acatalepsy_rpg | ᴏᴏ3 ( ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ ) | ʙᴏʏ, ɪɴᴛᴇʀʀᴜᴘᴛᴇᴅ.

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ᴏᴏ3 ( ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ ) | ʙᴏʏ, ɪɴᴛᴇʀʀᴜᴘᴛᴇᴅ.

[ roy is seated in a secluded area of the temple that many may recognize as maes and barabas’ office. he has a notebook in front of him that a great deal of stuff seems to be written in, but roy himself doesn’t have a pen in hand. those paying careful attention may recognize that the writing in the notebook is, indeed, roy’s handwriting, but it’s certainly not legible.

anyway. roy looks a bit tired, but in relatively good spirits, despite what he suffered on the horologium. he’s been relatively quiet, since coming back to the temple -- focused on recovering, catching up with his closer circle of friends and family, and preparing himself for what he had to do next, which is, incidentally, address the circle.

And so, roy clears his throat. ]

We have a handful of new arrivals . . . welcome to the Circle. To those who don’t know me, my name is Brigadier General Roy Mustang. Roy is sufficient.

[ some people like using the titles, and some people don’t. It doesn’t really make a difference to him -- but that being said, roy certainly does speak in an authoritative tone, for as tired as he looks. some things don’t change. ]

I wanted to bring your attention to what we’ve experienced as a group in the past. A world jump is likely coming soon, and the more prepared we are, the higher likelihood we have to avoid another Akvos, or another version of the Horologium. To that extent --

[There’s not really a noise to announce Maes’s arrival. Just one minute there is empty space behind Roy and the next it’s being occupied by a man in glasses.]

Roy! There you are, I --

[He notices that Roy is speaking to the watch or The Circle and leans in over his friend’s shoulder. Personal space and Maes apparently aren’t acquainted, at least where Roy is concerned.]

Oh, hey, you’re talking to everyone else. Perfect. Let me borrow this for a second.

[Maes plucks up the watch. Roy is no longer visible, but you can definitely hear a “hey, give me that!” protest from the side. ]

Hi everyone. Technically I’m a Brigadier General, but feel free to just refer to me as Maes Hughes. I’m sure Roy already started in on the welcoming address, but I have some important information too -- concerning everyone really. I managed to get some details out of Astoria about our next world. After the past few times, well, one of the biggest issues we’ve had is not knowing a lot about where we’re going and how to prepare. Now I know there are mixed feelings about her, but the last time I asked her for information about a world it did prove to be accurate...so I think we can at least trust this much.

[As he speaks on trusting Astoria, he does glance in the direction Roy was. It’s pretty clear Maes has his own skepticism about the woman that has grown substantially from his months of being here. Now isn’t the time to dwell on that though. He clears his throat.]]

I didn’t get a name, but she called it a city, with taverns and everything. It’s populated by various types of people...different species and magic will be present. It sounded like we’d be going to a place with a lot of avenues to pursue. Astoria seems to want us to help the people there...though she couldn’t really give me specifics as to how. It sounds like it won’t be just fighting though, not this time.

[Maes pauses. Is he done? He knows that wasn’t very helpful and, especially for the new folks, it might not mean a lot. He looks like he’s about to give the watch back to Roy, but quickly pulls it back. Oh, right, the other things.]

If that doesn’t mean much to you, don’t worry. This room that Roy and I are in happens to be a library of sorts that Barb and I have been working on to keep all of the information from different people and worlds. We made it with the idea that those of you who are new might want to come read up on previous places. We’d appreciate any information you may have to add in the future.

All that I ask if that you please don’t touch the picture I’ve pinned to the wall of my precious daughter Elysia!

[The picture in question seems to magically appear in Maes’s hand, though it’s hard to tell if that was slight of hand or his teleporting again. The picture shows a girl, no older than three with twin pigtails sticking on top of her head. She sits proudly on a small tricycle, beaming at the camera. His voice changes from serious to a more gushing tone. Has he...has he forgotten the point of this?]

