melodiesofeternity | Event || Worldwide Tourists

Event || Worldwide Tourists

Who: All New Arrivals and Curti Center Staff
When: April 15th-30th
Where: All over Vaikuntha, starting outside of the airship hanger
What: Ganeshan, the resident Job Expert, will be taking the new arrivals around the the various Guilds so they can collect their chosen Job Asterisks as noted in their applications.
Warnings/Notes: Guild prompts can be found here

Enter the Master

[Each new arrival's iMog buzzes with a message instructing them to gather for a worldwide adventure to obtain the power of Vaikuntha. If they follow the invitation's instructions, they will arrive at outside of the airship hanger on the morning of the 15th, with their meager belongings packed.

An Enterprise-Class airship, the Ragnarok, hovers outside of the Curti Center. There is a flash of light on the top of the ship.]

"WELCOME!"

[A figure, minuscule at this distance, launches itself off of the ship and hurtles toward the ground. As he draws closer to the ground, he starts to flip, landing with a flourish. An armored figure, sans helm, turns his toothy Zora grin to the crowd. With a shimmer, his armor transforms into a white mage's robe, and he sends a rush of wind through the crowd for dramatic effect.]

"I AM GANESHAN, THE JOB MASTER! GYA HA HA HA! TODAY, YOUR LIVES WILL CHANGE FOREVER."

[Ganeshan shimmers again, ruthlessly abusing the Chemist's Modifier skill to once again shift Job Classes so he can lower the airship's loading dock with a wave of his hand.]

"I BELIEVE THAT EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU HAS THE ABILITY TO MASTER THE JOB CLASSES. SOME OF YOU MAY MASTER MANY, OTHERS WILL PURSUE THE PERFECT MASTERY OF JUST ONE. BUT EITHER WAY, YOU'LL BE INCREDIBLE!"

[Ganeshan gives everyone a big thumbs-up. The out-worlders who are not scared off by this booming speech can feel free to enter the airship and prepare for their ride around the world. Hopefully some of the Curti Center's newest hires can serve as ~~non-crazy~~ less exuberant tour guides for the new arrivals.]

Around the World

[The Ragnarok will be stopping at every major city in Vaikuntha, with the exception of those cut off by the Imperial border closing. Characters can create top levels to respond to the Guild prompts and explore the cities themselves as the ship makes its stops. Each Guild provides information sessions, free food and trinkets for potential applicants, and once you're ready to receive your Asterisk, all you have to do is take some introductory lessons and fill out forms. Characters can receive up to two asterisks. Time to get to know your new world!

Questions for Ganeshan can be directed to the Ganeshan top level post.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A: Von Oktavia - Dark Knight Guild

[In Eorzea, Irhya was quick to drop the conjurer nonsense for a giant fucking sword and a more comfortable philosophy no sweat, even though it came with a host of bizarre trauma and guilt issues later. It was the principle of the thing that won her over.

Here, things seem to be... a little different. She finds she doesn't dislike the grungy sounds of electric guitars, but godsdamn it, not when she's trying to speak to someone--]

Twelve's sake.

[She has a claymore already and she damn well knows how to use it. With surprising accuracy for such an unwieldy and heavy weapon, she skewers the guitar one of them is holding and chucks the remains off somewhere, pointing the tip at the former player's neck after that.]

Stand up. It's time for a history lesson, kids. The dark knights of Ishgard were better than this. Sure, their lives sucked, probably more than yours do, but do you think they complained when the clergy started cheating the system, screwing over their fellow man in the process? Who do you think was brave enough to stand up to such egregious abuses of power, even when only threats of revenge and trial by combat and death existed in their futures?

[Everyone's staring. The guy with the sword at his neck is a little pale now.]

If this looks like the bard's guild to you where we sing campfire songs over our problems, mayhap you need to find a better trade. We ought to have an appetite for blood, sweat, and tears every single day.

[...So maybe a little of that edgy grimdark is seeping in without her realizing. Just a bit. Whoops.]

B: Lavode - White Mage's Guild

[At least the white mages have some semblance of responsibility. It reminds her of Gridania, of home, in a sense, but... Irhya still has a fair bit of trepidation. Hospital environments are high-stress and full of death, which may suit her in some sense, but for all the good she'd done healing people previously, she has to wonder if her work as a dark knight reaping so many lives outweighs that.

She's just watching the chiurgeons and healers move around, doing their work, until one of them grows frustrated with her presence and drops a piece of gauze in her hand, shouting, "If you're just going to stand there, at least make yourself a useful pair of hands and put pressure on this person's wound!"]

