aterat | Pulse 003

Entry tags:

Pulse 003

Who; Everyone
What; Monthly Pulse!
Where; Throughout the City and Beyond!
When; Throughout September
Warnings; None as of yet, will warn if this changes.

As Summer Fades

The winds from the sea and from the north are chilly as the month changes and life in the city seems to fade back into a sense of normalcy from the celebration last month. The sun is setting earlier in the day and rising later, signs that the summer months are coming to an end and autumn is approaching. Milder temperatures aren't the only suggestions that things are changing in the city. Beginning with the new month and growing in intensity as the month progresses, those sensitive to magic, psychic imprints, or the dead will have a growing sense of foreboding. If observed, the barrier encircling the cemetery, once a nearly imperceptible sheen in the fading light of dusk, wavers like heat off hot stone, and if observed for long enough, it happens in a pattern, as though the wavers have a rhythm. Will the barrier keeping the undead at bay in the cemetery hold?

A Pulse of Business Opportunities

With proof the new arrivals from other worlds are here to stay, several places around town have opened their doors, and their employment opportunities, to all the newcomers. The Guard are hiring patrolmen to help keep the city streets safe. Patrols will be regular and will include keeping the peace in nearly ever quarter of the city. Craftsmen are needed at the Carpentry as rebuilding amps up. A huntsman's lodge has even appeared at the edge of the southern forest, with a working tavern and a room full of gossip.

Another notable addition is the Notice Board that has appeared outside the Market District Pub. It seems to be a place where anyone, natives and foreign arrivals alike, can use this as a place to solicit aid in whatever endeavor they may have at the time. There's a bounty there from the Guard, and also advertisements for local businesses as well as a few choice criticisms on various things in the city, posted by "concerned citizens" (you're free to use your imagination for this graffiti).

Aside from the above mentions, the City and its Environs offers a lot of fodder for exploration and play, and all players are welcome to devise their own encounters and locations as well. In fact, if you want to make them official, you can always submit them to the Content Submission!

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Yuna continued to walk between the Cemetery, the door located down in the sewers and the Gullwing Office over the course of the month. She hadn't heard about this key and she hadn't been able to contact Athony. [yet]

It was only a matter of time now. She felt it in her bones, her powers calling to be used. The sensation reverberated through her and with them the subtle feelings of the trapped souls began to ache within her chest. It had been diminished at first but with each passing day she felt the shield fail and the feeling grow.

They were ready... as ready as they were going to be but that didn't mean that Yuna could relax. She had to keep an eye on the cemetery.

She could be found in any place between the Cemetery, the sewers and the Gullwing's office. Yuna always looked worried. No matter how much time passes, she's never been good at hiding how she's feeling.

Edited 2020-09-09 17:14 (UTC)

Ignis wasn't sleeping well as of late but that didn't stop him. He grabbed a cup of coffee at the local tavern as he did just about every morning before heading out for the day. The weather was noticeably cooler which he was thankful for even if he worried about the boys back home and wondered if they were okay.

Today though as he walked his usual path, he caught sight of Yuna as she walked along and she wasn't that far ahead of him. She seemed troubled and when she stopped, Ignis went to catch up to her.

Taking one look at the lady as he caught up had him wonder so the advisor wasn't about to inquire about what was wrong. But of course one look at her face had him concerned. "Is everything alright?"

Because focusing on others was Ignis' go to.

"Huh?" Yuna turned towards Ignis; only noticing him once he'd spoken. "Oh. I don't know. Not alright but not... not alright either. It's complicated. And I am worried." She wondered if anyone else could feel the unbalance. There had to be others here with the powers of a Summoner.

But, maybe there wasn't.

"I can hear the spirits in the cemetery." She could feel them pressing against the barrier. "They want to be freed and the shield around the cemetery... I think it's getting weaker but I'm not sure."

A lot of this world was new to her and she didn't know if it followed the same rules that she was used too.

Concerned green eyes looked at the woman, but then Yuna's answer sounded troubling and hearing she was worried didn't help matters either. This of course compounded as the summoner went on and mentioned spirits in the cemetery. "Spirits of the deceased wish to be freed here?" And that question had him thinking. Were they going to end up as things like daemons or would they become something else entirely?

Then she mentioned a shield. "What sort of shield is it?" The more she went on, the more questions seemed to come to his head. And then she said it was getting weaker. He'd sensed something amiss but wasn't able to ascertain as to what it had been and had dismissed it.

"Then how best can we help those that need our aid?" Wasn't that part of the whole thing? Live and help and they could go home?

"Yes but they aren't free." She shook her head. "Even if the shield were to fall, they are being controlled by a powerful creature called a Lich. If we are to free them, then the Lich needs to be destroyed." It wasn't the spirits who were trying to find a way out of their cage but the undead woman who controlled them.

"It's magical. I don't think there is a way to break it. One of the Aspects put it in place to contain the Lich but I think he was just buying time." The Lich was growing stronger.

"I don't know. We need to fight this thing but I don't know what that means for us."

This got worse the more Yuna went on. Regardless he wasn't about to let her think she had to go this alone. Unleashing undead spirits might bother the general populace but he withheld that thought as she then spoke of the lich.

The report of the Aspects had him concerned. "I do wonder if there's any chance they could be communicated with." Back home only LunaFreya and Noctis (after she'd made her covenant with them) could talk to or be listened to by their deities.

