This month only, if your investigation relates to the subject matter of the event, Rubie will answer them. Since Rubie is running another questline on the side also related to the event, please be patient and keep your investigations short & to the point.
Please use the following form for investigations:
Character(s): Location: Action: What are they looking for? What are they doing?
How crossable is the river, right now? I just realized while typing my toplevel that the triguns might be stuck on the other side if there's no way past the Brand oops
It does, actually! But only for a short amount of time. It is only an undying fire because of the Originium in the fireplace. Without it, the fire will die fairly quickly outside of it.
How fast that is really all depends on what's more fun for you, but if you'd want an average, I'd say roughly it'd burn for about maybe 5 minutes outside of the fireplace?
The river is extremely crossable, actually. It's one of the few places not covered with brand. In fact, it'll be where the Guardians will congregate to stay out of the brand themselves. I'm sure if you look at Moder like 🥺🥺🥺🥺 she'll probably scoop you so you don't get wet, but otherwise. its fine.
[Though the oddity of the sun not yet having risen is not lost on Sesa, he's clocking it up to "time is weird and I just probably woke up early on accident, it's fine", mainly because he doesn't want any weird happenings to interrupt his plans for today. He's heading off to the Therapy Building to hang out and play games with Mizuki, as he tends to do some mornings. He would have spent the night in lieu of a sleepover, but the failed attack on Suri has left him feeling a bit on edge. Too on edge to leave Elliot for that long, so he's making up for it with this.
He walks inside and heads for the main room where the games and TV are all set up, his tail curling in happy arcs behind him as he calls out, his voice echoing a bit.]
Mizuki, my friend! Come out if you aren't busy, I thought we could do some more work on our Minecraft server today!
[He sets an armful of Things on his kotatsu which he dragged in while it was still super cold out, which appear to be snacks that he pilfered from the Inn. Snacks, drinks...
Sesa blinks and stands back upright with his hands on his hips.]
Mizuki?
[He's...pretty sure Mizuki would be here, especially with Elsword's recent return. Especially if it's still early in the morning like Sesa is guessing, there's nowhere else Mizuki could be, and that...
...
He turns, looking back at a still-empty room, suddenly no longer smiling.]
......Mizuki?
B) The Reef is Immortal | The Grove | Open
[When Sesa sees the Brand, he knows something's gone wrong. He doesn't know what exactly or how, just that this isn't the way things should be, and Mizuki's disappearance is only making it all feel worse. Never mind the way his own Seaborn was acting just shortly before this...it makes a lot of sense now why he wasn't letting him sleep. And now, as Sesa carefully picks his way through walkable patches of ground, the Seaborn dog hops ahead of him with tail wagging, even though the atmosphere of the outdoors is anything but pleasant despite the eerie calm.
The plan is to look for Mizuki, but it's pretty immediate that it gets derailed when he sees others wandering out from their homes, others who definitely don't know what Nethersea Brand is or what it does. So, if he sees you getting near it- or even already with your hand on it- he'll suddenly lurch towards you and try to pull you back.]
Stop, don't let it touch you!
[But at some point, Sesa can't avoid the Brand even as much as he tries to. And just like everyone else touched by it, his memories will be laid bear for all who might witness them.
His canon memories include witnessing the arson that took his brother's life, or memories of his life in Sargon.
His past-life memories include growing up in the Grove as a child, or being tasked to assist in the construction of the Grove's various buildings.
(Anything planned can be a "wildcard" so just let me know if you wanna do something specific!)]
C) Elegy of the Outliers | The Inn | Open
[When his search for Mizuki doesn't bear fruit, Sesa finds himself left to wonder what he can even do. Trying to venture deeper into the Brand without a plan would be suicide, and he knows that. He thinks, maybe, a meeting with the other Terrans would be a good call to order, but...
He frets. He sits in a chair by one of the Inn windows, his tail lashing and his claws pulling at the armrest as he stares outside at the Brand reaching across every surface, and Seaborn basically almost everywhere...
If you're in the Inn with Sesa, you might notice that he sits here, staring out there, for a very long time. Like he's transfixed by something.
