Welcome Participartypants

[balancemod]

Who: All y'all nerds
Where: The Arena
When: The night of the 15th
What: A small gathering to both welcome new members to the Bureau, and to congratulate veteran Reclaimers on their successful magic mitten procurement. Dress is as fancy or as not fancy as you want it. Manners, to the degree of which you are capable, are mandatory.
Content Warning: General content warning for the Reclaimers. Also general content warning for Miss Zarves

Formal, informal, never mind the dress code. NAVIGATION It's been two weeks since the Reclaimers returned, and since the newest Reclaimers arrived. Some of you have adapted better than the Director could have hoped, and some of you have made your best efforts to find a new sense of normalcy — testing Bender the food robot to his limits, forming book clubs, training together, musing over what sort of fashions one even wears to a party. Some of you, perhaps, have spent a little bit too much time in the simulation at the Dojo. It's understandable. Adjusting to the idea that your entire universe has been destroyed takes time, and sometimes, escapes are necessary. And tonight, she's hoping to provide you with a temporary escape with this party. 1. ONCE UPON A TWO WEEKS' WEARY A. TO WASH AWAY THE ACHING BLEARY The Director, using the Moon Base's simulation technology, has turned the Arena into a ballroom to behold. The sprawling hall is decorated in ornate wooden carvings, and a large maple floor meant for dancing is encircled by tables and a large banquet table. In the corner, on a raised platform, stands a baby grand piano, freshly tuned and polished. Anyone is free to have a spin on it, if the mood strikes. At some point during the evening, Johann the Bard, violin in hand, will stand on the platform and provide a performance that could only ever be heard on the Moon Base, among members of the Bureau of Balance — because he did, after all, give this particular song to the Voidfish. If you would like something with a heavier beat, there's a tablet on the wall next to the platform, where you can make music requests of your own, from the Artificer's collection of songs from across the universe. The collection may not be all that extensive, but The Cupid Shuffle is probably in there. Get down and boogie, is what we're saying. B. THEY WERE THROWN A BANQUET CHEERY And what's on the banquet table? Snacks provided by Bender, of course — which means they could have any manner of magical effects. Here are some of the snacks available, including one that the Director was lucky enough to roll for herself. Cupcakes of every flavor imaginable, utterly delicious — so delicious, in fact, that whoever eats one will have flowers grow in their footsteps for the next two hours. The flowers are magic and disappear on their own, so go turn the dance floor into a garden (Courtesy of Lion). Mead that puts you in such a good mood, you'll be unable to resist the urge to sing in whatever measure of talent you have (Courtesy of Lancelot). An energy drink that will literally give you wings for two hours. Enjoy looking absolutely angelic for your friends (Courtesy of Akechi). Nachos that have a curiously JPG quality to them, but no other magical effects (Courtesy of Terezi). The most delicious cheeseburgers you ever did taste (Courtesy of Maya). Finger sandwiches that, when eaten, light up your entire body in an assortment of different colors — the light trails behind your movements, like the way lights look on a low shutter speed. Enjoy the raving (courtesy of The Director). 2. BUT THEN, SHE ROSE FROM THE ICHOR Some of you may have heard a thing or two about Miss Zarves — perhaps the rumors circulating around town, or the strange connection to Garfield and the Bracer Chasers some of you may have bought to decorate your Bracers. Maybe words like "catalyst" and "Ouija Board" have come up once or twice. Because there is a being trapped in a plane of existence right next to yours, largely forgotten, as if she had somehow been reverse Voidfish'd. Forgotten, that is, until the Bracer Chasers — curiously laced with high amounts of aluminadium, a word that might sound familiar to McCree and Faolan. For two years, she's waited, and watched, wanting a chance to be seen again, to speak with the Bureau herself once again, cursed with a maddening loneliness. And the second one of those cute decorations was pressed against a Bracer, Miss Zarves had it — her catalyst. She would know, after all: She was once a leading researcher on using catalysts to travel through dimensions, after all — and the Bracer Chasers were one of her original designs. At the very end of the party, perhaps one or two piano songs away from shutdown, the simulation suddenly shuts down. The lights blink off with a systemwide shudder. After five seconds, the lights flare back to life, and the entire Arena is its default