balancemod: (Default)
balance mod ([personal profile] balancemod) wrote in [community profile] balance_logs2020-01-03 01:32 pm

Field Mission 7: The Queen of Hearts, Part 1


Once upon a time...
NAVIGATION


Click here for the RNG thread!




The day is met the way all others begin: the sun rises from the eastern stretch of land facing the sea, as the citizens of Emberwharf awaken to a fish market brimming with life and splendor. The same sun is seen in Ok'talar, where its warchief watches, as is tradition for its leader to be meditating under the warmth of its warm embrace. The clans of the Highlands pick up where they left off just yesterday, squabbling over minor infractions of land, marriage, or deals that have fell through. And in the cold clutches of Orrenvia to the north, people are bundling up and preparing to visit the mines at the base of the Spine of the World.

The general news throughout the Kingdom of Fanelia is that today is a day of celebration. It marks the 110th anniversary of the coronation of its ruler, the Queen of Hearts. While some people around the outskirts of the citadel proper consider this as a day of mourning, many are called forth to partake in festivities, dining, and the accompaniment of the finest musicians from the far-reaching town of Peppelfen.

For the last 110 years, the Queen has kept order and, somehow, relative peace throughout the kingdom she rules. Although open defiance and protest is met with swift justice and sentencing, no one can overlook how crafty and careful she is. Her manipulations resonate throughout the annals of the history of Fanelia, present in every major brokered deal throughout its vast land mass and diverse population. Her benevolent guidance is felt by all... as is her tyranny. She is a monarch of paradoxes: obsessed with control, but only acting for the betterment of the realm's self-preservation. Every passionate declaration of "OFF WITH HIS HEAD!" had been necessary up to this point; who else can steer and guide this world into prosperity than she herself?

The horizon in the far off distance swirls with its usual tumultuous temper. A dark cloud surrounds the continent where Fanelia is located, known to all as "The Expanse." Every year, the border closes a little bit more inward, narrowing the lands and threatening the civilizations that reside on the fringes. Its presence encroaches, and with it, a general looming sense of fear that one day only the capital city will be left standing, protected by a magical bubble of pure radiant light that allows only those permitted by decree to enter.

But none of you can remember your life before this illusion took hold. As far as you're concerned, you've been here your entire life. You don't notice that this farce, this world created by the usage of a Grand Relic, has only existed for a year. One whole year has passed since magic was cut loose from Faerun's fabric, and no one is any wiser that it's been gone at all.

You look down to your wrist, noticing the same three clouded, empty colored crystals that have always been there since the day you were born. Each one bears the shape of a heart, and it makes sense to you why Lucretia is known as...

The Queen of Hearts.





1. THE COURT OF HEARTS




A. ANOTHER MORNING, HOWEVER YOU SLICE IT

Good morning! Where are you right now?

Another day is creeping over the horizon, and your life as you know it is continuing down the path it always has. Wherever you are. However you're feeling. The crystals on your wrist, though you've managed to sort out at least one purpose for them by now, remain as dull and lifeless as they've always been.

Maybe you've long since figured out that not everyone has them — and maybe today is the morning that you finally heed a call to figure out why. The harder you think about it, the more questions you seem to have.

It's a wide world out there, and there are people you just might be dying to remember. Where will you go? Who will you run into?

B. NETWORK

Speaking of that one purpose you've stumbled upon: A series of messages that, if you choose to access them, dance across your mind as if they were your own thoughts. Over the years, the messages have ranged from confused — people on the other end wondering what this is, without really finding any answers — to just straight up sales pitches.

One day, though, a message under the name of Avalon appears:

Wandering fortune teller and adviser offering services.

Have a burning question you want answered? Do you wish for a quick peek into the void, to light a match into the unknown?

Giving out free samples now! Just message me ;)


[ooc: If you'd like a randomized way for a memory to begin unraveling, feel free to hit up the RNG thread for a fortune! Note: A low roll doesn't necessarily mean a failure to nudge your character in the right direction, it will just dictate how cryptic and/or troll-y the fortune actually is.

