the sickness ends.the temple.The Temple, shortly after Astoria's burst of energy, is in a constant state of growth. Trees are bursting into existence from seeds in mere seconds, flowers are growing wherever magic lands . . . and the Temple is abruptly a-buzz with energy, magic crackling throughout the air. You may find a tree in your house, or flowers suddenly growing along the walls, or plants wiggling their way through the stone walls of the buildings of the Temple. All of a sudden, the place looks very overgrown.
The Forest of the Fey seems to be responding in kind, too. Sprites are exceptionally active, darting out of the Forest and into the Temple with increasingly regularity, playing basic little tricks on the members of the Circle they can find. Flower crowns are made at an alarming rate, and there might be a few fruit-food fights that break out with the sudden abundance of peaches and apples that appear on the grounds. Learn how to duck!
With the magic comes the sudden fluctuation of energy: canon powers flicker on and off, as do the powers granted by Astoria. You feel more like yourself, you suddenly have access to energies you did not have previously in the Temple However, it's a double-edged sword -- it is not constant, and it may be more trouble than its worth.
And, remember: the Sickness is not fading immediately. If you make it to Stage 3, then you're stuck with sensory deprivation for at least another week or two. Sorry, friends.  lake dona.Lake Dona is a massive body of water, stretching outward for so far that it almost seems like an ocean until you see that the water is fresh. It is surrounded by long, leafy trees that dip into the water and has a variety of ancient ruins scattered around it -- weathered stones set into circles at seemingly even intervals, old buildings that seem to mirror the Temple in construct.
In addition to the ruins, there are a network of caverns tucked along the water’s edge, just underneath the surface on the western side of Lake Dona, that appear to go underground into murky darkness. The actual entrance to these caverns seem to be underwater, seemingly guarded by merfolk, but poking around may seem to be more trouble than its worth.
There is plenty of wildlife to be found within the lake itself, ranging from freshwater mermaids who would rather you stay the hell out of their backyard to a rather large and suspiciously friendly plesiosaurus-like creature (some would say that she prefers to be called Nessie) that seems intent on checking out who you are. The lake teems with odd-looking fish, most of which seem to be okay to eat, and plenty of plant life! But who knows what lurks in the depths below . . . that giant sea-monster looking thing has to be eating something.PROMPT IDEAS: Here are some prompt ideas for this new area! However, don't feel limited to such ideas! Feel free to fish, to explore, to swim, to poke around . . . it's always possible Astoria may check in on your character, too, once she is feeling better! ;)
1.) The Great Pumpkin The overgrowth of plants have caused a massive growth spurt in a lot of the trees, including the fruit trees that sprinkle themselves throughout the Temple. However, the fruit themselves seems to be growing at a rather . . . alarming rate, resulting in a few pumpkin-looking squash growing to the size of small boulders in the fields. Hope you have a lot of spare time on your hands to make a hell of a lot of Temple-pie, because these squash aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
2.) Food Fight!: Those damn sprites are at it again, and are collecting fruit off the ground and throwing it at people. Fight back, organize, and conquer! Or not. It's probably better to just not.
3.) Part Of Your World: The mermaids within Lake Dona are a suspicious lot, and they don't take kindly to strangers stomping through their territory. However, they are receptive to music, so if you are so musically inclined, they will definitely be more inclined to be a little more playful than territorial. If you aren't? Have fun getting tossed into the lake head-first by a bunch of pissed off mermaids who want you to get the hell of their lawn. They don't take kindly to your type around here.
4.) Nessie: Within Lake Dona is a massive plesiosaurus-type creature which seems to be . . . oddly friendly? It seems to pop up at the most inconvenient of times. Are you sitting on the edge of the lake enjoying the water? Enjoy a massive ass dinosaur sticking its impressively long neck out of the lake to check you out and also scare the bejesus out of you. That being said, Nessie is an extraordinarily friendly being, and will even give you laps around the lake if you ask nicely!
5.) Caverns: The caverns within the lake are dark, deep, and menacing The merfolk inform you that you cannot go there -- no one can, but the merfolk sure seem to be keeping a careful eye out on it. Testing the boundaries indicates a weird magical field around the entrance of the cave, that works like a bit of a forcefield. Weird, right? |
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acatalepsy_logs2018-09-19 08:25 pm
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[The possible thought slips right by, distracted by the idea of Astoria, and what she may or may not have done to the foliage, their health, and... their magic????]
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[ his eyes cast down towards the water. ]
I think one of her first mistakes started with me being here, though.
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[Konoha liked to think all of them being here was a mistake, but. There's something about the way he says it that she doesn't... like.]
