spellbinders | [WORLD ONE | SEPTEMBER INTRO LOG]

[WORLD ONE | SEPTEMBER INTRO LOG]

Who: The new coven members, old blood & Palai people
Where: In and around the city land of Aimintas
When: Day 61
Open/Closed: Open to All

The initial setting information found here should be utilized for threads here.

There's no official OOC account for the Palai people. You're free to roleplay their actions and reactions on your own, as in depth as you want -- asking questions, hand-waved interactions, becoming best friends. The new world is your oyster!

All characters are told briefly what their powers are by Genette -- no extemporaneous details. For instance, if your character has the ability to detect lies, they'll be told as such -- no warning about limitations, repurcussions or the like. They'll also be given a variant of this letter so they aren't totally ignorant of the situation -- though of course adapt this letter to the current setting and surroundings of the game.

This setting may be familiar to you -- maybe you caught a glimpse of it when you first visited. Maybe this is your first time experiencing this weird world and the panic is setting in. If you're totally lost, a tall human woman with a long scroll of paper will stop by to give you the run down. She'll also give you a letter, which may give you more questions than answers since the information is a wee out of date. (Maybe someone else can fill in some gaps for you).

What you may not know is that this world recently experienced something of a tragedy. You wouldn't be able to guess this based on the festive energy in the air. The main marketplace where you've shown up finished reconstruction last night, and after grief comes joy to the Palai -- those lizard creatures you see wandering around. They're now hosting a festival to celebrate their success and the lives of those both still present and those lost.

It's also a chance for them to host one of those big celebrations like they'd previously seen in human books. However, their resources are limited -- don't blame them if things are a little cut-and-paste!

Shrimp Scoop: Live prawns have been placed in a tank of water. Instead of paper scoops, players are handed small scraps of cloth which they may then dive into the six-foot tall tank to try and grab the prawns with -- no hands! And no magic or your prawn will be revoked. For extra incentive, sacks of golden coins have been tied to the prawns. These coins can be exchanged for goods and prizes, though what your character receives for their coin -- no matter how bland or wacky -- is up to your character.
Shrimp Shock: Dead shrimp have been placed in a wading pool. Your character and another character enter the pool while Elto shock the shrimp out of the water. With about 20 shrimp in the water, the character with the most shrimps caught out of the air wins an allotment of coins.
Whack-a-Shrimp: Eltos have powered six large, stuffed shrimp dolls (made with cloth), that will pop out of cut holes in a large game board. Hit the shrimp as many times as you can in 30 seconds, and your number will amount to the coins you receive.
Shrimp Fest: Is your character a big eater? Your character is given a plate of cooked jumbo prawns. If they can eat all 50 jumbo prawns in 30 seconds, they win 100 coins.

B ▢ What good is a festival if there's no face painting? Don't worry, you have more options than shrimp. Palai have an assortment of paints and are making colourful designs on both their kin and coven members -- your request may not look exactly as you want it to since they have bumpy hands and claws that get in the way.

This is all pretty juvenile, but fear not! For the mature sort and adults of Aimintas, there's a more quiet part set up that may cater to your older interests. A softer atmosphere, away from the excitement of things. If you want to wind down from the thrill of being magicked away to a new world, this is probably the best way for it.

pretty

For the real adult experience, however, you may want to check out the large rolling cart that Palai are pushing around the marketplace, landing it in the fireworks area. This cart is filled with all of the eggs that were a product of their mating season, and this part of Aimintas is the warmest.

E ▢ For newbies and those who missed the egg train, your character can instead be Egg Parent for a Night. The Palai are holding their eggs to warm them for the evening, but (like most parents with new babies) they're certainly trying to show off their creations. Hold them, pass them around -- or maybe even act a fool and fend off a fiercely angry Palai parent.

Finally, the Palai are getting used to the standard familiar faces, so they aren't unaware that there are quite a few new faces in the mix. Based on how familiar your character is, they'll receive a nice little gift from the Palai. Older coven members will receive a scrolled parchment that lists them as honorary citizens of Aimintas and a handmade, harden clay sculpture of their likeness. It may not look a lot like them, but they tried.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ archer likes the roof of the palai city. not because of the view, which is weird, but because the palai are so used to death from above that they don't frequent up here. its nice to have the quiet, especially when he's been having near constant headaches the entire time he's been here from insufficient mana funds.

he can even nap up here, undisturbed. most of the time. guess this just isn't one of those times.

he recognizes lancer's signature a moment too late, but its familiar in the way none of the other servants have been — even with their proposed familiarity, he doesn't know them like he knows this one. archer opens his eyes to see the other servant standing over him, ]

Lancer. [ he doesn't even get up from where he's sitting leaned against a chimney, but he sits up a little, kicks one foot up so he can lean on the bend of his knee and give lancer a once over. ]

You're looking more alive than I expected you would.

