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My village was destroyed when I was a child. It was burnt down and pillaged during the war. All the villages surrounding mine were burnt down and pillaged during the war. I lived and travelled with a caravan of refugees, and things were very hard for us. We were often hungry and we were often cold.

What I mean to say is, we will be alright despite the ruin has Astoria left behind. The gardens can be sown again.

[ a few hours after the circle arrives back in the temple, a network ping sounds. Most of the time this happens, it is astoria… but this time around, it is the same strange young man you all found passed out in the center of the temple of beginnings. He looks impossibly exhausted, but his eyes are bright and alert. ]

I apologize, for not being able to speak to you immediately, I . . . my abilities are very draining, and it takes some time, to regain consciousness after I use them -- I am fine, but . . . at any rate, I have been looking for all of you.

[ it seems like a nice place to start. But the young man draws a deep breath, letting it out slowly. ]

My name is Kathashun, and I am… where I come from does not matter. It is irrelevant. But I have been traveling through the Rift to find all of you, to try and stop what has been happening, and . . . now that I am here, I am not entirely sure what to say.

[ at least he’s honest? ]

I can try to explain, but first, I have questions, for all of you. How long have you been here? Where is this witch, Astoria? And --

[ he pauses, before pursing his lips together. ]

-- is someone named Jalin, here?

It's Yang.

I'm going to cut to the chase: Those of us who died at the Horologium had a shared vision of a woman named "Alcina" (sp?). She specifically said that Astoria made sure that we wouldn't know of her existence, and that she needs our help.

"Search for me. I am not far."

We don't know anything else about her, but she's here. Somewhere. Waiting for us to find her.

So what's it gonna be? Are we in or are we out? Discuss. (Personally, I'm all in.)

You left me to die.

[ Soft with buried rage and spite. ]

So.

[ it is a public message, to the network, that pops up on the circle's watches and roy looks Less Than Pleased (tm) with the sudden state of affairs. the weather in the temple is absolutely out of control, there are apparently weird cakes appearing in the kitchens, and the fighting ring has turned into a magical court. great.

so, that may be the reason why roy's tone is particularly clipped, or even frustrated. but he seems methodical, in his words, and he is sitting at a table with a notebook, a glass of water, and a weird looking lizard on the table that has an odd rainbow-shift to the scales.

( ignore the lizard. it seems roy is. ) ]

The Circle is currently compromised of people of a variety of talents; soldiers, magicians, teenagers . . . all of us have particular skills to contribute to the cause of whatever it is we're meant to do here. I know quite a few people [ like maes, and barabas ] have been keeping track of various magical powers that we have been gifted, and organized some semblance of structure -- all of which is necessary. But we have to acknowledge what happened to Akvos.

[ he pauses, there. ]

Astoria has not been entirely clear with the Circle on what our purpose is. That may be an innocent error, or a purposeful move to win our trust. I'm not here to argue the merits of whether or not we should trust her, but we have no choice but to participate in whatever world she sends us to. Whether we like it or not, we are stuck there until she brings us back, and we have some opportunity to assist whoever is there. We cannot depend on her to figure out what to do in order to prevent another Akvos, or -- it seems, another El Minha, given King Kathashun is no longer in his own world.

[ roy taps the pen against the table once. ]

I don't have any solution as to what we did right, or wrong, or whether or not it was our fault in the first place. But I want to begin the conversation to work to prevent it again, and seeing as Astoria is either not willing or not capable of explaining herself at the moment, we need to learn to work without her. What are we missing? What do we need to work on? And what can we do in order to be more organized before our next world?

[ and, finally, roy feeds the lizard one (1) piece of lettuce, which it lazily seems to chew on. ]

I'm of a mind we need to organize fighters, healers, and transporters, but I'm open to ideas and suggestions -- and questions, about previous worlds to those who were not there to experience them. I have been to El Minha, Struxta, and Akvos. And I'm certain "older" members of the Circle will be happy to share their experiences, too.

