NPC Interaction: Gwion

[isleofnpcs]

🧙 WHO: Gwion and interested parties
⚔️️ WHAT: Gwion just sent out a text message warning of trouble for King Arthur's party
🕒 WHEN: July 23rd (forward dated)
🗺️ WHERE: A bar in Celliwig
⚠️ WARNINGS: Alcohol

[ Anyone who comes seeking Gwion will find her at the bar... Frustratedly challenging other Celliwig barhoppers to arm wrestling. She's doing pretty good, and it's distracting her from not knowing whether or not anyone's actually going to show up to help. She definitely can't get past a legendary guardian('s great great grandchild) on her own. ]

Comments

[roseeclair]

[While the post definitely seemed urgent- and Makoto definitely feels some responsibility, given her recently bestowed titles- for once, she decides she needs more information before rushing into a potential trap (or at least potential incident). Her eyes widen at the woman arm wrestling away, but not for long... in fact, her expression is a focused smirk as she approaches the table.]

Mind if I have the next match?

[Who knows, maybe she knows something about that network post. And if not, this might at least make her visible to the one who did.]

[isleofnpcs]

[ Gwion's strong, but certainly not impossibly so. She'll enjoy a good competition with Makoto. ]

You're a little young for a bar. Take a seat.

[ That she's young means she means business. Gwion knows better than any that destiny doesn't care how old you are. ]

[roseeclair]

[Indeed she shall with a nod and "thanks," promptly putting her arm down on the table. Ready when Gwion is.]

Normally yeah... but I think I'm supposed to meet someone here. You wouldn't happen to know anyone named "Gwion," would you?

[... Okay look, no one ever said Makoto wasn't blunt as a hammer with intel gathering.]

[isleofnpcs]

[ She takes her hand, elbow on the table, and some random person who's decided he is the referee yells to begin so Gwion begins to apply force immediately against Makoto's arm. ]

You're talking to me.

[roseeclair]

[Makoto's only a split-second slower to apply her own force; she may not have her Jovian strength here, but she's still strong for her age, and she's been practicing to keep it up.

Her eyes light up at feeling Gwion put up a good fight, even more so as Gwion confirms her search is over.]

Ah, nice! Makoto Kino! Okay so... can you talk about that text here, or somewhere private?

[At least she has enough tact to know right in the middle of a decently crowded bar might not be the ideal spot for a possibly delicate discussion.]

[isleofnpcs]

Nothing private about it. So, I know seers can't actually see anything right now, so I sound like a crazy person, but I was the original seer. I wasn't born with the ability--

[ She tries to push harder against Makoto, her voice straining a little as she does. Her big push will last about 6 seconds. If Makoto maintains, she'll drop her grip to slightly lower than it was before the push. ]

I was tricked by a witch into stirring the cauldron of time, got some on my skin and saw everything that ever was or ever would be. There was a big blackout in my memory on everything that could be two weeks before the Calamity, but sometimes I get fragments of memories in my dreams.

[roseeclair]

[If Makoto's nothing else, it's relentless. While she can strategize if she has to, her main fighting style is pushing hard and fast with magic and might. It's only less so here, she doesn't let up at all during those six seconds, so she's able to push Gwion down a bit as they talk.

Not by much though... she's a bit busy absorbing that big a lore drop, but after a few seconds of silence, she nods.]

Okay, weird but makes some sense. [One of her sisters-in-arms is the Guardian of Time, after all, not to mention Rei and Michiru's own clairvoyance.] So what did you see with King Arthur?

[isleofnpcs]

Mirrors infinitely reflecting into each other, Arthur standing alone. Merlin is trapped inside the mirrors. There's a strange unearthly glow to the mirrors. Arthur turns around and his eyes are not his own.

[ It's honestly not much. But it was a dreamed memory of something she'd once seen. ]

And a few signs of other things that happened this morning that tell me it's today. A bird on a window sill, an argument of the neighbors, that weasel that delayed the start of the tournament because it wouldn't get off the field. Stuff like that.

[roseeclair]

That... really doesn't sound good.

[With her vision, Gwion probably knows a little about how the senshi have had a bad time with mirror magic. ... But they also have a little experience with acting on a prophecy in haste. Uranus and Neptune so set on killing Hotaru when it left them near-blind to a different evil. And Makoto's been lured into quite a few traps on kind words... Makoto's arm eases in pressure, but not fully relenting.]

You seem honest... And Celliwig is about balance, good and evil... but why would they do this? Wouldn't they have tried to make a move sooner, tried to lure us in, instead of trying to shut us out? Or kept us shut out if this is just about them being unhappy we're here?

[isleofnpcs]

I don't know that it's Celliwig doing it. Glewlywd's an old fart and stubborn as can be, but he's not a bad guy. I've been living here for years, this place looks unearthly, but the people are warm, kind. This unearthly glow was cold and angry.

[ She didn't really know what it was, honestly, besides dangerous. Gwion's nearly pinned to the table from Makoto's previous force and manages to push back just a little bit when she eases in pressure, but ultimately ends up giving in and allowing her hand to be pinned. Her arm is tired. ]

[roseeclair]

[Ah! Makoto almost blinks at hearing their hands hit the table, that's how engrossed she was in the conversation. (Okay, and maybe a little pleased that she's still got it, especially against someone as skilled as Gwion seems to be.)

She looks at Gwion a long moment. The woman is straightforward, even blunt... but she can feel real warmth in her evaluation of the people of Celliwig. And if this was a trick, wouldn't the easy route be to pin this on them? (Besides, this match proved that Makoto might be able to take her if it does go south, her and the dozens of other otherworlders here for the tournament.) A firm nod.]

Alright, I believe you. [She changes the grip on Gwion's hand to offer a handshake.] And you've got a hell of an arm.

[isleofnpcs]

[ She lets out a laugh when she comments on her arm and shakes Makoto's hand. ]

Hearing that from you's a compliment. We'll have a rematch sometime, yeah? Listen, getting past Glewlywd's going to be a task. He's way stronger than I am. Bring friends.

[roseeclair]

[A terse nod.]

I'll try. I doubt I'm the only one who'll want to check this out. [Hm...] Trying to think of a way to get around him without fighting... or at least distracting him...

[Alas, she's not the main strategist of the senshi. (And also that's probably for the mods to know and her to find out...?)]

[isleofnpcs]

Thanks, Makoto Kino.

[ She'll remember her name should they succeed. ]