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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One of them, she probably never will.]
I guess it doesn't have to, but— if you don't call it anything, how do you know he feels the same way?
[Asking for a friend.]
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I don't know, I just think it's a little obvious~
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It would, wouldn't it...
[She actually blushes at that, even if she isn't quite the type to do so normally, and she bites her lower lip, smiling sheepishly a moment later.]
What if we haven't done that yet? Things are— complicated.
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Oh ho.
Sheryl stops pushing the pumpkin.] Well now, this is sounding a lot less hypothetical now, and a lot more specific.
Do we need to set this pumpkin somewhere?
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... maybe if we leave it here, someone else will take it the rest of the way. We've done an awful lot of rolling, don't you think?
[And now, apparently, there are Important Conversations to be had. Alternatively, they could just sit on it— it's probably big enough to seat both of them.]
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[This is much, much more interesting.] Would you care to go someplace a little more secluded? You know, so we can have a nice girl talk.
How about the baths?
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[She smiles a little— she'd been fully prepared to handle that undertaking herself earlier, but at this point, she's moved on. Let someone else decide to get domestic.]
A bath sounds amazing. [The communal baths have taken some getting used to, but she's been here long enough now.] You know, I can't remember the last time I had someone to talk to about this kind of thing?
[There's Tifa, of course, but— there's always been a conflict of interests there.]
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[That said, the closest things she had were A) evil and manipulating her or B) her chief rival in love, so... she doesn't exactly know this first hand.
But it sounds right.] Shall we, then?
[Thankfully, the baths aren't too far.]
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[Both of hers are pretty dumb in their own ways, but she absolutely finds it endearing. Leaving the pumpkin behind, she offers her arm to Sheryl.]
Let's.
[Someone else will handle it, it's kitchen-adjacent!]
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[She gladly takes Aerith's arm. It's not long to the baths, and before long, she's tossing her clothes to the floor in one of the more closed-off areas, looking longingly at the steaming pool of water in front of them.] There's really nothing like a nice, long soak, is there?
[Don't mind her, Aerith, she's going to be non-too-discreetly checking you out as you change, because she can.]
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It's not a luxury we got too often at home— it didn't take long to get used to.
[They had baths and showers, of course, but there's not a lot of hot water to go around in the slums.
She tests the water with her toes before stepping in, letting out a long, satisfied exhale of breath as she finds herself a place to sit and lets the water come up to just below her shoulders.]
This was a great idea.
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Sheryl dips into the water, sinking low into it across from Aerith, letting her toes peak out of the water.] Not a lot of water where you come from, then?
[Why else would baths not happen?]
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There's water, but the power to heat it is a little harder to come by sometimes. The people who run the one and only power company don't really care if people in the slums can afford what they're selling. You can get clean, but that's different from a long, relaxing soak.
[This is pretty incredible, quite frankly.]
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There's a weird look of familiarity on Sheryl's face, but it passes momentarily, and she sinks a little deeper into the warm bath.] That's not very nice of them.
Terrible business sense, too. Why would you choose to get zero money from people when you could get some money by selling at reduced rates? Tsk tsk.
[Sheryl leans back a little bit.] Maybe this is overindulging a little, but I like to think I've earned it~
So. Tell me about this boy.
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[Unfortunately, Shinra is as much a weapons manufacturer as it is a power company— not to mention everything else under their umbrella. Still, they're here to relax— she can leave spilling more of that salt for another time.
She closes her eyes momentarily, slipping a little bit further beneath the surface so that the water comes up to her chin.]
Well— until this place, it had been a long while since we'd seen one another. Five years, for me.
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Her eyes glimmer as she focuses on Aerith's face, paying attention to her expression to try and see how she's behaving.] Long-distance relationship? Or just growing apart?
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He was sent away on a mission. He never came back.
[For a long while, she wasn't sure what that meant for him. Turns out that even accepting that he'd died, she still hadn't gotten it quite right.]
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That's hard; I'm sorry.
He was in the military?
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SOLDIER, First Class— they're special forces, where I come from.
[She used to want to believe they were doing good work, but not so much anymore. There were certainly people within SOLDIER who did good, like Zack, but...]
For a long time, I didn't know what had happened to him. Seeing him here was a relief, but it's also complicated.
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There's sympathy on her face as she sits back and listens. For all this woman knows, this man had died-- maybe he had. And now he's here.]
What makes it so complicated? If I saw the man I loved after not knowing if he were okay, or even alive, I'd think I'd be overjoyed.
So there's something else in the way, then? [Phrased as a question, but it isn't. Not really.]
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[That's an understatement, if there ever was one.]
He was gone a long time. Things can change in five years— you go places, meet new people.
[But it's not really that there's someone else in the way. She knows how things end up for her. That's more of a problem than the Cloud of it all.]
Things didn't turn out so well for me back home, either. I don't... want him thinking that it's his fault, but it is connected to the mission he went on.
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It's not hard to kind of hear that as "I died," but she doesn't want to make an assumption.] My, my, that does sound like a pickle.
But there's still one main question: Do you love him?
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I do.
[But:]
I fell for someone else while he was gone, too. I didn't find out until recently that they had been friends.
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[She waves her hand, sending a little flicks of water dripping from her fingertips. Being dead, that's easy to get over, she thinks. But loving someone else...] So you thought he was gone, you moved on, and you started dating his friend.
Now, is he bothered by this? Or are you just feeling guilty for yourself?
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[Which means it's the latter— but she should tell him. She doesn't even think he'll be upset, necessarily. It only makes sense that she couldn't wait around forever, but some part of her feels like she should have.]
I'm not planning to keep any of this from him, it just... hasn't come up. There's been a lot of catching up to do. I don't want to heap too much on him at once. The fact that he's here is a lot to handle all on its own.
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