SW
Mustardblood
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Post by SW on Jul 9, 2015 2:21:58 GMT -5
Dahlia was at Page's side before she even realized she was moving. Some part of her was protesting; there was an ogre still alive, and it seemed tremendously imprudent to simply leave it to its own devices... but it certainly didn't seem like it was going anywhere, trapped as it was by what seemed to be unnaturally sturdy bars of ice. And so Dahlia knelt down to check on her temporary traveling companion. "Just what on earth was all that, anyway?" Dahlia chuckled to herself, quite certain this must all be a joke, and poked Page's shoulder lightly to rouse her. Except that it wasn't a joke, and there was no rousing. "...Page?" Dahlia grabbed Page's shoulder to shake her lightly -- and immediately withdrew her hand. The girl was unbelievably cold to the touch, shivering, and generally in a substantially worse state than Dahlia had expected upon her approach. This is bad. This is really, really bad. She glanced around to see if anyone could help, but the little blue lizards from before were all absent, or cowering in half-open doorways and quite uninterested in coming out just yet. Great. The world ends, I get stuck in a game where everything wants to kill me, and all the NPCs are completely useless too. Looks like it's true -- if you want something done right, do it yourself. Dahlia sighed and set about her work, going through her mental checklist. If there was one benefit to the Professor's ludicrous insistence on knowing nearly everything one could possibly be expected to know, it was that she knew what to do in a situation like this. Step one, check pulse and breathing. Good, still fine there. Doesn't change the fact that she's goddamn freezing. Step two, warmth. She stripped off her jacket and wrapped it around Page's shoulders, picking the smaller girl up in the process and holding her close to warm her... but that wouldn't be enough. Have to find something better... Ah, yes, that would do nicely. "Out of the way!" Dahlia shouted to anyone who could hear as she headed towards the largest house in the village, carrying Page in her arms, and quite literally kicked the door open. "You there! Tea, hot water, something warm, now. No, no, I don't care, and no. Explanations later, tea now. MOVE!" Dahlia simply steamrolled any protests of the two small blue lizards who were cowering inside the house to avoid the group of enemies attacking their village, sending them scurrying off into another room (presumably the kitchen) with her final shouted command. Lizards dispatched, Dahlia poked her head into the few other rooms in the house, locating what seemed to be a bedroom and heading inside. She deposited Page onto the bed (a rather archaic-looking thing, with a crudely-carved wood frame that seemed to be trying poorly to emulate traditional Victorian style, and a distinctly uncomfortable mattress), entirely unaware that she herself was panting from the exertion of dashing through the village carrying Page until she caught herself leaning against the bed and trying to catch her breath. But she wasn't done just yet. "I swear to God if any of you guys are watching this on your 'viewports' I am going to kill you and kill you and kill you." Dahlia grumbled to herself, addressing an invisible (and, fortunately for her, nonexistent) audience of her peers. "It's not what it looks like, really..." With a sigh, Dahlia kicked off her shoes and hopped onto the bed, and pulled Page into her arms as before. She wrapped the both of them in the blankets on the bed, held Page tightly, closed her eyes... and waited. ===> The first thing Page was cognizant of was the return of the headache from earlier, though fortunately not quite as splitting as before. Then, in the moments before she opened her eyes, the warmth and, bizarrely, the feeling of being held by someone. Her sleep-addled mind jumped to the first conclusion based on past experience: that her it was her father holding her, as he was wont to do sometimes as she slept. Yet these were not arms tempered and hardened by days of physical labor. This was a decidedly feminine figure. Eyes flashed open, her face began to closely resemble the color of a beet, and she whispered, like the tiny squeak of a mouse, "D-Dahlia...?" Dahlia's first thought was something to the effect of oh, finally. Her second thought was a bit closer to oh, shit as she suddenly remembered where she was and what she was doing. Face draining of what little color it normally possessed, she repeated her earlier statement in her best attempt at a nonchalant mumble. "It's not what it looks like, really." She did not, however, let go of Page just yet. On some level, this protective instinct rather deeply troubled her. On another, she was just glad to see Page awake and recovered. "I have no idea what you did back there, but apparently it involved magically climbing Mount Everest or something, because you were freezing. So I..." She tugged the blankets wrapped around them to indicate, while at the same time extricating herself from them to stand by the bed, tucking the blankets around Page again after she'd departed. One hand rubbing the back of her neck nervously, she glanced off to the side, out into the hall. "...er, yeah." "O-Oh... I see...I think." While the reddening of her face did not abate, nothing in her countenance showed anything but sincere belief. She slowly sat up, groaning slightly. Page