synflux | 01.

Entry tags:

wuthering waves: rover

01.

WHO: Rover and you!
WHAT: Monthly log
WHERE/WHEN: Various locations throughout the month.
WARNINGS: Will update this as they come up.

01. Generic starters - throughout the month - various locations in Neo-Tokyo

[ rover is doing her best to get to know her location and the people in it! if you come across her during your wanderings, feel free to say hi.

some places she can be found in:

a. shrines - shinjuku wandering around and checking out the set-up in the temples. the set-up is much simpler than what she'd seen in the gorges of spirit with jue's memorial.

b. LILICO game centre she's good with any of the games that require strength - first person shooter, fighting games, that kind of jazz. rover is also into puzzle games; the area she's in is most definitely designed for seniors and younger players, but she doesn't care. she'll finish that puzzle game.

c. tokyo bay a fun, solitary place to drink boba in is the top of some debris while watching the waves come in an out of the bay. she's just staring off the distance, mulling over her thoughts. she half-expects the rolling clouds to bring in some rain, and even stares up at the sky now and then to see if it's going to happen; but it doesn't, so she just remains on her perch. ]

02. Generic base shenanigans - meeting with teammates, others, etc.

[ a. redemption meet and greet. say hi! rover doesn't sleep well, she'll be out and about in odd hours of the night or early hours of the day. you can find her in the cafeteria, greenhouse, or just catch her before she's headed towards her quarters.

b. random otherwise feel free to send her a text or give her a call to say hi. same with A, she'll be out and about during odd hours of the night or early hours of the day just in different places. ]

03. Closed starters

[ in the comments with headers. ]

04. Game event (15 July)

[ link to her toplevel; feel free to drop by. ]

05. ETC. - other toplevels throughout the month that are OTA

[ feel free to tag. your character can assume they've come across each other during the downtime, had smalltalk, and at the very least exchanged names. rover is rather amiable.

- DATING LOG: toplevel
- HOT OR NOT: toplevel

if you want something custom, feel free to message me and we can work something out. ]

contact: PM or plurk @ ilium.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I should have known. LILITH doesn't bring just anyone to fight their battles for them.

( And it's interesting. It's not exactly what he expected, but in the grand scheme of things it does make sense. He has yet to meet someone unused to a battle. Sipping his tea, he runs his gaze back over her, more curious this time. Perhaps she is stronger than she looks. )

Monsters?

The job here is familiar to me - Jinzhou is also suffering from a plague of monsters from the various changes the planet is suffering through. To keep it short, the chaotic energy reverberating from the disruptions of the world sometimes gets a physical form, termed as tacet discords, which are monsters, who feed on each other's energy to evolve and become stronger.

Not everyone can kill them, so Resonators like myself often get called to subdue them. [ rover tilts her head and thinks about what else can she add to it, and finally just says, ] While it's the majority of my day-to-day tasks, it's not the only way I earn money. I live a rather transient life.

[ and it's strange to wake up from one world to another, still with the same demands: to be strong, to fight monsters, to fight on the side of an organization wanting to keep the peace in the world, no matter what it takes. it's so painfully familiar. ]

( Ah, that has something going sharp in Geto's face, a little more solidly focused, a little more alert. Planetary suffering is not quite the manifestation of people's ill-feeling but it is close enough to have something go tight and twisted in his gut. He keeps hearing the same old story from so many different people. It makes him angry, it also makes him tired. )

Funny. ( Said in a tone not so very, his teacup placed down so that he can rest his elbows on the table top, chin in one palm. He keeps his voice calm but there's an earnest appeal in the tone regardless. ) You're a resonator. I'm a jujutsu sorcerer. You have monsters, I have curses. Are people thankful to you, Rover, in your world? Do they know what you do for them? Are you very overworked?