white blank slate. And a message, from username @Zarves❤Scarves, slowly blinks across the screen. Hello. I would like to play a game. And then the Arena goes dark. A. HACKER VOICE: I'M IN That little stunt isn't the only one Miss Zarves, who now has a connection to the dimension you're residing in and some of the Bureau tech, is going to pull. For the rest of your stay at the Moon Base, until you're whisked away to the next mission (Or unless you figure out a way to stop her), you may experience some of the following: Wonky simulations: You may have been traveling to the Dojo to recall a certain piece of your home world. And maybe one day, while you're minding your own business, that same simulation may suddenly appear outside the Dojo. Or perhaps you're wandering down a hallway, and you come across a mishmash of other people's simulations, torn apart and stitched back together haphazardly. Bender: As if this guy weren't a big enough mess already. If you happen to ask Bender for one of the items that were available at the party, you may instead be given food that has the opposite effect. Think cupcakes that leave behind wilted plants, mead that makes you cry uncontrollably, or energy drinks that not only do not give you literal wings, but put you straight to sleep. If you happen to have a subscription to Webflix, regardless of what movie you pick to watch, it'll pick a specific movie instead: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Also, you won't be able to turn it off. 3. AND THEN THINGS JUST KEEP GETTING WORSE The arena's simulation has decided to take a sabbatical, a spectral being from another plane of existence has invaded the Moon Base, and Madame Director is doing her best to keep the room calm and collected. First, the darkness needs to be handled with properly, so with a stomp of her elegant white oak staff down on the floor, a sound echoes above and beyond any panicked shouts, and soon the room is filled with dancing lights that emanate from the four cardinal directions of the arena. "Ladies and gentlemen! Excuse me. Thank you everyone for coming to this enchanted evening here with your fellow Reclaimers, but without proper lighting- Johann, Johann, please, I don't need signature music right now, this isn't a wrestling match for crying out- thank you, Johann. As I was saying- unfortunately, this evening's events will have to be---" Almost right on cue, as if there wasn't a possibly worse time in the world for this to happen, the doors of the arena bust open. Into the room swarms a dragonborn, looking rather beat up and worse for wear. It's impossible to tell if Dragonborn can cry the way humans can cry, but her amphibian-like eyes shine oddly in the colors of the magical lights surrounding the room. The Director's eyes go wide for a moment, this was rather- no, extremely, unsuspected. The Regulator approaches the Director. "We found him! Lucretia, we found him! And h-he. That son of a bitch has Killian!" And lacking in the proper finesse that's demanded of her as a leader, she rubs her forehead. "Carey, come with me to my office and we'll sort this out." She looks around the room, her Reclaimers all gathered and standing, watching this interaction take place. "Please, everyone, return to your apartments for the evening." A. TWO WEEKS UNTIL ROLLOUT The Director hasn't slept a wink throughout the night, dealing with a host of problems facing the Bureau at the moment. She consults with the clerics on how to get rid of this ridiculous joke-entity that Garfield has proliferated long enough. She speaks with Carey about all the details she can offer, attempting to calm her down, despite her unraveled state. Killian means the world to Carey, after all, and the Director, no- Lucretia, was waiting for the wedding invitation for far too long. Sometime around mid-day, the Reclaimers will receive a message on their bracer from her. Reclaimers, we will deploying in approximately two weeks. We've discovered the location of a relic that we haven't heard about in quite some time now. A full briefing will be provided at a later date, but please prepare accordingly. The area you all will be assigned to is known as the Netheril, a vast desert that splits the continent in half between the western and eastern fronts. We've instructed the tailors to offer special clothing designs that are particularly good for protection against sand and heat — at a heavily discounted price. Ensure that you have a weapon, as there's no telling what sort of beasts you can encounter out in such a wasteland. Train intensively over the next few days. We anticipate that it will be quite some time before you are able to return to Base, so please ensure that your BIAS is restocked and ready to go. Two weeks. blurb code by photosynthesis

Comments

[blodsvorr]

[Qrow breaks his arm free so he can ruffle Akechi's hair. It's chiding, this time.]