felt like she had been a part of some bastard child of a marathon and a gym workout. Every muscle cried out in exhaustion, and the throbbing headache hardly helped matters. She cricked her neck to alleviate the cramp in there, and glanced back at Dahlia, a warm smile on her lips and sincerest appreciation in her bright, ice blue eyes. "Thank you...really" While Dahlia was nowhere near the face-reader Page was, even she could guess how Page was feeling, and it gave her a convenient out to avoid addressing Page's gratitude. "I had them make some tea, might help with that." She gestured vaguely to Page's neck and shoulders, then nodded to the still-warm teakettle sitting on the nightstand next to a small cup. "Warm up a bit, help work the stiffness out and such. Sorry if you're more of a coffee sort. At the very least, it smells decent. No promises though, it was made by some funny-looking little blue lizards." Dahlia grinned playfully at that. Page's gaze followed Dahlia's nod, and she began pouring herself a cup of tea. She took a large draught of it as soon as she could. The taste was stronger than she normally cared for--likely something of an acquired taste--but it soothed her throat going down and warmed her up somewhat. As she refilled her cup once again, Page began dredging up the memories of what happened before. "So they're all right, perhaps? That's good, really... I should thank them too later, of course." Another sip of the tea cup, and with her free hand she tried to summon up ice much as she had before. It was in vain, though. Whether due to her exhaustion or simply not being able to do it at all without the (unknown) help of an exile, the air around her didn't even so much as get colder. "...I have no idea what happened back there, I guess," she admitted with an embarrassed smile. "Thank them? Honestly, they should be thanking you. You saved them, with whatever it was you did." Dahlia was still as confused on the matter as Page was, or perhaps even moreso as she was not yet aware of Page's title and the elemental powers it implied, though she certainly had a good guess now. "As to what happened, in particular... I have no idea." She shrugged... then grinned, mostly to herself. Page probably wouldn't get the reference, but, well, too bad. "All I know is... out there... you were the law." Dahlia couldn't even make it through the sentence without snickering, and when finished, clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle a burst of laughter. "...." Far from either getting the reference or utterly missing it, those words, somewhere in Page, rang familiar. "That sounds...so familiar, sort of. Really familiar, I think." She chewed her lip thoughtfully for a few moments, attempting in vain to place it. "Is that from something I might have seen or read...?" Dahlia simply sighed and shook her head, then sat down on the edge of the bed, one arm around Page's shoulders, gesturing aimlessly with her other hand. "One of these days, kid, I'm going to have to introduce you to the wonders of cable television and the internet. It will likely be a harrowing experience, but you will come out the other side enlightened, jaded, and ruined for life." A long pause. "...Wait, all but one of those are terrible things. Scratch that, Plan B: getting back to stabbing imps. Also talking to the silly blue lizards, I suppose." She grinned and nudged Page's side with her elbow. "I bet they're all aflutter with excitement at the thought of meeting their hero and savior. Which is you, just in case we're taking notes here." Page smiled bashfully, the blush that had died down earlier now flaring up a bit once again. "B-But I don't even know what did that, really... I mean, I guess it has something to do with being the Page of Frost, but... I don't know; I don't know what did that and I don't think I could do it again, so I don't really deserve something like that, I think." "Page." Dahlia frowned pointedly, turning a stern gaze on her younger companion. "Need I remind you who you're talking to? I stab things. There was an imp in my room, and I stabbed it. Those ogres? I stabbed them. This is all I do. You?" She made a dramatic, upward-striking gesture with one hand. "You impaled an ogre on a tower of ice. And that was just the first thing you did. I don't know how you did it, and quite honestly I don't think they're going to care. You saved them, however you did it." Another sly grin. "I'd say it was incredibly cool, but I'm pretty sure that pun's too lame even for me." Page, despite herself, broke out into quite the giggle fit at the pun. The young girl had a weakness for "so bad it's good" puns, and that one, given the circumstances, was one of the best-worst possible. "Ow, ow, hurts to laugh, ow," she complained, clutching her sides, though the giggling did not deign to show mercy and continued unabated. As soon as she had conquered the vile giggles, the young Page of Frost (for she was truly starting to deserve that title, was she not?) stood up from the bed and stretched, standing on her tip-toes for a moment near the end of it. "So, um...I guess we should go see the blue lizards, I suppose?" Dahlia nodded. "Time to bring the people their Hero of Frost, then." She hopped up and hurried ahead of Page, leading her out to properly meet the village's residents for the first time. "Just try not to show me up too badly out there, alright?" She shot a quick grin over her shoulder to Page, and vanished out the door.
