Event || Custom Fit

[eternitymods]

Who: All
When: September 10th to September 30th
Where: Curti Center and mines around the world
What: Characters assist Ganeshan in developing Custom Jobs.
Warnings/Notes: OOC Post

A. The Lab

As much as Ganeshan requires supplies to create Custom Jobs, he need help at home base. With the large number of potential applicants, outworlders and Curti Center employees are invited to help out in the lab, not only with testing transfer of Jobs to crystals, but in developing the abilities and running safety tests.

Easier said than done when all of these cats aren't roaming throughout the center and claiming everything to be their sitting spot. The interns are trying their best to catherd to little avail.

B. Job Development

The break room contains formal submission papers and pamphlets describing the steps required to develop a Custom Job. Senior employees are available to help characters workshop the abilities, but they mostly want to remain in the break rooms to avoid Ganeshan's constant Job mania. His booming voice is muffled through the doors, interspersed with allergic sneezing.

A room has been prepared for those to practice using their basic job abilities, primarily in making sure they're stable yet not too weak. There is a chance that an improper ability extraction can go wrong and hurt the user, so Ganeshan has group of White Mages are on standby in case things go south.

For those that would rather have all the fun without the work, there is the Ability Simulation and Modeling Room, where characters can design their abilities on the computer and see them play out on the screen before them. There's no limit here, and since Jessie is too busy to keep an eye on everyone, the outfits and visual effects have the potential to get...very, very silly.

C. Heigh-Ho

It's off to work you go. Those crystals won't mine themselves, and anyone strong enough must enter the mine in search of the necessary material. It's tedious, difficult work, and some of these are embedded so deeply in the rock that they might be more trouble than they're worth. Not to mention those gross bugs might not like their homes to be disturbed.

There's also the fact that monsters have a tendency to wander inside and attack, so they'll need some reliable body guards.

There should be more crystals deeper inside, but someone else will have to scout the area...

D. Explore the Dungeon

Which is where this team comes in. All the good stuff is deep in this mine, and reliable navigators are necessary to map out the tunnels without getting lost. There's also the fact that the previous owners of a time long ago didn't want opportunists to take their precious resources and outfitted the rooms with puzzles.

Door Locks are puzzles. Pressure plates activate traps. It's the ultimate test of critical thinking. Some of these don't make sense if you think for too long. Why did they go through all the trouble to program time-based puzzles with falling blocks and symbols? The Pupu are strange. At least the bats here are easy to fight, and the mine cart rides are fun.

Comments

[acapriciousreaper]

The Lab
Kuja, of course, had jumped at the chance to see his powers returned to him. Not that he had a problem with being a Black Mage, per se, but he still preferred his own skills. So, when he'd made his appearance at the Curti Center, he'd been quite surprised to learn that apparently Parasraya had come to visit.
He and a few others had been begged by beleaguered interns to assist with the cat-herding, with the implied bonus of, perhaps, a little preferential treatment vis-a-vis queue order.
Kuja felt, for one, that he ought to be congratulated on his solution to the problem. Cats hate water, known fact. Black Mages can cast Water spells. So, having dialed down the standard Water spell from 'fire hose' to 'squirt bottle', Kuja assists, in the best way he knows how.

Job Development
Kuja snaps his fingers, staring intently at the plum-sized ball of Flare Fire in his hands. He's sweating profusely, gritting his teeth, but the red flame, black at the center, is maintaining, dammit, and that's better than he's seen since he got here. "Nnnngggh!"
The fire flickers, and then dies, and he has to sit back, panting. "Gods. It's still too weak, and I feel like I'm running a marathon up-hill just managing that much.."

Heigh-ho
Well, this is boring. At least it's going to a good cause. Kuja's already shattered a few Earth Elementals, and at present can be found hovering around the edge of the mining party, eyes peeled for any sign of danger, with a supremely disinterested expression on his face. He's borderline useless for digging around in the dirt, and he just knows he's going to develop black lung from all the dust in the air. Why on earth did they ask him to help with this job?

Explore the Dungeon
Deeper in, of course, is a different story. Puzzles and needlessly-complicated architecture laden with deathtraps? The genome is in his element, for certain, even taking notes on the things he sees on his iMog slate.
"Oh, I like this. Look here, the entire floor is one giant lever; too much weight on either side of the room and down you all go into the spike pit. How very clever..."

