Bless of Magic Caster | OTA

[ourlastadventure]

WHO: Arche and YOU
WHAT: Arche is acclimating to her new circumstances, looking for help getting a staff around, and attempting to be curious without being a pest. Godspeed to her on that last one.
WHERE: Strictly within the lantern's light
WHEN: Shortly after her arrival from the River
WARNINGS: If you ask how she died, you might get an answer (CW violence, death of a teenager); potential CWs for child neglect/abuse mentions & descriptions, existentialism, Arche Needs A Fucking Drink So God Damn Bad

Fifth Tier Magic: Fabricate | Near The Water

If the weather is decent, or seems like it will be decent (more than a few of these instances might get caught out by a storm, necessitating shelter), one can find Arche near the water and, more importantly, near the woody plants that grow by it. She's running her gloved hands along branches and trunks, frowning to herself, pondering. If she only had a decent knife and whetstone...or someone else did...

It's possible that you catch her during another part of this process! Arche is not above sketching blueprints into the dust, displaying a simple staff with rounded bulbs at the ends, though other designs eventually flower - walking sticks, odd little two-handed clubs more like a blunt glaive than anything, and, curiously enough, something that can't be wood.

Do you own a knife? Is this public knowledge? Arche may be asking for help, or at least to borrow the blade.

Skill: Message | Network/You Pick The Location

workaday: Arche, new arrival, seeking information about prior experiences within this hereafter. No expectations had, be as personal or impersonal as you please, willing to meet in private or speak via this strange text-based common communication. Available at all hours presuming my experiments with sleeplessness bear fruit, all daylight hours otherwise. Thank you for your consideration.

Skill: The Goal Of All Life Is Death | Shelters At Night

She's dead, right? They're all dead. And yet Arche still perceives herself as having the needs of the living, and that fact is curious to her. Perhaps that's the 'life' in 'afterlife', but perhaps not. It isn't as if she could seriously hurt herself by experimenting, right? Arche starts by trying not to breathe but this quickly proves to be a difficult mental hurdle (or she has to breathe, but Arche is going to be stubbon on this point). So she aims at something that she's already good at - going without sleep. Why sleep? Why should that be a need of the dead? Undead don't sleep, and that surely is a trait they inherit from death - even fish sleep, somehow, after all.

It's at night, alone with her thoughts and sitting on the roof of her new home(?), when the weight of it all hits Arche. She tries to keep it in, tells herself that she's being silly, being childish. She got a lifetime, same as everyone else, right? She took a dangerous job and it didn't pan out. Death was always on the table, right next to the money she never got to spend because she had to save up for...save...save up for...

The first sob is a hesitant thing, but it blows the floodgates open. Arche cries with ugly sounds and bone-shaking sobs, tears streaming down her face, and when she tries to make herself stop it only gets worse.

Profession (Nerd) | Wildcard

Come at me. Maybe you catch Arche patching up holes in the shelters. Perhaps she's giving that odd look at the hamsters again or conspicuously avoiding the dracolisks with the nervous air of someone who is not used to horses. Or something comes up that you decide! Fuck me up! I'm right here!

Comments

Fifth Tier Magic: Fabricate

[blindluck]

Nagito has been reading nearby--a battered-looking murder mystery novel. He doesn't immediately bother the girl, though he watches her consider the branches and sketch in the sand. That drawing sure looks complicated. But he leaves her to it until he hears her going around asking after knives.

"Ferryman-san won't let us have weapons," he says, though his eyes don't quite leave the pages of his book. "If you want something like that, you'll have to see if you can find something metal you can shape on your own."

[ourlastadventure]

Arche looks up, then back down, and she sighs. There is no energy in this girl right now; she is bearing weight far beyond her years. She gestures at the drawing of the metal staff. "This isn't...for me. I'm not even certain what it is or what it does. It's simply...I'm arranging some thoughts, sir."

She moves her hand as if to wipe it away, and then thinks better of it. "...I would like a staff, but hardly as a weapon. I'm certain I could turn one to those ends, but it would be a waste of a good staff and also of my dignity."

