cryovision | Pavo Heart Game: Noctua's Grand Adventure

Pavo Heart Game: Noctua's Grand Adventure

When you enter the light, you find yourself hovering weightless in a void, as if caught in a moment of falling inertia. In the distance, you hear a voice that seems to shift and twist, familiar and yet unfamiliar.

"You shouldn't be here. But since you already are, let's make a wager. If you can uncover the truth, you'll find me. If you can't, you may be hopelessly lost... What a shame that would be."

You begin falling, and your vision blacks out--

[OOC NOTE: your goals are "reveal the truth" to "find the true heart". All images in toplevels are for general inspo, please make sure you read the flavourtext cause things are not exactly as they are in the images.]

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...Things have been difficult.

[HM

DID NOT LIKE LONELY FEELING

activates elemental sight.]

[With Elemental Sight, the room, changes. The air is stagnant and heavy, hard to breathe, and rather than snacks the table and desk are piled with seemingly endless stacks of paperwork. The barbatos statue is on its side, with its wings broken off.

And yet, it's still a cozy and lived in room. There are still flowers, and nothing terribly horrible, just... heavy. It makes you tired to breathe. But you see, near the window, a few tiny dust motes of anemo energy... and then they wink out.

Jean is just... absent, now. Where she stood is merely empty space.]

[..........FUCK!

opens the window again.]

[You reopen the window! The breeze that comes through is fresh and carries the scent of flowers and little dustmotes of anemo energy that flutter playfully through the room.]

[moving to set the barbatos statue upright again... it's fine if it's Venti, right? he doesn't know the details of Pavo's issues with the gods, or the history of Khaenri'ah, but... it should be fine if it's Venti.

then he's settling in to do SO MUCH PAPERWORK.]

[The papers are largely busywork. Reports of routine patrols, inventories of supplies, requests from the townspeople to look for lost pets or escort someone to a nearby location. They're boring, but there are so many of them. It would take days to process it all.

If you're addressing the ones on the desk, you might notice the corner of an envelope sticking out of a desk drawer.]

[....okay he can't do them all, but he's at least organizing them properly in order of priority.

then opening that desk drawer.]

[You have organized the papers! They seem less insurmountable now, even though the number hasn't changed. Organizing helps!!

You open the drawer, and find a bunch of envelopes!

Inside, there are lists. Lists of local criminals and ne'er-do-wells, their personal profiles, their preferred smuggling routes and points of attack on the roads. There are even some merchants, both local ones and foreign ones that do local business. Some people and places are crossed out in red ink, and others are circled. There are notes in the margins along the lines of "this should keep things interesting" or "easy to pressure" or "needs more coaxing".

There are a few trinkets at the very bottom:

- A pin in the shape of the favonius crest.
- A blue ribbon.
- A small bottle of glue.]

[Ah. Kaeya's List of ne'er-do-wells. He recognizes... all of the names. These fuckers.

fishing out the trinkets and looking around in case anything else catches his eye.]

[You scoop out the trinkets! The moment they're in your hand, though, you're hit by a vivid hallucination -- it's slightly faded with time, with fuzzy details, but you are witnessing a memory.

It's the swearing-in ceremony for all trainees who passed the knights exam this year. It's reverent but cheerful, as ceremonies in Mondstadt tend to be.

You don't understand what's so fun about entering the military.

Is everyone here spoiled by peace, or is it simply that you're too twisted to enjoy the accomplishment? You know it won't last. Sooner or later, this day will be flung back in everyone's faces. And anyway, you could easily have passed the exam two years ago if you really tried. You only held off so long to make sure everyone knows D̵̩̠̿ͅͅȉ̵͖͖̐̚̚l̷̞̚ú̸͇̿͘ͅc̵͇͖̰̞͗̀͌͠͝ is stronger than you. You don't want to be seen as special. That's too much attention. You're content to live in his shadow until destiny finds you.

Still, it's best to pretend you understand. When your name is called, you step forward with a bounce in your step and a wink to your proud partner-in-crime, and recite oaths you have little intention of keeping. Even if you stayed-- even if things were simple, and you could truly come to rest in this peaceful lie, you wouldn't keep them.