[sassafrisk]

Frisk, casual outfit soiled with dirt and ripped in several places, gives an exaggerated sigh and leans against the wall as well, blowing a loose lock of brown hair out of their face. They look at Kuja, eyebrow raised. How on Vaikuntha did that man keep his clothes clean? Probably through either a supernatural with his pick of Satan-analogues, or very, very carefully. Frisk was burning with curiosity. "How did you manage it? Keeping your clothes clean." They look Kuja up and down appraisingly. "Especially with an outfit like that. Holy crap, that's some style."

[acapriciousreaper]

Kuja, at the very least, has had enough sense not to go running about in dirt holes wearing flowing white. So many things it could get caught on and ripped, or worse, stained. No, he's exchanged his usual white skirt and pointed boots with something slightly more practical, a much shorter skirt in auburn with a shorter-sleeved bolero to match. And actual pants this time. All still very deliberately eye-catching, of course.

"Hm? Ah. Well, White Magic is terribly practical for some things. Keeping things pristine is one of them." He peers through the gloom at the... boy? Girl? ... Child in front of him. "Thank you. It's nice to see that someone appreciates a sense of style about this place. Forgive me, but is there any relation to a young..." he never did ask about that, did he? Hmm. "individual named Chara? You look very similar."

[sassafrisk]

Now that was a lot more complicated question than it seemed at first glance. Frisk opens their mouth, closes it, puts a hand on their chin in contemplation, opens their mouth again with their index finger raised, then thinks better of it, obviously doing some mental math. "That's... complicated. Basically, they're an alternate version of a dead royal family member from my universe, but in my universe I ended up getting adopted by the exiled king, who apparently wasn't a king or exiled in Chara's universe but was still their dad, so we might be technically siblings by the loosest definition of the term? Not biologically related, though."

Frisk drags their head down their face, releasing a groan. "...a simple 'no' probably could've worked better there. Yeesh. Sorry for spreading my headache to you. I am starting to get really fed up with all of these alternate universe shenanigans, and Papyrus is more likely to yammer on for half an hour about the complex physics involved in all of it than to give me any sympathy."

[acapriciousreaper]

There's a quiet moment of reflection, following this revelation.

"Do you know, that actually made a twisted sort of sense? I must be going mad..."

[sassafrisk]

Frisk gives Kuja a wry smile. "Glad I'm not the only one that thinks that. It's a bit... weird that all of this" they gesture vaguely, "timeline shenanigans and planet-destroying stuff and mysterious emoji-spamming maybe-omnicidal trolls are the new normal. My life wasn't exactly mundane back home, but the rules and stakes didn't change every month."

[acapriciousreaper]

"Ugh, don't remind me. I'm hoping that this research into 'Custom Jobs' proves fruitful enough to allow us to regain the majority of our former strength. I would, at least, find it terribly comforting if we had to face Bahamut directly."

[sassafrisk]

"I mean, I'd rather not fight the giant world-destroying dragon, but you do have a point." Frisk sighs wistfully, staring off into the middle distance. "I don't really think my particular skillset from back home would translate well into a Custom Job, though. At all."

[acapriciousreaper]

Kuja nods. "I hold... no particular illusions about getting everything back, myself. Still, some semblance of that I'm used to would be welcome."

Job Development

[musicinmysoul]

While Matilda realized how important it is to help with gathering materials and the bureaucratic aspect of custom asterisks, she found herself drawn to the custom asterisks people were throwing together. They doubled as a form of expression and, from what she's seen, something that harkens back to what they could do back home. She should consider doing her own, but....

...She'll think about it. Instead, she's watching the flamboyant man and his magic with noted interest.

"I suppose there's a limit to how much of your own powers these asterisks can bring back. Or it'll get stronger as your proficiency does?"

Re: Job Development

[acapriciousreaper]

Kuja huffs, taking a seat. "I should hope so. As it stands, I'm almost unbearably weak. Hello again, Matilda."

[musicinmysoul]

"Hello, Kuja."

She offers him a sweat rag to dry himself off before taking her seat as well.

