thenashira | Game Update: June I 2377

Entry tags:

Game Update: June I 2377

Weather & Recap ⭐︎ By Daylight ⭐︎ By Starlight
🎶 Recommended Listening: Like Chimeras - Joel Baylis ft. Shelby Harvey ♪
june i 2377
EPISODE 3: Shall We Dance? A Starlit Step in 3/4 Time!
June 1 - June 7

Weather: It's hot and humid out in Chalra City this month! June brings the songs of cicadas by day and the flickering lights of fireflies at night, to the delight of many a bug catcher. Some days are partially cloudy with a refreshing breeze, but there are plenty of hot and sunny days where your best bet is staying indoors. People are breaking out their seasonal fans, sun hats, and big sunglasses to fend off the sun. Don't forget your sunscreen! The highs for the month average around 86°F/30°C, with lows around 70°F/21°C.

Recap: The historic Golden Butterfly bathhouse was at risk of going out of business when some mysterious and trendy new bath salts appeared. This seemed to help business, but it quickly became apparent that this was yet another energy harvesting plot by the enemy. Meanwhile, the Nova Knights were finally able to track down Niangniang, and after rescuing her, discovered that she is in fact Maomao, a classmate of some of the Nova Knights. Who knew the cat was reincarnated as a human too! Maya and Hope, however, were captured by Shellustria and trapped in the Abyss.

BY DAYLIGHT
⭐︎ The Golden Butterfly Bathhouse is no longer on the verge of closing! While business isn't exactly booming, there are quite a few new return customers. The supply of mysterious bath salts seems to vanish as readily as it appeared, and Maomao has arranged a new supplier for Granny Chocho. Yes, that supplier is her (father's) pharmacy, and yes, it has actually improved business!

⭐︎ Beach season has officially begun! Weekend traffic has skyrocketed now that everyone's headed to the beach on their days off. Chalra City's many shops are now selling swimsuits, towels, umbrellas, and any other beach accessory you can think of! The city is in full summer swing, too, with street vendors now selling bottled water, cold packs, and shaved ice for anyone who needs relief from the heat. Make sure you stay hydrated!

⭐︎ Another week, another craze in Chalra City — despite the heat, spontaneous dance parties known as flash mobs have been popping up in the shopping district. Usually a gathering of ten to twenty people, with at least one of them invariably carrying a boom box blasting tunes, they gather on a street corner or pedestrian walkway and break out into energetic dance in a variety of styles. It only lasts for the length of a single song, and then they then immediately disperse. Confusing, but exciting!

⭐︎ Nova Pandora and Nova Glimmer are trapped in the Abyss, which means their civilian identities are also missing! Maomao is able to cover for Maya by lying to the madam, while Natalia tells the school that Hope is suffering from one of the many recent cases in Chalra City of what can only be called "the vapors". But who knows how long those excuses will hold, or when they'll be able to get Pandora and Glimmer back?

BY STARLIGHT
⭐︎ Hideout Status: Now that Maomao has awakened as the reincarnation of Niangniang, she can be found hanging out in the hideout a few afternoons/evenings a week. While she seems exceedingly reluctant to participate in this special destiny, her tune quickly changes when she discovers the ancient seed collection in the Library. It contains seed samples of thousands of plants from an eons-dead world, and using the hydroponic garden, it might actually be possible to regrow some Hassalean plants on Earth. Who knows what unique properties they have? At any rate, this is Maomao's new special project and the main thing getting her to come to the hideout.

This doesn't come as a surprise to Nautis, as apparently Niangniang's actual role on the Nashira was the assistant to the ship's doctor, and she had an affinity for botanical experiments even as a cat. Nautis doesn't seem to be especially thrilled to have Maomao around, even if she is glad to have her missing data back. She seems to resent Maomao for it even though she was the one to use Maomao's soul as overflow storage in the first place...?

⭐︎ Intel: Nautis finally has the data she needs to start tracking the missing Star Map fragments, which will allow her to upgrade everyone's dowsing machines to track Star Map activity. Nautis explains that each fragment of the Star Map actually represents a Constellation from the Hassalean Zodiac. There are seven loose Constellations in total, and the Nova Knights will have to locate all of them to complete the Star Map and seal away the Abyss.

⭐︎ Another Awakening: On June 3, Nautis alerts the group chat to the awakening of a new Nova Knight! It seems that the awakening pulse she sent out didn't activate everyone right away, probably due to the fact that she's not operating at full power. Who knows how many other Nova Knights might be out there, yet to awaken?

