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Entry tags:
- !event,
- arcane: silco,
- arknights: gavial,
- black butler: sebastian michaelis,
- divinity original sin: fane,
- elder scrolls (the): voryn dagoth,
- expanse (the): amos burton,
- fate/: gray,
- fate/: quetzalcoatl,
- fate/: rin tohsaka,
- final fantasy xiv: cid garlond,
- fire emblem: byleth eisner,
- fire emblem: claude von riegan,
- fire emblem: dimitri a. blaiddyd,
- fire emblem: shez,
- fire emblem: yuri leclerc,
- forgotten realms: raphael,
- genshin impact: tartaglia (childe),
- granblue fantasy: eustace,
- haikyuu!!: atsumu miya,
- htwmho: rudbeckia de borgia,
- jinba: hayame,
- legend of zelda (the): link,
- legend of zelda (the): midna,
- locked tomb (the): john gaius,
- marvel: nebula,
- oc: liem talbott,
- practical guide to evil: akua sahelian,
- reverse 1999: regulus,
- vampire hunter d: d,
- zone-00: kiritsubo
NOVEMBER EVENT | THE HARBINGER ORACLE
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.
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?
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.
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]
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]
what the ♥ wants
But the hunger keeps gnawing at her belly. It is knowing that it shouldn't, in some part of her, that gradually snaps her out of her somewhat trance-like devotion to the search for satisfaction. From there, she must find the door, some way out...
She finds Minegishi Gen instead. Ah. The boy from the blacksmith's in Springstar, whose potential she had already「seen」on his flesh. Approaching on silent, bare footsteps completely unashamed of her nakedness, of her disheveled hair, of the light sheen of sweat on her skin, Kiritsubo approaches the young man where he sits transfixed in front of the crystal screen, not looking away, not noticing his surroundings...
Her fingertips brush through his hair.]
Good morning, boy...
no subject
It's why he doesn't notice Kiritsubo rounding the crystal to draw close, and it's why he gives a startled flinch when he feels those fingertips carding through his hair. ]
... oh. It's you.
[ Recognition comes after a moment's delay, expressed in the form of a slow blink and a small frown. And though Gen isn't exactly conscious of it, he subtly shifts the way he's sitting, angling his body to more firmly place himself between Kiritsubo and the softly-glowing image flickering on the crystal's surface.
He wouldn't be able to verbalize why he does that, not with the fuzzy, addled state his brain is in. But somewhere deep in his guts, he just knows that that and this (what exactly is 'this?') are things he doesn't want commingling. ]
What d'you want.
no subject
Mmmm. It's me.
[He shifts, he guards his flickering little images... but she just continues to idly stroke his hair as she considers the situation. As long as she is allowed to, at least, if he does not flinch away. What does she want? That sure is a question. One she won't be answering, and certainly not to him, certainly not when he isn't even paying proper attention. Since he is staring at his crystal, the fingers of her other hand stroke gently, tenderly, over the crimson peony tattoo over her womb, humming softly under breath.
For now, she does not move between him and the images, though she immediately identifies it as an option. Oh, she had hungered in this room, but...]
I am bored of this place... I will never be full here...
[She should have been sated by now, and still she burned, long after that itch should have been well and scratched. She did not appreciate that. The entire point of the urge was to satisfy it, and if she could not reach that end...]
Are you coming?
no subject
Gen's expression remains bleary and distant even when he half-turned to look at Kiritsubo over his shoulder, gaze half-lidded and unfocused in the way that a person struggling to think through a fever often looks. But even if his mind is still struggling through a drunken haze, fixated so deeply on the crystal's images that he feels detached from his body -- his gut instincts are still intact.
The gentle stroke of fingers through her hair. The cadence of her voice. The faint scent that she carries on her skin. -- those sensations all combine to bring a specific person to mind. And in response, Gen's skin raises with goosebumps, the short hairs that line his canine ears rising to stand on end. A reaction born of equal parts ingrained fear and distaste, because somewhere deep inside he knows that the person before him, and the person he's being reminded of must not encroach upon his time with the crystal.
And even so -- ]
... where're we going?