Or, feel free to come up with an unrelated fortune for a prompt.]


C. AROUND THE CAPITAL

One way or another, you may make your way to the capital city, the seat of the Court of Hearts. Whether you're here for answers, or whether you're here just to see the sights, here are a few ideas to get you started.

Chaotic croquet: Indeed, you will be discovering how the capital city plays the queen's favorite game. You and a fellow crystal-bearer/Reclaimer will near immediately be roped into a round and pitted against each other, with a rather stern reminder to follow the rules.

If only the rules made sense! Each path to the next wicket is more treacherous than the last — you may find yourself quite literally navigating the ball over a bottomless pit, or bumping it up stairs that threaten to send the ball right back, careening toward your face. There is also the Stone Golem guarding the final wicket to contend with.

It's a bit strange, actually. It's almost as if this match of the Queen of Hearts' imagining would prefer that the two of you worked together, rather than against each other.

○ We mentioned earlier that the castle, should you wander past the common areas, gets a little ... strange. It's labyrinthine in nature, with staircases, doors and hallways that lead to no where, or straight into the ceiling. The neat line of roses planted along the hallways begin to wither the farther you walk — almost as if nobody dared getting lost just to water some plants.

And then, you wander into an empty room, that quite literally transforms before your eyes.

It's the place you call home. Or ... is it? This is most certainly not your bedroom back in whatever corner of Fanelia you hail from. In fact, you don't think you've ever set foot in there before — it might be a bedroom with views into outer space itself. It might be a place from another world entirely, one that you definitely don't recognize.

But as time passes, and as you stand there, your sense of longing grows stronger. You should probably get out of there, before the guards find you.

○ The Queen of Hearts, in a recent twist (not unusual for her), has a keen interest in the relationships her subjects have with one another, whether it's romantic or platonic. And she'd like to see to it that the people of Fanelia are able to find those important people in their lives.

Enter: THE FANELIA FRIENDSHIP (OR SOMETHING MORE?) EXTRAVAGANZA


Yeah, it's pretty much a dating show, for both the amusement of onlookers and for your benefit! Or friendship show, as it were. Sign up, answer a brief survey, and showrunners will pair you with a fellow crystal-bearer/Reclaimer that they think you may be compatible with.

Let the dating begin! You may:
- Slay a monster together
- Take a nice long walk around the capital city together
- Be given a series of embarrassing questions to ask each other
- Cook a meal together
- The list goes on

Is the right person, or your new best friend, waiting for you in plain sight? Sign up and find out!




D. EXPANDED WILDCARD

As we mentioned in the OOC post, we highly encourage worldbuilding and creating your own scenarios to recover your character's lost memories! Outside of the capital city, the entire setting is yours to alter, and play in, as you see fit. Want to haunt the Enchanted Forest, or hunt wild boars? Want to follow your character's fairy tale story and have them work their way to leader of a clan, or of a settlement in Kingstown? Go for it! This is your story to write.

If you have any questions, feel free to hit us up on the OOC post.







blurb code by photosynthesis
bu773rfly: (26)

[personal profile] bu773rfly 2020-01-13 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
Fortunes are depressing.

But odd things are going on right now, and the timing is fascinating. Let's do it.
bu773rfly: (2)

ii

[personal profile] bu773rfly 2020-01-13 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
[The match-selling girl is not the first display of human misery that Pandora has been privy to in her life.

It is not the tenth. It is not the hundredth. It is not even the thousandth. She's long since learned how to shush her heart and walk past without a word. She vividly recalls doing just that on a street not far from here, not so many days ago; the red dress and the voice stick in her head, not to fade away for years or decades, but no head was turned, no hand offered. In the grandest scope of things, it would not have made a difference.

This, today, seems to be making a difference.

Frozen, she watches the woman retreat. Extortion. Retribution. Plain cruelty. Wondering is morbid curiosity like poking a bruise - and the woman is gone but the girl is still behind her. She seems to be as young as Pandora looks.

She half-turns and reaches for the girl's wrist with a blank sort of confidence, trying to take it the way one would hold a friend's or a sister's hand. Like, there you are, I've been looking for you - that's what she's after, right? A calm, unexceptional getaway.]


Let's get out of here? [she whispers, not yet even making eye contact with the girl.]
bu773rfly: (35)

>:)

[personal profile] bu773rfly 2020-01-13 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
"....fucking weird", pandora thinks, and never replies to this
unrecovered: (Face: Uh-huh)

[personal profile] unrecovered 2020-01-13 07:57 am (UTC)(link)
[Ah. He should have expected that.]

[He foregoes his usual reply to the cat's non-answers - a long-suffering sigh and a pointed, more detailed, reiteration of his initial question - and instead takes a different tack, innocently moving to inspect the sprinkle-covered rock on the table to his right. His hands remain at his sides - he looks as non-threatening as a visibly armed man can be.]


And since when do you follow the rules, or expect others to do the same?
usamin17: (white rabbit)

Re: RNG

[personal profile] usamin17 2020-01-13 09:19 am (UTC)(link)
Nana would like to invite the fortune teller to the Queen's annual coronation ceremony! And also get a fortune I guess.
usamin17: (white rabbit)

A

[personal profile] usamin17 2020-01-13 09:33 am (UTC)(link)
[Nana runs past Yuri, ignoring anything that Yuri happens say.]

Oh dear, I'm late!

[She stops to pull out her pocket watch.]

Ahhhhh! I'm really late!

[She continues to run off in a panic.]
usamin17: (white rabbit)

A

[personal profile] usamin17 2020-01-13 09:52 am (UTC)(link)
[Nana is here to ruin the fun. Is she even here to play?]

EXCUSE ME. Did you not recieve instructions to specifically not do this? The Queen will likely... no, the Queen WILL be furious when she hears of this!
eudaimonikos: (that's guided to you)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2020-01-13 03:59 pm (UTC)(link)
So, what - the rest of your kind are just unmotivated?

[To be fair, he can sort of see it. Being a cat is probably better than having to interact with humans.]
eudaimonikos: (methodological)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2020-01-13 04:47 pm (UTC)(link)
There was this weird sort of metal soldier thing. I barely got away from it!

[There is no reason for him to be throwing Church under the bus like this, it's just fun.]

I've never even seen anything like that before. What on earth do you think it might have been?
eudaimonikos: (solipsism)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2020-01-13 04:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[He just cackles.]

Oh, you're fun! Keep an eye out - I'll catch up with you later.

[And then he dissolves into a column of black smoke!

Well, no, he casts an illusion and then teleports thirty feet away several times in quick succession. It's all lights and mirrors, but also real magic!]
hijumpkick: (This is underprecidented!)

[personal profile] hijumpkick 2020-01-13 05:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I've only come here a couple times, usually with my mom. Last time I was here was for, ah, business I guess.

[Aka when he traded the family cow for those pesky beans.]

No, not yet. I was just looking into that.

[However, he perks up.]

Hey, if you need help affording a place to stay, we could room together!
hijumpkick: (Get serious)

[personal profile] hijumpkick 2020-01-13 05:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[Hayner holds on tight at the rough landing, but nods to Roxas.]

O-Okay. But don't get crushed, okay?? He's really ticked off!

[The bundle in his hand moves again, letting out another honk! as if in reply. Hayner hushes it before sliding off the horse.]
hijumpkick: (Wait... what?)

[personal profile] hijumpkick 2020-01-13 05:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Honk!

[The goose lets go of the bag, thankfully, and flaps its wings indignantly. knives aren't playthings, missy!]

[Fortunately, all the commotion has drawn the attention of a particular young man, who makes his way through the forest.]