( filtered to maes + riza )

( ooc: please feel free to threadjack in this post! especially if you want to use this to foster CR and/or build "teams" that roy is looking to enlist. c: )

[ A woman dressed in a black, a small glowing locket around her neck, sits in the grass at the base of a tree: ]

Many of our Circle have been heartbroken for what they witnessed. I am sorry for that, for those who have never seen such large casualties before. I have never wished that experience on another person, and yet I have never possessed the power to prevent it either.

I ruled a kingdom that had been ravaged by war. I was raised a refugee in that war, and when I become queen it was to a country of heartbroken war orphans, all like myself. I could do little to heal their hurt beyond recognizing we shared it. It is a pain that never goes away, even if you muster yourself to live on and strive hard, loss will always haunt your steps.

I'm sorry.

I have no comfort to offer you in this, but if you wish to confess your hurt I will gladly be an ear to it. Perhaps you can unburden a little of yourself, and I can surely bear the weight.

My name is Lady Ilde, and I am here if you wish.

[ The camera doesn’t show Hank’s face at first; it shows a little mermaid girl, one hand buried in his dog’s fur, looking back at him as she swims into the tunnel to the hopefully safe place underneath the palace. The girl seems reluctant. The dog doesn’t. Sumo’s always liked kids.

Hank takes a deep breath, clears his throat, and squints upward, muttering to himself. ]

Fucking seahorses. What kind of cartoon bullshit…

[ Then the guy he’s looking at throws a very real weapon from atop his very stupid seahorse, and Hank looks a little sick. He doesn’t move the camera to show it. That’s not what he’s here for. ]

Look, anyone try to sit these royal asses down and tell them to talk to each other like goddamn adults? Can anyone even find em in this fucking mess?

[ A sigh comes from the right and the camera pans to Shiro, black edged helmet held in one hand and brows furrowed. This isn’t going to be easy and he can already feel the headache coming. But it’s this or more people die. He faces the screen squarely. ]

We need to find out what each side wants out of this conflict. We can’t get them to talk if we can’t find their common ground. It’s going to be difficult, but we need as much help as we can to find them to figure that out.

[ Roy, in some weird mixture of exasperation and pursing his lips together to prevent from laughing at Hank’s “fucking seahorses” comment, clears his throat before he speaks, coming into view at Shiro’s right, arms crossed over his chest. ]

We’re assuming they want to be adults.

[ but now that that pointlessly cynical comment is out of the way, roy turns to business. ]

They seem to be centralized in the Palace of Wahine . . . or, at least, that’s where they will be, if the King continues to advance. They seem to be amenable to talking, at any rate. [ at least, given the Princess’ seizing of the network and begging for assistance from all of them. ] The worst that could happen is they refuse to come to the table . . . so any information anyone has managed to collect about the Queen, the King, or the Princess would be appreciated, particularly in regards to motivations and who would rule this place once we leave.

[ and Roy, who pauses, turns to Hank with a sudden seriousness: ]

Do you think the seahorses go to the victor of the battle, or are they up for the taking as compensation for doing their work for them?

[ Hank takes a second to switch into bullshit mode but after that second he raises his eyebrows, answering dryly. ]

I think the seahorses are forming a union as we speak, there’s no way we’ll be able to afford em.

[ Then he looks back at the camera. ]

Come on, guys. Anyone here got experience talking morons out of stupid shit? The sooner we fix this the sooner people stop dying, so uh. Let’s put our heads together or… whatever stupid pep talk BS you wanna hear, I don’t know. Let’s just stop chasing after all this weirdo bullshit and figure out how to fix whatever the fuck it is we came here to fix, okay?

(OOC: This is meant to function as a party post sort of thing, a way for characters to share information they get from their questions, figure out strategy, argue over who’s going to deliver the final offer, etc. Answer each other’s comments, threadjack, go wild. Team Negotiation is go, y’all.)

[A quick video update from the resident info-gathering nerds. Barabas and Maes appear in frame, in what looks to be the palace’s library. Barabas is the first to speak.]

It appears our communicators are working again. Everyone has seen the strange messages come through, I assume? Jumble of letters as they may be. [But by the grin that is threatening his face despite his best efforts to look serious.] I believe we’ve deciphered them, however.

