

[But he is, in a strange way.

Her hand presses against the glass.]

[scatteredpetals]

[ Ruby finally looks up to see where 2B's hand is pressing and at her first glimpse of the reflection, she stills in surprise, her hand tensing where it still rests on the other girl's shoulder.

It's not her own face that stares back at her, but Weiss's. But then the image shifts, morphing into Yang. And Jaune. Nora. Ren. Qrow. Oscar. Her friends. Her teammates. Her family. The people she misses more than anything, and will do anything to save them from whatever monster is intent on devouring all these worlds. She will do it, because she has to.

But that doesn't make her miss them any less.

She's not even aware of when tears start streaming down her own cheeks, but she does reach out as the reflection continues to flicker and shift between familiar faces, her fingers brushing against the curve of Yang's cheek, resting against her uncle's heart. ]

This mirror makes you see those you miss the most...?

[ Her voice is hushed and choked and she takes in a shuddering breath for a moment before forcefully pulling her gaze away and looking back to 2B where she is crumpled on the ground. She lets her hand slide to soothingly stroke along her spine, seeking to comfort her. ]

9S. He's your friend?

[conciliant]

He's my...

[What... is he? Friend doesn't quite sum it up enough. He means so much more to her than what that word encompasses. 2B isn't even sure there is a word that exists that could describe what he means to her. Maybe one, but she isn't allowed to say.

Someone who she would risk everything for, and someone she would just as quickly kill for. No matter how many times she's had to fulfill orders, he always stood by her. He's the person she shares the most precious memories with.

9S is...]

My partner.

[With another sob, she removes her visor and lets it crumple to the floor, and when she looks at Ruby, the girl's face is blurred by the tears that she tries to blink away.]

You see him, too?

[scatteredpetals]

[ 2B calling him her partner makes perfect sense to Ruby, and also encompasses how important that link is to her. Ruby feels it with her own teammates, after all.

But at the question, she shakes her head, her eyes locked on the shifting reflections again. Oscar's timid smile. Jaune's serious look. ]

No. I don't see him. I see... my teammates. My partners. My family. We fought together, back home, went through so much. Being here without them, it feels... [ She pauses, searching for the right word, and glances over at 2B again. ] ...empty. Lonely. I miss them. I wish... I wish I could have somehow dragged them with me...

[conciliant]

[2B nods her head. Those words – empty, lonely – is exactly how she feels, too, and being surrounded by so many others does nothing to help alleviate that. If anything, it only emphasizes the fact that the person most important to her no longer exists.

That he can't simply be brought back like he has been so many times before. It hurt like hell, but at least she could cling onto the promise they made to one another that they could meet again. "It's nice to meet you, ma'am," he would say, and she would have to remind him every time that he didn't need to call her that. That wasn't a possibility, and she feels like she's broken that promise.

2B looks over to Ruby beside her, and realizes then that she isn't the only one suffering here. Ruby, too, despite her cheery nature, has people that she misses. People who are gone from her life.]

Ruby... [is all she can muster with a cracked voice before she pulls the girl into a tight embrace.

If they are going to grieve, then neither of them has to do it alone...]

[scatteredpetals]

[ The movement catches her by surprise and she makes a soft squeak when 2B pulls her into a tight hug. Hesitating for only a moment, she quickly reaches out to wrap her arms around 2B, hugging her back just as tightly. ]

I know. I'm sorry you miss him so much, though. If you... sometimes it helps to talk about them. To feel like they're here anyway. If you ever want to, I'd like to hear about him. Anyone who was your partner must have been amazing. And I... I can tell you about my friends back home, too.

[conciliant]

[2B listens, quiet for a while, as she holds onto Ruby, her hand resting atop her head. She wonders if it would be too painful to talk about 9S, especially now, after everything she knows about the fate of her world back home, and with him standing over her in the mirror. It hurts just to look at him, let alone think about it all.

Her lips curl into a gentle, sad smile as her head rests against Ruby's.]

I'd like to hear about your friends.

[Maybe that will help them both.]

[scatteredpetals]

[ Ruby looks up at the reflection once more time, her gaze lingering on her sister's face before she turns and gives 2B a sad smile.

Reaching out, she twines her fingers with the other girl's before pulling back just a bit. ]

Come on, it's getting late. Why don't we head back for tonight and get some rest? You've been here a lot lately, haven't you?

[conciliant]

[There's some resistance when Ruby laces their fingers together, but she ultimately gives in with a stubborn sigh.]

I don't need to rest.

[Although her warm body might say otherwise. Pod 042, which had been hovering nearby silently up until now, doesn't seem to agree with her and makes as much known.]

Unit 2B is experiencing higher than normal temperatures and severe emotional instability. Proposal: Unit 2B should "get some rest".

...

[scatteredpetals]

[ Ruby jolts a little at the sudden appearance of the new voice and her head comes up to peer at the Pod in surprise. ]

Whoa, it can talk! I mean.... hello, it's nice to meet you!

[ But the Pod's words have also sunk in and the 'higher than normal temperature' has Ruby worried now. She quickly lifts a hand to press her palm against 2B's brow. ]

Are you sick? Do you have a fever? Wait, can you even get a fever?

[conciliant]

[2B is also quick to remove Ruby's hand from her forehead, lowering it away from her but keeping it in her grip.]

No.

[At least, not the human kind, which she's heard involves bacteria and other nasty things. All she gets is higher than normal core temperatures and sometimes she starts to shut down and needs to rest, and that's an inconvenience...]

I'll be fine. I just... need to find a place to sit.

[That isn't the cold floor.]