[blindluck]

"Ferryman-san might give you a staff, if you ask," Nagito says, though he doesn't sound entirely certain. As she said, even if it wasn't intended to be a weapon, it could be used as one easily enough. But surely that applies to nearly anything if you're willing to be creative. He gives the drawing more focused attention, putting his book down. "Is that something from your world, or something you saw here?"

[ourlastadventure]

"...It's from home. I'd not seen its like before, but the man who owned it was..." She shakes her head. "People always say 'you can't take it with you', talking about death. It is clownishly unfair to see that 'it' follows you without your permission." She turns her head to look at the odd young man speaking, and her frown deepens, not in disapproval but in thought. "We're both displaying disgraceful manners, sir. You may call me Arche."

[blindluck]

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Nagito bobs his head in a little bow where he's seated. "I'm Komaeda Nagito. It's nice to meet you, Arche-san!"

Then his attention turns back to the drawing once more. "According to Ferryman-san, letting go of things like that is what we're here to do. But you don't have to if you don't want to, I suppose."

Fabricate: Near the Water

[toilet_bound]

Hanako finds himself near the water and, in spite of himself, spots Arche nearby. That should have been enough for him to backpedal - after all, the last time they had both been near water had left him a blushing mess - but… she was currently crouched over the sand, all of her clothing was intact so… it should be safe, right?

Right. Which is how he finds himself leaning over her, looking at the contents of her sketches with interest.

“Whatcha drawing~?”

[ourlastadventure]

"Ah. Good afternoon, Master Hanako." Arche leans back from her drawing, sitting on her knees on a manner that might be extremely familiar to, say, a Japanese teenager. She indicates the primitive blueprint of a staff with slightly bulbous heads. "I used a tool like this in life to assist me with my magic and as a walking stick on long journeys...which was most of them. Death has seen fit to strip me of my profession, but it would still be a comfort to have."

[toilet_bound]

“Oooh, not bad, Arche~” Even if he wasn’t familiar with staffs, Hanako could definitely recognize the walking stick part. Seems like she has some artistic talent at least. Crouching down, he balances on the soles of his feet rather precariously. “So you had something left behind too? Well, the shounen did mention that we could only bring ourselves, not anything on us.” Once again, a brief thought of why clothing was allowed, since that wasn’t part of their ‘souls,’ but it was a fact Hanako was secretly grateful for.

[ourlastadventure]

Whatever you do, don't think too hard about the obligate nudism afterlife. Don't think about it! Do not -

"Shounen?" Arche asks, turning her head to give Hanako her attention. "...Context suggests you're referring to the Ferryman, but..."

[toilet_bound]

“Ah~ I’m sure if I called them that, they wouldn’t be none too pleased!” Mostly because it seemed to suggest not as much deference. The Ferryman had been here longer, after all! “I meant the shounen Nagito! Have you met him? Quite an interesting child, that one~!”

Coming from someone who looks like their thirteen, maybe not the best choice of words, but he’s not bothered by that. Returning to Arche’s drawing… “Why don’t you make one? There’s lots of random bits around here, and the people before us created shelter out of it. Surely there should be a spare piece of wood or rod around here?”

Shelters at Night

[toilet_bound]

Hanako didn’t sleep at night - maybe Arche was correct in thinking that the dead didn’t actually need rest, but he hadn’t been in the habit for a few decades now. So while most of the other denizens of the Oasis were in the clutches of slumber, he tended to stay up and stare at the stars.

Another thing they apparently shared in common? Making their way up to the roofs of their dwelling.

The boy didn’t know this at first: instead opting for his nightly sightseeing atop one of the makeshift huts until…

Was that crying?

It certainly sounded like it. Wrenching sobs, like someone coming undone at the seams. Normally, he would tell himself that it wasn’t his problem, there wasn’t much he could do but…

A sigh, and then he went searching for the source. Which turned out to, surprisingly, be Arche.

He hesitates for a moment, standing atop one of the roofs adjacent to the one she has huddled on. Touching her… probably wasn’t a good idea. Not without her knowing who was doing so and that he was nearby. So he tried the next best approach, speech.

“Nightmares?” It was a guess, one that humans had often at night, and the only thing aside from the crushing weight of reality that would get someone to cry. His voice was soft, cautious, as one foot stepped onto the roof.