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[ his face hardens into something inexplicable. ]
The rest of you...have a place to go back to. I don't. I'm not...
Back home, I'm not alive.
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Don't be silly, Nier. You can't be dead, you're right here.
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I don't exist as a part of my world at all.
[ he stares down at his knees. his face carries a weight unlike any other. ]
Magic can do...a lot of things. I made a deal with someone before I came here...and that deal meant that I would never exist as a part of that world ever again. Sometimes...I can see people. But they can't see me.
That's why I shouldn't be here. She made a mistake, and she's made another.
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[Concepts like this, magic and pacts and the strange way his world worked, it's honestly so beyond her that it might be comical she's even trying to understand. But she is, because she knows Nier isn't delusional, isn't insane, so-
She wades through the water, coming closer.]
You're not like a ghost or something- and the people I met from your world, like Emil- they see you just fine!
[So... he must just... be mistaken! Or. Something.]
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instead, his features falter, a weariness weighing down his eyes and mouth. ]
Emil doesn't remember our journey, or the things we went through.
[ he is immovable, simply staring at his own reflection in the water. nothing more. ]
He doesn't remember the sacrifice he made for me.
[ his eyes flutter shut. ]
It's okay. I made a decision before I came here. I don't regret it. I did it...for someone I cared about deeply. And now she gets to live.
But the truth is, I shouldn't be here. That's why you don't have to worry about me. Before everything is over...I want to protect all of you, and make sure that you understand what it means to live.
There's nothing more I would want than that.
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He's saying that same stuff again. How she didn't need to worry. How it didn't matter if he died.
Expression twisting into frustration, helpless, impotent frustration, Konoha finishes closing the distance between them... and pushes Nier.
Hard.]
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also there goes his towel, so thanks based konoha!?
nier doesn't say anything, he just...kind of looks at her in sheer shock. ]
...!?!?
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... not that she doesn't go incredibly red in the face instantly, but she manages to not stare and also not be shocked too badly, (it's way smaller than Gonta's), puffed up still in indignation.]
Did you feel that?!
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[All of those damned things, okay!
If she looks angry it's because she is... but the reason is all too clear in the way her brows turn down, how her eyes shimmer and threaten to cry, how her lip trembles a bit with emotion, fingers curling into fists.]
It's not a mistake! You're not a mistake, and all you're going to do if you keep saying such things is making you want to protect sad! Is that what you want to do?
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[ his fingers curl into his palms, and he gets up abruptly, not really caring about the fact that he's exposed — he reaches for his towel, fastening it around his waist again, but his movements are the slightest bit forceful. ]
You're a kind person. But I'm not. There's nothing for me back home. My purpose has already been fulfilled. I have a new one now, and it's to protect all of you.
[ he brings a hand to his face. it hovers over his eyes, as though he doesn't want to quite look at her. ]
I'm sorry for making you sad. You don't deserve to be. You're going to live, and keep making new friends and grow and one day you'll have a family of your own. That's the life you deserve, and that's the difference between us.
I'm already dead. I don't have a future, but you do. There's nothing wrong with that.
That's just the truth of this reality.
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[Two can play at sharp-tongued games, and Konoha finds that she's drawn herself up to her full height, as if she were an animal trying to make itself larger in the face of a potential predator.]
How can you say you're not kind in the same breath that you say you're going to protect everyone? I don't know what happened to you in your world, but- Even if it's like you said, even if you don't have a life there anymore... you have a life here!
[She shoves him again, trying to force him to look at her.]
Can't you see that?
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but then she speaks. she speaks, and he hears the voice of a 16 year old, unbearably energetic, his voice booming and ricocheting against the walls around him.
kaine! don't you dare give up now! you're stronger than that!
even if you can't live for yourself, live for me!
those were the words of a boy who hadn't lost his reason for living. who hadn't watched the world crumble into nothingness, who hadn't taken countless lives, who hadn't seen the worst of human beings...hah, no, they weren't even human beings. they were shells. vessels for another peoples entirely. the words of a boy who hadn't realized he was never meant to live...only forfeit what he thought was his to someone else, simply because they had existed before he did.
everything was a lie. everyone was dead. he was the one who ended the world, but only because someone else was going to do it regardless.
but he looks at her, and he sees the eyes of that 16 year old boy. ]
....
[ his brows knit together. his features are hard. but he does meet her gaze, thinking all the while. ]
...Tch.
[ the noise that escapes him is gruff, as is the way his voice lowers a register. ]
Fine. I'll take it.
