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acatalepsy_ooc2018-08-20 11:54 pm
acatamods) wrote in acatalepsy_ooc2018-08-20 11:54 pm
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test drive meme # 3
 test drive meme #3 It happens in the blink of an eye. One moment, you are home. Perhaps you are with your family, perhaps you are at work. It's a completely normal day . . . and then, suddenly, your stomach drops. You are overcome with a sudden sense of vertigo. You cannot see up, or down, or where you are. All you hear is a voice -- light, bubbly, warm, soothing, in your ear: Don't worry, darling. This won't hurt a bit~ ♥ For those who recognize the voice, it will sound a bit strained. Possibly tired. But the moment happens so quickly it's hard to pin down, and once that moment is over, you fall flat on your face. It's bright, warm, and humid. It takes a few seconds for you to gain composure and catch your breath. You think, for half a moment, that a hand is on your back, rubbing between your shoulder blades in comfort, but when you open your eyes, no one is there. You are surrounded by ancient stone buildings, with carvings you do not recognize etched into the stone. There's a sense of nausea, overwhelming and sudden, when you realize you aren't in Kansas anymore. Even worse, it looks like the tinier inhabitants of the Forest of the Fey are acting a little cheeky.  THE TEMPLE OF BEGINNINGS. Welcome to the "Home Base" of Astoria's Circle. What the actual name of the base is called is lost to the ages, and there's no sense of where you could find it, unless you started asking around. At any rate, this is a central hub of the Circle, a place of powerful magic and mysterious energy. It is a scattering of ancient stone buildings and for the most part, it looks abandoned . . . except for what seems to be a few items, some rooms taken, items moved or organized, even a small garden planted. These are just the smallest hints that there are people here that have been here before you arrived. Overall, it's fairly beautiful. However, it is definitely not modern. Upon exploration, you find that the buildings are kept up by some kind of magic. Some of the rooms have items, things from other Circle members already settled, and others appear to be unclaimed. Pick your rooms, explore the grounds, see the beauty and wonder all around you in such a magical place. However, be careful -- the sprites that reside within the Forest of the Fey seem to be exceptionally active, today, and tricks abound wherever you look. KINGS AND QUEENS.  Typically, the sprites of the Forest of the Fey remain within the protective canopy of the surroundings. However, there seems to be something different in the air, and these little bastards are flitting about and giving out flower crowns to everyone. They are beautifully made, intricate and gloriously decorative, and most people would be happy to adorn one!There's just one problem, though -- they don't come off. No matter how hard you try, those damn flower crowns are stuck on your head, and you cannot remove them no matter how hard you try. Hope you enjoy being a fairy princess for a day. And, if you are alighted with a flower crown, your skin turns the same color as whatever flowers now sit upon your head. A wreath of blue roses? Congratulations, Violet Beauregard -- you're now as blue as a blueberry. The effect wears off in about an hour, and you can remove the flower crown then -- but have fun being every shade of the rainbow as the sprites take their time to torment the new arrivals. BALLOONS FOR EVERYONE.  Normally, there are some animals that wander within the ancient stone buildings of the Temple. Tiny little white bats, sheep that grow on the vine . . . that sort of thing. However, the sprites have elected to add a little bit more flair the Temple, and balloon animals have invaded the living space. Where the sprites got the idea for balloon animals, no one can really be sure -- Astoria seems to think the sprites are waltzing through the spirit realm and seem to have garnered an idea there, whatever that's supposed to mean.So, no matter where you go, there are balloon animals. Little dogs, brightly colored fish, dinosaurs, giraffes . . . except they seem to move, and make noise, and act like their real counterparts. Tiny balloon dogs nip at your heels, balloon fish flicker about in the waters that sprinkle themselves throughout the Forest, and balloon birds float through the skies. Bonus? If you pop them, they explode into (biodegradable) glitter. DECAYED DECADENCE.  Despite the shenanigans from the sprites, however, there seems to be something happening within the Temple that may be cause of concern. Flower crowns and balloon animals aside, there seem to be odd spots of the Temple that suddenly wilt . . . flowers that bend over and wither at a moment's notice, saplings that seem to creak as if suddenly dried from the inside out . . . and it seems, oddly enough, that it happens whenever you, an Arrival, get closer to the wild life. Astoria seems to think that something is wrong . . . perhaps something the Circle members brought back from their last trip. An illness, or something more? Care to poke about and see how far you're willing to take it? Or does your magical gift enable the protection of plant growth? Try out your green thumb and see if you can help. COMMUNICATIONS.  Upon arriving, you will notice on whichever is your non-dominant hand, you will have a fairly simply screen. A smart watch, if you will. Upon exploration, you will find that it has a directory of all those here with you at the Temple of Beginnings- names, and access to a direct message to them. The watch also has video, audio, and text capabilities, as well as what looks like a collection of messages sent to everyone who wishes to open them. This is your 'network', and also how Astoria can reach out and communicate with you. There is nothing keeping you from removing and/or losing your watch! But remember that you will not have access to this network without it. OOC: Also feel free to join us and other possible players on our discord server! enjoy! ♥ |
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Waver's stopped walking anyway.]
Yeah, I'm not. Not after how she reacted to me just mentioning that her dad was the Saber in my Grail War.
[Waver's tone makes it clear that it was a bad experience. He's personally amazed he didn't get punched in the face.]
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[too much bad blood. too many memories. too much to unravel that no one had ever dealt with in a healthy and good manner.]
