Astrophel Argentum/Events

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General description of Astrophel's contributions on any events hosted throughout Castrella's timeline. These encompass the Discord-hosted events hosted by Guild Administration.

Phoenix Fest 1230

Astrophel was essentially on call during the entire festival, running around healing minor burns, scrapped knees of children who stumbled around in their excitement, hangover drunks who had one too many drinks and... people who swear they ate lava?

Among those injuried is Nyx, the sheep kindred who he meet after she broke her arm in a arm wrestling match against Selena ("Who in their right mind would arm wrestle a damn dragon?"). Surprisingly, she wasn't put off by his personality and now seems to pop by the medical wing with scrapes for him to treat and to boist about her latest battles.

This is also how Phel found himself visiting the Sugar Cube Booth, manned by Bunny, after Nyx had left the medical wing and forgotten to take her painkillers. He had heard about the Sugarbuns Patisserie before, hard not to when people come out of the establishment singing it praises like they just got server actual sugary ambrosia, but he hadn't visited it. That is until the Phoenix Festival. He keeps hearing about this "cinnabomb challenge", and after one too many people come in asking for medical attention with red faces and tears in their eyes because they swear they can feel their stomachs melting, he decides to take a moment to check if this treat is as spicy as they say it is. He ends up buying half a dozen of your cinnabombs and a dozen of other pastries, the sweet pastries he takes as a gift to the other Contingency Division members. Maybe he'll visit again, if the spicy treats stay on the menu...

Astrophel also found himself helping Valhalla Project's very own Phoenix Festival. He was generally just a helping hand for whaterver task the siblings threw at him and stayed on duty in case of any accidents, he also brings mutiple bottles of spiced mead from Tírr to share. Thankfully, the event went without a hitch and the kids surprisingly took a liking to him? Especially Fovelly who, due to her propensity to stumble over herself, had Phel hanging aroud her making sure she didn't get hurt and getting many piggyback rides. The twins Pollux and Castor also enjoyed messing around with him, trying to catch his tail and snatch his rings until they got snacks. By the end of the event he recieved a handmade dreamcatcher which he now keeps safely tucked near his bed.

If he sneaked in a hefty donation while everyone is busy nobody has to know.

While he didn't take part on the subjugation of Loco Motion, he offered to treat whoever was injured in the aftermath. Ella, who got a nose bleed, and Ruairi, who got multiple scrapes during the fight, took him up on this offer. Both had no lasting injuries and will make a quick and full recovery.

As the festival started to wind down he stumble across the Weary Dream's Pop Up Booth, manned by Suhaan, where the beautiful shine of the "A Drop of Ichor's Flame" earrings caught his eye. He bought a pair that he would send to his mother back a home, together with a letter recounting the event to his parents.

Dream catcher recieved by participating in the Valhala Phoenix Festival.

Phel carrying around Fovelly during the Phoenix Fest.

Phel treating Ruru injuries after the Loco Motion subjugation.

Gourd Fest 1230

When Alula sent a request for assistance to the Guild after a Pitfall dungeon appeared in its territory Astrophel already knew he was going to be sent out for it, especially since Jaina decided to brave it as her first dungeon.

After getting all the provisions ready, he meets with Jaina and Hyalt who were already going together and once they try to find transportation they end up paired with Mauriell and Selena, who are also going to the dungeon. Together they make one weird little party as they travel.

Once they reach the dungeon in Alula, Phel follows the Hall of Tragedy path. It’s an arduous task to maintain his teammates healthy while the dungeon influence’s try to chip away at their mental state, but Jaina's presence helps ground him and Phel manages to stay steady through it. Except in the group’s last confrontation against the boss of the dungeon, where Jaina, with the help of Hyalt, comes up with a maneuver to do significant damage to the boss but ends up getting flung in the air and crashing against the ground in the process. This sends Astrophel into a terrified fatherly rampage as he tries to get to her, blinded by fear he snaps at anyone trying to get close to the unconscious woman and even ends up hurting Mauriell during it. He spends the rest of the time inside the dungeon trying to stabilize Jaina and get her to wake up, the only thing he takes as loot from the dungeon is a single silver shoulder pauldron for Jaina.

After the dungeon he heals his teammates and waits for Jaina to wake up; which thankfully she does. The remainder of his time in Alula is spent agonizing over the dungeon’s events in guilty silence, he misses a majority of Whisperween celebrations as he instead chooses to rest together with Jaina. If asked why he was so quiet he simply chalks it up to his injured throat.

Suffice to say his experience with the dungeon was very terrible; the doctor feels like he didn’t enact his role as healer and shield as well as he could have and that he let his teammates down most of the time. He feels especially terrible at letting Jaina get as badly hurt as she did and was honestly terrified at how easily he could have lost her.

However, one question stuck to his mind even after leaving the dungeon: when fighting against their reflections, why did his look exactly the same when everyone else’s didn’t?

…Or did it…?

Sundance 1230

As the end of the year draws near and the celebrations of Sundance begin, Phel wraps up most of the loose ends related to his job before taking some much needed time off so he can properly enjoy the holiday’s festivities.