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 2:38:14 GMT -5
((Ripcord's post)) ===> ===> ===> As the sharp crack of splintering wood and broken glass echoes through your server player's house, you begin to count down the few seconds you have left in this life. For a wonder, she doesn't come in like the wrath of some un-caring god. Instead, she comes in looking vaguely disoriented and carrying a... Is that a cat? That is a cat. "Uh..." Three, two, one... " You just broke my window." She sounds curiously detached. The purring might be helping with that... Or possibly the robomomsprite glaring at her from across the room. "Right." Zach tried to climb to his feet, but as he pushed himself up there was a loud *pop* from his wrist followed by HORRIBLE SEARING PAIN. He collapsed back onto the floor. SONOFABITCH. "I can OW fix that..." She raised an eyebrow, putting the cat down and coming over. " What'd you do, dumbass?" "I don't know." He flopped onto his back, trying not to hurt himself more as he did. "It's broken or sprained or something but I'm fine and I can fix the window." For some reason, he felt hot all of a sudden. "Do you smell something burning?" " ..." She walks out of the room, returning with a bucket full of water which is promptly thrown over him. " Right. Lore'd kill me if I don't take care of that." Zach pulled his right hand free from the rocket glove it was encased in, but didn't dare touch the injured one. Either Gita would have to get that or he'd have to cut the glove off with tools he didn't have. Doing it on his own would just make the pain worse, and he was fighting back tears as it was. "Rrgh, probably. Do you know how?" " Basically. C'mon you." She walks over to him, offering him a hand up. " Just try not to move it too much." She guides him into the kitchen, pulling a pair of bandage-cutting scissors out of a drawer. He took a seat at the kitchen table and laid his arm out in front of him, chewing on his sleeve as his wrist continued to throb. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the familiar robosprite leering at them. He waved at it nervously. "Is it going to taze me?" " Probably not. Only if you piss her off. Hold still." She cut the other glove off as quickly as she could, then got some tylenol out of a bottle on the table. A glass of water's put in front of him next. " S'gonna hurt like a bitch." Zach replied with a resigned "Awesome." and gritted his teeth. "Ready when you are." Gita got her first aid kit - nearly the size of her torso what the fuck - out, setting it on the table and getting out the splint. She quickly set his wrist, ignoring any screaming or attempted flailing as she wrapped it tightly. " Take your tylenol." Zach swiped the bottle without hesitation and chugged a third of it. Half of that, he spewed back onto the table, coughing loudly. "GAH. They weren't kidding, that stuff tastes like piss." He grabbed a stray napkin to mop up the mess, smiling in a way that said 'i'm sorry please don't kill me'. "...Thanks." " There's a reason I only put two out fucknuts." She told him flatly. "Yeah, I'll try to remember that if I ever use the stuff again. So, uh... I should go change. And then fix that window, and then probably leave. Right?" " Changin's probly a good idea. I'll just get AT t'fix it later." She waves that much off. " After that, y'should get outta here, yeah, dunno how long this goodwill's gonna last." She grins maniacally at him. Zach simply stood up from his seat and backed away slowly. "Right yes good idea where's the alchemiter I should go there right now." She doesn't drop the psychotic grin. " Right there in the hall." She points. He all but sprinted to the hallway. "Okay see you later have fun not killing me" Zach almost tripped over the alchemiter on the way, having been too busy watching his own back. Why did I even come here? I don't have enough grist for anything, I don't need to make clothes, and I don't have any ideas... Except I do have an idea. In an apparent fit of stupididty, Zach took a screwdriver from his inventory and went to work removing a nearby door, out of Gita's