A) Solitary Voyage | Vash's Cabin (the porch) | Open
[It's the calm before the storm feeling that's made it difficult for Wolfwood to sleep, tonight. He doesn't even really know what time it is, so when he steps out onto the porch for a smoke, he thinks nothing of the fact that it's still dark and the moon is...moon. It's very much a moon tonight. Was it that big the night before? God, he doesn't know.
So he'll smoke for a while, watching the twisting tendrils of smoke waft up into the sky. Maybe he'll just stay up at this point and watch the sunrise, he thinks as he leans forward against the railing.
...but he stands there for what must be an hour. Then another. And nothing. Which...isn't typically in itself too much cause for alarm when time is so fucked here, but Wolfwood is perceptive enough to catch on to the signs that it's worse than the calm makes it out to be. He definitely stands there long enough to watch an owl, bleary with exhaustion because it should be tucking in to sleep in a tree by now, crashes clumsily through low hanging branches in an attempt to land. He also sees what he thinks is a fox pacing the perimeter of the outer edges of the Grove anxiously, as if it doesn't know where to go.
He exhales another long breath, smoke coming with it, and mutters to himself:]
Here we go again.
B) The Reef is Immortal | The Grove | Open
[Wolfwood's knowledge of things from Terra is not enough that he understands yet the gravity of what's going on right now, just that it's definitely something that's been cooked up to make them suffer uniquely, he reckons. He has noticed Mizuki's absence, which is more than a little bit concerning, so he's keeping his eyes peeled for the little guy as he tries to investigate what's going on now that he's determined it's probably day-ish by now.
And, well. There's fucking shit everywhere? About the only place it hasn't completely covered is the river, which is a good thing because it means Wolfwood can actually get across the damn thing. Of course, getting across without getting soaked and then freezing is the main issue...but he can thank Moder for scooping him and gently depositing him on the other side to make sure that doesn't happen. Thank you Moder you're a real one.
Of course though, that won't be enough to save him from the Brand itself beyond the river, and it turns out his prosthetic loves getting tangled up in it even when he's trying to not step on it. He doesn't even know it's bad, but given that it looks all...weird and fleshy? Yeah he's been around the block enough times to know he doesn't want to get near that.
So, when he gets stuck, he'll thoughtlessly reach down to try to rip himself free, first pulling with his hand braced against the good part of his thigh, and when that doesn't work he'll relent and touch the stuff directly-]
Sh-i-it-!!
[And near immediately, he feels his muscles convulse beyond his control, because it feels like he's literally just been electrocuted. And the harder he tries to pull free, the more it seems he gets stuck in the stuff.
Anyone nearby will see Wolfwood trying to grab for his dagger from his inner pocket, but as the effects of the Brand take over, he fumbles and drops it among the fleshy masses, out of reach and otherwise useless.]
C) The Mass of Sorrow | This is the Memshare Prompt | Open
[While Wolfwood is able to escape the Brand's clutches a few times, he isn't going to always be so lucky. It's difficult to avoid given where it's spread, and typically by the time it's latched on firm to his prosthetic he can't tell he's been got until it's too late. The nervous impairment takes great delight in wrapping thin fingers through his ribs and making it feel like he's going to fall apart from the inside out, and the grief. It's unlike anything he's ever experienced, bar none. A feat, when he's mourned more times now than he can count, this feeling of ceaseless loss and hopelessness...
And his memories are no longer his to hide, kept tight to his chest.
Wolfwood has the following memories that can be experienced from his canon life, from his childhood, being captured by the Eye, killing a giant worm, and stopping an out of control Sand Steamer from destroying an orphanage.
From his past-life, his time in the Grove after leaving Haven is all fair game, and will largely be him as an adult experiencing his daily life.
(If we've discussed something specific, just mention it's a wildcard and we'll go from there!)]
i. insert the 300th "thnks fr th mmrs" joke here a) The past - Open cws: religious homophobia, evangelical bullshit mentions, abusive family
[At some point early in the Grove's existence, a new boy moves in. He's bitchy, and bratty, and seems to think you're lesser than him. Not religious? Lesser than him, and also going to Hell. And he'll tell you that! He'll let you know that you're going to Hell in any way he possibly can. The fact is, Ain... is mean. He's nasty. He's unlikeable, just like his mother and elder brothers, who are trying to start a ~new~ church out of their house. Maybe you bite and go to one of their services, maybe you don't. It's all very culty either way.
