Mishiro

a soft hum of agreement follows pinball's chatter. behind the stagnant tree, a path opens. they continue to descend. content with her place a few steps behind pinball, mishiro considers their surroundings in the halcyon space between enemy waves. there are small flowers, weeds, really, blooming between the stones that she carefully avoids stepping on. the walls narrow the further they venture into the dungeon but once spilled out of the claustrophobic throat and faced with two prowling wolves, the area spreads in allowance for a fight. at least merely being here does not bring them immedi

her hand drops from his sleeve when the moment has been quietly tucked away. she listens. the strange truth is, she knows so little of pinball outside of their shared history. pinball begins and ends on the day she dropped him a generous change for knife tricks and on everything she has seen and heard from him since. there is a name she mutters into the air between them. (she decides: not today.) there are questions she thinks she’ll receive answers to if she asks. but aren’t ten years more than enough? she thinks, they ought to be. ‘before’ is a momentous breach. she listens, a

# 237454: LD 4: +4; 5 total

# 237365: LD 1: +1; 1 total

"great! thanks. take as long as you need." and with not another pause, sibyl wanders off in the direction of the pallankuli tables, leaving her to peer down at the card they had pressed into her palm. map data. mishiro but closes her hand over it, thankful and faintly apologetic. but it is no trouble at all. "yes. let's be off," she tells pinball. she about turns and leads him outside, into the soft, quiet night of a ronbaru temporarily emptied. for a while they walk side by side in silence. the lights of the festival fade far behind until they are nothing more than a vague spla

# --

one. | two. | three. This post is best experienced in light mode. SHE TURNS THE UNLIT LAMP IN HER HANDS UNTIL SHE IS HOLDING UP THE SIDE THAT BEARS A LINE OF BLACK INK. UNDER A BLINKING STREET LIGHT; DESERTED NORTH RONBARU, LAND STRIPPED TO BONE, SONGS AND LAUGHTER FADING FAR BEHIND; SHE READS THE FIRST INSCRIPTION. | ‘To our parents who guide our journey, we grant of you this blessing.’ [MISHIRO]: I don’t have parents. SHE IS ILL-FITTED TO THIS SUBJECT. HOW MUST SHE REFLECT, THEN? [MISHIRO]: Do you count? SHE IS ASKING TOO, JUST TO BE

she turns the unlit lamp in her hands until she is holding up the side that bears a line of black ink. under the hundred lights of the plaza, she reads the first inscription. 'to our parents who guide our journey--' “for me as well, please.” she almost doesn't believe herself. pinball -- unstealthed in the thick of a festive crowd? she looks, almost without moving her head, still holding the peach half shape of her diya. she hasn't spoken to him in two weeks. the warmth and verve emanating from their surroundings seem to sand down his edges in a manner entirely different from th

they break for food at a secluded corner then resume their appreciation of the festivities. mishiro, in search of more unique items, methodically goes from stall to stall to try each one's offerings. perhaps fermata had missed something in its initial sweep. it is not impossible. there are vanity shops wherever one looks, selling street food, outfits, tattooing services, and a half hour with a rented mount. more games. from a simple ball toss, she wins a feather. she immediately knows what she wants to do with it. the problem is sibyl, who jealously curls a hand over loth's gift. ("one mo

"two orders, coming up!" "thank you." the line moves forward. she has two drinks on a paper carrier, a bag of steaming hot samosas, and her earlier winnings. she shuffles the items around in her arms so that she is not being scalded by her newest purchase, and gently pushing her way out of the crowd surrounding the stall, she looks for sibyl. they are gone. a dark blur crawls up the edges of her vision. (if she lets this one out of her sight.) she catches their silhouette, darkened underneath the shadow of the tent across. she hurries over, flooded by irrational relief

"oh, um!" an turns bashful at the woman's gratefulness. "y-your-- i mean, please don't forget them next time!" she says first to morningstar, her hands clasped over her chest. then back to his friend. "he helped me a lot, too." "why were you at the 25th?" an smiles brightly. "money." "ah." seamlessly, an turns back to morningstar and his still unidentified friend. she doesn't need her to guide the conversation at all -- she had only needed a small nudge. an's sincerity would have reached others eventually, whether or not mishiro was here. she feels comfortable sl

their honored guildmaster had been bested by a simple game of chance: he had ventured farther than most pieces in the game but was unfortunately brought back to the start by the snake of 'greed.' the stem of the peacock feather ends up woven into sibyl's hair. mishiro thinks he made far better use of his luck than they were giving him credit for. she moves her piece one tile forward, and to her surprise, sibyl asks for the die. "another 'one'? really?" sibyl hides a laugh behind a cough. "karma strikes the entire household--" mishiro studies the prize list again, disappointedly

a corpse is talking. two weeks. two weeks since those messages. she was dizzy, sleepless, confused, paranoid, reading through a history that met its end two years ago that cardinal insists was hers. she could not trust her memories. at a certain point, this extends to her senses. is it the end or a portent? the loss tears at her. she hadn't left her house. had rifled through her planners, her records which she faithfully kept every day for years, duplicated the work she had done for fermata since she assumed her most recent p

-> combat: st-i vs m?steri??s br??er

in the forest she peers over pinball’s shoulder to look at the dungeon map but the world around them is already shifting. the ground pries apart to reveal a staircase, and she waits, quiet, for pinball to make his final preparations. “...” she turns her eyes to their health bars. three mass heal crystals in her pocket and a teleport each between them. the moment he goes, mishiro follows. their steps echo as they descend. the domain is spacious, walled off on all sides by stone, and still as brightly lit as though they were still outside even if she couldn’t quite tell where the