04 - week four

[afflictionmods]

WEEK FOUR

Saturday comes to a close, and it’s time for some rest and recovery. Perhaps the TLC you deserve will come this week, or perhaps the nightmare will continue. It’s hard to say with things being so strange around you, from Wei Wuxian’s disappearance to the sudden addition of objects and places and creatures from your homes. Who knows what this week will bring? Nothing ordinary, that’s for sure.

You wake up on Sunday to an increase in those little glimpses you saw yesterday. What were snippets of songs, locations that might’ve seemed familiar, and creatures that were dormant, are now all alive and whole. When you go to the karaoke bar, the songs you once knew are there. Monsters and animals are alive and sentient. New business are abound. Vehicles are operable, and perhaps some of your old belongings are back, too.

However, some of these things aren’t even things that should exist outside of your dreams. They may be far too strange and unusual to be real, or just things you don't remember ever seeing. The only thing you remember about these things in particular is that they were, quite literally, in your dreams this week.

That being said, every few hours, all of these things from your homes and dreams fade out and get replaced by new sounds, places, beasts….only to maybe come back again at another time.

Well. At least there's one constant here: You’ve got a handful of new locations to look at, with the fog having spread once more, and they aren't going anywhere. There aren’t as many new places that are native to Estelline this time around, but that may be for the best, considering everything going on.


SETTING TRACKER

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

NEWSPAPER SUBMISSIONS + EDITION #1

SAGE / FLORENCE / LORELEI

MEM SHARE DETAILS

OOC NOTE

OOC: Details on this week can be found here!

Also, we have a lot of participants for the news activity from last week. Neat! Everyone who participated in some capacity will have a small polaroid camera delivered to their doorstep. There's limited film, though - 10 photos per camera. It doesn't seem like there's any extra film at this time, either.

Finally, there will not be any weekly tasks this week. You guys are going to be busy with memshare and dreamscape stuff; instead, enjoy the Estelline University Newspaper!

FULL NAV

(CODE)

Comments

[selfconcept]

Am I...

[ He goes over to sit on his own bed and notices a box. ]

Oh, right. It was package day.

[partymagician]

You are.

[ Is… Hien not aware??? Hello??

But Fai doesn’t bring it up again, moving to sit next to Hien on his bed. ]

It was. I got a few things.

[ If Hien looks, he’ll see a big white coat with a swirling blue pattern all over it draped over Fai’s bed. There’s also a large magic staff in the corner of his side of the room. It’s the same staff Hien saw in Fai’s memory. ]

[selfconcept]

[ Hien looks up to finally view the room in full. His extreme tunnel vision only consisted of Fai ever since he stepped inside. ]

Oh. That's the huge staff you carried around when you were a kid...

[partymagician]

Yep. I carried it around until I gave it to a witch for payment.

[ He leans back on his hands. ]

I had a dream last night that you came to my world when I was younger. Trying to give me lessons on smiling, weren’t you?

[ Especially those fake smiles. ]

[selfconcept]

[ So Fai saw that... Hien closes his eyes for a bit before reopening them and reaches into the box and pulls out a very comfy pillow. ]

Yeah. I was hoping that maybe that version of you wouldn't fake smile so much when he grows up.

[partymagician]

Mm, maybe he won’t.

[ He looks at the pillow. ]

The king of Celes raised me. One day, I told him that I couldn’t so much as heal a paper cut, no matter how hard I tried. So, he told me that my smile could be my own healing spell.

[ … ]

Perhaps I got carried away at some point. I think I used it as a healing spell for myself.

[selfconcept]

I think it was more of a defensive spell. It didn't heal anything.

[ Just saying. He hands Fai a comfy pillow. This is his apology gift without outright saying it. Giving Fai one of his pillows... amazing. ]

[partymagician]

[ Well… Hien isn’t wrong about that!

He stares down at the pillow. ]

Ah… I actually got one of these myself. You don’t have to gift it to me, Hien.

[selfconcept]

Now you have two.

[ That's final. He rummages through the box, eating the grapes he encounters, and pulls out a pocketwatch. ]

Fancy. I bet the time is wrong.

[partymagician]

Mm, probably. I bet you can fix it though.

[ He just… sets the pillow to the side. Guess it’s his now! ]

[selfconcept]

I can, but that sounds like something irreversible to do to a possible sentimental object.

[ Pocketwatches tend to be that, and even if the watch is broken, the time is set at an important time... It's what he learned. ]

I'll try to find the owner later.

[partymagician]

Ah… that’s true. Pocket watches are expensive, aren’t they?

[ He got a cheap one in one world, but he remembers the prices of the others.

Fai fixes Hien with a curious look. ]

So you really have learned how to fix watches…

[selfconcept]

... Yeah.

[ Hien puts the pocketwatch on his desk. ]

Used to work at a clock shop. Watches and pocketwatches and clocks... it's really a matter of knowing what can be used as a substitute and if it uses magical unknown materials, just study them a little. The foundation of it all are pretty much the same across all the worlds.

[partymagician]

Wow...

[ He smiles a little. ]

You know a lot of cool things, Hien. I'd be jealous if you were never willing to talk about all of it.

[selfconcept]

I had many years to know stuff. It would be stupid to not use all those years for something. It may not be useful sometimes, but I know it. It's all that matters to me.

[ He looks over at Fai though. ]

You get jealous?

[partymagician]

Of course I do. It's a natural emotion.

[ He gives Hien an odd look. Maybe he doesn't experience it after living for so long, but Fai is different in that regard. ]

[selfconcept]

Is that so...

[ He's known he was unnatural anyway. It's fine. ]

But jealous of me not telling you? Really?

[partymagician]

Think of it like living vicariously through what you tell me.

[ He wouldn't necessarily be jealous of Hien talking about those things with someone else, though.

But would he be jealous of other things? Well, that's for Hien to ask. ]

[selfconcept]

Well...

[ He rests his head on Fai's shoulder. ]

I have a lot of stories to tell, if you ever wanna hear one.

[partymagician]

[ The anxiety Hien felt when he laid his head on Fai's shoulder previously is gone now. ]

Tell me a fun one right now.

[selfconcept]

[ cant believe i lost this notif AND the tag i wrote for it... closes eyes ]

A fun story for when I was learning stuff? I don't think I have any of those...

[ Though he tries to think back. ]

I know how to change clothes really quickly without the use of magic. I was already decent before I became an Overseer, but I learned more when I was part of a troupe once. During one of the rehearsals, they accidentally took off all their clothes instead of changing to the set they needed to. That was pretty funny.

[partymagician]

[ f....... ]

That does sound funny... Has that ever happened to you personally?

[ Or is Hien just too good at it for that to happen? ]

[selfconcept]

No. I was already good at it as a habit, so I would have to intentionally fuck it up.

[ He's just that well-practiced in it somehow. ]

Bet you would have liked to see that.

[ More because it's funny and not... yeah. ]

[partymagician]

[ He gives Hien a strange look. ]

Of course I would have...

[ But also because it's funny! Totally. ]

[selfconcept]

No shame.

[ He flicks the side of Fai's head. ]