I know she’s just too cute~ But you’re free to look all you want I know she cheers ---

All right, enough, give me that --

[ and the watch is soon wrested out of maes’ hands, to show a very exasperated roy, frustrated (but clearly not enough to be actually upset, given he allowed maes to prattle on for that long). ]

The point of this is to offer ourselves as resources to the newer members, and to continue supporting one another to the best of our ability. Sharing with one another puts us on an even-playing field, and I intend to continue asking that of you, regardless of what happens on other worlds. Many of us have survived good worlds, and bad. Successes, and failures. This is our opportunity to attempt to plan for what comes next, because we likely have little time before our next jump.

[ and, after roy says that, he turns to maes, exasperated: ]

Do you always need to be the center of attention, or do you have an actual medical condition that forces you to --

[ and then the feed ends. ]

(OOC: If you are interested in looking at what we have in the office and want to read or, even better, contribute. Check it out here! Also, feel free to threadjack in this post! )

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Don't encourage him.

[ in exasperation. ]

And I don't care if people use it or not, but some people are more comfortable with them. [ mostly people in the military who need some sense of direction in their lives, but. you know. ] Feel free to use yours at any point, if you've got one.

Encourage what?

[ Such innocence. Such bullshit. ]

Just Vex'ahlia will do, then. [for now] In a place like this, I rather think titles hold little to no sway, save for one. [The Witch.]

[ Her voice loses a little of that earlier cheer. ]

It might help if we knew what to prepare for, certainly. Both in destination as well as task. Her directive to "help" people hasn't been..well. Helpful.

You're preaching to the choir.

[ in a bit of a grumbling tone, in agreement -- both as to titles and to astoria's directives. all the same . . . ]

What Maes has uncovered is the most useful thing we've gotten in awhile. We received nothing from her prior to the Horologium, and only an inkling before Akvos. Maybe her connection to these worlds is growing stronger, or she's more inclined to give more information after we failed in Akvos, and were butchered on the Horologium.

[ roy isn't one to mince words, about that. ]

I've never gotten the impression she's deliberately keeping things from us, a great deal about her behaviour is absentminded at best. Perhaps we've simply not been asking her the right questions.

[ If only to save their own hides, and those of the Circle, above all else.

Still, something Roy's said reminds her of a conversation with North. ]

She mentioned she felt the loss of Akvos, didn't she?

She did . . . and she's told others that she felt our respective losses, when we were killed on the Horologium.

[ roy may not talk to astoria directly, but he has his ear to the ground, and keeps track of what his friends find out from the witch. ]

But she mentioned no such loss of the Horologium itself. Perhaps that meant whatever we did on that ship is a success?

[ Vex hears things. Sometimes from friends, sometimes from eavesdropping. But in full honesty, since getting her bear back, Vex hasn't been all that interested in the Horologium. ]

A funny sort of success. We--well, a group went down but I wasn't in it. They killed that...creature [spat], but that didn't seem to do much. [a pause] Killing it didn't instantly zap us back here. I don't know that we actually achieved anything there, if I'm completely honest.

Assuming Astoria has perfect control of knowing when we succeed and can pull us from the world at her leisure, which seems to not be the case in either scenario.

[ still, vex has a point. ]

At the very least, the thing is dead, and can't do whatever it did to that ship to anyone else. Small victories need to be celebrated, too.

[ says the guy who was literally skewered. ]

It didn't feel like a victory. [she can't help the bleak note in her voice; too much loss, thanks to too little information. but that'd be preaching to the choir again.] Not knowing the conditions needed is hobbling our chances. If we can lean on her a bit for more information aside from "help"..

[well this turned a bit more glum than Vex intended. Hence the sudden blase cheer]

Well, with any luck, maybe the next world will have a better round of drinks for celebrating with.

