MINI-EVENT: RETURN FROM THE MOUNTAINS

[sticksandbonesmods]

You are tired.

Without the truck to come get you — where did those people go? Were they even real? — you have to walk, hike up to the mountain peak, only to go back down. Did no one tell you that just the base of the mountains to the Grove itself is a seven-day walk? Perhaps someone would have, if they were here to tell you.

As all of you escape Roseroot, leaving behind the horrors slaughtered en masse, poor Astrid is suddenly blinded, his eyes turning completely black as something whispers in his mind. “Please. Please, you have to help them. You have to help them. Please, please, you have to—” As quick as it came, he regains his vision, his eyes clearing back up, and the message cuts off. Whether he shares this information or not with the rest of you… that’s up to him.

Either way, to get over the mountains, you have to hike. The winged, the flighted ones, those who can float, they might be able to take people up to the peak faster, but the blizzards rage atop it. Is flying really safe? You have only a few supplies between all of you — do you look for firewood and rest along the path? Do you traverse the mazelike caverns and hope one of you spits you out at a higher peak? Do you take shelter underneath the crystals growing on the mountainside?

If you look at those crystals for too long, they seem to reflect your nightmares back at you, but sleeping beneath them gives an incredible sense of calm.

At the mountain peak is the scene of something nightmarish itself — a group of people, some humanoid, one shadowy, a few monstrous, all collapsed. Each of them sleeps beneath the bulk of a golden dragon, tucked up underneath their bulk for warmth, while the unconscious dragon itself is mostly-buried under the snow. In the air float three charms, one of the sun, one of the moon, and one of half a sun. And just under those, maintaining some sort of magic — though even the magically-inclined may struggle to tell what exactly it is — is a leucistic deer-centaur holding a staff with a dreamcatcher head, wearing furs and leathers and braving the blizzard in his unconscious state solely to keep whatever this magic field around the peak is running.

As soon as you step further into this field, your memories come back en masse. These people are yours. They are your Guardians, your friends, your almost-family, and they disappeared one day, and you did not remember them. When you go to wake one of them up, your mind is pulled into theirs, a fragmented web of memories spanning before you.

Do you fix them? Or do you leave them here forever to suffer with a fragmented mind?

Spark Notes

out of character

Per the plotting, please remember that it is ONE character per player for the NPCs minus the Lord of the Mountains — meaning for example that Amity cannot have White Lily fix Ydalir, Sidney fix Callan, and Mafuyu fix Heimr. However, players are free to select what NPC they want to help, even if multiple players are currently helping that NPC. Guess comments will be screened and replied to as they come in to avoid cheating when someone gets one right, and all will be unscreened at the end of the event. :)

If everyone lumps into a few NPCs and others don't have interaction, I will lift the rule saying one character per player in the Discord and make an announcement.

Participation in an NPC thread will be good for Bonus AC regardless of length. Please do not use these for main AC. You can get main AC off your toplevels on this event if you choose to do so.

Please refrain from general threading with the NPCs on this post; bar Lord of the Mountains, other NPCs should be threaded with on NPC Contact if it's irrelevant to the event proper. In the case of LotM, he is the exception to every rule — everyone is free to try solving his memories regardless of if you have another character solving another NPC's memory puzzle, and general threading with him is allowed.

I maintain the right to cut a threading-thread short at any time; this is to avoid overwhelm and flooding the post with irrelevant details to the event. Guess threads will not be cut until all guesses are correct at minimum. (This is more in defense of my wordiness than a slight at you guys, I know how I get so this is a rule that exists to protect Me lmao.)

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Comments

[cryopathy]

Oh, I'll give you better than bony elbows.

[at the same time she thinks it, she gives a long-suffering huff and nips at his hair. somebody either forgot about their bracelets, or figured that they wouldn't work if she was in animal form, the same way she can't speak in it.]

[unheiring]

[Luca huffs, trying his best to sound irritated.]

