NOVEMBER EVENT | THE HARBINGER ORACLE

[beleos]

HEDGING YOUR BETS

Bearers feel it. Similar to when the Scorching Isles was opened, there is the same tug, from somewhere in the distance. Those who are in springstar feel it from closer, like a blossom of warmth in your heart, you feel the Oracle spring to life. Those in Highstorm feel it too, but distant. Far away. You remember Cyrus’s words, that it would come to life in Springstar, and you know, just from the relative distance, from how far away it feels – He was probably right.

So bearers must make their way to the center of Springstar’s residential district. Finding one’s way to Springstar will be difficult, in fact. Preparations have been underway since Cyrus’s announcement, and Springstar leaps into action. The Legionnaires are already marching by the time the first bearers start moving throughout the city. In addition to any of Meridian’s own preparations, the Legionnaires establish choke points and start organizing evacuations. It will be difficult to make your way through Springstar, but the closer bearers make it to the hedge maze, and what seems to be the oracle at the center, the warmer their chests feel. Throughout the city, it feels warm, like small wicks of heat. The closer bearers become, the more it feels like a torrent. It is burning them to their center and igniting them to their cores. Like the fire of drive, is what it feels like. Like the hunger for something more than just food, or anything else, like the anticipation of victory.

The maze itself is where it is the most intense as bearers start to make their way through the hedge maze. Vines and brambles lie within a neat hedge, and it looks like it is safe to jump, or scale, but the moment a bearer tries to jump it, cut through it, or even go beneath it, roots, brambles, and vines lash out to entrap bearers, and start to drag them down and into the hedges. You will have to figure out a way out – lest you be stuck for seemingly the near future.

Of course, when Dimitri’s hand touches the stone statue in the middle, it all goes dark, and wherever you were, whoever you were fighting –

Every bearer collapses at the same time.

YOU'D BETTER BE A-MAZE-ING!

In the dark, there is that fiery impression of the Harbinger. Competition, drive, disdain for even those that best them. It is clear, in the dark, with your eyes closed, that the Harbinger does not see the Bearers as worthy to obtain it. You feel ghostly hands on your mind, into you, as if it is delving for more, trying to pluck and pull out the right memory. It looks for victories, triumphs, defeats, or betrayals. Something that shows the mettle of the bearer, what it is looking for. When it finds what it is looking for – or is this just a dream? – after the bearer experiences the dream, they will get the distinct impression that it is not enough. That the Harbinger wants more. It wants to see what this bearer can do. It wants to see you rise to the challenge, bearer! Will you do as it wishes, and show it the scope of your mettle, or will you capitulate and let the Harbinger know that it was right – you aren’t enough?

The Harbinger wants you to prove them wrong. Can you do that? Will you use spite to convince it that it is wrong? The Harbinger at the center of this labyrinth imparts to bearers, that it will not allow the weak to succeed, that nobody who cannot reach it, would ever be able to protect them. They look down on bearers, and it is up to you, to convince them that you are worth their attention.

When bearers wake, they will be stuck in a foyer. The walls seem blank, and there is a door, leading further into the maze. It is not… fully dark, everything here seems to be lit just enough to move around without trouble, but it is not bright. Bearers can look left, and right, and see others beside them. They are not alone, but nor are they with others of their faction. No, you can feel it, between all of you, gathered here in one space. The humming of your shared aspect fills the room, as if all of you together in one space feels right.

You will not be able to stay. The foyer lasts only until the last person leaves, and if any try to stay behind and stationary, they will find that eventually a door appears, and the room begins to shrink. You had better get moving!

You must move further into the maze. You will find that grouping up for long periods of time becomes impossible, and moving from one door to the next can find foes, allies, or even neutral parties. Every door you open within this maze, leads to new and unusual locations. You may both walk in, from opposite ends, only to find that the doors are gone when you turn your back. Do you end up on a precarious path over spikes, lava, or even water? Do you walk into a room with your greatest desire, a hunger that can now never be sated? Will you do anything to find your way through the corridors? Will bearers help each other, and resist the call of the Harbinger, or will you push over even your treasured ones to win?