I think we all deserve a plethora of alcohol after the last grouping of worlds.

[ that much they can agree her, though his grumbling softens a little bit. ]

. . . I don't want to speak ill of her. [ for some obvious, and not-so-obvious reasons. ] But I don't think it's out of line to state that we cannot rely on her, and we can only rely on each other, when we arrive to these worlds. We need to alter our strategy to incorporate the idea that she cannot be relied on, whether it's her fault or not.

I'll drink to that.

[and if she likes you, she might even buy everyone a round from the bottom shelf]

I am sure her intentions are well meant. But there are forces actively working against us, and her, and, well. We've seen how well that's been working. [smoothly] But I agree. The more we learn and actively share, then.. Well. It'll be a start.

Maybe that's how we should begin the next world, then. A massive party.

[ a bonding exercise, if you will. but roy sighs, the sound exhausted. ]

At any rate, the only way to go is up, from our last two worlds.

I don't see why not. There are worse things we could be doing.

[ Party as hard as you intend to live, Roy. ]

Too true.

I thought that too. I asked her for a bit more direction, but all she would give me is that they've lost a lot of people in the city we're going to so they just need people to help with various tasks. It sort of sounded like we might be just hired help? We could protect people from the monsters there or help farmers with their crops.

Lost them to what? Kidnappings? Plague? [oddly dark] Dragons?

[then, a sigh] I suppose we won't know until we get there, unless someone asks Astoria more of the right questions.

She mentioned a war...but it sounded like it might have been away from the city. So I imagine the people who usually help protect the city were sent off to fight in it, leaving the city vulnerable.

Of course, most of what she said was her usual vague responses and these are all just conjectures put together based on what she DID say.

I suppose we should be grateful for that much, then. [thoughtfully] It's more than we had before. Did any particular question get more attention from her than others?

Honestly? She's was pretty straight forward in responding to all of my questions. There wasn't one that she dodged or paid more attention to.

[He did note that she didn't touch on the comment he'd made about recovering from being murdered, but that wasn't really relevant to the conversation. Besides, technically that hadn't been a question so much as an accusation that she wasn't giving them the proper avenues to recover from Horologium.]

I will say she seemed a little tired after giving me the information. Like investigating the world further might have been exhausting for her just like when we push our own powers to the limit.

I suppose that something. [there's a soft sigh] In the least, she's not actively lying to us.

Hmm, that isn't that surprising. All power has a cost, and given she resurrected so many people on our return, I'm shocked she's recovered as quickly as she has. [not a full deity, maybe, but certainly Up There in power] I've seen that kind of scrying magic in action before, it can require a high cost for limited gain. Assuming the spell works at all.

[This is where his opinion tends to deviate from Roy's a bit.]

I do get the sense she's trying to be honest with us...I just think we have different opinions about what she should be sharing or what her priorities should be here.

[His faith in her may be a bit shaken after recent events, but she can't be all bad if she tried to save the mermaids and shared this information with him. Although he imagines there might be a catch somewhere down the road.]

That make sense. The more invasive and impacting a magic should be I think it should come with a cost. It would mean you're ability to use it would mean you respecting what that power can do.

I suppose when one's perspective is far more vast, the little relevant details get lost in the moment.

[ Vex's faith is... well, she's trusted that she cannot trust Astoria. Whatever power this woman possesses, she reminds Vex very much of the Fae and the tales of their power. That there a good intentions in action? Well, she'd like not to doubt that. But like Maes, waiting for that catch is keeping Vex from getting comfortable again with the woman any time soon. ]

Quite. And she has said that she is stuck here, unlike us. Whatever binds her to the Temple may require her to use more power to complete the scry, hence the exhaustion. It might be why she didn't do it previously. [a beat] Outside of just not thinking about it, of course.

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ᴏᴏ3 ( ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ ) | ʙᴏʏ, ɪɴᴛᴇʀʀᴜᴘᴛᴇᴅ.

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