Phel had already been preparing himself for them, specifically the exchange of wish tags. Drafts for those were written long before the festival even started so he could have his thoughts in order and be able to deliver them all in time. Every friend or coworker Phel has interacted with received one, but most notably are the ones he wrote for Ruairi, Maya, Megumi, Jaina and Nine.

He takes the opportunity to go all out dressing himself up in pretty soft whites, deep dark blues and shimmering silvers like the moon itself. Besides the obvious wandering around the brightly decorated streets, browsing food stalls and all the merchants' wares, what Phel looked forward the most were the dances; something he always enjoys but has few chances to actually do.

Thankfully he was able to dance to his heart’s content, be it friends, coworkers or even strangers – if he was asked to, he gladly accepted the invitation. However, there were two dances he enjoyed the most. With Jaina it was a given. A cheery song for family where they spun around each other, the clinking of their silver accessories mixing with the joy of their laugh to create its own particular symphony. And once the song comes to an end and Jaina's smile is as radiant as the sun and the moon, he can’t help but think how proud of her he is. But with Nine it was a surprise. Phel had convinced himself the man wouldn’t be one to enjoy the festivities and had foregone even trying to invite him at all; perhaps being more scared of simply being rejected by Nine than he’d like to admit. Seeing him right there illuminated by the streetlights and garbed in fancy long robes he hadn’t ever seen the man wear before was enough to knock the air out of his lungs. Somehow Phel manages to get his brain working again so he can ask Nine for a dance, and despite stumbling into each other a bit – who knew Nine didn’t know how to dance – it manages to be the most fun he’s had dancing in a while.. They go back to the kindred’s dorm together. Phel’s and Alex’s relationship grows even closer.

The year comes to a close and he can say for certain that, despite every struggle, it was a good one.

Wishtag for Ruairi.

Wishtag for Maya.

Wishtag for Megumi.

Wishtag for Jaina.

Wishtag for Nine.

Phoenix Fest 1231

Similarly to the past year, Astrophel spends most of the festival on call, wandering the streets of Eversun while keeping out an eye for any sort of burns, injuries or cases of dehydration that are bound to happen during the festivities. His breaks and free days are spent browsing the many stalls, tasting foods from different vendors and, most of all, away from all the fire and smoke so his sensitive eyes and nose can catch a break too, often together with a friend or one of the members of his family.

At one point during the event Astrophel accompanied his partner Nine while he went to meet with his daughter for the first time in years. This had been something he had encouraged Nine to try since the man had trusted to tell him about it and his feelings of regret and guilt over the way he disappeared from her life so suddenly. Phel had advised him to reach out to Nine's ex, Felicity, in hopes that he could maybe attempt to mend their relationship — because at least trying is better than doing nothing at all. Sometime before Phoenix Fest the three of them met and, after a rough start and difficultly honest conversations, Felicity agreed to let Nine try to be in his daughter's life again, albeit slowly and carefully.

The meeting with Aurora goes... surprisingly well? It's awkward and nerve-wracking — more to Nine than to him — but the four of them have a pleasant time and Aurora smiles by the end of it, so Phel will take that as a win. He feels immensely proud of his partner and he hopes their relationship can slowly develop. Deep down in a way so subtle not even he notices, Astrophel starts to grow fond of the girl too.

St. Cleo's Day

The holiday commemorating the first adventurer and her party it's something Astrophel takes part of too greatly simply because he doesn't see himself too much as an adventurer, preferring more to wander around visiting different booths to see what his fellow guild members have organized and taking a peek however brief at their large array of interests — creativity, passion and curiosity are things he will always support in whatever little ways he can.

It's what drives him to visit the many booths such as Behind the Communicator, set up by Helia and Nelly, which sparks his curiosity since he has had first hand experience with the radios utilized by the Outerworld Division and he has always wish such technology would ever reach the hands of the commonfolk and allow for communication between even greater distances — perhaps this is his usual homesickness talking. While a lot of the more technical details of the machine are completely lost to him, Phel is happy to hear long-distance communication is something being worked on and he lets himself hope he'll be able to use one of those someday. Wayfarers' Survival Guide is another booth that he visits, mainly for the sake of supporting Ruairi. Since he works closely with wayfarers' on the daily, Phel takes the opportunity to listen how they deal with certain situations in hopes of expanding his knowledge and possibly improving the support he's able to provide them on the field. Maybe he also wants the carved charm as souvenir but who could blame him?

Astrophel ends up catching sight of a booth that, quite frankly, feels like a hazard with all its poor woodwork, nails sticking out and dilapidated build, he has no idea how it hasn't fallen apart yet. It's called Mirage needs YOU! and he has no idea what a Mirage is or why it needs him but at this point he thinks it just needs him to make sure nobody get tetanus by going anywhere near the thing. Big mistake, because the booth owners, the twins Clover and River, latch onto him and talk his ears off about their organization's great deeds and objectives. Phel is not really sure what to make of it, but if listening to a very long spiel about Mirage is all that it takes for them to let him take care of those nails then he'll take it.