[ his eyes squeeze shut. ]
...You're right. People laid down their lives to see me at peace...I want to live in their honor, if not for myself. That's the least I could do.
[ ... ]
I can't make any promises, but I'll try to be more careful. Fighting is what I do. Nothing'll change that. But I guess...
[ nier rolls his shoulders, a sigh escaping him. ]
I'll be less reckless from now on. You're a good person. I know you'll get upset if I don't.
[ ... ]
Thank you. I mean it. I still don't know why I'm here — but I don't need to know the reason when being here has managed to get me a friend in you.
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Thinks of the metal world, where, still new and afraid and panicked by being plucked from her world and everything she'd ever known... Nier had offered her his hand with a smile.
She just wanted him to understand. Wanted him not to feel so alright with dying. Wanted him to feel what she felt, what Emil felt and surely others felt- That he could be a good person. That he has friends. That he should be able to exist... even if she doesn't understand and maybe can't understand the world he came from.]
Nier...
[Up until the point he calls her his friend... when she can't help but actually start crying, surging forward to wrap her arms around him and hug him tight, (maybe a bit too tight oops), lifting him right off the pool floor so that she can bury her face in his shoulder while she blubbers.]
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[ he stiffens, almost entirely frozen against her; for a moment, he turns to stone, eyes wide as she holds him.
a moment passes, and nier melts into the hug. an arm loops around her in turn, a hand moving to gently run his fingers through her hair. ]
I can't leave you anytime soon, can I? I need to make sure that there's someone always here to pat your head as you cry, after all. And the garden too...
[ it's soft, the way he says it...in contrast to what she had heard earlier. ]
I'm glad I got to meet you, Konoha. If you keep crying, you'll get a fever though...
[ he can't...bring himself to interrupt her, however, so instead he allows her embrace to linger for however long as she pleases, rubbing and patting her back all the while.
warmth. what a strange feeling. sleeping beauty hasn't felt something so precious, something so fragile in an era.
surely, the great memory tree would store this moment within itself for the centuries to come. ]
Are you okay now?
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I'm strong, Nier.
[A reminder. Not that she necessarily sounds it while weeping a bit into his shoulder, but. She won't catch a fever, she doesn't need someone to pat her head... (She just likes it.)
But she doesn't release him just yet. She isn't even sure why, really, that she's crying. Maybe he was dead in his world, maybe there he wasn't a good person, but... Here, he exists, and he's good, and she's just relieved that it seemed like maybe he could see a point in being alive.
The fleeting thought, that if Nier could do it... then maybe Gonta could, too.]
Mmm...
[Just. One more minute, let her get her sniffles out.
And slowly... remember where they were maybe.]
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[ too much has happened — and too much has been lost for him to truly want to live beyond this. beyond the experience of being here, and protecting these people.
in a way, he knows he wanted to be free. that he had always been trapped.
but he also knows that she's right, the same way kaine and weiss and emil were always right. he lets her weep. and then gradually, gently, he begins to pull away, hands moving towards her shoulders. ]
You can let go. I'm not going to leave you anytime soon.
[ ... ]
And...I should probably put on clothes now.
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If he stays... if he doesn't run off to die or just keep teuffging through life... then maybe she has time to affect him, to help him see that there was so much more out there than just... darkness. There was good food, good people, friends, the way sunshine looked on the forest floor, the smell of fresh flowers, the sight of children playing...
There's so many reasons to exist, if you just look.
Like she looks now, and follows his hands from her damp shoulders over to his bare ones, down over muscular chest-]
Oh!
[Hands fly up and slap onto her cheeks as she hurriedly turns her back to give him the privacy to get out of the pool and into his clothing, reddening up as she wipes the last of her tears away.]
Sorry, Nier! I only saw, um-
[Everything. Her third penis. Oh gods.]
I won't tell anyone!
[Won't tell anyone what???]
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[ nier wades through the water, springing up the ledge and out of the bath. his clothes are tidily folded in a muted corner, and he quickly throws a baggy, white shirt over himself, a pair of lofty blue pajama pants following suit. ]
If it makes you feel any better, I'm used to things like this. So it doesn't really bother me.
I just don't want anyone to get the wrong idea.
[ he places the towel underneath his hair, now nonchalantly approaching the entrance to the bathhouse. ]
Make sure to wash behind your ears.
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[He had to go and be a much better kisser than her, and now he's super used to being nude and muscular and handsome with his... okay, so maybe that was big for a human??? But anyway!
She just keeps her back turned to give him privacy, rocking a bit on to the frogs of her hooves.]
I know how to wash!