What? I--

[She's more than a little flustered, not having expected to be roped into things. There are other initiates instructed to do various small tasks flitting about, and she can't help but cast a deer-in-headlights look at them.]

Hey. Hey! Listen to me! I wasn't--

[But the chiurgeon is having none of it, completely ignoring her with a stony expression. Irhya sighs and does as she's told, because damned if this person doesn't have a puncture wound to the midsection, at any rate.]

It's been so long since I've done this, I couldn't possibly...

[ This was all rather new to her. Learning and trying to understand her role here. But Euphemia is dedicated to this task and committed to understanding everything. She's been instructed to do a few things herself and can't help but to pause after noticing the exchange. One thing she hears definitely has her attention. ]

... You've done this before?

[ She can pause in her practice errands to chat, yes? She was curious! ]

Edited 2018-04-16 19:37 (UTC)

...A while ago, I did. I've not many fond things to say about it, however.

[Maybe the high pressure and the rigid principles (at least, for her world's conjurers) are perfectly fine for some people, but all they did was frustrate her into tossing her progress to the side. Much to E-Sumi-Yan's dismay, but... well. He'd find another.]

You probably don't care to hear all my gripes with healing, but if that's the path you're going to choose, I recommend you have a strong stomach, and I don't mean because of the violence you're going to see.

A strong stomach?

[ She didn't really consider any of the consequences. All she seemed to focus on was the healing people. Should she ask? ]

... why would there be any violence?

[...Oh, honey.

Irhya drags a hand down her face briefly.]

It didn't... occur to you that you would be witnessing people getting injured first-hand? Healers have to be out on the battlefield with the rest, and trust that their comrades won't throw them under the bus, for one thing.

[And then there's getting blamed for letting someone take a grievous hit, or for not helping with striking something down... or striking something down too much...]

It's actually a very stressful job. Hopefully your tutors are more tolerable than mine were.

[ No. It didn't occur to her at all. Well, she knew she would have to see injured bodies. But the idea of being out there in the middle of combat doing it? In truth, she really wasn't prepared to become an Asterisk, but ... ]

I may not have any experience, but I'm willing to try if it means keeping everyone alive. [ Even if it means failing horribly, too. Actually, maybe that wasn't a good idea. ]

Are you not planning to become a white mage?

Not for right now, at least. I just...

[She wanted to see if it was any different here, that's all. The knowledge she could do both is still pulling at the back of her mind, but another part of Irhya says she's done too much already to go back to that. Too many dead bodies on her back...

But then, isn't the philosophy "for those we can yet save"? Perhaps she's just a stubborn fool, she thinks as she looks down at the sluggish bleeding. Or perhaps she's just better at cleaving things in two than mending them back up again, in the end.]

Back in Eorzea, the conjurers of Gridania are tied inextricably to the will of the Elementals that govern the forest -- and indeed, they also rule over their capacity to heal anyone. And while I grant that it's important to pay attention to their counsel lest they sic the whole bloody forest upon droves of people for their ignorance... it soon became an excuse that was frequently toted out to excuse laziness, inaction, and even discrimination. For an innocent person to hear that it is the "will of the Elementals" that they just suffer and die in their illness simply because a Hearer didn't see fit to heal them...

[ Euphemia frowns. This doesn't sound like a world she wished to be in, even if they did have such advances. ]

How terrible. To let people die simply because it is the will of something else. I'm ... not sure I could handle that. [ Then again these were Conjurers. This was different, she hopes. ]

I... I believe I heard someone else mention something similar to what you said. [ Her brows furrow while trying to remember a name. ] Her name was Nanamo.

Ah. Yes, I imagine she would also be aware of it on some level. Nanamo and I hail from the same... almost the same world.

[And that's not even getting started on why white mages and their craft are altogether forbidden now, thanks to the events of the War of the Magi.]

Often, it boils down to simple prejudice and xenophobia over anything the Elementals have actually said. Damning someone to die for those reasons, simply because one has the power to... it's not uncommon. I think the Seedseers are purposely kept in the dark about how rampant the problem is, personally.

[A part of her has wondered if perhaps a little dark knight justice isn't warranted in Gridania, too, at times... but becoming a pariah from her own homeland seems a bit much. And maybe the Elementals really would curse her.]

I'd like to study the actions of this guild a little more before I commit to anything. If the same thing is happening here, I can't abide by it.

[And there's someone clapping close by. Is that the one lady from the clinic? Probably.]

I'm impressed and relieved that I'm not alone in that mindset.

[Perhaps they did not hail from the same troubled background. Perhaps they're just spoiled in the luxury of not having to look over their shoulder every waking moment. The comforts many others take for granted -- warm shelter, food, boundless companionship. And swinging a big sword around like it's a child's plaything.