It takes until Ain is nearing 18 for him to mellow out. At a certain point, everyone made him realise his behaviour is wrong. Thus you get apologies, and a sort of awkward "I'm sorry, I'm trying", and Ain genuinely trying to get away from his mother... which unfortunately means he might knock on your door one night to couch-surf, explaining that he's figured some things out about himself and that he thinks he needs to be away from home before she kicks his ass for it. It's raining out, and he looks like a drowned rat. Please let him in.]
b) The past - Closed to Livio
[During one such couch-surfing phase, and after getting over the whole "it's okay to be gay" thing... Ain comes over to Miss Melanie's with an acoustic guitar, because the little nerd boy has taken solace in music recently. And he'd really, really like to serenade Livio, y'know, if he's home, and if he's not home it's fine he'll go elsewhere he's sorry, and—
Ain gets let in and sits down on the couch with his head in his hands. Oh God, what is he doing.]
c) The past - Closed to Affo cws: well we're sacrificing him so, also abusive parenting
[When everything goes to shit, the first person Ain turns to for help is Alexi, his dear friend. Everyone is in a panic, and Ain's mother is insistent that she sacrifice him to "appease" the gods, because clearly him being who he is is the issue here, or something. Maybe she just needs a convenient excuse to get rid of her wayward son?
So, when Ain finds Alexi, he grabs his wrist in a panic and frantically points toward the direction of the coast.]
My mom's trying to murder me, and we've gotta get out of here before we get killed!
d) The present - Open cw: elsword lore
[If it isn't past-life memories you get, you might get Ain's present-life, in which case: Good fucking luck because there's a lot stored in his head. Suri may have wiggled his brain around a bit, but that doesn't stop the conflicting memories from existing, nor being confusing.
You might be (un)lucky enough to see (and probably participate in): the time Ain said "yes I can drive that airship" and crashed it, a life-or-death battle against a crazed half-demon in his group's attempts to rescue him, an amusement park full of demons and many games to play, or an arena fight gone sour.]
ii. elegy time
[In the inn, Ain remains hunkered down, purposely avoiding looking out the window until you or someone else calls attention to the "things outside", at which point he gets up and his heart drops into his stomach.
It's not shocking that Ain misses his friends — it's gotten worse over the last few months, culminating into him filling the loneliness with cringe-ass plushies of them he stores in his room. The man's mental health is in shambles, and seeing even mere apparitions of them is enough to send him into a frenzy. One second, he's at the window with everyone else.
The next, he's running outside and possibly back into the brand again to try to reach people he thinks are real.
[Nebulously in the past... these two idiots were married. Flamebringer was not "Flamebringer", he was not bringing flames, he was actually gardening and raising like, five children. Five children, who he's raised mostly by himself, until he met one (1) Nicholas and they butt heads enough times to...
Checks notes. Get married about it. Be deeply in love. Disgusting.
When Nick wakes up, the spot where Asher normally sleeps is empty, though the warm spot left behind says he only just got up a few minutes earlier. He's out on the balcony connected to their bedroom smoking a cigarette and looking out over their garden below, shirtless, tats out for god and everyone. Whether or not he's also covered in bitemarks I'll leave up to you Chi—
Anyway, he has no idea he accidentally woke his husband up so good going idiot.]
do the brand memories/apparitions react to the player characters at all? slash would they "react" in a way that the memories they've stored would "react" but it's not a real reaction? does that make sense
[So Wolfwood is...experiencing. He is Experiencing a memory of Ain's that is really fucking stressful, and that is:
Well. The aftermath of it is happening as we speak, because Ain just crashed the airship that he and the rest of the El Search Party was on. It's why Wolfwood has both of his hands grabbing the front of Ain's clothes, shaking him a little as he demands to know:]
Why did you fuckin' say you could drive the airship when you can't drive the airship!?!
[If Ain wanted another Add in his memories, here you go.]
[At this point in time, Nicholas and Asher are married and living together, and Ain has kindof been nothing but an asshole since he arrived here. Nicholas does not have a high opinion of him because of that, especially given the kind of impression it can make on the kids, and he's fairly certain his husband would agree.
