melodiesofeternity | Event || Custom Fit

Event || Custom Fit

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.

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"Huh... I hadn't considered magic actually being used like that." But it made sense. If magic could heal and protect the body, it could be used to protect against any potential internal damage too.

He cocked his head at her words, but said nothing, letting her sing again... but maybe this was a mistake to listen. It was soft and warming and inviting to listen to. And while he heard her words, it didn't process as worrying. Something about other half - a name that burned red as love?

Someone...

"... Ladybug."

She took in a breath and eased it slowly. With a flourish of her hands, mostly for show, the air cleared. The music, its hum and its timbre, faded alongside as Madhuri just looked absolutely delighted.

"My, my~! I wasn't expecting a reply all told, but now I'm bubbling with questions and stories."

Madhuri steepled her fingers, eyes dancing.

"Is 'Ladybug' here?"

That good feeling was gone and his face turned entirely red. He couldn't believe he just blurted that out, and now, Madhuri was going to needle him with those questions. Him and his big mouth - and that music...

"A-Ah... no, she's not."

And thank goodness she wasn't because she'd probably tease him relentlessly.

Her face fell. "No?"

Well, there goes that little silvery cloud. Adrien was such a sweet boy, and here she was with a lovely theater in what could be one of the most romantic parts of the world! Alas, she wouldn't be matchmaking today.

No, she could just matchmake tomorrow.

"Well," she concluded, tapping the tip of her nose and giving him a wink.

"Should she make her debut, you'll let me know, won't you? You seem the 'grand gesture' type, and here I am with a grand venue and perhaps subtle musical accompaniment."

"... Really?"

Oh gosh, he would love to do that... but he reeled back.

"As much as I would like to, it's better she doesn't come here. She's a superhero in Paris - and if she's not there, no one can protect the city from Papillon."

"That-... hmmh." She tapped a foot. Were their respective worlds entering a panic with their sons and daughters suddenly gone? She had to wonder. Every time she jumped worlds, she had nothing of regret to leave behind.

...Except for now, of course. She really did miss her silly group of dragon boys.

"If she's Paris' hero, you're absolutely right. That's terribly mature of you, you know. Why, I feel something similiar: Someone back home needs to be where he is now, actually."

So she knew what it was like... maybe not the same, but she knew what it was like to miss someone and want to see them. And with everything they keep learning about this world, he would like to see her again... tell her everything on his mind because he might not come home at all.

"... Is it okay to be selfish? If I could see her just for a minute... to tell her my feelings..."

She understood. They all had a timer ticking away above their heads, freshly set yet no less intimidating. The world all had their eyes on them to stop the cycle, and few among them had any idea on how to get started on preparing for next April.

Madhuri placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled.

"Of course. But let's do your Ladybug one better and get you home to her so you can give her that grand gesture on your terms... not Bahamut's."

"... I would like that. Yeah."

And he'll manage a more confident smile forward... but this world caused it's own drawbacks - plenty. Surviving this entire plan already set in motion was going to take a lot of work...

"We should probably try making some progress on that now that you mention it..."

It had almost been a month since they met with the Empress now.

"I hear tell some summoners may be turning to the Eidolons for aid, but I can't help but wonder what the others may be doing, rather than post about their 'meems'..." But she shrugged.

"Regardless, once I get this Asterisk up and running, Bahamut needs to start quaking in his boots. I've fought dragons before, and if he isn't up for a fight, he'll be eating out of the palms of my hands!"

"'Meems'? Oh, you mean 'memes'." Right, he saw that and had considered engaging, but he also felt like he should be doing something - going out and finding something; maybe wrecking something since he had Plagg. They weren't the only people in danger. Being here at Ganeshan's Workshop for Custom Jobs was a step forward to getting some more strength behind them...

Still, those thoughts aside, he blinked.

"... You've fought dragons before?"

She nodded. "The biggest problem in Vel La Moore right now involved a dragon who ruled the world until his defeat. While some of his progeny live peacefully, some would seek to harm the world in their late father's stead."