Once Nova Pastos has been awakened, Nautis adds him to the (mandatory) group chat and invites him to the hideout, encouraging the rest of the gang to drop by and meet him sometime. You'll be fighting together, after all!

⭐︎ Trapped in the Abyss: On May 30, Nova Pandora and Nova Glimmer ran afoul of Shellustria and have been trapped in the Abyss. Nautis has alerted all the Nova Knights, but they'll remain in the Abyss for the entire week.

After a short and brutal battle, Pandora and Glimmer find themselves transported to an empty, howling wasteland steeped in eternal night. The moon hangs eerily low in the sky, and seems to loom ever closer as the week wears on, the only sign of the passage of time. It looks like no place they would recognize on Earth, but there is a vague, uneasy sense of familiarity to it all the same.

As Pandora and Glimmer wander through the Abyss, they'll find that they can't come out of supernova — whatever magic that allows them to transform back to regular human form seems to be jammed here. They don't seem to need to eat during their time in the Abyss, but sleep is hard to come by; in fact, the endless night makes it increasingly difficult to tell how much time has even passed since they arrived here.

The Abyss seems utterly devoid of life, and yet, they may encounter twisted reflections of people they know, including other Nova Knights. It's also possible for Pandora and Glimmer to become separated while in the Abyss...sounds like a bad time!

(In other words: other characters can thread with Maya and Hope while they're in the Abyss, but only as apparitions in the Abyss. Their real selves are still very much out in the world and not in contact with the Abyss.)

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

The form of Natalia's eclipse has taken shape, between anger at her abandonment, fear (though getting her to admit it would be like pulling teeth) that losing three comrades in less than two weeks is entirely on her, and the combined doubt in her own abilities leading to her doubling down on her obsession with strength. Worse, all this lack of thought and lack of emotional intelligence means she lashes out.

She's spending an awful lot of time in Supernova, whether it's around the city or aboard the Nashira.

When she's not doing that, she may be found in the Everwave or Iacon Libraries, fulfilling her duties at Verdigris House, training lacrosse drills on the athletic field.

Lenya is currently working.

Yuri is in from the ocean this week.

I: I'm the wrong vibration to summon to Earth (Daylight)
Natalia continues to take her lunches alone. It's a nice, quiet moment between classes.

It's easier that way, presumably.

Of course, it would help if people didn't start making their way towards her. She just wants moments alone.

... Well. Presumably.

II: When the cuffs break, better make enough of the cure (Starlight)
Neos, within the Nashira, becomes something of an anchor. She sits, in Supernova, on the couch, staring at nothing, meditating.

At some point during the last mission, she gained a heavy-looking black crown, which sits uneasily on her forehead.

In this case, she's looked up some of the manuals for doctors that are left in the Library. Paging. Slowly.

One can't resist the feeling that she's a tiger pacing in a cage far too small for her.

"... How soon until we get that lock on their location in the Abyss, Nautis?"

"It's only been twelve hours! I'll tell you when."

"How soon."

"Maybe you should slow down."

Her hands twitch and form into fists, showing just what she thinks of that. She'd be grateful for anyone else to talk to, at this point.

III: You don't wanna engage (Daylight)
Most gyms, it should be said, have a heavy bag, and while it's not typical for lacrosse players to use it, there she is, trying to blow one of them apart.

In fact, she's been doing that quite a bit, lately. There's just too much damn steam in her head. She can't blow it off, but at least if she's dead exhausted, it won't hurt anyone but herself.

Despite this theory, Natalia is doing an alarmingly reasonable job of destroying the heavy bag in front of her. The sound of impacts, heavy, fast, one after another, overcome the general noise of a gym, imparting a staccato, impromptu rhythm that would break a lesser woman's hands.

Regardless, as she sits there huffing and puffing after a ten minute round, anyone happening by or watching this complete clinic can probably hear, "... Not enough."

IV: I don't need money to burn
Natalia pockets her pay packet and tries not to look just a little guilty. More than that, she wishes Maya was still here. At least then she might feel like she hasn't made a horrible mess of things in Verdigris this week.

Oh, well.

She stares, for a long moment, at the one-pieces and the bikinis in the shop fronts. No. No, this is rent money. And besides, even if she could pack up and go to the beach... Wouldn't that be the same as abandoning her friends? Her hands ball in to fists. She can't do it.

