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thenashira2025-12-02 08:56 pm
nashiramods) wrote in thenashira2025-12-02 08:56 pm
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Game Update: August II 2377
🎶 Recommended Listening: Answer - BUMP OF CHICKEN ♪
august ii 2377
EPISODE 8: When You Wish Upon a Spark...
August 16 - 31
NOTE: As a reminder, there will be no event or missions this month while the mod team takes a break. The game update contains prompts for all of August II, so play around to your heart's content!
Star Suite: The Training Room has been unlocked! Special training machines are now available to the Nova Knights, and they now have access to a new Star Suite power, Sparkle of Life. More details about this power are included in the Starlight section. The Rewards page has been updated with information about the next unlockable room, the Portal.
Constellations: 2/7 Constellations captured. The Nova Knights have the Dancer and the Three Sisters.
Weather: Chalra City's hot hot summer continues! While August isn't quite as hot as it was last month, it's a good deal more humid and stickier. Whether it's a swimming pool or a beach, Chalra City residents are flocking to the water to cool off and relax. Sunbathing in the park is a popular activity on cooler days, and local shops and restaurants court young shoppers by offering special services and sales suited to the student wallet. The highs for the month average around 90°F/32C° with lows around 78°F/25C°.
Recap: The Nova Knights got some badly needed wins in the first half of August! Not only did they rescue the Three Sisters from the Harbingers' clutches, but Dirk and Reese escaped from the Abyss more or less intact as well. They managed to foil most of the Harbingers' plans at Littleneck Beach, but the Harbingers got away with their stolen energy, and whatever they were harvesting from the folks consuming Potari Sweet. The Harbingers have since disappeared from Nautis's magical radar, however, suggesting that they're prioritizing their defenses over a proactive attack.
BY DAYLIGHT
⭐︎ Summer break is over — it's back to school for all students. Hope you did your summer homework, or at least copied it from someone else last minute!
⭐︎ As the summer swelters on, the Midnight Diner serves up a Chalra City summer favorite: finger food-sized fried chicken with a spicy yogurt dipping sauce known by locals as pieces and beach sauce. While beach sauce is typically associated with fried chicken, Chalra City residents will put it on just about anything, and everyone's got their own recipe. Master's beach sauce is known to pack a powerful chili kick.
⭐︎ Chalra City commemorates the end of the summer with a fireworks festival on the waterfront running from the 26th to the 28th. Chalra City's artisans take great pride in their craft, and they spend months preparing three consecutive nights of elaborate fireworks displays on the waterfront, each more fantastic than the last, leading up to a truly show-stopping finale on the evening of the 28th. The festival is only active at night, but much like the Smoketree Promenade's midsummer event, there are plenty of food stalls and street vendors to occupy people's time before the fireworks go off. Sparklers are a popular toy for children and adults alike!
In Chalra City, the fireworks festival is about more than just tasty food and spectacle — it's an important opportunity for community togetherness and gathering with friends and family. There's an enduring old custom in this part of Atlace of making wishes on fireworks — if you make a wish aloud as a firework goes off, it may come true, and conveniently, the noise of the fireworks drowns out all but shouting. Of course, most people will agree that it's just an old superstition, but sometimes you can hear a murmur of voices intermingled with the deafening pops and cracks, so perhaps some of the Chalra City folk are a little more superstitious than they'll readily admit. Everyone needs a little something to believe in.
And it wouldn't be a true Chalra City summer event without a little competition! On the evening of 27th, the festival holds a spicy food eating contest hosted by the celebrity comedian Wakaba. Contestants will be tasked with eating a variety of hot sauce-coated foods, with the spicy factor increasing with every round; in between rounds, while the contestants take a brief breather, Wakaba asks them a variety of personal questions, most of which inevitably end on a joke. While there is a small cash prize for winning the contest, the real incentive is bragging rights.
BY STARLIGHT
⭐︎ Hope's Prophecy: Thanks to their past life as a diviner for the Oracle, Hope may occasionally receive prophetic dreams that give the Knights a hint about what's to come. Hope did not have a prophetic dream this time around either, but there's always next time!
⭐︎ Hideout Status: The Aquarium has 20 new quartz shrimp in addition to the four goldfish! The massive tanks are still mostly empty, but it's a start.
