usir | Mini-Event: Skywhale + Day of Lefkokó

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The Skywhale & Day of Lefkokó

🜙 The Skywhale

	After fierce retaliation and an increase in city-wide defensive power and measures, it seems as if the orc attacks have, at least for the moment, begun to subside. Along with the lessened threat of orc ambushes, the first storms of winter have died down to a gentle and occasional snow flurry, leaving the world peacefully blanketed in powder snow and a calm stillness. The City of the Free Peoples take this time to celebrate the final repairs of the airship, the Skywhale. With sail balloon once more filled and the engines working hard to keep the air within it warm, easier and safer travel is once more available. The Skywhale leaves once a day in the early morning to head for Didymos, and today is its maiden voyage since the repairs. Thalassa has changed greatly in the last century, blossoming into a massive port and military city, with resources and opportunities unavailable in the more eclectic Cty of the Free Peoples. Restless legs may find their chance to stretch to a new experience. Sail the skies aboard the Skywhale and see Thalassa's grand transformation to Didymos for yourself. Catch the voyage back before nightfall, or remain in Didymos until the ship's return the following day. There is plenty to see and do in the city by the sea. You can even see Logistykon's reef from aboard the Skywhale's deck as it swings around to dock. It is a grim but beautiful sight in the clear blue waters. While the threat of fire and orc ambush has diminished greatly, the City of the Free Peoples is filled with a sense of unease and discomfort as repairs on the city and attempts to put lives back together continue. Murmurs of discontent slip through the city streets, along with rumors that this is all Lykos' fault or accusations that the Captain might be hiding something. For every murmur of distrust, however, there are counters of the heroics and quick action that helped keep the city strong and beat the orcs back. There has still been no word from Krimnos or the airship, Valiant, that usually hails from the cliff city daily. Messengers have not made their wing from the city and those sent to the cliffs have not returned. It's not unusual for this time of year, but the absence is felt keenly by traveling merchants who need to get their wares to or from the city. A journey by horse or on foot would be risky, but the potential rewards for escorting a company up to the cliffs could prove significant.
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🜙 Day of Lefkokó

	No matter what city you find yourself in, the dawn of the 17th sees a change in mood and atmosphere across Idan. Snow has stopped falling and the sky is a bright, clear blue. The weather warms enough to cause water to drip softly from the icicles hanging off every awning and outcrop. Decorations of magical or crafted snowflake art and blue ice flames line city streets and building windows, and jovial merriment spills out into the streets. A sweet wine made from frostberries, warm honey-mead, and spiced apple drinks are offered in taverns, inns, and small shops or homes, a free offering to be had with sweet or spiced cheeses and spiced or candied nuts and fruits. It's a celebration that is far from unfamiliar, one that has been celebrated for centuries across Idan's towns and cities, though the methods and particulars of the celebration have always varied from place to place and people to people. December is the month of the White Raven, and in particular, this day is a day to honor him. Lefkokó, the deity of dance, freedom, madness, and cunning sits at the head of the cause of these festivities and his domains are the focus of the celebrations. Today is a day of dance, drinking, and games of skill and chance. A day to test your bluffing skills, show off, and take deep joy and pride in the liberties and opportunities available to all. Few work on this day, beyond the essentials, and everyone who is able to takes part in this moment of freedom and relaxed expectations or responsibilities. The cities are alive with music and dancing, and the taverns are a swirl of chaos amidst high stake games of cunning and chance. Clever minds clash over riddles, old and new, and as the day progresses a lack of sobriety becomes increasingly evident in the streets and establishments alike. As the sun reaches the highest point in the sky and the shadows dwindle to near nothingness, the aviaries of all three cities release the newest flock of rare juvenile snow ravens to their freedom, letting them take wing to the skies for their first ever flights. The flocks of snow ravens, the most coveted of magic familiars, fly off to the wildlands after practicing their acrobatic feats and visiting various areas of the city in search of food to give them energy for the journey ahead. Once they take their leave of the city, many begin to seek out hidden trinkets, magical herbs, and small, rare items across Idan with a precise and dedicated focus. Those who honor Lefkokó by celebrating in his name may be visited by his rare and clever emissaries later in the month with an offering of thanks from Lefkokó himself.
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🜙 A Warning.

