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 Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2025 10:56 pm
The airship for the ladies that had landed at Winhill Manor was one of military might. Indeed it had been a unusual morning at the house of Sorcery. Their time to leave was before even morning light, and security had grown tight over night. Winhill SeeD were keeping media away from the house, off of the premises, away from the flying vehicle that was out front for the ladies.
Now each of them they had someone waiting in these early hours, for Nyale and Remington their flesh and blood mothers were waiting. Even if Nona seemed oddly anxious about seeing her own daughter again, she put on her best face but her last month managing this crisis had obviously taken it's toll. Lisanna seemed far fresher, indeed with what her daughter had accomplished last night of healing Maris where even her singular healing efforts had failed, she was proud of Nyale. She was really coming into her own, and Lis' extra efforts to restabilize Salem was already having clear effects.
At last there was Mr. Magic himself, Etamara's adoptive father. As well dressed as ever, he seemed to be losing some extent of his intensity that he had been using to keep himself together from becoming a monster. With his Knight restored, he was happy some of his contingencies were likely now wasted planning. But feeling his own nature relaxing, he knew he needed to teach the girls about Knighthood sooner than later. He found it a bit distasteful, that he would have to push them to either find a partner sooner than later, or be more temperamental and cautious in their active use of sorcery as Lisanna was.
____________________________________________________
The hum of engines filled the airship as the three sorceresses boarded with their guardians in tow. The crew — every uniform stamped with Unita's sigil — moved briskly through their tasks. There was no hesitation, no chatter; each SeeD was trained, disciplined, and made it their business to get the vessel off the ground without delay. Within minutes, the airship cut across the sky toward Eden City, its prow aimed like a spearpoint.
Nona stood stiffly near the command console, posture sharp but her eyes betraying her discomfort. So she pushed the awkwardness down and forced the mask of President into place, her voice measured, professional.
“The S3 Team has been contracted by Eden City to investigate — and, if possible, stabilize — a temporal anomaly at the city’s center. This site is known as the Empty Promenade.”
She held each of the girls’ gazes in turn as she passed them manila folders, the edges stuffed with field reports, monster scans, and grainy photos. The documentation was thick with annotation, tactical breakdowns, and incident reports.
“From the outside, the Promenade appears as a ten-minute time loop: the opening beats of the Fall, played endlessly. But the interior…” She hesitated, then forced her voice steady. “…is considerably more complicated. Expect time corruption. Expect hostile doppelgängers. Expect intrusions of history and memory that do not belong to you — or worse, versions of yourselves.” Nona paused at that line, her eyes lingering on her daughter for a moment. The reports would tell why, she already has had to deal with several duplicates of both Remington and Kalen. It weighed on her.
Inside the folders were red-marked profiles of the Echo’s manifestations: distorted doubles of known SeeD, corrupted Guardian Force apparitions, and notes on sudden “bleed events” where pieces of other timelines cut into Eden’s streets. Tactical schematics mapped the warped zones, including evacuation corridors in case of collapse.
Nona folded her hands behind her back, her expression professional to the point of severity. She was playing the role to keep herself together.
“You’ve all heard of these anomalies before, these echo sites held in check by anti-magic technology. But this one is different. It feeds. And I fear that if it is left unchecked, the loop will widen — and consume more than just the Promenade.”
The hum of the airship deepened as it accelerated, Eden’s skyline a faint glimmer on the horizon. This was when Salem cut in. "We will be off site as life lines, but I want you to understand something these files may not have made explicitly clear. The more memories you have, the more power, especially sorcery, the more these Echoes react to you. You three don't cause the same immediate problems as myself, Lisanna or even Kalay does. Girls, you're our best bet to to deal with this threat." For a moment his gaze lingered on Remington. "Your first delve will have a time limit of one hour, any longer and I'm coming in after you." He then took a moment. "Any questions?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2025 3:42 pm
 Remington Estellise La Faustina Nipal
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Stock: Cura (x2), Esuna (x3), Scan (x3)
Status: Trying to hold the world together
In the early hours of September the twenty-third, Rem Nipal hugged her mother tight. She could see the shifts in Nona’s hair, paling slowly toward grey even in her forties. See the worry lines worn into her forehead. Too many problems in the world. Not enough hours in the day.