sight. Meanwhile, Gita is going through the fridge and deciding what to make, since she essentially skipped breakfast. Zach took note of the door's captcha code and dumped it back out, propping it up against the doorframe as he tried to think of some way to put it back in. In the kitchen, some underlings are stupid enough to pester the crazy chick. Who promptly goes on a stabbing spree. Shrieking underlings everywhere. ===> What was thatMore of them?Zach picked up the anti-creep stick and ran for the kitchen. ===> ===> " AUGH!" Zach ignored the scream and brought his bat down on the squirming creature's neck. *CRACK* GRIST GRIST EVERYWHERE. ===> He spun around to see what was left of the group and spotted a lone chalk Imp running like fuck towards the nearest open window. As it tried to jump out, a flying bat nailed it in the back from halfway across the room. "Ha!" And now he has a dagger at his neck thanks to the crazy bitch. " Oh. It's you." She removes the dagger, spinning it expertly back into her strife deck, then pushes past him. What is he WEARING?! "...Yep." He watched her as she pushed by, still startled at how fast she'd had the knife at his throat. "They, uh, tried to attack me, too. One of them kicked a door in but I got him." AND THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED. NOT SOME BULLSHIT EXPERIMENT. " Riiiight." "Right." Zach walked over to the window to retrieve his bat and saw the same imp trying to pull himself out of a pile of ash on the ground outside. Eh. Chicken. Yes. Gita pulls a half-eaten rotisserie chicken out of the fridge. "And you're sure you don't want me to fix the window?" " Just go." "'Cause I have all I'd need to do it, and..." His voice trailed off before he could finish the sentence. Probably because Gita is quite calmly picking breastmeat off the chicken and eating it while she gets stuff for a salad out. Zach just hopped out of the window, quietly terrified. And thirsty. Supra had soda, right? ... Cookie dough. Time for some motherfuckin' COOKIES!! -- inaneFixation started pestering overtlyRhetorical -- IF: hey before you block me again i just need to know the code for your sodaOR: You're kIddIng me, rIght? You break Into my computer, look over all my shIt, connect to an alIen Internet wIthout askIng anyone anythIng, leave me alone In a conversatIon wIth your annoyIng frIend, brIng MY annoyIng frIends Into It,IF: yeah yeah whatever i just need a drinkOR: I WASN'T EVEN FINISHED TYPING YOU FUCK.IF: i can do that if i want.OR: ............................................................... OR: FIne. I gIve up. >Felett: What the hell are you doiOH. That is just wrong. Little bastard'll learn someday. You captchalogue it to get the code, and... It gets shoved next to two identical jars already in your sylladex. Fuck. One of those is apple juice, one is lukewarm troll piss, and one is... Probably dangerous for anyone without latent psychic ability. You're not really sure. All you know is that it boosts yours through the roof and it might be funny if you end up picking that one. You pick a number between one and three. OR: 1t5aTrAp What. That is the dumbest- IF: kthanks4thecode OR: Fuck off. --overtlyRhetorical blocked inaneFixation-- Pff. How dumb does he think I am? 1t5aTrAp. What a load of bullshit. It's probably not even soda! Ah well, still gonna' find out. Zach almost tried to pull himself through the window before realizing that that would probably be a bad idea. Stupid wrist. Survive harder impacts. Instead, he walked quietly to the back door and sneaked to the hallway from there. A flash of light produced a bottle of... Apple juice? Yesssssss.Zach chugged half the bottle right there. A wonderful scent floods the house. Like a billion cookies were baking all at once. [Okay not a billion. Just four different types.] cookiesHis stomach grumbled. Zach recalled he hadn't eaten since breakfast, and that the only food related code he had was for a 'grubloaf sandwich', whatever the hell that was. He decided to take his chances and peeked into the kitchen. There is a flurry of baking and snarfing of cold chicken going on. Now, how to do