[Maes, meanwhile, is also grinning. He’s relieved that the network is back up, but more importantly for once his research and library time has paid off. Of course, he has no idea what this message might MEAN, but it always feels good to be of use.]]

It wasn’t easy and figuring out what to DO with the message will probably be our next step. But, as we told you all back at the Temple, it’s important that we share information like this with everyone. [Maes glances at Barabas.] Do you want to tell them or should I?

[A quick nod of agreement, and Barabas glances down at where he’s clearly made some notes.] We’ve seen four separate messages, each a single line of letters. Thankfully, it seems all the letters were there, just not in the right order. Here they are, unscrambled:

[Quick flip to text.]

Do not kill him.
His people are dying.
They are the only hope we have.
Shatter the mirror and I can save him.

[And back to video.]

Anything else, Maes?

[Maes rubs at his chin thoughtfully]

Hmm. Well, while we’ve figured out what the scramble means, we have no way of knowing WHO this message was sent from….though I’m sure we could make a guess. After all, the Princess is still missing and she’s been described as pretty caring for others...but if it is her this just raises a whole slough of questions that we should consider carefully before we proceed with taking any actions.

[Namely any ‘killing’ or ‘shattering.’ After all, what information does this messenger have that they are giving warnings like this?]

Which means it’s also important to keep in mind that there are people who can access this network other than us.

[Barabas concludes on that comforting thought.] But it’s the best tool we have, so if anyone has any insight on the messages, let’s hear it.

[Maes nods. He knows all too well what can happen to someone sharing unwanted information on an unsecure line. Of course this memory elicits a frown instead of the feeling of victory of having solved the puzzle. So he adds.]

Or if you’re near the palace library we can always talk in person. Consider it our temporary HQ, since we’re no longer at the Temple with our office.

It seems we're all stuck here together like one big happy family, aren't we? Since that's the case... how about we play a little game to get to know each other?

What is most important to you in your entire life? What would you be willing to do anything for? And I do mean anything~

And please, nothing like 'friendship' or 'world peace.' Really dig down deep; we should all be honest with each other, don't you think? ❤

[feel free to answer the question or not, Joshua seems to just be very bored. what a chatty nerd!]

 So, correct me if I'm wrong about this. 

[Hank doesn't bother with an intro, just starts right on in. The angle he's holding his wrist shows both his face and the stick he's dragging along the wall behind him, which has been in a fire at some point in the recent past and leaves a long black trail of ash over the wall as he walks.]

But when all you heroes trooped into the haunted caves under the mysterious freaky lake the communication plan was along the lines of, 'gee, if someone gets their feet ate off by some freaky bullshit I sure do hope they yell real loud so I can get there before they bleed out' right? I mean, I trust you guys know to make a post letting us all know if you need backup, but what if this- [Here the screen shakes as Hank wiggles his wrist, indicating the watch] -gets busted, or stolen, or whatever? 

I don't know, I was just thinking, next time a bunch of us, or just anyone, goes into something that might get bad there should be some kind of post stuck to the top of our feed that we could all check, just something like this-

[He stops walking, still talking as he starts to scratch a little list in ash onto the wall beside him.]

Hey, I wonder how little Suzy's doing. Oh, she checked in an hour ago, she's probably fine.

[He writes Suzy on the wall, and a checkmark next to her name.]

How about JimBob the Murder Bot? Oh, he hasn't checked in for about seven hours, I should take someone to go look for him.

[Next to JimBob the Murder Bot he doodles a little skull. Sorry Jimbo, it's hard out there for a figurative probably-dead robot. Better luck next time.]

Or maybe you guys would rather do some kinda daily role call like in school or, hell, maybe it's just more fun to lone wolf your way through all this world saving shit, what do I know. Decide amongst yourselves. I might be around, I might not. Just thought I'd throw this out there. I'm gonna go eat. 

Due to Chelseamod's ineptness with Dreamwidth communities, the tag post is now awkwardly floating around amongst your entries.

VIEW IT, IN ALL OF ITS GLORY.