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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: ♪ ♪ ♪
no subject
Yujin turns away, lips pressed together tight. He clears his throat; he polishes off his drink and leaves the empty cup on the table with a faint tap of glass on wood; he stands, running a hand back through his hair.]
Sorry.
[And when they'd been doing so well, too. There are a dozen excuses he could make: the hour, the whiskey, the dancing, the way this performance of a marriage has suited them a little too well to pretend it's merely pretend. They all ring false, so he leaves the apology as it is.]
I, ah... [Voice low, he replies:] I think we ought to get to bed.
[The 'separately', he hopes, is implied, but if he says that there's no way it'll actually come to pass.]
no subject
The separately is louder in its silence than it might have been aloud. Stephen nods his agreement, pushes himself to his feet and reaches for Yujin's emptied glass. Better not to both go at once - best avoid the awkward parting as they each turn off the hall into their respective rooms.
Glasses in hand, one empty, one with a finger or so left to go, Stephen - stops. He could go the other way to the kitchen, but toward Yujin is the faster route, and to about-face would draw more attention than it needs. Instead, he lifts his glass again, swigs the remaining mouthful, the action somehow a world away from the sip of moments before.
Only a swig of whisky doesn't take more than a second to empty from a glass. So, to follow it: ]
Goodnight.
[ God, he hopes that didn't sound as wooden as it felt. It's mostly there as an indicator: please feel free to leave. He's just going to - wash these. A fact he indicates with a stiff little smile and a raise of the glasses now caught between finger and thumb. ]
no subject
It's almost more than he can bear.]
Goodnight, Stephen.
[The smallest concession, he reasons, will give him enough strength of will to soldier through the rest of... whatever charade they're carrying on behind the first charade. This studious denial of the body and of the heart. But if he's truly honest with himself, it's just that he can't keep himself so far away any longer.
Yujin moves to him, without fanfare, without any surge of passion or undue rush of speed. He doesn't take him into his arms: his touch is light, fingertips resting on Stephen's arm for a bit of steadiness as he raises himself up to the other man's level. He can still smell the whiskey on the man's breath. For how much he craves it, he holds himself back from the desire to take Stephen's mouth with his own. This will have to suffice. It will need to be enough.
Tentatively, Yujin presses a kiss to the ridge of Stephen's cheekbone.]
no subject
And then there he is, slight touch at his arm for purchase and—
A tiny huff of breath against Yujin's cheek. Fingers catch into the fabric at the other man's elbow, and for a moment he's floating there on a knife edge.
Then he squeezes where his hand's settled, a quick gesture of the passing of a moment, and tilts his head inward and downward as he steps back to disengage. The movement presses his nose briefly to Yujin's, shares his breath briefly with Yujin's, and that will need to be his enough.
His eyes when they lift to meet him again from a backwards pace away appear somehow glazed, unfocused by that unexpected brush with earnest, tender intimacy. His expression can't quite fix itself into place, untethered by something he daren't express. But they've done this many nights before. Not this, but the separating. He can hold it in.
For both of their sakes, they can do it again. ]
... Sleep well.
no subject
I'll go on ahead.
[But while this should be the way out for the both of them, Stephen's still looking at him, his expression oddly unfocused. Yujin doesn't look away. He can't fully parse the meaning in it, but isn't it significant enough that the other man's gaze hasn't yet broken away from his own? Stephen's only moved a pace away-- hardly an expanse that can't be bridged a second time.
Yujin's own pulse quickens. Suddenly feeling vulnerable, he folds his arms in front of his chest, eyes wandering away from Stephen's at last. His words are an embarrassed mutter:]
I feel rather foolish about all this. I shouldn't be making things more difficult.
[Yujin takes one last look at Stephen-- eyes searching-- before he begins to turn away, taking his first step towards the stairs.]
no subject
But Yujin has the strength to turn away. He manages that. And so, instead of saying anything that might call him back, Stephen reaches for the last normal thing left. ]
I'll see you in the morning.
[ And he turns off toward the kitchen, getting Yujin out of his field of view of quickly as he can so he won't do anything stupid, setting the glasses into the sink and turning the faucet on in the hopes the sound and the cold splash of water off the stainless steel might shift his focus.