Watch yourself, brat.

[grakraka]

[It gets an actual smile out of him. He doesn't even go to fix his hair immediately.

Like he does but it's not the first thing.]

Like you aren't a brat, too.

[blodsvorr]

Hey, I'm an adult. We can't be brats.

[That is categorically untrue, this bratty man has just walked into the housing building with full brattiness embodied within him.]

[grakraka]

Either you're not an adult or you're lying that adults can't be brats.

[Ah, excellent. They're basically back. Well, he won't push him, though. It's better for Qrow to decide when he wants to talk about it again.]

alcoholism territory incoming

[blodsvorr]

Neither of the above.

[Qrow lets himself in and leaves the door open behind him for Akechi. He goes over to his bed, digging underneath it for one of his bottles. Ah, vodka. That'll do. Qrow pops the cap and drinks.]

[grakraka]

[Shutting the door behind him, he stretches out and flops on the couch. Qrow can bring up whatever he wants now, when he wants. Mostly he just wants to watch him to make sure he can help him again if it looks like another breakdown coming.]

[blodsvorr]

[Qrow sets the bottle down after a good, long drink. He sits at the edge of the bed, hunches over. His legs are too long for the bed's height, so they stay close to his chest.

If he contextualizes it quickly, he won't have to think about how they got there. He can just tell Akechi what he needs to know.]

The family tree goes like this: Tai and Raven are Yang's parents, Tai and Summer are Ruby's. When Raven left the picture, Summer stepped in to help Tai out with Yang and, well, that was that. It was like a rose got shacked up with a sunflower with those two. When Summer—

[No. He can't say it. Qrow breathes, and he tries again.]

We were all Huntsmen. We knew what we were getting into. Summer didn't come back from one of her missions, back when the girls were... well, too young for Ruby to remember most of it, and old enough that it left its mark on Yang. Raven wouldn't come home even then, said the tribe was her real family, so it was just me and Tai, from then on. Until now.

[Raven flown. Summer dead. Tai ripped away. And now only Qrow is left.

Lucky him.

Qrow decides to move the bottle back to his hands. Easier than reaching over to grab it every time he wants a drink.]

So, yeah. That's the history of Team STRQ. Beacon's most promising graduates.

[grakraka]

[Akechi listens to it all with rapt attention. It sounds more like a tragedy than a happy memory. Raven abandoned them, Summer died long before the world did and Tai was left with two kids and Qrow, who was probably an alcoholic back then, too, if those chain of events weren't the start of it all. And while it feels rude to speculate, the phrasing feels ambigious enough for Akechi to wonder if Tai didn't, in fact, marry Qrow as well. Perhaps Yang and Ruby could have had a third sister.

But that speculation doesn't really change that Qrow continued to endure heartbreak after heartbreak with people who clearly meant the world to him. Somehow, he had kind of hoped that maybe the alcoholism was just some other thing, not spurred on by tragedy in his life—that maybe once you found those people who made life worth living and trying for, things just kind of became happy. It was a childish thought and he knows it but he had hoped things got easier anyway.]

I'm sorry. [He doesn't really think the words mean much but he wants to express them.] For all of that, really.

[blodsvorr]

Don't be, kid. Not like I didn't play a part in it.

[Maybe if he hadn't argued with Raven so much. Maybe if he had done more for Tai. Maybe if he hadn't been with Summer when—

Qrow sighs, and he drowns it out with the fire in the bottle. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, then goes back to looking at a point on the floor.]

Now that we've been split across worlds, I've gotta wonder if we'd even head to the same afterlife anymore.

[grakraka]

I don't know. I've been considering investigating that myself, though I'm not entirely keen on thinking about an afterlife.

