open ⚡ step into the rainbow

[sparkstrikes]

🧙 WHO: Lightning Farron & YOU
⚔️️ WHAT: April catch-all, quests and stuff
🕒 WHEN: When the threads happen
🗺️ WHERE: Where the threads happen
⚠️ WARNINGS: N/A


THE LIBRYRINTH (try typing that five times fast)

[This may be Lightning's first time descending through the Libryrinth, but this isn't her first rodeo. She's had to deal with all sorts of head scratching puzzles that served no other purpose than to slow her down, but it's thanks to the efforts of the previous group that they are able to explore further into the library. She'd heard some of the stories on the way down, like how it involved a maze, and how they weren't able to find a way past the monsters dwelling inside, but with more experience and more people, it should prove to be much more of a breeze.

Right?

Down into the sewers she goes, sticking close to whoever has come down with her as they pass the iron doors. Empty, empty, empty... She wonders if this is where the so-called monsters were kept, and why they became so aggressive. Whoever owns this place clearly has no mercy for whatever is being held beneath the library.

There's a splash as her feet step into a small puddle, and Lightning stops, feeling something brush up against her leg. With you being the only other person with her, she turns, the wrinkles in her frown only made deeper in the shadows.]

Hey. Back off a little.

[ ... Except she's not even remotely close enough for there to have been that sort of contact.]

SALACIOUS SAILORS

[How Lightning came across this job is anyone's guess—whether it was via the dark web or word of mouth—but after hearing the prize money for kidnapping this stupid pirate captain? It didn't take much (nothing at all, really) to convince her to go after him. Even the 500,000G for kidnapping him from the party would be enough for her to make a decent living around here, someplace small and quiet, exactly how she prefers it.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20.

What she didn't expect when she picked up the job is to be surrounded by drunken pirates in a tiny club. She really should have known better... and if it weren't for the need to be completely inconspicuous and not draw attention to herself, she would have smashed her tankard over their heads. Alas, such is not the case here and she has to keep as low a profile as possible, which is tough when you're (one of?) the only women in the club.

Pirates are bumping into her left and right, and some get a little too close for comfort when they spot her pink waves under the sailor hat, leaning into her with their breaths reeking of booze, so drunk that they're almost spilling their beer all over her. This costume is ridiculous enough, she doesn't need it to smell like terrible, cheap beer on top of it.

She's in a particularly tight spot when three pirates join her at her corner table in the back, all of them too tall and large to allow her any room to leave, and they're speaking in slurred words that she can hardly understand and won't listen to. When she tries to slide out, one will be there to stop her... and if no one comes to help get her out of this bind quick, there's going to be a bar fight that will compromise the entire mission... for her and anyone else who may also be searching for Enrico Ravenbird.

So... help a girl out?? For that 500,000G?]

DOPPELGANGER

[It's been one hell of a day. First, Lightning has to try and blow some vines apart to rescue someone from them, then she almost gets caught in them herself, and now? This is just the spiteful cherry on top at this point.

She knew she was being watched and followed from the moment she arrived back inside Camelot's city limits. There was that pricking feeling along the back of her neck, and that sense of dread in the pit of her stomach, but she kept moving, pretending like nothing was wrong in the hopes that whoever this was, they'd mess up and she'd have the opportunity to seize the upper hand.

But that opportunity never came.

Instead, what did come was a swift kick from above, and she manages to catch it by only a second. Their footsteps were quiet, but it was the sound of magic that gave them away, and the sound of wind resistance as they barreled down from the sky. She hardly has the chance to sneak in a glimpse before she's attacked again, and again, and again. It feels oddly familiar, this fighting style—they move in unison: when one throws a punch with the left, the other blocks with the right. It's not until she sees the pink head of hair that she falters.]

Serah...?

[It can't—BOOM. The kick to Lightning's stomach is hard, and it sends her flying, reeling back into an innocent passerby. There was a blast of magic that came with it, bursts of sparks blinding her before she can get a good look at the face. Sorry, unless you can step out of the way fast enough, you're about to get body slammed!]

TRAINING GROUNDS

[Lightning has spent enough time at the training grounds since her arrival that she's become known among many of the regular knights who come and go... mostly as the woman who prefers to train alone with the "gun sword". Some have asked for the honour of a duel, after the show she and Cloud had put on a month ago, but she's had to turn each and every one of them down. Most times, it's because their fighting styles wouldn't mesh, but this time, she has another reason:

She hasn't brought her sword with her. Lightning is hardly the type to leave it behind by choice, but she doesn't need it for what she's training for today... she hopes.

Rather than swinging her sword on the mats, practicing her movements, she's on a bench hunched over a book. A rare sight indeed. Her lips move as she scans over the words on the page, and then she pauses every now and then to attempt a spell—hand out in front of her, fingers spread, and sometimes, she's only mildly successful, drawing a spark and nothing more, and other times...]

Shit. Heads up!

[Lightning loses control of what is supposed to be a simple healing spell, and it explodes in all directions, sending magic flying in a small radius around her. Anyone who happens to be near is at risk of being hit, but worry not—it's only a healing spell gone sideways!

Maybe.]

WILDCARD

None of these strike your fancy? Wanna drag her to a different quest? Feel free to leave something else below and I will roll with it, or if you'd like to plot something out, you can reach me via PM or at crystariums. I'm happy to write closed starters, too!