balance mod (
balancemod) wrote in
balance_logs2019-11-08 03:54 pm
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Entry tags:
- ace attorney: franziska von karma,
- ace attorney: maya fey,
- ace attorney: mia fey,
- ace attorney: phoenix wright,
- cowboy bebop: spike spiegel,
- danganronpa: kokichi oma,
- danganronpa: maki harukawa,
- digimon: erika mishima,
- doki doki literature club: monika,
- doki doki literature club: natsuki,
- doki doki literature club: sayori,
- doki doki literature club: yuri,
- final destination: alex browning,
- fire emblem: flayn,
- good omens: aziraphale,
- good omens: crowley,
- homestuck: dave strider,
- jjba: guido mista,
- kingdom hearts: hayner,
- kingdom hearts: roxas,
- legend of zelda: zelda,
- love live: honoka kousaka,
- marvel: loki,
- my hero academia: izuku midoriya,
- nier: 2b,
- original: christine delacroix,
- original: ferran gallagher,
- original: mira delacroix,
- overwatch: jesse mccree,
- overwatch: soldier 76,
- percy jackson: piper mclean,
- persona: minato arisato,
- persona: ryuji sakamoto,
- persona: shinjiro aragaki,
- red vs blue: agent washington,
- red vs blue: leonard church,
- rwby: blake belladonna,
- rwby: ruby rose,
- the good place: chidi anagonye,
- the good place: eleanor shellstrop,
- the good place: michael,
- the idolm@ster: nana abe,
- trigun: nicholas wolfwood
Field Mission 6: A Day in Thay, Part 1
![]()
![]() ![]() 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 ALREADYAs 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. ![]() ○ 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. ![]() ○ 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. ![]() ○ 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 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. ![]() ○ 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. ![]() ○ 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. ![]() ○ 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. 2. OOC: A SPECIAL SHOUTOUTYou 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! |
no subject
I wouldn’t know.
[Is what he settles on, before deciding to change the subject as he gestures at the hand holding the photograph ,]
What’s that you have there?
no subject
For the time being, though, she is distracted by the line of inquiry. Her gaze travels to the photo, and after a moment, she turns it and holds it out so that Ogata can see it.] I got it for doing my Test of Initiation... I was in a Literature Club back home. These are my friends who were in the club.
[Her only friends, actually. The girls might be familiar, if not by name then at least as other Reclaimers. But the same isn't true for the boy, and he remains strangely forgettable. They do appear to be in a classroom of some kind; a tray of cupcakes decorated like cats is visible on one of the desks in the background.
Whatever was going on, it seems like a happy day.]
no subject
But this is something tangible. It’s unlike his concept of it in any way but this is indisputably a photograph, just so much clearer than any he saw back home. And with color. He’s so thrown by this, he grabs Sayori’s wrist without really thinking about it. Holding it still as he leans in to look at the photo. Yep, that’s sure Sayori and the other girls he’s seen her with. It’s exactly how they look in real life. He doesn’t pay much thought to the boy, forgettable as he is, though something about that does strike odd at the back of his mind.]
I’ve never seen a photograph like this before.
[Thank god he finally has the vaguest presence of mind to mutter this explanation.]
no subject
At first she thinks he must have put the pieces together. Who else would she see in the mirror but the one person who's not here? And a particular kind of anxiety creeps into her chest, because she still doesn't know if she's prepared to speak on the particulars of that boy. Especially not to Ogata.
Thankfully that's not what's going on. She's relieved it's something simple—so relieved, in fact, that it takes her a second to absorb the implications of that.] Oh, really? [Hmm. He must be from an earlier year, like Farnese.]
This one came out of a magic printer thing so it's— [she hesitates to say not a real photo because there's already so much about it that's dubiously real anyway] Well, no one actually took this photo. But it's cool, huh?
no subject
Mm. The only photographs I’ve seen before haven’t had color. [He pauses a moment before confirming;] From what I’ve gathered my experience is somewhat... antiquated? Compared to most people here. The year was 1907 for me before the Hunger came.
no subject
There was a girl here from the 1300s for a while though. [The corner of her mouth quirks up in a fond smile as she reminisces on teaching Farnese about emoji.] She had it pretty tough with all the tech stuff too.
no subject
It was all deeply disorienting at first, but I had seen a telephone being used before, so I had at least some concept to work off of. I’d heard of film, too, though I hadn’t seen one myself. I can’t imagine how she would have reconciled this technology with her experience.