this without startling her?... *ribbit* "AAH!" " Eh?" "Little bastard snuck up on me!" Well, it hadn't really. Zach was just terrified of frogs. He was never really sure why. " Whatever. Go away." Gita glares at him. Is that a bottle of vodka on the counter? "I was just wondering if I could get something to eat before I left..." His stomach rumbled again. Maybe that juice (it actually tasted more like... diluted honey?) was a bad idea. " Fine. Just hurry it the fuck up." She's still glaring. And wondering if she's blushing - she isn't. "Nope." She was, in fact, not blushing. Zach wasn't sure why she'd ask him that. He looked around for something edible, meaning something that wasn't cooked and/or raw flesh. " What? I told you to hurry the fuck up." There's some celery and salad fixin's, but most of them are obviously half eaten and have dressing on them. "And I will, but y-" Wait. Was he hearing things? Maybe that stupid old guy was still going at it. Zach shook his head and grabbed the stalk of celery that was most intact. "Nevermind." " ... Right." And yet somehow I'm the crazy one. "I didn't say that..." " What?" She stares at him, vaguely confused and getting angry. The oven dings, though, distracting her, and she gets oven mits and takes out the tray of mixed cookies. "Didn't say you were." He took note of the celery code and ate the stick, hoping to make more later if she didn't kill him. " What in the name of She Who Lives In Her Name are you talking about?" oh shit time to shut up now. "Uh, nothing. Name of who now?" Excellent subject change. This will distract her so hard it's not even funnyeah you're pretty much fucked. " She Who Lives In Her Name. It's a reference." The cookies are now on a plate. IT WORKED "I'd ask but I should really be going now." A quick glance at the cookies told him they were delicious but not worth having his throat carved out. " Yeah. Out. Now." She points, picking up the bottle and taking a swig. Drunken murderess is worse than regular murderess. Time for flee. Zach took a detour through the dining room on his way out, stopping to take his broken rocket gloves off the table. Lousy stupid hormones. Lousy stupid suit. Lousy stupid jailbait. lousy stupid what Zach made a break for the front door and nearly slammed it behind him as he fled from the crazy lady. Great. Now he just needed to climb back onto her roof to get to the gate. With a broken wrist. ... Shit. Zach sighed and grabbed a stepladder from his inventory. Five minutes later, he collapsed onto her roof. Lousy goddamn stupid upper body strength. Fuckin' pain in the arm. And if her house was anything like his, he was going to have to climb... It's flat. FUCK. --inaneFixation [IF] started pestering absoluteTranquility [AT]-- IF: hey IF: dude IF: ur doin it rong IF: you're supposed to build stuff on gita's roof.AT: Little busy right now. --absoluteTranquility ceased pestering inaneFixation-- IF: :/ --inaneFixation [IF] started pestering jeremiadMalacophony [JM]-- IF: i can't go through any gates 'cause your server player sucks.JM: den walkIF: walk where?JM: to da other gates disphitIF: i need to get back to my house though. IF: or at least somewhere i can build something.JM: dats ur prblmIF: i don't even know where the other gates are!JM: betr start walkinIF: i'd be out faster if you helped you know. :/ IF: i just need something i can fly around with.JM: not my prblm kidIF: *sign* IF: i have been walking for six hours. i flew for five minutes, crashed, flew for two minutes, nearly got exploded, and then flew for four seconds and broke my fucking wrist. IF: i just need a goddamned break. so either peter builds something, you help me make a jetpack, or i pass out on this roof.JM: have funIF: 'night *WHUNK* --inaneFixation is now an idle chum!--
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 2:40:32 GMT -5
((Ripcord's post)) ===> ===> ===> ===> ===> ===>
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 2:47:43 GMT -5