It really burns her up.]

I've worked with a claymore for... well, not quite as long as a few companions of mine, but long enough to know how to skewer things with it. I don't need the abyssal connection to remember how to do that.

If you're going to pursue this job, at least rest assured we aren't all pissant teenagers. I don't know about this world, but there is a heavy history behind the dark knight where I come from, and I would have everyone know just what kind of pain they're signing up for.

[Camilla listens as she folds her arms in thought.]

There's no need to worry, my little brother is a dark knight but not in the form of what we see here. Normally they use tomes and ride horses into battle, not use such large weapons but that seems to be the case only where I come from.

Besides, someone cannot learn how to fight without not getting hurt.

[She's a warrior, able to hold her own in combat and not some dainty little girl. She's bled and broken bones and bruised...she's fine with pain. To be honest, she could have went with Beserker since they handle axes but the idea of going into a state where it's possible that they may lose themselves is...troublesome. Mainly because like hell she wants to hurt Corrin.]

Tomes and mounts, huh...

[Perhaps they are geared more towards range and mobility than the dark knights she knows. Riding a mount into battle as she is now would be... troublesome, for her part.]

The dark knights of Eorzea use claymores and greatswords, as well. Most have a dislike of shields, and not just because the sword's too damned big to bother with one. It's rooted in basic swordplay, but there's a few key differences.

[Camilla looks the part, too; much more than Irhya does, certainly. Hitting her with the truth seems not to deter her much, so...]

To be a dark knight is to suffer, and to sacrifice. Without the flame, the drive to protect someone else, you're only swinging a sword and hoping to the gods you don't die. But then, a dark knight fears not her own mortality, either, only accepts the inevitability of it... and perhaps skirts about the line a bit.

[Living Dead may have come back to bite her in the arse a few times. Yeah.]

[She might look the part but it doesn't mean she knows everything. Her style is usually 'fly with dragon and axe all the enemies without a second thought'. Which has helped her this far but now the scene is different. Camilla always is the type to listen even if it's something that she isn't fond of but usually Corrin does have to be there for her to not go further off the deep end.

But hearing Irhya speak passionately about this role, she had to think harder. Without the flame or drive to protect, then it was useless. But she does...doesn't she? She wants to protect Corrin! And her family! But can she remember why she fights? Out of necessity?

And then she remembered. When Corrin defeated her in battle and she told her to end her life because if she returned to her father, he would kill her. But Corrin refused and told her to come with her.]

When you join an army, there is always that thought that yes, you may die in battle. That's the risk we take when we join. Thankfully I do not see myself as so high and mighty as a god. And you bring up an interesting perspective that I doubt anyone here would know about...but I am interested in.

It only hastens the process, generally. Even if you don't die in a blaze of glory on the battlefield, you could still die tomorrow, stricken by sudden illness or just an airship out of the damned sky. It's hard to say.

[Learning from the ground up may not be so bad, but if she's to continue to follow her preferred philosophy... She plants the sword in the ground next to her, setting her hands on top of the handle in a sentinel pose.]

If you were to ask fresh adventurers or new recruits to any combat unit why they want to fight, you'd hear a lot of things. For fame, for riches, for glory, or perhaps out of some overblown sense of wanting to save everyone. But someone who has been in the business long enough, someone who has seen their share of battles and has handed out life and death decisions understands none of that is worth it, and often not even possible. From what I have seen, they fight for their comrades, to keep the people immediately at their side safe. So that they all get to live to fight another day together.

[After hearing all of that, Camilla had one thought and couldn't help but voice it.]

With your knowledge, I would not be surprised if you ended up being the master of this guild to be honest. You know what you speak of, you have the passion for the style, and I can bet that these children will listen because of that.

Oh--

[That seems to take her by surprise. Irhya's ears flick, and then she shakes her head with a laugh.]

I'm flattered you think so, but I somehow doubt it will be that easy when their lives are so placid. Even if that did come to pass, I have to wonder how readily I could accept such a thing. I don't want it to become about hierarchy, when the truth is that the core of our discipline... it's always been about protecting someone outside of yourself.

[And something she can get behind. Protecting her family and everything after all.]

Hmm, I suppose I may have gotten a bit carried away with that thought...but perhaps finding the one responsible for this guild may give a bit more reasoning as to why these boys are being so flippant.

[Because she hasn't seen any other women here except for themselves...weird.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Event || Worldwide Tourists

Irhya Pendhula | OTA

White Mage Guild

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dank knightin ev'ry day

DANK MEMES

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