Daily Routines & Handwaved CR Meme, VOLUME 3: last known whereabouts

[light_mischief]

Handwaved CR Meme:
Every frame of this movie looks like someone's last known photograph.

The Serena Eterna has been a fairly static home for the past twelve months, and the passengers aboard have fallen into certain routines and picked up interesting habits. They have standing lunch dates with friends, familiar haunts, and (occasionally) irrational blood feuds. Even the newest passengers may quickly find themselves folded into the lives of their fellow cruise-goers... for however long they have left.

This meme is here to help flesh out the background moments that help fuel character relationships. Post your characters, their routines, and see who else might be stalking the buffet at 2 AM or who you might run into on laundry day. After all, the ship is home to a whole host of strange people; you're rarely the only one around.

1. Post a comment with your character's name & cabin number in the header, and give us an idea of what sort of things they get up to around the ship! Be as detailed or as vague as you'd like.
2. Talk about what kind of handwaved CR you might inspire! Is your character the type to stop and chat with friends on the promenade? Are they consistently the highest score on multiple arcade cabinets? IDK, you tell us!
3. When you look at other characters' routines, you might notice some moments that line up! Even if your characters are total strangers, they might see each other at the buffet every day, or maybe they're unwittingly competing for the high score on DDR. And close CR might mean weekly dinners, book clubs, sparring sessions every morning... like I said, this is where you shine!!
4. This is also a good chance to handwave characters exchanging contact information, generating some more inbox threads!

MARCH MADNESS: Consider throwing up memories that may have been too short/simple for actual threads! Give people the opportunity to say they wandered around a town in a way so unassuming that it left no impact on the memory-holder! IDK this sounded like a good idea at first but don't hold me to it, you do whatever you want!
END OF DISC 1: Also consider mentioning how your character is handling the cracking reality around them! Are they feeling pretty bad about it? Or are they like "meh, whatever"?

TLDR: write about your character's life on the ship and then compare notes with other people, find CR, ???, profit

(Last meme, for those who might need it!)

Comments

Jade Curtiss; Cabin 109

[fonomena]

lmao this icon is not at all his mood lately but i still dream maybe he'll get to actually feel it ic someday sobs ANYWAY--

Previous cr meme blurb here! General appearances and general routines remain about the same, but!

Changes as of late:
‣ With this month of March, Jade is now one of those lucky people who's been on this ship for about a whole year! He is, aware of this, since he's been keeping close track of time ever since he first arrived.......but, yknow, he's. Also just trying not to think about it at all whatsoever. Regardless, it's safe to say that characters newer and older alike are free to have spotted him around the ship in some form by now; inversely, Jade's grown pretty good at being able to recognize and estimate who's been around for about how long, versus very new faces showing up. Said new faces probably get some scrutiny from afar (that said characters are free to have noticed him doing!), even if he's not super prone to approaching just in passing.

‣ For the last couple months now, Jade's general writing habits have started to skew in a formula-looking bent; ever since Rita Mordio gifted him a small template of some basic arte formulae from her own world, he's been working on attempting to reverse-engineer those formulas into structures for his own artes, or vice-versa synthesizing his own artes into formulas she might be able to use someday. coughs if/when she finally repairs her blastia, which he accidentally broke like way back in October oops... Tldr it looks like Nerd Mage Stuff, to the less nerdy eye! He's still in his usual haunts like the library or Promenade tables for this sort of scribbling.

‣ Accordingly he's been trying to experiment with these half-formed new artes a little more frequently too, though he still tries to find times and open spaces with fewer chances of an audience if it can be helped. Bit of a risk of splash damage when his control is more tenuous with these, after all. But, again, people pretty good at concealing themselves from notice have possibly spotted this in passing anyhow! Or we could totally handwave him almost beaning your character with a wobbly magic element spell in incidental passing once or twice lol, despite his best efforts

‣ Alongside his continued habit of solitary workout routines/spearmanship reps, Jade was mysteriously gifted a magic gun back in January! He got some very helpful tips to knock off his gunmanship rust that month too, and ever since then he does do some target practice on the sports deck every other week or so to continue improving his aim and general handling. It shoots light magic blasts, and he seems to be able to summon it/float it/dismiss it from hammerspace on demand.