[ sorry baby gundam, you might be orphaned a second time.

on the other hand, archer doesn't look as alive as he was when they last parted either. two days are his limit, normally, but here he is that and a month later. tired, injuries still only superficially healed with fresh scars, armor frayed in the way only a damaged spirit core can cause, and essentially crippled in terms of combat capabilities, but definitely still kicking. kind of. ]

[ it was his lot in life to be standing before an enemy without the gae bolg- or at least, someone that had once been an enemy. that line was blurry and right now, and lancer wasn't certain where to put the servant archer in his mind. friend or foe- there was certainly a lingering sense of distaste that lancer felt when he looked at archer, who seemed to be falling apart at the edges, and observation he made without comment. but in the moment, archer was neither truly 'enemy' or 'ally'. he finally put the question aside; it was something that could always be decided later. he shrugged. ]

Heh, believe me. You're no more surprised than I am.

[ lancer raised a brow as he looked down at archer. the other servant truly did look like hell. he shook his head after a brief pause. ]

Not to worry, though. If you're expecting a fight, I'll be disappointing you.

[ it galled him to admit, but admit it he did. whether archer would be relieved or not didn't enter his mind, nor did any disadvantage he may have given himself. it was just a fact he felt he should state. the gae bolg had been taken, but he had been given some other magic- a magic that didn't really seem particularly appealing in the wake of that loss -in return. he liked to think of it more as a price for his revival. at least in that, it almost seemed justified. ]

It sure was a hell of a price they made me pay. But what of you, Archer? Would you like to give it another go?

[ let's get this over with, he was saying. ]

[ every time he'd encountered lancer in fuyuki, that spear was in hand. a physical symbol of the child of light's pride as a warrior, beaten and forged from a monster of the deep into a piece of art, shaped with precision with a single goal in mind. the fact that lancer is appearing before him now, without it, makes him appear incomplete in archer's eyes.

archer can't know anything for sure, but his shroud was taken from him, for it is all he had. what earthly possessions would a spirit like lancer have for the witch to take? not much, and silver still glints in his ears. he can guess, with reasonable certainty that he knows the answer. ]

You've already said you'd disappoint me, so I see no reason to bother.

[ and, it is a little disappointing. lancer is undeniably good with his spear. but he wishes to remain alive (he thinks, maybe, perhaps, for now at least) and a dog that's been muzzled is marginally safer than one that isn't. ]

[ lancer shouldn't have expected anything other than that type of response. he narrowed his eyes down at archer but, rather than do anything, simply shrugged and sighed. ]

Perhaps it's both our lucky day, then.

[ except it wasn't, at all. but again, this was only lancer's luck. he'd just have to deal with it for now and hope that in the future, he could regain the gae bolg- or a suitable replacement. not that anything could truly replace it, but there was no chance lancer would go about for longer than he had to without a weapon in his possession. he wouldn't be worthy of the title 'lancer' if that was so.

anyway, lancer could easily leave now, but his feet remained firmly planted on the roof. why not? he had plenty of time to explore later and, as much of a bastard archer was, lancer could still put up with his company. ]

So tell me, Archer. What have you been up to here? I'm guessing you've been here longer than I.

Up here? Trying to sleep, until you decided to show up.

[ you ass, you know that's not what lancer was talking about. yet here he is saying it anyway. ]

Don't tell me you're tired of doing reconnaissance already. It's been what, less than a day?

Did I say that?

[ where was the gae bolg so he could just. poke archer with it.

possibly stab, but mostly poke. ]

I never thought you'd be so lazy. [ considering how willing archer had been to stir up trouble in the past. ] I suppose that's what happens when you have nothing to fight.

The last Servant standing wins the Grail War, don't they? I've earned the break.

[ and without a grail's compulsion to fight, what reason do they have anyway? he doesn't want to fight.

despite all evidence to the contrary. ]

[ . . . ]

Huh? You won?

There certainly wasn't anyone else left alive to. [ because, also. a sacrifice can't win the war anyways ]

[ there was a long, long silence before suddenly-

lancer started to laugh. ]

Ah, geeze. This is what I get for dying, eh?

[ what on earth does that mean? don't worry about it. lancer eventually shrugged and shook his head. ]

I suppose that's it, then. I just hope your old master managed to make it out of there after everything I did. [ and yeah, he also secretly hoped she managed to kick some shape into archer, but with the way he looked now... there were too many questions. damn. forgetting would almost be better than this. ]

[ archer looks up, watching lancer laugh in silence, before he relents, leans back against the wall again with a shrug. ]

She did, despite her best efforts to put herself at risk.

[ doing heroic shit like saving shinji matou's ass. the sigh he lets out is resigned, half relieved, over something that happened an entire month ago — but the tiny smile on his mouth as he looks out over the off green sea-sky is genuine. he recovered enough from the end of that grail war to have some bite, but he's too tired to hide the fondness for rin he has, despite his own shit decisions.]

