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kaisou2025-07-13 02:41 pm
July Event Log
JULY EVENT
Dominant Element: Water
Waning Element: Fire
Full Moon: July 9th - July 11th
※
As July rolls in, the Spirit Vein's colours shift to hues of blue as the water element takes dominance. And with it, comes the most miserable month of the summer. On sunny days, it'll be hot and extremely humid, with the air feeling like a swamp. However these hot days are interrupted with heavy storms that will let loose at least a couple times a week. Take care not to get caught in a downpour, and make sure you don't have anything outside that could be blown away by straight line winds.
Adventurers beware!ALERT: NO SPIRIT REALM ANOMALY DETECTED
Element Classification: Water
Danger Level: None! :)
Designation: N/A
Zodiac has not detected any Spirit Gate this month. Have a wonderful month's break! Please visit the Zodiac offices for more information, but there's nothing to worry about!
Well, that's a weird announcement. Should you decide to drop by the Zodiac offices, staff look a mixture of confused, unsure or completely relaxed. Professor Barbie greets you and tells you that for once, Zodiac hasn't picked up on any anomalies or temporary spirit gates. While some staff members believe this is a terrible sign and are starting to fret what it could mean, most of them are honestly glad for the chance to have a break for once. They assure you that they'll keep an eye on things and send out an alert if anything crops up- go enjoy July! Check out the convention!
So off you go to enjoy the month, and everything seems to be normal. That is until you're in a group- perhaps you're at home, perhaps your place of work. No matter where you are, you and the rest of your group start to hear the steady beat of drums. Not everyone reacts to it- not even within your group. It seems only a select number of you can hear them, but hear them you do. They beat a steady rhythm, one that gets quicker and louder if you choose to move in the direction of the sound. Eventually, you find a wooden box with the name Jumanji carved on the front, along with some jungle scenes.
Opening it up, you will find a wooden board game, with board spaces spiralling around the board, all congregating into a glass orb in the centre. Inside a small box in the games lid, you will find delicately carved jungle animals made of ivory. Once picked up, they will immediately fly off your hands to starting positions on the board. There's also a pair of ivory dice - just begging to be rolled. On the inside covers of the board, the game proclaims:
A game for those who seek to find
A way to leave their world behind
Roll your dice to move your token, doubles get another turn
The first player to reach the end wins
The OTHER side of the inside cover holds a dire warning:
Do not begin unless you intend to finish
The exciting consequences of the game vanish
A player has reached Jumanji and called out it's name
Despite this, if you heard the drums, you do feel a strange compulsion to play. Even if you're not the sort of person who would normally play what looks like a genuinely sketchy game, you feel it couldn't possibly hurt. It's just a board game after all, what harm could there be in rolling the dice?
A game for those who seek to findAnd so roll the dice you do. There are seven games just like this, happening all around the city. And once that first dice is rolled? You have been caught in the game's trap. A barrier will form around the area you're in, keeping you, your fellow players, and any unlucky soul who happened to be in the space when the barrier went up tapped in that area. No one can get in, no one can get out.
If you're thinking at this point that perhaps you shouldn't have rolled the dice, it's far, far too late. Your little ivory token moves forward on the board of it's own free will, there's no pulling it off, no stopping it. The game has begun and it's clear that it does not intend to stop. Once the token has moved the requisite number of dice rolls, the orb in the centre swirls a little rhyme for you to read. Unfortunately, that's not all it does. Immediately, whatever you rolled is transported right into your area, and you will need to deal with it. The vast majority of what you roll will be actively out to prevent you from finishing the game- it's almost as if the game is purposefully making it as difficult as possible to complete, now its magic is being wrought on the world.
The designated game areas in the city are:
RANDOM PLAY
MEROPIDE: RANDOMISER WING
PERSEPHONE'S COTTAGE
CYGNUS ACADEMY
THE MORRIGAN
RIKU'S APPARTMENT
OOCly, please see your area-specific sheet found on each of your toplevels. This will allow you to see the dangers you have each to deal with as the game progresses, and how you want to play the game as a group. Please be sure to discuss with your game-mates about this so you're agreed on how you want to play!
A way to leave their world behindYou can fight and avoid the dangers that the game spews out as best you can- but for the most part they remain exactly where they are. The more you roll, the more comes out of the game, dangers piling on top of one another to distract you and keep you from finishing. But finish you must- the game was very clear that the only way to get rid of everything that it releases into the world is to finish it. You start to realise the barriers that have been put up are the game's doing too. If you ever want to be free of the barriers and all the nonsense coming out of the game, you are going to have to play to the bitter end.