	By the 18th the orc camp has been abandoned, the animals freed and the orcs, whatever was left of them, appear to have fled. Retreat is unusual, even more so for them to cut their creatures loose and flee without triumph or trophy, but this is something different. Many of the weapons, trinkets, and armors coveted by the warring orcs have been left behind, and the fires trampled and stamped out with apparent urgency. Tracks lead to the south a few miles and then vanish into snow in the direction of Lake Atéleio. It and the land south and west of it are consumed in a blizzard blown over from the sea, and tracking beyond that point becomes nearly impossible, though by this point it is assumed the Orcs have retreated to Spear Valley. Whether or not they will return is unclear. Those in the City of the Free Peoples on the 18th will receive another message, this one from a less mysterious source, addressing the coming dangers. Though the attacks have set preparations back a few weeks I would like to quell any worries. The Long Night approaches, but you are a city of strong, brave folk. The threats on the horizon will not be the end of this city any more than these raucous attacks have been. Supplies can be claimed from the defender's camp for any struggling to make the necessary preparations. Those who have lost their homes will be provided shelter and supplies. When the Long Night comes, keep your children indoors, your fires stoked, and your buildings shuttered. There is nothing to fear. Your defenders will keep you safe. -Captain Lykos Several hours later a second and then a third message is received across all kingdoms. It comes only to the couriers of the awakened. The first comes as an audio message: A dull scraping sound followed by the click and whine of metal dragging across stone and the dripping of thick, viscous liquid somewhere distant. It ends abruptly and a simple thought message, short and uncomfortable, follows it. silarclupes irom otnemem The message has no signature.

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Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

What kind of fun, terrible ambushes etc. would be faced in attempting any kind of escort to Krimnos/is it possible to get to the city at all? (And if so, what's to be found there?)

No worries if getting there is impossible/pushing the map boundaries too much at this time.

Lefkokó.

[ The day of Lefkokó is not something she is altogether familiar with. She had grown up in a different temple altogether, had worshipped something a touch different to the deity of dance and freedom. She respects the nature of it, of course, and she recognises the fact that it is worth having a date of this kind, a celebration to take the edge off the sharpness of an orc attack and the suddenness of being awake again, but she does not want to take part in it unless there is some means for her to prove that worth.

Lauralae never lived in a temple to Lefkokó. The constellation holds less meaning to her than it might others. Her heart hangs on another mantle - and she does not know who is aware of it.

She does not, therefore, spend much time sitting by herself, making herself comfortable in the wrappings of red and whatever black fabrics she can find. People are loud as they dance, people celebrate and speak and chat, and her nose wrinkles, settling in a corner as she makes herself comfortable. There's a scrap of wood in her hands and a raven on her shoulder as she begins to scrape and carve, spending her time making small trinkets and animals, placing wood to the side of her as she goes.

She does not pay much attention to any strangers, but sometimes she can be caught making a prayer of sorts, her eyes closed as she whispers. ]

A Warning.

[ It is difficult for her to ignore the urge to bury her hands in the miscellaneous things left behind from the orcs. She wants to take as much as she can, to loot and push things into her sack before she does anything else, self-preservation an instinct she cannot ignore. She does manage to scrape a few daggers, slipping them onto her belt with dark eyes darting here and there, but she does little else, moving to the the edge of the camp, towards the south.

She stares that way for a very long time, her raven flying overhead, scouting out the area in front before coming back to her shoulder and nudging his face into her chin and hair, grooming her while Lauralae pays no attention whatsoever.

