#almost scared to make myself known? or like. officialize my presence i guess ugh i dunno its hard to explain!!

[aroacedavestrider]

Worried for you every time I see your system bitchcount go up. Get well soon yall

hrk well…! hiya im yoi!! (yoimiya genshin) and im answering this one cause im the most recent split hehe. honestly its kinda like….. i dunno were just trying to cope with stuff i guess! i split back toward the end of our fall semester when shit suddenly got really bad after a really good period, (im talking grade dropped from an 85% to a 59%!!! yikes) and, well…….im naturally a cheery person! so i think thats just kinda what we needed during a time of extreme stress and disappointment and i know i am sure happy to provide!!

last time someone split before me was shoby (shinobu genshin) and that was back in may when we were finally kicking our really cringe ex to the curb anddddd we needed a strong assertive force to do it! and shobys been really good at actually getting us in the mindset to sit down and do important tasks ever since. :)

so yeah it does suck that a lot of the time we come about cause something huge happens and were like “uh oh, how do we cope with this?” but i think were here for the better and were all like a little family! im happy to be here and im happy to introduce myself to daves friends on tumblr dot com!! and thank you for your concern too, were doing better ^^

🎇 yoi 🎆

[memoirsofratasum]

Aeromage Sanna: Whisper in the Dark

The flight of Bangar Ruinbringer has not gone unnoticed by the Pact. All three organizations have been combing the Far Shiverpeaks for his and his followers’ trail. Normally a charr army of even a moderate size would have left signs behind, but the weather is hindering the search. Back when I was in college for climatology, the extreme weather patterns that high in the range was considered a mystery as they didn’t follow the known formulas. I think it’s obvious in hindsight they’re due to the Elder Dragon Jormag.

The Vigil has a fort in that area of the Shiverpeak, Jora’s Keep, that I’ve heard members claim would be a good hosting ground for further searches. When Priory airships were getting fueled and prepped for colder weather, it seemed like a simple idea to use the fort to continue the search. I was assigned for the trip, as expected. Too much experience in wilderness search-and-rescue to be left behind. But I was surprised when Tarnn said he was staying behind. He was going back to Tarir to assist in translating some newly discovered Exalted glyphs, something he hadn’t worked on in years, and that it might help in getting a promotion to magister or an equivalent rank. I didn’t think anything of it at the time and wished him good luck. It wasn’t until later that it hit me that this was the first field assignment in who knows how long that we weren’t assigned together. 

We were briefed in the air. This was not, as we had suspected, about Bangar. The Pact commander had gone on head to Jora’s Keep, but instead of a warm welcome all they found was a dead fort. All of the standing Vigil members had been killed by one of their own. The normally observant Vigil hadn’t expected it and so they had no defense. To make matters even worse, General Soulkeeper was missing. Warmaster Jhavi Jorasdottir is the only known survivor and the Vigil needs to re-establish itself in the area. So the other organizations are helping them figure out what happened and get the Keep back up and running, especially important with the Sons of Svanir at their doorstep.

To say it was chilling might come off as a pun but that couldn’t be further from my intention. When we disembarked from the airship, the Keep had an almost haunted aura to it despite all the people rushing around. Everyone I passed during the briefing tour seemed to be slightly distracted, constantly looking over their shoulder or startling as if hearing something just out of range. The only person who looked to be fully present was Havroun Weibe, a servant of Raven. He isn’t officially a part of the Pact, but as Raven has a strong presence in the area he is highly respected. My own raven Stratus even emerged from his warm space in my cloak for a headscritch from the havroun.

After the tour, we Priory members were warned to not leave the keep without dispensation from our superiors and we were told to use question anyone who left the fort on their own. Apparently there has been an issue with people leaving their posts for the wilderness with only the lucky being found alive. At first it seemed to be desertion or an over-eagerness to take the fight to the waiting Svanir. But the survivors seemed delirious, saying they were being whispered too and watched. They say Jormag itself is trying to confuse our people in order to weaken us.

Because of this I wasn’t allowed to explore Bjora Marches liked I wished. A chance to study the extreme weather up here would have been a dream for college-me, and even though my career has changed to the medical profession, I was still disappointed that I was walled in. I was to spend most of my time cooped up indoors caring for the injured, the sick, and the cold. The buildings looked to be in disrepair despite having been fully occupied until recently. The wind whistled through the planks of the infirmary, sounding like whispers if you weren’t paying attention. It’s obviously ridiculous, it’s just the mind finding patterns that aren’t actually there.

The noise seems to be disturbing my patients though. Some ask me if I’ve heard someone speak, others just stare off into space, not aware of me trying to get their attention. I just need to remain calm. But that damn wind! I can barely hear myself think! The quartermaster tells me that there aren’t enough supplies to patch up the holes in the wall right now and that the stone surrounding the keep has been keeping the worst of the weather at bay and that it’s probably not wind I hear. I’m an elementalist, I think I’d know wind when I hear it! Ugh, I’ll just have to deal with it. The quartermaster wouldn’t have been so dismissive if Tarnn was here, I wouldn’t be so alone then. I’m kinda here by myself here in the infirmary. I mean sure, there are the other medics but they’re busy. And there are the patients but they come and go and aren’t really there. And- but I have Stratus. He starts getting flappy and cawing when my mind wanders like this, he probably wants attention. It’s nice to have him with me. But he’s still just a bird.