MADE IN THE SHADE

And even further in, as you start to catch sight of them, patches of darkness seep into the corners, into everything. They may be hidden, at first. They may lurk underneath patches of leaves, or in shadowed corners. But the longer bearers are within this labyrinth, the longer the shadows seem. They start to reach out, to pull bearers into their shadowy depths. You may feel malaise, or an unwillingness to continue, once you first step within these patches. The longer you are there, the harder it is to get out. You will need help from your friends or dear ones, or sheer strength of will – but can you fight on, as you start to lose the things that motivate you?

And then there are the visions. People you know, love, or trust, they round corners, just ahead. They seem just out of range, and at first, it is difficult to tell if they are there or not. But they happen to reappear, and then disappear around a corner. Try and chase them, if you dare. When your fingers touch their arm, or grab their clothing, or heaven forbid, if you pull them into a hug – it seems impossible to pull away. They were treasured, weren’t they? There is a reason they appear here, to you. Why would you want to pull them away? Why would you –

They reach out, their fingers seem long, as they reach toward your shard – they will not be deterred by clothing or armor, their fingers seem to bend and twist around the junctions – before they find purchase on your shard. They rip it from you, and it feels like you are being separated from something. It’s painful, it hurts, but the last thing you see, as they hold your shard in your hand, is someone you care very deeply for, placing the shard in the same place on their own body, and your own face smiles back at you, and it all goes black. You are gone. Into… nothing.

NOTES

Here are some prompts to set the scene and foundation of the Exalt Oracle! Please refer to the ooc post for more details about what’s happening in the labyrinth! Feel free to direct questions here.

If your character gets killed by a shadow-copy, please let us know in the reporting post that goes up on November 20th if they touch the effigy. If they do not, please let us know on the deaths page! Don't forget to report any dissipations as a whole! Please also let us know if your character is saved by another bearer, or if your character’s shard is taken by the shadow copy for the entire duration of the event. This will not result in any permadeath, but you might get some cool lore! Teehee! If your character defeats a shadow creature, please let us know [HERE]

Comments

[settingup]

[ Whatever is going through Rin's head right now is entirely beyond Atsumu's ability to guess. The last conversation they had didn't exactly end on a good note, and he wasn't completely over it himself, but they were still on the same side here.

Surely they could shove aside a squabble to move forward? Atsumu's surprisingly good at that when it becomes important.

It's why even though he's still prickling here, he tries for a joke to ease the tension. ]

Well that ain't an ominous greetin' or anything.

[erbe]

[She can feel it — or perhaps it's in her head — the Harbinger Oracle calling for her to do better. Its disappointment in her, as one of its own, weighing heavy on her heart. The severity of it almost like that of her father's expectations.

She embarrassed herself in Hunger. Showed weakness in Heartache. Rin has been nothing but a fool. Overburdened by desire, overburdened by a false sense of duty or obligation, chained by her worthless "real" self... She must shed it. Like a useless winter coat as one steps fully into spring.]

Ready yourself. You are about to receive another lesson.

[She will give to this room what it asks of her. Rin will rise to the occasion and leave no question to her ability to see things through. With each determined inner affirmation, she steps forward. Closing the distance between herself and her unfortunate pupil.]

[settingup]

[ Even if Rin and Atsumu had attempted to stick together during all of this, they would have soon been separated. There's an irony in how much the Harbinger thrives in competition and strength of will, two things that Atsumu embraces wholeheartedly, but rejects most cooperation, something that actually grates against Atsumu's own way of doing things. For as obnoxious and as difficult as Atsumu often behaves, at the end of the day he is an incredible team player.

But cooperation doesn't look to be what Rin is aiming for right now.