She just can't. How sickening, to even think about abandoning them at a time like this. And what would her father say, if he knew!?

She walks away, and bangs the side of her fist into a sturdy wall. It feels like a storm is brewing.

in the hideout
Maomao is not happy about having awakened to her special destiny. In fact, she's pretty annoyed about it. She doesn't want anything to do with having to save the world, she just wants to live her life, but apparently that's not an option because that ancient piece of cyberjunk won't let her leave the Nova Knights group chat. At least she doesn't have to do any actual fighting. On the other hand, there is little dignity afforded to her by being the team mascot.

Her tune changes, however, when she finds out about the ancient seed collection. All the magic stuff is a hard pillow to swallow, except apparently when it comes to ancient flora from a dead planet. Now this is the only reason she regularly comes to the hideout: to fuck around with the garden in the Library and grow heretofore unknown plants so she can test them all on herself. You might even hear some unsettling laughter from the Library while she contemplates the possibilities.

Maomao is aware that hanging out in the hideout in human form breaks whatever magic protection they all have on their identities, and she doesn't love it, but it's so much better than the alternative of just being a cat all the time. People keep wanting to pick her up and feed her stuff and you couldn't pay her to voluntarily transform even one more time. And if anyone calls her Niangniang to her face, they'll get only a death glare in return.

elsewhere
Maomao can also be found at Everwave Academy during school hours, the Golden Butterfly and Verdigris House most evenings, and her father's pharmacy on some afternoons and weekends.

Say what you will of Neos's outrage and sulking and brooding: it's blessedly quiet. Still, she paces, uncomfortably, the results of three straight showdowns in the front line telling in her face and energy, even if her bruises are covered.

Despite this-- despite this, she's still going to attempt to approach Maomao, after a little while of just reading and pacing. "What do you have going?"

Dirk has never been a coffee guy.

He comes by his deplorable sleep habits naturally. Besides, the merest whiff of dependence on some kind of substance turns his stomach.

So he's not getting coffee.

He walks out of the Sunbucks with some kind of frozen drink in summery blue and white, no whipped cream, transparent plastic already dewy with condensation in the summer heat. It's supposed to be a berry flavour but he doesn't really get that out of the experience. He just wants something to clear his head, and a cold drink with a lot of sweet to it is grounding.

The dream is still in his head. If not the details (although it's not not the details), then the feeling of it, lingering inside his rib cage and around the corners of his mind when he woke dry and safe in his bed, Cal's arms wrapped around his hips like a life preserver. It's distracting.

Maybe the drink will help.

Or maybe it'll just be a waste of fuckin' money, but whatever, it's not like he's hurting for--

Uh. For, uh. Money...

Dirk's thoughts trail off as he stares, blankly, at some kind of... fucked up mascot costume. Like.... on the roof. Jumping up and down for some reason--

Or just jumping down, rolling neatly in a landing that Dirk finds somewhat unbelievable considering the sheer bulk of the costume, but also... kind of impressive for that exact reason. His brain is still loading that thought, along with the bizarre sense of impending disaster as the cavorting, costumed caperer of capitalism runs towards him--closing the gap with speed that would be alarming if Dirk wasn't so unsure as to its intentions.

He doesn't think to move out of the way. He just stands there, staring in stoic silence as this... thing sprints directly towards him. Not until the last second does he realise that it really is going to run right into him. Finally, his reflexes kick in--and one second before impact, he drops his drink.

And punches it directly in the face.

a. bummin' around the base (starlight)
The thing is, she's been avoiding Nova Pandora ever since the really awkward conversation they'd had last month, and now that Nova Pandora is gone, captured by the Abyss...Nova Mortis feels really guilty about it. She's not sure how, but something inside of her is saying it's her fault. If she'd just been a better teammate, then somehow...

She always has a low-key bummed-out aura around her when she's just hanging out, but she seems...a little extra sad. She hasn't been seen with her guitar in the hideout — the will to play around the other Nova Knights has dwindled, and when she's not sure what else to do, she stares at some of the books on a shelf in the Library. She should probably be doing...some kind of research, right?

b. out on the town (daylight)
Even if her band isn't playing together anymore, Mutsumi hasn't stopped playing. She needs the guitar, even if they don't need her. And maybe...just maybe, when Sakiko is feeling better, they can reunite the band.

