EVENT ★ NALAWI INTRO

[futurologists]

Recruits leave Oska at midday, with about 10 minutes of final warning given from the jewelry. Then the white mist rises as rifts open, and Oska is left behind. The transition into Nalawi is not a peaceful one. When the mist fades, recruits are immediately hit with a face full of lashing rain and driving wind. The recruits have arrived in the middle of a nasty storm, but that’s not all that greets them. Seawater surges all around, breaking against -- houses? It’s a little hard to tell at first, in the chaos of the storm. Half of these buildings are made of rock, not carved, but shaped, and the other half seem to be living trees, thin wood and thatch, and a handful of more ornate (and more fragile) material, including clouded glass or obsidian. The stone houses are standing up best to this onslaught of waves, but even they weren’t made for this, and they shudder and crumble in the thrashing storm. Thin screams can be heard over the wind and water, too. The locals are having some trouble not being washed away. The people here are small bipedal deer, and those hooves were not meant for swimming. They struggle in the water, some of them trying to snag a few precious belongings from drowning houses, some of them not even able to do much more than hang onto some jutting stone or tree. There are a few heroes among them, putting superhuman powers to good use: here a young man hovers in the air, dragging others out of the water and toward safety; there a girl parts the water with careful gestures of her hands, enabling a whole family to dart from their ruined home and run for higher ground. These feats are rare, though, and on the whole most of these natives are in trouble. They don’t look too stunned to see the new arrivals -- they don’t have time to, and will push roughly past a new arrival to deal with some crisis sooner than stop and stare. They’re mostly just grateful for any offered help, generally seeming terrified and shellshocked by all of this. If any of them are asked what happened, they’ll point with varying degrees of wordlessness toward a high stone wall between the village and the sea, with an enormous gap broken through the middle of it where the sea rushes in. Like many of the houses, this dike was clearly shaped from living stone. But whatever shaped it apparently has no power to maintain it, and this is the storm that had finally taken advantage of that. This long, dark afternoon provides plenty of tasks: help the Nalawi people evacuate from their ruined village, try to find material to rebuild their shattered (and still crumbling) dike, or take care of the hungry sea creatures that have taken notice that the deer, usually safe on land, are suddenly in easy reach. They look like crabs with too many legs, but each of them is nearly the size of one of the villagers. They’re more than capable of seizing a struggling villager and scuttling back toward the break in the dike to drag their prize into the sea. Their shells are difficult to get through, their pincers terrible and sharp, but their joints and eyes are unprotected and tender. The storm won’t last forever, though. It blows itself out in a few hours, just in time for a truly beautiful tropical sunset over the western edge of the island. Exhausted locals will finally begin to talk a little more. They’ll explain to their rescuers that the Stone Shapers have all had their Gifts faded out: there’s not a single one left. Without these abilities, the dike was left defenseless against the storm and the water rushed in. Their despondency and resignation suggests this kind of disaster is not new to them. They are, however, very grateful for the help: anyone who lends a hand over the new few days (thankfully sunny and clear) sorting through the wreckage, rebuilding, and setting up new dikes will be given food and shown to the inn for free lodgings. Welcome to Komo, Nalawi. OOC INFO ICly this log will cover the day of arrival and the following few days of recuperating and rebuilding, if you would like to include that in your top level prompts. OOCly it will last until the 26th. New information will be available at that time. As some quick refreshers, we have our Mission Overview here, which also includes a questions subthread for general questions. For intro event-specific inquiries, please see the comments below. Additionally, be sure to have read the Chantes epilogue as well as the Nalawi: Locations page. Note that we will also have new characters arriving during the event, so be sure to give them a hand!

Comments

[grunehexe]

Oh, Aqua- greetings!

[Sieglinde raised her head at the approach, giving a small smile to find it was someone she knew. Isengrim seemed pleased to sniff after the new person, even with the skull that made up its face lacking an obvious nose, but.

Semantics.]

I have the "uniform", but...

[Her expression grew somewhat pinched with the idea of wearing it, what with its dreaded trousers and strange make.]

[keeper]

[ She holds out her hand for the canine to get a better scent (it looks like it's trying to catch a whiff of something anyway, judging from its inquisitive movements), blinking up at Sieglinde as she speaks. ]

You aren't so fond of the uniforms?

[ Aqua's more ambivalent herself; while she does find her own clothes more familiar (thereby 'comfortable' if boob belts can be considered 'comfortable'), she doesn't terribly mind being ascribed a set wardrobe, either. ]

Well... There may be another way to cool down for a bit.

[ Glancing at Isengrim, ] Your wonderful friend here won't be too bothered if I use a bit of magic, will they...?

[grunehexe]

[Aqua will get a lick with a wet tongue for her kindness in offering her hand for investigation, the canine's glowing red eyes set deep into the darkness of bone eye sockets dimming and brightening in what might be the peculiar creature's equivalent of blinking.]