[ it was probably for the better that lancer couldn't see that expression, seeing as it conflicted so much with the archer he had encountered in the past. betraying her made it difficult for him to believe that archer cared for her well-being in the least, but at least he did give an answer.

should lancer believe him? maybe not. but he did. ]

That's good.

[ better than the alternative, at least. ]

Well, maybe next time I'll get what I want.

...Right. Did you get what you wanted, Archer? [ lancer shouldn't really care, after what he had seen, but asked anyway. ]

[ he had to ask. god dammit. archer scoffs, looking away, all trace of that smile from before gone and dead. ]

Don't pin your wish on that thing they call a Grail. It was never meant for Servants to begin with.

[ a tidy, contained swerve away from answering any questions about what he wants — wanted? whatever it is — and all that he failed at, the sins he committed in the pursuit of that failure. he doesn't even know what he wants. he can't undo it, he can't (shouldn't) be ashamed of what he was, but. where does he go from here? ]

[ it wasn't as though lancer was particularly big on having a wish for the grail, in fact what he wanted was more of a simple 'desire' than wish. simply existing as a servant was enough to fulfill it. but- ]

Really? Now you've got me curious.

[ now was archer going to explain or just leave him hanging? ]

Not that I had much of a wish to begin with, though.

[ he waves his hand at the air, ambiguous. ]

The ritual that the mages built for the war — it requires certain things to manifest the Grail. The heart of Illyasviel von Einzbern as its core, a container with magic circuits to inhabit, more than a handful of valuable sacrifices...

[ do the math. why else does the grail never show up until more than half of them are dead? ]

[ ah. now what kotomine had planned to do with rin made even more sense.

at least he managed to kill the bastard. ]

That seems like exactly the sort of thing a mage would come up with.

[ ...as a simple way to put it. he knew he was oversimplifying the matter but, well. it wasn't like lancer to sit and fret about the injustice of it all. not for long, anyway. ]

But it sounds like no one managed to summon it. Or am I wrong?

[ don't remind him of the fate he sold rin off to, he spends too much time thinking about it already. ]

It wasn't completed, but... with you dead there were enough Servants to start the process, yes.

[ a beat, and archer goes to stand, tired of sitting and looking up at lancer. ]

You can thank Kotomine's Archer for that.

It was a Servant? Not a mage?

[ well- that's right. there weren't many 'mages' left to complete the ritual, and he didn't think shirou or rin would be keen on it.

but, kotomine's archer... the 'how' was an obvious question, but with kotomine involved, it seemed possible. ]

Looks like I really did have the worst Master. Heh, at least it didn't work out in the end.

Gilgamesh. Left over from the fourth war, and he used his own Master for the vessel to boot.

[ standing next to lancer, archer looks out over the city and massages at the building headache behind his temples. its like opening floodgates, and he just cant stop himself from talking. ]

And then Rin had to go and be heroic to save his ass instead of just destroying it with Saber at the start.

That kid, huh...?

[ well then. ]

Yeah, that sounds just like her.

[ which, while archer saw it as a bad thing, lancer found it admirable. and he wasn't exactly sure what to think of archer opening up like that but he didn't have it in mind to stop him. archer was his enemy, and even now he didn't like him, but it was interesting. ]

Guess I should have killed him when I had the chance.

Edited 2017-09-28 20:20 (UTC)

Probably.

[ of course, an open floodgate means nothing if there's no path for the water to travel on. ]

But the Grail is gone, Gilgamesh is dead with it, and we're here now — so it hardly matters.

[ except that, no, it still does, because so much of the situation was his fault for happening that way. the tiny redeeming moments solidified into a rain of arrows and a single bolt in the middle of a skull. ]

That's true.

[ otherwise, well- no, it didn't matter. he didn't have the means (well, not the means he'd rather have) or the reason to fight. and they already crossed that bridge a while ago. being able to talk about the past battle at all meant lancer could leave it behind, as well. ]

Heh, it's odd. I don't think I've ever lived without a war to fight. [ lancer shrugged. ] Guess I'll have to get used to this.

Shame you just missed the invasion.

[ there's the answer: he's been here long enough that he witnessed that. ]

I imagine you of all people wouldn't have been too troubled by fighting unarmed.

[ S H A D E. ]

[ god dammit archer. ]

Invasion? [ yes, he was parroting this back at him. also, that was rude. he's not the same kid he used to be. ]

I'd be more troubled than you think. Unlike you, I like to stay true to my name. [ just give him a fucking stick he can sharpen to a point or something. stop calling him out. ]

Invasion. [ parrot all you want he's not going to be helpful in return.

n_n ]

That sort of attitude won't get you anywhere, Lancer. I might have been willing to help remedy the problem otherwise.

[ false, he hadn't intended to do anything, but. now that he mentions it... he does know all he needs know about the gae bolg... ]

Edited 2017-09-29 01:35 (UTC)

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