thebastion | Day 346- Day 352: OPEN

Entry tags:

!event

Day 346- Day 352: OPEN

Who: Everyone in the Bastion
Open: Open
When: 346-352
Where: The Bastion in general
What: This is the calm before the storm. Any last conversations with NPCs? Any last things to take care of? Do them here.
Format: action
Warnings: none so far

When you make a thread in this post, please put the names of the NPCs you want to respond in the header of the first comment.

As a note, this is also your last chance to make any changes that will affect how endgame begins. All things that help or hurt the Bastion residents will be tallied up on September 18th, and the final post will go up shortly after that. So if you want to catch the thief, form any alliances with other NPC groups, or anything else, now is the time to do it.

Threaded | Flat

[Rose had already gotten the few items she felt like she truly required in this place, namely her moss and her sword. She hadn't been involved in much since arriving but there were more than enough whispers and talks around for her to gather that a possibility of some form of attack on their home could happen.

As usual she wasn't doing much in the way of socializing save for those who actively approached her, but she wasn't just sitting on her haunches doing nothing, either.

Near the houses, one might find a very, very large woman with massive pink hair holding a shield and sword, taking one what could only be described as walking plants. She cut through them easily, dodging attacks as they came, pausing only to let them reform and begin again.]

Edited 2015-09-17 22:50 (UTC)

[Zuko is easy enough to find on any given day, but you're not going to catch her resting. Any truce they have with the strangers is tenuous. She wants to be prepared.

She's kept up her heavier training regimen, and is up for teaching or sparring with anyone else who wants to. Kizuna is usually nearby, and feeding or playing with the little dragon accounts for most of Zuko's breaks.

Some of her time she spends at the forge, though she doesn't have the skill yet to make the weapons she knows from home. Still, it's at least one trade she feels she can apprentice herself to. ~~Zuko no you were supposed to find hobbies~~]

[Not being the only heavy hitter in the Bastion had actually been a relief to Rin. She enjoyed fighting, sure, but the way things had been lately had left her in a state of just wanting to be... domestic and not much else.

It was a much needed break after so long of fighting for her life and the lives of others and not much else. Spending time with Ryuji, working in the kitchen, focusing her efforts on the Bastion instead of the Skyway let her grieve properly rather than getting her aggression and upset out in ways that weren't always the most constructive.

But she wasn't deaf to the talks around the Bastion, or the things that had been going on in her absence from the Skyway. She reasoned that sooner or later she might be called on again, either to defend the Bastion itself or to go back to the Skyway.

Best not to let those skills of hers get too rusty.

If anyone goes looking for her and doesn't find her in the kitchen as usual, they might spot her in the training building. If not there, then hobbling her way to the onsen in the late evening, groaning and grumbling about being sore and out of shape as she makes her way to the relaxing hot waters of the bath.]

(Comment threads below.)

[She spends more time in the training room than usual, beating at dummies and offering herself as a sparring partner until anxiety, always stronger than exhaustion, forces her to move on. Somehow, she manages to spend more time than usual in the pool, too, racing laps back and forth until her nerves settle and her muscles refuse to move anymore.

It may not have been thought possible, but Aoi has even more energy in her than usual. She has to be everywhere, do everything, and so she's guaranteed to be scurrying somewhere about the Bastion at every point of the day, trying to get something, anything, done. Mostly, though, she concerns herself with the other residents: if it's not hey, what are you up to, can I help it's how are you holding up, to ever, anyone and anyone at all.]

[AZ has been busy, but less so with weapons or training or armor or anything of the sort. No, AZ has been busy with something at the path to the Skyway launcher. People coming in and out will be able to see him, but most of what he'll be visible doing is taking big pieces of metal along with some tools and bolting them together.]

[It's slow work, but between him and Golurk it's going fine. A bit later he'll be found piecing together a sliding mechanism and having Golurk punch it until he's satisfied it can stand up to enough. At the top of the slowly forming gate, there are shields along with sliding pieces so that whoever is guarding the gate can see outside.]