Remington was starting to think she could change that.
—
Team S3 was on contract. Rem watched not her mother, but her commanding officer at the head of the passenger compartment. She mimicked Nona’s professional posture at her own seat while opening up her dossier. She read with rapid intensity, but every picture made her pause for study. Some of them were clear enough she could recognize the spot- the Promenade was in the heart of the city. It was…wrong. Even the best photos were at least subtly warped by the dilation of time, like trying to get a clear picture of a reflection in a rippling pond.
’-versions of yourselves.’
Rem looked up from her studies to find Nona eyeing her. In Rem’s lap was a photograph of Rem herself. Or…pretty sure it was her. Something was off about it all, more than just the visual distortion.
Manifestation L-04, observed 9/19
-Neutralized-
Just behind the page, another of Kalen. Or something very like Kalen.
She said nothing. Neither of them did. Nothing to say- it was all there in the report. So when Everett took the stage, Rem focused on him. Much as she could. She didn’t know of another time in history when three sorceresses had been set to a single task. Rem tried not to think about how their first combat zone was literally in the middle of everyone and everything she knew and loved. And, admit it or not, she saw Salem’s look, too. She tried to look certain.
Time to see if this team was worth an ice flan’s chances in Hell.
”You said that it…feeds,” she repeated her mother’s words, looking between Nona and Salem each. ”On what? Has it already grown?”
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The Princess
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Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2025 2:06 pm
I've got a river running right into you // I've got a blood trail, red in the blue
+----------------------------------+
L i s a n n a xxE v e r e t t
+----------------------------------------+
Something you say or something you do // A taste of the Divine
"In a manner, everything." Lisanna spoke, beginning to answer Remington's inquiry. "These echoes slowly grow when not hindered by our attempts at caging them with various Odine-related technologies, but they are always attempting to expand. They seem to prefer to attempt to absorb or trap biological creatures like monsters, animals or humans as material." The eldest wielder of sorcery closed her own packet of documents that she seemed to have been reading through while Nona and Salem had been conducting the briefing.
"The zone has grown, even with Nona's quarantine. The typical methodology for keeping an Echo bound has been less and less effective. But as Salem said, these things react to sorcery. We should be able to reduce, if not eliminate the echo once we can learn more about it, and wield our power against the source of whatever is causing this."You've got my body, flesh and bonexxxxxxxxxxxx
The sky above, the Earth below...xxxxx
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2025 8:55 pm
 Etamara Vilisantra Status: Tinnitus
Song of the moment: The Rumbling┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━═✥═━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ Given to sit in front of you; and close to himself sweetly to hear. The sound of you speaking. Your magical laughter, this I swear, batters my heart. My voice when I see you suddenly near, refuses to come. My tongue breaks up and a delicate fire runs through my flesh; I see not a thing with my eyes, and all that I hear in my ears is a hum. I kneel to you, in reverence and adoration like no other. The sweat runs down, a shuddering takes me in every part and pale as the drying grasses, then, I think I am near the moment of dying.
Pain. That was all she felt for a long while after leaving Maris's hospital chambers with Salem's words lingering on her mind. The praise she received felt somehow twisted to her, as if what she had done was bittersweet. She did not understand it. It was if she was an outsider staring inside the window of a family she did not know. The more she pondered about her relationship with her mentor, the more her heart ached in a way that was lonesome. All this time she had been so focused on her training, on the type of sorceress she could be, that in all that distraction, she truly knew very little about her mentor. The love he felt for Maris, made her wish that she could feel such a thing, not romantic, but of daughter embraced by a father.
As the coming day arrived, there seemed to be an air of silence emitting from Etamara, her mind wandering as her eyes lingered down at the many reporters and people there harassing the SeeD for answers over the political firestorm following Salem at the current moment. She could not predict any sort of outcome of what was going to happen this day. The longer she kept hearing the sounds of those reporters, and the constant bombardment of flashing cameras were like an agitation that just kept growing. She saw the politics, the way they attacked Salem, her family, everything they stood for. A ringing began to form in her ears, her vision blurring slightly as anger filled her lungs, her teeth gritting beneath that blank, cold stare.
How easy would it be to make them all...