Oh, w-wonderful. I still get to hear your nattering like this?

[But within the confines of their shared minds, there's nothing but affection, perhaps even relief that he won't have to suffer in silence.]

'm s-sorry.... That I c-couldn't find you in there.

[cryopathy]

[now, she makes a sound partway between a huff and a pitiful howl, as she drops her head to the ground dramatically. is luca at all surprised?]

Guess you're just shit out of luck, brother of mine.

[they contemplate this for a moment...]

It's for the best you didn't. Even dead, that bitch won't leave me alone. [kiera fails to mention that the body the empress-monster dragged around looked far too much like luca for comfort. they can only imagine it would have dropped its corpse in order to capture and force the real thing at them.] Are you alright?

[unheiring]

How truly terrible.

[Said without the faintest tinge of suffering. He'd be terribly lonely, without her voice. It had been so long, weeks, since he'd seen her. It's the longest they've been apart since arriving at the Grove, he realizes. At least when her fear had kept her from Luca's side, they'd been able to exchange letters.]

I... am sorry to hear that. [He wants to add that he would have ripped the Empress's throat out if given the chance but... He doubts that would be any comfort right now.] ... I saw father, there.

[Not just Cyrus, nor anything at all like any of them should have been. But the details are grotesque enough that he opts to spare Kiera the detail.]

[cryopathy]

[just as what was surely the forest warped her mother, so too must it have bastardized their father. to kiera, that can only mean that luca is decidedly not alright. she whines and curls up a bit, cradling his head between her shoulder and neck.]

Do you want to talk about it? [she's still never quite sure whether luca is up for this sort of discussion, but she'll always give him the option.]

[unheiring]

Do you?

[If there's an edge to his voice, it's only a teasing one. They both know that their mutual experiences were difficult, and they're still learning how to talk about these things with one another. Still, harsh as it was to deal with, Luca figures it's better to get it out into the open.]

He was trapped, stuck with the bodies with other people that I've... [He shakes his head.] Other people. All of them made up the heart of a mockery of the Phoenix.

[cryopathy]

[other people that he's... what?] Killed, or loved? [she winces as soon as she thinks it, the mindlink unbroken. hopefully luca understands that even in her head, the thought was curious rather than accusatory. the more she knows, the better she can help.]

Forgive me.

That wretched bird won't leave you be, either, will it?

[unheiring]

[Neither of them are bad guesses. And given how Luca tended to be, he couldn't fault Kiera for leaning that way.]

Don't apologize.

[He shakes his head.]

Harmed is the best way to phrase it, I think. Quil was there, too. Same with Giselle.

[River had also been in the mix, but considering everything, that's not a topic he wants to get into.]

The Phoenix, it seems, is the same in death as it was in life.

[cryopathy]

[of course. kiera does tend to assume the worst, and then overcompensate with the best. and luca would feel that he harmed aquila and giselle, even if they'd forgiven him.

they can't help but growl, deep in their chest. they're fucking sick of this place using luca's darkest feelings against him.]

A cruel joke? Yes, it is, and was.

[unheiring]

I meant persistent, but... That is a good way of phrasing it too.

[Luca closes his eyes, nosing further into the fur of Kiera's chest. It's not too different than snuggling into her ruff, he thinks. And if it keeps her from growling, from feeling even a modicum of the misery he had been plagued with, all the better.]

I'm sorry, Ki. I don't mean to add to your own suffering.

[cryopathy]

[kiera isn't sure whether luca is doing this to comfort them, or guilt them into settling down, but fine, it works. they give one particularly large final huff, then nuzzle against his arm.]

Don't apologize. [they're aware it's ironic that luca had only just said as much to them.] It's a badge of honor to get angry on my brother's behalf.

[unheiring]

I'd say I'm worried about you going gray from the effort, but... well...

[He snorts once, then proceeds to sniffle when the force blows fur into his nose. Immediate karma, apparently.]

Thank you for keeping me safe. And yourself, as well.