[He regards the picture again, before musing;]
You must be glad that so many of your friends were brought here.
no subject
Which makes this thread of conversation a bit difficult, because a lot of the situation surrounding her and her friends is nothing to laugh about. At least her smile hides the quick calculations firing off in her brain, weighing how much can be said and what words those things should be said with.
Wow, this balancing act is a lot more exhausting now that there are people who know the truth of it.] Yeah, I'm really happy to see them again! But... I know this stuff is kinda scary since none of us knew how to fight or anything.
And, uh... [There's a small sigh as her gaze lingers on Yuri's face in the photograph.] We're all from different times of the same world. So we all know different things and it's been kind of weird.
[Yeah, that's a safe enough way to say it without getting into, uh, Everything.]
no subject
Ogata watches her as she talks, but he's really not perceptive enough when it comes to people to notice anything off. Still, he can follow her line of reasoning. It would bother him more, probably, if he hadn't already been made aware of people somehow coming from different times, thanks to Phoenix. The terrifying threat of possibility for the dead to show back up, here. He can imagine people having different spans of knowledge of events would be a problem, too.
He wants to think a gaggle of teenage girls didn't belong in a situation like this. But after meeting Asirpa he's really not sure what estimation to make of what young girls are capable of. Still, Sayori expressed worry about it, so;]
Do you ever wish they hadn't shown up at all?
[That's defnitely a question you COULD ask.... just.... maybe shouldn't.]
no subject
And maybe it shouldn't be asked, but it is something that has existed at the corners of Sayori's mind in the abstract, a doubt that she couldn't—or wouldn't—put words to. You can't answer a question if it's never asked!
Looks like she has to answer it now, though. And she does think it over. Maybe...maybe for one awful moment, when she first saw Monika and it brought her back to that hell in Wonderland, the nightmare of existence and the knowledge she shouldn't have—maybe then, there was a part of her that selfishly wished she didn't have to confront Monika.
But she's had some time. Some space. A lot of opportunities to think, and talk, and write. While the instinctive fear still lingers, and the unfamiliar knot of anger is difficult to untangle well enough to direct it all in the proper places, Sayori has found room in her heart for the profound sadness that Monika's situation elicits. Life as a Reclaimer has been challenging in ways that she never could have imagined, but despite that... Sayori has made a good life here, away from the confines of the game. Her friends deserve that shot at happiness too. Even Monika.
In some ways, especially Monika.
After a long, heavy moment of silence, Sayori shakes her head in the negative.] Even if it's complicated right now, I think they could be really happy here.
no subject
It's a sort of answer he's not surprised to hear from Sayori. Bastion of kindness she purports to be. And really, he does believe her kindness. To a point.]
That's not the question I asked. I didn't ask what you think about them and their thoughts. I asked if you, yourself, at any point, even for one moment, ever wished they hadn't come here.
[He's pressing entirely because she hesitated to give her answer.]
no subject
Ah, the pinch of her fingers at the corners of the photograph has tightened a bit. She forces herself to relax her grip and slips her hands into her pockets, one of them taking the photo with it.
If Ogata already thinks she's lying, then that's what he'll think regardless of how she continues. And he's not very trusting, for good reason, so she's sure there's nothing special about her in this interaction—but there's still a sick, sour note of vindication as she scuffs the toe of her shoe against the ground. She knew eventually that someone would see her for the lie that she is. It feels about as awful as she expected.
The boy gazes at her from within the mirror, and she lifts her head and meets his eyes with a certain...emptiness. It's not the same as Ogata's, not like a black hole. There's an exhausted quality to it, like the hole of a grave that someone forgot to stop digging.
Her voice is quiet. Sad, perhaps.] Just once.
Not for very long.
no subject
But when she finally answers, he seems to... relax? Like some of the tension the mirror put into his shoulders fades away. As if her answer is what he wanted to hear. He cracks the faintest of smiles, even.]
You act like it's so horrible to admit something like that. If you're just positive and selfless all the time it feels fake.
[A lie for being negative? Nah. To Ogata, she seems more real than ever.]
... If you hadn't selfishly insisted I taught you how to dance we probably wouldn't be standing here talking now.