If you're lucky enough to have bystanders caught in your area with you, they will be able to help you battle through what the game brings on you. None of them can play for you. Once the game has chosen its players, they are the only ones who can complete the game- and they must do so in the correct order. What is a board game without rules, after all? And so you must work together, protecting yourselves, each other, and trying to keep the game itself out of harm's way. It will be a difficult task, one that only increases as the game moves on and more comes out of it. You will need to function as a team in order to survive this particular board game night.
In the jungle you must waitPerhaps you got it into your head that you'd cheat to try and finish the game. All it would take is making sure you drop the dice so they land a certain way, right? Or trying to tilt the game board at just the right moment to make sure your dice turn at the last second to a more favourable number. It would end the game quickly and you can all be free of it, right? And given how much danger the game is throwing at you, it's only fair that you can play dirty too, right?
Unfortunately, Jumanji very much does not approve of cheating. Any attempts to cheat in the game will result in an angry message appearing in the orb:
And then you feel your whole body being pulled. If you look down, you can see your body being pulled like taffy, even if it doesn't hurt, it's frightening to look at. It's even more frightening once you realise where you're being pulled to. Your whole self is being trapped into the orb in the centre of the game. No matter how much you fight it, no matter how others might try to pull you back, the game is determined to see you punished for your transgression.
When the game stops pulling you will find yourself in a massive jungle. Unlike the game, which only pulls dangers into the world based on dice rolls, this is where everything comes from. As such, there are countless dangers you will have to face. You will get almost no rest in this area, as almost everything is actively out to kill you. Nothing you do will get you out of the jungle- it seems to stretch on forever. All you can do is try to keep yourself (and anyone who was trapped with you) until someone managers to finish their game. Only then will you find yourself back in the area you were originally dragged away from.
When a player finally gets their token to the center orb, the whole thing glows a bright green. The word JUMANJI appears in middle of it. Speak the word out loud as the instructions told you, and a sudden whirlwind will pick up around you. Everything that was brought out of the game gets sucked into this whirlwind (causing extra damage as they slam into the area, of course), everything turning faster and faster, before being sucked into the orb. When the last danger vanishes away, all the damage that was caused by the game magically vanishes in the blink of an eye. Any injuries the game inflicted are gone. It's like it never happened at all. The barrier around you drops, and you're finally free. Of course, you now have seven extremely cursed board games to deal with, but at least for now, the ordeal is over.
OOC plotting post can be found here.
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The game board is right there, so he sees the dice and the presence of text in the display, and realizes what must have happened at the same exact moment that Ghilley cries his name. That's just barely enough time to pivot, with his hand still extended, and manage to grab the snake's body as it attacks. (13) Unfortunately the place where he grabbed it is far enough below the head that it still has room to maneuver: still in his thief garb, he has nothing to block the fangs of an angry snake now determined to win its freedom, as it sinks a bite deep into the meat of his shoulder.]
Argh!
[The rest of the snake is unexpectedly mobile, too: he's not used to dealing with them, and doesn't think to move his feet until it's already coiling the remainder of its length around his legs. He sinks to the ground in slow motion as he struggles against the pressure forcing his knees to bend, unable to break its grip.] Someone, help-!
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[When Lighter was told to watch for snakes when walking around, he didn't think he'd need to take the damned advice here! It's hard to ignore the way his stomach dropped on seeing this massive snake suddenly bite deep into Maxima's shoulder. Hard to ignore the surge of panic watching so closely as someone else he cared about took a severe blow.
But a Mercenary Leader can't panic. Fear wouldn't win. His focus overcame all as once again a surge of fire burned within Lighter and engulfed him in distracting light.]
Come at me!
[Indeed, the massive snake's attention turned to Lighter immediately allowing Maxima to free himself. Lighter walked back, leading the python's length further away from his friend. The more breathing room the better.
He didn't realize it, but the air around him started getting cooler.]
That's right, follow me. Show me what you've got.
[The seemingly reckless display was for the snake to strike its full length at Lighter. And when it and tried to wrap around him, he performed a perfectly timed dodge prepared to reach its tail to wrangle. Instead, though, the moment he dodged there was a Lighter-shaped construct of ice and frozen fog that the snake had focused on instead. Tried to constrict, even. Of course it wasn't a good match for sheer Cryo.
Keen eyed could see a light blue charm that dangled off his belt loop, previously covered by his clothes. And Lighter himself only let himself be confused for a split second before he rallied others with a weak spot exposed.]
Aim for the head!
ROUND 4: SPIDERS
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With Maxima now out of danger and the snake beheaded, he waits for everyone to get ready for whatever is next rolled. Joshua tosses the dice carelessly. Two fives come up, which means he gets to roll again. Lovely.]