‣ The last CR meme comment mentions he's been put off drinking since Certain Incidents in October, and this has still been the case....until about midway through March, in which Jade has started stopping by Tauva every now and then again. He might still kind of hate losing his faculties even slightly via alcohol, but also he now most definitely hates discovering disparate memories in his own head too! So!! ...Speaking of which--

END OF DISC 1: Yeah, not a fan of these developments at all whatsoever!! Jade is piecing together that things are gradually starting to go amiss, the cracks in reality being a pretty clear indicator--but the word he's starting to collect about something being awakened that shouldn't be, and Friday's distinct absence in March, are all sure giving off October vibes in a brand new and possibly even more concerning way. His general outlook in casual conversation towards the end of the month may probably start to incline towards a dark humor anticipating and bracing for the worst. But even besides all that, trying to ignore the notion that it's been a year of this nonsense and now losing sleep over this general memory business means he is! Tired and exasperated of late!! But. You know. Still trying to stay professional about it.

March Madness: Aw it's a neat idea...off the top of my head folks are generally free to have perhaps tripped into Malkuth's capital city on something of a holiday and happened to wander about without actually bumping into any particularly notable events. Jade comes from a fantasy jrpgland world with the neat locales and landscapes to match the genre in general, too, so I def wouldn't mind dropping some tidbits for anyone interested in handwaving their characters possibly touring parts of such a place in rift ventures!

[goodweather]

Phil and Jade are so very much on the same page of Tired at the moment. Phil tends to maintain an undercurrent of relentless optimism—“one day, despite us, and without our permission, one morning the wind turns and there is a thaw”—but he’s not blind to the fact that Things Suck and he’s stressed out of his fucking mind. Skulduggery even filled him in on a bunch of lore shit mid-March and it’s A Lot.

All this to say, they might have bumped into each other in Tauva and commiserated about current events.

Also I wanna say Phil does trip into fantasy jrpgland and has a nice time wandering around doing nothing before getting ejected again

[fonomena]

Ah yes, Tired Solidarity...we can definitely say they've bumped into each other in Tauva, and possibly had the world's driest conversation about recent rumors of imminent doom over some drinks :') Phil's relentlessly optimistic undercurrent would be appreciated, honestly, as Jade tends to narrow in on his mental worst-case scenarios quite a lot and an alternate sensible perspective can at least ease the strain just a lil...

Actually I take it Phil holds his liquor pretty well right? (Considering the uuh...amount of time he's probably had to.....gestures at his whole Thing--) Jade generally does too! Though I'd like to note for future posterity/potential witnessed Tauva exits that Jade's the kind of drunk where he'll talk and act as if he still has perfect mental clarity--for the most part--while his body coordination...tends to give things just a bit more away...

Also Phil is most def entitled to have himself a fairly nice and chill time wandering around a slice of fantasy jrpgland! I got hit with late inspo and ended up making a list here of possible places people could pop into lmao; feel free to take your pick from any of these as well as Grand Chokmah!

[goodweather]

Yes yes. One of the things he's been holding onto is that, even if they all disappear into the belly of the ship... it's not necessarily over, is it? They'll be dead, less than a shadow of themselves, which is horrible, but they won't be there forever. The first souls that came here and were eaten by the ship are still being thought about all these centuries later. If it's not over for them, it's not gonna be over for us. It took a million years but even the mountains fell away.

