thenashira | Game Update: August II 2377

Entry tags:

!game update

Game Update: August II 2377

Weather & Recap ⭐︎ By Daylight ⭐︎ By Starlight
🎶 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?

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Damn it. Damn it all. Damn it all!

Neos, like Natalia, steadies her heart as she pounds away in the training area. It's one part rubble clearance and one part grim and terrible purpose.

Natalia, like Neos, examines her frustrations on heavy bags and park equipment.

She hears the shouts and the fleeing.

She steadies the bag and runs towards the danger.

1: Like Some Kind of... Secret... Identity... Rider
"O ancient and present beacon, Shine Forth!" It's a call that's been repeated on several videos on sites Chalra citizens frequent, and while no one has captured Neos's identity on film, people have definitely noticed that when trouble arrives, she arrives not long after, on a green cycle that takes any punishment she gives it, whose whole heart sits on her breastplate, a shining emerald awash with color and light.

Neos has, in fact, been seen often enough that people are starting to duplicate her poses. Someone might, in fact, be making a theme song.

a... You know, maybe. Someone should give her a talking-to.

B -- or join in! There's room for one more on that bike, if you don't mind putting your life in her hands.

2. Awash in Oceans and Shrines

As before, with the Dancer, Natalia is making a shrine to the Sisters. Unlike the last one, which is a simple shrine one could stick in, say, the corner of the Training Room, where one could take joy in all forms of motion as a method of worship...

This one's going up in the Library; marked with scales and images of the three sisters, all three dressed as magistrates, all three arguing with one another. Everything is carefully carved out of wood, appearing as Neos makes the individual pieces and joins them.

It's a good thing Maomao's cleared out, huh?

Of course, if you're trying to read...

3: Wild Card?
((hmu on discord or plurk))

Edited 2025-12-04 19:27 (UTC)

1: Well, I'm stuck here counting scars
Natalia goes to town in the school gym on the heavy bag. She knows that she's not actually allowed to do this-- it's not on the lacrosse workout list-- but she needs to do something, dammit. Too many people...

She's already lost too many people.

A vicious kick breaks the chain and sends it crashing to the floor. Her hair still suffers from that terrible impromptu haircut she got less than a week ago.

She's sure making a scene. Maybe ask her something.

2: Lots of leads but no cigar
Despite everything, despite the practice, despite the drain of a schedule on her life, a used cruising motorcycle and a leather jacket feels like it suits Natalia. Especially with Sunbeam and Crescent gone, she doesn't have much reason to not go and spend fuel learning about every district she can, roaring down the road and burning daylight.

But today, she has an extra helmet, and is handing it to someone, probably you. "Wanna take a ride with me?"

3: Cast pearls before the swine
Ivenka's... Changed, recently, in the Verdigris House. More open about her scars, but no less interested in maintaining a conversation or playing games or anything but the past two weeks.

Stranger still, she's shifted to a more obviously butch look, more reminiscent of a military uniform than a costume. When asked, she will say she "felt like a new change. Do you not like it?"

The way she takes up space with calm confidence, it's hard to dispute it's a good change, but...

Edited 2025-12-07 20:27 (UTC)

Begging desperately for any chance to not be Pandora has driven Hope to some extremes, but this is probably the first one that has a capital X when they spell it. They pick up the helmet and secure it over their head like they've done it before, even though they haven't, but they can figure things out. With the visor flipped up, they smile at Natalia.

"I'd love to. Just, you know, anything and anywhere right now." They try to smile, but they think Natalia's feeling pretty much the same pain and would be able to recognize just how fake it all is. "The further away from all that stuff, the better."

"Scenic route it is. Hold on at my waist, and lean with me once we get up to speed, or bike won't turn." How, exactly, Natalia learned to ride in such a short period of time is something she hasn't discussed yet, but knowing her, some mysterious butch lesbian monk or something was involved.

Still, she opens all the vents on her gear to let the wind handle as much as it can in the sticky August air, and heads off at speed, she's clearly got as much on her mind as Hope does.

For a while, there's nothing that can be heard over the wind and the roar of the engine.

a. can you give me all that you've got? [spicefest 2377]

It would be very, very stupid for Hope Carassia to enter a spicy food competition, and especially one that's got a celebrity host and a bit of prestige to it. Unfortunately, they have done exactly that. They make it through the first round reasonably enough, but once they get approached, and almost instantly, by Wakaba in the break, they start realizing that all of this has probably been a bit of a mistake.

("Carassia, huh? Now where have I heard that name before? Don't tell me you're the secret, long-lost daughter of one of the richest men out there!" "Ha ha... no, uh, I get that a lot. I think it's just one of those names that sounds similar." "Well, thanks for clearing it up. I hope it wasn't too much to Car-ask ya!")