"Need a hand? Why, you just wait.
We'll help you out... we each have eight."
That sounds like—
[The second he begins to make his educated guess, five venomous spiders come out of nowhere in the den area. Joshua sighs out the ending to his sentence:]
Spiders. This game is beginning to vex me.
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'Spiders', as Joshua said. His fists are curling in at his sides as he looks around--counting one two, three, four five--
they're bigger than any damn spider he's ever seen. Fuck. ]
...I've read a bit about these creatures. Normally they're tiny. I can't imagine how deadly their venom will be at that size. Don't let them bite you.
[ clenching a fist at his side, he's going to swing a punch at the air, sending a spike of ice at one of the things--creating a wall in front of it instead of hitting the thing. Dammit. (haha 2) ]
ROUND 5: KUSANALI
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This time it's different. As the rhyme appears, a little green bird perches on his shoulder. She trills a sweet, happy song. There's a slight smile on Joshua's face as he gently pets her head.]
Hello, little one.
[He glances at the poem that appears and is about to make a comment until movement catches his attention. The blond looks over at Ghilley, and puts a hand in his pocket casually.]
In the interest of fairness, I just want to warn you that I'll retaliate if I'm shot at, even if I'm not the intended target.
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that's the sardonic quip that's sitting on the back of his tongue--but try as he might, he can't say it.
see, see, there's usually a space between him and him, right? like, Ghilley knows where he ends and where the presence inside of him sits, curled like some sort of nascent, nesting thing; he gets information from that place inside of him, little jolts of memory and flashes of understanding. all small things that he borrows and puts to use, things that make him better, faster, smarter--
but he's been awake for a long time, considering, and he is Very Focused on what's happening right now. too focused, one would say--to the point where he's pressed out of the usual space that makes up him and into the space that Ghilley calls his own, and the longer the other lingers so close, the more things bleed together and Ghilley is having a progressively harder time picking out pertinent bits of information.
the bird is green.
but the bluebird smiles at them. 'I wish to hear your words, share your feelings, know your thoughts'.
the bluebird stares at them with a hollow made of a hundred broken hearts in the blackness of her eyes. 'I don't understand. All life is destined to end. Why choose to prolong your suffering?'
Ghilley watched the people's bodies rot from the inside out as they turned to monsters in the throes of devastated, hopeless despair.
--the remembered fires of the tragedy of the old world singe his skin as the Ascian grieves about the world crumbling to pieces the first time it came to pass--
--he watched his friends disappear one by one to make something out of nothing so that they can stop Her from rotting them all to nothing--
what is green if not a hue of blue? he levels his bow with the bird on Joshua's shoulder, and there's a sort of... out of character finality in his face when Joshua calls a warning. an acceptance that there will be pain regardless, that he's choosing to walk into a fire because someone has to burn for the work to be done. ]
Won't be the first time I've bled for doing what needed to be done.
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He never saw the bird herself, only the effects of her cries, but those effects still haunt his nightmares and always will. The others have told him of what caused it all, of a little girl who was a bird who was told to fly for answers and came back with nothingness burning in her chest, a suffering so profound she couldn't contain her emotion but felt compelled to sing it into existence across the cosmos. Yusuke has painted her to Takame's description, and so when Maxima sees the bird on Joshua's shoulder, he understands what has Ghilley so perturbed.]
Ghilley!
[But he also knows that the bluebird came back. They've told him that before she despaired she was an innocent, and that after her song was forcibly stopped she chose to sing of hope instead. That the bird who had flown higher and higher until she disappeared into the sky, who would never return, smiled in the end. Even if this little green bird is related to that one, there's no telling what its presence truly means.]
This isn't what has to be done. Not here, not now.
[But Ghilley isn't moving, and so Maxima steps in front of him, between him and his target, because if that's what it takes to stop his friend from making a mistake, he won't hesitate. He meets Ghilley's eyes from there with unflinching trust, confident that the Warrior of Light won't hurt him.]
You don't need to bleed for this, not when it hasn't so much as sung a note yet. Let's learn what it truly is before leaping to the worst conclusion.
ROUNDS 6 - 9: A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
ROUND 10: LION
TW: Animal death, though it's more of a magical construct, but still
Harumasa has been very good at keeping himself mostly out of the fights by staying with Furina. He doesn't like it, but he's accepted it so far. His instincts as a tiger rankle badly. It doesn't like being helpless and in pain while it perceives its home and family as being under attack. However, he's kept a very tight control over his Zouyu side and so far he's behaved.
Until the lion.