The Training Room is now accessible! If you were expecting a classic gym experience, think again — rather than conventional workout equipment, the Training Room holds what appear to be a series of arcade machines with a decidedly Hassalean aesthetic. Apparently, this is how the Nova Knights in their past lives honed their skills! There are currently three working arcade-style workout machines in the Star Plus training series: Star Plus Blazer, a target practice game to help hone weapon proficiency; Star Plus Light Catcher, a Whac-a-Mole style game where you bop cute little star-shaped monsters; and Star Plus Beats, a drumming game with two large drums that helps with magic power circulation.
There are more workout machines, but the rest are all out of order...who knows, maybe you'll find a way to repair them someday!
⭐︎ Star Suite: Another Silver-level Star Suite power has been unlocked! The Nova Knights can now use Soul Flash, a Silver-level finishing move that cleanses ordinary people who have been temporarily possessed or changed by the Abyss. The overzealous beachgoers who had drunk Potari Sweet, for instance, would have been cured in an instant by Soul Flash!
Star Suite powers cannot be alone; they must be used in concert with at least one other Nova Knight, and the more Knights who participate, the stronger the attack. It can only be used once per supernova transformation. Characters in eclipse lose access to Star Suite powers for the duration of their eclipse.
⭐︎ Maomao's Garden: If Maomao has made any crucial progress, she hasn't shared it with anyone. Instead, she's just fully taken over the Lab and relocated the entire hydroponics garden there for better study. Trespassers will be hissed at.
⭐︎ Nautis Updates: Late in the evening of the 15th, Nautis informs everyone with unusual gravity that two more of their number have been claimed by the Abyss: Sunbeam and Crescent. As far as she can tell, they're not in one of the more surface-level pockets of the Abyss like the last few Nova Knights, but somewhere deep and as of yet unreachable like Nova Zenith. The Harbingers have gone to great lengths to hide themselves from Nautis, so it'll take time before she can find a way that deep into the Abyss. She urges everyone not to lose heart — their friends aren't dead, only captured, and the Nova Knights are coming for them.
> I know it's hard to think about having fun at a time like this, but...
> I just don't think it's good to dwell too long on what's already happened! You've got to take all that emotion and let it drive you forward! ( ◡̀_◡́)ᕤ
> Besides, you know they wouldn't want you giving up at every setback! We'll prove their faith in us and rescue them for sure!
> So you have to make sure to take care of yourselves, OK?
> We've got some of the training machines up and running if you want to feel productive about your emotions ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧
> I hear this city's got some great fireworks...I know! You should all go take pictures for me! ^_^
> After all, it's not like I can go myself... Don't you want me to enjoy the fireworks? Don't I deserve to witness beauty too?
> I've been hard at work trying to put together what the Harbingers did to the Three Sisters and everything...
> The Constellation will recover, but yikes, those clowns really did a number on it. What they did was basically sacrilege! Don't they know these are precious artifacts of Hassaleh's Ocean Temple?!
> It really fries my circuits to see those good-for-nothing villainous losers abusing priceless pieces of our history (｡•̀ ⤙ •́ ｡ꐦ)
> The Constellations' magic was never meant to be used so directly...I don't think they have any idea what they were tampering with.
> Thank the stars they didn't! They could have done much worse than mess with some drinks. We can't let another Constellation fall into the Harbingers' hands again!
> But it seems like they're laying low for the time being... So I think it's time for everyone to take a load off! ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡
⭐︎ Intel: Although it's still unknown as to how the Harbingers' ship managed to disappear itself from Nautis's sensors, a conversation overheard by Dirk and Reese during their escape strongly suggests that while Mistiluxia clearly has dealings with the Abyss, the other Harbingers may not even know of its existence.
That doesn't mean all is quiet on the Nova Knight front, however. Even though there doesn't appear to be real any Harbinger activity on Earth these two weeks, there is an uptick in drinks monster sightings — more specifically, slushie monsters. While many of the monsters the Nova Knights face are directly summoned by the Harbingers, some, like the drinks monsters, are a byproduct of the Abyss's influence on Earth. So while there may not be a bigger Harbinger plot to foil, these monsters still need defeating! It is really hot out, though...would getting hit by just one frozen slushie attack be all that bad?
no subject
So if they had to guess, he's doing something similar right now. They can't presume for a second what exactly he's thinking, but the question he eventually asks gives them some idea. Maybe, if they answer good enough, they can explain themself better. Maybe they can make themself understood more. Maybe that's the right way to handle it. That one word they've said so far has come out easily enough; just say a few more and you'll be fine.
"A lot of people like talking about themselves, so if I give them an on-ramp to do it, sometimes they'll take it. Maybe, like, 60% of the time?" They don't know if that's scientifically accurate, but it's better than a coin flip, they know that much. "And the rest of the time, either they're not interested or I scare them off by saying too much. So I wouldn't say that's the best outcome."