So it's to that end that she's at the music store, picking up a new set of strings and reupping on the supplies she needs to give the fretboard a proper cleaning. While she doesn't go for the most expensive stuff, it's pretty clear from her product choices that she is way less concerned about money than the average high school guitarist.

Mutsumi is always unassuming and quiet, but she was on TV recently alongside her mother for an interview about Minami Mori's latest feature film — even if you don't know her from school, you might still recognize her face.

c. wildcard!

The worst part of all this is that Mutsumi doesn't really have anyone to talk to. She hasn't in a while, not since her best friend stopped coming to this school, stopped talking to her very much at all. Maybe she might have been able to turn to Nova Zenith, but that's the whole problem — she's felt shaken ever since they lost him to the Abyss, and no one else has been any real comfort. It's not their fault, it's just...how it is. They're all still figuring this out as they go.

And now Pandora and Glimmer have been captured, too, and she can't help but feel guilty for it. She'd been avoiding Pandora for the last few weeks, but...what if that's it? What if Pandora and Glimmer are lost for now the way Zenith is, and that was the last real conversation Mutsumi ever had with Pandora?

She's starting to spiral hard. She could hardly focus in class, and now that she's in the school garden, a place that's supposed to be something like a safe haven, she's just staring into space as the water from the outdoor tap fills her watering can and starts to overflow.

Wow! Way to ruin his entrance! The boba monster, thoroughly surprised by Dirk's gumption if not actually hurt in any way, bounces back with enough distance that Nova Crescent, attempting a stealth intercept in shadow form, shoot harmlessly past where the monster had been a second ago and lands in the bushes. Thanks.

Crescent pops back up in the next second like a disgruntled gopher, a few leaves still scattered atop his hood.

"What are you doing? Do you have powers? No?? Then run, idiot!" he yells at Dirk. Wow, he's so heroic.

Jamil's been unsettled recently as well. He's an old, deft hand at covering for it, so he's confident nobody has noticed, but as much as he pretends otherwise he's just as disturbed by Pandora and Glimmer's disappearance as the rest. He doesn't have a particular desire to be a nice person, but he's still bothered by some of the things he said to Pandora before they vanished.

And it isn't as though he's the type to want to talk about his troubles ever, but it is lonely with how few people know the truth. He certainly isn't going to bring it up with Kalim, even if they are technically in the same situation. But when he sees Mutsumi in the school garden in an obvious state, it's hard not to be affected.

He's coming up to her before he has a chance to think about it. It's automatic to be nicer to people when he's a civilian; it's part of his role. That's what he tells himself as he approaches.

"Are you all right, Mutsumi?" he says quietly, not wanting to startle her. "I think you have plenty of water by now."

Dirk, for his part, is actually more startled by the shooting shadow than he was by the monster--partially because he has not fully processed that what he just punched is a monster, and partially because the shadow is a pissy teenage punk yelling at him from the bushes.

His attention is stolen fully for about one entire second while he processes it all--ragebait included.

Arguably, the part that should have stood out out to him in the is the bit about powers, but what Dirk hears is potshots from the peanut gallery telling to flee while calling him an idiot, so what he says back is, "Hell no."

Meanwhile he's trying to figure out whether he actually stopped the madcap mascot. He realises half a second after that he hasn't--and on some level, he's actually a little pissed that he didn't. He's spent way too long building up his muscles for a pop in the face to do basically nothing--

Unfortunately, this level of distraction almost gets him bodied by a cartoonish drinks-themed monster.

Which really does just attempt to full on body slam him like a footballer.

Wow.

Dirk has the oyher half of thd second to load a response--and what he chooses is not the best reflex, but it's not the worst, either. Maybe it's a little unreasonable to expect someone to be completely ready to go toe-to-toe with a dubiously-sentient bipedal beverage with no warning.

He can say goodbye to that fancy iced drink, though.

The monster lunges, and Dirk backflips away; the drink in his hand doesn't come with him because he throws it directly into the beverage's face.

Then he dives for the pavement, hoping to roll away and--

--and then what? He doesn't know, he hasn't thought that far ahead. But thanks to Jamil, he's decided that on absolutely no condition is he going to run.

"--and now you owe me a drink."