[Afterlives aren't something he feels very interested in, since he'd rather not exist in some hellscape with Shido forever or something equally horrible.

Though, he also doesn't want to discuss them right now with Qrow. It might encourage a very specific line of thinking in him that he doesn't want Qrow to have. He brushes back some of his hair.]

On Earth, there were so many different beliefs about the afterlife... I'm not really sure if any of them were right.

[blodsvorr]

There were a lot on Remnant too. It was an old enough world to have a lot of religions. Not all of 'em even believed in an afterlife.

[But Qrow does. Because Ozpin said so. And Qrow trusts Ozpin.]

Well, if people here can contract with Gods, I figure they've got a set confirmation on if there's an afterlife or not. Who'd know better, right?

[grakraka]

[He snorts. That is true, and it's something he didn't think about, but he really doesn't want confirmation. Oh well. Life doesn't care much about what you want in the end.]

As long as there isn't a hell, I suppose it's fine.

[Though he might have to verbally kick him away from it at this rate but he'll indulge him a little, since it's his fault for bringing this up with him in the first place.]

[blodsvorr]

[Qrow rolls his eyes, animated for the first time since he started discussing this.]

You're not deserving of hell, kid. Not in a just theology, anyway. I'm not saying that it is, since plenty of Gods are assholes, but you're working to reform yourself, and that's counts for something. You don't deserve eternal damnation.

[grakraka]

[Gods are assholes. He learned this from Akira. Akechi crosses one leg over the other.]

How is it that you get invested in this part?

[blodsvorr]

What are you talking about?

[Akechi, don't be confusing!]

[grakraka]

I mean your ability to go from a zombie to sassy. It's impressive. Understandable, I suppose, but still.

[blodsvorr]

I wasn't a zombie, I was—contemplative. Yeah. [That's the word! He was contemplative!] And I wasn't sassy, either. I was pointing out an obvious hole in the way you think about yourself.

[grakraka]

You were specifically contemplative about suicidal idealization.

[So there!

Like he honestly doesn't sound mad or upset about it? He really does just say it like that.]

Also it isn't a flaw in my logic. For example, in Ancient Egyptian beliefs, the God of the Dead, Anubis, would weigh a heart's sins on a scale versus a feather of Ma'at, the concept of truth and justice. If you think about a system like that, a certain amount of strikes will cause you to have a heavy heart.

warning for talking about suicidal thoughts STUPIDLY i guess!!

[blodsvorr]

I wasn't thinking about killing myself, so wrong again.

[He was just thinking about dying ASAP! It's different!]

Right, and I'm saying that a just system would judge you for who you are now, not who you've been. Punishing you for someone you aren't anymore isn't justice.

[grakraka]

It doesn't mean you're trying to kill yourself but rather that you either are living a purposefully or unconsciously unhealthy life meant to end it all quicker or that you think about or fantasize about the concept of dying. It's psychology and there are many names for it. I personally like 'l'appel du vide' best.

[It's not different!]

I will concede that a system that doesn't allow for redemption is an unjust system, however.

[blodsvorr]

[Qrow looks at him a moment.

Then he throws a pillow at Akechi's head.]

So you agree you don't deserve Hell.

[Yeah, they're talking about that one now!]

[grakraka]

[PFFFT!!

Akechi huffs as he holds the pillow and flops over.]

Why do you get to call me suicidal but I am not allowed the same privilege? This is unjust.

[He refuses to discuss it because he does deserve hell anyway.]

[blodsvorr]

[Because Qrow is the adult, and annoying, and stubborn.]

It sure is. Guess you'll just have to put in a word about me in the afterlife.

[grakraka]

[That amuses him because it means he gets to die first.]

I'll tell them how annoying you are and that the best way to annoy you back would be to send you back to life.

[blodsvorr]

[No it means he gets to sass the afterlife judges for a retrial after Akechi dies, years after Qrow!]

Good. That sets up a court precedent for me dragging you back the same way.