He doesn't follow him up for at least another ten minutes. The tap runs for two of them, then silence, then runs briefly again toward the end, water rushing through the pipes in the house. Then the lightswitch. His footsteps up the stairs, along the hall. The telltale halt outside of Yujin's room as he stands there with two glasses full of water, frozen with indecision for seconds that stretch out— and he moves on. Past Yujin's closed door to his own.
The hall light goes out. A few minutes later his bedroom light goes out. Stephen sits in bed in the dark, two glasses of water on his side table, staring out at the opposite wall and trying to convince himself that he has - hasn't - has made the better choice. ]
no subject
Crisis narrowly averted, he thinks. Perhaps they'll make it through this mission yet.
Soon the tap runs upstairs, too, as Yujin makes quick work of his own evening rituals. He washes his face, the cold water shocking on his skin before it turns bracing; he returns to his room, closes the door, and slips into his pajamas. He's only just finished changing when he hears the faint percussion of footsteps heading up the stairs, continuing halfway down the hall-- only for them to stop for a few tense seconds. Yujin, sitting on the edge of his bed, stares at the closed door, waiting. Nothing happens; the footsteps start again, and the thin strip of light under his door blinks into darkness once more.
Crisis averted, he reminds himself. Even as he wrings his hands, still sitting upright, unable to bring himself to settle in for an uneventful night of sleep. A long, long moment passes as he mulls this over. Finally, Yujin exhales-- irritated with himself for giving in, but not irritated enough to stop himself, of course-- and rises.
Admitting defeat, it seems, is all too easy. It's as simple as leaving his room, shuffling down the hallway, and rapping his knuckles softly on Stephen's door.
A door that is. Not fully closed? The touch pushes it open further with a creak, and all that Yujin can manage is a surprised, not-so-suave--]
Oh! [Get it together, Mikotoba. But it's too late now. Yujin speaks again, almost shyly, following a sheepish pause.] ...Stephen, are you still awake?
no subject
The bathroom's on the other side of the hall. Stephen's held breath sucks in tighter, staring at the wall where the door recesses. Yujin knocks, and he hears the door creak open with it.
He left it open. God, he left it open.
Of course he did. Idiot.
For a moment there's silence from inside Stephen's room. And he could, couldn't he, could just keep his mouth shut and let them both get through another day. But his breath gusts out of him, and with it - ] Yeah.
[ He sounds potentially unsure of the truth behind that statement, clears his throat and tries again. ]
Come in.
[ Instruction, invitation, plea? Undetermined by the careful tone. But if he does, Yujin will find Stephen sitting shirtless with his back against the headboard, in the dark, accompanied by two glasses of water on the bedside table, staring at him with an expression that reads perhaps a little sheepish, a little cautious, but about a million miles from displeased. ]
no subject
The implication isn't lost on him. With the ghost of a wry smile on his lips, he asks:] Was that one for me? [then takes a seat beside him on the edge of his bed. For a moment, he surveys the man with a curious eye: his gaze travels from his face all the way down to the just-visible planes of his body. Stephen's hesitant... But not unwilling. So, he'll make a move after all.
Yujin's voice drops to a soft murmur. His fingers find Stephen's, settling over them gently, and he inches just a little closer.]
I've decided I'm unwell. [Yujin resolves quietly, leaning in.] I might not go to work in the morning.
[Maybe another night they'll be back to business, but tonight isn't then. No one else could blame them for giving in, he decides-- so he won't blame himself too harshly, either.]
...Is that all right with you?
[He squeezes Stephen's hand once. A moment later, Yujin brings his hand up to his cheek, fingers just brushing the hair at the nape of the other man's neck.
When Yujin kisses him this time, he lingers. Slow enough, deep enough, to taste the whiskey still on his tongue.]
no subject
He's back to staring at him again a moment later. I've decided I'm unwell.
Oh. You wonderful, terrible man.
When Yujin kisses him, there's no trace of his hesitation left. Stephen leans to meet him, tilts his head, sinking into the embrace like a homecoming. Relief. Fondness swelling up and catching him tight - and something else, too. Here, on their own, in the dark. No crewmates strolling about on the other side of the door. No threat of an announcement over the earpieces to pull them away from each other and into action.
Just the two of them.
Stephen sets his forehead to Yujin's as he tips his mouth just barely away to catch his breath, and his answer is easy, rich with humour and a throwback to the moment that had made this one inevitable. ]
Depends. What would we do with one whole day?
[ There are many ways to answer a question like that. But the easiest, he reasons, would be to show him. ]
to be continued lmao