Sitting alone a little later, she listens to the message, a frown on her face. Nothing to fear - it's a curious thing, a strange whisper indeed. She is not afraid of the Long NIght, she is not afraid of what it might bring. She is ready to make her way forward and discover more when the next message comes, her eyes flickering as she sits alone, leaning against a tree and stroking idle fingers against the courier. ]

Silarclupes. [ A frown, the raven on her shoulder squawking quietly. ] Irom otnemem.

[ No signature, no sign, and the sound of metal and liquid - it makes her think, and her legs are drawn up to her chest as she ponders it, soft and quiet. ]

Wildcard.

[ Anything else you might want / any other ideas! Feel free to ping me. ]

Getting there is not impossible, merely time consuming and dangerous.

En route to Krimnos travelers face a multitude of threats from bandits and rogue bands of murderous thieves, rivers covered in treacherous and deceptive ice floats, hidden beneath layers of snow, thaw-flooding as the temperatures of early winter fluctuate, marsh bogs with sinking mud, wolf packs of unusual size, ravenous bears, carnivorous and feral crocodilian beastfolk that have regressed to more primal natures, kelpies along the rivers, mischievous ice spirits with a touch that inflicts instantaneous frostbite, swamp ghouls, and spectral wanderers.

Upon reaching the mountains they must look out for avalanches, rock fall, gusting winds, cliff eagles, snow leopards, feral kobolds, griffins, rock golems, cave spindles, and the occasional manticore or giant trapdoor spiders.

These and other hazards are possible to encounter along the way, though most would not be encountered. Players can choose what hazards they might encounter, but the mods are also willing to roll random encounters for players who are interested in seeing what pitfalls and hazards might fall into their character's path.

Upon successfully arriving to Krimnos they will have to scale an avalanche that is blocking the ledge paths to the city and would find the gates closed, but entry allowed. They would be able to communicate with others in the other cities via courier, but the citizens of Krimnos lack the knowledge or size of courier that would allow them to reach out. Both of Krimnos' airships are grounded with heavy hail damage and the city is hard at work attempting to board up and repair its walls and buildings from damages caused by a terrible storm. Piles of hail ice can still be seen pushed to the sides of streets.

The citizens of the city would be impressed and surprised anyone made the journey, and may question the sanity of those who made the trek.

Thank you, this will be very good things to chew over in the Terrible Life Choices department!

A. Aboard the Skywhale
[The opportunity to travel was something Alucard was taught to never refuse. A mandate. Travel as men do. And now men flew on great airships, the journeys that took days upon days now cut down to a fraction of the time.

To stand on the deck of the Skywhale and look down is a novelty. There have been so many journeys in the past, and hell, Alucard can fly if he puts real effort into his feral magic, but there's a difference between seeing things from that angle versus this one. The ship towers over the land.

His coat has been put aside for the time being, the ridiculously sized wolf that follows him everywhere content to lay atop it so it does not fly away. Alucard has traveled lightly in the past with only one bag to his name, but now he doesn't even have that.

Somewhere in all of this, there's a soft sigh, both hands on the railing that runs along the side of the deck.]

And it only took a century to create this technology. Remarkable.

[He's still furious about many things. This is not one of them.]

B. Didymos
Thalassa is not Thalassa anymore. The feeling of the city has changed, but of course it has. The streets aren't the same, hell, there are roads Alucard can recognize and they lead to dead ends now. Cities evolve. They must, they're living and breathing things. And there is no rush to return to the City of the Free Peoples. Not right now. There are other things to do.

i) The most important thing to do is determine how easy it is to return to Krimnos. That's done in the most straight forward way possible: hanging around the appropriate markets and listening to what is said by those in the know. Shop keepers, merchants, whoever is impacted by the airship not functioning.

The roads aren't an option. There's bandits. There's thieves. The river is starting to freeze, the wolf packs are hungry and a dozen other reasons besides. There's an aching familiarity to the problems, one Alucard wouldn't bat an eye at, but.