They take a breath and debate whether to continue. More words are probably not going to make anything worse, so they go with the thought. "But you," they say, and this is actually kind of interesting because they don't want to accuse Dirk of anything, "You're doing something that doesn't happen a lot at all. You're getting me to talk even more about myself, without me sitting here like 'I have to keep the conversation going'." A small moment more of consideration. "I don't hate it."
I've worked this tag over so many times, I don't know if it makes sense any more or not!
Pieces have started to fall into place regarding their hangups about Mortis, though. A probing question is any question that aims for a vulnerability, or any question that you follow with more questions. But their entire process involves never actually asking anything. They just... lead people, hoping (lol) for the best, and... if it works, then great, and if it doesn't, then... too bad?
It sounds to him like they just don't like the potential for confrontation. Maybe he's being too harsh? Maybe he's being too forgiving. He can't tell, right now. He's lost the plot, the delicate balance he'd struck in being a friend when he objectively he's never been built to know how to be one.
"I'm doing that?" he asks when they finish, and he's genuinely flummoxed by it. "I'm not really doing anything. I'm just asking you things directly, is that not something people do?" He feels a little insane. Okay, a lot insane. He starts to say something else, but falls silent while another volley of fireworks begins above them. Maybe it's a good thing, timing wise. Figuring out how to talk through all the thoughts and all the memories and all the everything is hard. It's hard in a way that he feels, physically; it's eclipsed his previous sense of who he was, the temporary facade of his humanity marred by an inescapable spread of fractures that began in another time and place. A time long before the Abyss, and a place nowhere near Let's Family!
It's a lot easier to let the sounds and sights and sensations of the festival's dazzling climax take over. To some extent, it helps relocate him back in this time, this place. Still himself. Still a thousand splintering fragments of monstrousness and artificiality. But... here. Present.
"I'm glad it's not... uh, offensive," he says, finally. The corner of his mouth twitches upward, slightly. It's such a surreal, desperately unmoored moment. What the fuck is he supposed to say that? What the fuck does it even mean?
His heart is hammering in his ribcage like he's been fighting for his life, or like it does right when he's about to--never mind. Never mind any of it. He feels the sweat prickling on the back of his neck, but he stays calm, stays cool on the outside. His mouth continues without any real permission from the rest of him, but when isn't that the case?
"But you shouldn't make a habit of explaining all your mental processes to people like that anyway. That's just setting yourself up to be scrutinised under a microscope. That's probably why you feel like you're doing everything wrong. You're slicing yourself thin and laying sections on the slide for study. You're making it easy for them to compare themselves to you, and by extension judge you. And you're making it even easier for the people who want to take advantage of you. You keep that kind of thing inside your own head, and you maintain an advantage of assumptions." He takes a deep breath, then tips his head to regard Hope for a moment. "Make them earn your acquaintance."
no subject
It's not... it doesn't feel like browbeating, like it did when they were at their lowest point. It just feels like advice. A suggestion. Maybe some insight into the way that he prefers to do things. Maybe a chance for understanding a little more why the two of them had had so many problems to begin with. It's an idea that Hope's flirted with in the past, but it's never sat right with them. To explain why, though, would be doing exactly the same thing that they've been doing. So they're at an impasse for a second.
"Does that work?" they decide on, grinning just a little with one corner of their mouth. They assume it must—Dirk's been getting by, uh. Well enough, probably, so far. If nothing else he's been able to keep things held together a lot better than Hope has. "Because it's really not funny how uncharted that territory would be for me." Hell, they're already clamping down on a ton of impulses just right now, in this conversation. In that sentence. Being Dirk feels like really hard work.
no subject
Being Dirk is really hard work, and it always has been. If there was ever a time where it wasn't--where the work wasn't overwhelming, constant, and thankless--then he doesn't remember it.
That's the scary thing about what he's turning out to be: that despite his best, or what he at least thought was his best, this is who he is. He already knew something was wrong, different wrong, with him. And he'd known that there was something else about him that was the wrong kind of different. But even having cracked the mirror's surface, he's still... acting like himself. Being 'himself' hasn't changed.
Like, here he is, trying to make friends--or at least making an effort to pretend.
That's horrifying. He's horrifying.
But he feels more okay with that than maybe he should be....?
