#sn:event001

[heavenwrought]

— EVENT STARTER CALL

hiii i wanna get some even threads going for minhae, so if anyone wants to write smth for the event, like this post and i'll write us up a random starter !! i'll go off of any plotting we've done, but it's also okay if we haven't finished plotting/haven't done any! since minhae's p new to yeonghae, we can always have it be their first time interacting <3

i put some ideas are below the cut, if there's one u prefer just lmk!! otherwise i'll randomize smth from this list or specific to our muses. :~)

minhae bought one of the tainted flower charms from the enchanted florist and now there's some lesser darkspawn following him ? cue him running into muse while he's trying to run get rid of it.

minhae is just minding his own business poking around market square during the festival when someone pickpockets him. naturally he goes to hunt the pickpocket down and ends up finding muse. muse wasn't the pickpocket, but maybe they end up going with him to find the person ? maybe stop minhae from shooting a fireball into their face bc that's not how justice works around here ?

muse runs into minhae close to midnight on the road to the wetlands, apparently getting ready to find that tree altar alone. maybe muse was planning to visit the altar too or they think watching him slosh through the mud is going to be good entertainment or they don't think he should go alone bc the night is dark and full of terrors, but either way, they end up delving into the wetlands together?? maybe get into a dire situation.....

muse runs into minhae doing some kind of ritual down the beach in an attempt to speak to his sun god.....maybe muse is interested in the ritual too or just wants to see what actually happens? minhae opens it up to them at some point too, insisting that muse could also ask the sun god a question, but whether muse actually buys into it or not is up to you. idk, maybe moments of melancholy! minhae is confused why he hasnt been able to speak to his god!

muse and minhae cross paths on their way to that pirate ship from the event and end up looking around the ship together, maybe trying to understand more where it came from or what the items are for?? maybe we can work in whatever they took from the trove ?

[sinkpearls]

DO YOU REMEMBER THE WATER,

memory grove is a long walk, but one he covets. it’s not one that usually he makes in the daytime, much less the morning, but the port and the shipyard had been full of numerous ships from farther waters and those returning, brimming with supplies and spring harvests, a sort of buzz that comes from excitement in the excess, to clear off the frigid waters for a warmer, blooming time.

seohan’s used to the shipments of medicinal supplies and products that he sends towards the temple’s way, but some are smaller, more delicate, than he worries about the progression to hurt the quality of what they’ve ordered, even past the sometimes difficult journeys they face in the waters here. it’s what he says, when anyone asks him why he’s setting aside time to make the trip. he won’t admit it’s an excuse to get out of the office, on those rare days he isn’t in appointments until the sun is ready to lower into the sky.

maybe he’s sentimental at heart, to walk through the town and try to find all of the differences, even as memory weaves perception with time. so many years and he assumes the finer details just start bleeding together into facets he doesn’t even notice anymore, but he tries. he tries, to see the cats that tend to linger in their favorite places, the steps of the theatre or an empty plant pot outside the armory, the flowers that start to bloom right when the weather starts changing, notes each of their petals, the perfume they give off.

it continues, into memory grove and to reflection’s light, where he drops off the few small boxes of precious material, and looks for any more he might be able to help to do. he doesn’t mind busy work, if it’s carrying things from one room to another, moving furniture, dusting off the front steps of branches after particularly harsh storms.

so familiar faces blend into view. one, in particular, that he had been familiar with even before the temple, one that sparked memory but not quite realization due to the distortion of water, and a hesitance on his part to invoke the matter past simple conversations and favors of aid. he spots haeun in passing and sets what he had been carrying down in greeting.

“good morning, haeun. have you been well?” his tone is even, kind. the temple’s always been peaceful, full of light and simple encounters. pleasant, to those in pain and seeking refuge from it.

“are you needing help with anything? i stopped by with some things from the port— there’s so many merchants selling new types of salves and healing solutions with the spring summons, so i brought some for you all to try along with the temple’s normal requests.”

@drowningyou ?