Edited 2025-07-05 22:21 (UTC)

Nova Mortis is feeling kind of at a loss lately in general. Losing Nova Zenith just a couple of weeks after they had all come together had been hard, but now Pandora and Glimmer are trapped in the Abyss too. She can't sleep at home, though, even surrounded by her stuffed toys and comforts, so sometimes she warps to the hideout late at night, even when it's empty of other people, and just sits on the couch, holding her guitar. She still wears the lace mask, even though she knows that her identity wouldn't be revealed even if she took it off. It's just...more comfortable.

But tonight, it's not empty — in fact, there are...what look to be a bunch of puppets and dolls in varying states of completion. Silently, she pokes her head around the corner to see further into the hideout. She's been kind of in a fog for the last week, but Nautis had mentioned someone new...

Her eyes will meet another pair--wide, bright blue, and staring.

They don't blink.

This is because they don't belong to a human being--they belong to a grinning(?) doll with long, flexible limbs, which are wrapped around the neck and arm of an actual human being, the doll's head resting on the man's shoulder and conveniently(?) tilted just right to stare directly at Nova Mortis as she peers around the corner.

The man doesn't notice her for at least a second or two; he's busy sewing. He's also wearing triangular sunglasses indoors at night, which is... some kind of choice.

But he does notice her, eventually. He turns as though to look at his doll, and then notices her. It's obvious he's noticed her because he goes completely still, except for his hands--where he narrowly avoids stabbing himself in the thumb with the needle.

From Dirk's perspective, he was having a perfectly chill, calm evening working on a doll with his pal Cal when some kind of horror movie girl in a mask who might as well have crawled out of a TV came creeping around the corner to stare at him without saying a fucking word.

He doesn't say anything, either. He stares at her. Silent. Still. Impassive. Tense as all fuck.

".........."

Nova Mortis blinks when she realizes she's staring at a doll, but seems more confused than unnerved. It's the funky sunglasses at night in an underground base that give her pause. But the Nova Knights is already full of, uh, colorful personalities, so this is...probably par for the course. No one's ever brought a bunch of art projects down here before, but Nova Sunbeam managed to get a whole couch down here somehow. Besides, if there was something to be worried about, Nautis would have said something, right...?

It's just that no one else has awakened since the seven of them came together, and now they've lost Nova Zenith and they're down another two Knights, and Nova Mortis realizes that she doesn't really know how to feel about it. So she just stares back silently, unsure of what else to do.

".................."

Dirk, meanwhile, is still trying to figure out what this cursed chick is about. His first monster experience was a bipedal boba tea that tried to body slam into the dirt, so this isn't exactly 'par for the course' in thematics, but it isn't NOT some kind of fucked up.

Is he being threatened? Is this an ally? The two aren't even mutually exclusive, and as the seconds tick onward, the silence hanging over them begins to gain weight and pressure.

He also hasn't moved, or spoken. It's as though she's staring at a statue.

"......."

At least she saw him moving before he saw her. Otherwise this could be really weird.

In the back of her mind, Mutsumi acknowledges that this guy's ability to just Not Move is impressive. She barely moves, either, but in a way that seems unconscious, almost as though returning to some default setting. She herself seems more like a doll than a person in this moment, ready to be posed for whatever the scene demands for her next.

She just has no idea what that is or even if she should venture deeper into the hideout, because she's no longer certain that Nautis's judgment is totally sound. She can feel the pressure bearing down on her like suffocation, locking her down all the more completely, and she just keeps on watching the other Knight, waiting for her cue.

"............."

Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that Mutsume is breathing--and looking with those wet, living eyes, and all the rest--the resemblance to an inanimate object would be pretty comforting to him.

Instead, it's just sort of uncanny.

Which is more or less the same effect that OTHER people usually get from him and Cal, not that he has the insight to realise this.

Actually, her immobility is sort of effective; he puts down his guard enough to lay down the puppet and threaded needle--which he very specifically and purposefully inserts directly into the poor thing's ass cheek.

Then he shrugs a shoulder, which causes Cal to nod at her. A greeting.

He still doesn't speak, but at least it's communication. Of a sort.

Crescent rolls his eyes. The only drawback of his super cool hood is that it hides when he does that, but it still makes him feel better.

The drink successfully blinds the boba monster for a few seconds, but it doesn't actually cause any injury--that's fine. That's what Crescent is here for. And now he's got a prime shot with Dirk out of the way. In the next second, he dashes at the monster again and lands on its back, preparing to use his daggers to kill it like he did the first one--

--Except, he only realizes once he's reformed atop the monster's back, the obvious weak spot that the first one had isn't present here. He freezes, unsure where to strike, and in the next second the monster recovers and becomes very annoyed that it suddenly has two people to deal with.