[ourlastadventure]

Hanako did everything right. He really did. What is to come is not his fault; it is inevitable, a consequence of Arche's inattention to the world around her, a life of violence, and her own misery.

His soft speech is met with a growling scream from the pit of Arche's chest; she's on her feet in an instant, hands clapping together in the familiar, rote motions of a lightning spell. She wrenches them apart, and nothing happens.

In that moment of confused despair, she both remembers where she is, and sees that it's Hanako. Arche staggers back one step, two, hits the roof in a heavy slump that her ass and spine are going to be feeling for a little while (but why? Why is it that she has left the vale of tears and yet she can still suffer?) and presses her forehead to her knees.

He said something. What'd he say? Thirteen take it...

There's a few false starts. Trying to speak is proving difficult when every deep, shaking breath in just comes back out as a new, miserable sob.

[toilet_bound]

Arche’s outburst isn’t as much of a surprise to Hanako as one might seem; sure, his eyes do widened momentarily, but the boy stays rooted in place, not even trying to dodge.

Maybe the fact that they don’t have their abilities here helps. Or… he’s just so used to people aiming things at him that he’s learned to read whether the threat level was real.

In this case, Arche was very much like a scared child lashing out… and he could handle that. Any attempt at speech on her part looks difficult, so Hanako picks his way over to her, careful to not startle her off the roof, and… gently starts stroking her hair.

“There, there~” Soft, soothing, though the movements are a bit tense. The only other person he has done this for in the past few decades is Yashiro, and before that- “It’ll be alright. Just breathe. In and out.”

[ourlastadventure]

Arche stiffens at the touch to her hair. For a long moment there is no movement at all, not even the sound of sobbing...

Her arm moves like a striking snake, snatching at Hanako's hand for a classic wrist lock, invented by all species who have humanoid hands across the breadths of time, space, and reality. She looks up with a fury etched into her eyes fit to kill God.

"I understand that you are trying to be kind," Arche half-growls, breathless but pressing on regardless. "Which is why your wrist still has bones. Pet me like a dog again and there will no longer be bones."

She lets go and turns her face away. Takes a shaky breath.

Small, so small, she adds, "...I woke you, didn't I?"

Honestly wonderful XD she’s more of an angry cat than his little brother

[toilet_bound]

“Whoa~” That grip on his wrist, and the words Arche says after, are a clear enough message. He doubted saying that he was trying to comfort her like he would a sobbing child would help much. Odd - it seemed to work with Yashiro though… “Noted. Sorry if I startled you!”

He’s still smiling, still upbeat… though the smallness of her question has his energy falling down to match. He sits down - once she releases his wrist - with a bit of distance between them, in order to give her space. “Nope~ I haven’t really slept for several decades, so I’m not in the habit.” There was nothing to blame Arche for, really.

Shelters at Night

[witnessvelama]

The darkness of the night is soothing, but it's also lonely. Celehar is long familiar with the sleepless hours of the dark, and with the various methods of fighting it. This time, he takes to walking the pathways between the little buildings, dressed in his usual black now that the absence of the sun allows it without discomfort.

Then his ears catch the building sobs, and he hesitates. He's well aware of the desire, at times, for privacy when emotions become overwhelming, but to turn and walk away, even to grant privacy, is a callousness that ill settles on him.

So he stops, his attention tilting towards the roof and the curled form on it. Climbing it is... an effort that he reserves, for the moment. Instead he raises his gravelly voice. "... Need you company?" It's not quite so banal a question as 'are you all right,' particularly when the answer there is obvious.

[ourlastadventure]

A sharp intake of breath is the first response to the strange voice, ragged with mucus and tears and the ache in Arche's throat. She tries to answer and a miserable, strangled wail emerges instead of words; leather boots scrabble on the improvised roof.

Her voice lacks the courtesy and sharp confidence that the others have gotten, in meeting her, when she finally manages a tiny, defeated, "Yes."

[witnessvelama]

"A moment, then," Celehar says.

