Event || Window of Opportunity

[melodiesmods]

Characters: All Heroes of Light.
Where: Aqures Ixen - Everywhere
When: September 25th - From 12:30 to 22:30.
Summary: Heroes of Light will relive the same ten hours over and over again until they find a solution. This may be a blow to what's left of their sanity, but that's also a window of opportunity! The OOC Post is here for more information! It's not too late to sign-up, anyone can still jump right into the event! However, your vote for the total number of loops will not be taken into account any more.

Speaking of which-- Votes are in and this time displacement madness will be solved after 191 loops. Practically speaking, this means characters going through every single loop will live 2 months, 2 weeks, 3 days and 14 hours in the span of half a day. Hopefully they won't mind the food for the day, the clothes they're wearing or what they were doing when the loop started, because that's what they'll be stuck with until the end. There are some events described below, but there will be no NPC replies. Feel free to partake in these events and of course, make your own!

Warning: Too many time loops may be bad for your mental health.

The Flence Salesman
— All Day Long —
There is a salesman from Flence in the city, and he is going for every person he sees in the streets. Adults, children or elders, humans or tarutarus, it doesn't matter to him so long as he can make money! He will try to sell to the characters specialties from Flence and some crystals at absolutely awful prices, but he's open to negotiations and beyond that, he's extremely persistent. Normally, nobody would care about this, but given the salesman isn't be aware of the loop, he'll keep doing the same things over and over again... Hopefully he won't see your characters, otherwise he might just bother them for every single loop.


Moogle Demonstration for the Future of Mognet
— 12:30 => 16:00 —
For a surprise one-day long strike, the Moogles are demonstrating! There are roughly 800 Moogles together (250 according to the government, 5000 according to the striking Moogles) in the demonstration, all singing slogans and some even holding placards with "More Gil and Less Work" or "Give us Kupo Nuts" signs.

They started at 10:00 and left from the 09th District, but they will go throughout every district and explain what their protest is about. They'll finish at 16:00 and will be back to the 09th District to eat Kupo Nuts and drink Chocobo Milk together.


Biggs' Grand Return
— 14:00 => 22:30 —
After a month spent in the hospital, Biggs is finally back! He leave the Hospital at 14:00 and head straight for the Castle of Aqures Ixen. Noticeably he still has a broken and bandaged arm, but he'll pretend to be totally fine and for that matter, he will be as rude and as unfriendly as ever. He will spend most of the day in the Castle, but will go in Palitutu's Lab by 19:00 to meet with Cid. Among other things, he will side-eye everyone and will accidentally splash Cid's coffee on a Hero of Light working there (or on a Moogle, should the Hero have the good sense to avoid Biggs next loop).


Renovation of the Blitzball Stadium
— 15:30 => 20:00 —
The repairs are going steadily and today, a special dome from Trano Golsaucia is being transported and placed on the Blitzball Stadium, brand new and much more modern than what Aqures Ixen used to have! On the downside however, the airship bringing the dome and the work being done on the stadium are all very, very noisy. So noisy that everyone in a two-district radius will be bothered by it.

Under normal circumstances it would have been only for a short time and easilly bearable, but here it will happen for every single loop.


Have You Heard of the Heroes of Light?
— All Day Long —
Throughout the day, a few people are going to go and knock on every doors in the city, to talk about a most fascinating topic: the Heroes of Light! They will speak about how it is said the Heroes of Light are in Crystallis and how they managed to defeat the empire without difficulties back during the attack! Then they will go on and ask for a contribution (hear: money) to help the Heroes of Light in their cause. Of course, these people are dishonest and the money will go into their own pockets, as they don't believe in the Heroes of Light to begin with.

And of course, they'll go knock on doors during every single loop!


The Accident
— 22:29 => 22:30 —
The one minute that started it all. Who is the imbecile who committed the mistake on Palitutu's computer? Is this a Moogle or a Hero of Light, maybe Cid or Biggs? Whoever it is, after the first time, at 22:29 the program will start again on its own and will activate the loop right at 22:30, sending everything back to 12:30. The characters may try to run more programs to block the computer, cut the energy source or even bomb the building if they so wish...

But these archaic and barbaric solutions won't prevent the next loop from happening. Only hard work and scientific solutions shall prevail!

Comments

[line_piece]

Yeah. I thought people would be angry with me after the attack on the city, so I was sort of hiding for a while and working on this. By the time I realized I was wrong, the prototype was almost done.

[She smiles a little at that, seeming quietly relieved.]

It's called a Tamagotchi. A digital pet. It's a pocket-sized game with a screen and a few buttons on it, and there's a little monster that you can care for, feed, and play with. I salvaged some parts from the Magitek Factory that were too broken to use for anything but something really simple to make it, and used the Programmer Job's Digitize skill to put real monsters from Crystallis inside.

[shinrasfinest]

[He had been keeping it rather casual, as far as he could anyway, before Chiaki mentioned about people feeling angry with him. It startles him into a more attentive demeanor as a result; he certainly knew how that felt. Sephiroth is still somewhat surprised that none of the military, nor citizenry, have held him accountable for the collateral damage.]

Like a virtu- [Then he realizes she's already said exactly that; a digital pet]

-that sounds rather ingenious, come to think of it. How did you manage to power it?