Big laugh, attention pivots to another contestant, and Hope ducks off to the side to try to recover from how heavily they're already sweating. It's definitely just because of the spice and not the stress of being recognized in public, which. Should have happened more often by now, they think. They brush their hair out of their face and look out into the crowd, hoping that nobody they know has spotted them.

b. lonely, how do you feel? [fireworks]

The thing about wearing yukatas is that it's really easy to hide any other clothing underneath it. The only giveaway whether someone approaching this person on a hill near the beach is about to meet Hope or Nova Pandora would be those stupid boots that are supposed to help them stand their ground but have only felt like they're weighing Pandora down lately. It's at least a nice-looking yukata, a dark violet to represent the night sky with red and yellow explosions that could pass as flowers to a casual viewer. A big firework goes off, and they mutter a wish under their breath, and once the ringing stops they finally glance over to their side and smile weakly.

"Hey," they start, regardless of who they're actually talking to. It's hard to hold on to hatred or grudges or fears right now with everything they've been through. It shouldn't sound so familiar. "So how are you holding up lately?" they ask, sighing and fixing their companion with a look that says, maybe too loudly, that they're going through it too.

c. it's only me lacking in zeal [for dirk]

@ Pastos, fireworks? I wanna talk.

It's scary, you know? Forcing yourself to see somebody who you've done nothing but embarrass yourself in front of. At best. But if all of Chalra is out at the fireworks festival and Hope went to the trouble of wearing a nice yukata and making themself be social again, and spirits are generally pretty high, then there's not really going to be a better chance.

Hence: The @ in the Nova Knights group chat. The yukata means that they'll be able to hide a lot of their outfit, minus those boots of theirs, and that they can still talk without worrying about exposing their own identity. (They know they have Pastos at a disadvantage on that one. They're trying to pretend he won't also know that.) Idly checking their phone, they're standing next to a stall near a small stone stairway that leads off to a slightly more private area. It's close enough to the excitement that they'll be able to hear the fireworks going off, but at least they'll still be able to talk. Hopefully.

They text the name of the stall over to Pastos in the group chat again and stand there feeling only a little awkward. At least they're not freaking out too loudly about it inside their own head. They did have to spend a moment clenching every muscle in their body and then releasing them all to help manage that stress response, but that's not the point. Hopefully Pastos won't be... Pastos about all of this.

d. bloom together at the end of the line [wildcard]

((anything else? hit me up in the discord!!))

Edited 2025-12-12 21:51 (UTC)

It's nice like this. The wind rushing past them, the relative quiet of everything else, the closeness of another person who's just as deep in the shit as they are. Chalra City can be so beautiful when they're allowed a moment to actually let it all sink in.

"I've lived here my whole life and there's so much I feel like I haven't seen," they muse, hopefully loud enough to be heard. It's the first time they've ever been on a motorcycle and it's hard to tell how to regulate their voice, but they're gonna try to have a conversation. "Do you know anywhere nice to just go and talk?"

She nods, and turns north, past the pleasure district, up into the hills and out of the buildings, away away into the mountains.

For all that, it's not far. Off the road a tick, into a dirt parking lot, the opposite direction from a train station whose line winds over the hills into parts distant.

But. She pulls away her helmet. "From here, short walk to some benches. It's a bit high up."

How... Did she find this?

It's truly gorgeous here. They look at it all through the visor, the colors dulled and tinted, and then pull the helmet off and the beauty of the world around them strikes them all at once. It's like they forget how to breathe for a second the way they inhale deep and sharp, taking in the air and the sights all at once.

"Is this what you've been doing with your summer break?" they ask as they begin walking, just shy of bewildered that Nat's been able to find a place like this at all. It's like Hope has been living in a cave their whole life and is only just starting to see the real sunlight.

"Biker who sold me the thing took me up here. Had to take it the whole way down on my own, but, uh..." There's the bench.

You can see the entire city from here, with the long summer hours extending the golden hour by just enough. All the buildings, all those hopes and dreams, are bathed in golden light and chiaroscuro shadows. "I think it is worth it. So did she."

"Yeah?" they ask with a peaceful tone for the first time in what feels like months. It all looks so small from up here, and there's so much more light than they realized. They've lived so long in the shadows, they muse dramatically, that it's easy to forget what good is out there. The darkness actually feels temporary, seeing it like this.

"I think so too. It's really... it's something else up here." They breathe deeply again. Their lungs feel so full. "I forgot that nature could be like this. It feels like we can finally just see what it's all actually like. What we're supposed to be protecting, what we're supposed to be... living in, instead of just surviving."

"... Yes." She pauses. "I... I steal time from things that have been necessary, these past three weeks or so, to come up here. Even though I don't really have time."

It's a stark, too vulnerable admission that she craves this. This peace. The peace she finds here, and in rolling waves, and in making and maintaining temples.

... But she knows, in her heart: You don't have time for this.

"Yeah." They put their hands in their pockets and continue to look out over the city. They can find their apartment pretty easily—it's in one of the nicer buildings, so it sticks out like a sore thumb to them. A monument to their cowardice, if they really want to be over the top about it.