He's not built for climbing rooftops, but he manages to find a low wall to start off, and to hook hands over a ledge to pull himself up. In the end, he's slightly dissheveled, scuffs of dust and sand on the silk of his black Prelate's robe, a few curls beginning to escape his long braid of silver hair and curl by his pointed ears. He stands for only a few moments, steadying his breathing, his attention falling to the young woman sobbing her eyes out.

"Breathe, min," he says, in his best attempt at comforting. With some stiffness he steps forward, coming to kneel by her side.

[ourlastadventure]

She's such a small thing, doll-like and miserable; this close, it's not hard to see the ugly consequences of her breakdown, snot running out of her nose and clinging to her chin. The collar of her shirt is soaked through with tears.

Do the dead need water to weep? Arche feels hollowed and worn, and yet it just won't stop.

Still. Someone else here helps, if only out of the perverse desire to retain some dignity, as if she has any left to lose at this point. Her first attempt at a deep breath, in through her nose, is a deep mistake; she wipes at her face with her sleeve and tries again, hot, ragged breaths out of her mouth that steam in the cold night air of the desert.

"...Sorry. For disturbing you."

[witnessvelama]

"It is no matter. I found myself wandering."

It might sound like a kind lie, but his voice renders it harsher, more like the truth it is. He often found his sleep troubled in life, and in this place he finds the burdens weigh on him still.

He doesn't fish in the pocket of his coat for a handkerchief, having not thought to bring one on what turned out to be his final journey, but he looks away, at least in part to give this young woman the privacy to clean her face without feeling scrutinized for it.

"Wouldst you like to speak of it? I do not mean to offend by saying so but you must recently have come to these circumstances."

wildcard

[ghostmoder]

From a fellow roof-sitter to another — though Yusuke does his sitting during the day, sprawled out under the desert sun to watch the others go about their routines with bored, unabashed curiosity, like a particularly lazy bird.

He's been watching Arche poke and prod at the shelters for a while now. It's true that they're kinda run-down, and so for a while that was sufficiently interesting for him... but she seems pretty dogged about it, and it's starting to get boring. Has he mentioned he'd kill somebody for a cigarette? Unrelated. Of course.

Eventually, he calls down to her: "Yo. You know they're gonna move us eventually, right?"

[ourlastadventure]

Arche's head turns and her eyes have a look so flat that if you stood on it you'd experience True Level. "And you suppose that these shelters simply sprang into existence ex nihilo and were not the thoughtful inheritance left by those who came before us?"

She's so covered in sand right now. It is not helping her mood.

[ghostmoder]

"How should I know? The whole damn desert popped up outta nowhere. Who says it couldn't come with a few shitty huts too?"

This sets aside the fact that she's obviously right; the way the shelters are stood up and decorated is testament to that already. Sometimes he's just contrary for the sake of it.

"It's not like I'm telling you to trash them. They're fine."

[ourlastadventure]

"They will not remain fine in this weather if they are not cared for. And I, for one, can quite clearly imagine what it would have been like to emerge from the damnable River and find nothing here for the first sandstorm, or the first lightning storm. Excuse me for maintaining a belief in the dignity of other people, sir."

She pointedly turns back to her work, bristling like a cat.

Then the patch she's working on comes undone; misplaced and done poorly from the start. The girl takes in a deep breath.

Exhales calmly.

And starts swearing at the top of her lungs. Arche speaks eight languages and she can swear in all of them, and man, she sure is doing exactly that, running through the usual minced oaths and obscenities and proceeding, completely naturally, to the kinds of curses you usually only find in epic poetry.

Wildcard, as discussed

[marblenest]

Dankovsky will be waiting by the lake near the middle of the Oasis. This wasn't where he was before he was writing to Arche, but it is where he is now, having wandered out of the abode that he's chosen as his home. He really does feel debased having to do this, knowing he's made an absolute fool of himself the last time he's spoken to the poor girl, but, well, he's not above an apology, and she deserves one.

He was such a genuine ass to her. He really regrets it. Thinking about how earnestly Arche spoke of her home, and how quick he was to shut it down... why does he act like that sometimes? He truly doesn't know. It's like his emotions are trapped to the whims of a see saw. One day, they swing one way, one day, violently the next...

He wonders how much he's going to need to explain all of this to her as he waits nervously. Hopefully a sincere apology will be enough.