Operation: Saving Private March

[trailblazingspirit]

WHO: March 7th, Evernight, and you!
WHERE: outside of Caleb and March's house, and then in the Spirit Realm!
WHEN: a weekend in mid-January!
WHAT: time to save March 7th from her unexpected journey through the Spirit Realm!
WARNINGS: allusions to past horror, murder, and character deaths in one part, trauma and general fantasy violence, risk of injury. HSR 3.6 spoilers.

It’s cold out. Your shoes slip a little on the slush that's slicking up the sidewalk.

I found March, Evernight had said, not quite pleading the network for help, but not not pleading. Not quite hoping for her plea to be heard, but not not hoping. Now she stands outside Caleb and March’s house, two jellyfish floating breezily around her, and she looks as composed and calm as ever as she twirls her dark umbrella, even as a gate to the Spirit Realm gapes ominously beside her. She smiles eerily on seeing people arriving, then tilts her head to the gate.

“She’s in there,” she says. “I’ve figured out the fastest way to get to her, but I can’t guarantee the kind of shape she’ll be in when we find her. I can tell you this: it won’t be easy.” She opens her umbrella. “Get yourselves ready.”

Comments

OUTSIDE THE HOUSE

[trailblazingspirit]

[For threads before going in! If you want to talk to Evernight please lmk in the subject line.]

PART ONE: THE SKYSPLITTER

[trailblazingspirit]

[nightfallsghost]

You step out of the portal and onto the Skysplitter: a skyship meant to host one of the most prestigious martial arts tournaments in the universe. Banners hang from sleek silver walls, depicting symbols that belong to various factions from all over the place. The sunlight gleams off various swords—all of them shattered and broken. Bodies litter the Skysplitter’s floor, blood spatters the walls.

Those who were on the Event Horizon will recognize the manner many of the people died in, though the bodies themselves belong to Cloud Knights clad in blue armor. Those who have memories of March’s universe will recognize the borisin claw marks. Evernight steps onto the stairs, her two jellyfish trailing behind her.

“The Event Horizon,” she murmurs, before she turns to the group. “Her memory of it is—distorted, but I know that something used her to enact its violent, murderous schemes.” She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her dead eyes. “It’s lucky it’s out of my reach, or I’d drown it in a sea of oblivion. Still—it’s clearly left behind marks on her memories.” Her fingers trail over a deep gouge in the walls, and she tilts her head to the side.

“Come on, the way out should pass through here,” she says, and guides the group out of the bloody scene and into the corridors.

She pauses at a door and pushes it open, to find what might’ve been a small, private room for a Wardance participan. Instead of Luka, though, a gently pulsing orb spins in the middle of the room—the cause of all the Event Horizon’s horrors, rendered inert by its nature as a shadow of a memory.

Scattered around the orb are various objects important to March, all frozen in ice. Some are obvious, out in the open, while some are hidden away in the corners of the room. “If you can pick some of those up, they might prove important for later,” says Evernight.

[every item picked up will add +1 for part 3!]

PUZZLE

[nightfallsghost]

Evernight guides the group out of the room and brings you towards an elevator. Where a panel would be, though, is a five-by-six grid. If you have a fondness for word puzzles, you might recognize its construction.

Evernight cocks her head to the side, and says, “That’s right, she’s been on a Wordle losing streak, lately.” She touches the panel, winces as a spark jumps to her fingers, and quickly draws her hand back.

“Looks like this part is up to you guys,” she says.

PART TWO: JANUSOPOLIS??

[trailblazingspirit]

[nightfallsghost]

The elevator carries you all upward, but when it opens, it’s not a ship you step into, but a pathway towards a temple that looks like it came right out of Ancient Greece. It would be more familiar to certain people from Amphoreus, only—did the Temple of Janusopolis ever have a statue of a nipple-tasseled god in front of it? And did the pathway out from the temple ever lead to a bustling city that looks a little like—

“That city Kaisou has made an impression on her,” Evernight says, looking somewhat distracted as she turns in a circle. “She loves that place quite a lot—the boba place she visits everyday, the home she shares with her best friend, the people, even the animals…it’s almost as if she’s found a place to put down roots at last.” She cocks her head to the side, eyes narrowing at something no one can see.

