#keguard2023

[arcaeda]

this is just like minecraft — guard team

@aimlessarchery [ let’s get to chopping wood baby! ]

caeda can feel the eyes on them, on all of them. for whatever reason, the villagers of rusalka do not trust them a single bit. hateful, disdaining gazes... that surely would not last the whole time they resided here in the village. she has been in this kind of pitfall before— all that can be done is try to gain trust from them again. this is not her first time working against such unfavorable conditions, though it would be easier on her if she were not the only one trying to curry the favor of the villagers.

looking around at what remains to be done, she notices a distinct lack of people at the chopping block for limber, and a pile of wood that needs chopping. after approaching the man seemingly in charge of the whole operation— tired and taking a break it seemed— she readily gets to work to help.

but not before spotting one of her teammates nearby, the name python coming to mind. she approaches him with a disarming smile. seeing as he was doing nothing at the moment, he could probably help somehow. “python, would you like to help me chop wood for the village?” she lowers her voice then, to keep from the villagers hearing her. “we must gain the trust of the villagers, helping them out should do just that.”

[aimlessarchery]

live perth reaction

Patrol your companions’ quarters [Max 4 muses per thread] - Restore 1HP to houses per post - Can now talk to Perth during this task

Forsyth no longer looks as much like a knight prepared for burial. His armor was stripped away to give medics access to the mysterious wound in his side, leaving him in bandages and softer clothes. The new infirmary patient look does little to settle Python's nerves. His eyes fall to the bump of gauze beneath Forsyth's shirt, now thankfully free of bloodstains. It sits right about where the knight's cuirass thins out along his side. The shaping provides easier access to the straps used to don or remove the armor—and also provides a small opening for a blade to slip through. "I'm always tryin' to tell you that armor of yours isn't impenetrable." He folds his arms across his chest, speaking down at Forsyth's sleeping form.  "Running me ragged with your reckless shit even in your sleep now...you're somethin' else, you know that?" A chance to turn the tables and be the one scolding him for once could've been fun, if not for the way Forsyth remains silent and still through the affair. There's no furrow in his brow, no playful upturn to his lips even as he opens his mouth to argue—just an impassive death mask that hardly resembles the man from the waking world. Python sighs heavy and low, squeezing his own forearms to stave off the cold, ugly feeling in his stomach at the sight. The door creaks open, drawing Python's attention away. His fingers twitch minutely toward his hip where his quiver would usually sit, only slightly relaxing when he recognizes the figure in the doorframe. "Oh. Hey Caeda." His hand moves again, this time in a wave at the wrist that functions as both a greeting and a dismissal. "If you're here for the evening patrol shift, don't worry about it. I'm covering here 'til sun-up."

@arcaeda

[lionsword]

Stop Having It Be Broken- Team Guard

Wall/gate repairs with @arcaeda and whoever else would like to join!

Roy wasn’t used to this sort of manual labor, but he was willing to do his best. He sat on the ground, studying how a broken piece of a wall was constructed, imagining it without the splinters. He looked to the rest of the wall, which was intact, and figured he could make a piece patched in to fix the gap.

“Oh, hello Caeda.” He smiled at her, lap full of the broken piece he’d just taken off. “The wall needs quite a bit right here, but we can probably get it done within the day. I figure that replacing what’s been broken can be fitted over like a patch and then nailed in, or maybe we just go bit by bit?”

His hands stayed busy as he chatted, sorting what was salvageable from what was only suitable for kindling.

“It’s kind of nice, having something to do that isn’t all battle.”

[ofdusk]

farming simulator

Help out with chores in the village [Max 2 muses per thread] - Tending fields, mending clothes, drying herbs, etc.  - Gains 1 point for public opinion for every 1 post - Chance to gain information every 5 posts @fabledoath

It’s hot. 

Sweat beads at her forehead, daring to run down her temples. She has already tied her hair back in a futile effort to help her case, but it does precious little against the heat of the mid afternoon sun through the village’s glass ceiling. It’s probably worse outside, but it all this movement doesn’t help.

Corrin fists her hand around a clump of weeds, yanking it up with a grunt. They have been placed in a field of crops she only sort of recognizes -- there are few harvests in Nohr, and even fewer fields on which to do so -- that spans on for a good mile.

She wipes her brow, tossing the pile of roots into an empty wheelbarrow and turning towards her current company. He’s a student she recognizes from the campfire, though the similarly distrusting looks that he receives from the other workers would have told her that too.

“Can you pass me that watering can?” Not that she knew properly what to do with one until twenty minutes ago. “This chunk looks untouched.”

[ulircursed]

for forever

Patrol your companions’ quarters [Max 4 muses per thread] - Restore 1HP to houses per post - Can now talk to Mairenn during this task

     Even looking still as death, Edain’s hands are still warm when he grasps them.