[Because the big difference between Crystallis and his own world, is how things are made to operate. Physics, while similar in concept, are different in other ways.]

[line_piece]

[With as closely as Sephiroth was monitoring various positions during the battle, he would most likely recall that Chiaki was on the team of people assigned to hack the Ultima Weapon. Considering Palitutu ended up with it in the end, she was feeling a lot of guilt in the aftermath too. Whether he finds it heartening that no one held that against her - even among the Heroes - is up to him, but it might be a comforting thought.]

When I was salvaging parts, there were some crystal fragments leftover that wouldn't have been useful for much else. I only needed a little bit of power for something this small and simple. Engineer helped me make sure the construction and energy flow were stable, and with Programmer I was able to add the necessary details to enable simple interactions with the monster inside.

[Which is to say, the mun is sort of making a lot of the actual science up on the fly. Making these things was approved, but not with much specific detail.]

[shinrasfinest]

[And the mun is doing a bang-up job of it too!

Sephiroth knows full well that Chiaki was one of the hackers, just as he knew Cloud had been the Magitek Knight of the moment as well. Or at least, he knew that had been the plan. When the Weapon had been inbound towards the hospital, Sephiroth had a literal table full of other problems to work around. An assassin picking off soldiers, fires that were only half-real, keeping the blockage reinforced were just a handful.

One thing is a fact though, no one could have predicted that Jessie would use them all like that.]

That's pretty impressive. As small of a thing as it might be.

[Small things very much pave the way for larger advances. Harnessing the energy available via crystals had been on one of Sephiroth's 'to-look-into' topics but...

Well he doesn't feel like he could comfortably step into a lab, currently.]

[line_piece]

The small things are important sometimes. After something terrible happens, sometimes it's something small that helps you hold on to hope.

[It's a pretty typical speech from Chiaki, but possibly more relevant to Sephiroth's situation than it might have been had he heard it at another point in time during his stay in this world. And it's accompanied by a soft and grateful smile for his compliment.]

If you want, I can make one for you too. They're nice for people who travel a lot and don't have time to take care of a real pet.

[shinrasfinest]

[He pauses, digesting that comment since it easily resonates with his current state of mind. Whilst distracted, whether it be helping with the rebuilding, bodyguarding Terra or working out it gave his mind a break from the weight that had been put onto it again in the wake of the information he's read...those facts he now knows for sure.

Still, it never really goes away, waiting for his mind to idle back into festering over it all. Perhaps a distraction, like Chiaki suggests, in something so small might well be for his benefit.

But doesn't he have enough things to put his mind into? It feels almost as if he's looking for an excuse to do something that didn't have a bigger meaning to it. Sephiroth chuckles lightly at the thought.]

I doubt I would have the time to maintain it, besides I don't do too well with pets.

[A smile cracks, reminded of a certain kitten of Terra's which has staked it's claim to him.]</small.

[line_piece]

[His answer is more or less what she'd expected. Sephiroth doesn't seem like the type to play with a digital pet. But she still felt that it was important to at least extend the offer.]

If you change your mind, just let me know.

[shinrasfinest]

[At the very least it's been something different to put his conscious thoughts towards. It has gotten rather gloomier again for him, recently.]

I will do.

[A pause. Looking back, and up, over the stadium roof as it's edged into place.]

It's going to be quite a spectacle, once it's finished.

[line_piece]

[Chiaki looks up too, smiling.]

Yeah. Even better than before, probably. It'll be good to have a blitzball stadium again. People need something to cheer for. Something to believe in. Sports are good for that.

[shinrasfinest]

[He doesn't see that smile, but it feels comforting to hear her say that. That perhaps something good will come out of all the turmoil that they've helped to cause.]

Can't argue with that synopsis. Not at all.

[A thought strikes; he's not the sporty type...not really, but perhaps it was something else he might think about. It's fairly common knowledge about Chiaki and her triple-triad playing.]

Is the league still going? After all of this?

[line_piece]

Yeah. They're still practicing in other cities with stadiums, I think. Probably in Trano Golsaucia, mainly.

[Chiaki isn't the sporty type herself, but sports are a type of game, so she does keep track.]

[shinrasfinest]

That's excellent to hear.

[Sephiroth cants his head in a half-nod towards Chiaki once more, silver bags falling away at the side of his face for a moment before falling back down into framing it.]

I mean, in terms of not letting the recent events grind everything to a halt.

[line_piece]

It's important to keep hoping and believing after something terrible happens. As long as you hold onto hope, you've never truly lost everything.

[shinrasfinest]

[And so he finally slips into silence again; Sephiroth's not really one to believe in such an unstable thing as hope. Given everything that's happened and facts that he now knows, the fact is that no matter how much he hopes he might turn out differently should they all manage to get home - it's a false hope. Judging from his disorientation before, after stasis, the chances are that his future has already come to pass...he just doesn't know it has yet.

Just as Kalki said.

Finally, a steady breath is taken and he utters...more to himself, half-expecting Chiaki to have walked off in the interim.]

Provided you had anything real to hold on to, in the first place.

[line_piece]

[She's just about out of hope-based zen koans at this point, so she smiles and nods toward Sephiroth as she turns to leave. But not before offering one last nugget of wisdom.]

You can't ever come to truly believe in something until you overcome doubt. That's when hope shines the brightest.