Halloween Event: Spring's Blessing and New Premium Kith!
Posted on October 08, 2024--
Need a break. Need a break. Curse it, I need to force myself to take a break...
Maybe this change of scenery will help calm down this jittering. I can’t stop seeing those visions every time I close my eyes, making my skin crawl and my whole body shudder, knowing that I can't shift it in a transformation... I hope I’m not deluding myself again, thinking that this place might have some answers...
So many gravestones, out here in the Shadow Stage... How many of you poor lonely ghosts fell to the Narrator's whims?
And how many stars of the dead in the Colosseum skies are due to the actions of our own Gods...
*rustle*
...Is someone behind that grave?
Oh! Blessings upon you, stranger... I hope I’m not trespassing. Is this a sacred place for you? Should I leave?
(...)
Hmm... You're quiet. But I think you can make yourself understood when you want to... Am I right?
(...)
Thank you for letting me stay. I wish I had the energy to get to know you better, but I'm... oh curse it, I’m really not myself right now! I don't even look like myself right now!
Normally I'd be able to switch myself - that is, switch my body back and forth whenever I like with my Mystic transformation - but now that I’m stuck, it’s like I've lost one of the last things that kept me grounded, no matter how chaotic my job was! I don’t know if that’s what it’s like for a Kith –
(...)
Oh... not only that, you understand how I feel about gender, too? That's sweet. It makes me feel a little less like I’ve been totally uprooted and alone...
Sigh...
I’m sorry, Mawnite, I can see you want to help - let me reassure you, I don’t expect you to offer me any comfort, I’m just... I’m just a mess at the moment.
(...)
Yes... I really could use a good listener, but are you sure? ...All right, but stop me if it’s too much, okay? I know how much listening can take out of you... After all, it’s my job.
Sigh... The Mystic of Spring is the main source of emotional support for the Colosseum, you know? It’s a rough task, and it requires taking a lot of breaks and resting and caring for myself, so that I have the ability to take care of others, too.
But… things have been brutal over there ever since Specter’s declaration about our Gods being “thaumaticians”. In the past few months, the number of mental health crises that my acolytes and I have been fielding has gotten overwhelming. And... we’ve been losing a lot more people on the battlefield because of it. So over and over, every time I try to step away to recharge, there’s another emergency that my acolytes aren’t equipped to handle yet – and then they get overwhelmed and quit, or they push themselves and get injured, and...
It’s like my whole home has been under mounting pressure, straining and straining and STRAINING – and now with these revelations from the Narrator? It’s all come crashing down on top of me!
What can I even do about it? I know I need to sleep, so I lay down to sleep, but my heart just races inside my chest for hours, and my thoughts won’t stop vibrating through my body until I can’t stand to keep my eyes closed, so I get up and just pace the halls of the Temple for hours, with all those awful statues of Spring staring down at me...
I know I need to eat, but forcing each bite is like a war with my unwilling body, and I feel so nauseous all the time! It’s gotten so bad that even the sight of plain pasta makes me feel ill, and nothing my Kith cook for me seems to fix it...
And I’m so... I’m so burned out, and I’m so scared of it. Mawnite, I can't end up like the last Mystic of Spring did - but I don’t know how to balance this! I draw my strength from the rest of my community, and right now it's in pieces!
My Kith who aren’t in crisis are working around the clock to help all my Kith who are - my acolytes are completely overburdened - so many of the students of Hope have their own painful pasts with the Narrator - and I don't even know how to feel about my best friends right now!
I can't talk to Valeria about how these revelations have been wrecking me, because she's been doubling down instead. She actually accused me of lying to her when I tried to approach her about it! I couldn’t believe how much that hurt...
And Chrysa and I always used to have fun spirited debates about faith, but there’s nothing lighthearted about this, and... the fact that she’s advocating so hard for this collaboration - I understand why, I completely do, but... I can’t help how irrationally upset I am at her for bringing this to the Colosseum, on top of everything! Weren’t we already dealing with enough?!
(...)
Am... Am I right that you want to know how I’d normally calm down and process things like this? No, it’s a good question – but that’s the problem. See, times like this... I pray to the Goddess of Spring.
Or S.P.R.I.N.G....
“Soothing Problems and Redirecting Internal Needs with Guidance”... Oh, Gods, it makes my skin crawl! Could she really have-
A-ah, I’m sorry, was that too much? You don’t have to sprint away if you need me to stop talking...! No, I feel like that wasn’t what drove him off in such a hurry...
Hmm. I wonder if...
...
...Greetings, Narrator.