     That unchanging fact keeps Andrei’s anxiety at bay as the weeks bleed into one another without a single sign that their allies are close to waking up, while the outside world around them is met with one trouble after another. At the very least, inexplicable injuries notwithstanding, all of their allies are still breathing, though that is small comfort given the circumstances. Despite making a conscious effort to spread his patrolling among the four houses in somewhat equal measure, he cannot help but return to this house, this room, more often than any other.

     (He’d promised to try and keep her safe.)

     And it is here that he stands again, after yet another night of exhausting battle, after the chief had seen them making their usual patrols to check on their companions (they weren’t wounded by outside forces last time; what could they possibly do against a power beyond their reach?) and made a cryptic offer, one that loops endlessly in his mind, even now.

     Be with them forever, peacefully and happily, in a world free of pain...

     ...Why wouldn’t he want that? A world without all this pain and bloodshed. A world with Lady Sister, and Father and Edain, and whomever else each of them would choose to complete their family, without a single one lost. A world where conspiracy and the greed for power never touched any part of Grannvale.

     A world where he’d never had the choice to tear his family apart.

     “You’d want it too, wouldn’t you, Sister?” Andrei asks the sleeping figure before him, doing nothing to hide his desperate, anguished expression in a room without waking, judging eyes. His hand trembles in hers. “Even if it’s only a dream... If it’s one where nothing had gone wrong... Wouldn’t we all be happier for it?”

     He isn’t sure how long he stands there in silence, as though awaiting, begging for an answer, before he startles at the sound of the door behind him being pushed open. Hastily withdrawing his hand, Andrei turns, blinking at the familiar face that appears through the entrance.

     “Ah... Lady Caeda,” he greets, not quite meeting her gaze, for fear his thoughts might be laid entirely bare to anyone who sees him, “You— you are here on patrol as well, I take it?”

@arcaeda

[fabledoath]

A Hoonter must Hoont

Starter for @lionsword

It's dead silent.

Ashe did think it's a bit of a shame that they had to do this knowing the villagers don't like it, but what is there to do otherwise? They needed at least a bit of protein... The question he'd asked himself a couple weeks ago comes back to him. How did the villagers even manage?

Though, maybe this week Ashe is starting to get an idea. He may still be wrong, but if the villagers aren't eating anything... Don't they need to? If they don't, that answers why they don't need meat, but... how does that work exactly? And also, then what are all the fields for?

It's no use. The more you learn, the less you know.

But back on topic...

Ashe finally speaks up after a couple of minutes of searching. He keeps his voice quiet, as to not alert any prey... not that there seems to be any in sight. Like at all.

"... I haven't gone hunting here before, but it's awfully empty, isn't it? Is this normal? Obviously I didn't expect to just look and see an animal instantly, but I can't even hear a bird. I know we've only been here for a few minutes, but... It's eerie, almost."

[ashenprofessor]

Chop, Chop. Get to it

starter for @diadic

Assist with chopping wood [Max 2 muses per thread] - Gains 1 point for public opinion per post - Gains 1 bundle of timber per post - Axe rank grants multiplier for thread [C or higher = 2x yield]

It felt good to leave the oppressive vibes of the village to walk in the calm shade of the surrounding wood. The trees were dense and impressive in size. Granted  an axe by one of the village woodsman, Byleth and Lief were sent to aid with the maintenance of the village. 

“Done much tree felling before?” Byleth enquires. They somehow couldn’t imagine a young royal having much in the way of experience with tasks typically done by their subjects. Then again, from what they knew of Leif, he wasn’t a typical royal. The former mercenary wouldn’t be surprised if they were in fact an expert woodman. 

“Not what I expected when finding out we were on guard duty. However, I suppose that improving the defences if the village will make our job simpler” Gazing at the nearby trees, Byleth looked for a suitable candidate for felling. “Which tree should we start with?”

[lockpicnic]

fruit salad (yummy yummy)

Forage in the forest outside of the village [Max 4 muses per thread]

- Receive 1 basket of random resource (berries, nuts, mushrooms, herbs, flowers) per post

- Low public opinion increases chance of unknowingly gathering something poisonous

@asphuxia @litaum

“This way! I bet’cha somethin’ real tasty is waitin’ for us just down this path!” The thief wasn’t really sure why the church wouldn’t just give them resources to use or even share with the village, but she wasn’t going to complain about getting to stretch her legs and eat whatever she could find! “I’m real good at livin’ off of nothin’, ya know? So I’m suuure we’ll be fine!”

She wanders deep into the forrest, only occasionally looking over her shoulder to make sure that they were still following her and hadn’t decided to ditch her. The two seemed nice enough, though she knew that sometimes she was a bit too reckless for most people’s tastes, but she liked to see it as…her knowing how to live! Or even on how to get things done in a very quick and efficient way!

Once they’re deep enough, the trees hiding the village which they had just come from, Patty drops to her knees and starts rummaging through the first, very obviously empty bush she sees. “Have you two every gone berry pickin’ before? Not that it’s hard, ya know? But it helps to know the difference between what ya can eat and what’cha can’t! One time, back home, I ate this weird lookin’ fruit I found— guess what!? It was a bug! But that probably won’t happen this time.”

Oh dear.