[drowningyou]

THE TEACUP feels delicate in your hands. you are reminded of a bird, like one of the many that come to perch at the temple's front steps. you have heard other healers say that those birds are auspicious, that they see all from their vantage points in the sky and sing their warnings to the rest, gods and prophets all at once.

at first, tilting the teacup at certain angles makes its whorls appear like waves crashing against some shore. but if you stare at it longer, the waves begin to take a life of their own, entrancing, cresting and crashing then curling back where they came from, only to repeat the cycle.

the whorls are in your head now. you can hear them: the sound of waves, the distant cry of birds, and then finally the beginning of your god's melody. as it builds, so does the weight of the teacup in your hands, until it feels like it's overflowing.

there is still time to put it down. but isn't that your god, calling to you, humming so sweetly for you to look within?

PROMPT. do you peer into the teacup, return it, or destroy it?

haeun is drawn to the sea and the sea calls to her every chance it gets. this much is fact: she knows this, has been told by more people than just her mother. she’s learnt to avoid the crashing of waves, the deep blue of the ocean. and yet: she sees the teacup and she can’t help but pick it up. is drawn to it, like she doesn’t have a choice in the matter at all - her breath catches when she cradles it in her hands that evening.

she puts the teacup on her shelf and at night she lies awake, blinking at the ceiling. it’s in her head now, and she’s afraid of it. but come morning, when the sun rises and with it her sanity, she will feel better about it. or so she tells herself.

and thus she completes her routine the next day with trepidation brewing in her stomach. wakes up, fixes her hair, washes her face. puts the kettle on the stove and reaches for the tin of loose leaf tea she keeps in the kitchen cabinet. it’s at the last possible moment that she reaches for the cup, and then she promptly gets lost in it. the waves, in the cup, in her head. she can smell salt in the hair and hears wind in her ears. it’s a sign, she knows this. her throat is dry. she's never been able to resist her god, not when they're so close, calling to her so desperately. she would be irresponsible if she did. perhaps she's needed for a greater purpose, to aid them heal the world.

haeun bends her head and looks into the teacup.

[heavenwrought]

@saltbrine,

SPRING didn't have a face until he reached the surface. at home, in the dark, the seasons had no reach beyond the gap in the rock, and all minhae knew of spring was an extraordinarily blue sky.

there were more colors up here. and more light, of course — warm and resplendent, so far-reaching that he was delighted to stand under the shade of some awning and still be able to put a hand out to feel it. in those first few days on the road, he had insisted on keeping the windows of the carriage down, so that the light could stream in and his god could feel him close. he'd imagined his first month in yeonghae unfolding in all kinds of ways, but he had thought most of all that his god would find him and commune with him before his alliance with the yangs, at least, so that the sun could advise on whether it was a good match, but the sun hadn't so much as sent him a sign since his arrival.

his parents certainly had their own opinion about it, which they said was the sun's will. but, minhae thought, he would have really liked to hear it from the sun himself. the ritual was the only thing he could think of doing.

he'd taken to carrying an umbrella when his skin proved unfortunately easy to burn in the sun, but for now he set it aside so the sun would have no trouble finding him. his ritual mirror laid next to it, wrapped in cloth until he finished building the necessary pyre. he just couldn't get the damned thing to stay up.

minhae frowned at his pathetic pile of rocks and sticks. in the distance, the waves roared. he wondered if he should have chosen someplace other than the beach.

he glanced around. there were a few people nearby, a lot of unfamiliar faces for that festival, but none of them seemed particularly helpful. then he glanced in the other direction, and there was his first stroke of good luck all week, in the shape of somebody much closer—observing? no one ever stared at a ritual so openly.

"you. hello." minhae eyed them up and down. they looked useful, at least. "do you have nothing better to do for the next minute?"