He smells the unknown big cat and it hits him as an intruder. Dangerous. Harumasa has enough humanity in control to scramble off of Furina before he transforms into a white, cloudlike tiger with golden eyes. He lets out a loud roar, the lion answers in kind, and he pounces on it with a speed that's unnatural to a tiger.
It's a vicious fight that has Harumasa sounding and acting more monster than human. He beats the lion back into a different room as he rakes across the lion's unprotected flank with claws made of shadow. The tiger avoids going for the neck since the mane acts as an annoying shield, but he does systematically deprive the lion of using its claws. Honestly, it's extremely disconcerting to see just how brutal Harumasa is when he surrenders to his bestial instincts.
The final blow comes when the tiger latches firmly onto the lion's shoulder and unleashesa veritable storm of lightning into it. The lion doesn't move again.
Harumasa staggers out of his transformation, on his hands and knees as he coughs up blood into the floor. He's very much not okay in a lot of senses, but at least he's regained his humanity after all of that.]
Can I... get some help?
[He asks before promptly falling onto his side in a heap. Harumasa's conscious, but he looks very pale and sick. His hands are shaking uncontrollably.]
> Over the Network | Text
However it's not a text alert that alerts him this time, rather the echoing sounds of roars coming from the fight. One he does recognize as his brother's, but it's definitely more hostile sounding than the sounds tigermasa usually makes when they're playing around. Meanwhile the other is one he's not familiar with at all, but it definitely sounds like it could be a lion or another tiger.
Either way... it's worrying enough for Jun to try to reach out. He'll try text at first ]
What's going on? I heard a lot of roaring. Everything okay?
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Fought a lion not really intended.
Tiger me didn't like big cat.
I won though.
But also ow. Not good.
[That doesn't mean he's fully comprehensive, though. Harumasa's doing his best out here, fam.]
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YOU FOUGHT A LION?!!!!
Do you need to be brought back here? That sounds BAD?
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I think it sounds cool. Nice job winning against a lion, Nii-san.
[Is he worried? Yes. But he's giving props where they are due okay. That being said- time to focus on assistance.]
Varian's got a stretcher ready and healing magic, if you need it.
[He'd offer assistance but well. He is in fact still bedridden- much to his frustration]
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Haru!
[ with a spurt of speed she moves to him, lowering her head down to him her mis-matched eyes glowing faintly as she calls on some more of her power. telekinetically Furina lifts him back onto her back, ribbon like fins curling toward him in an attempt to shield and protect. ]
Hold on I'll─ [ get him out of here. get him somewhere safe. ] Just hold on!
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[Maxima moves alongside Furina, fire-imbued daggers in hand once again just in case a threat leaps out at them. He fared poorly against the hyenas, is bleeding again and limping a bit, so backing off from the front lines seems like a prudent option for the time being. He'll need to return for his next roll of the dice, but for now they have a moment to retreat and recover.]
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I get saved by a dragon princess and a handsome bodyguard? Pretty good day for me.
[Harumasa's voice sounds rough and wheezing, but he's doing his best to keep their mood up. His situation is deteriorating, and that's a really frightening thing, but that makes having the hope that he'll make it through this all the more important. So he'll joke and play the fool like he usually does for the sake of everyone's morale. A skill he's cultivated for many, many years.]
ROUND 11: WOLVES
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Keep your guard up. I don't think that the game is going to play fair since we're close to winning.
[And then he rolls the dice.]
"The strength of the wolf is in the pack. They are unafraid to go on the attack."
[That's when he hears the growling. Looking up from the board, a pack of wolves begins to stalk towards Joshua.]
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Well, isn't that convenient. Oye, eyes on me.
[Right on time, the growling wolves turned to Lighter. Who treated them in the same way: with a growl he didn't even know he could make, fangs that he didn't know he had beared.
Now this brings me back. 'Got some scores to settle, do ya Lorenzo?
Less that and more an emotional dam to let out.]
All of you get behind me. I'll handle these guys.
ROUND 12: WOLVES ...2!
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They were almost there, just a little bit more...]
Nearly there, keep at it for the last push.
[With this being his turn, he picked up the dice and made his roll.]
"The strength of the wolf is in the..." Huh?
[Didn't he just deal with them? He did indeed, and didn't expect backup to arrive for them. And once again he was caught off guard.
From what seemed like nowhere a new wolf suddenly pounced on Lighter, sinking its teeth deep into his arm with its powerful bite. It would be a lie to say he felt a break, all he felt the deeper that bite went was an immense pain that caused him to cry out like he never had.]
ROUND 13 + 14: MONKEYS AND THE WITHERING