Thank you, then.
[he can avoid being on the end of Mordred's wrath for a while longer. he won't evade her forever, that's a fool's thought, but delaying it wasn't bad.]
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[Ah, sarcasm. It isn't an old comfort exactly, but that's familiar, and it's easiest to fall back on the familiar after Merlin's introduction bombshell.]
I'm gonna assume you can devise a plan to brace yourself for whatever impact this stirs up eventually. Whatever happens, I don't want to be involved.
[Between Iskandar's banquet with Saber and Archer, Mordred's everything, and Merlin's reaction? Waver wants nothing to do with the Bullshit of the Round Table.]
If you want to delay stuff further, then pick a spare room in this part of the temple. I think where she is is further away, maybe down the next corridor or two.
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That's good to know, I think that'll be best.
[and safest for the neighbors.]
Wouldn't want to inflame things before it was necessary.
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Yeah, you...probably have a better idea of how things'll go.
[Waver shifts his weight uncomfortably from foot to foot. The weird part is that he likes Mordred in spite of himself. She's similar to Rider in a lot of ways, and that level of familiarity is a comfort. It almost felt like settling back into a familiar pattern.
It's clearly not going to last. A new balance will need to be maintained, whatever that will look like in the coming weeks.
Speaking of.]
Is there anything else potentially explosive that I need to know about, Merlin?
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[there's a lot to be said. a lot to be unpacked, if Mordred isn't Mordred from Chaldea. and things about his future that he might not be pleased with.]
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Yeah, okay, Mordred and Rider are way, way easier to deal with. There's none of this crap.]
Seriously, I have to defi...ugh!
[Waver throws his hands up.]
Important crap that if someone else from the Round Table or any Grail War participant appears in, it's gonna cause a problem like you and Mordred being in the same place!
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[really, he only thinks that Arturia would present a problem, and even then...
but as for other Grail War participants?]
Let me ask you something. Is the name "Chaldea" familiar to you?
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[More things to avoid like the plague. Waver's hopeful that there won't be any more of them.
As for Merlin's question, he shakes his head no.]
Not at all. If you need a timestamp, it's the 1990s for me.
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What I will say is that your future holds a fate greater and stranger than you can imagine at this time. That there are those who may appear who know you, and call you by another name. If they call themselves your allies, they are. If they say you look younger than they recall, you do. Hold that much as truth, and know that your work doesn't go unnoticed.
[telling someone the future was always risky - it came with the chance of them going and changing it. but prophesying like this was different - it came with certainty.]
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But damnit if that validation he craves isn't threaded throughout, and while Waver has grown wiser to the fact that that part of him exists, it isn't something he has come to master yet.
He nods once to show that he's heard Merlin and that this is going to be something to keep him up at night, and the rest of him just wants some kind of smartass reply to show that of course this is a totally normal thing to hear, no biggie.
He brilliantly settles on:]
Got it.
[Stunning, Waver Velvet. Absolutely cracking in terms of intelligent responses.]
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[and with that duty dealt with, he reaches forward to clap Waver on the shoulder, the seriousness in his eyes blown away like a cloud. his future was safe, for now. another day, they might speak of Chaldea, and its history. but not today.]
So, what would be your back up plan for conversing with Astoria? Trying to reason with her, mage to mage? Appealing to her better nature?
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To Merlin's question, Waver pauses before responding with a question of his own:]
...How would you deal with yourself?
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Acknowledging my respect and fascination with her magic and her work. Asking to observe out of a pure curiosity, not to sabotage or to harm her but genuinely trying to understand. As a student, one is constantly learning, and though our abilities are limited, the value of information gained by just witnessing everything...it's a new experience, things beyond what you can learn cooped up with the Mage's Association. Why not dive in headfirst?
[and there it is, that reckless abandon that mages could have.]
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...I think you'd have to dress all of that up in more playful language. There's a sort of lightness to what I've seen of her.
[His observations are all too limited though, but what Merlin says does feel like an idea of what he will have to deal with later.]
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[should he really so easily admit that he's going to be shady...]
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[Being shady is also really bad there, Merlin, but Waver's biases are what they are for an exceedingly specific reason.]
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[you can say her name, it's okay.]
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[Seriously, Rider. He's coming around to you, but subtle isn't in your many titles.]
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[at a point, all you can do is smile and nod and then do whatever you were planning anyway.]
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[Waver intones it with all the unease that makes it clear that nope, he's terrible at it, someone who is not Waver Velvet would be much more skilled.]
Mordred has a worse temper. Much worse. [Waver pauses, then admits the one thing he's really yet to tell Merlin.] I've met her dad, and her and Rider had a difference of opinion. I'm pretty sure if I mentioned that if someone disagreed with her dad, Mordred would punch me for just being the messenger.
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[there's a warmth in there, a sort of long held "what can you do" air about it.]
Don't think too hard on it.
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[Waver's words are matter-of-fact. Mordred is easy to read, at the very least, and that is one of the advantages over Rider that she has.]
...Did...you want to keep walking or do you want time to explore this place alone?
[Waver has realized that they've walked well away from the sleeping areas, and are nearly at the thermal baths...a thing that he's still awkward about when anyone else is around.]
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[going back to exploring on his own when he might be able to make someone explain it all and do the work for him? no thanks.]
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[Waver immediately holds up both his hands, making it clear that that isn't at all what he's saying.]
Usually people just...want alone time after getting this much information. I'm totally fine if you wanna keep going!