“I remember this part,” she says. “When she entered the Scepter’s system, she drew attention from a certain Genius…” She closes her umbrella, spins it in her hand idly, and looks back at the rest. “You’re going to meet someone charming in a moment,” she says. “In the meantime, I have a dangerous memory to distract. Try not to raise too much of a fuss.”

As she walks away, she steps to the side. A moment later, a tall young woman with long red hair bursts out of the temple, running like hell before she skids to a stop and blinks at the assembled group. “Help,” she pleads. “I have—I need to get out of here, the priests—”

From within the temple, a cry is raised: Find the Holy Maiden! She killed the Titan!

“I know a way,” she says, and stumbles forward, steely determination in her eyes. She looks as if she’s holding herself together through sheer force of will. “I know the way, I remember the way, but I need—they can't see me, please.” She puts a hand out and wrenches open a golden gate through the fabric of reality, and says, “I…We will guide you.”

Step through the gate, and you’ll find yourself in the thick of the city of Kaisou—and the Holy Maiden staggers as she leaves the gate, before she shuts her eyes and seems to…glitch, like a computer program that's met an error. Then her body dissolves, reforms into multiple little redheaded girls, all of them looking very tired but determined. They’re swaying on their feet, but staying upright with all the strength they can muster.

“We have to move without being seen,” says one of the girls, and nods to the paths that branch away. From here, you can see patrol groups of various sorts, ranging from blue-clad humans to monsters in green with ginkgo leaves sprouting from their bodies to glitchy orange-black things with bladed arms. “We can guide you, but you have to be careful not to get their attention. If you do…”

“Then the really super mean bad guy will notice!” says another redheaded child.

“The bad guy didn’t notice us until we’d already gone on our way, when Miss March guided us,” says a quieter child. “You guys can do better, right?”

[every thread rolls three times. each successful thread will weaken the boss fight, while each failed thread will alert the boss and strengthen its summons.]

BOSS FIGHT

[nightfallsghost]

[watch this space~]

FINAL PART: FINDING MARCH

[trailblazingspirit]

[nightfallsghost]

[coming soon!]

[heng_like_a_dragon]

[Dan Heng has picked up an item from the previous room belonging to March. It's one of her little stuffed animal friends that he remembers her being very fond of on the Express. Conjuring a sturdy vine, he ties it securely to his belt. This way, he can keep his hands free while escorting a piece of March back to her.

Seeing the grid lined out the way it is, the dragon crosses his arms loosely. He glances at Evernight when she says that March has been on a losing streak, but frowns when he sees her get injured by the puzzle. Dan Heng looks back at the Wordle and sighs softly.]

Knowing her, this is going to be either extremely difficult or very easy.

[March is a girl of contradictions. Though, how much of that is Evernight's subtle influence is impossible to say.]

[unreachableside]

[Blade looks... surprised when they step through the portal, like this is the last place he expected to be. And there's a reason—this ship was not seen often in his memories. The Event Horizon stuff is unsettling, as are the bodies, but he has no personal connection to the events of the horror plot a while back.]

... The Skysplitter? I didn't realize March had been here. Although it is usually a livelier place...

[Then there's the side room. These items look almost like talismans being offered before a long, arduous journey. He feels compelled to take one, so he makes his way around the room, poking into the corners to see what's there.]

[trailblazingspirit]

[For Blade, a toy sword that looks much like one of March's twin swords turns up tucked away in behind some knick-knacks on a desk.

It's very cutely decorated with a tiny pink bow.]

[blossominghopes]

[Lia doesn't really have anything to say about the Event Horizon-- it was well before she showed up in Kaisou to stay, but the scene makes her frown a bit.

She makes a face at the orb in the middle of the room. It might be a memory, but she still doesn't like the feeling it gives her. More importantly, she should start looking through some of the objects. If Evernight says they'll be important for later...]

Even beyond the ice, this place is giving me the chills.

