thenashira | Game Update: May I 2377

Weather & Recap ⭐︎ By Daylight ⭐︎ By Starlight
🎶 Recommended Listening: Smile.dk - Future Girls ♪
may i 2377
EPISODE 1: Flash Fashion? Couture Craze in Chalra City!
May 1 - May 9

Weather: Chalra City is enjoying a balmy and sunny late spring with some light rain here and there. The inland breeze from the nearby beaches brings a cool touch and the promise of summer, and flowering forsythia adds splashes of bright yellow to many parts of the city. The highs for the month average around 72°F/22°C, with lows around 50°F/10°C.

Recap: Episode 0: Nova Knights, Awaken!
At some point in the latter half of April, you awakened to your destiny as a Nova Knight, and last week, you and your fellow Nova Knights assembled for the first time. With Nautis's help, you're here to fight for a common cause — saving the Earth from the Abyss, the evil entity that destroyed your home planet in a past life. Whether or not you've revealed your true identity to any of your fellow Nova Knights, though...

Nautis has asked that you all lay low for a bit while she analyzes some data to try and pinpoint the enemy's next move. In the meantime, you can still keep an eye out for the occasional low-level monster terrorizing innocent bystanders, but maybe you're taking this opportunity just to let it all sink in. Maybe it doesn't even feel real yet, despite the big battle last week. After all, finding out that you have a special destiny because you're a reincarnated space alien can be a lot to take in.

BY DAYLIGHT
⭐︎ The new school year is underway at the Everwave Academy for Distinguished Youths, and after a month, students and faculty alike have settled back into the familiar school day rhythm. There's a new teacher in the art department, Shelly Lustre, whose highly critical approach has already made him a polarizing figure among students.

⭐︎ Chalra City is always changing with the times, and fashion is no exception! The new hot thing is in and it is Dan Flashes, a high-end boutique that recently opened in the downtown shopping district. Shoppers are turning out in droves to snatch up their latest pieces, especially their signature line of shirts with a variety of elaborate patterns despite the designer prices, which seem...to be based on how complicated the patterns are...? Huh?? Their items are, uh, pretty unique, but maybe the exclusivity is the main draw. Surely no one would actually buy these because they think they look it looks good, let alone wear them, right?

And yet the craze has taken hold of the city! Even if you can’t afford to shell out $800 for a shirt that looks like a screensaver threw up on an upholstered bus seat, you can still show your brand loyalty by wearing one of their signature pins. They’re practically giving them away, and it seems like just about everyone is wearing one these days. If you want to be in right now, Dan Flashes branded pins are all the rage in pop couture.

BY STARLIGHT
Hideout: Part of the Nova Knights package is the secret hideout beneath Lucky Stars Arcade, made of the remnants of a part of the Nashira that crash landed on Earth hundreds of years before Chalra City's founding. Right now all that's accessible is the console room that houses Nautis's core and the briefing room, which serves as a kind of lounge, but aside from shelves built into the walls, the only furniture there is an ancient table bolted to the floor, and anything that hasn't been recently touched is covered in a thick coat of dust. Who knows what you might find in there?

Still, if you want to just hang with your fellow Knights while in supernova (you know, in case you're concealing your identity), this is the place to be! All of the Nova Knights have been granted the power to warp themselves to the hideout while in supernova, but there's also the secret entrance behind the Bleat Fighter 3 cabinet that can be accessed by inputting a special button combo.

Intel: As Nautis mentioned in Episode 0, much of the data she needs to track the enemy's movements still needs to be decrypted from her databanks. She's getting some funky readings, and while she doesn't know exactly what they mean yet, it could be trouble...but soon she might have some information about those behind the arcade kerfuffle — the Harbingers of the Abyss!

⭐︎
Welcome to the grand opening for Stars of the Nashira! 🎊 Feel free to post your own logs, or you can use this as an open log for first half of the month. If you have any questions about the game update, you can drop them in the comment thread below.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Is it? There's something calming about growing things in the school garden, the routine of care, but she knows it's not really enough. It would be nice to be depended on...by someone.

Mutsumi's gaze drops to her hands, still clasped around the handle of the watering can.

"I don't know."

Hope makes a quiet noise in their throat. "It's okay," they say, and before the silence gets too unbearable, they decide to make what they really don't want to be a bad choice. Trying to sound as nonthreatening as possible, they comment, "You used to have a guitar."

It's not outright a question, but it's also not the only thing they say about it. "I play, too. A little bit." Not a lie, but they doubt they're anywhere near as good as Mutsumi is. No matter what ended up happening there.

This observation seems to make Mutsumi a little more glum, if such a thing is possible. She thinks about the band, about how much fun everyone else was having, how much people appreciated their performance. She thinks of the day of their last practice, at the anguish in everyone's faces.

"I wasn't good enough."

Hope frowns and doesn't even try to hide it. The lives of people younger than them have always been a mystery, but the same is true of the lives of most people, they think, so they decide that once again the details aren't too important on this one unless they're offered. Very carefully, like touching a porcelain doll, their fingers alight on Mutsumi's shoulder.

"Who told you that?" they ask. "I don't think that's true."

Something can be true without being said out loud. That seems to be the case with most things that are true, Mutsumi is finding. No one needs to tell her that it was her fault. She remembers the look on Sakiko's face, the sound of her wails over the rush of rain and commuter traffic.

Much like a porcelain doll, Mutsumi does not seem to react to being touched, as though the sensation doesn't quite reach her.

"It's over now."

If she could turn back time — if she could figure out how to really play — maybe they wouldn't have all had to lose CRYCHIC. But it's too late now.

Whatever it was that happened really must have been world-shattering for Mutsumi. As Hope's brain starts spinning up a number of potential solutions that they discard just as fast, mostly because they would be huge privacy violations and they do actually like having this job right now, they drop their hand back to their side.

And something strikes them—and not that they're very enthusiastic about things like this to begin with, but they do just genuinely want to help, and maybe they feel a little more empowered lately for mysterious and secret reasons. "I can bring my guitar to school one of these days, if you want." To see what not good enough actually looks like, they don't say. "It might be fun."

...Huh?

Mutsumi blinks, momentarily taken aback with just the smallest breath. It's the first time someone's offered to play with her since...well, since Sakiko asked her to join CRYCHIC. She doesn't look at Hope, but at the green vines glowing in the afternoon sun.

"Can you make it sing?"

Hope laughs, more of a breath than anything else, and looks down while they try to suppress their own... shame? Regret? Something else, or maybe both at once. "Not as well as you can," they admit, deciding that it's best to be up front about... everything. Well, everything as far as this is concerned.

"It's hard for me to stick with things if I'm not good at them. But I'd love to have the chance to play with you all the same."

She can't, though, is the thing. Her shoulders slump slightly. Hope is trying to be nice, but she doesn't really get it.

No one really does, it seems.

She doesn't want to let go of the guitar...she needs it. But the band is gone, and no one needs her. This isn't the same...but maybe...

Mutsumi just nods wordlessly, her eyes still fixed on the bright green vines.

Game Update: May I 2377

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