Last month after punching out a mirror, Amos had changed abruptly, yelling some seeming nonsense at Atsumu before charging at him and trying to rip him to pieces. Right now Rin doesn't seem anywhere near as far gone as Amos did in that moment, but something about her demeanor has the hair on his arms raising as he takes a step back. They haven't had particularly heartwarming interactions lately, but the kind of huffy anger she should display towards him is different than whatever is happening right now. ]

What're you talkin' about?

[erbe]

[Atsumu's minor retreat, that small step back, is like blood in the water. She savors it, and as she continues to gain on him a part of her hopes to see more of it. Yes, be afraid. Recognize her might and cower before it. Another part wishes he would stand his ground — to show Rin what he's capable of and that she taught him well.

Either way, there is going to be a world of hurt in store. Her gait and the way she squares her shoulders show strength; confidence. She knows what she has to do. Rin's well cared for hands ball into fists. While her skin may be soft the muscle in her arms won't go easy on her self-declared opponent.]

How have you survived this long? Out of luck? Cleverness? Help from others? Today you will learn the necessity of diversifying your skills.

[It is then that she pulls back to give him a right hook to the jaw.]

[settingup]

[ It's sad that Rin's finally implying he is clever, but not without a heaping amount of ripping him down first. It's true enough though. The fact that he has survived as long as he has in this world is thanks in large part to all of those things. He's been smart about skirting around danger he knows he can't handle, or at least he was at first. He was lucky as hell long before this too, growing up in a world far better than most of the ones people have come from. There's also been a number of saves from both Zenites and Meris.

But he doesn't like any of the accusations here.

Not that he gets to voice that, as her fist cracks across his jaw harder than any of the punches his brother ever sent his way, and considering Osamu wasn't known to hold back that's saying something.

Atsumu reels back, his eyes tearing up as he grabs at his smarting jaw. It hurts to move it right now, but that doesn't stop him from spitting out a quick-- ]

What the hell?!

[ Not wasting any more time to move away from her in a vain attempt to avoid another swing. ]

[erbe]

Or perhaps when I am not looking, you beg? Do you grovel for your life in situations like these?

[The martial arts she knows works best in close quarters. So when he scrambles away she paces after him. He can run and scramble all he likes, but they're stuck in this room together. And she will be the persistence predator of his nightmares if he doesn't stick up for himself.

The next time she's able to get close, Rin shifts her footing and aims to strike at his chest with a powerful elbow blow.]

[settingup]

[ The pain that's radiating from his jaw hurts like hell, but Atsumu has never been particularly hard to goad into anger. The words cut the same way that her telling him that he wasn't smart did. There's a specific kind of sting that comes from someone whose opinion matters to you telling you what they really think.

Rin think Atsumu is a dumb coward, and the realization has him faltering in his scrambling, the shock hitting almost as hard as her blows.

Almost. Though when that chest strike comes, something in his chest feels wrong as he falls to the ground with a wheeze, unable to get the words out to protest as he flips over onto his stomach to weakly try and push himself back to his feet despite the aching pain in his ribs. ]

[erbe]

Disappointing.

[As he tries propping himself back up in an attempt to push to his feet, Rin kicks him. Her foot colliding with his side with enough force to at least make him lurch in the direction she punts him at.]

I thought maybe you'd put up a better fight. That you'd at least have something in you worth showing.

[If he's still facing stomach to the floor she'll grind her heel to the back of his head. If not? Well, his stomach will do just fine.]

[settingup]

[ Maybe that's fair. He hasn't put up a fight at all.

Though it's not like she's giving him a fighting chance either. When she kicks him he collapses back on the floor with a wheeze. He's not being allowed to scramble to his feet, to take a swing in the first place, and he's not sure he really wants to.

It's not like he doubts that Rin can do. She's made sure in her agitation with him to show him she's physically capable plenty of times before after all. It's more that he wants to believe that if he wanted to, if he really put his mind too it, he could at least hurt her back if nothing else...

