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 flinches at the sound of a familiar voice, fingers tightening as they grip her knees, and she wants to reach for the visor wrinkled on the floor to tie around her eyes, but that would make it too obvious, wouldn't it? If she could just will away the redness in her eyes, then it will be fine.]

Pod, cease all communication until I state otherwise.

Affirmative.

[With that out of the way, her head shakes at Phoenix, although she can't quite bring herself to look his way. Instead, as she wipes the back of her hand against a cheek, her gaze falls back to her hands on her knees, and a sniffle somehow slips through.]

No, I'm not.

[wrightingwrongs]

...Yes you are. I can see the tear streaks.

[It's a counterarguement, but it's tender, as he gets closer and tries to pull up one of the common room chairs closer.]

What happened? Is there something I can do to help?

(She won't like me asking, but...)

[conciliant]

[Her posture tightens further when she hears him move closer with the chair, and she sighs.

From what she's come to learn about Phoenix, he's a stubborn soul, much like herself, so telling him that nothing is wrong when he's observed otherwise is not going to do her much good. And maybe... maybe there is something he can do to help.

2B glances around the room to make sure he's the only person in earshot, before running her hand across her cheeks again and peering up at him through red eyes.]

There's a mirror in the school. I'm not sure what it does, but it disappears on the hour. I... I saw... him.

[After repeating his name over and over in her head, or maybe it was out loud, she isn't sure anymore, 2B can't even bring herself to say it again.]

[wrightingwrongs]

(If she says 'him', she can only mean...)

[Phoenix has been keeping up with some of the information being disseminated by the others. He knows about the mirror vaguely. But he didn't realize it could show, well-]

...If he appeared in the mirror, you must miss him a lot.

[It's not like if Phoenix looked into the mirror he would see... well, what would he see? Maya was here, and so was Mia, so that left- ah. Yes, that man.]

I'm sorry. That must've been pretty startling, considering how desperate you were to find him when you first arrived.

[He's not reaching out to her - she seems like she wants to control her own physical boundaries right now, for good reason. But when she looks at him, his face shows a sympathic pang of regret.]

[conciliant]

But I know now that I can't find him.

[This world is a cruel one. She searched high and low through the moon bunker for any sign of 9S but came out of it with nothing, and the only time she could see him, they were separated by a pane of glass that taunted her. It was only a painful reminder of what Blake told her... that their world and everyone in it was gone. She doesn't want that to be her last memory of him, but it looks like she doesn't have much of a choice.

2B's frown grows more prominent as she continues to eye Phoenix.]

Did you see the mirror, too?

[wrightingwrongs]

I haven't looked into the mirror myself, but I could probably take a guess what I would see, based on what other people have said.

[He sighs.]

I have good friends who made it here, but there are still more who aren't. Pearls, Edgeworth... even Gumshoe, really. All people I've had to count on at one point or another.

Even with so many people here, it feels lonely knowing some of them aren't, so I understand on some level.

[It'd be rough to see Edgeworth or Pearl in the mirror. He's sure it's not something he'd like to experience, himself.]

[conciliant]

It's better that you don't.

[2B's voice is firm, as well as her gaze when she looks up at Phoenix, remembering a conversation they had not so long ago.]

I hope that you're staying out of trouble. It's probably best that you stay here until this blows over.

[If anything, it sounds more like an order than a suggestion or request.]

[wrightingwrongs]

I'm staying out of as much trouble as I can, at least.

[This takes Phoenix by surprise. 2B giving an order is a bit new.]

Stay here? What, until the next day, or...? [He's got the feeling 2B means something more than that, the way she's speaking to him.]

[conciliant]

Until all of this is over. No matter how many times I either destroy or catch that spider, it keeps coming back. And then there's the things that walk around late at night. Then, we're all back in the same place and it happens all over again.

[Not to mention the mirror... but she doesn't bring their attention back to it.]

I said I wouldn't let any harm come to you.

[wrightingwrongs]

[There's a pause as he considers her words. She is trying to protect him, after all. And, well, this is certainly dangerous. He leans back a bit as he thinks on her words.

He's not used to being the one protected, after all.]

I appreciate the gesture, 2B, but I'm not sure if I can do that. [He does actually sound sorry, because he's sure this isn't helping her, but if he gives up on trying to find the truth here, how is he ever going to catch up?]

[conciliant]

Why not?

[That's something she doesn't understand. If she says to stay out of danger, then it should be that simple, shouldn't it? This inn seems like a perfectly safe place to be. 2B hardly trusts the school or the marketplace, after the things she's seen.]

[wrightingwrongs]

[In some cases, Phoenix gets it - he gets wanting to see people stay out of trouble and danger. He's even been that person for a number of people. But he looks at her and his eyes take a more focused tone.]

I can't run away from the truth. If there's danger I have to put myself in to find it... then I'd rather face it head on then try and hide from it. Especially if there's other people working just as hard towards finding it.

[conciliant]

Keeping yourself safe isn't running away from the truth.

[It's just not seeking it out. Some things are better left unanswered, and maybe this is one of them. Maybe there's a reason no one's found an answer to all of their questions, and maybe they should stop pushing to find them.

It all brings her back to when she's had to... No. Command isn't here, and that doesn't matter, but no one has any idea what else is out there.]

I've seen what happens to people who ask too many questions, Phoenix Wright.

[wrightingwrongs]

You've... seen what happens? [He has to ask. It's certainly a... loaded question, if nothing else.]

Even if it's dangerous, I have to see the truth for myself. That's what it means to be a defense attorney. To protect people by finding the truth.

[2B is definitely running headlong into Phoenix's own stubbornness, and it shows - he's quiet and contemplative, but there's a resolute air around him. If he hadn't kept seeking the truth, even when it was dangerous - well, he wouldn't be where he is today, would he?]