The two booths he pays particular attention to are the ones manned by his daughter and partner. He visits the Outerworld Division Information/Recruitment booth where he asks Jaina and Monica; who he still has a strained relationship with, but that's not the point; to convince him to join their Division. This is just his very weird tactic of supporting them, by poking holes in their reasoning so they can think even further and maybe pushing their buttons a little so he takes the brunt of whatever frustrations running a booth might have given them. At the end of the day he's very proud of them. In the Knives and Poison booth case, Phel mostly takes the opportunity to check if Nine and Freyja aren't giving the curious folk who come to poke at their booth free demonstrations of their craft — he doesn't question their sense of self preservation but he does not trust everybody else's. If he can learn a thing or two about knifes and poisons then he is also grateful for it. Astrophel only leaves those booths once he has manhandled their owners into taking a break, having lunch he brought and relaxing a little.

Only midway through the holiday does Astrophel actually set up a booth of his own, in collaboration with Nova they create Concussions & Concoctions: Field Medicine Guide. As stated in its name, this booth's main focus is so to explain how the healers who work on the field deal with injuries and all sorts of different conditions, how experience, quick thinking and cooperation between teammates and different Divisions are all important factors that are taken into account when providing medical assistance on the field. It also showcases how having a keen eye and understanding of the nature surrounding oneself are useful skills for anyone to have in case they might need to concoct remedies on field.

Out of all the many booths St. Cleo's Day has to offer, there is only one Astrophel vehemently refuses to even come close to: Loophole. Ari and Haladen are a nightmare duo he has no energy or patience to deal with at all.

Eversun's 200th Grand Gala

Moments of true time off like this where he isn't expected to be at the ready for sudden mission deployment are rare and Phel intended to make the most of it, dressing up, dancing and just enjoying himself among his peers. And while he did manage to get one dance with Odin, that is the only good thing that came out of that night.

It quickly too a chaotic turn when members of a so called 'Mirage' attacked the main ballroom with smoke bombs that he would later find out contained null powder, a aether weakening component. Rather than stick around and aid the harmed as his duty would have him do, Astrophel assess the situation as too dangerous and promptly grabs hold of his daughter Jaina, Megumi who was way to close to the stage when the bombs went off and Senti who had passed out from inhaling too much of the smoke. He guides them all into the training grounds so he can properly access their conditions and turns the place into a makeshift infirmary, instructing adventurers and medical personnel alike to mitigate as much as the null powder's effect they could and setting up scouting teams to search for any injured that might be wandering the halls. With Nine's help they get access to water but whatever comfort the aid provided Phel is quicky extinguished when his partner takes up arms to pursue the members of 'Mirage', taking with him Jaina and whatever hope that Phel could lean on him during difficult times.

He doesn't let himself get stuck on that disappointment, instead he focuses all his energies into caring for the injured. Among the many affected he's able to help Kitori, Loretta, Senti, Megumi and, of course, Nine who ended up in a skirmish with one of the members of 'Mirage' and got caught in their traps, leaving him badly disoriented a with multiple burns. The disorientation wasn't cause by normal means but rather through a Cupid's magic, thankfully the mysterious Lady Radialy came to his aid to rid his partner of said magic. While Phel is most relieved to have Nine back where he can keep him safe, the same cannot be said for Jaina who Nine got separated from during the pursue and was now in unknown whereabouts. There is only so much he could do with limited supplies and with that in mind he resorts to reaching for resources wherever he can, which translates into breaking into Freyja's office in search of *anything* that could help mitigate the worse cases of null powder exposure. He ropes Haladen into helping him, technically so he could shove half the blame of an obvious crime onto the newly appointed headmaster's shoulders and, hopefully, keep his job. Who knows if that would work...

Leaving the training grounds infirmary under Manako's competent competent care, the two of them do find the answer to their problems in a mixture of herbs brewed into a tea. While Haladen rummage through Freyja's office, Phel took the chance to change and throw away his now damaged dress into the trash. Hoping to attach all the negative thoughts and feelings that swirled in his mind to a physical object and rid himself of the burden — it's a poor attempt at coping with everything that happened and most certainly will only work for a short amount of time. The supplies and newly brewed tea do reach their recipients, however rather than go back to the training grounds Astrophel runs through the halls of the castle in search of his daughter Jaina and only once she's found does he feel like he has enough room to breath again.

Slowly the night starts to wind down and the adrenaline that kept him up and functional crashes down *hard*, soon the effects of null powder exposure catches up to him, leaving him exhausted down to his bone marrow. That combines with overusing his aspect to treat the unwell leaves badly suffering with aether sickness — particularly affecting the mobility of his hands that were often in contact with water which, in combination with his aspect, essentially started to freeze them. He was *very* lucky he didn't work himself into aether burnout.

Now on sick leave until he has fully recovered both his aether and the full range of motion of his hands, Astrophel is left to pick apart his own thoughts and every moment of that night. Full of doubts about how safe the Guild really is, on who he can really rely on, his own skills and a whole lot of guilt...