With a shrug, she added: "But dragons are indeed dangerous. They have the capability to simply shrug off and ignore the rules of magic itself, but temporarily."

"And that's probably going to be Bahamut too." At least, from the way a lot of people reacted to just his name, he probably would do exactly that.

"... Could you teach me?"

Her head canted. "...Teach?"

But with a pause, she considered that Asterisks were something that could be used, not just by her but by others.

"Hmm... perhaps I could, if they'll allow me to. Actually, I'm quite curious to see my little bag of tricks in the hands of another!"

"Yeah."

If she couldn't teach him how to use her abilities, he wouldn't mind at least learning how to defeat a dragon. If it came down to it, he would just really need that experience or know how under his belt.

"Really? Thank you!"

"You're quite welcome. As soon as I figure this whole thing out, I'll definitely give you a buzz. Right now I think it's just making sure this whole thing is stable. I'm calling it 'Spellbinder', since Bard is already taken."

She shrugged.

"Though if you ask me... something-something you already know my opinion on the whole thing, hah."

"Sure. I'm looking forward to learning it."

Though, in his opinion, Spellbinder was the cooler name. 'Spellbinder Bard' could be the unofficial full name he thinks. Still... "Haha, yeah. If anything, your Job could probably replace the current Bard Job."

"That'd be fun, but those within the Guild have a sort of... er..." She gestured vaguely.

"They're more musicians who prefer to stick to the back, which is fine and has its place. But when you're in my line of work, you have to be able to adapt and overcome."

"Right. The Guild made it clear they rather be support players." Which could be taken or left. Support would be needed, but Bards should be able to do more still.

"Right. It'd be pretty impressive if a Bard here could face a dragon alone."

"The thing about dragons is that they require a sizeable party to stand and defeat them. Never have they been defeated by a single figure... not when they have their resistances, those spell-bouncing scales and hoards of magic at their claw tips. But to build a defense, direct all their little dragon-y tricks elsewhere... then strike them in their squishy parts, of which there are admittedly few."

She went to gather up her hat and straighten it.

"Which leaves stopping the summoning. But where to begin?"

He nodded, but then brought his hand to his chin to think. That was the big question, wasn't it? How did they stop the summoning? They were preparing to the 'if they couldn't' stop it less than the 'locating and stopping'.

"Well, I imagine summoning Bahamut must take a lot of energy, right? Could we maybe figure out where energy is bring drawn from and cut it off? With the way magic is, it seems strange that we couldn't track where it might be going to or coming from."

"Well, that's the trick, isn't it? To summon something so large you need a large group. Just as well, to group together risks the entire operation going down when someone finds the rat's nest, so to speak."

She settled into a chair upon straightening it up as well, offering the boy one just the same.

"So, naturally, you spread out and work in small splinter forces. Do summoners work with ley lines? We work from the ley network of Vaikuntha. We find the eidolons, who may know such things, or sources of magic power otherwise."

She opened her arms in a shrug.

"I'm the idea girl back home."

"Hm... I can't say I know much about ley lines here..."

He's also not the one who came up with plans back home... most of the time. Sometimes one just happened to be inspiration, but most of the time, he had too much else to do.

Sitting down in the offered chair, he continud trying to think.

"Have any of the summoners with us uncovered anything?"

"Think of ley lines like veins in the body, full of pure magic energy. The achieve great magical feats, it's ideal to cast while standing near where two ley lines cross. Summoning something massive like Bahamut...? Absolutely."

She frowned, then shook her head at the question.

"Can't say that I know, but I might need to do a bit of snooping. Someone's got to know where on earth the ley lines meet here."

"Oh..."

That made sense. So the lines in which magic flowed, but... hm, the strongest concentrations would...

"Yeah... right now if we were to guess, you'd probably think about the Crystals naturally or wherever the Eidolons are residing. That's just off the top of my head, but any of the magic-centric Guilds probably have a better idea."

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