[ ... what strange questions, rover thinks as she drinks her tea and mulls her thoughts. she must've struck something with geto when she'd mentioned the similarities in their worlds, and he must've gone through a rather difficult situation being a sorcerer to make such connections. ]

... well, I'm known. [ a pause. ] I don't fully expect people to always thank me for my work, especially when I'm not the only one who's been working tirelessly to protect everyone. In terms of expertise, I'm not even the most skilled. My other companions have more time in the field than I do, and I would defer to their research and skills all the time. I wouldn't call myself overworked, but I work hard enough. I'm strong enough to resolve issues on my own when I can, but if I need help, I'll definitely ask for it.

Resonators can live very long lives, and people's memories are short. While I'm grateful I can make a difference in people's lives, I don't believe I'm owed thanks. In my experience, for better or worse, the world will decide how it intends to move on without you, despite your contributions and sacrifices. [ she pauses as she thinks of the different factions in jinzhou, and of jue in the mountain, and then adds, ] Your appearance becomes a slight discordant tune - one of many.

That's what I believe, anyway. [ it's probably the longest she's ever talked to anyone since she's arrived. though to be fair, she never had much of a reason to bring up her past, and also, it just didn't matter here as much - until it did. ]

( Very long lives. Geto was lucky to reach twenty-seven, had he stayed in the school he might have met the same fate as Haibara, dead long before. He wonders if Rover considers herself lucky, but it isn't a question he voices. Instead he listens to the outline of her world, the smallest of frowns between his brows. )

I'm glad you don't have to work alone.

( It isn't necessarily what he intended to say, but it comes out anyway. Sometimes Geto wonders what might have become of him had he not been sent on so many missions alone. Would the break have happened either way? Or would Satoru have noticed the rot long before it took hold? It's an aimless thought, he'll never get to change it. Instead he focuses on something else, regarding Rover evenly. )

If it moves on without you then why even help at all? You're fighting monsters, that doesn't come without a cost. Unless, in your world it does?

It's not always like that. There are many things I have to do alone. But I'll take whatever's offered to me freely.

[ rover runs a finger over the edge of her cup, and when she speaks she does so slowly as she tries to gather her thoughts into something coherent for geto. she's not nearly as duplicitous as he is, so at least it doesn't sound like she's avoiding the question; more like it's complicated for her and she's trying to do her best to be coherent. ]

It hasn't come with a cost for me, [ rover starts with that, because it's true. ] but it's not the same for everyone else. Unlike other Resonators, I can keep on killing and fighting because the chances of me Overclocking - which is when a Resonator pushes themselves to their limits - is rather low. [ another pause, and then she adds, ] Or perhaps we just haven't discovered it, and now I will never know.

Part of the reason why I keep fighting is because the Tacet Discords - our version of monsters - keep getting stronger, more complicated. We know so much and so little. The scope of the damage is wider, the effects more destabilizing than it just being contained to one place. Imagine a planet losing a third of its gravity. Or an entire forest turned into mould. Blizzards that seem to never end and turn into spring. An entire battlefield of souls, trapped under a rain that never falls down. The destruction is slow, but it paces forward. We have to keep fighting, because extinction is otherwise inevitable.

( He makes a noise, a low hum of it. He can understand her point. If curses were so strong they would ruin the planet he would do something - he still does, or did, he had four thousand under his command before the Night Parade, a ceaseless consumption of filth just so they would be tamed. He can tell himself it was entirely to get more power, but Geto has always been capable without. He cannot fathom a world like hers. It sounds like a nightmare. )

You're strong then. ( And that's always been important. Even here he still pushes himself to the limit. He wonders if she came by hers naturally. The Gojo Satoru of her world. ) No wonder you're here.

( Another soldier, but at least one he almost feels a little more sympathy for now. )

[ rover shrugs. ] We'll see how much of that remains here. I've already felt some differences.

[ she wonders about him, how he seems like a kindred soul. a man whose experiences bear a similarity towards her own that she can't help but feel curious about him - inclined to ask, to learn, to find out more about his own experiences. how unfortunate that they found each other. choices are easy to make until you realize that life is long.

rover looks at him carefully. ]

Did you work alone as a sorcerer?