They are quite revealing of the leg, are they not?

[By her standards, at least, in a world where proper women did not wear anything but long dresses. She found the pants restrictively tight, and was somewhat embarrassed by the thinness of her atrophied limbs, preferring to hide them behind skirts. But she was easily distracted from that mild distaste of her the uniforms at the promise of magic, perking up in interest.]

Isengrim is made more of magic than flesh in my estimation, so it shall not be a problem- what sort of magic?

[keeper]

[ Oh no... cutie... Aqua's almost sorry she doesn't have some kind of treat to offer. (Though, she also has no idea what kind of dietary restrictions it may or may not have. Probably for the best, then, not to feed it anything that might potentially upset its stomach...)

Also she can't help but blink down a bit self-consciously at her own shorts and stockings. ]

Is it very inappropriate, where you're from...?

[ Or "when" she's from. Having been reasonably well-traveled, Aqua understands there's bound to be variations in clothing and customs across worlds... But she didn't really expect her own garments to be the target of scandal. (Aqua your clothes are ridiculous.)

—Still, perhaps a lighter skirt could be fashioned for Sieglinde... At any rate, she smiles and nods in response to the inquiry. ]

Elemental.

[ She'll show rather than tell, and her Keyblade shapes itself in her hand. A breath and a Command later, the girls (and dog) will find themselves walled in by great cascades of ice, that shimmer and glint with refracted light. Temporary air conditioning— the sun will undoubtedly melt the glacial spell before the half-hour's up, but it'll be no trouble to recast. ]

...Does that feel better?

[grunehexe]

[If asked Sieglinde could assure Aqua that really, she wasn't quite sure what Isengrim ate either. He did seem to like meat... but she swore she'd seen him eating something strange the day after some metals had been misplaced in her Chantes laboratory...

Either way, she answered Aqua's question with an arched brow and a serious nod. Yes, Aqua, your clothes are ridiculous... and scandalous according to her time's standards. But she forgives you, she supposes. Can't hold people of other worlds to the same standards she held herself, after all- not when it came to fashion, at least.

Her gaze turns sharp at the appearance of the Keyblade- she assumed it to have the same function as a wand might when it came to magic, watching carefully as the spell is cast and the ice forms around them, eyes widening with wonder.]

Hoh...

[She reaches out a hand and stops it just shy of actually touching the ice, feeling the coolness emanating from it.]

When you use that spell, do you freeze the water already in the air, or do you summon i-

[Her question cut off abruptly when she suddenly noticed Isengrim, who had hauled himself out from under the table and moved to- Yup, lick the ice. Which promptly stuck his tongue right to the mini glacier.]

Isengrim, you fool of a familiar!

[Why must he embarrass her in front of company]

[keeper]

[ She can't help but chuckle (kindly) at the expense of the poor familiar, and reaches out to place a hand just over the spot he'd licked, letting the warmth of her fingers seep into the surface and melt it just enough for the doggy tongue to wiggle loose. (Ah, that's really cold, though.)

As for Sieglinde's question, she'll have to think on that a little. ]

...I suppose it might be a bit of both. In drier climates I'd have to generate the water. [ Whether it's conversion or creation, however, there doesn't seem to be much difference in the amount of magic a given spell might draw from her magical stores. (how does kh logistics even work idk... truly, ~*magic*~...) ]

Here of course, there's plenty.

[ They're surrounded on all sides by the ocean, the air heavy with it as well. ]

[grunehexe]

[Aqua is nicer than Sieglinde- at least, in this moment, because she had definitely been planning to let Isengrim suffer for maybe a minute before she tried to get him free.

Honestly- she sometimes wondered if the skull that made up most of his face meant that he was actually lacking a brain...

So she just sighs, instead turning her gaze back to the keyblade, to the ice, considering for a moment before she shoots a rather wheedling glance the older woman's way.]

And you could teach me how you do this spell, yes?

[Because seriously... she feels like it will come in handy.]

[keeper]

[ Ah... What a tough little mistress she is...

At any rate, she poses a good question–Aqua ponders this. (While she's trained with Riku and Lea in the past, she hasn't attempted to teach anyone outside their world. And quite frankly, she doesn't see herself as much of an instructor in the first place... She mostly regurgitates what she remembers of her lessons with Master Eraqus.) ]

Truthfully, I'm not sure. But I could try.

[ The basics of it, at least.

...Come to think of it, a baseline might be helpful; neither of them had been able to use their abilities back at the castle, for lack of materials and for the barrier surrounding the place, that had nulled all magical energy. ]

What sort of spells do you usually practice?