But if the ship is repaired first, is all the effort and potential risk truly worth it?

"Stunning how a storm brings the airships so low," he says to himself after overhearing a merchant's recounting of her attempt to brave the roads and all their threats.

ii) The struggles of the road do not discourage Alucard entirely from his total lack of patience in returning to Krimnos. He's spent the afternoon in quiet contemplation, having found a glassed in bar that overlooks the sea. His animas is curled up on his feet (said feet are so very asleep now), and there's a barely drunk glass of wine there.

There's seats on either side overlooking the water. Winter is strange on a shoreline. It's so stark, and the waves roar against the cold.

C. Warning

[Lupes

That's the only word Alucard thinks he can make out in that message. It's wolf related, and true enough, his animas is listening closely to this one. Alucard frowns at that and looks over his shoulder. Ellis is absolutely an asshole and rarely serious, so this demeanor is strange.]

Agreed. [The terrible thing stays in his hand, then shakes his head.] This thing contains nothing but ill will, I'm convinced.

Wildcard
You know the deal

Edited 2018-12-16 22:38 (UTC)

[OOC: I liked a format that I saw on the other post, prompts to follow, post wildcard/specific things we discussed here!]

follow up question: how long does it take to get there and back to Didymos, accounting for issues? As in, could Ellie be back in The City of Free Peoples by the 22nd if she leaves on the 18th?

Edited 2018-12-16 22:56 (UTC)

[Ellie gets up early to board the airship, bubbling excitement despite herself. She's using a crude crutch under her right arm, but is moving pretty easily despite the injury.

Throughout the whole flight, Ellie stays on the deck, watching the clouds and landscape below with wide eyes. While she's bundled up, the cold doesn't seem to bother her too much. At different points, she's sitting or standing to get different perspectives of the place. For those who've met her before, this seems almost uncharacteristic of Ellie - it's a completely different person from the somber, suspicious woman they met before. From a distance, she looks excited. Occasionally, she even grins when she sees something particularly interesting. She finally looks nineteen, and like she's having the time of her life.

Seated behind Ellie with its head on its paws is what might be a wolf, dog, or coyote. It looks slightly nervous, ears turned back, but is tolerating the height surprisingly well.

The only thing that would make this better, she thinks, were if Joel--in every way but the obvious, her father--were here to see this.]

skywhale

The troublesome atmosphere brewing in the City of the Free Peoples is excuses enough to take a trip on the repaired Skywhale. If nothing else, it was a new experience, and honestly, it might have stood out if she never traveled by air before. It's stunning, the view of the world from so far up. And cold. It doesn't take more than a second for Shura to think about how Rin and Yukio would do on a voyage like this.

She doesn't want to think about them. Someone standing close by might notice the way her expression changes, her brow furrowing and her lips pressing together for just the briefest second. This isn't the kind of thing she handles well, so she'll overcompensate with a joke.

"Heheh, I wonder how many bad poems people have made about this view~?"

Lefkokó

a) Shura could care less about Lefkokó, but she'll readily take the chance to play around and drink more than she should. Cards, dice, anything to distract her. Dancing gets her heart rate up and gets her laughing, so she'll be quite happy to drag someone out of the crowd to dance with her. It doesn't matter if said someone might seem less than enthused about the prospect of dancing with her, she'll be tugging at them anyway. "C'mon, c'mon! Don't be shy~"

b) Later, there's the release of the snow ravens. It's a neat sight and all, but what's more fun is teasing some poor raven who spotted her food and decided to see if she'd give in to his croaking demands for a sausage. At first, Shura seemed to give in to his demands, but just as hes about to get his sweet sausage, she yanks it back out of his reach. And then she does it again. The raven is clearly getting annoyed with this game, and he lets out a squawk.

"What a funny face, nyeheh." Was it bad form to tease these guys? Probably, but Shura's tipsy and this is fun.

