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ximilialog2023-10-08 08:05 am
- ! event log,
- ace attorney: phoenix wright,
- bbc sherlock: john watson,
- fear street: ziggy berman,
- grishaverse: the darkling,
- gundam seed/destiny: yzak jule,
- my hero academia: toru hakagure,
- pacific rim: newton geiszler,
- shta: sherlock holmes,
- star trek aos: leonard mccoy,
- terminator: the t-800,
- the old guard: andromache,
- the untamed: wei wuxian,
- the witcher: yennefer of vengerberg,
- transformers: minimus ambus
MISSION: THE SUN NEVER SETS ON AMARYLLIS GROVE
● ● ● M I S S I O N 1 7 . 1
Over the course of the station’s downtime, even the least astute observer will notice the sudden influx of crewmates aboard the station. Before you can further inquire and investigate this anomaly in your usual routine, your earpiece will ping! with the familiar sound of a newly received mission file. Viveca’s voice immediately follows.
After reviewing your mission file and gathering all of the necessary supplies and clothing options, those who are well prepared might have enough time for a decent night’s sleep. If you aren’t the sort to sleep before a mission, well … carry on.
When morning arrives, you’ll make your way to the teleportation platform to join your fellow crewmates. Viveca and Degar are already standing by, the latter passing around the aforementioned potion to those who will be needing one. Finally, when the entire crew has assembled, Degar starts to speak.
Viveca nods from her place.
Degar lifts both hands to give them all a cheesy little thumbs up. Without further ado, the hum of the platform, as it begins to power up, grows louder and louder until it’s impossible to hear anything else but the machinery thrumming in your ears. Soon enough, you’ll feel the familiar tug at the pit of your stomach as you’re whisked away from the station and towards your destination. But for a moment that feels both too short and too long, you hear it: whispers, echoes, voices that speak to you in several tenors at once, all of them providing you with a goal in exchange for their help.
Before you have a chance to answer, your surroundings begin to paint a clearer picture. You’ll be found in your usual place of choosing: whether that’s your own household, the park, or one of the several locations in and around town.
Welcome, Orbers, to Amaryllis Grove.
On the day of the Orbers’ arrival, the weather is crisp and sunny, the trees still lush and green with only the barest hints of the leaves beginning to yellow and redden at their tips. As the summer months slowly transition into cooler autumn temperatures, the entire town feels pleasant, even cozy. The clouds in the sky provide gentle overcast conditions and you might think to grab a light coat, or wear a longer sleeve but it is by no means chilly enough to feel anything but pleasant.
Depending on where you decided to arrive, you’ll want to begin your explorations and familiarize yourself with the Grove, which will be your home for the next little while.
1.0 The town of Amaryllis Grove will feel spacious and sprawling while also being cozy and compact. Cleanly paved streets wind in and around residential pockets and cul-de-sacs, threading through the community’s amenities, goods, and service buildings. The community centre, the library, the government offices, and the Mayor’s office can all be found in the main core of the Grove. The police station and television station (playing news and sitcoms in classic black and white) are situated nearby, and are all within walking distance of each other, and the neighbouring retail streets are located just past the block. This includes clothing boutiques, restaurants, coffee shops, grocery and general stores (which will sell all manner of hardware, cleaning supplies, and simple, household magical items). Having a vehicle will certainly help to get around town if you’re in a hurry running any errands, but a bicycle works just as well, and the walkability is pleasant for those wanting to take a stroll.
Everyone here is well-dressed in crisply ironed slacks and button-downs in neutrals, or colourful A-line skirts and dresses with delicate detailing for their tops. Children and teenagers are likewise found in school uniform consisting of dark blue pleated skirts or slacks, and white shirts. With the weather beginning to cool, a well structured jacket may also be a part of the ensemble.
2.0 Once you’ve explored some of the town, familiarizing yourself with the backstory and family history you and your fellow crewmates have corroborated together, perhaps you’ll want to explore your house. Lined up in rows of pleasant, homogeneous pitched roof structures, each house in the neighbourhood will come equipped with all of the necessary spaces to live a perfectly suburban life, the most ideal environment to raise a family and grow old amongst generations of familiar faces. Each one-storey house, in either brick or ship-lap siding and in various colours, will have 3-4 bedrooms, an attached garage for the family car, a living room, bathroom, spacious kitchen, and enough yard space to require both a lawn-cutter and a green thumb for the garden. Interiors have already been furnished with all of the up-to-date items for the time, resembling Earth’s 1950s era to an almost eerily accurate degree.