Of course, he does catch wind of his recent attempts to smooth over his behavior from when he was younger, even if he isn't entirely sure he believes that. He, too, was a shitty teenager once, and he grew up into a shitty man (he is not shitty)...but at the same time, he isn't going to be unreasonable. Like, he gets it. Anyone with eyes can tell Ain is under the thumb of his family and that was a lot of the reason he was lashing out.
...still though. Nicholas is clearly dressed for bed when Ain comes a-knocking, leaning one arm against the doorframe as he looks down at him with a raised brow.]
No.
[He does not mean this, but he wants to see what his response is before he lets him in.]
[So 'unending night', while less overtly dangerous then the bitter deep Winter, is way way weirder, isn't it? Now that the cold is less oppressive Will spends more and more time outside compared to hiding out in the Inn, his new cloak around him. In the low light the magic cloak makes him both invisible and silent, so when he pulls the hood down to talk to someone- exposing his glimmering cat eyes- well... he probably scares more then one person]
Hey can yo- oops, sorry!
[Yeah he's laughing. Not really sorry]
The Reef is Immortal (cw: attempted but failed self mutilation)
[Okay yeah, sure, things are getting EVEN WEIRDER somehow. The awful creaking sound is horrifically loud to his sensitive hearing, so he goes out to investigate right away. The 'tree' makes every hair on his body stand up, making his tail extra fluffy. That's enough to make him go back to hiding out in the Inn for a few more days, occasionally peering out the windows at the thing]
Winter's frosty tits I hate lookin' at that thing-
[Eventually though the spread is enough even Will's natural skittishness is overcome by needing to Figure It Out. The beastkin heads out to take a closer look, poking the fleshy mass with one of his long daggers, bringing out some of the 'eternal' flames from the Inn to it to try and burn it, casting magic at it- so focused that he doesn't notice his long tail brushing over it.
Oh. Fuck. He's stuck. Will grabs the base of his tail and tugs. Tugs. Starts tugging harder. The aching static numbness travels up his tail and panic starts to set in, Will trashing and spinning like a wolf in a trap to try and get free. Soon a foot gets caught in his flailing, and he hits the ground.
He manages to get off one mournful beastual howl before it's cut off by the numbness.
Anyone that finds him will come on the sad sight of the beatkin's body as tangled in the membrane as a child with gum in their hair, even his jaw tangled in it- it'd be funny if not for the implied fact that he must have tried to bite one of his body parts free- thankfully stopped by the alien flesh before he could actually cause real damage]
The Mass of Sorrow (cw: child abandonment/endangerment in the 1st memory and murder/dismemberment in the last)
[Tangled deep, memories flutter and flit through and out of him. Those also trapped might get glances of his very young child hood and near death, his loving life with Jay, or his various adventures over the Wall.
And even deeper there is someone who is not Will, but also is Will- who does not meet with a happy end. ]
(ooc: Feel free to ping me for any prompts not on here!)
[Sometimes some kid throws paper planes at your window and that becomes the rest of your life, at least until you hit your 20s and you're like "I should actually talk to him" and completely fail every time at doing that.
Elliot is very awkward. Elliot did not grow up around other kids — Old Isin was kind of, erm, a crackhead, put nicely, and none of the other kids really wanted to come over or hang out with him because his guardian was a nutjob. It's not like it's ever bothered him, and Elliot has largely been focused on his studies anyway, but still.
Today! He's going to go outside and tell the cute redhead boy hi. :)
...
Unfortunately when he tries to walk into the blacksmith's shop to say hi (outside of a letter this time), he walks right into the doorframe first, so it's going well.]
[Trigun Stampede, featuring guest star "Ainchase Ishmael from the critically irrelevant MMO Elsword", the crossover literally nobody wanted! The audience applauds and claps and stuff.
Ain did not want to be In A Worm ever in his life, but the boundary between reality and mind have blurred so bad that he's like "yeah I was definitely here for this". To that end, he's following Wolfwood around inside a worm's... stomach? Organs? Mouth? Something like that, he doesn't know, drawing his jacket tightly around himself and frowning.]
It's so wet...
[They should be rejoining the others soon, probably, hopefully.]