And now Hope is more okay with him than they should be. Far, far more than they were before, never mind how they would feel if they only knew what he was really thinking and feeling. But that's where all of this proves his point. He's not going to tell them this shit. Why would he? Personal reasons aside, it would be traumatising and cruel. Sadistic behaviour on his part. He might be selfish, but--he can control that.
He's in control.
And as he affirms that within himself, Hope turns his question back on him with a bit of his own smirk thrown in. He blinks.
One of the weirder outcomes of this--this meetup, this conversation, this apologety-and-reformation tour Hope Carassia experience (which includes, apparently, learning that their name is Hope to begin with)--is that Hope keeps taking his suggestions. Considering them and taking them seriously, instead of throwing them back into his face.... or onto the ground.
(Briefly, he wonders if he could consider suggesting that they change their shampoo, and what would happen if he did. He discards the idea, but it tempts him. Both out of scientific curiosity and out of a fervent desire to escape his own brain.)
The playfulness of it--banter, actual back-and-forth--helps to jar him out of his fugue state a little.
Does that work?
"You tell me," he deadpans, rising to the challenge almost by reflex. "I'm not what you'd call 'real sociable.'" Which is about as far as he likes to go, personal disclosure wise. "But I'm about as famous around here as a guy can get without having people crawling in his windows and I still ain't had a hit piece written about me."
no subject
They think for a second about the ways that they themself keep the heat off. Mostly just laying as low as possible and never making any waves, no matter how desperately they want to. Out of knowing that they'll probably have to give up on any broader cause they try to support. Out of fear from the designer boot silently pressing down on their neck. These things stay firmly inside. They can keep some secrets about themself. Maybe that's it—maybe the stuff they share is just stuff that they don't think will actually hurt them to share.
Maybe that says a lot about what they think actually hurts.
"I could try it, I guess?" They try to slip their hands into the pockets of their jeans, but remember that they have a yukata over it and just let their hands slide back to their sides instead. "It would be new. Like—can I be honest with you?" It hasn't stopped them so far; that honesty is kind of what they're both talking about right now. "It feels like there's something inside my mouth that's trying to burst out if I don't say a bunch of stuff."
They try not to spend too much time thinking about it. They've tried keeping their mouth shut before and it just makes them nervous. Whether they're talking about themself or something that they're passionate about, shutting up is something that they just don't know how to do very well. They frown while they think, maybe trying to better contain the words that they're trying to keep stuck in their throat. It kind of sucks.
They break their own tension with a puff of a laugh, no more than a sigh with a smile. "I don't know how you do it."
no subject
Oh. It clicks then, what Hope was... probably? he thinks? doing back at the Midnight Diner. With the constant outflow of... stuff. Words. Personal details. Agreements and disagreements and completely irrelevant commentary mashed together in one messy, disorganised deluge.
Hmm.
That's something to turn over in his head later, he decides. No need to bring up old shit.
Although it is a little ironic that he's just put this together now. Ironic, because his advice to them now is exactly the same as it ever was. So knowing, he can't help himself: he crosses his arms over his chest and looks down at them, seemingly laconic, and delivers his answer with an extra hit of drawl.
"Practise."
He has a lot of it. You know, what with spending more than a decade completely isolated in a penthouse suite at the top of a housing tower. Speaking itself is harder than not, especially when other people are present. The very presence of another living human being seems to change him. And the act requires some kind of active impetus that really challenges his brain. So when it comes to Hope's problem with barely containing themself?
He can't relate.
There's a lot in his head, yes. Sure. Obviously. Too much, without rest and without respite. But only a small percentage ever reaches his mouth. To some extent this is by design. He can keep his mouth shut on purpose, too.
The weird thing is that what does leave his mouth is so often altered somewhere between the origin and the destination. Or rather, it's like the act of speaking itself alters how his brain functions, and so the things he says and the things he thinks are connected, but the way he thinks when he opens his mouth is not always the way he thinks before and after. It's a source of frustration for him, but he has all that practise with its solution.
And maybe that's by design.
no subject
He probably doesn't. He doesn't seem like the kind of person to do things Hope's way. As though that wasn't already enduringly obvious.
Once that instant is over and Hope recognizes that it's their turn to say something, they laugh. Not bitter, not forced. At ease despite everything. "I knew you'd fucking say that," they say, grinning and happy for the chance at it. A little more seriously, they continue, easing out of their laughter with a sigh. "Ahh. I'll do my best. I will. That's a promise. And if it turns out it doesn't work for me, I won't get all stupid and freak out about it."