... And he absolutely doesn't want to put his mind to that. He saw how messed up Amos got just last month during their scuffle, and while most of Amos struggle seemed to be from the emotional toil of attacking Atsumu rather than the damage Atsumu did, it hadn't felt great after the fact to realize he'd added injury to the insult. He didn't want to do that to Rin either.

Even if she was making it really, really damn hard to keep that up with each word that passed through his lip. He opens his mouth to protest again, only to have his face shoved into the floor, his teeth cutting into his lip as he lets out a startled sound while her heel drags against the back of his head.

It's enough. It's too much.

Atsumu scrunches his eyes closed and lets out a wild blast of wind, intending to shove her back and give himself space for a moment so he can actually try and get back to his feet at least. ]

[erbe]

[The gust of air throws her back significantly. It was unexpected, but she tumbles through the motion rather than fighting it. The momentum is utilized to help her roll back onto her feet, and when her hair is pushed from her face Rin has a smile.]

That's more like it. Are you ready, my little apprentice? Or are you still determined to show that you've learned nothing?

[Her stance lowers — knees bent slightly so she can put power into any move that might come next.]

[settingup]

[ When Atsumu finally manages to clamber back to this feet, his face is a mess of blood. It’s hard to tell which part of him is actually bleeding, when the entire thing hurts right now, but she’s definitely managed to cut something open when she ground his face into the floor with her foot. His body aches, and his vision swims, and he should have ever reason to go wildly attack her.

But he doesn’t as he stumbles and sways trying to find his footing. He can see well enough to see she’s braced for an attack, and he also still thinking clearly enough to know that even if he wasn’t already messed up and woozy, it’d take a lucky shot to actually be able to get the best of her given the difference in their training.

This was even before he was aware that Rin apparently had some hand-to-hand combat training, because those moves are just wildly swinging fists the way Atsumu has in scrapes with his brother. ]

Cut the shit! What the hell’re you doin’, Rin?!

[ Apparently he’s still very much intending to show he’s learned nothing. ]

[erbe]

[Disappointment is clear on her face when he questions her.]

Isn't it obvious? The Oracle requests Domination, Atsumu, and one of us needs to come out on top. I have no intention on losing to you, but I was hoping you'd be a better sport. At the very least I'll let you gather yourself for a little bit more before finishing you off. How does that sound?

[settingup]

[ When Amos attacked Atsumu last month his words had come out as a nearly incomprehensible ramble. He'd been angry at Atsumu, and Atsumu couldn't begin to understand why. Something about the way the mirror had punctured into him had done something to his mind.

Well, with the Oracle at play, it was entirely possible the same thing was happening to Rin right now too, but she was so coherent, so calm in how she explained herself.

It left some doubt about whether or not the Oracle was making her lash out violently, or whether she was just going as far as she needed in order to acquiesce to its demands. And if it was the latter...

How much of what she said did she actually mean? Why in the world was she grinding his face into the floor instead of just trying to knock him out?

His expression twists up, looking confused and upset even as he steps back, trying to keep his arms up now in case she decides to dart in again. ]

It sounds like a horrible plan! We're on the same side here!

[ And they're supposed to be friends...... ]

[erbe]

Doesn't that make for a greater offering? The Oracle demands that "everyone is for themselves". Needing help and assistance is weak. To be willing to stand up against even those you trust... doesn't that show the Oracle you embody exactly what you are? I thought you'd get it. What kind of Harbinger are you?

[This is tiresome. She has given him enough time to recover. Tohsaka begins taking deliberate, measured steps to close the distance between them. Like a death-march.]

[settingup]

[ In a lot of ways Rin probably does better embody the ideals of the Harbinger so much better than Atsumu does. All of Atsumu's efforts, everything he aims and strives for, that's because of his hard work and determination. No one else gets to take credit for that, and no one else gets to make up his mind for him.

No one including the spirit of the Harbinger. ]

Who gives a shit what kind I am? I don't care about some standard a creepy magical force wants me to live up to!