Say hello to your neighbour when they greet you or wish you a pleasant day. Many will look perfectly human, while others may seem more alien with vibrant skin, an extra limb, antennae, gills, and the like. Some also possess magical abilities which is not seen as strange or abnormal here; however, the magic used in Amaryllis Grove consists of simple household magic to aid with cooking, cleaning, and keeping the house perfectly pleasant – otherwise known as ‘petty magic’. Whether you’re used to such sights will likely depend on where you’re originally from, but no matter who lives next to or near you, they seem friendly enough. They may even invite you over for dinner, or inquire when you plan on hosting your next party.
You’ll cook, clean, sleep, and host parties and dinners with your neighbours of Amaryllis Grove within the walls of your quaint abode so it’s best to get to know the space that will undoubtedly become second nature to you.
3.0 While the concept of ‘Halloween’ does not exist in Amaryllis Grove, other such Autumn festivities are highly anticipated, namely the annual gathering of the harvest. It is otherwise colloquially named ‘the Harvest’. It won’t come as news to any of the residents, as the season ends and food is plenty, the Harvest has been a long-standing tradition to celebrate the closeness of the community, and to express one’s gratitude for the people that you surround yourself around.
Your neighbours may inquire whether you’ll be bringing the same mash potatoes as last year, or perhaps the spiced meatballs that the Alkherns simply couldn’t get enough of — they were just so delicious! Either way, you may want to start coming up with a special dish to bring to the community gathering or find someone to snag a recipe from, as it’ll gain you admiration or admonition, depending on the popularity of your offering.
Sunsets are beautiful, picturesque moments that conclude the end of a perfectly spent day, and the sunsets in Amaryllis Grove are certainly no different. As the town winds down and residents return to their homes for the night, you and your fellow Orbers will follow suit – as is the way of things. The nights are a little overcast during this time of the year, with cloud-cover masking out the stars and the glow of the moon. It’s quiet. Only the sounds of night-insects chirping can be heard, and the soft, occasional coo of a bird asleep in its nest.
4.0 Perhaps you’re catching up on some late-night reading, or grabbing a late-night snack or a night-cap. The last of the evening hours are usually spent in the comfort of your own home until a new day begins, although there is a town speakeasy that remains open until late, if you can find it. Once you climb into bed, there really doesn’t seem to be a reason for anything other than a soundless, well-deserved rest.
You’ll be tucked up in your own bed, or perhaps the bed you share with your backstory-spouse, when you hear a shrill scream that wakes you up from your sleep. High on the adrenaline, you may want to don a robe and your slippers and step outside past your front door where you’ll be joined by other neighbours on your street. They exchange glances with each other, and then may meet eyes with you, and they look scared, with their wide eyes and clenched fists, some of the husbands and wives holding each other’s hands for comfort. It isn’t outside of the norm for such a startling cry. The house in question will be fully lit, with Mrs Myrsdin sobbing into her hands, mumbling, ‘I told him not to say anything! I told him to keep quiet! It came for him–’ as the AGPD (Amaryllis Grove Police Department) approach her, one of the officers patting her shoulder in consolation. Another officer moves towards a cluster of concerned neighbours, assuring them that this will be taken care of, and when they spot you, they’ll tell you the same.
It might seem difficult now to head back to sleep, but the crowd disperses and the AGPD lead Mrs Myrsdin back into the house. The lights remain on for another hour, maybe two, and then the entire block quiets again, the AGPD preparing to leave for the station once more. It seems there’s nothing else to do but get as much rest as you can before the morning ... but everything about this doesn’t sit quite right. Maybe you'll linger behind for a moment, see if you can ask a few questions, gather a bit of information, as it seems that after the brief moment of shock none of the residents seem to be particularly surprised by any of this.
5.0 The skies are blue and the sun is bright, and as Amaryllis Grove wakes up to a new day, everything feels as though Mrs Myrsdin never screamed into the night, with no signs of the AGPD having visited, and not a whisper to be said of Mrs Myrsdin's husband disappearing. If you try to investigate what happened at the house last night, Mrs Myrsdin will conveniently be absent, and any neighbours around you may either greet you with the most firm, reassuring smiles, or an outright aloofness to ignore anything you say. They’ll interject by telling you about the Harvest festivities, or make a comment about the weather. Some might sound snappish and dismissive. One thing’s for sure: everything feels tense.
But as the skies gradually shift to an overcast, one of your neighbours may gesture to the sky with another plasticky smile, commenting about the brightness of the sun. ‘It sure is bright today,’ they might say, the comment seemingly so off-handed. It’s casual, polite, and a little strained. ‘It’s got a far reach.’
It’s too bright to stare directly into the sun without damaging your eyes, but as you glance up just past it, you might notice that the sun looks a little … too close. And it doesn’t look a whole lot like a sun either, though it is bright but it looks like a large whitish sphere with a piercing, golden iris and it seems to be watching. This certainly wasn’t in the morning’s weather report.