It rolls its shoulder-like appendages ruefully and tosses Crescent right back into the bushes. Oops.

When he finally moves, Nova Mortis takes this as tacit confirmation that it's okay for her to emerge from around the corner. When she does, she's holding a glittery pink guitar in her arms. This does not seem to match the rest of her Death Aesthetic, and yet, this is her weapon. She takes a couple of near-silent steps into the lounge.

She nods at Cal and then Dirk in turn, as though it would be impolite to gloss over the puppet that greeted her. Even if she knows it's a puppet. She...had kind of expected the hideout to be empty at this hour so that she could do her usual unhealthy thing of just sitting and holding her guitar until she falls asleep upright. But she doesn't want to go home just yet, so instead she sits down on the couch (at the opposite end, she doesn't know how big his personal space bubble is and he's clearly got his own thing going on) and starts picking out rapid scales on her guitar. Quietly.

Dirk watches her from behind his shades, apparently indifferent to her response.

Which... isn't completely accurate. He's still processing her, this... girl. The mask is a freaky choice, and the kitschy guitar doesn't impress him. It clashes horribly with the rest of her bit. But maybe that's the point.

Either way, the respect offered to Cal as well as Dirk is appreciated. He lifts a brow in her direction. Cal simply continues staring--or perhaps leering--brightly from his shoulder.

But neither one protests when she comes in and sits on the couch, although Dirk does notice how far she sits from him.

Predictable, he feels.

He isn't wholly unaware of the effect he has on people; he might not have any insight into why it happens, but he's aware enough that this is the expected outcome.

For a while, he's willing to work in silence; as she begins... playing her guitar, which is kind of weird, he gradually goes back to work. He keeps his opinions to himself for several entire minutes, even. Long enough to finish with the tufted hair and closing up the back of the head.

But finally he shifts, letting out his breath in a long, low sigh; he unshrimps his spine, rolling his shoulders and reaching up to adjust Cal. Specifically, he lets Cal down from his back and spools the puppet's long legs into a kind of crossed shape on the couch, propped up so that he's fully facing (and watching) the other Knight. One of the doll's arms is still looped around Dirk's, though. They're sitting arm-in-arm. Try not to read too much into it.

"Now that we've established you're clearly not here to murder me or Cal--or put a curse on our dubiously-mortal souls or whatever other ghoulish activities your appearance implies--who actually are you? I'm making the broad and frankly magnanimous assumption that you're not here for malfeascence, by the way. And maybe I'm wrong. In which case we're going to have a problem. But otherwise, you might wanna work on your approach. You come creeping in here like some kind of animate grudge, that is a damn good way to make a person think you've manifested from the abyss to stalk an unsuspecting and defenceless populace with malign intent. I already got into a fistfight with one fucked-up thing this week, and--you know what? Nevermind." He drops the train of thought abruptly, realising he's about to get into more than he personally wants to disclose here.

It has also occurred to him that he didn't pick his costume, and he might be throwing stones at glass guitarists.

So he glances down at Cal, chewing it over before he decides what piece of information he actually cares about and looks back up at her.

"You got a name?"

Oh, he does talk! Nova Mortis is kind of taken aback once he starts speaking. She just figured he's, you know, not much of a talker. She also...wasn't expecting that kind of reaction, especially when she's been coming here with increasing regularity as her sleep gets worse. Not one of the other Knights seemed to find her scary or intimidating before — if anything, most of them are a lot friendlier than she was expecting. Maybe it was because they all met at the same time...

As he talks, she looks surprised and then kind of sad, like she's been scolded for doing something wrong. Her gaze drops to her lap. It was kind of rude of her to come in here and not introduce herself to the new person...that must be why he's so upset. She points a finger at her masked face and looks back up at him.

"...Nova Mortis."

At the same time, Nautis sends a text message to Dirk: She's one of the first wave of Nova Knights, you dingus.

Mutsumi is a little startled anyway, snapping out of her reverie and spilling some water on her shoes. It's not you, Jamil, she just has the temperament of a baby deer.

She frowns a little, pouring some of the water back into the basin. She doesn't seem to mind the fact that her socks are wet, but it's clear she has other things on her mind. She tightens both hands around the handle of the watering can.