I try to ignore that whistling whisper through the planks as I work. I’m just feeling lonely and letting it get to me. Maybe I should reach out and get to know some people around the campfires. But all of these reports of people saying they are hearing voices is scaring me a little. If it is the Jormag mesmerizing them, what are they being told? To attack us? That already happened once. What were they thinking manning this Keep so soon with the threat still out there?

Maybe I should get out of here.

What the hell is wrong with me? I can’t desert my post. I’m needed here.

Only to wind up with a dagger in my back? It’s not like I don’t know how to take care of myself out in the wild, the cold wouldn’t be an issue. I would just need to get back to Grothmar Valley…

Grothmar? I’m not sure if I want to depend on the hospitality of the Blood Legion. The festival had been tense enough and they had been under orders to be friendly. Now? Forget it, I’d be skewered just for the sake of releasing pent up frustration. 

That whistling air is getting louder. I can’t think. It’s this damn infirmary. I need to get outside, too many walls around me. Just a few minutes, just enough to clear my head. That’s all I need.

It’s cold out. It’s always cold. There aren’t a lot of people on watch, most of them are by the fire. Pact and adventurers were streaming in and out of the gates on their colorful mounts. An asura in a parka wouldn’t be unusual. I don’t need to alarm anyone. It’ll be fine. It’s just for a minute.

I stepped out of Jora’s Keep for the first time since we arrived, but that whistling whisper in my ears didn’t go away. I needed to get further away. There is a well worn path and the sky is overcast so there isn’t any glare. I wish I could see the sky more clearly though, blue sky against the white mountains would be lovely.

Maybe a little further I can find a new angle to see from.

Snow is falling. I should reattune myself to fire to stay warm, or to water to equalize myself with the cold. But I don’t. I don’t know why. I feel like I can’t be bothered. I’m not going to be out here long anyways, what does it matter?

Why is it not quiet out here? Snow is supposed to be muffling, but it seems as if the whispering wind is louder than ever.

My head hurts. 

A small spell could fix that. But why waste the energy? It’s nothing to complain about.

It’s getting hard to see, a blizzard is starting. That’s fine. I’m an elementalist, I was born for this weather. I don’t need to see to find my way.

I can barely make out a small cliff face on my right and I feel as if I’m on an incline. I should turn around. Eventually. But not yet. I just got out here, and I haven’t found the quiet yet.

I trip on something hard and metallic. I catch myself on the edge of a stairstep. It was so sudden that whatever I was thinking about is gone completely. Looking up, I see the outstretched wings and well sculpted face of Raven. 

And suddenly a fog is lifted from my mind. Everything came back to me in a sharp painful focus. I had wandered away from the Keep, done the exact thing we had been warned about on the first day. The dragon must have gotten into my head, under my skin, and now I was out alone in the Frozen Pass. Thank Alchemy and the Six that by chance I literally stumbled into a Raven Shrine. Or maybe it wasn’t by chance. I don’t want to think about it. Already I feel warmer under the shelter of the wings. But I can’t stay out here, I need to get back to the fort, I’m needed there. If I can trust my bearings I should be at the Western Shrine. Jora’s Keep should be a straight line across the snow. My jackal could cut the trip in half and I’d trust her nose more than my sense of direction right now.

A familiar caw takes my attention and I see Stratus flapping frantically through the snow and into the shelter of the shrine. He fluffs his feathers a little when he lands on my wrist and wastes no time in claiming my parka hood for himself. I didn’t even realize he wasn’t with me, I had just left without a thought. He must have been following this whole time even though it was so cold out.  I guess I have two ravens looking out for me.

My jackal doesn’t need any direction from me as she gallops for the Keep, the light of the Raven beacon directly ahead. In hindsight, it was obvious that Jormag was enticing me. I had assumed they used verbal words in the mind, that’s what others said it was like. But an Elder Dragon wouldn’t be confined to just one method. A subtle touch, non-existent wind just on the edge of hearing could keep anyone from thinking clearly. I shouldn’t blame myself for falling for it. 

We reach the gate and I’m prepared to answer to my magister about my disappearance, but I think I go unnoticed as the keep is oddly invigorated with a nervous energy, no one is standing still. Warmaster Jorasdottir is barking out orders to the Vigil members and the rest of us are trying to stay out of the way. The scraps I overhear is that General Soulkeeper has been found and the Vigil is going to “bring her home.” But no one is offering up any further details, just that it’s a need-to-know “Vigil business” right now and they’ll have an official announcement for the rest of us later. 

I don’t know what the announcement could possibly be, but it will be good to have Soulkeeper back. She’ll get everything back to order.