Plip plop, plip plop

[whomthebelltolls]

Who: Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower (whomthebelltolls) and OPEN for the most part
When: June!
Where: All about, both within and without of the city
What: Catchall
Warnings: Blood and violence, probably. Self-inflicted injury because of what she is. Others will be ETA



[1: Gardening With Class - Open]

[All that being more or less infirm the last month has Maria a bit... stir-crazy, but the gardening classes have been a nice change of pace. And she does actually like flowers. So, here's a Maria, wandering through the streets, her arms filled with bags containing the seeds and flower pots they gave her to go home. Of note, there seems to be quite a few packets of sunflower seeds poking up around the edges. Feel free to run into her on the streets!

Or, if you're at her home, she can soon after arriving be found out there in the garden with all of those, some tools, and a pair of thicker, more utility-type gloves than the ones she wears with her swordsman outfit, a pair of older, dirtier trousers and shirt, and her hat sitting next to her as she digs out little trenches in the earth to make room to plant the seeds.]

[2: Class - Open]

[Maria would find it rather remiss of her if she missed the classes the Witches here so graciously have been providing to the new arrivals, and honestly... she has no idea how these things work, but she's been a pretty quick study. It's evocation practice today, and she seems to be pretty good at nailing targets with small fireballs. Very small. The kind that would probably just provide a minor irritant to any beast, and so, frustrated, she's turned to something else.

She has a knife in her hand - a small length of metal she borrowed from a kitchen or something, because she doesn't dare bring her Rakuyo to this place - and she keeps running her fingers along the edge of it. After a half-dozen tries, a bit of sweat, and what was probably a curse in a language no one around her understands, her fingers slide along the blade... and a few blueish flames flick to life, thin and almost see-through, but they're there.

Her eyes light up... and just like that her concentration is broken, and the flames disappear. Close, though.]

[3: Public Stables - Open]

[At some point near midmonth, Maria can be found at the stables in town, poking her head around. She seems to be inspecting the horses. Every so often, she'll ask the stablehands or farrier about prices for things, what they recommend, preferred breeders for these things. She's looking for a horse with a pedigree.

And as she walks about, she isn't paying too much attention, and might just walk into another character.] Ah, I'm sorry. Are you here to look for the horses, too? They have many interesting choices.

[4: Fetch - Open, especially to others on the quest]

[Several options, here, since there are a lot of things to bring back:

Tiger Lilies: Maria has this bad habit of "doesn't afraid of anything", and so walking right through the busily buzzing bees is on order. For anyone who is nervous about the buzzy friends, it seems they ignore her as she ignores them right up to the lilies, and gentle shoos a few away, before taking the flowers, inspecting the to make sure they're clear, and walking back out.] That was easy.

[Basil: Not be seen? Clearly, they're stealing, and that actually does give her pause.] ... We are not supposed to take anything from this field, are we?

[Crystal Sand: She finds the rainbow sand easily enough, but as soon as she goes to gather it up, the water stirs and splashes, and something jumps out, trying to bite at her. If the other character doesn't get involved, the fish is going to end up with a sword through its head, pinned to the ground, in short order.] He wasn't wrong about the fish, I see.

[And finally... fur. Hm. Just needs to be fur, right? That's easy enough. Until it's not. For this, she puts a call out on the network: I need a bag full of fur. Does anyone have any good ways to achieve a lot of it in short order? I will even accept it from Monsters.

[5: Walking Armor - Open, especially to anyone on the quest]

[The sun is high, the wind carries a faint breeze from the west. Maria stands, Rakuyo in one hand, across a stretch of beaten earth from the suit of armor, empty, moving a bit - floating in a way that indicates it's empty, but for the magics holding it together. It holds its sword up, and waves it a little, and Maria nods, bringing her sword in front of her.

There's a loud clang as the dagger-end of the Rakuyo is split from the longer sword end, and Maria holds both out to either side of herself, as she steps forward.

The armor steps forward, as well. Maria holds her arm out to one side, the blade of her sword facing the armor as it gets closer, and then runs a weird zig-zag right up to it, quick as a flash, her long legs giving her plenty of closing speed. There's another loud clank as her sword slams into and then off of the side of the armor, and the force is enough to stumble the armor. She's got this.

Until the armor swings a good, wide arc and knocks her backward, stumbling and then tumbling off her feet. When she regains them, she realizes that hurt an awful lot more than it used to, and maybe she should figure out something else. Into the fray, over and over again, taking glancing hits to the armor, but mostly not seeming to make much headway, while each one of its attacks against her rattles through her sword and up into her jaw, shaking her whole body, making her bones ache. Every direct hit is absolute agony. It's hard to tell if she's wearing this thing down, so maybe it's time to pull out some stops. She's not desperate here, but then, no one knows or cares what a "Vileblood" is, so it doesn't really matter if she uses her abilities, does it?

