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

"Astrologian! And Puppetmaster, but that's not important right now," she adds.

She turns back to face the wide open earth below her and looks up, gauging the stars. "It's like there's some kind of innate knowledge or skills or something in these asterisk things. I barely know anything about the stars here, but..."

She lines up a few things, her mouth twisting a little in concentration aaaand... point! "That way is north aaaand" point again! "That's the direction the Curti Center is in."

"Wooooooooah." Connie's eyes sparkle with delight. Sure, it was a relatively small ability, but still, it was freaking cool. Magic was awesome.

"I mean, other than, um, this ridiculous thing," Connie points at the gunblade. It was cool, yes, but it was also completely silly, "All I got was this armor and some magiteknical knowledge. Which is kinda cool, I guess, but I'm still trying to figure out how to make my gauntlet laser and bladcharge and stuff not blow up in my face. Which they have. Numerous times. The tinkering is still fun, though!"

Are you kidding Connie? You're talking her language now.

"Wait, are you serious?" her eyes widen in shock and delight, "You've got to show me sometime. Probably when it's not dark out."

She's not like... a huge tinkerer or anything, but she's dealt with replacing more than a few computer parts and the like in her day.

"Sure! I actually have a thing I've been, um, working on," Connie says, eyes darting towards her cabin. Hopefully it wouldn't seem to dorky, but Connie needed something to keep her brain occupied whenever she got stuck on working on her magitek gear. "It's just a little side project, nothing huge. Since, um, all the big stuff is currently riddled with potentially fatal bugs."

Edited 2018-04-28 19:04 (UTC)

"Oh, sure!" Futaba's quick to follow her gaze and catch the implication. Right. Inside with lights on, duh. This place wasn't totally primeval. Or at least she's hoping that that's the implication? "Can I see?"

If Connie was willing to cut her own practice short to nerd about tech then Futaba totally was too.

Nerding out with a fellow, true nerd was a rare opportunity for Connie. She would be a fool to pass it up. Hopefully her project wouldn't be too disappointing. "Absolutely! C'mon," Connie begins walking purposefully towards her cabin, gesturing for Futaba to follow.

And follow she does! Pausing only a moment to glance up at the sky before they go inside. Eh. She'll be back.

Connie's room is, to put it bluntly, a mess. A very well-organized mess, but a mess nonetheless. The floor is separated into thirds: spare parts, failed project disassembly, and assembly, making it somewhat difficult to navigate the room without stepping on something sharp and/or hard. Of note is the fact that half of the walls seem to be covered in ice, and another good third of the room is marred with scorchmarks.

Almost reverently, Connie walks to a shelf in the corner of the room and picks up... a small, bronze box with a turnkey on the top, which she hands to Futaba.

Futaba regards the room with mild interest and maybe the slightest bit of a cringe. Doesn't look like they'll be getting the deposit back for this one. Actually it reminds her a lot of her room before... well, before. But less garbage!

In either case, that's not why she's here. She takes the box when offered, looking it over curiously.

"So, I'm guessing I just turn it?"

Please don't think it's simple please don't think it's stupid please don't think it's childish, Connie chants to herself in her head while hesitantly nodding. Despite its humble appearance, Connie put a lot of effort into this little, dorky project, and for whatever reason she hoped that Futaba would like it.

When she turns the key, one of the sides of the box slides open, revealing an intricate set of gears and a metal sheet cut with lines of ascending lengths next to a brass cylinder that has small, precise bumps protruding out of it. The cylinder begins rotating, and a simple tune begins playing from within the contraption.

As the music plays, if Futaba listens closely she can hear Connie singing along under her breath.

“If you’re evil and you’re on the rise,
“You can count on the four of us taking you down.
“‘Cuz we’re good and evil never beats us,
“We’ll win the fight and go out for pizzas!

“We
“Are the Crystal
“Gems.
“We’ll always save the day!
“And if you think we can’t,
“We’ll always find a way!
“That’s why the people of this world
“Believe in
“Garnet,
“Amethyst,
“And Pearl...”

The song has ended by the time she whispers the last line. “...and Steven.” Are those tears in Connie’s eyes?

Edited 2018-05-07 13:59 (UTC)

"A music box?" it's more of a surprised mumble to herself as she listens. It's not loud enough to interrupt, certainly. The music is... nice? Not her usual jam but still pretty.

When she glances over and sees Connie's expression, though. Well. She uh, she doesn't know what to do with that?

