Lunar Interlude 6

[balancemod]

This may seem a little ... cheesy. But it's my hope you find some meaning in it anyway. NAVIGATION Click here for the RNG thread! 1. WELCOME ABOARD A. YOUR ARRIVAL For those of you who were just casually (or not so casually) pulled between the universes, depending on how you viewed your home world, your day just got a whole lot worse. You can't really remember what happened, but the grass beneath you is plush and comfortable. And standing before you is a woman, who, once she has your attention, begins to speak. Which ... is sort of a strange greeting. Hello, welcome, it's time to make friends. In any case, you have a few minutes to gather your bearings before you're taken to your initiation. You can talk with other newbies who are sitting there with you, or if you happen to spot somebody you know among the crowd watching, now's your chance to reunite with them. There's a strange, almost quiet and somber feeling in the air - like maybe this was something that was much more celebrated before. Maybe some of the people wandering about will be able to tell you. And maybe one of them will be able to relay a fact to you, even if you can't remember exactly how: Your world, and the people who were there and are not here, are now gone. B. THE VOIDFISH Once you have your bearings, you are divided into small groups of three or four and brought to the easternmost geodesic dome, to an elevator in a well maintained, but sparsely landscaped field. There's nothing particularly ominous feeling about the space — in fact, the two guards who greet you at the elevator entrance seem pleased with your arrival. You are, after all, one of the few chosen by the Director, the few who will reclaim what the Hunger has destroyed. And in a few moments, you're about to find that out for yourself. After a tightly packed elevator ride, your group is ushered out to a rather grand looking hall, banners of the Bureau of Balance adorn both sides of smooth metal walls. And inside the Voidfish's chamber stands a tank — impossibly tall, and soaked in a black ink that obscures whatever the tank may be holding. Standing by the tank is a bard, who happened to find an incredible deal on an incredibly rare instrument over at Fantasy Costco. And, uh. Well, he's playing it. When he's finished, pauses, looks at the fabulously rare instrument in his hands with a new note of disgust, opens a drawer at the bottom of the tank, drops it in, and shuts it. And swiftly, you feel as if there's something you can't just shake off about the melody you just heard. Namely, you can't remember anything about it — or why the bard seemed so put off by it. If you seem alarmed, the bard takes notice of it. "Yeah, man, like... don't think too hard about it, it's like that every time. I'm guessing you're here to be inoculated? Just a heads up, you might want to, like, seriously, hold your nose while you drink it down. It tastes wicked gross, man." You sort of get the sense that he's said this speech once or twice in the past. It's well rehearsed, much like the stories you'd expect a bard to be able to recite. "Anyway, I'm supposed to tell you that you have a choice. If you drink the black stuff, you'll be able to hear through the, uh... Huh, how do I describe it? Through the [TSHCSCHTSHCHSC] sound. You guys like, hear that? Anyway, it's all about knowledge or something. I don't know, I'm just here to, like, feed the thing. We call it the [TSCHHSCHSCH], by the way. So, like. You get a choice. You can drink it and understand stuff, or not drink it and then hear that crackling noise all day every day. If I were you, I'd drink it. But, hey man, I'm not like, your dad or anything." The bard takes five cups and draws liquid from a spigot connected directly to the basin of the large tank. Stormy, muddy looking ichor is drawn into them, one by one. He offers each of you a sip. Drink it (he wasn't kidding about what it tasted like), and you're inoculated to the wisdom of the Voidfish. You try to remember the song (and the instrument, for that matter) the bard played a few moments ago and the melody, the meter, every octave, all come back to you. And if you think back to your arrival, some of the things you may have heard other people in the Quad say, that simply sounded like static, are suddenly clear. Bureau of Balance. Grand Relic. Reclaimers. Yet you still can't remember the Hunger or what it had done to your world. And as you look back to the tank in front of you, the water has become clear. There's a jellyfish, as tall as a building, floating within. You look into the body of the creature and you can almost make out a beautiful, tiny universe floating within it. 2. TEST OF INITIATION After your visit with the Voidfish, you, your fellow newbies, and even older Reclaimers, are ushered in for what's promised to be an elaborate, extended metaphor. These tests are