The next exchange ends with Maria nursing a gash against her side, cut deep through the thick leather. It's the perfect opportunity. She turns the long sword-blade of the Rakuyo toward herself... and drags the sharp edge right through that wound, deepening it, smearing blood all down the cutting side of the sword.

And she turns it back on the creature, noting with a frown that the thick, sharp blood crystals haven't lined the edge. The armor charges, she charges back, and she swings the sword only for the usual blood blade to not spray out from the tip of the sword, and so she totally whiffs the slice... only to catch the armor's arm to her wounded gut, and it lifts her and throws her backward.] Agh...

[Well... hm. Try again. Even though the cut burns, and the armor is bearing down on her, her next idea is simple: It charges, she's already low, she goes to her knees and shoves both blades of the Rakuyo up into the joints of its hips. It stumbles right into the ground, the legs "severed" and useless until it can get back up several moments later... then turn to her and bow in defeat.

And Maria leans against her sword, buried tip-down in the ground, because wow that cut smarts.] ... Go home... now.

[And it seems to listen... kind of. It'll probably challenge anyone else to a duel on its way out, though.]

[6: Wildcard - OTA!]

[For anything not covered in the above prompts, or for things we planned out afterward. Feel free to hit me up at reslari or Reslari#9561 at your leisure for plotting!]

Comments

[whomthebelltolls]

That was the major point of my education, yes. I also studied some medicine and anatomy outside of that. And... astrology was also a course we could take, and one important to certain branches of our other studies. [The sky and the cosmos are one, etc. etc. etc. though that was more Laurence and his eventual Choir's thing than hers.]

[beariot]

Hmm... If you don't mind me asking, as someone who studied anthropology, what do you make of this place so far? Its people, its customs.

[whomthebelltolls]

Hmm... [That really does take some good, deep thinking on her part.] I think it's very interesting, but familiar to see old enemies flocking together to fight a larger threat... or hide from it. I'm almost more curious about the Monsters here, though. Many of them are humanoid, but if what Mhairi was saying is correct, they tend to be born the way they are. This seems nonsensical in some of their cases, and then I cannot help but wonder if they can also have children with humans. [And she is also a little afraid of that answer.] What cultures the humans had before, though... what sorts of ancient civilizations, how they dealt with the Monsters... I am curious about all of it.

As for the culture in this place itself... it reminds me somewhat of home, but not as strongly as I would assume, despite the similarities in the look of the place. Their day and month structure seems to be very similar, but all the names are wrong... and the language... it's like the language of those just outside of the area of Yharnam and Cainhurst... but... nonsensical, from what little I know.

[beariot]

[ Ursula nodded along as Maria spoke, taking in all that she was saying. So this place wasn't too dissimilar to where Maria came from... ]

Where I'm from, magical beasts and other faerie-type creatures coexist with witch-kind and other magically inclined human folk, but they don't really interact with the normal human populace. But given this entire country is magically inclined...

[whomthebelltolls]

Yes, it seems as though they are more likely to interact with people.

The Beasts where I come from, though... they interacted with the populace before they were Hunted just fine, as well. It was the transformation that made them unstable.

[beariot]

Normal folk didn't transform into monsters where I came from, either, unless some magic shenanigans were involved. [ Ursula hummed. ]

So things got that bad where you came from... I'm sorry. It couldn't have been easy hunting monsters that you knew used to be human...

[whomthebelltolls]

It was... inevitable, back home. [Well, unless you died first, like Maria. Though, by all technicality, she was a Vileblood, and it didn't seem like any of them truly took to Beasthood... likely because they were already monsters on their own.

Not the time to think too much about that, though, she moves on.]

No, but it did get easier for a while. [Before the bloody haze lifted from her vision and she realized how badly they'd all fucked up.] And... it had to be done, to save the innocent people.

[beariot]

Even if it can be justified in some way, taking lives like that is... [ Ursula stared at her feet, unable to really turn her head up, hands shaking slightly. ]

I don't think... I don't think I would have been able to last in a place like that, if I'm being honest.

[whomthebelltolls]

The Blood made it easier, but it wasn't all the people who had to take the lives of their fellows. When I was there, the numbers of Hunters were very few, but... eventually the Workshop closed, and many civilians started to join the Hunt. [But the Beasthood was starting to run wild at that point and tbh she didn't actually think Ludwig's idea was a good one, but by that point, she was already far removed from the Hunts and falling to her guilt.]

I think you would have been fine. [Narrator voice: She, in fact, would not have been fine. No one was fine.]