Also well he couldn't exactly build an alcohol tolerance LOL but yes, he's pretty decent at holding his liquor. However Phil's type of drunk is either "depressed" or "stupid as hell" so he tries not to push it lmfao.

also those are so pretty..... i'm gonna say fuck it and he trips into Jade's corner of things a couple times, namely the Grove, Hamlet, and Capital. free vacation

addendum: march madness jrpg locales!

[fonomena]

In addition to Jade's memory of Grand Chokmah linked above, some other fun handwaved memory tour options!:

The Capital of Light, Baticul: Built from the ground up with fonic technology, Baticul is the largest city by population in the world of Auldrant, and the capital of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear! Designed as a fortress stronghold for the royal family, this city's actually comprised of multiple immense circular tiers that rise tall to the sky; transport between these tiers operates on an elaborate system of large elevators and aerial cable cars. Lower tiers contain the shopping district, and a coliseum where spectators can pass in and out to watch fighters from all manner of countries duke it out (either against monsters, or each other in non-lethal bouts). The upper tiers contain wealthier venues and nobility, with the very top housing the palace, where foreign visitors will be turned away from the entrance by wary guards. (Which is probably for the better, since this is where Jade and his party are in this slice of memory--) The atmosphere, technology, and mode of dress of the inhabitants still skews in a distinctly medieval fantasy bent. Outside the palace, the day is normal and it's not difficult to just wander around.

The Center of Trade, Chesedonia: A large autonomous desert city! It sits right on the border between Kimlasca and Malkuth, so evenly that there's actually a line of colored flags and a stake through the center of town marking the boundary that splits a bar/inn establishment in half. It's hot and it's dusty, but it's also lively and colorful at all hours of day and night. True to its title, there's an extensive sprawl of markets with all sorts of weird goods within it, and people hailing from all corners of the world wandering about, which means that even more distinctively-dressed characters probably won't garner much notice. Some people might glimpse Jade, Tear, and some others milling about around corners or passing through the inn from a ways off, but they seem busy and in a hurry.

The Silver World, Keterburg: A small snowy town nestled in the far northern reaches of Malkuth territory. It's been modernizing and growing of late, thanks to the efforts of the good mayor Nephry Osborne. (Who's Jade's younger sister, incidentally! He's visiting her in her house, here.) These days it's become something of a tourist venue, often passed through by wealthy visitors drawn to the appeal of the year-round snowy wonderland surroundings, flashy casino, decadent hotel (with spas!), and austere vacation mansions. There's still traces of its older roots as a more humble village in a quiet corner of the world, though. The building architecture remains overall older-fashioned, a constant stream of children still build snowmen and get in snowball fights along the streets just as they did years ago, and at the center of the town square there remains a tall statue of a heroic soldier. --The particular cut of his sculpted uniform might look a bit familiar to some...

The Grocer's Hamlet, Engeve: A small farmer's locale sitting in the middle of sprawling green countryside in springtime--it's really as classic of a jrpg fantasy village as it gets here. The residents are simple but friendly, and there's a strong food market with high-quality goods. Farm animals can also be found around and about, mostly normal creatures for the most part....though there also seem to be smaller pigs with long bunny-like ears?? Weird. Anyway, there's chattered rumors of a tall important-looking soldier with red eyes who's apparently just stopped in to visit with the village mayor, but that's not much to worry about.

Tataroo Valley: A grove brimming with pale flowers that looks out between some cliffs over the sea. The perpetual breeze often blows flower petals about when they're in bloom, which is only at night--these are selenias, which also tend to glow. It's very peaceful and quiet here, no trace of any particularly nearby society and few sounds save for the whisper of the trees and the sigh of the ocean. If you look out over the sea's horizon, it seems like there's an immense pile of ruins far off on the water, almost like the remnants of some sort of island--too far away to really make out much else, though. Otherwise, best try not to stray too far into the woods beyond the grove, since smaller monsters do still live there.

[neverleave]

I wanna say Jade and Natsuno also tripped into Baticul one day just so Natsuno can confirm that Malkuth is nicer