[That's arguably a case to not be selfish, from some people's perspective.]
no subject
Her gaze falls, her head bowing slightly as she regards the bottom of the mirror's frame. He seems pleased, but she can't really parse why. He's hard to read even when she's not all caught up in her own head.
Surely he hasn't figured it out, right?
She laughs in a small, wry breath, her instinctual defense mechanism for processing ugly feelings. There's very little evident upset in her words, which is jarring against the actual content of them.] Yeah, and if you hadn't taught me even though I'm not useful for anything.
no subject
Still, he's not one to lie or gloss over things. So he's blunt.]
Mm. I taught you because it seemed like the quickest way to get you to leave me alone. You were very insistent.
[Honestly. He half wonders if even back then she'd sense something about him that made her want to not leave him alone. Maybe she was just stubborn. It's hard to say. In any case;]
I don't see how anyone could call someone like you useless, though.
[He could just say "you're not useless" but that's far too direct a nice thing to say.]
no subject
She lifts her bowed head to look at him, eyebrows furrowed and the corners of her mouth turned down slightly in uncertainty. Ogata is a pretty pragmatic person. And, at least according to him, he's never done or said anything just to be nice. (Sayori is pretty sure that's not true, but she does believe he doesn't make a habit of doing that.)
So he probably wouldn't say that if he didn't actually believe it, but...] Really?
[It seems pretty obvious to her!!]
no subject
[Well that’s definitely very.... pragmatic of him. It’s not like she’s the only one who can heal, though. There’s Dr Tank but then plenty of other people on the team who can use some sort of healing magic. That’s probably not enough. To solve whatever sort of... moment of crisis she’s having, here. He’s really not equipped for this. He can’t even handle seeing a version of his parents that care about him. That’s something normal for most people, isn’t it?
Hold on. Why does it even matter? Why should he care if Sayori is upset? It’s not like it affects him in any way. He doesn’t have any sort of incentive to keep her happy. It’s not necessary for the mission. It’s certainly not his job to make her feel better.
He still wants to, though. He frowns as this realization, glaring over at the mirror. He sees his mother.
Ah, that’s it. It’s because he cares about Sayori now.]
... And besides... you’re my friend.
[He says this, softly, without looking at her, hand carding over his hair. As if it’s a secret for someone else but the only person to hear it is her.]
no subject
Because he says she's his friend. Because apparently she really did win that argument, but that's not really the surprising part. She's noticed how he's acted since then—talking about her on the network, joining her sometimes when she sits down for a snack. Like he said, killing someone is one thing (for him), but those smaller gestures speak more of enjoying her company.
It's just surprising to hear him admit it. And admit it...for her sake. Yeah. That's the weird part.
She blinks a few times like she's still trying to absorb it, and then an embarrassed smile crosses her face as she looks away too. She scuffs the toe of her shoe on the ground again, this time in a bashful way. Crazy reality check; she must really be a downer right now if Ogata is having to say something nice to her.] Yeah, sorry. You're right.
Thanks.
no subject
He thinks about what she said a minute before, when she'd reached out to touch him without thinking. When something upsetting happens, I think it's nice to be touched. That was what she'd said. After a pause where he simply stares, he reaches out and... pats her on the head???]
Don't thank me. It feels weird. [Ogata, please.]
no subject
She blinks owlishly a few times as she registers it. Slowly, stupidly, lifts her own hand to set it atop her head in that spot, like maybe she imagined it??? But no, she totally saw the reflection of the motion in the mirror out of the corner of her eye, so...
After a moment, her smile brightens.] Ehehe~ Okay, okay. [And her hand falls away from her head, but it lands instead on his shoulder as she starts to guide them away in a gentle motion.] C'mon, let's get away from this dumb mirror and get a snack or something!
no subject
But he can ignore it, for now. He can look at Sayori instead. Expressing a rather similar sentiment, except she's real. She's put her hand on his shoulder, guiding him away. In some ways, it's just as impossible. Or it should be, anyway. And he feels that destructive urge in his gut. That same urge Yuusaku's smile brought out in him. But it's weighed down by the sad expression she had only a minute ago. Sayori wasn't blithely oblivious. She was smiling despite all her worries.
It's almost scary, in a way. She's stronger than she looks, in a way Ogata can't even begin to match. So he nods, and lets her lead him away.]
Aah. Lead the way.