I can't imagine the task gets easier here or in any world.

( That's somehow even more interesting. Internally he wants to scoff at how easily Rover offers up her new weakness, Geto has been playing his own fairly close to the chest. He hasn't even mentioned to Gojo that his curses have changed. It tells him something, but about himself or the woman that's still to be found out. Instead he focuses on her question. )

Not always. When I was younger missions would usually include a partner. The stronger I grew the more I would work alone. I have people to help now, but old habits die hard, isn't that what they say?

( He doesn't exactly need anyone else. )

I'd accompany the girls, if I thought it was a useful learning tool. The more inexperienced too. But usually alone, yes.

Loneliness is a terrible habit.

Did you learn anything from it?

[ or the fact that all he does is survive. in a rather grim way, rover can see that that's the problem, actually; because he has, unfortunately. he survived.

now what?

she doesn't know if geto has an answer to that now.

she supposes that strength is a noble pursuit, but if geto is mostly alone, then ... she doesn't even know what he pursues it for. it's a strange hobby, overall. another one of his mysteries. ]

I'm not lonely.

( It's a mild protest, and one he thinks falls a little flat. Because no matter what he'd filled his life with back home he's certain there remained a part of him that was. Ever since Riko Amanai died there has been a part of him that remains unreachable. Satoru might have been able to, but Geto had cut that off at the pass so thoroughly, so effectively that nobody else has ever been able to make the attempt. No one else could ever know him as well.

It still burns all these years later.

Geto holds back a sigh, gaze dropping to the dark depths of his tea. ) You have to learn to rely on yourself. Nothing is permanent, no matter how hard you try. Loss is a part of a jujutsu sorcerer's life. It is better to learn that early on and prepare yourself for it. But I am lucky. I have people. I have my family. I go out in the field alone because it is easier to do so, but I can go home to them in the end.

( A pause. )

Or I could.

[ guy who's only ever described himself in a state of loneliness says he's not, not really. she lets the weight of his words hang in the air, echo in how awkward they sounded in the pause.

you would have to be someone absolutely obsessed to be alone to have that kind of determination, she thinks, to walk a single path. either you were feared or hated. a danger to yourself or to others. threads she doesn't want to untangle right now. they were complicated, dense, interconnected. and she's not in a hurry. cutting the knot with a knife would render the thread useless. rover just nods at that; she won't contest it any further. she just drinks her tea. easier to answer everything else, offer a story of her own. navigate him like a current. ]

... these are similar lessons I've learned in our battles.

I have made a promise to a dear friend, that if he ever dies, I am to plant flowers he likes, in his memory, at a place overlooking the city he loves. [ she pauses as she thinks of the general, and then says, ] Of course, I wouldn't have let him die either way, but I intended to keep the promise for him, since he asked it of me.

It's a simple enough gesture that I can do it here myself, if it comes to that.

[ and that's the lesson in itself, too. loss doesn't have to be borne by one person. ]

Edited (icon) 2024-07-30 12:36 (UTC)

That's a nice idea.

( At last, a little sincerity in his tone. ) It is always good to have something to hold on to, afterwards. And perhaps even if your friend is still alive you would like something to remember them by while you're here. LILITH might be amenable. They don't seem to mind nostalgia.

( He found two photographs in his room after all. )

In fact, possibly they utilise it. But flowers couldn't hurt.

It's something to ask for.

[ beyond just weapons, and whatever else can be asked of LILITH in this situation. a dearth of things that one never knew they could ask for - she sees the appeal in staying. if she could have small comforts, who cares how long it takes for her to return? it feels like the situation of many a soldier out in the endless night.

they have their comfortable silence, for a little while, rover happy enough to drink her tea, until she asks again, ] How did you become a sorcerer?

You're born with it.