6.0 As you continue to settle in Amaryllis Grove, you may begin to pick up on other strange things that you hadn’t noticed before – not surprising, considering the whirlwind of events that have taken place in such a short period of time and having to grow accustomed to the daily lives of the residents in Amaryllis Grove.
There are figures that resemble people scattered around town in all shapes, sizes, and races, replicated with excruciating detail, all the way down to their expressions and poses. In their everyday wear, they stoically fill in corners and take up empty spaces, and while it can’t possibly be true, their eyes seem to follow you as you move past them – even with the empty gazes of their glassy eyes. They’re made of metal and clad in something soft and pliable to make up their skin. Once you know what you’re looking for, they almost start to make themselves more visible to you. But if you study them for too long, you may begin to feel a little nauseous and queasy, and temporarily experience vertigo. Or you may start to have feelings of paranoia settle in, making you short-tempered and twitchy.
These figures can be found almost everywhere around the town, but they will mostly be populated in and around the residential blocks, looking as though they’re busily living their lives in passive background poses. They’re easy enough to miss if you aren’t sure what you’re looking for, and they’re so life-like you almost feel rude staring for too long, in case they turn their heads towards you.
And on the next night, you might catch the glimpse of a dark, stationary silhouette of a man in the Myrsdin house just before Mrs Myrsdin draws the curtains closed.
F Y I
• If you have questions about any of the prompts or the mission in general, please direct them HERE.
• To explore a specific location or speak to any of the NPCs, please submit your search request HERE.
• And finally, your soundtrack for this log: ♪ ♪ ♪
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[ Stubborn Sherlock is stubborn and afraid to ask for help. (Despite that he's already done so multiple times in that strange place.)
He concedes to Watson's suggestion and just sits down where he stands, no matter if there's a bench or anything nearby, no matter if he's blocking a sidewalk in doing so. Then he closes his eyes and tents his fingers before his lips. ]
How, how has your investigation gone thus far? Tell me.
[ Give me something real to focus on. ]
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I doubt there's anything you haven't already seen, but ... Especially the figure in Mrs Myrsden's house bugs me. Everyone knows Mr Myrsden supposedly killed himself, so why is there someone in there at all? Is it supposed to be for her? Who are they trying to fool?
[ He pauses for a moment, his brow furrowing deeply, but the next moment his eyebrows shoot up as he straightens slightly. ]
Unless they're not trying to fool us?
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If they were trying to fool us, then that means our cover has been blown completely. No, I gather that remained for the people living here. Although, is it to fool or threaten them?
[ His nausea has passes, so he thinks he's gotten himself back under control Sherlock opens one eye, spots one of the strange figures who makes eye contact with him instantly. His entire body tenses. Stop watching me! ]
Stop watching me!
[ His own words sound too loud to his ears like he said them aloud instead of mentally. (He did. He spoke them aloud.) ]
no subject
It was pretty recently that he saw Sherlock this shaken. During the Baskerville case, when he was so certain he saw the giant hound. The one that actually wasn't real. Except, in this case, those figures are watching them. Or, rather, they're sculpted to look like they're watching. Doesn't mean they are.
Or maybe it does.
Doesn't matter right now. Sherlock matters. John takes a deep breath, and crouches down next to Sherlock. He breathes in and opens his mouth to attempt some sort of comfort, something like 'you're okay' or 'no one is watching you', but then he thinks about who Sherlock is, what he just asked, his insistence that he's fine, and maybe he just needs to keep helping him keep his mind focused. ]
How would it threaten them?
no subject
[ Like with Eulah. An innocent woman nearly killed to send a message to Sherlock and his Watson.
This Watson's presence beside Sherlock helps just as much as his attempts to keep Sherlock's attention diverted from the figures. Sherlock closes his eyes again and starts to use Watson's breathing to time his. If he could just stop his usual horrors from invading his thoughts, he'd be much better. However, he would rather just have those and not add to his madness with these figures. ]
Judging by how Mrs. Myrsdin reacted, how all of them reacted, they've seen this before. It... It was a reminder, a warning, as much as it was a punishment for Mr. Myrsdin.
I fear something grander if the message was meant for us.
no subject
[ This is just really uncomfortable. ]
Just that we don't know exactly what it's supposed to be.
no subject
[ He's not fine now, and no one believes him. However, he's not coughing his lungs out. He's just... seeing things, feeling nauseous, and overly paranoid. So certain that he's about to be abandoned because he's lost his mind, and now they know.
Sherlock makes to stand up, and when he opens his eyes again, he keeps them firmly trained on the ground as if he's looking for footsteps. ]
I-I think it has passed. They were all just some trick of shadows. Or trick of light in the case of the sun.
[ He still thinks he's seeing things others do not. ]
no subject
What's the foolish task, exactly?