[The Edelweisses have always been historians. Their youngest son is trying to take up the mantle, and a good place to learn is obviously in a new settlement. Obviously.
He's been doing this for a few years now, but his parents have pressed the importance of talking to others to take down their viewpoints to him. It's one thing to write a book on history; it's another thing entirely to get the accounts of the people who lived there, making sure to account for all biases, that sort of thing.
So, you may spot Gnosis either lurking nearby to write down what you're doing — important or unimportant, doesn't matter to him, but he's cataloguing your way of life — or alternatively, flagging you down with his journal in hand to ask you if you wouldn't mind sitting down for an interview.]
ii. past life...2! closed to enciodes
[Gnosis is an embarrassing twenty-something with a big ol' crush on one (1) Enciodes Silverash, and he's being real stupid about it. He's about seven love notes into this week alone, most of them scrapped and tossed off to the side because they're simply not good enough. There's one in his hands today, folded up in a letter with a wax seal, and avoidant as Gnosis is... he was simply going to drop it off at Enciodes' house and bail.
Well! That will not happen because as soon as he's like, halfway down the road... he sees Enciodes and freezes dead, sweating, and then... very coolly... ducks behind a tree.
Maybe Enciodes won't see him—?]
iii. wildcard
[if anyone wants present life memories this is the place to do it! your options are: watch him get kicked out of kjerag at age 10 for a murder he didn't do (bc he was 10), or watch him concoct a political coup, or you can attend a fancy party and set someone on fire with him :) anything else just prod me!]
god i dont have baby ain icons (aincons) so you'll deal-
[Good news: The El Search Party at this point are all a) really young and b) comprised of just him, Rena, Elsword, and Aisha. They're not even to Eve and Raven yet, that's how early in his timeline this occurs. That said Add is stalking the party at this point so like lol, lmao.
Ain looks a lot younger. He's more wiry and thin, with blue streaks in his hair and less curls. There's a very dismissive look in his eyes as they climb out of the wreckage, largely unharmed save for a few scratches. Unfortunately, they're sans healer, because he isn't one yet; instead, everyone is relying on potions to deal with their injuries.]
I can drive the airship. [His voice is completely neutral. How dare you imply he can't drive the airship.] I didn't see you offering, Mr. Priest.
[Seems like Ain's core memories of Wolfwood are mushing up into his brain right now... oops.]
[Ain, who's definitely younger than either of the Karivs in this timeline, looks at Nicholas with his big wet eyes, penduluming wildly between being offended and being sad. He's trying so hard! Please acknowledge him!! He's sorry he implied you and your husband were going to Hell, if it makes you feel better he's going there too!!!]
Please? I can't go home tonight! Or any night ever again, probably! I can sleep in the bathtub if you want! I don't even need a blanket, I have a jacket I can use!!
[Sebastian has been working as his father's apprentice long enough that he finally got to strike out and make his own place, meaning that the smithy is relatively new. It means he has the opportunity to do his woodworking and dabble a bit more in his hobby of metalworking at the same time. It is...definitely a work in progress, but progress is being made and that's what matters.
In fact, he's working on something of a personal project right now, and...it's the sound of Elliot walking face-first into his doorframe that alerts him to someone's presence.]
Oh my god-!
[He drops what he's doing and quickly moves around the table, heading up to the front so he can meet Elliot halfway.]
[in this life and the next, livio and ain have something in common: The Big Anxiety. following miss melanie, whose smile is as easy and inscrutable as always, he emerges from his "room" -- which is really just a sectioned off part of another room, at his own insistence when melanie told him in his couch-surfing phase to actually move in.
when he sees ain with his face in his hands, livio blanks on everything else, from the guitar to a middle-school-aged jasmine peeking around from the same hall to snoop, and does a little powerwalk over to him. he kneels in front of the couch, looking up at him with those signature puppy eyes and resting his hands on ain's knees.]
Ain peeks out between his fingers at Livio, breathes a sigh, and slouches back onto the couch. God, he's so cute. This is so not fucking fair.]
No, no, nothing's wrong, Liv... [His face sure is red, though.] I'm, uh, a little — um... oh, I feel bad, since Miss Melanie always lets me in even though I don't really contribute, that's all.
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sticksandbones2025-02-06 07:42 pm
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