Though it's confusing and a little annoying, when you take your standard-issue sword and hold it, the smooth leather in your hands feels soothing. When they place the pin at your collar, it feels like a chain has just been clasped around your neck, and yet the weight is a comfort.

Yeah, you don't get it at all. But you feel it. And so you won't keep your oaths -- because to protect this baffling place, so long as you can, you'll wield your hidden self however you must.

[You come into yourself, but since you grabbed them all at once, you're thrown immediately back to the past.]

You're small, sitting on the edge of an impossibly plush couch in an impossibly beautiful parlor in an impossibly big house. You've been here for months now, but you still can't seem to settle in. Everyone in Mondstadt is so... nice. You have a hard time believing there's really a place so laid back. You have a hard time taking in the sight of the sky, the sound of rain, the warmth of a freely-given hug from someone who doesn't even know the real you -- or care.

It's raining now, actually. The couch is in front of a crackling fire, but outside you hear the booming of thunder, and it makes you shiver.

A warm hand touches yours, and you turn, startled to meet the bright crimson eyes of your still-new "brother".

(Ha. As if you could ever really belong to this loving, happy family.)

"If you're scared of the storm, don't be! The anemo god would never let anything bad happen to us. Father says that when it storms--" The other boy, just slightly bigger than you and much more exuberant, cuts off at the creak of the door.

"I said what?" asks the tall, bearded redhead you recognize as your temporary "Father" as he comes in, soaked from the rain.

Your companion is instantly excited by his arrival, and leaves you to go tell this "Father" all about all the mundane, pointless things you did today. You weren't productive at all, so you don't know what there is to be proud of, but "Father" seems delighted at every word. He pats D̵͉̍͑̀ï̵̢͈̹͝ľ̶̤͇͎́̏̕͝ü̸̩͈̳͙͝͝č̴̱̍̅ on the head, and you bitterly think that no father will ever show you that kind of affection again.

But then the man approaches you, and while you stay still, internally you flinch. Every time he comes home, you're a little afraid he'll tell you he's figured you out.

But he never does. And he doesn't tonight. Instead he kneels to get down to your level, producing a shiny blue ribbon from his pocket. You recognise it. You'd stared at it a bit last time you were in town, but that didn't mean you really wanted it--

"This is for you, K̷̢̢̩̲̟̔ả̶̉̽͜e̴͓̍̈́́y̴͚͉̯͙̰͛͑̅ā̶̱̙̤. I noticed you seemed interested, so I thought I'd pick it up on the way back. Although, I really wish you felt like you could ask... Whatever you need, we'll provide it. You're family, now. You'll always belong here."

"Father" smiles at you, as he gently ties the ribbon into your hair, and suddenly it strikes you that his smile for you is truly warm. And then he pats you on the head, the same as your "brother", and for the first time you feel this impossibly wonderful house sinking into your mind as "home".

You wish you never had to leave.

But there's no third memory. The pin and ribbon leave a sense of nostalgia, but the glue is just glue.]

[...pockets the glue. geeeently places the ribbon and pin on the desk, in a place where they are out of the way but easily admired.]

[You place the trinkets on the desk, and obtain glue.

Since you were looking around for more, you may notice something odd under the desk. It's another of those elemental locks from in the hall. What now?]

Edited 2021-05-19 06:31 (UTC)

[...crouches to inspect it further. is it noticeably different from the other one?]

[Nope. It seems rather than being overly complicated locks, there's just... a bunch of them.]

[where do the elemental trails lead?]

[Just back to the hall!]

[ok

time to glue the wings back on this poor barbatos]

[When you fix the statue, the breeze from the window gets more anemo motes! It's very distinctly anemo-infused now instead of just sparkling with a little bit of it.]

[takes a few moments to bask in the anemo-infused breeze like a big gay.

then turns off elemental sight.]

[You have gone back to the normal room! It feels a little bit brighter in here, and Jean is back!]

I see you've accomplished a few things.

Hopefully good ones. How are you feeling?

Well enough.

...I'm authorized to give you a certain amount of help. Should I tell you how to activate these locks?

[nods]

Please.

Elemental energy. You only need to touch them once, but there are several to find. If you do, that big door out there will open to you.

[give both of us a moment to feel dumb]

One moment.

[ELEMENTAL SIGHT: ON]

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