"Not just any music box, I'm guessing," she says, a bit lamely.

Was she crying? Crud. She was crying. And Steven was supposed to be the emotional one. Trying her best to stop the flow of tears and wiping away the ones at the corner of her eyes, Connie mumbles, "Yeah. It's, um, this silly song my best friend back on Earth wrote back when he was little. I made is as kind of a... reminder, I guess. That they're still there, and that I'm still getting back. I, I don't even know why I'm crying, really." Well, she did, but maybe dumping all of that on Futaba would be a bit much.

Ohhhh boy yeah this was uh. This was definitely Ren territory not hers. Not hers in the slightest. Kinda funny how often that seemed to be happening here?

Well she tried then, she can try again now. Because uh, yeah, definitely something she noticed. "Connie, do you uh... do you actually have anyone from home here?"

Probably a lot more blunt a question than she meant it to be but uh. Again, not her territory. Plus she is going somewhere with this.

Futaba definitely hit the nail right on the head, as evidenced when Connie flinches at her words. It wasn't Futaba's fault, really. Connie just had, like so many during that first day had told her, tried to keep trucking on and just push through all the badness. But it still hurt, being completely isolated from anyone she ever knew.

"N-no," Connie sniffles, leaving it at that. As tough as she was, Connie was still only thirteen years old. Somebody give this girl a hug already.

Yeah. Futaba winces a bit herself. That hadn't... yeah that hadn't gone well. She just... hopes she can recover.

"For what it's worth," she taps her toe into the ground, "I think it's okay if you get upset about it? You're... you're already doing a lot better than I would."

A lot better.

"I don't know. At least you're not coping through nearly blowing yourself up with mad science experiments," Connie jokes weakly. Okay, maybe she wasn't entirely joking. Or joking at all. She should really learn to be more careful. If she could go three days without a near-fatal accident she count it as a success.

"It's just... I should know better than to bottle this up," she sniffles. "I mean, I--sorta me--fell off an ancient sky arena thousands of feet in the air because of this sorta thing."

There's a moment of quiet and then... "Yeah, but you're not shutting yourself away in your room waiting for the world to go away either."

That's... probably as far as she's going to get right now but uh. Seriously Connie, you have not seen her at her worst. Not by a long shot.

"Geez though, a flying arena? Don't ever try to give me the impression your life is normal," she's teasing, gently. Also maybe a kind of invitation to talk about it if she wants? Or just about home in general.

Okay. Connie had to admit, she wasn't expecting that, but looking back at her other chats with Futaba, it certainly did fit. But now was obviously not the time or place to pry when she was already dumping a bunch of her baggage on Futaba.

And Connie will gladly take that distraction. Who knows, she might be able to get some more stuff off her chest while she's at it. "Hoo, boy. There's a lot of context behind that. Okay, might as well start with where you might have at least a decent grasp of the situation. Do you watch DBZ at all?"

Hers is one of those weird universes that uses knock-off brand names for everything, so that particular name doesn't ring any bells, no. She shakes her head.

Describe it a little though and they may be in business. Or at least she'll have heard of something like it.

Blank expression. Okay, maybe the translation on the Japanese side is different? "Um... I'd describe it, but it kinda provided the basis for most modern shonen, so it would sound incredibly generic. Oh! I got it! Do you have the 'Over 9000' meme where you're from? Yeah, DBZ is the show that the meme originated from."

That... rings a bit more of a bell. Sort of?

"Huh... I've heard of 'Over 9001,'" And of course its- hm, "Actually I think I might know what you're talking about? It's called something a bit different though."

Like... she didn't really watch a lot of it personally? But as Connie had mentioned, it was a basis for so much of the genre it was hard not to have heard of it.

Connie breathes a sigh of relief. At least Futaba had some kind of frame of reference for fusion. "So, um, the Gems--including Steven--have this ability that's basically fusion from... that anime slash manga, whatever it's called on your side of the Pacific. Normally Gems can only fuse with other Gems, but since Steven is half-human, he can fuse with humans. We actually, uh, found that out because we were..." Connie looks away, blushing slightly, "practicing for my school dance on the beach when we accidentally fused. Stevonnie--that's us, I know, really creative name, blame Amethyst for that--is exponentially more powerful than either of us and is just... really fun to be as a whole, if that makes sense? So sometimes we train while fused instead of separately. Are you following me so far?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Event || Worldwide Tourists

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Let's just rollback the comments in the other thread. I'll delete on my end.

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