"Jamil..." Like always, she somehow speaks at the most barely audible volume possible. She's really not sure what to say. She can't say she's not okay — she has to be. With their numbers almost down by half, she can't afford to buckle now. Even if she's tired, even if she's too stressed to sleep, even if, even if. This is the role that has been presented to her, and she must play it to the end.

None of this makes it out of her head, however. All she says is, "We're already losing."

Even before her awakening, Mutsumi would sometimes come to Lucky Stars after school. She's not much of a gamer, but she likes playing the UFO catchers sometimes, and there's a new line of Pastel*Palettes miniature plushes available this week. They've gotten to be a pretty popular idol group, so it's not a surprise that the line is rather long, and the arcade is getting pretty crowded.

At some point someone making their way through the crowd pushes Mutsumi out of the line for the UFO catcher, and she finds herself being knocked around in the crowd despite her attempts to get back to the UFO catcher. She winds up in an entirely different line, somehow, and by the time she gets to the end of it, it's for a game she's never even heard of, Clock's Ticking 4: All Out of Minutes.

It's one of those big two-player games enclosed in a big box, and Mutsumi, unable to speak up, winds up stumbling inside. It's some kind of rail shooter. She's never played one of these before, but...it seems like it's time to try?

The base sure feels kind of empty lately. Kalim has been trying not to think about it. But he can't just not come by just because he doesn't want to dwell on how three whole members of the team have disappeared. It would feel like turning his back on what's more clearly an important mission than ever. Plus, he's sure Jamil would have questions if he started going to the hideout less – Kalim never told him about what happened to Nova Zenith and he hasn't brought up this latest development either, because he knows Jamil would worry a whole lot and also tell him he absolutely needs to stop doing this. And obviously that's not an option!

All of which is to say that Nova Sunbeam is in the habit lately of forcing himself to loiter aimlessly but cheerfully around the hideout, chattering to Nautis or whoever else wanders by... and it's much easier to focus on trying to cheer someone else up than it is to process anything he's feeling. Especially someone with such a profoundly gloomy aura as Nova Mortis.

"Hey!" He scoots in next to her by the bookshelves and shoots her a bright smile. "Find anything interesting?"

Natalia Koutolika had wondered what this line was to, in the first place, and when she had found out it was, in fact, to a light-gun game, she didn't mind as much as she thought she might. This time, she wasn't in uniform, having switched to a tank top and something resembling athletic shorts. She wasn't sure it was such a good idea to show off all her muscles, bruises, burn marks, and what are probably becoming scars, but in the press and heat of both the outside and the lines inside the arcade, she'd found herself somewhat grateful for an outfit that breathed; she adjusted the tank top to keep her bra relatively covered, but couldn't be assed to make sure.

The problem came when, unfortunately, the 'big box' was not necessarily designed for someone who was just the tall side of six feet tall and athletically built. It's not the tightest squeeze Natalia's ever had to endure-- ask her about coming over on a container ship!-- but it's certainly not the most comfortable enclosure she's had the pleasure of sitting in.

High scores scroll by. One of them is marked "HPC".

Natalia's eyes narrow and she starts putting in her coins.

Edited (ah right the OTHER reason she tries to keep covered up) 2025-07-07 08:46 (UTC)

Fortunately, this distraction does give Dirk a chance to get his ass out of boba beatdown range; unfortunately, this gives him the opportunity to talk.

"That's Dirk Strider with the Sunbux drink two; whoever the fuck you are with the magical teleportation gimmick zero. Is the real threat here the local landscaping, or am I missing something?"

The monster puts its fists together and slams them down on the pavement directly where Dirk Strider was--he just fucking runs from that one, although he can't quite resist the urge to add a completely unnecessary Webster sideflip afterwards.

But for all his talk, Dirk's parkour skills aren't getting them any closer to being rid of this thing.

He's already aware of that--and in his head, he's on it. Outside of his head, in reality... what does on it really mean? Can he actually pull something together--some trick or tactic that will actually work? How real is this...?

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 7

Game Update: June I 2377

QUESTIONS

no subject

[NPC] Maomao

In the hideout

Closed to Jamil

Mutsumi Wakaba

closed to Jamil

no subject

no subject

no subject

closed to Dirk

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

I'm sorry this got long because I was multitasking and I looked back and WORDS

never apologize for such beautiful tags

no subject

closed to Natalia

a

Re: closed to Natalia

Oh my god the typos last tag