something of a welcome ceremony, after all — a quick showing of your abilities, whether it's in fighting or your ability to work together. This metaphor happens to be both. You and one other Reclaimer, whether they just arrived today or have been here quite a while, are ushered into the Arena, which functions as a large, surprisingly powerful simulator. And the picturesque arena that surrounds you scatters into nothingness, until you are standing in a single, bright white room. On the wall, in bright letters, the simulation poses a single question: "What is one thing you will always fight for?" To pass this portion of the test, you must turn to your partner and answer truthfully. And for some of you, that may be simple enough — but regardless, and it's unclear how exactly the simulation can tell, you cannot continue until you are completely honest with your test partner. And then, just like that, the ground rumbles, and the second part of your test begins. Suddenly, the skies of the simulation darken, and an seemingly infinite tower rockets past the clouds. It's impossible to tell how tall it is just by standing on the ground, and you'll find, once you've climbed a fair distance, that you're not really getting a much better idea of scale. You probably know the name of the game here. Your next task is to reach the top of this monstrosity (There's a button at the top that will take you back down in an instant, and end the test). The stairs you find are narrow, it would be all too simple to misstep and take a simulated fall down to the ground. That aside, during your ascent, you may encounter any number of creatures, either overly powerful or overly numerous, attempting to stop you from reaching the top. Pretty much anything you can find here is fair game. To put it simply, this is not going to be an easy trip up a tower. If you happen to fall off or are "wounded" by any of the simulated enemies you encounter, both you and your partner will be transported to the ground to try your climb again. This honestly seems pretty difficult. But there's something else here that can help you. At several points during your climb, you'll come across several items that can help you out. It could be a sword that appears at your feet right as your own is knocked out of your hands by a wyvern. It could be a spell scroll wedged in between the stones of the tower's wall, allowing you to blast a crowd of Ice Mephits blocking your way on the stairs. On each item that you happen to find, you'll see a random engraving, or a message scrawled wherever it fits. "All of you." "To honor my mother's memory." "Bananas!" "My own freedom." "To be able to keep going." Eventually, you'll come across an item that has your own answer to the question posed to you earlier. Your partner's answer. Every Reclaimer's answer. We all have our own reasons for fighting. And they can help you when you need it most. 3. AROUND THE MOON BASE Anyway, that's the formalities out of the way! Here are some fun things you can do around the Moon Base this month. If you were to ask the Director, she might shrug, and agree that some of these new activities are a little bit silly, considering the sullen atmosphere that continues to hang over the entire Moon Base. But she values a distraction as well as anybody else — whether you're fresh home from Wonderland, or a fresh face from a universe consumed by the Hunger. Also, she's asleep. She might have walked out of Wonderland on her own two feet in the end, but she still drastically overworked herself in the part she played in Wonderland, and the next few weeks will be a period of intense recuperation for her. Maybe it's for the best that others have taken the initiative to fancy up the place. C. MYSTERY SCIENCE MOON BASE Someone, or a bunch of someones, have turned the kotatsu room into a giant pile of pillows, blankets and soft, warm, lights. You know! Just somewhere cozy to kick back and relax when you're tired of staring out into space or wandering around the Quad. And someone (It was Miss Zarves, your friendly neighborhood technomancer), has set up a giant screen and projector on the far side of the wall. If you were ever lucky enough to come across some movies on your travels, you can play them for other Reclaimers here. Or, if you happen to be missing your favorite piece of cinema, whether it's big screen or silver screen, you can try giving the projector itself a brief synopsis. Because the projector has been programmed with a somewhat rudimentary AI that will procedurally generate a script based on your synopsis, and spit it back out on the screen using computer built base sets and actors. It's exactly as cheesy and/or bad as it sounds. Be prepared to throw your popcorn. D. THE BATTLE OF A THOUSAND... If you're not in the mood to kick back and relax, there's a new simulation at the Arena to try out. It's exactly what it says