The Land of Gold and Snow had not, in the time of Lorelei's absence, ceased to live up to the second part of its name. Yet the winter winds that blustered and blew were more, in Lorelei's eyes, akin to homecoming caresses than a menace. Already, in a relatively short time period, the young girl had begun to feel a sense of feeling at home in her land. This was the case in large part because of how much the place reminded her of Switzerland in winter. The inches of below on the ground brought back memories of, back when she was thirteen, a return from a trip to Egypt. The heat had been oppressive the whole time and, upon returning to her beloved Von Hayek mansion in the midst of a light winter snowfall, the first thing the young scion of the family had done was flop to the ground and make snow angels. So she ignored the chill that clung to her unprotected legs--for she had forgotten that in her all-too-brief sojourn in the Land of Steam and Towers, she had removed the kneesocks which provided warmth for just such weather--and made her slow descent to the great mansion below. The scene upon the balconies and porches that she could see was one of busy excitement amongst her monocle-clad consorts--and the frantic "Wot"s exchanged rapid-fire in what Lorelei could only presume was language could be heard even from her high vantage. The young scion alighted to the ground near a particularly --EXCIT------ED I mean excited group of turtles, wantonly flipping various manners of shits willy-nilly, as if they didn't care WHO might be watching (some turtles just have no class). Well not LITERALLY of course. That would just be uncivilized, wot. Anyway, Lorelei immediately called them all to task for their ungentlemanly behavior (not befitting a proper LOGASian turtle by any means, I say) by shouting in a loud, but not aggressive or unkind voice, " EXCUSE ME! PLEASE CALM DOWN AND APPROACH ME ONE AT A TIME TO SAY WHAT IS THE MATTER!" The turtles froze for a few moments, but only for a few moments, before they all began Woting and shouting once again in an attempt to be first. Lorelei had to calm them once again in her loud but incredibly graceful, dignified, and ladylike voice (or at least so she tried to make it). This time, she wisely chose a turtle from the crowd to step up first and explain his woes. The first explained that a large host of monsters had, for some unknown reason, banded together (rather than keeping alone or in small groups) and were on the march. He claimed that his own small village of twenty turtles was conquered and their leader's daughter taken as a political hostage to insure cooperation. Indeed, this brought a chorus of wots amongst the remaining turtles that sounded vaguely like agreement. The other turtles had all had the same thing happen to them: the large roving horde had subjugated them, with a relatively minimum level of destruction for such brute beasts, and had moved on. Utterly perplexed, Lorelei set to pondering this problem while she put back on the kneesocks which warded her legs from the cold. Such behavior hardly seems in line with what I know of them so far. Then again...my experience with them is quite limited, yet this is also corroborated by the turtles: both the limited nature of the destruction and the large, army-like movements had not ever been seen before. I suppose I shall not find any truth on this by simply puzzling over it myself. I must track them down myself, and free the political prisoners. Perhaps if I take into account the time of arrival here of these various messengers, I can pinpoint the last known location and perhaps current direction of this a- She was brought out of her thoughts when something moving towards her caught the corner of her eye. She turned her head to find a simple turtle, thronged by a few more, coming up to her. Unlike their counterparts, however, they had all forsaken their top hats (still kept their monocles) and instead appeared to be draped with white towels from the Von Hayeks' bathroom. A little bit of question-asking revealed that they were "giving up the hat" to dedicate themselves as Lorelei's followers, and to hopefully one day understand the secrets of the Scion's holy magic. The young scion giggled and promised to, upon her return, create more fitting outfits for her little band of wizards. Now, though, she had work to d- Her glasses flared to life, registering messages from a new handle Lorelei had never come across--another troll, it seemed? Curiousity piqued, Lorelei decided that she could wait a few moments longer to see what this new person wanted. -- insignificantMembrane [ IM] began trolling philosopherQueen [PQ] -- {Spoiler}IM: *hi there!