[grunehexe]

An effort is all I would ask, naturally- I am not a cruel taskmaster,

[Says the slightly cruel taskmaster... Though in Sieglinde's dubious defense, she did not often hold others to standards she could not meet herself. The problem was simply that she held herself to very high standards and had a very high tolerance for studying fostered in her from the youngest of ages.

Still.]

My specialty is healing- that has always been the Green Witch's path.

[According to the stories. Perhaps it was wrong, or misguided, to continue to speak about those things as if she hadn't discovered them all to be elaborate falsehoods... But they were all she had.]

You needn't fear for my adaptability, however! Since my recruitment I had learned many new spells.

[keeper]

[ The fact that Sieglinde might even string together the words 'cruel taskmaster' is enough to warrant alarm... But it's mostly overshadowed by her enthusiasm. (She seems... quite so very eager to learn...) ]

Alright, then.

[ She trusts the girl would be a capable pupil, seeing she's already proven herself tough and resourceful in dire situations. ]

...Healing is a wonderful gift to have. ALASTAIR is very lucky to have you. [ (Even if she strongly disapproves of their practices, sending children into dangerous conditions and such...) Still, there are always others who are in need of such gifts, she's sure. ]

What is the purpose of the 'Green Witch', if you don't mind me asking? [ It sounds like an important title—a destiny, even. ]

[grunehexe]

[Healing was wonderful because everyone needed it- especially those sent on dangerous missions by ALASTAIR. If there was a world where healing wasn't wondrous... what a grand world of peace that would be.

What a grand world hers would have been without the Green Witch?]

... The story passed down to me was that my ancestor made a pact with the werewolves of the forest to save her kind from persecution. She offered the wolves her legs in return for safe haven, and pledged her life and lives of her descendants to serving the werewolves in creating the Ultimate Magic to sustain their lives.

[It had all been lies, of course. She knew that now. But it was easier to keep repeating them than to admit she knew little, to explain.]

That is "the Green Witch".

[keeper]

[ ...It's a far more tragic role than she'd anticipated, and her expression falls, conscientious and contemplative. (It explains her bound feet—not something from birth but something that had been forced upon her for the 'sake of duty'.)

It's difficult to hear that a child so young would already have been shaped to fulfill this ancient role, to have been raised with neither choice nor say in the matter.

(Never to have played with others her own age, run through summer grass, swam in cold creeks...)

It's terrible and cruel, and Aqua is sorry she hadn't known better. (She does now.)

She reaches over and places a hand over Sieglinde's, giving it a light squeeze.

(She won't say anything, there aren't really any words she can offer in proper consolation, even if it's a fate the Green Witch has accepted for herself.) ]

[grunehexe]

[The explanation for all of her life lay in that simple story (lie). The feet a mere three inches from "toe" to "heel", bandaged and wrapped in pretty ribbons to disguise the more grotesque truth beneath. The reason she'd been kept in her village and not allowed to venture beyond the Witch's Forest. The reason she was as she was-

A convenient lie to explain everything.

What did she do, with Aqua squeezing her hand? Should she reassure the older woman? It was fine, it was just her entire life.]

... I discovered it, so. There needn't have to be another Green Witch unless I die without completing the work.

[It didn't reassure her to say it, even though she tried to present it as reassuring- after all, the Ultimate Magic was a poisonous gas that killed any human who breathed it in.

She might be free of the duty to create it... but now her life would be dedicated to curing it. Nothing really changed, did it? It was a depressing realization.]

[keeper]

[ She nods soundlessly, mindfully withdrawing her hand and letting it rest ontop the opposite knee. (A small blessing it seems, though the reward isn't for Sieglinde to reap.) ]

I see.

[ (Not truly, she doesn't... To her 'Ultimate Magic' sounds like something with which to save the world, not a terrifying biological weapon.) But she understands a little better now, this girl's courage and mettle, and they're admirable to Aqua. ]

...I wish you all the best in your endeavors.

[ Whatever it is that she needs to fulfill—or escape—her fate. ]

Is there anything we [ herself, ALASTAIR ] might do to assist you?

[ (Not just in teaching a few basics or tricks to elemental magic.) Because this all seems an enormous, lonely burden that's been set on Sieglinde's shoulders. ]

[grunehexe]

[Lying, even if it was more by omission than a wholly fabricated thing, neglecting the part where all of that had been merely what she'd believed to be true, not the truth itself... it left a bad taste in her mouth. Making the ultimate magic sound like something good, like something that could save people instead of kill them...]

I will learn the magics and sciences of other worlds.

[It's part of why she asked almost everyone she met with the abilities if they wouldn't teach her what they knew. Even if it was a spell to create ice, or an illusion, or charm... anything could be the trigger to understanding, to epiphany and and a cure.]

That is all I can do from here.

[... even if she did find a cure. There ws nothing she could do without being in her own world, anyway.]