[... She'll start looking into the corners of the room, she thinks.]

[burgersplease]

[Anby is following behind. She eyes the dead bodies that are lying around with caution. But it's hardly the first time she's encountered a grisely scene, so she maintained composure.

She'll follow alongside Blade, mostly out of familiarity. Ironic, considering the last bloodied body she saw was his, back in October.]

Most likely the Spirit Realm pulled it from her mind because it's a stronger memory than the Event Horizon, if her memory is disjointed. Like how dreams will take place in familiar settings even if the topic's unrelated.

[Per Evernight's instructions, she'll pick up an item frozen in ice]

Do you think we're meant to thaw them or leave them frozen?

[blossominghopes]

[Lia arrives early--with only a few minutes taken to grab her things and let Hugo and Lycaon know where she'll be.

The wonders of teleportation.

She'll be checking over her equipment until everyone else gets there. And double-checking. And triple-checking. And--

(You get the picture.)

The small pink, purple, and white bat clinging to the front of her jacket is new, silently watching as Lia keeps checking her equipment. Lia occasionally reaches up to gently scratch its head.]

[doublethumbsup]

[Oh this is the worst place for Hermes to be.]

So... it's just Wordle, right?

Just start typing in letters! We'll get it eventually! Do "A"!

[And yet, here they are. They're Helping.]

[doublethumbsup]

[Oh.]

[Oh this is. Not where they want to be. Or where they expected to be. They reach up to pull their hat further down over their eyes - anything not to look around and suddenly be back there for real. They'd wanted to come and help, be a real Hermes, who wouldn't have thought twice about pitching in for someone else. They'd thought maybe doing this would make them less afraid of March, start fixing the broken part in their head.]

[Instead they're back there and it's taking everything they have not to throw open a Doorway and run. Do what the Pope said. Just close your eyes and breathe. They're not a fighter, like the others. But they're dressed in a thrifted leather jacket, and sports pads. They have the brick on a rope over one shoulder.]

[They're breathing. They're better prepared. It's fine. It has to be fine.]

R-right. I uh. I have... I have a brick? For - the ice?

[Maybe if they just look at the stuff and not the too familiar corpses, they'll be fine.]

[unreachableside]

[Blade grabs the toy sword.]

... Hm. Cute.

[It's dangerous to go alone. He'll take this!]

[unreachableside]

[Blade takes point. He's cautious in a place like this, half-expecting something to jump out at them. If it does, he has a full-sized sword he can hack it down with. Fortunately, that has not happened yet.]

The Skysplitter was a decommissioned warship that the Xianzhou used as a venue for a martial arts tournament. They would invite people from all corners of the universe. It's normally a time for celebration and competition...

Those memories must have been overshadowed by what she suffered aboard the Event Horizon, like you said. One ship bleeding into another.

[He considers Anby's question.]

I don't see the point in keeping it frozen. If you give it to me, I can melt the ice. It'll make it easier to hold onto.

[... Hopefully this isn't made of crazy superman ice or something.]

[trailblazingspirit]

[It's not! Once the ice is melted, Anby will have obtained a pair of cute pink headphones, with slightly loose ear-muffs, as if they've been used for a while.]

[trailblazingspirit]

[After some digging around, Lia finds a frozen block of ice that contains a bottle of Startaro Bubble.]

[trailblazingspirit]

[Frozen in a block of ice close to Hermes is a plushie of a Kubfu, its face set in an adorably angry expression.]

[actnormal]

[Caleb spots his girlfriend and stops preparing his own kit to go over and just.

Drop his head on her shoulder with a sigh.]

[actnormal]

Yeah, we came here for...Wardance, I think it's called? Or, well, she did. Dan Heng and I were...elsewhere.

[Shackling Prison.]

Yangqing and a girl...Yunli? They actually taught March how to sword fight.

[actnormal]

[Caleb vaguely remembers this place. He didn't spent much time here, but he remembers it.

He ignores the bodies (they're not real) and the orb (no context) and starts digging around for things of March's when he realizes that's what is in the the ice.]