on the tin: You, a single Reclaimer, against a quite literal thousand of a classic, low-level monster. Because there's strength in numbers, of course. Should you decide to take on this challenge, you will be doing so alone, but there are plenty of seats for your fellow Reclaimers to cheer you on. You may choose to go full Dawn of the Dead and take on a thousand zombies, or go full Dawn of the Puppies and challenge a thousand kobolds instead. A note here: This is meant to be kind of an endurance exercise — to see how many simulated zombies or kobolds you can get through before running out of gas. If you'd like to try to go for the full thousand though, we will allow each character to roll once for it; however, it is going to have an insanely high DC of 19. 4. THE FABULOUS FAERUN WORLD TOUR As part of this Interlude, Reclaimers are free to visit a few places the Bureau has visited previously — the contacts there have heard about your exploits, and have put together something fun for you to do, and are willing to put you up for free for a few days so you can enjoy yourselves. New Reclaimers are more than welcome to visit and check these cities out too. The inhabitants running the show will recognize you by the bracer on your arm, and admit you just like any other member of the Bureau. E. VISTA VIRS A simple town in the midst of the Netheril, a vast, scarcely habitable desert that is scorching regardless of the fact that it's October, and regardless of the fact that the rest of Faerun is slowly creeping toward fall, and eventually winter. Vista Virs is inhabited by a race of cactus people and kitsune, who will delight upon your arrival, and promptly escort you to what is quite literally a hidden gem of the Netheril: a sprawling oasis with crystal clear waters. If you are reading this and thinking "beach episode," then you are exactly right! You can go for a swim, kick back and see what kind of fish you can catch, fall asleep and get a sunburn ... the works. Get rowdy! Forget about the Hunger for a few days. It will, unfortunately, still be there when you return. F. LYRABAR A large port city that, until the Reclaimers got to it, was overrun with soul-snatched, brainwashed pirates. Now that the threat of the Grand Relic that had captured it is gone, Lyrabar is slowly returning to its original, former (though a bit stuffy) glory. And it would like to thank you. With Friendship! It's Magic. (No, the princess, the Bureau's contact in Lyrabar, had no hand in selecting the name, or the development of anything you see here. In fact, she's kind of irritated, but didn't really stop it). A small corner of Lyrabar has been sectioned off specifically for visiting Reclaimers! There you will find: ○ The Palate of Faerun: Some of the best chefs from around Lyrabar have opened up stands for you to try their offerings at no cost to you. Dishes range from mundane to exquisite, to the avant garde. Never had caviar? Always wondered why corn dogs are such a big screaming deal? If you can think of a food combination, you can find it available. ○ The Tunnel of Love (or Friendship!): What it says on the tin — you hop on a paddle boat for two, or three if you can manage to make it work, and paddle your way through a tunnel underneath the docks of Lyrabar, which is decorated with red hearts and mushy messages for your sweetie, or your best pal (What? You can't be mushy with your best pal?). NOTE: Please direct any complaints about the ride to management once you're off the boat. Any bellyaching while on board will result in the ride stopping for an entire five minutes while a prerecorded voice lectures you about the importance of manners. ○ The Miniature Café: Hidden in a corner of this section of Lyrabar is a shoebox. If you're feeling brave enough to reach down and touch the shoebox, you'll find the buildings, without warning, will immediately start stretching toward the sky — and once they stop, and you look forward, you realize that the buildings weren't stretching. You have shrunk. And the shoebox in front of you? It's a café. The owner inside is humanoid, and about the same height as you — and he will tell you that he traveled an absolutely insane distance (from his perspective, anyway) from New Aspen to open his shop here. His secret? The coffee. Have a cup and it'll put an intense pep in your step. Which you will absolutely need, because you'll find that once you leave the café, you won't actually return to your original size for another three hours. Have fun! Try to avoid getting squashed. G. WILDCARD You are, of course, free to write your own prompts as you see fit! As this will be the only mod log for this Lunar Interlude, you are also encouraged to create your own open logs down the line. Anything you can find under the Moon Base on the settings page is fair game for you to play with. We hope you have a fun and relaxing Lunar Interlude.