[beariot]

[ She had her doubts about that, but she kept them to herself. The bigger hope was that she'd never have to find out if she would or wouldn't. ]

The Blood... is that metaphorical, or...

[whomthebelltolls]

No, it's very literal. In Yharnam, those who decide to work with the Healing Church find themselves being gifted a transfusion. That is how it's so effective, after all. [And how it completely and utterly screws people over, but as disdainful as Maria eventually became of the Church, she won't mention that. It doesn't matter at this point.]

[beariot]

... Huh.

You'll forgive me if I'm having trouble guessing as to... why.

Why any of that.

[whomthebelltolls]

There are myriad reasons for it, in Yharnam. To cure illness, to gain strength... because the Blood is far more intoxicating than any alcohol. Blood Ministration was a sacred practice, as well. That is why it is the Healing Church. [So there's a religious fervency angle...]

But I suppose you would have to be of Yharnam, born into the Blood, to really understand it. To the outsiders, it probably just seems like madness.

[beariot]

Maybe not madness, just...

Blood is a potent part of some magic rituals. The use of blood in magic is strictly regulated in my world, though, and the idea of transfusions of special blood [ she was assuming it was special, there was no way normal human blood was having that kind of effect ] is a bit extreme. I've never heard of anything like it.

[whomthebelltolls]

It was the hallmark of Yharnam, and the signature of the Healing Church. It was beginning to attract quite a number of people from all over, despite everything. [Yharnam was kind of insular and unfriendly, though, more apt to fight you over your worthiness of using the Blood than not, but, well, that's also something that got worse with time and the spreading of the Healing Church and something Maria didn't see much of.]

It began to bring prosperity to the city, and benefited the entire population. For a time. [Hey, look, Maria can laugh. Bitterly, with a bitter expression.] Perhaps it was all for the best. Humans... Master Willem was right. We needed more eyes. One must be enlightened like the Great Ones to achieve their level, and utilize their blood properly.

[But that's a tale for another time.] The blood was very potent, yes. They say something similar about blood here, as well. I am curious to try it.

[beariot]

[ Ah, so it wasn't mundane blood, it was from the Great Ones...

wait.

Ursula balked, stammering a bit. ]

You were using the blood of whatnow? [ Because by her understanding 'Great Ones' sounded an awful lot like 'Great Old Ones', and that had bad news written all over it. ]

[whomthebelltolls]

The Great Ones. The ascended ones, from the time before the fall of the Pthumerians. We had their blood, and a Left-Behind Great One to commune with, as well. Discovering her within the Tomb of the Gods was what led us down more revelations than can be counted.

[Surprise! It's almost exactly what it sounds like.]

[beariot]

Forgive me if this isn't my place to say but all of that sounds incredibly dangerous and short-sighted! [ Whoops, now she was letting her mouth run a bit. But messing around with that sort of power, that sort of knowledge, was definitely something she couldn't abide by so easily. ]

[whomthebelltolls]

We had a saying, from the earliest days of the catacomb exploration - "Fear the Old Blood". If only everyone had held to it... we knew it was dangerous at the time, but the potential benefits were... astounding if things could be utilized to its full potential.

A pity I don't think anyone ever figured out what that was.

[beariot]

[ ... Ah. The fatalism in Maria's tone wasn't missed, as well as the telling use of past tense. So it had played out about as well as expected for them... ]

Were you able to survive, at least? [ Maria being there before her, flesh and blood, was its own evidence, to be sure, but that didn't mean she was doing well. ]

[whomthebelltolls]

Survive... [She looks down, with a little smile - it's not a very pleasant expression, because it pretty much pre-empts the real answer.]

I'm not even sure if anyone back home remembers my name, it has been so long. And so, my presence here confuses me.

[beariot]

[ She didn't really need to ask much more to figure out what she meant... ]

That makes two of us. There's more to those mirrors than I thought... or more to what is considered being 'alive', by their standards.

[whomthebelltolls]

Mm. [Well, it's not the first time she's talked to someone like... that, who came from home in a state wholly unbefitting of still being able to move around here, but what else can she do?]

There are yet ways for a consciousness to live on back at my home... but this doesn't feel like that, either. Whatever brought us here must have some kind of power, indeed. Thinking too much on it at once won't lead anywhere good, though. I've discovered that the hard way.

[beariot]

Well someone should think on it. [ Ursula wasn't the sort to simply take no for an answer when it came to matters like this. ]

[whomthebelltolls]

I have been. Thinking too much on it I have found to be counter-productive, though, because it is an easy spiral to get stuck in. And then you do nothing else productive. It is a thought to keep in mind, however, moving forward.