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

D .... but in say, loop 7

[petsthedog]

[The first time he spots her pressed up against the mirror, sobbing, he quickly turns away and leaves, staunchly looking at the ground and pretending he heard nothing, saw nothing. Even if he was better at comforting people, a moment like that is too raw and painful for a near stranger's eyes.

He's exploring around town the next loop when he sees her there again. His gaze lingers a moment, this time, but he walks away again. It's not his place.

When he sees her the third time is when he really struggles with himself on what to do. On his first day in the Bureau, he'd spent hours just staring at the green sky of the Dark Hour in that simulation room, trapped reliving a nightmare that had haunted him for years, and when Qrow had walked in, because he'd forgotten to close the door -- he'd dropped his original plans to drag Shinjiro out, to distract him with video games. He still ... has trouble seeing himself as someone with value to others in that way, but ... he promised more than one person to try, didn't he? The more it becomes clear that she intends to come here over and over and over and cling to that image until it's gone, the more he feels a clench in his gut like he should do something. Say something. He just...doesn't know what. He's not...Maya, or Kaede, or hell, Mista. Comfort and reassurance and smiles that say everything's going to be okay just don't come to him like that. He doesn't walk away, the third time, but he spends too long paralyzed with the indecision of what to do.

The fourth time....the fourth time, he waits for her. Just a few hundred feet away from where the mirror usually appears. And when she walks by, as expected, he puts a hand on her shoulder, to stop her.]

Don't.

[conciliant]

[The hand on her shoulder makes her come to a halt mid-step, her shoulders hunching with tension for a moment before they slump, defeated.

It's said that machines don't learn from their mistakes. That they're doomed to follow the same path over, and over until they rust away into nothing. No one ever said that about androids. They were much more sophisticated, and their programming unlike no other. So, why did she continue to come back to the mirror on the hour through every single loop when the results were exactly the same as the last?

2B has no answer for that. It's not like it makes it hurt any less...

She stands perfectly still, silent, until she gently swats Shinjiro's hand away.]

How did you know I was going to be here?

[petsthedog]

[Shinjiro rolls a shoulder of his own in response.]

Saw you, a couple times. Didn't mean to at first.

[He's quiet a moment, then he speaks again, voice soft despite the gruffness to it.]

Don't go this time. It ain't worth it.

[conciliant]

But—

[2B looks in the direction of the mirror. It's just down this hall, not much further for her to go. If she does, will she see the same thing again, for the fourth time? It's not like she's keeping count anymore, nor will it change anything if it is the same. Other than that it's one more time...]

I'll never see him again if I don't.

[petsthedog]

[He hesitates for a minute, debating on what to say to her. There's a few things he could say, really, and the one he believes the most is the unkindest of the lot. False hope may be crueler in the end, but .... he of all people knows how hard it is to let go of the past.]

....Not necessarily. Multiverses are weird. The way it got explained to me, there's a billion versions of our universes that connect the uh...concept of our existence or some shit, and the Director puts her hand into her magic universe hat, there's no tellin' which version she's gonna get. So there's. Universes where the Hunger ain't happened yet.

[Ugh god, does that even make sense. He barely understood that when he was told about it.]

Even if he died before that....there's a chance. I know cause I was dyin' when the Hunger came, but for this other guy from my world, Arisato? I'd kicked it months ago.

[He sighs.]

I'm just sayin', maybe it's better to wait for the real thing, s'all. Fake magic shit like that....s'kinda an insult to memories that important, ain't it?

[conciliant]

Insult to memories...

[She repeats it quietly, her gaze dropping to her hands as her fingers curl into fists at her sides.

Memories are the most precious thing to an android. Their memories are what separates them; the thing that makes one B model different from the next. They all may be wired the same, programmed to think and do similar things, but it's their experiences that shape them. Whatever this mirror is doing, it's toying with them. Taking what she knows and remembers and using it as a weapon. For what? She doesn't really know.

And yet, even with that awareness, she can't escape the pull she feels towards it, or the urge to know more.]

Your friend... do you share the same memories with him?

[petsthedog]

[There's a slight flinch and hesitation at that use of the f-word, there. He looks for a minute like he wants to argue about it, but .... he lets it go with an uncomfortable sigh.]

Uh, most of 'em, yeah. I mean, we ain't really--I didn't know him for long. And obviously I don't remember the shit that happened after I died.

[He shrugs.]

But we remember bein' from the same place and part of the same group, so. Good enough.

[He's never actually thought to confirm if he and Arisato have the same memories of that month, honestly? Neither of them really talk much.]

[conciliant]

['Good enough.'

Those words make her shoulders tense, and her fingers instinctively curl into a fist.]

I'm not sure that I could say the same.

[2B doesn't mean to take away from what he's saying, and she's glad that they're at least able to remember what they can of their time together, but for her, that isn't the case. Maybe that's why the mirror is so important to her... She doesn't really know. These emotions are too complex for her to figure out on her own.]

Every time I've had to—every time he's died, his data is wiped. He never remembers our time together.

[petsthedog]

[I've had to-- gives him a Picture of the situation between her and whoever this....robot? Is? He doesn't comment, though. Not his business.]

Like I said, there ain't any tellin' what time anyone comes from. Even if he'd normally forget, could be the Hunger gets to his version of your universe before the wipe happens.

[conciliant]

Others said the same.

[Which means she understands and nods her head. That still doesn't change the fact that even if he did show up here, the possibility of it being her 9S – the one that she remembers before coming here – is fairly low. One in fifty, maybe. She's lost count.

2B's mind wanders back to the mirror, and there's a pang of sadness in her chest.]

... What purpose does that mirror serve, then?