[ He's quick to move now, eyes on her as he sidesteps away, trying to keep the distance she's attempting to close. ]

And what the fuck kinda bullshit is that anyway?!

[ He pitches his voice higher in a poor imitation of Rin. ]

"Needing help and assistance is weak". That's such a load of bull! Human's ain't solitary creatures. We all get where we are with help. If you don't wanna be weak, you gotta be the one doin' most of the helpin' then! The strong are the ones that people rely on the most!

[ And maybe that was the core of why he wasn't a particularly good Harbinger too. He valued himself as a person, he valued his own skills and abilities, and what he brought to the table, hell he even struggled sometimes to find the need in being liked by the people around him.

But for a long time now he'd been needed in some way. He had skills that had people tolerating him even if they didn't like him, and in his eyes that was a kind of power in and of itself. To be so important in some way or another because of your own earned strength that people couldn't get rid of you even if your rotten personality made them want to.

He wasn't about to let the Harbinger call him weak, and he wasn't about to let Rin under the Harbinger's influence do it either, so he took his first steps into the air, leaping up quickly out of her immediately reach as he casts a glance around for something in this room that might be causing Rin's current beat 'em up mindset. For Amos it had been a mirror, but nothing stood out to him as the obvious source of the problem here. ]

[erbe]

Is that right? Do you suppose everyone thinks like you? If we are to lose the Oracle it will be because of people like you who are unwilling to do what it takes. Be glad you're not a true mage, Atsumu. You'd be incapable of surviving.

[It wouldn't be until she joined the Lord El-Melloi II class of Modern Magecraft theory that such a view would change in her. But as their worlds have been snuffed out (or at least so she believes), it may be a view that never shifts.

Atsumu takes off into the air. Displeased, Rin follows him with her gaze. After taking a few more steps closer to him, she says flatly:]

Anfang.

[Her circuits flip on and mana begins coursing through her body. The gandr spell begins forming a magical bullet at the tip of her finger. If he's using magic to get away from her, she'll use magecraft to take him down. Rin lifts her hand, and aims.]

You better come for me before I come for you.

[settingup]

[ When Rin had first pitched the idea of learning magic to him, Atsumu didn't have a clue that every little thing he learned about the magic users in her world was going to make him sick to his stomach. When he's first been given a taste of it, allowed to do magic on his own, it had been during a brief apprenticeship to the wizard Howl, before his soul became untethered from this world. The magic he'd been shown had been exciting and wonderous, almost spontaneous and whimsical in its nature.

The brand of magic that Rin knows is not that. It's tedious to learn, and difficult to control. It takes hours upon hours upon hours to nail out the small details of things, and a lot of determination and willpower to get correct in a way that doesn't result in harm or injury to your surroundings or self.

But it was a kind of magic that worked well for a stubborn asshole like Atsumu, who would grind away at things he wanted to get good at obsessively, until he finally mastered it. He was the exact kind of person to take delight in learning to pull off a skill that was difficult for other people, and prided himself on the amount of work he put into perfecting something. The magic that Rin had offered him suited his personality to a T.

But the politics behind the magic sure as hell didn't, and he got the feeling Rin still held back plenty of information. ]

Like I give a fuck what everyone else thinks like, or if I'd make a good mage from your world or not. I ain't in your world, and I'm gonna do things my way.

[ Which is a bold claim to make when he's using the magic she taught him.

Well... mostly using it. Right now this skill is Atsumu's and Atsumu's alone as he darts through the air, running quick and messy calculations in his head as to if she's actually going to hit him or not, and trying to decide how to move in order to avoid it. A well timed blast of wind should rocket him in whatever direction he wants out of the way of her blast.

It's making it hard to look for whatever he thinks he needs to destroy in order to bring her back to her senses, but he can't exactly take his eyes off of her right now if Rin is going to try and literally shoot him out of the air. ]