Comments

NPC INTERACTIONS

[balancemod]

Each character may interact briefly with one NPC one time and receive a brief OOC summary of the interaction.

○ Please use this judiciously! There is only one NPC coupon this interlude and no do-overs.
○ Please limit interactions to plot-related content that has not been covered in the log above. This is not the place for new Reclaimers to ask Lucretia what just happened, for example — interactions like those can be assumed based on what's described in the log above.
○ Lucretia's private quarters, including her office, cannot be broken into. If your character would like to speak with her, they will have to catch her in the greater Moon Base.
○ For the sake of time and managing this open thread for both mods and players, there will be no follow-ups. Each thread will get one response only.

[eudaimonikos]

RIGHT SO I don't know if this is like, a real thing you can do or not, but can Michael attempt to communicate with the voidfish? My reasoning is entirely Good Place spoilers, in that Michael is apparently himself a cosmic fire squid, known for inventing memory-wiping tricks, so I think he and the voidfish are probably like second cousins or something and should totally talk

If that is a thing, he'd probably just go sit by its tank and ask it questions about itself and its life like an awkward uncle who you only see maybe once every couple years asking you where you're planning to go to college. How does it like its dorm room? How did it even end up in this particular dorm room, a tank on the moon? He's not very comfortable here but he's making an effort, okay, and he will also be the fun uncle who takes it on a joyride to the ocean if it wants.

[balancemod]

This is an interesting out of left field idea. We're into it!

Michael is able to communicate with the Voidfish, kind of. It doesn't really communicate via speech in the same way Michael is used to, nor does it communicate telepathically. Really, the connection Michael and the Voidfish develop is more empathic than verbal in any way, so all the concepts translated from it to him are vague and imprecise.

All of that being said, the most overwhelming sense Michael gets from the Voidfish is one of melancholy and loneliness. It isn't unhappy, precisely — any questions about being mistreated get a large ? of emotion that Michael will quickly learn indicates a negative — but there is something significant missing. A hole in its heart, metaphorically speaking. It doesn't really have a literal heart.

[aceso]

I'm copy/pasting some of this because I'm lazy!

Christine would like to meet up with Angus, please! She wants to know how he's coping, if he's eating his fruits and veggies, etc. Also, will he be attending classes? If so, Christine will offer to help him with his homework.

[balancemod]

Angus! He is . . . overwhelmed. Strained, definitely, but not unhappy. Truthfully, he's pretty pleased to be here, despite the existential terror of it all. He's learning, which makes him happy. And magic is fun, although he isn't very good at it yet, which is frustrating.

He is eating well and attending classes! Actually, he'll have a lot of questions about magic for her if she gives him half a chance to ask, and he would definitely appreciate help with his homework. Consider Christine an official study buddy.

[seasaltkeys]

Roxas had been planning to write Lucretia a letter, but it's probably easier just to talk to her when he sees her, and he'd been procrastinating anyway because what is approaching authority figures?

It probably goes similar to his other interactions with her, where he's kind of nervous and not making a whole lot of eye contact, and he gets a bit rambly trying to find his words. He starts out asking how she's doing, and Killian and Carey, and Angus. And then there's a few questions: like why did Wonderland get that bad? Can they expect more things like that from the other relics? The Hunger's not connected to the Darkness, is it? Or if he needs to find and seal the keyhole? Its fine if Lucretia doesn't have those answers. He's not being accusatory, more just trying to make sense of it all.

But it ends on a relatively positive note. He didn't get a chance to really say it before, but he's sorry that he died in Lyrabar. But after Wonderand, he's feeling a bit more confident, and is really holding on to the things she told him the last time they talked. And he's going to keep doing his best.

[balancemod]

Poor Roxas. Lucretia is tired, but more than willing to make time for him. She plays off her own exhaustion, though when she meets with him she's leaning her staff much more heavily than normal, which makes her claims of being fine only so convincing. Killian and Carey she's more honest about: they're suffering from fatigue, but otherwise are recovering fine. Angus is doing incredibly well under the circumstances and adjusting like a champ. Already she sounds terribly fond of him.

As to his other questions . . . she sighs. Wonderland got that bad because it was a festering wound, she tells him. In the future, things will be difficult, more and more so the closer to get to the end of this journey together. But nothing will ever be quite Wonderland's specific caliber of bad. The psychological damage that Wonderland presented was both insidious and unique.

The Hunger is not directly connected to the Darkness, she can tell him that. The Hunger is much more complicated and difficult to fight than the Darkness, unfortunately. (From an OOC perspective, it is well within the realm of possibility that as the plot gets more involved that Roxas will be strongly reminded of the Darkness, since there are strong thematic and visual similarities. It's up to you how much you want to play with that ICly.) He will not have to seal any keyholes, though.

When he tells her that he's sorry for dying . . . despite everything that he says afterwards, she looks a little bit like her heart is breaking. Before she even answers him, she leans down and gives him a gentle hug.

"Please don't apologize for something like that. You're doing amazing. You're always amazing."