Which reminds them. "Hey, I owe you some eggs, don't I."
no subject
Which is to say, Hope will have to tell him that he owes them an apology if they ever hope to get one out of him.
Giving him their assurances earns them a nod of rare approval, at least.
Aaaaaaaand then he's lost. Not completely--he understands the idea--but why the fuck they think he needs or wants eggs weeks after the fact is a little. Uh.
"You don't need to do that."
no subject
"But come on, let me treat you to some meal." It's sincerity and it's guilt, sure, but they want it to be kindness, too. They want it to be a real gesture to show that they aren't going to be a dick to him like that anymore. To show that they're dedicated to changing—along with everything else they're going to hold themself to doing. (They want forgiveness. They probably won't get it in as many words. They'll be okay with that eventually.)
"Just to make up for ruining that one. Doesn't have to be a huge thing." Then why, they think insidiously, are they making it into one?
no subject
And it's such a simple expression change: the corners of his mouth turn down, equal parts disapproval and confusion. Nothing else. Just that.
If he only knew how much his face occasionally resembled a cartoon...
Admittedly, it is a bit much to jump, mentally, from the vivid sensory memory of a person's immediate decapitation at his own hands to the idea of eating food in their presence. If only that were the part that was tripping him up.
But what really gets him is the combination of 'eating food' and 'someone else's involvement in that food.'
"It was barely a meal," he deflects, trying to fend them off without being a jackass. Internally? He's sweating bullets.
no subject
So the answer, obviously, is to try to make it make a little more sense. Because that's clearly the problem. "I just—" they start, and then eat the words like so many eggs. Does it matter? Does it matter that they still feel bad even after they spent this whole time apologizing? Ugh. They hate that they can see some kind of resolve build behind their thoughts and then just let it all evaporate like that. With a lovely little hint of defeat to their words, they continue. "Maybe not, but. If you do ever want me to treat you to something to make up for it, then, like, the offer's there."
They glance away, nervous at their own offer, and flit their eyes back to him after a second while they try to smooth it over with a smile that's definitely not awkward now. "We could hang out over pizza or something. As friends."
CW hints towards some disordered eating? With a side of control issues? It's fine,
That's why he knows the broad strokes of the gesture.
And knowing that makes it extremely uncomfortable now to be so adamantly against it.
It's not that he doesn't appreciate it.... or so he thinks, anyway. But maybe he doesn't? Maybe this is 'being unappreciative.'
It's all just so pointless. His Bro didn't leave him much of himself, but one thing he did leave was gobs and gobs of fucking cash. Cash that Dirk has had no trouble turning into even more cash, to the point that it should probably be illegal. Buying him eggs, or a meal, or anything at all, is such a completely asinine, pathetic gesture that it becomes an active insult. First, it makes him out to be some kind of turbo asshole, and second, the other person looks like a total chump.
And that's before he tries to wrap his head around the rest of it. Food is hard to think about when he's not hungry--at least in an appetite kind of way. He has no problem studying the science of it, planning meals and formulating optimal nutritional intake around metabolic balance, bioavailability and convenience. It's the actual eating and remembering that he CAN eat and so on that he gets stuck on, and that's under ideal conditions. Eating on someone else's schedule, or in any way that involves the infinite variables of another human being?
He'd rather do (almost) anything else.
But then Hope hits him with the 'friend hangout' angle, and skewers all of those opinions like so many fish.
Pizza is at least reasonably customisable. Toppings, portions, that's all infinitely variable as long as you're fucking normal about it. He can be normal about that. He can handle one meal. He's done it before. He can make this normal, and then he can be normal.
He tilts his head to the side, still staring at Hope under those furrowed brows.
"How about we just do the hangout part, and not you buying it."
no subject
Really, it's a lifeline that they're taking, just something to swing to so they can escape a burning forest or whatever the appropriate metaphor is. And just because things aren't actively burning down around them doesn't mean they can stop the feeling of dread quite so easily. If they were paying attention to their heartbeat right now, they'd notice it had picked up considerably at some point in the middle of all of this. Thank god that part of their anxiety hasn't kicked in yet.
"I'll try to be more interesting the next time we hang out," they say, lifting one corner of their mouth like they've somehow been lacking this whole time. "Oh, maybe I'll have some more stuff from my sisters. I haven't had any outlet to gossip about my family to anyone before." The anxiety hurts when they say that, too, but they... they trust Dirk not to be an asshole about it. Not to cause problems for them, which would cause problems for their dad, which would be bad all the way around. That's a weird feeling, but not a bad one.