Strange is trying to get in the festivities. But honestly, he needs a liiiittle more alcohol that he thinks. He's about halfway through his second drink, looking around, trying to decide what to do next when Shura reaches over, grabs his hand, and starts tugging him towards the dancing area.

"Give me a moment! Let me finish this!" And then, with the ease of someone who's gotten used to knocking back very disgusting beverages, Strange just starts to chug his drink.

He'll happily dance, but he owns like four shirts! He doesn't want to spill booze on this one!

Just to confirm, is she traveling from Krimnos to Didymos and then taking the airship to the City of Free Peoples?

Traveling on foot from Didymos to Krimnos, or from Krimnos to Didymos, takes about 2-6 days depending on how quickly she travels, what setbacks she encounters, and whether she travels by horse or on foot. The airship from Didymos to the City of the Free Peoples takes about 4-6 hours.

The idea would be for Ellie to take one of the merchant carts to the cliffs in Krimnos, come back, and then get to CoFP for the Long Night. However, it's probably not too feasible with the time constraints unless she's driving the poor merchants hard. Ah well, thanks for the answer! She'll decide she doesn't have the equipment she needs to run jobs like that yet.

Just a clarification on using the Couriers!

1. For sending thought messages, must characters have a specific known recipient in mind, or can it be something as simple as willing a message to 'everyone with a 20-sided Courier' if they want to broadcast a general message to all the awakened?

2. Is it possible to send thought messages back and forth when one or both users are 'anonymous' (ie. not signing their names)? e.g. just willing 'respond to sender of this message'?

3. Point 2 being pertinent to this one: if Daud attempts to send a thought message to the unsigned one, will he get anything back, or will it just broadcast to the whole of the awakened network?

Edited (oops accidental Emphasis Capitals) 2018-12-17 06:40 (UTC)

If she left the City of the Free Peoples with the merchants on the 18th this would give her enough time to get them to Krimnos between the 22nd-24th at a reasonable pace. If she then traveled from Krimnos to Didymos alone and quickly she would arrive anywhere from the 25th-27th.

The Long Night does not begin until the 28th. This would give her enough time to catch the last airship back to the city of the free peoples on the 27th and be safely there before the long night begins on the 28th.

It is only the plotting post that goes up on the 22nd.

She may also have left between the 12th-16th, the weather would merely be rougher to travel in at that time.

We hope this helps.

1. If the owner of the courier wished to only send messages to other awakened, they could do so by desiring to send the message to those in a similar situation as their own. The device reacts to the specific desires of its owner and does not have difficulty translating those desires into action as if the owner themselves were hand picking recipients. It has the benefit of being able to communicate with other couriers to verify the owners are suitable recipients as well. It is a very clever piece of technology that could have the appearance of bordering on sentience for those who begin to understand how it works.

2. It is. The couriers identify each other and as long as neither communicator signs their name the conversation would remain anonymous. Unfortunately for characters, the courier's knowledge only travels in one direction, meaning it can tell who the character is speaking with but the characters can not.

3. Attempting to respond to the message received will only send a message to the messenger. Responding to the unsigned message will elicit a response. The response, regardless of the message sent, is one word:

magruser

Excellent -- thank you! Daud would have just said 'Who is this?' so he'll be happily frustrated either way. :D

Obviously, characters have no IC way of verifying whether this is correct, but from an OOC perspective, how should we handle attempts at interpreting/speculating on the message?

I can make out the Latin, but wasn't sure if I should be treating it as a code to be flipped and then translated from that, or if it's meant to be its own distinct language in the world (for example, how Al Bhed in FFX is on a meta level just 'scrambling the letters of the English alphabet around' but in-game is treated as another language completely). If the former, Daud has at least some familiarity with Latin (since in canon, his motto is in that) so I was going to have him offer a translation for the other Awakened to chew on -- but I just wanted clarity on how to play that.