Ignis nodded to Yuna. "We should devise a plan to vanquish this lich then. And we would need to secure the people here." The advisor had purposefully said 'we' so that she would know she could count on him.

Yuna inclined her head in a gentle nod. "I can usually communicate with spirits but its rare that they know themselves well enough to respond. I don't know for these spirits." The shield made it difficult for her to feel their presence.

"I have been forming a plan." She looked up at Ignis and smiled. "We just need people to help keep the city safe. I won't let anyone else get hurt."

Yuna's ability was certainly intriguing and Ignis thought it was a useful thing, especially if somehow she could get the dead here to talk to her. But it would be dangerous, especially with so many of them and a ringleader controlling them to boot.

There was a small nod at the part about keeping the city safe but he was concerned about her safety. Taking on a lich singlehandedly wasn't the best idea if she didn't have back up. "The townspeople will be safe, I will ensure that." This part was easy enough because he'd had to do that before Leviathan would be summoned. The problem was, what happened to the Oracle after that. "Have you enough protection to tackle the lich?"

She wasn't going to her death because Ignis had seen that already back home.

She looked up at Ignis with a small warm smile. "Will you?" Her smile widened. "Thank you Ignis. I would feel better knowing that you were there to help the city remain safe. I was thinking of taking a small group to fight the center of this mess but if we fail... we'll need another defense."

She already knew that the shield protecting the city was failing.

"I should but I won't be going alone. I'm hoping three of us. If those I have in mind say yes. This isn't the first time I've fought this kind of create." She somewhat knew what she was doing.

All he could do was smile to try and reassure her. "I've..had some experience with evacuating a city when danger reared its head shall we say." Nothing like literally speaking from experience. "So if I've a small team to work with, I can clear the city, then come back to help you should you require further assistance."

He'd been through this sort of thing before so he was well versed in how to get this done. But he nodded even if he was silently worried. "It's good to hear you won't be travelling or facing this alone." Unlike a certain king who'd tried to face Leviathan by himself and ended up knocked out. "And should one of them bow out, my offer stands."

She inclined her head in a nod. "I'll let you know when I learn more then." Her expression widened. "Thank you Ignis." She was happy to know that there were people here that she could depend on. They were all new friends but that didn't make them any less precious to her.

"I should get back to learning more. If I don't contact you it'll be Caelan or Jagger. They will be helping me too." At least come up with some semblance of a plan.

"Alright." And it was delightful to see her face light up so, but here he was, simply trying to help at all if he could, wherever he could. Yuna was doing something pretty important and if he could do something he would.

Ignis nodded. "Just keep me posted, I'll wait to hear back from you then." With that, he turned and walked away.

It was where they'd first met, investigating this barrier, and now it seemed with brief pulses to be weakening. Nothing magically suggested this, but the flashes were repetitive enough to suggest whatever was caged in there wanted free. It was only a matter of time before it succeeded. He'd been watching her coming and going for a week from his own surveillance perch atop a roof across the way. She'd piqued his curiosity with her fervent dedication when they'd first met, and it seemed it hadn't flagged as time has passed.

He jumps from the building, landing near silently on the flagstones as she passes by, crossing his arm and looking over to her.

"Do you know what's changed?"

Yuna continued to stare at the cemetery as Vincent landed at her side. It wasn't that he hadn't caught her off guard but she was distracted and Yuna had a tendency to form a one track mind about these kinds of things. She didn't want to get too involved in the cities secrets, not like when she was a summoner in Spira, but this worried her.

People could get hurt.

"Oh." She snapped to attention and turned towards Vincent. "You felt it too? I think they're looking for a way out. The barrier, it's weakening." It wasn't weakening in a sense that Yuna understood but she could hear and feel the dead more than she could before. That meant that there had to be less between them.

He'd felt it, yes, but he'd also seen it. The flashes of light from the barrier weren't easy to miss.

"It seems Athony's barrier isn't infallible."

"It isn't." She had Athony's promise to give her the key to the door in the sewer but Yuna didn't really have a plan. She missed Riku and Paine and the rest of the Gullwings. She'd feel better if she had her friends at her side.

"There is a way inside, down in the sewers. I'm going to open the door but there is no guarantee that the barrier will continue to hold, even if I lock the door behind me."

He leveled his gaze on her for a while, eyes slightly narrowed. There was a confidence in her voice he didn't feel belonged there, but that was more for a lack of knowledge of her than anything else.

"What makes you think you can handle whatever's in there?"

"Because I have experience with the dead." She looked back at Vincent and for the first time, there was a dark painful shadow glimmering beneath her mismatched eyes. "I was a summoner. It was my duty to guide the dead. Through my journey, I learned that it wasn't that simple. Those who have the will for it can stay and even use the spirits of the dead to gather power. I've fought people like this before and I can do it again."

It was different but the differences were minimal; at least from what Yuna has learned.

"So do I." Memory was powerful, indeed, and the monsters spawned from it were fearsome. "They don't go down easily."

"They don't but I won't be alone." She looked back at Vincent and smiled. "I hope I can call on your help too. When we're ready." When she opens the door.

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Pulse 003

As Summer Fades - Cemetery/Gullwings Office [OTA]

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