Hello? Is someone there?
ribticklers: (017)

[personal profile] ribticklers 2020-01-13 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[There's hesitation. Normally, he'd stretch this out until it wasn't entertaining anymore. But something... Hm. Sans pulls a drawn picture out--it's Sayori, Maya, and him (drawn by Maya, not that Sans remembers). He's down one hand, but he points at Maya with his wrist instead.]

Her, right? I've seen her a few times. [Because Sans watches her sometimes, like only a teleporting cat can.] She was in the capital the other day, so maybe you aren't too far off.
ribticklers: (004)

[personal profile] ribticklers 2020-01-13 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[Sans keeps deliberately still--a cat is never in the wrong place, and Sans doesn't want to make it more obvious that he's rather thrown off by this entire room. Still, he watches Wash.]

What I expect of myself and what I expect of others are entirely different things.

[There, that's more his usual cadence. He thinks. Something in him feels all wrong. The meter's all off.]
ribticklers: (029)

[personal profile] ribticklers 2020-01-13 05:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ah, the White Rabbit. Sans has been in the castle enough times to have seen her before. Also, it's very likely Sans specifically did get instructions aimed at him telling him not to do this. But who cares about that?]

I'm not bothering anyone. Except anyone whose aim was already off. [That's not better.]
Edited (grammar) 2020-01-13 17:26 (UTC)
mccreehaw: (gunslinger)

[personal profile] mccreehaw 2020-01-13 05:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Could be anything. Might be riches up there.

[ He's looking up the stalk, contemplating. ]
mccreehaw: (venice)

[personal profile] mccreehaw 2020-01-13 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[ If she's helping him float across, he takes a moment to adjust to the feeling of weightlessness before he answers. ]

My Merry Men and I help those who have been unfairly taxed by those who don't need anymore wealth. And we liberate their goods and coin back to them.
mccreehaw: (gunslinger)

[personal profile] mccreehaw 2020-01-13 05:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[ McCree's scent is pretty dominated with smoke, with a whiff of whiskey from the shot he took this morning.

Look, it gives him some pep for the day. ]


Not a problem. Been waiting out here long for a light?
hijumpkick: (Let's just get on the train and go!)

[personal profile] hijumpkick 2020-01-13 06:21 pm (UTC)(link)
You think so??

[Hayner looks up the beanstalk with renewed awe.]

Aw man, that sounds so cool..! I need to climb it!
aceso: (002)

[personal profile] aceso 2020-01-13 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She lets out a nervous laugh. ]

My mother isn't exactly forthcoming about things. And I don't leave because... because she told me not to. She said it was dangerous out here. And there weren't any stairs, so I had to climb down my hair.

[ As one does. ]
aceso: (from this valley)

[personal profile] aceso 2020-01-13 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It's more hair than a head has any need to bear, but she needs to keep it to help heal her mother. ]

Oh. I'm from in there.

[ She points back into the Enchanted Forest. ]

If you've never seen the floating lights before, then they can't be that far from my tower, right?
doubledsofjustice: (icon_013)

[personal profile] doubledsofjustice 2020-01-13 11:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[Mia leans to see that picture as close as she can without making it weird, something softening in her eyes when she sees it. She... doesn't recognise Maya as her sister, nor any of the people in the picture, but there's a feeling of adoration nonetheless. She can explain it for Maya; that kid's been astounding since they've met, she must be an impression-maker, but she doesn't recognise the others, and yet..]

Ah-- good. Then she hasn't left on her own.

[How annoying would that be? Mia straightens up, the adoration in her face wiped clean to make way for an exasperated worry.]

Thank you. I'm that young woman's escort to the kingdom of Uta. Or, I'm... supposed to be.

[It's no good if she can't find her, though...!]
seasaltkeys: (Charging into battle)

[personal profile] seasaltkeys 2020-01-14 03:18 am (UTC)(link)
[The honking is, admittedly, suspect. But Angry Giant is going to have to come first. Ideally, he'll be able to tie the giant up and subdue it.]

Don't worry! I got this!

[And he'll charge up with Pegasus, hovering in front of the Giant's face.]

Excuse me! But I'm going to have to ask you to calm down.

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