For the purposes of game simplicity and player ease, we are assuming latin is a language in Idan, and characters who would know or be willing to research the language would be able to decipher the message once they realize it must be flipped!

There are fictional languages in Idan for the races and other rare occurrences but we will be using (Phrases/Words are in X Language) for those cases to prevent extra work for players and mods alike when/if those languages are put to use in game.

"My kind of guy~" Shura teases, having known him a whole two seconds. But finishing his drink is very important, Shura can give him a few seconds to chug that booze down. Besides, if he spilled his drink on her, she'll have to find somewhere to go and clean up since she barely has anything on, and that would just be a pain. But as soon as he's downed his drink, Shura will pull him out to join the rest of the dancers.

The music is fast and lively. Shura recognizes the beat as an old one, but the steps aren't familiar. It was only natural that the trendy and popular dances would change over the last hundred years, after all. But Shura has the confidence of a drunk party girl. She saw this dance a bit ago, it couldn't that hard, surely. Besides, they aren't the only drunks in the crowd trying to get this polka-type thing right. Quick, quick, slow! And a lot of spinning.

"It's so lively~" Which is as it should be.

[It really is amazing, this ship. Sure, she had been on the back of a flying familiar a time or two, but it had never been a comfortable ride. In the end, Shura would still prefer to have her feet on solid ground, but she wasn't going to say no to this kind of transportation. The little lion leaning on her legs looks less than content with the situation, but Shura ignores him.]

Startin' from scratch like they did, they've done a good job. I'm impressed~

[Shura's death came early in the war, but she had heard enough about what happened afterward to know that the survivors had a great deal to overcome. It would have been easy to languish and never recover from the trauma.]

Mm. I've been out of the loop of recent developments for far too long. I'd like to know how recently these ships have become a major form of transportation.

[And by out of the loop, he naturally means dead for about a century. Details. It was the kind of technology he remembered his father speaking of in what ifs rather than here and now. A thought warm enough to send a flickering smile across Alucard's face.]

A while, I bet, since everyone else seems more annoyed by the delays than awed by the take off.

[Shura had not been the first in line to buy a ticket, instead waiting and watching those ahead of her to know just what to say at the window. She could excuse a few errors by claiming to be from the countryside, but she didn't want to have to use that excuse if she didn't need to.]

Then again, those devices only fell from the sky only a few years ago and everyone seems fine with 'em.

He happily lets himself get yanked over by Shura. Surprising no one, Strange doesn't know this dance either. But the music is just as infectious as Shura's good mood and Strange has enough confidence in his dancing ability to hopefully catch up with what everyone's doing. Maybe. He hopes. Even if he doesn't, he just chugged a drink: he'll stop caring sooner or later.

"Well then! Since you're the one who dragged me into this, you get to lead the dance." No pressure, Shura. "How do we start?"

"Oho~, you better be ready to keep up!" How is she not supposed to take that as a challenge? She'll take the lead, taking his hand in hers and placing her hand on his shoulder, waiting a moment for the right beat before joining in the dance proper. The steps aren't hard, but trying to keep up with the rest of the dancers as they turn is a little more difficult, enough so that Shura will have to keep quiet for a moment. It's fine to miss a step or two, but she's just sober enough that she does care about not knocking into their neighbors.

But hey, at least she's not stepping on Strange's toes! Give her another go or two, and she'll have this down pat!

ride the skies

He knew he would be on that first voyage if he could manage it, the idea of flight on something so ingenious like an itch he never knew he had. The top deck is cold, and the cold is a familiar fiend, one he bundles up against and finds himself smiling into as the winds catch at his him, tousling his hair.

The small white wolf at his side leaps up to place her paws on the railing, and Victor simply steps up behind her, his hands coming to rest on either side of her paws. "Have you ever seen anything like it, Makka?" he asks, his head lowered to speak by her ear. She hadn't, of course she hadn't, but there's a certain wonder in this that they both share, so acute they even find themselves laughing when the ship rocks in a strong crosswind, Victor bracing them both against the ship's side.