[Thankfully this isn't coming from the shard bank, but from things that he's dragged back with help. It's not the best piece of engineering, but it's functional and he'd appreciate help while he works on this and takes small breaks to regain feeling in his hands from gripping his tools so tightly.]

A: On Day 346 this building appears north of the lake. Peeking inside will reveal that it's a workshop of sorts, with the upper level dominated by an alchemy lab and the lower level being mostly filled with metalworking and woodworking stuff. Rob and three small robots proceed to lug all of his alchemy stuff out of Colin's workshop, and Rob can soon be found organizing stuff in his new workspace and getting some potions brewing. If you come in though, be sure to watch out for the Squirtle sleeping in its shell on the floor, in the exact spot most likely for someone to trip over it.

B: Speaking of the Squirtle, Rob and his Pokémon can sometimes be found at the training grounds. If you missed the explanation of what the two monoliths slowly drawing a circle are for in the lead-up to the prisoner exchange, a few moments observation should clear that up; while within the circle, all abilities can be used without limit, regardless of MP, PP, or the Bastion's 3/day limits, but in exchange they can't affect anything outside the circle in any way. As for what Rob and his Squirtle are doing here, Rob's getting the Squirtle to do target practice with Aura Sphere. The sessions don't last for very long though, since the Squirtle is still young and gets tired and bored quickly.

C: Rob's also playing in the lake with the Squirtle occasionally during downtime. There's a practical aspect of giving it practice towing him with Surf, but there ends up being a lot of swimming around or just floating in the water.

D: On Day 347 a small flying island appears at the edge of the Bastion, balancing on the point of a giant version of the monoliths in the training grounds that the landmass is attached to. Water pours from the island in three places and falls into the void. A ramp leads to an opening in the base of the monolith through which can be seen a large cave that can't possibly fit in the space beyond the opening, illuminated with copious numbers of glowing mushrooms. Exploring within will allow one to discover a cave with a supply of mattresses, blankets, and chamber-pots, a cave with a tiny waterfall in it, a locked wooden door, a cave outfitted as an alchemy lab and medical room, a cave outfitted as a workshop, and finally an exit to the surface of the island. The surface contains little free space, being filled with a garden bed, a stream, a small rice paddy, a small plot of wheat, various alchemy plants everywhere there's room, and a giant tree of unclear species growing over the monolith. Rob can be found looking around, datapad in hand, obviously inspecting the place.

E: Rob can also be found in the print shop more often than usual for a few days, the aforementioned small robots occasionally seen carrying books from the print shop to the new workshop and the flying island. Taking a look at the titles as they go past will reveal that they're reference books for alchemy and other topics in various languages that residents of the Bastion can read. If you do decide to stop by the print shop while Rob is inside, be sure to watch out for the Squirtle sleeping in its shell on the floor, in the exact spot most likely for someone to trip over it and hit the edge of the counter inside with their face.

F: Towards the end of the week a change comes over Rob, and not just the sudden presence of bandages one morning along with a more confident stride. The first change is that his goatee has been put into a short braid and the strands of hair that would normally fall into his face if not tied back are put into a braid on each side of his face. The second change is when he appears one morning wearing a new outfit: an elkskin kilt; a belt off of which hangs a large knife, his bag of holding, a rather intimidating warhorn, a healing potion, a number of pouches, and something that resembles a wallet chain only made of braided leather cord and with some small pieces of bone hanging from it; mammoth-hide sandals; red steel greaves with black trim and three spikes at the knee; black-trimmed red steel armor over the backs of the hands and forearms, with spikes at the elbows and knuckles, several antler points mounted on the armor, and the Horde emblem raised and in black on the forearm guards, the armor all worn over fingerless elkskin gauntlets with gray rabbit fur around the cuffs; his glowing-eyed rabbit skull necklace, now joined by an antler point on a cord around his neck; a bearded two-handed axe with a molded wolf head on each side, three short spikes in a row opposite the blade, and an antler point dangling from a small hole in the butt; and, to top it off, a dark brown wolf pelt with warpaint on the head, worn so that he's looking through its glowing red-orange eyes, the forepaws are resting on his bare chest, and the rest of the pelt is hanging down his back like a cape. tl;dr - Rob's looking like some kind of barbarian warrior now and even without bulging muscles he's actually more than a little intimidating.

G: On Day 352 another building appears, this one round and made of stone with large wooden braces and wooden spikes, resembling an orc burrow from Warcraft. Unless you happen to have gone to the forest clearing north of the lake though you probably won't have noticed it appear. What's not hidden is Rob loading up one of the carts with his things from his cottage and pulling it over to his new house. Because of course Rob is responsible for that building; who else here makes structures with big spikes on them?

ota

[These days, Zulf can be found at the gazebo. There's a plethora of paper and writing utensils spread around him, all the results of his attempts to write down about his people and those of Caelondia. It's in Ura and Caelondian, of course, so it may not be too useful for many people, but oh well.]

[Now and then, he can be heard murmuring to himself.]

And our Mother said to the first ten Ura, "Dedicate yourselves to my children and I, live for that which is the core of us, and you shall find prosperity. To you two who have knelt before my two eldest sons, pick up your spear, ready your shield. They are heavy weights..."

[Feel free to listen further, or talk to him. He seems to be doing a little better than how he is at other times.]

[Zayna]

[Zulf cleans himself up as best as he can and puts on his finer clothes. Which, in the apocalypse, is nearly anything, but one makes do. Then, with a deep breath and trying to keep his hands from trembling, he ventures over to a certain Ura den and knocks on the door.]

[In his head, he makes a quiet prayer for it to please not be Zahi.]

[The double horned troll that sometimes floats around the Bastion is pretty quiet, generally speaking. Sometimes he just rolls around on the grass, sometimes he disappears out onto the Skyway- although not lately after that attack- and just tries to recover. He's even actually looking fairly decent in terms of health. Not, y'know, like a corpse. Progress!]

[If people are concerned, it doesn't seem to be Psii's concern. Instead, one day, he just floats over by the Monument, settles down, takes a deep breath...]

FUCK!

[A pause as he coughs, and then the alien breaks down into giggles.]

[Apparently he's been wanting to get that out of his system for a while now.]

[Open]

[Megaera's first couple days out of these last few are spent... Largely in the library, largely concerned, and often out of the way. On day 348, she goes to the monument, and then she seems... A little less concerned?

But anyone with a shard stash who she runs into, she'll be talking about making some specific worst-case-scenario supplies with.]

[Separate encounters each for Patchouli, Ibuki, and each or both of Hilda and N]

[Megaera's going to go out of her way after that monument run to reach each of those mentioned. Hilda and N, she doesn't care if she runs into them individually or at the same time.]

Hey.

[Ikuri had found many things in the Bastion she never thought she'd have: friendship, love...a sense of community. Reasons to fight beyond simple survival. It wasn't just a matter of victory or death: not on the smaller and more personal scale, at least.]

[No, she's been getting a very different and unsettling feeling lately. A notion that everything here might be at risk.]

[In recent days...she's mostly been keeping to herself. She has no honest idea how effective "training" as a concept would be to a creature like her, but lately it's been the only thing she could find the heart to lend herself to. Doing laps around the Bastion, training herself - and alongside partners - in the designated areas...truth be told, she's barely been resting; has barely felt the need.]

[It wasn't hunger for battle pushing her. It wasn't even the overt fear of the dying world of old. It was...a peculiar disquiet. The feeling that something was wrong, or rather that something was approaching. With the hostilities between her home and this other faction that had made itself known, it wasn't entirely an unreasonable feeling, but...]

[Could that really be all there was?]

[Wherever you find her, she's doing one of two things: exercising, or taking a break from it that's purely just idly standing, sitting or even pacing about, and in no circumstance is she even close to relaxed. There's the indelible feeling that she has to be prepared, though for what, even she has no idea.]

Threaded | Flat

Rose | ota + npcs

OTA | Stewart or any other NPCs?

Rinchan | ota + npcs (Ura or Nathaniel if at all possible :3 )