[ It's mumbled a little reluctantly, Gen's gaze dipping away briefly. Despite his bulk and his usual presentation, his demeanor in this moment is more reminiscent of a child being told to come home by curfew; a youthful blend of obedience and selfish desire.
He'd looked up to her, after all. Had mostly listened to her kind advice and guidance. And the brush of fingers through his hair feels nice, making his nerves prickle. That's a good thing, right? ]
no subject
Mundane. Normal. Happy.
But it is a lie. It had been true once, of course. But it wasn't any longer. Now, it is an idealized memory of something already lived, that cannot be returned to. Time moves on... But in this room- ?]
Back into the labyrinth.
[Somewhere that young man unfortunately does not exist in that form any longer. However... He did not exist here, truly, either. She is honest, even as her fingers drift to the shell of his ear, tracing gently around the rim.]
There is no true satisfaction to be found in this chamber, I am afraid... Only illusion and temptation.
no subject
[ Even with his brain running two beats slow from the near-hypnotic effects of the crystal, he'd tensed at the mention of the labyrinth -- of a place other than this room. He doesn't want to leave, after all. No place could possibly be better than here, in this room, where he can wallow in those memories that he's hungered for so long. And while it should be a simple matter of letting this intruder leave if she wants ... that doesn't feel right, either. Somehow.
He'd been letting Kiritsubo touch him so far, offering no resistance, but also failing to reciprocate. Now, though, Gen abruptly reaches forward to snag his hand into a fold of her sleeve, the earnestness of the gesture in add contrast to the bluster and swagger he'd shown her during their previous encounter. ]
I'm not leaving. [ That much is said as fact. A pause before he adds, softer: ] You can stay, too.
[ Behind him, the image on the crystal's surface flickers for a moment. Gone are the two young boys, and instead a woman fades into view. Beautiful, gentle-looking, with soft eyes and a faint smile, viewed from below like being seen from the eyes of a child. Between her pale hair and melancholic gaze, her resemblance to the form Kiritsubo wears at the moment is immediately apparent, though ... even as Kiritsubo watches, that images fritzes through with static. Like it, too, is an intruder upon a place it shouldn't be.
A fact that Gen seems blind to as he tugs at her sleeve again, more insistently this time. ]
You don't need to leave.
no subject
Kiritsubo waits. She has no sleeve for him to get purchase on, not here in this place where she wears only skin sweat-damp in her efforts for relief that lead to nothing like permanent satisfaction. But she surrenders her forearm to his fingers, she allows him to grip that and keep her from moving away and leaving him there now that he has announced his intent to stay.
The woman on the screen is beautiful. Not by youkai standards, mind, she was rather unremarkable by those, but in the "eyes" of the "child" that beholds her... She is beautiful, and Kiritsubo observes the flicker of her static silently before turning her eyes back to Gen. For a moment... she truly「looks」for the proof of something on his skin... and hums low in the back of her throat. Not a sound of committing, just yet, but...]
How cruel, to ask me to stay here where I will never truly achieve what I desire...
[Yet she responds to the need, the choice, and the freedom to make it, however tainted, slowly lowering herself into a crouch beside the taller man (boy) now reduced to a huddle.]
How crueler still, to torture yourself with days long past...
[She knows something about that. Unconsciously, her free hand drifts to the crimson peony tattooed over her womb, stroking fondly, sadly as the edge of the petals... before she finishes her movement and folds her legs under her. Gently yet firmly she pries his fingers from her arm, but not to sit apart. She needs those limbs for when she presses up soft and warm against Gen's back, her arms wrapping protectively (?) around his body from behind. Her face finds the curve of neck to shoulder to nuzzle into, and from there...
What a nice view of those visions in the crystal, and that happy, carefree boy. Out of sight of anyone, or so she thinks, Kiritsubo blinks and the bright green eyes of her current transformation disappear, replaced by the deep abyssal black of the eyes of the woman Gen had first met, that day in the streets of Springstar. Those eyes observe now, watching the idyllic scenes of childhood play unfold as her hands splay over his chest. They are so dark that the images basically mirror on their surface, reflected but not quite absorbed.]
- Is「that」what you really want... ?