[rockymountaindie]

As per the OOC post:

Alex is going to commune with the Raven Queen again. It's...weird to do this both not on a mission and when he's in his right mind but he seems more confident in himself. Maybe he's starting to understand her better.

1. Those death sacrifices, are those something that she specifically imposes, or is it something to do with exiting the astral plane? ...Is there anything to be done besides dying to reverse them? He knows, he knows, they're sacrifices for a reason but- you know. He just wants to hear it from someone. As someone who's recently lost something.

2. The souls trapped in the Rolands in Wonderland...... Are they there? Are they...okay? (Christine says she's sorry, if he can pass on another message.)

3. Does that "more than three times" thing count previous death(s) in our own worlds, he doesn't THINK it does but the people would like to know.

4. So, someone mentioned dying on the network and seeing tendrils and goo- basically he's gonna relate what Ryuji said. ...Is that the Hunger? ...Um, is she in danger?

[balancemod]

Guess what? She's glad to hear from him, and greets him warmly. Hello, Alex.

1. The death sacrifices are not her personal imposition, but a natural penalty coming from leaving the astral plane. As she describes it, the astral plane tries to hang onto all of its souls; the soul must fight to leave, and there's no easy way to do so without leaving a little bit of yourself behind.

As for reversing it — she knows this isn't what Alex wants to hear, but the only way to reverse that kind of damage is to work for her. Really work for her, not have her as a patron but work as a bounty hunter for her, bringing aberrant souls back to the astral plane in order to balance the scales.

2. They are in the astral plane. They are all right. She passes the message along. There's not a great deal more that she can say, given that she can't carry on a bunch of separate conversations at once, but she does say that they're as comfortable as they can be.

3. Nope, she doesn't give a shit about previous worlds tbqh. This is her world and so this is the world that matters. She's planecentric like that.

4. Well. Alex tells her what Ryuji says. Asks her if it's the Hunger. But before he can even get the rest of it out, he feels it again — that cold breath of Something Else on his neck as he feels the presence of the Raven Queen strengthen and solidify. There's a crackle of energy as she speaks—

"He saw what?"

If there's an intruder in the astral plane, if there has been this whole time and she didn't notice it—

"Alex, I'm sorry, I have to go."

The connection cuts off.

[oculusriffs]

hi there Leon!!

So Dave is just gonna wander over to his favorite very tired artificer and ask for help interpreting a book he's been hanging on to since the mission in Lyrabar.

Quite frankly, he's pretty sure this is just someone's attempt at making up their own language for their next fantasy series or whatever — but he did pay out the ass for it, and the person who sold it to him did so on the premise that he'd be able to summon Istus, whom he knows is the goddess who pretty much runs the time joint around here. And as much as he'd like to just ditch the thing, the poem he can actually understand gives him the jibblies for some reason.

tldr what does this book mean Leon? And also, please take Dave's attempt at making one of the knitting patterns in there as payment. It kind of looks like a hairball.

[balancemod]

He doesn't want your hairball. Can he have the book instead?? Please???? He'll pay you. Any dice?

No? Okay fine.

It isn't a made up language, or at least it's made up like how hieroglyphics are made up. He doesn't know how old this book is, but the text? It's old. He can tell it's a type of Primordial, but not a dialect of the four main elements. The text is written too smoothly to be any of them - it's essentially scriptive Barazhad? He... thinks? But Barazhad doesn't come in script so he has no idea how to work with this.

Leon can give him a few suggestions. The first is to try comparing it to the other Primordial languages - they're all essentially dialects of each other, so he can probably get something. Not a perfect translation, but something. The second is to try getting someone with Comprehend Languages to read it, but if this book is legitimate there's a chance they won't so much get possessed as much as they will. Uh. Transcend all concept of Time and go into a Knitting Flow State until they die. The third?

Get better at knitting. Take your weird squiddle creation and get outta here.

[alethiological]

Okay it's 5am so forgive me if I'm not making sense. This'll be forward-dated to after he gets out of Zarves-Approved Time Out, but I'm gonna spend that sweet npc token to pick on a huge nerd.