"Maybe we need to make more time for this kind of thing," they say. "When we get too deep in our own thoughts, too... lost in the darkness." Like Crescent. Like Sunbeam. Like Zenith. Sigh. A question comes out that they hadn't even realized was something they were thinking about. "How do you keep ending up with people to share this stuff with?"

"In. In this particular case, I took Mother's exhortation to heart. I looked in the classified section of the newspaper, and, wanting a little scooter, and assuming Mai back there-- her name for it-- was one, visited." Of course the previous owner named her motorcycle after a particularly famous and severe fox-woman, not that Natalia knows that.

"I. Wasn't expecting a woman to be at the door, though I probably should have. I also wasn't expecting her to offer to take me to buy gear, either. I was expecting the half-filled boxes, the melancholy, the strange way she seemed to... know, even though she's never met my other selves. Her girlfriend had gotten a job in another city, and so they were going together."

She remembered the moment here, vividly, regardless. The way she seemed to bore into Natalia's icy heart when she said to make sure to take care of her. The advice she'd given about having courage, even if Natalia couldn't accept it right now. The questions about what she needed a motorcycle for.

They look over at Natalia, listen to her story that sounds like the beginning of an urban legend. "Seemed to know what? Who you were?" They pause—that line about other selves is curious, and maybe a bit of a risk. "Do you think she knew you were a Knight?"

The rest of this story, they assume, is coming—if there's more to it other than "I met a cool lesbian who gave me everything I needed to have this bike". Which still wouldn't be the most ridiculous thing that's happened to or around Natalia, in Hope's experience. Maybe there's something to it that they're just not understanding yet... which also wouldn't be the first time.

"... Worse. The first thing out of her mouth once we were up here was, 'What's her name?'" She says it with the barest hint of a sullen tone, a level of annoyance at being read for absolute filth from the minute she knocked on the door unprecedented in all the time they've known Natalia. "When I said I didn't have anyone like that, that I'd been looking for a scooter, she laughed like a madwoman. I don't think she believed me."

"Oh my god." They crack a smile and nearly double over laughing at themself. They were missing something. "Oh my god, you meant her gaydar. I really have to get out of my head with the..." The laughter fades as their words trail off.

"God. Well, I mean, listen. It's not the worst thing to get instantly called out as. You might as well hear it from another lesbian—or bisexual, don't want to presume her or you." They're definitely in higher spirits now, that's for sure. "I mean, I can't imagine being too insulted by it. Considering how many girls you are interested in, Nat."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, she thought I was some kind of knight, in the lower-case k sense. 'When you want to ride to their rescue, that's a good indicator, isn't it?' Or so she said." Nat huffs. "Never mind I want to do that for so many people, it's ridiculous. It's part of who I am."

Is it, Nat? Is it really? Or can you just not hold all these crushes? "And. And wait. What do you mean, this 'gaydar'?"

Oh, no. Well, they were bound to teach her something one of these days. "Well, you know. Like when you can tell someone is gay by their vibes. Like, I'm pretty sure I've pinged a few people's gaydars in my life just by having green hair and pronouns," they say, grinning, "But mine's not that good. I didn't make the assumption with you until I got to know you, and now I know for sure you're some kind of, you know, not straight. Especially when you're talking about nobly riding to people's rescues on a motorcycle."

There's a moment where she just sits with that information for a few long, increasingly hunched and gritted seconds. "You mean to tell me there's a whole secret society for this stuff!?"

She throws up her hands. "I'm going to find someone and kick them into a pit of chickens!"

Hope laughs even more brightly and gently wraps an arm around Natalia's shoulders, falling just short of giving her a noogie.

"It's called being part of a community, Nat," they say. "It's never something I was any good at, but yeah, there's probably tons of us all around the city. Probably tons of capital-K Knights, too. What, did you think you were the only girl who liked girls in Chalra?"

"Well. Not. Exactly? I knew there were enough to start rumors on how to check, but..." I'm sorry Hope, she is ~~pagliacci~~ ivenka

They drop their arm back to their side and fix Natalia with a look that's difficult to describe. Disbelief and amusement and a bunch of different things all at once. "So you've just been getting the attention of all these cute girls and you just, like, didn't think they were gay? Just that they were being nice?"

"More that I knew it was... Rare. So to have so many be gay was obviously incorrect, and that this must be a difference in cul... ture... "

She pauses. Her throat catches. She applies her forehead to the safety railing. "save me, i've been a total fool."

Hope just smiles. They can be kind about it. Even if it's the funniest thing they've heard all month.

"There, there. Everyone's allowed to be stupid when it comes to romance. And hey, if it makes you feel any better, you're still doing a lot better than I ever have." They lean forward on the railing next to Nat, looking out on the city again. "Any other prospective partners on the horizon since the last time I teased you about it?"

Edited 2025-12-12 20:40 (UTC)

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 7

Game Update: August II 2377

QUESTIONS

A Restless Interlude

Salt-Wound Routine (Daylight)

2

Re: 2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject