spacedragons | AUGUST TDM.

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AUGUST TDM.

➛ Welcome to Last Eden's TDM for August! Threads here can be counted as game canon.
➛ Feel free to use the prompts to test out a new character or to try out the game's premise!
➛ The TDM can be used for your application sample, though it is not a requirement.

A DREAM, OF A SOUL AWAKE.

You are asleep. The dreamscape ripples, resolves into a vision of a foreign land, and then a world of pure white. There is the sensation of rising through deep water, and then you find yourself in a room of white marble. Your items may be set on the floor around you, or you could have arrived bare-handed - whichever it is, you'll soon be addressed by a couple of tired-looking people in white coats. It seems they're as confused as you are.

A ➛ After getting a brief introduction to the White Moon and choosing a faction, you will be allowed to leave. It's a whole new world, after all - so why not look around? The architecture of the Administrative Zone is very formal, in high contrast to the Free Market which is practically a riot of colour and wares. Merchants from all four nations peddle their wares here - have a look around, but also keep a watch on your purse. Some things can be quite expensive.

B ➛ As you head out of the Administrative Zone's gates, a flash of light catches your eye. The sun-crystal is reflected quite brightly in the window of a nearby building, almost dazzling you - and in that instant you see someone behind you in the street. A youth with white hair and grey clothing, oddly familiar. You blink, and he's gone. Maybe he was never there at all.

TO THE STARS, WE ENTRUST OUR DIRECTION.

The money given to every new foreigner is limited. It seems you will be expected to earn your keep from now on, either through tradecraft or through offering your services to the populace. If taking on small contracts isn't your thing, each faction also has bounties up for the taking. After all, you carry a surprising resistance to the miasma that lurks outside the city walls. Why not put it to use?

C ➛ Fancy taking a ride on a dragon? The roostkeepers of the Ice faction are friendly and will allow you to interact with their charges as long as you're respectful of their boundaries. The older dragons will merely gaze at you pensively, but the youngsters are always up for a game of catch or two. There's also the option of dragon taxi if you wish to travel between regions. If you can fork out the coin, they'll send you across the Moon in the fastest time possible.

D ➛ The inland Sea is abuzz with activity at this time of the year. While the seasonal variations are dampened inside the Moon ship, that hasn't stopped the natives from hanging out at the beach. The Blood faction's side has plenty of revelry, with fireworks set off at night and grilled fish stalls set up along the waterfront. Some of the food on offer may carry potent effects, however - the shamans are used to ingesting enhanced wines, but are you?

E ➛ If you've let slip the fact that you're from another world, you may soon gain some fans. Some natives will be curious and wish to interview you, but others may have more shady intentions. It can be hard to distinguish well-wishers from kidnappers - if you're being cornered by a few very earnest folk, it might be time to run.

F ➛ The roostkeepers will let you ride one of their older dragons if you are going to the Badlands on an exploration mission. It's a desolate landscape barren and devoid of all plant life, but such rocks might hide valuable treasures. Strange ores and crystals jut out of rock formations about a mile or two outside the city walls. Even map information will fetch you some reward from your faction. But don't venture out too far, or your resistance may wear off and leave you at the mercy of the elements.

G ➛ Wildcard! Feel free to utilize minor NPCs if needed. If you have any questions about the setting, direct them towards the FAQ.

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[ Ocher hair, evocative of flame. An eyepatch and the mighty frown of someone (a no one, by his own definition, bound only to his impartial chronicles and the story of a vagabond) who noticed so, so very much, but disliked being noticed himself.

Drawn to the crowd (denizens of the White Moon, members of each faction flocking to survey the newest arrivals upon the ship), the Director had hoped (and so too had dreaded) the thought upon happening upon someone familiar. Upon someone like Lavi, to whom Sion had given both flowers and camaraderie before they'd parted ways, the other man taking his leave of the Quad to sail the sea of stars with the Noah (and a stupid girly-face in tow...!).

And so--...

Even as a knot twists in Sion's stomach (Lavi, should you not be worlds away from this place, carving a path and a name of your own choosing?), it is an easy thing for him to smile; to cut in close to the other man, and link Lavi's arm with his own in a gesture which is incredibly light of heart and thoroughly at ease. ]

Forgive me, friend— [ Wearing a much too-charming smile, Sion cants his head to the side, winking to the civilian as he declares!: ] —but I'm going to steal this one away. ☆

[ And lo: he does, in the blink of an eye, whisking Lavi away and out of sight with a speed which can only be described as preternatural.

Where could Sion be heading, though? If Lavi can't keep up, Sion could always carry him...! ♫ ]

Edited 2017-08-17 00:46 (UTC)

[Someone has come to take him away, and while he's grateful for the intrusion, there's also something else that makes him initially want to pull away.

He tries his best to keep up, only waiting for a bit before he forces himself to stop.]

Hold on.

[Why are you going this far to help him out?]

[ Grinning, Sion can only think of the present where Lavi matches him pace for pace, and there is a measure of fun to be found in darting away and leaving all of one's troubles behind. Though...! Sion is acutely aware of the instant in which ~~his captive's~~ the other man's footfalls begin to slow, signaling a stop which so too brings the Director himself to a halt.

It is with a precise economy of motion that he releases his hold upon the other man, continues forward for exactly one step, before pivoting neatly upon his heel to face his companion—gold eyes which are lambent, creating an after-image with their own light, interlocking with green. ]

H'oh? You're out of breath, already? [ —the words are a gentle tease, utterly devoid of malice but surely boasting a capricious lilt; an air of something whimsy and belonging only to the sky. ]

You'll have to be better prepared for next time. The civilians here are... ah, rather relentless in their pursuit.

[ ...way to make them sound like a mob, Sion...

And way to sound overly cheery while doing it??? ]

I haven't exactly been having an easy time.

[His tone is a bit dry, though he would admit that there's still something off about this guy that he can't quite figure out. The gold eyes makes him think briefly on something, something that is simply beyond his reach.

However, the way this guy acts--

It makes him think of Allen, and not in a good way.]

....Those are some reassuring words. [He wonders if a Borderline would be able to work here, but:] Who are you?

[ Reassuring words, Lavi says, and Sion seamlessly counters with a wry "at the very least, there is never a boring day", but before he is able to continue on—perhaps to openly wonder about the other man's adventure; his voyage from the Quad to the next cluster of stars—Lavi takes it upon himself to ask something else. Something of the Director himself, prompting Sion to consider his companion all the more carefully, searching the features which he knew for something far more familiar still and--...

(Finding nothing at all.) ]

My name is Sion. Sion Astal. [ It is quite clear, in this moment, that Sion had heard nothing of the other man's talk of serving a God. Of a world unlike any of the realms which Sion himself has known. ] ...and I fear I've imposed upon you, haven't I?

[ And not for the first time.

In Lavi's eye, Sion glimpses a distance that had been present on the day when he'd asked: "why is it that I feel you cannot bear to look at me, Lavi?".

(And in next moment, he'd been answered with: maybe... you just can't bear to look at yourself.)

His gaze falling downcast, a thoughtful expression crosses Sion's delicate features; a pensive air stark in contrast to his valiant rescue and too-whimsy follow-through. ]

To make amends, I will do all that I can to assist you. [ Giving pause, Sion shakes his head with an apologetic smile, the gesture somehow sad: ] Though I've only been present here for a handful of weeks myself, I've recently found my footing.

And... we are comrades, you and I, united by our mutual displacement.

Edited 2017-08-17 02:10 (UTC)

[Sion Astal.

The name is immediately implanted in his mind, something that makes him wonder just what kind of history the two of them had shared. It's no question that the redhead feels as if they should have met before, something that should have stood out to Lavi from the get-go.

"And...we are comrades, you and I, united by our mutual displacement."

Lavi almost bites the inside of his cheek.

Something rings in his mind, a familiarity he can't quite place, but the more he looks at this man, the more he wonders if he knows Allen. It bothers him, it makes him want to pull away from this man completely.

He makes Lavi want to find a way back to where he should belong.]

Comrades, huh. You sound like Allen.

'Like Allen...' [ —the Director echoes, voice falling careful and soft as he offers the name its due amount of reverence, for Lavi had intoned it with as much (whether the man realized it or not). If 'Allen' were esteemed in Lavi's eyes, then of course Sion would honor the sentiment, but--... There is also something missing, something more which causes the name to linger as a shade, a shadow of a thought at the back of the Director's mind, manifest as a testament to something which he never would truly regain, but still had self-awareness enough to miss all the same.

(It's a terrible thing, isn't it, to be so poignantly aware of something which is lost, but so too be unable to reclaim it.) ]

He is important to you, isn't he? [ (Lavi, is this the ghost you would never speak of?) ] Strange though it is to say it, I feel as though I should know of him, but--...

[ It's troubling, that Sion cannot wholly identify where the notion itself stems from. Disquieting, like the thought that Lavi, as he is, appears to be accustomed to the fact that 'forgetting' is commonplace. ]

Traveling the realms takes its toll upon those who would undergo the voyage. [ Or such is Sion's own personal belief, after being granted the technology to investigate his own displacement upon the White Moon by the Prime Minister of Light. ] Some pieces of ourselves are unable to travel with us, as it were.

There are those who I have met here who have no recollection of me from before— [ Alice, Lunafreya. ] —and it would be of no great surprise to me if the opposite were true, as well. Though...

[ Shaking his head, Sion smiles again, intrinsically knowing to fall back a step in order to give the other man room enough breathe. ]

That does not make it any easier. It is an ever-present ache, one which I do not think will ever abate, and what's more, I am not the only one carrying it, which is why...

No one should have to bear that burden alone. [ And that is said with no small amount of conviction, for it is the one truth which Sion most believes in. ] You are my comrade in more ways than one, Lavi, and I hope that one day you will be able to call me the same.

[ And even if that day should never come to pass... it will be all right.

Lavi, Sion is sure, will find his way. ]

Edited 2017-08-17 07:05 (UTC)

[This man doesn't seem to be surprised, not really.

"He's important to you, isn't he?"

Lavi almost scoffs at that. He's not sure if Allen should be someone important, perhaps not in the way that Sion suggests but the redhead couldn't deny the fact that Allen is also someone he considers to be an anchor of sort. He wonders briefly just what it is that makes Sion so understanding, especially when it seems that he himself is still reeling from what's happening.

Sion knows how it feels be forgotten and to forget.

In every way, Lavi knows that this man can help if he allow him to.

At the same time, he's sure that the similarities with Allen doesn't end there.]

...One day, perhaps. But you'll have to excuse me if I don't trust you right away.

[Even if he does seem to have an idea that the chances of that happening are unlikely.]

Did you know me once before?

[ It is, perhaps, both a blessing and a tragedy that Sion Astal is a man who no longer finds himself astonished by the cruelties of the world; the ugly truths which are harbored by this and any realm.

In one life, he had been at the epicenter of a pandemic, the outbreak brought about by civilians who would cannibalize their own for the sake of land. Thousands of lives had been lost, and it had been the Director's duty to oversee the construction of mass graves, hollowed out as fire pits. Corpses had filled the trenches, and at Sion's own command, so too had the near dead, the contagion burned from their flesh for there had been no cure, no treatment upon the horizon.

(Only the comfort of the grave, and they had been sent there by their countrymen.)

In another, he had been destined to lose himself to madness, his consciousness eroded away by a darkness which he could neither dispel nor abate. With no true sense of self (and how he has always been selfless, even to this day), he had plunged the world into war in a campaign to save it.

(The place, the people, the majesty of humans which he loved... what he would not destroy to save it.)

And in the here and now, in this life, his existence is a gentler one. Memories are lost, and some precious things may never be regained, but it has always been in the nature of humans to rebuild. To remake, and it is in this resilience which Sion finds faith, because--...

"But you'll have to excuse me if I don't trust you right away."

(Lavi, he really hasn't changed.)

Sion's laugh is breezy and light as he rocks back and forth precisely once upon his heels, the long plaint of his hair swaying gently with the motion: ]

Ah? I'd expect no less. Trust is something which can only ever be earned, after all.

[ And it will be an uphill battle, to be sure. Upon meeting Lavi for the very first time, he had seemed fathomless to Sion: someone who professed to be married only to his work, and yet proved to be selfless and--... impossibly fearful of others, in turn. ]

But... we were acquainted, you and I. [ In a life where Sion belonged to the great machine of the Company, and Lavi had been a Reclamation Agent: a bounty hunter who remained the very essence of neutrality...

...save for where one person so happened to be concerned. ]

I wonder... will you be able to guess how?

[ Eyes lighting with a measure of intrigue, Sion thinks on how the other man will choose to answer.

(Or if Lavi would even care to, for even an incorrect answer would bring them closer than where they are now, standing apart at arm's length.) ]

Edited 2017-08-18 00:02 (UTC)

[No, don't laugh like that.

Don't laugh in a way that makes it feel as if he's being understood in some way, but at the same time--

That feels like a confirmation. In a way, it made him feel just a bit blindsided at having someone admit that they were once acquainted. It felt like another piece of a puzzle that was represented to him, a piece of his life that he possibly knew or just a stray path that could have been.

But it's also a riddle that presented itself to him, enough that it has him studying Sion more efficiently now.

"We were acquainted, you and I."

"I wonder...will you be able to guess how?"

Any answer he could give wouldn't be the right one, not when it's obvious that Sion is a part of a life that never was available to Lavi.

At the same time, any answer he could give could also be right.]

...Were we acquainted before in a different kind of world similar to this?

[It's a safe enough answer based on the tiny details he was able to depict.]

Aa.

[ ...in the end, any answer which Lavi would give...

(It would always be right.) ]

It was very much like this world, but in a different cluster of stars. [ Giving pause, he lifts a hand to brush the fringe of his hair back, behind the shell of his ear, the even cadence of his voice falling somewhat... sheepish. Bashful, as he divulges a truth which he wouldn't dare dream of hiding: ] You... did not care much for me, when first we met, for I think I represented all that you loathed most.

[ An enemy, garbed in black. A heart that, however sincere, would only be twisted and maligned by the harsh reality of the Quad. ]

At that time, I willingly wore a collar about my neck, and in exchange... I was granted power enough to help the people I saw before me.

[ Even if the price had been terrible, unbearable when his hand had been forced, and found himself caught between defending those who strove to change the Company from within—his family, those who knew the Company could become something beautiful, serving the Quad as an agent of good—and the civilians who would rail against them, for in their eyes...

All those who bore the uniform and crest of the Company were the same: monsters who aptly wore the guise of people. ]

And one day, you realized that. I'd acted stupidly, impulsively when all the world was burning around me. There were so, so very many in need of aid, and I hadn't the hands to save all of them, though I tried. In the end, I failed, and I hadn't even the hands to help myself.

[ And it had been a lesson well learned, a push for Sion to grow stronger still to achieve a peaceful place; a gentler world. ]

You saved my life, on that day, and you were injured because of it.

Though you have walked a different path in this life, I... cannot forget what you did, nor do I wish to. [ A tumult of emotion colors his voice: gratitude, shame, regret, and something threadbare, something as resilient as it is tentative... something like... hope? ]

More than anything, it makes me want to know the you as you are now.

[ And maybe that, there, is just a bit selfish of him. ]

You've many stories to tell, I'm sure.

Edited 2017-08-18 02:03 (UTC)

[ And Sion will be glad to hear them. Always. So much so that--...

He finds himself reaching out to the other man, extending a hand, palm upturned and open. ]

Will you not share them with me, Lavi? Trust also needs somewhere to start.

[So that's how they were acquainted with in the past.

It's a chapter in the book of memories Lavi has forgotten or has closed permanently. However, the way the man described how their first initial meeting went where Lavi didn't like Sion and--

(He's not sure if he even likes him now.)

But then: "You saved my life, on that day, and you were injured because of it."

It makes Lavi bite his tongue, uncertain because even now, there are - were - people he would have been willing to lay down his life for if it meant saving them. However, this man, this person who claims to knew him once upon a time and owed him a great enough debt to always consider him a comrade while at the same time, understanding of the wariness of giving out his trust.

(A Bookman is a Bookman, after all.)]

Why do you think that even by knowing that, we'd be able to become comrades here?

[Is it a harsh question? It could be, but Lavi needs to know how far Sion would be willing to go in order gain his trust. There was a chapter in their relationship that should have been closed, but then again: isn't it like when he and Allen met again?

When Sion reaches out to him, palm upturned and open, the redhead stares at it with some hesitation. He can't be sure to accept that sign of possibly acceptance, of camaraderie that threatens to break past the initial barriers that covers Lavi's heart.]

....Somewhere, but not with stories of a past I can't remember.

Mn. I wholeheartedly agree.

[ For it would be unfair, wouldn't it—a grievous disservice to them both. To Lavi, who did not deserve to bear the burden of a life which he did not (and would never) know; and to Sion, who could not afford to further entrench himself in the past (in the memories of the hundreds of lives he'd lead, the joys and sorrows, the triumphs and regrets of so, so very many 'Sion' assimilating with his own), lest he lose himself in the undertow.

But none of this Sion readily conveys, his expression so serene, so gentle, and so open that it seems impossible, the notion that he could ever waver or falter.

(That, like Lavi, his heart is guarded, too.) ]

Let it start in the present, then. Whatever it is you wish to speak of, whether it concerns the White Moon or otherwise, I will gladly lend you an ear, because--...

[ Earnestly: ] There are no guarantees, save for one: every day that I am present here, I will work toward finding the reason behind our displacement. How it is we've so easily been uprooted from the lives we lead, and what it will take to return to them.

I owe this to you and others, and I will pursue these answers relentlessly with the resources which I have been given, however... [ Here, his eloquence breaks, and Sion speaks freely, perhaps boyishly when he admits: ] I know I cannot do it alone.

I am but a single person, and on my own, I am unsure of what I will be able to unearth, or what I will have the power to change, and that's why--...

I hope we can work together, Lavi. Finding strength in one another, it is what makes us human. [ Human … that beautiful, enduring thing which Sion (the Director, the Hero King) is no longer. ] And even if that bond cannot precisely be called 'camaraderie'... it is something worthwhile, all the same.

What I divulged to you... it was in good faith, so that you might be able to better understand me.

[ And perhaps think on accepting the hand which still remains outstretched, guileless and true. ]

[Memories or not, if there is one particular thing Lavi can pride himself on, it's noticing someone whose heart is as guarded as his own. He's seen it in Allen, in the way the young (former?) god would hold himself and smile with so many secrets that Lavi wants to pry out of him; he's seen it in many of his friends and the way most of them seemed battle-worn or seen too much to properly function without being cautious.

This man is no different.

(Were they too similar in that regard? Too guarded but willing to make friends?)

Emotions are easy for Lavi to read but not understand, simply understanding its roots but not the complexity of the layout underneath.]

Going through this, going through the attempt of finding out the reason why we've been brought here - you can't do it alone.

[He's learned in time that having comrades, not necessarily friends, can do wonders.

(He misses Izuku and Shun. He misses Cardia and Yuto.)

While Lavi can never completely trust Sion - the man is on a teetering edge of one side of the board more than the other - he knows enough that trust can mean nothing or everything depending on how Lavi would want to go through with this.

Does he accept?

Does he want to?]

Then let's hope that in time, we'd be able to grow to understand each other a bit more.

[Finally, he reaches out to accept Sion's hand. It's not a confirmation, but an acknowledgment about what can be offered to both of them.]

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AUGUST TDM.

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