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[ He gives a small self-deprecating laugh. Oh how he sees his task in a different light now. It feels personal. He paces a little, all while still keeping his gaze directed to the ground. ]
I don't know how that is supposed to help with the mission at all. Am I supposed to just tell anyone without preamble? How do they, whoever they are, define a dream? Or what it means to not achieve it for that matter? How am I to know whether it worked at all?
[ And don't say belief because Sherlock won't have it. He wants something tangible. ]
no subject
He looks up at Sherlock for a moment, then slowly moves to stand. ]
I wish I knew. Might want to ask someone else these things. Someone who's been here longer.
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There are many things I need to ask. I should write a list.
[ The only issue is that he knows few people who he can trust to give straight answers and who has been here for a length of time.
... Which means that Mikotoba is probably going to face the brunt of his questioning soon enough. Someone spare him. ]
In the meantime, I have to wonder if your Holmes had a similar dream as a child. I wanted to be a pirate, but as you can clearly see, I am not.
no subject
Maybe there's some disappointment in there somewhere. Or just a sense of adventure. ]
Yeah, he did too. At least according to his brother.
no subject
[ Sherlock can't stop himself from jerking his head to look at Watson, eyes going wide, and a hint of a smile playing upon his lips. ]
Do you know if he had a ship name? We sailed the Themis, we did. Captain Holmes and his First Mate Jon-athan.
[ He quickly amends Jon's full name. Sherlock hadn't exactly meant to mention Jon. He normally trails off when implying his imaginary friend, but maybe he was quick enough to prevent any name confusion. Jon is not John Watson. ]
Well, mind you we never actually sailed upon the waters. Our ship was... not sea worthy.
no subject
After all, Sherlock's not the one who told him about the pirate thing.
He shakes his head. ]
I don't know anything else about it. Neither of the Holmes brothers are very forthcoming. Or easy to talk to.
no subject
[ He shakes his head. He's told his Watson some stories about Cordona, mostly related to cases, but there are things he has yet to say. ]
My Watson has yet to meet Mycroft, and if I could spare him the tedium and how utterly vexing he can be, I would. Did he ask you to do something for him? Something for Queen and country but keeping you in the dark all the same?
no subject
Sure, yeah. He likes doing things like that.
He also wanted me to spy on Sherlock.
no subject
He... what?!
[ While already generally pale and sickly looking, Sherlock somehow manages to go even paler. His words come out in a rush, and he nearly reaches out to grasp at Watson before stepping back and pacing around. His paranoia is only partially caused by the Silent Companions. ]
Dr. Watson, please tell me you are not. Please tell me you are not actually one of Mycroft's agents sent to spy on your Holmes. For all his blathering about the big picture, Mycroft never tells the whole story to anyone. He tells them only what he wants them to know, be it the truth or a lie, for his purpose. No matter who gets hurt.
Dr. Watson, please tell me you are not working for him.
[ The idea that Watson could have been a plant by Mycroft had never occurred to him, and now that it has, it terrifies Sherlock. One of the few good things in his life since Cordona cannot be part of one Mycroft's schemes. ]
no subject
Wh-- No. No no, absolutely not. I don't trust him as far as I can throw him.
no subject
[ He all but slumps where he stops his pacing. The last person Sherlock had started to befriend was a saboteur in silk, playing with him to make him into some perverse art, that man's masterpiece. Sherlock had only figured things out after the damage was done. ]
Had I misread someone's motives again so completely combined with Mycroft trying to shape me into his perfect little agent for the British Empire and for that to be carried out by none other than John...
[ Sherlock doesn't want to think it. He wants to forget ever entertaining the idea, sweep it from his mind palace forever. ]
I-I apologize, Dr. Watson. This is why you don't jump to conclusions without all the evidence. Of course you wouldn't. Nor he.
no subject
He shakes his head a little. ]
It's okay. I mean, we're in a really weird situation to begin with. You don't know me from Adam, at the end of the day.
no subject
(5-6 years younger than a normal Holmes is at 1882, taking on this case 12 years before his counterpart did, and doing so as his first case with his Watson... Yeah, he is too young to have a confident handle on everything, anything.) ]
No, I suppose I do not.
[ He covers his face with both his hands and takes a moment to breathe, to recenter himself. He needs to get back in control. He can't appear mad. He's fine. He just needs to concentrate. ]
For all that we share in similarities, we are essentially strangers.
no subject
[ He breathes it out, and shakes his head a little. ]
Maybe we should get out of the street for a bit.
no subject
[ He wouldn't mind getting to some place more private, so he can fight off the constant feeling of being watched which makes his very skin crawl unpleasantly. ]
no subject
no subject
[ His "mother" and "father" as far as the townsfolk are concerned. ]
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