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Her eyes lingered upon her door, her train of thought gone as she was taken out of her trance. She took in a deep breath, catching herself emotionally. Now was not the time to let herself express how she truly felt. A muse had to be beautiful, no matter how she felt inside. With a smile most believable, that she would have even convinced herself, she smiled to her master, greeted him with a kind tone, making note of his wellness since the return of his wife. She said very little after his arrival, instead playing it off as merely being tired, and it was partially true. She had yet to even get a good night of rest since the incident, the ringing hadn't stopped. It was like a scratch in her head that never went away, lightly agitating her, but otherwise negligable. Perhaps it was just lack of sleep that caused it, or maybe overexhertion to her magic? Either way, she felt no need to converse, merely smile softly as she sat aboard the airship, eyes closed as they made their way to Unita.
It was during this time aboard, that Nona began to pass out the files they needed to go over before they entered the empty promenade. Her eyes opened again to the folder, taking it and having a look over while Nona began to explain what was going on thus far with the echoes. To hear that the three of them were their best chance at sealing the echoes, normally would have brought some pride to the vain sorceress; who eagerly took any and all praises, yet, this somehow did not instill any sense of the word. Strangely, she had no idea how to feel about it. It was difficult to describe. Not fear, but somewhere between anxious and uncertainty. There was no security within that realm. Everything would be hostile and foreign to her, or maybe... a bit more personal than she would like. The reality of having to kill yourself from another time, seemed rather morbid. They didn't have a choice if they attacked, and she had no intention of giving them the opportunity to backstab her.
Then the question came of how would she keep track of the three? If they were to separate in the empty promenade by unfortunate luck, how would she distinguish between the two, and the same for her? Maybe her sorcery held the key to it. Something she'd have to ponder over while the group was closer to their destination. When the time for Salem to ask if there were any questions, Etamara pondered on what exactly she could have asked that wasn't already gone over in the briefing, but then she thought about all the events surrounding Unita and then a dreaded thought came to mind. "What would you have us do, if a third party interferes with us?" She asked.
"" ┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━═✥═━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
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Ellise Belmont Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2025 3:36 pm
 Salem Everett
Status: Watchful Mentor.
Location: Aboard the Carrier
____________________________________________________
Technically, it was not his place to answer.
"Your safety is the priority, ergo the final solution to any situation is up to your own judgement. But I would recommend elimination." "Salem!" Nona did not seem too pleased about his suggestion, but the man did not seem to regard her at all as he continued. "There should not be any third parties able to interfere."
Honestly with everything that has been going on, that was a contingency that Salem had not fully considered. He did not know about anyone or anything beyond the Unita forces experimenting with the Echoes, much less exploring them. Even with his spies deep into the B.I.E. or Galbadia or even Esthar had not reported back to him anything on this subject. However if there was a third party, if someone did interfere, well that would be deeply troubling.
"If there is a third party interrupting you, reconaissance is important. Gather information, and leave the Echo as quickly as possible. If there is a confrontation, killing the interlopers is likely the safest route in the long term." Now he gave another look to Nona. She frowned in response but did not say another word. She didn't want to acknowledge wholly what duties her daughter may be called to perform. Salem had a grimmer perspective. He knew he had already had to take a life long before any of the Sorceress Three. While in a perfect world they would not have to commit such a act, it far almost inevitable they would have to at some point.
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2025 12:44 pm
Remington Estellise La Faustina Nipal
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Stock: Cura (x2), Esuna (x3), Scan (x3)
Status: Trying to hold the world together
Rem sat in quiet reflection of her mother’s and teacher’s words.
…
”Understood.”
She drew Lied from its holster at her hip and pushed open the cylinder. Metal clinked as she pulled bullets from her belt. In they went, one at a time.
Clnk, tick
Clnk, tick
Clnk, tick
”If we end up encountering Echoes of ourselves, we should have a strategy,” she said in a lower voice, meant for Etamara who sat beside her. ”A code phrase might help; make sure we’re the…right ones.” She grimaced over the word and the ontological implications of this. Still, she was not dissuaded.
”‘Where were you September first?’ ‘I went to see I Want to be Your Canary.’” The name of a classic theater piece. She had heard Etamara playing its score weeks ago. She looked to Etamara, to see if she approved of the idea.
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The Princess
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