Field Mission 7: The Queen of Hearts, Part 1

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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

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the pied piper

[gotyourbach]

A. Kingstown

[Kingstown might be under the Queen's law, but it's still a town like any other, full of people, scrupulous and not. One late evening, you might hear the sound of someone playing a flute, carrying quietly over the breeze. It's not a familiar tune, but even if you're not the most musically inclined, it catches your attention nonetheless, beckoning you to follow it.

No, not just beckoning you. It's almost a compulsion to find the source of the flute, a melody that sings follow me and pulls at your footsteps.

What do you do?]

B. any town

[In the corner of the local tavern sits a young woman, no older than twenty, with her back to the wall and the bow of a violin in hand. She swipes a block of rosin along the strings with a practiced hand, hardly seeming to watch the bow. Instead, she's mostly watching the door, offering a smile and tilt of her head to anyone who happens to make eye contact, wordlessly offering them a seat at her table if they're looking for friendly conversation along with their meal.

Perhaps you know her already as a traveling minstrel with a knack for convincing people to follow her. Perhaps she's just a friendly stranger. Either way, should you choose to approach, she offers another friendly smile without setting the violin's bow down and asks,]

How do you feel about an adventure?

C. Dating Show

[She puts her name down as the Pied Piper -- it never hurts to get a little extra publicity when they announce her, after all! -- though when they call her name and pair her off, she gives her new partner a smile and offers a gloved hand for a handshake.]

My name's Kaede Akamatsu, but you can just...

[She trails off, friendly smile starting to fade for a moment as she notes the heart-shaped crystals embedded in your wrist. The hand she'd offered goes to cover her mouth instead to hide a gasp of surprise.]

Oh! You, too?

[She sounds surprised, but not overly so. It's not the first time she's seen someone with that kind of mark, after all. In short order, her smile returns, a little more mischievous.]

Maybe that means we're soulmates!

D. wildcard!

[feel free to us this for your own prompt, or hit me up on @ jaderhade or jade#9297.]

[gotyourbach]

[please don't reply to this comment! i'll add in some extra prompts here if they come up]

1

[korekara]

[ It's definitely too late in the evening for a queen to be wandering around on her own, but Honoka's always been a curious sort and her slipping away from her poor overworked retainers is just tradition at this point. Besides, they're in the capital city – it's exciting! She so rarely has the chance to come here and explore by herself, so of course she's going to take it when she gets one.

She has all sorts of plans and all kinds of ideas for what she wants to do when night falls but all of them drop clean out of her head once she hears the first few notes of flute music. The sound of any music at all would be enough to make her stop in her tracks, but there's something about this song that immediately snakes its ways into her heart. She doesn't know it yet, but she wants to know it.

For a few moments, she's too taken aback by the sound to give into the urge to follow but then the spell breaks and she takes a few tentative steps forward. And then upon realizing that walking isn't going to be anywhere near fast enough for her, she hitches up her skirts in an extremely improper manner and breaks into a run. Wherever this music is coming from, she has to find it. ]

[gotyourbach]

[There's a little trill in the music as Honoka starts to run, a joyful lilting scale as if to encourage her that yes, that's it, this way! don't stop!

It's just music, but somehow, it seems to snake around corners, prompting Honoka to follow this way or that. The houses start getting closer together, a little more run-down as she passes through the noble's quarters and into what could most charitably be described as the outskirts of the city.

Eventually, the music stops as Honoka runs into a narrow alleyway. A mouse runs past her feet, continuing its journey and running past the boots of a young woman around Honoka herself's age. The young woman lowers the flute that had been at her lips and offers a somewhat-mischievous smile.]

There you are! You were being followed, you know.

[So her idea of rescue had been to magically coerce Honoka into running a different way? Kind of rude really!]

[korekara]

[ Honoka's heels beat out a click-clack on the ground as she runs, keeping time with the music as it pulls her along. She thinks, distractedly, that it's a good job the hour's so late and there's so few people around because she must be making quite a spectacle of herself right now. But she doesn't slow down and she certainly doesn't think about stopping until she's finally found herself where the music seemed to be pulling her. She's out of breath and her hair's all in disarray but as soon as she sets her eyes on Kaede, her eyes light up and her smile turns radiant. ]

I was? [ she literally could not sound less concerned about this fact. amazing. ] It's a good job I came running all this way, then! Did we lose them?

B

[aceso]

[ Christine enters the tavern, wide eyed and excited. Her long, long blonde hair is expertly braided, twisted around itself, and braided some more to allow her to move without it dragging on the floor, though it's a close thing. She seems set on examining everything in the tavern, including all its patrons, but she stops when addressed and beams at the question. A small chameleon sits on her shoulder, giving the minstrel a critical look. ]

I love adventures! Are you on one? What are you looking for?

[gotyourbach]

As a matter of fact, I am.

[Kaede beams, resting the violin's bow on the table and beckoning Christine in closer. She doesn't directly answer her question, instead following up with some of her own.]

How much do you know about the Enchanted Forest? Any cool stories or songs?

[aceso]

Oh, only a little! I mean, I grew up there, but that was in a tower and I never was allowed out. Why? What stories do they tell? I've been missing out!

c

[motherfucking_ghost]

Uh? [Church's arm pulls back from the handshake, and he rubs the crystals awkwardly.] Yeah, I kind of doubt that. I mean, maybe? But I probably don't have a soul. That sounds like something a real boy would have. Maybe people touched by magic have them?

Or the Queen did it, somehow? She's the Queen of Hearts, right?

[Oh, now he's definitely got to try to talk to her! ...Right, but he has to finish meeting all these potential new friends first!]

Why are you a pied piper? Do you make...pies? Isn't that just a baker? Who...either you're a plumber, or you play a flute.

[gotyourbach]

Huh? Don't be silly, everybody has a soul!

[At the "real boy" comment, she peers at him more closely, leaning on the balls of her feet to get a better look. She'd assumed he was just wearing armor, but if he's just some kind of construct...

She tries to lightly rap his chest with her knuckles. Does he sound hollow? Now she's curious!

The thought that the markings on their wrists might be the Queen of Hearts doing, she tucks away for later discussion, instead quickly drawing her hand back and clasping both behind her back.]

"Pied," you know, like two colors? [She draws a hand through her cloak in a dramatic gesture, revealing the black-and-white checkered pattern that suits her name.] I do play the flute, though. And the violin, and the piano... if it's an instrument, I've probably gotten to play it at least once!

[motherfucking_ghost]

Hey. [Unlike Church back on moon base who would rap himself to show how not-hollow he is...he's a fair bit more enchanted here. There's space for the knocking sound to reverb and echo in him that there wouldn't have been before.

No further comment on the soul thing. He has no idea if he has one, but it just seems like something real people have. Which he...isn't.]

So why black and white? Why not be, like, the red piper? The pink piper! Or even...the checkered piper.

Or the Amazing Miss Kaede the Piper. Y'know. Something with a little more pizazz to it.

B

[whippings]

( Franziska - or Gretel, as she's known these days - accepts the offered seat beside the girl, settling down heavily as she continues to play with the small bone she holds in her hands. At the question, she arches an eyebrow: )

Right now, or in general?

[gotyourbach]

[The bone is interesting; Kaede notes it, but doesn't comment just yet.]

Is there a difference?

[Kaede doesn't lower the bow, still swiping the rosin along the horsehair as tosses Franziska a friendly wink.]

A

[gambolshroud]

[Blake has always been fond of music, of the way it can tell a story all its own and appeal to any nature. Her fondness for it would be enough to draw her attention to the lovely melody being carried along the breeze, but there's something about this particular strain that's more compelling than most.

Curious, she follows it— without hesitation, her own intentions entirely forgotten as she seeks out the source, drawn away from the route she'd been taking to run her errands without a second thought. The book she'd been reading as she walked has now been snapped closed, tucked away into the basket that hangs from her right arm, and her feet lead her as she continues to follow the airy flute music, closing her eyes for a brief moment as it gets louder, signifying she must be getting closer to the source.

It's so beautiful...]

[gotyourbach]

[The flute trills a joyful melody as if aware that it's caught someone to follow its bewitching song. Blake follows, but the song doesn't seem to be getting closer. If anything, it's moving, leading her on a twisting path through the city.

Buildings grow more worn-down, people in the streets start to look just a little less friendly, and as Blake follows the sound of the flute down a narrow alley, it suddenly changes to a shorter series of a notes. This is less of a compulsion than it is being channeled for a different kind of magic. A young woman leaps off the roof in front of her, black-and-white checkered cloak fluttering as she drifts with supernatural gentleness to land harmlessly on the ground and lowers the flute from her lips. There's a rapier at her side and a smile on her face as she points to the basket.]

So, what're you reading?

[This is an extremely normal way to engage with people.]

B

[mycrosstobear]

[Well, it is an open seat, in a good spot. And the young woman doesn't seem like bad company.

He settles back a bit before answering the question.] What do you think is an adventure?

[People define that a lot of ways.]

[gotyourbach]

[She can't help but laugh, a little startled to have the question turned back on her, but she doesn't sound displeased. If anything, she sounds interested as she sets the bow down and twirls the block of rosin between her fingers, easily keeping her fingers on the wood.]

Oh, you know. Leaving home, traveling the world, fighting monsters and rescuing people. Going on a quest to find things. The kind of stuff you might write an opera about!

[She tosses the rosin in the air and catches it before pointing a finger at her tablemate.]

What about you?

C

[bu773rfly]

[Erika's lips purse.

She'd been about to do the nice thing. Her hand still hangs outstretched, one of three crystals pleasant red, ready to shake.

It is not shaken.

So instead she rolls her eyes and reaches for Kaede's wrist, prying it away from her face so she can get a nice eyes-on those ever so mysterious matching rocks.]

It doesn't.

[gotyourbach]

Wh- hey!

[Kaede is usually the handsy one. It's very disorienting to have someone else take her wrist without hesitation, though she doesn't fight it. If anything, she laughs, wiggling her fingers a bit before reaching with her other hand to draw the sleeve back a little further to expose three darkened gems.]

How can you be sure? We've just met!

[Her hand comes away from her sleeve to try to poke the other girl's lit-up gem curiously.]

b

[eastofeden]

[ He's glad enough for conversation; market days are the only opportunity Aziraphale has to escape the chateau and the watchful eyes of his stepfather and stepsiblings. Best of all are the trips that take all day. His feet may grow tired and sore in the process, his arms aching from carrying heavy bags of food and drink and whatever trinkets his selfish stepsiblings may have demanded he seek out for them, but every minute away from those cold stone walls is a gift. And best of all - even his stepfather can't deny him a pause for a meal on those days, when he's out from sunup to sundown.

Said meal is meager enough, but Aziraphale is eyeing it as if it were a feast, as he heeds the young woman's wordless invitation and joins her at her table. At the offer, though, he only gives her a sad smile and a reluctant shake of his head. ]

Oh - I'm afraid not. I wish I could.

[gotyourbach]

What's stopping you?

[Kaede runs the rosin along her bow again, keeping a mental count as she looks to the man who's sat beside her with a mischievous smile.]

You've only got one life to live, after all! There's no way you want to be cooped up in a town like this forever, right? If you wish you could, just- [she tosses the block of rosin in the air and deftly snatches it again before pointing to him.] Go out there and do it!

D. Sad boy incoming

[napstar]

[ The death of his wife is what finally makes Minato travel to the mainland. Kaede's been making her way closer to the Isles of Sorrow since his wife's death and he needs to tell her what happened. Meeting her halfway seems like the right thing to do. It's a thing to do anyway, something to concentrate on every once in a while beyond the desire to join the deceased. Maybe she'll think of something better for him. She's always been good at that sort of thing.

Once he's arrived in the town he follows that sense they've always had for each other, heading straight for the tavern she's in. He didn't sleep last night and the bags under his eyes show it. ]

i want to see my little boy (here he comes)

[gotyourbach]

[She felt him coming. She always knows when he's around, no matter what's going on. Unlike her, he hasn't traveled far from the Isles of Sorrow. Knowing that their paths were going to cross long before she made it back to the Isles puts an extra spring in her step, fresh cheer to her heart, in spite of... well.

Something's wrong. She can feel that the same way she can feel him coming closer. It's that as much as the pure want to see him again that keeps her moving forward, closing the distance between them over however many days of travel it's been. He's hurt, but not physically. Did something happen at home?]

Minato!

[She doesn't wait for him to enter the tavern, bursting out the doors and wrapping him in a tight hug. It feels like forever since she's seen him, and while she's dying to ask what's happened, for now, she's content just to hold him close.]

C, thx to dicebot

[hxppythxughts]

[Of course, they've met. So Sayori shakes Kaede's hand for the sake of theatrics, but she's overtaken with giggles at the idea of pretending to introduce herself otherwise.

Eventually she manages, mock-flustered,] Miss Kaede! [And then, obviously facetious, calling her on the mischievous glint in her expression:] Do you really think so?

[gotyourbach]

Who knows!

[Kaede laughs herself, clasping her hands behind her back. It'd be pretty funny to learn they're soulmates, what with them having met back in the Isles of Sorrow and then reunite here by chance. Put like that, it does sound like something out of a story.]

Soooo, how've you been? What've you been up to? Did you decide to take up adventuring, too?