Or rather, aggro Lucas when he's alone in a room with no escape routes and be genuinely polite and interested and bug him about his research. Yes, he's already ranted a bunch and there's probably books he could find in Leon's place, but why do that when there's a literal Planar Research Specialist wandering around trying to fix all the problems Bender created. He's generally going to be prodded in the direction of the Celestial Plane in specific, and left to wander off on his own tangents with only a few questions. But for OOC purposes, let's make it a list.

1) He's not dumb and has been informed he got mcfuckin' possessed by this point. Can Lucas describe the Celestial Plane, like, appearance wise? Specifically if Silvanus has a domain but he's not picky.

2) Is there any long-term damage from having your soul or soul-equivalent trapped on a plane for an extended period of time?

3) Knowing that this might be tied into hypothetical interplanar travel damage, is seeing static supposed to be a normal part of getting yote into the wrong dimension or should he be concerned.

4) If you went to another plane, got scrambled, and came back, is there a risk of boomeranging back to that same plane again?

5) Less a question and more a concern for Lucas to pass up to whoever + giving context for the whole interrogation here. So during the whole Wonderland thing, he's pretty sure the connection between Planes got severed. It somehow got fixed, but he has no idea if that's a permanent fix or if problems are gonna come up later but uh. Yeah.

[balancemod]

Lucas has, in fact seen the Celestial plane! He looked into it when he gazed into one of the discs doing his research. It's rather different than the other planes, which seem to all function in a linear and somewhat permanent state, even if they're "systems of high chaos." The Celestial plane is dotted with nebulae type connections and fragmented, sort of like looking at the sky on a partly cloudy day and observing all the shapes and sizes. Each deity would have domain over their influential areas. There are 9 major planes of the Celestial- real estate is divided up in there accordingly, but it's hard to really pinpoint where each, or any of them are, at a specific point in time. Travel to and from that plane is nearly impossible without being of Celestial essence yourself.

Unfortunately, Lucas doesn't know too much about people who go to and from. He's more of an observer if anything else, and honestly? He tried messing with the planes once and nearly destroyed the Prime Material. If Will is seeing static and junk, he should really go see Dr. Tank, though. That's super not normal. Go make sure you're not planar irradiated, man. He will say, half reluctant and half joking, that some people believe that travel between higher and lower planes (such as between the prime material and the celestial planes, for example) leads to a pretty nasty condition, since the mortal body and soul aren't designed for that kind of trip. But, he adds derisively, if that were the case Will would be flickering in and out of existence right now anyway!

What he's not derisive about is the idea of the planes being severed. That gets him to sit up and take notice. He even starts talking about how he needs to go back down to Vista Virs and check some numbers — but then he catches himself. No, he has to stay here. He's got no choice. But he thanks Will for letting him know all the same, looking faintly unhappy about the whole situation.

[snyaiper]

Since he is stuck in Gay Baby Moon Jail with nothing better to do, Ogata is going to try to reach out to Ms Zarves via his bracer just as she contacted/doxxed him, Will, and Wash earlier to rat on them.

He's wondering what else she might have seen going on in security footage about the moonbase, specifically about her "best friend" Lucretia. He's suspicious of the Director and her motives and is looking to see if he can get any evidence to back up his suspicions. It's the least Ms Zarves could do after meddling in his personal affairs the way she did, if you ask him.

[feytality]

-Sans and Maya are approaching Lucretia together, they bring her favorite elderflower macaroons and tea! though they are friendly and Maya is very earnest as usual, they are watching her reactions very closely with all their observant and perception powers
-Maya will recount her encounter with the Hunger, and ask Lucretia if she knows anything about it and see what her reactions about it are, etc
-Maya will tell Lucretia she's worried that the Hunger has a hold on her spirit and might be possessing her, so she wants to ask Lulu if there's a way to verify it and/or lock Maya up or incapacitate her or something If It Comes To That (and also apologize for being a failure!!!)
-Maya mentions the Hunger talking as though it had been locked up for a Very Long Time and is now only getting out.... and wants to see what Lulu has to say about that.
-Sans and Maya ask about the memories they're missing (of the Hunger) and that there's still static -- how do they get them back, is there another voidfish or another creature that can do something similar to it?
-Sans will ask about the Red Cloaks!!!
-Sans will ask about Lucretia's 43 deaths, what's up with that. The Raven Queen said that Reclaimers only get 3, so he wants to know why Lucretia gets 43. She also seemed worried about it, telling Alex that eventually something is going to have to be done of that, and she would keep Alex in the loop. Sans and Maya also want to know if Lucretia knew that Reclaimers could only die three times!
-Both Maya and Sans ask Lucretia (Maya earnestly pleads) to be more forthcoming about danger levels and what they're getting into BEFORE the mission starts, and also to give more specific information about what to expect
-They both also request to get into the restricted section at the library, citing that things are very dangerous, the Hunger is legit talking to one of them now, and they need all the information they can get