[heavenwrought]

@drowningyou,

THE TEMPLE had long been a solemn, recurring fixture in his dreams. even before he arrived at the port and first came to learn its shape and how it stood between the limits of town and the blackwood, it appeared as a great stone structure at the end of every winding, dreamy path he took. solid, staunch, and silent, it would stand there and wait for him, and even though he couldn't move or couldn't see into the darkness beyond its entrance, he knew that there were monsters inside, ravenous and blighted.

this evening, when he arrives at the edge of town, he finds the sight so familiar that he stops and wonders if he might be having another night terror.

but then somebody else brushes past him -- a mother and a son, her back hunched low to support his bleeding arm -- and the flash of blood sends a fresh wave of nausea through him, and he understands that this isn't a dream at all.

so he steels himself. reminds himself there is nothing to fear, when half of the sun still hangs above the horizon, looking after him. yes, he thinks, and enters the temple.

his symptoms had first crept in two days ago. it wasn't his first time falling ill since arriving in yeonghae, but this was the worst one already, if only because he couldn't understand the damned source of it. this affliction made his skull feel twice as heavy and made it sting to channel his magic; he had given up on the light around his hands when it was too painful to manifest it that morning, and now he feels uncomfortably exposed as he takes in the neat, stony interior of the temple.

"excuse me?" he directs his voice to the first healer he saw, cautious. no one here seems monstrous yet, but his parents had also warned him that rot could take many shapes.

another bout of vertigo washes through him. minhae sways lightly, hand on a stone ledger for balance. the burn scars lashing up his wrist are partly hidden by a woven bracelet he had picked up in the festival a few days ago, small, enchanted buds interlaced with the leather. for good health, the vendor had said. how dishonest.

"the apothecary told me that i need to go through the temple to place any orders for their stronger herbs. is that something you can--- do?" minhae presses his lips together tightly as he tries to keep his focus on the healer. perhaps it's this place. perhaps it's making it worse.

[sinkpearls]

DID YOU FIND ANYTHING IN THE SEA,

he pulls his jacket properly over his shoulders, tucking his hands behind his back as he walks between all of the stalls. smiles at the merchants that he'd seen in his office already, of the ones that he memorized the name and the product so that he could know them when he saw them once coming down to the port.

spring summons always brought quite a flurry of activity to the company, and he knew it to be important that he was aware of what was coming in and out of all of the ships, especially with all of the extra contracts he'd been approving with new prospects coming in for all of the fun.

today's his own business, however. he'd made his rounds down here before, and so he thinks it easy to clear out two things at once, keeping a half sharp eye to look out for a familiar face in the crowd between his browsing and follow ups. he'd told beomsu through letter that he'd meet him here when the sun was high in the sky, and despite the amount of times they'd met for this, there's still a quiet uptick in his nerves.

it's like he hasn't been receiving the same news for years, now. perhaps it should have dulled his senses, but even for the amount of times he's been in the water, willing it to show him something thousands of miles away, something, someone, he knows is still out there, he knows, it's still nothing.

it's always nothing. quiet home, same news, same water, running over him numb and unyielding, cold as the day he left. all of this pretending ran him thin a long time ago, but he thinks giving up is just another snapped string leading him back to his brother.

even if the news is the same, it's hope that it won't be, one time. he hopes just one time, beomsu can come to him with something, but somehow he's gotten used to these meetings as the only connection to that horizon, the one he's longed for ever since that boat didn't come back, that letter didn't come, that he hadn't heard his voice, seen him, since he waved on the edge of that ship until seohan couldn't see him anymore, disappearing on that ocean line as the sun spilled orange.

he reaches out to pick up a ware from a table in front of him, smiling at the woman wrinkled by the edge of time, gloved thumb sweeping over the silver of the pocketwatch, chain hanging out between his fingers. "it tells you the time of wherever it is the one you love resides." she leans over, gesturing to the hinge on the side to click open and show him the clock face.

he hesitates, still, holding it closed in his hand as he looks up one more time, a moment to prolong what he doesn't want to see, doesn't want to know, and sees beomsu flash within the crowd. raises his unoccupied hand in a small wave to bring him over, clear, bright grin.

what he doesn't want to see, doesn't want to know. it's such a thin line, curiosity, the truth, what he seeks. he tries to tell himself it all always leads back to the water.

@saltbrine ?