( He does not count the Zenin girl, he will not. ) Usually at a young age a cursed technique will show. If you're from a major clan you will have been trained from birth to hone your skills in advance of this. If you're not, hopefully one of the schools finds you. It can be frightening, seeing things that no one else can, and not knowing why.

( It had been, for him, even more so due to the sickly nature of his cursed technique. But he doesn't seem to mind it. At least not on the surface. )

And you? Are you born with your skill too?

Probably.

[ which is the truth of it. ]

Resonators discover - and shape - their abilities due to their past experiences, and their unconscious mind. The act of absorbing Tacet Discords - our monsters - in order to attain power ... results in the body rejecting this transformation.

There are a few exceptions. [ she thinks of the fractsidus, thinks of scar and the other girl, and then of herself, and then she adds, ] ... Not very good exceptions. But they do exist.

You absorb them?

( He surprises himself by keeping his voice even. There's not even a hint of a shake, but Geto isn't sure if that's more the surprise than anything else. He finds himself leaning forward a little in his chair, grip tightening ever so slightly on his teacup, hungry for the answer. )

What is the transformation? A byproduct? Or would it turn anyone not a Resonator.

It turns you into the monster you choose to wield as your weapon. Because of that, as a Resonator, you'd only want an Echo which enhances your abilities.

[ she notes his interest. rover keeps a finger over the rim of her cup, thinking about how best to explain the circumstances of resonators to him. ]

Most resonators require a terminal to do the conversion. I don't.

The transformation is brief, of course. You can turn back to your self. And the Echoes you have contribute to your risk of Overclocking as a Resonator.

But I don't have such penalties. [ she tilts her head, sighing. ] Though LILITH has seen fit to reduce my abilities.

[ and perhaps now he gets the idea of why she wants to spar with him - she wants to know how much more of her abilities have been dampened since coming here. more importantly - ] It interests you.

Curiosity.

( No, it's obviously something more than. Geto's gaze settles on her, assessing. ) Each jujutsu sorcerer has their own technique. Some can be passed down, but usually our abilities are different. Yours sounded ... similar. But at the same time very much not. Professional curiosity, that's all.

( And not because he's spent half his life seething over the way his own makes him feel. )

What do you feel when you're harnessing a monster? Are you still yourself?

[ rover raises an eyebrow at him. ] And I'm here for your charms. Of course.

... Personally, I think nothing much of it. [ but she is also #not like other resonators. she can afford to think nothing of the intricacies of it. ] In the middle of my fight, I am more concerned about the enemy - I expect it's the same for most others. It's our way of fighting.

What are your abilities? [ professional curiousity and all. ]

The control and manipulation of curses.

( Easy enough, light enough, conversational. ) Unlike you I do not turn into them, but I ... house them, I suppose. Absorption. I no longer have the full range of my curses, LILITH's doing, but at one point I was master of four thousand of them.

( Idle, showing off but not. It doesn't matter that half were destroyed in his failed attempt on the school, he was still strong once. )

Oh.

[ how strange to find someone like her. rover is very much surprised. 4000 is ... a large number to be in control of, as well. it's impressive, sure, but rover frowns at the number. something about him is familiar, in a worrisome way. like looking at her reflection in the dark. ]

... that's a huge amount of curses. Why do you need so much?

It isn't a matter of need, necessarily. But why not? I could exorcise them entirely, I suppose. They'd lose their use then.

( Hard to explain that he'd been a fugitive, that if the higher ups had ever managed to convince Gojo Satoru that killing him was the only option he would have needed to be stronger, that consuming curses was all he had ever known, had no way to not. )

Besides, it was my duty. I had a family to take care of. People that needed me.

... And what does it cost you to use them? [ rover tilts her head at him. ] You're human, aren't you?

[ after all, he could die. ]

I'm a jujutsu sorcerer.

( Flat, and repetitive. It's a difficult subject. All he knows is that human veers a little too close to being aligned with non-shamans. )

And I don't know much about that. What does anything cost?

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