"I still think managing that much is impressive. It's a great first step!"

[acapriciousreaper]

Kuja takes the cloth gratefully, placing it against his forehead. "It's humiliating is what it is." He sighs. "Nobody ever accomplished anything worthwhile by giving up, however. I'm just going to have to persevere."

[musicinmysoul]

"Exactly."

Matilda nods in agreement. "So what end goal do you have in mind for your asterisk? I'm curious about your brand of magic."

[acapriciousreaper]

Kuja hesitates. He had a lot of destructive power at his disposal, but... "While I doubt very much I'll ever reach the potential I once had... I think the one thing I miss the most is flying, under my own power. I should very much like to do so, again."

[musicinmysoul]

"Oooh, that's a good one. It feels like it's been forever since I tried anything with flying..."

Thinking about it briefly has the girl starry-eyed and cutting that train of thought with a whimsical sigh.

"I've enjoyed going out of my comfort zone as a cavalier, but maybe making my own asterisk would work better than choosing necromancer. I miss the agility you don't see in most spellcasters..."

[acapriciousreaper]

Kuja huffs. "At last, someone understands. Is it not better to simply not get hit than to waste all this time and effort blocking and protecting- just dodge and blow them up before they can touch you. It's not hard."

Explore the Dungeon

[4got10]

Chara honestly kind of felt at home here. While the architecture back in the Underground wasn't as needlessly complex as it was down here, the puzzles were as prevalent as ever. These puzzles, granted, were way more dangerous and violent. But still. They bring up at least a little bit of nostalgia.

"They sure love pressure puzzles down here," Chara says, nodding at the entrance way leading to the next room. "There's a few plates on the floor of the next room, at least near the door."

While they missed their powers from home, what had been their own magic, Chara had to admit that Geomancer did have its perks. Sense Earth was incredibly useful down here, in getting a lay of the place.

Re: Explore the Dungeon

[acapriciousreaper]

"Pressure plates? I wonder what they lead to..." He taps his chin. "Honestly, this has been wonderful. You have to admire the craftsmanship and dedication to the art of a good deathtrap. I wonder if they've got a magma lake. A bit hackneyed, yes, overdone certainly, but you've got to have an appreciation for the classics..."

Explore the Dungeon

[4got10]

"I'm kind of amazed we haven't found a spike trap yet," Chara responds, hands at their sides. "They're pretty much the bread and butter of any kind of underground death trap."

Re: Explore the Dungeon

[acapriciousreaper]

"Oh, I found one earlier. Quite ingenious, really." Kuja steps forward, peering at the pressure plates. So well-hidden, as well! "No teleportation pads yet, however, how tragic."

[4got10]

"Says you," Chara says, moving in time with Kuja so they don't throw anything off. "I like the underground better than the surface, but I'm not sure I want to be shuffled around into the dark too much.

You don't really meet a lot of people who care that much about dungeon trap design. It's kind of a hobby for a select few." And for a pair of kids pretending to be town guards, where Chara's from.

[acapriciousreaper]

"It's the principle of the thing. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right, don't you think? Teleportation runes do add a certain je ne sais quoi to the whole affair." He bends down, inspecting a tripwire. "Ah. Slotsin the wall, some sort of spinning or swinging blade trap. And at convenient adult human neck height as well, how very nasty." He doesn't sound concerned, but rather, delighted. "I wouldn't use it, of course, far too likely to get mess in places that are very difficult to clean, and all of a sudden a five-hundred-year-old tapestry is ruined. Still, remarkable shape for something this old... hm?" He pauses, responding to Chara's comment.
"Ah, well. It was something of a tertiary hobby of mine. A lot of valuables, and of course I had to ensure their protection."

[4got10]

"I've never really been a perfectionist," Chara says, shrugging a little. "There's even kind of a charm to something that doesn't come out wquite right. And it's spinning."

Chara raises an eye a little bit. "I don't know. Aren't creepy old dungeons supposed to have creepy old blood stains?"

Chara laughs at that. "You make it sound like you were a video game boss."

[acapriciousreaper]

Kuja frowns. "I'm afraid that bit of vernacular escapes me." Game boss? An employer of- oh. "No, nothing to do with gambling. I did own an auction house, however."