[mccreehaw]

After what he learned from his snooping, McCree immediately seeks out Lucas and starts asking him questions. He'll show him the footage he took on his bracer of Leon's book and inquire if Lucas knows what it all means and/or how to cast the shield. He thinks it would help the Reclaimers a lot if they can protect their minds in case they're in a Wonderland situation again. He'll also quietly say the woman in the drawing looks a lot like Lucas.

[gotyourbach]

Kaede is going to try to talk to Lucas and/or Johann about this fun voidfish plot nugget. How's the voidfish doing? Have there been any changes or updates?

She's also going to try playing the song back to it again using her violin - she's been practicing!

[unrecovered]

Early in November, after he's had some Time To Think, Wash is going to go see Leon, for more than one reason.

First of all, how is Leon? Wash likes the guy and wants to see how he's holding up. How are things for him?

Second, Wash is going to tell him about the aluminadium he procured on Maru and how he got it. He's done some research on it - not as much as he'd like, but some - and he wants to know if Leon has any insight on what to do with it, or knows more details that he missed. Is there anything he Needs To Know about it that he's missing? He's been looking at the Engineer advanced path as an option - would he be able to incorporate the aluminadium into that? Would that even be a good decision? Is there a better use? He's a little bit in the weeds on this one.

Third, and least importantly, Wash is going to show Leon the ring of keys he found in that same chest on Maru. Any idea what kind of lock these would pair with? Nothing he's tried has worked.

(He'll also slip in a question about the Restricted Section if the opportunity arises, because he can't not, but he's not going to shoehorn it in if there's no place for it. Priorities.)

[doubledsofjustice]

So it looks like McCree got his hands on some information- and shared it with 76 and Mia. 76 is going to take on the director, but Mia has her eyes on someone else-- Ms. Zarves.

She does have to thank Ms. Zarves, after all; that stunt she pulled on the network actually helped her understand her little sister better. Her little sister, Maya Fey? Not that Mia's bringing up Maya as leverage at all, nooooo. And her thank-you is genuine! Even if Zarves's methods are a little unorthodox.

But speaking of unorthodox, there's something that Mia's sure only someone with as advanced skills as Zarves could tell her- like if she knows anything about a 'Bulwark Shield'?

[diffidentive]

Okay, so following up on this, since we were told to do so here...Shuichi and Kaede would like to see the Compact destroyed! (and I'm sorry it took me so long to get around to this, derp dorp.)

The first day back on the moonbase after Wonderland, they would immediately go to Lucretia's office and knock on the door in the hopes that she'd be in there. But if she's not, obviously they're not going to try and break down the door, they'll either look for her elsewhere or see if they can find Lucas or Davenport. Once they locate the proper person, they'll make their request: they would like to see the Compact destroyed in person, please! Though really it's because Shuichi is suspicious of the fact that only the first destruction was broadcast, Kaede will say that it's a case of wanting to show a newcomer "how we do things," since Shuichi never got to see the mittens destroyed and he is a curious detective boy who wants to know how exactly one destroys a Grand Relic. To which Shuichi will just nod politely in agreement.

[hxppythxughts]

Sayori is going to be seeking out Miss Zarves for this interlude! She is going to bring two lemon tarts as thanks--one of Bender's zappy ones, which she will explain the function of and say that she thought Miss Zarves might think it's funny. And then the other one will be homemade by her and Natsuki (mostly Natsuki lbr, she is much better at baking) and thus perfectly normal and delicious.

These are thanks for helping Sayori with her memory thing last interlude! Which she is very appreciative of, and she would tell Miss Zarves of what she learned about the situation if she seemed interested. Not every single gorey detail, but the fact that she's a fictional character from a dating sim video game that one of the characters within it seized control of. But she does unfortunately have another question along similar lines.