"Wow! Not quite like riding the sea, is it?"

Makka makes a hurrowling sound in her throat, tailtip twitching, ears flicking forward as she shoves her head back over the railing to peer down.

wake me up before you lefkokó

These were the kinds of celebrations he used to perform for, making use of his magic to enthrall and entertain. The energy of the crowd would feed into such performances, the challenge in the emotion he could pull out of them, the surprise he could leave them feeling, for better and for the more heartbroken. Victor's performances hadn't always been about happy things, but Lefkokó, that was. Dance, freedom, madness, cunning, those could be the cause of misfortune, but the day wasn't only focused on such things, as long as one was sensible about the games they played.

He missed the music. New music now, though some songs were familiar themes, a testimony to the strength of tradition across decades. He was always a quick ear, and now he listened and joined in the singing with the lusty crowds that pulled him in, a jovial smile or arm thrown over his shoulders inviting him and Makka to be part of the celebrations as if they all belonged.
i: If he spied someone he recognised from the tavern, he either offered them a mug of hot beverage (maybe the mead or the spiced wine or the apple cider), or he offered them a hand and a wink with a smile that said I know this is as silly as it seems, but maybe we can play along, just for a while.

"Join me for a dance?"

He wasn't any expert, but he was light on his feet, and the point to these folk-like traditions was to let the energy lead, not to fight it into court-like rigid behaviour.
ii: After the juveniles were released, Victor stood in one smaller square next to a broken fountain, Makka near his feet. Three of the juvenile ravens were across the fountain from him, feasting on crumbled bread he'd strewn around for them. He smiled, brief and nostalgic, before he stepped back and swept into a bow.

One of the ravens watched him, bobbing their head in turn. It was the only recognition he appeared to be looking for, because as he straigthened, he brought his hands up, cupping them together as he formed the magic in his mind.

He hadn't tried this particular magic in years. Wasn't even sure it would come to him as easily as it did before so much of his magic was invested into fighting, but he wanted it to respond like he remembered. Wanted it so badly that Makka whimpered, and Victor lifted his hands, setting free an illusionary raven that could never have fit into their limited space over his head.

As the illusion flew, Victor began to dance, face turned skyward, the sweep of his arms more emphatic than the movement of his legs in his half turns or spins, evocative of flight. Which was entirely the purpose, as the illusion dipped and twirled and joined in acrobatics that corresponded to Victor's movements on the ground: not exact copies, but the source of inspiration that guided.

The watching ravens cried out, hopping around on the ledge of the broken fountain. The one that had bobbed their head beat their wings to catch the air, diving toward the illusion, then banking away. It became a game, a dance between illusion and reality without the dramatics of so many of his shows from his youth. He kept it simple, the dancing flight of a snow crow that matched and complimented and spun away from the acrobatics of the true snow crow, first just one, then after a long moment, all three.

The dance came to an end with the illusion dropping back down to Victor, seeming to merge with him as he dispersed that magic, refracting light off himself and dazzling the whole of the small square and the ravens within it.

They cry out from where they wheel in the air, their playmate now gone, and he held up one arm as an invitation. Only one raven takes it, backwinging as it landed, talons cruel and careful as they grasped Victor's arm. The snow raven regarded Victor with one eye, then scooted up his arm, up to his shoulder, in dangerous reach of their powerful beak.

The snow raven reached out, preening part of Victor's bangs. Then they side-marched back down his arm, and with an expectant air, Victor smiled and closed his eyes. "As you like, snowbird," he said, dipping his arm and then lifting it skyward, helping throw the raven back into the bright midday skies.

The birds all wheeled away, soon gone as if they'd never been there at all.

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Mini-Event: Skywhale + Day of Lefkokó

Mini Event Questions

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lauralae | ota

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Ellie | OTA

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shura | ota

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skywhale

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