So, say there's another person like her, someone else who's made up of whatever combination she is of flesh and code. If that person had the code of their memories tampered with--not like Sayori's, which never existed, but things that should be there and were removed by someone else--could a skilled technomancer fix that? If Sayori learned to do what Miss Zarves can do, could she fix it? (OOC note: I talked with Yuri's player about this and we agreed it'd be MEGA CUTE if this was something that was plausible, so if it is we're both willing to work with it!)

If Miss Zarves was amenable, this conversation would probably progress into:
1.) general questions about how technomancy works--how do u just hack reality, what planes are involved, etc.
2.) general questions about the manipulation of memories, both pertaining to technomancy and not
3.) asking about Miss Zarves herself in her friendly Sayori way, and how she knows Miss Director!
4.) this one is only if there's a natural segue into it because it's not as high priority for Sayori personally, but if for example the security cameras everywhere or like...the idea of Dangerous Knowledge comes up, Sayori would ask about the restricted section of the library. Not if the conversation doesn't progress that way tho.

Re: NPC INTERACTIONS

[mylawn]

Here is Jack with the other half of the 76/Mia/McCree tag team, except he's going to be the one to hit up Lucretia. He's going to take advantage of the fact that he's yet to ask her for anything at all to speak to her about McCree's discovery and ask if she knows anything about something called a "Bulwark Shield", and, if permitted, her relationship with Lucas' mother. Who was she and what did she do for the Bureau?

He knows there is a small chance he might get in trouble for revealing this knowledge to her so if she wants to throw him in baby jail he's okay with that BIb

[petsthedog]

Sliding this in last minute but Shinjiro would like to talk to Miss Zarves! Considering how she kind of haunted the base for a few months and then they had to go to that pocket dimension to try to rescue her and the Director, he's curious about some things like who she actually is/how she came to be involved with the Bureau, how she ended up trapped in that weird place, etc, but since that's already answered in Sayori's thread you guys don't need to repeat it, it's just how he'd start the conversation.

He does have a more specific purpose in seeking Miss Zarves out, though. He wants to know more about that time she was trapping people in that one alley until they answered her on the network.

1) How did she do it?
2) Just how strong was that magic, how difficult would it be for something to break free from there?
3) Can she replicate that effect anywhere or was it limited to the Moon Base?
4) If the answer to #3 is yes, he's going to ask more explicitly about if she knows a way for him to temporarily shove himself and/or Castor in gay baby realityhack jail if he ever loses control of his Persona again.

He's going to try to be pretty casual about the whole thing but it's going to devolve into Very Bitchy if she refuses to help or says she can't...he's still pretty asschafed over that incident.

[dialetheism]

powerslides in here at the last fucking minute

For the sake of not making things more complicated then it needs to be- Lion's going to table actually creating a magic item this month. Instead, if Leon has the time and patience to teach them the next step in pure theory - or other parts of Artificing, as he deems relevant - they're ready and willing to Learn. They've been practicing channeling circles this whole time!

No, seriously, they have. They've got an entire journal full of their (steadily improving) attempts, which they'll show him if he asks. But at this point it's less about creating something, or even unravelling what makes the Umbrella tick (though it's certainly present with them as this happens), more... out of curiosity? kinda? Magic items are weird and spooky and understanding the logic behind them, such as it is, might give them a new outlook on Things while also just being really cool. They're still kinda trying to cozy up to him - that never really stops, being who they are and all - but honestly, they just respect what he does and are excited to learn about it in their own stuffy, dorky way. Someone please teach this brat how to express things normally--

In trade, they'd offer to show him part of the memento they got from Lyrabar - their cousin Maria's magic grimoire, specifically the section detailing how she created her own (admittedly, incredibly childish) spells and constructs. They don't want to archive the book, given that the rest of it is an uncomfortably detailed journal of her life, but... that part feels worth sharing. Or like. Maybe they can help tell people not to go in the Restricted Section. Or just whatever might help him be less stressed, poor guy :(

(They're also probs gonna hang with Angus offscreen, but not in a plot-related way beyond geeking out with him about magic stuff. Just getting that good good jam sesh on.)

CLOSED!

[balancemod]

Just a comment noting that we're closing up NPC interactions for Lunar Interlude 6 in order to get ready for the next field mission. No new ones should be posted below this thread.

See you in "A Day in Thay!"