* IM: *y()u are the L()relei human* IM: *c()rrect?* PQ: Oh, hello! PQ: Yes, I am Lorelei Catarina Kurfurstin Von Hayek, at your service. It is a pleasure to meet you--might I ask with whom I am speaking? IM: *hehehehe!* IM: *y()ur name is a bigger m()uthful than mine!* IM: *my name is trifena llancamil* IM: *the pleasure is all mine!* PQ: Hehe, the full nomen is actually much larger. Such is the nature of our Earth European nobility, from which I am descended. Lots of German family names cluttering it up. PQ: Anyway, how may I help you, Trifena? Are you simply curious about our species, much as I was--and am--about yours? PQ: Ehehe, Felett had to put up with my twenty questions the first time I contacted him, so I hardly mind if you wish to ask some in return. IM: *w()w y()u are a n()ble?* IM: *i w()uld n()t have th()ught s() fr()m y()ur text* IM: *it is quite similar t() L()hqua's* IM: *i am a little curi()us th()ugh* IM: *yes* PQ: Well, I suppose that is the first place to start if you have not already been told by the other trolls who have contacted us: we do not have a hemospectrum. our blood is all red. PQ: I picked this bright golden color because it is the same color as my eyes and I think it is rather lovely, if I do say so myself. PQ: We have had quite a few nations with varying different governments. Some have had caste systems, but none based on the color of blood. IM: *that is neat!* IM: *ab()ut the c()l()r ()f mine* IM: *perhaps?* IM: *()h i see!* IM: *()ur eyes fill with ()ur bl()()d c()l()r as we age!* IM: *that s()unds c()nfusing* PQ: Hehe, I suppose it is. Perhaps fortunate, though, that no one power was able to take control of the whole of our race. PQ: What color are your eyes before they become their blood color? IM: *gray* IM: *i supp()se it w()uld l()()k ()dd t() y()u th()ugh...* IM: *here i shall sh()w y()u* -- insignificantMembrane [IM] sent file hi.png-- PQ: Oh, you are quite pretty, Trifena! PQ: I am somewhat surprised you have such sharp teeth, though. Is your species normally carnivorous? PQ: We humans tend to have much duller teeth, befitting omnivores. Do you have a viewport function? If so, take a look. Lorelei turned her gaze to a point above her where she assumed the viewport woudl be looking and smiled widely for the "camera". {Spoiler}IM: *()h* IM: *ehehehe* IM: *thank y()u* IM: *yes* IM: *tr()lls are n()rmally quite carniv()rus* IM: *i am a bit ()f an excepti()n* IM: *but* IM: *well* IM: *breeding pr()grams and all that* IM: *sharp teeth are c()nsidered the m()st desirable* IM: *anyways* IM: *i have been watching f()r a bit* IM: *y()u are quite pretty as well* IM: *what are th()se shellbeasts d()ing th()ugh?* PQ: Thank you very much, Trifena! :3 PQ: Um...I assume you do not wish to discuss this, ah, breeding program much? IM: *well it is s()rt of irrelevant at this p()int* IM: *s() if y()u are curi()us i d() n()t mind answering y()ur questi()ns* IM: *y()u are quite welc()me* IM: *by the by* PQ: Well, I would be lying if I said I was not sort of morbidly curious about it. PQ: As long as you do not mind, of course. I hate to pry; it is hardly befitting a lady. PQ: Does it have something to do with your wings? Or is that normal for trolls? IM: *it has everything t() d() with my wings actually* IM: *wings are n()t n()rmal at all* IM: *s() the empress ordered that every winged tr()ll sh()uld be bred with exempliary tr()lls* IM: *in a seperate batch ()f slurry even!* IM: *it is in fact the ()nly place where they keep track ()f wh()se slurry is mixed with wh()se* IM: *i had an()ther sweep as a grace peri()d bef()re i had t()* IM: *rep()rt f()r matchmaking* PQ: Oh, dear, that sounds terrible! PQ: I am very glad you were able to escape from that, then! PQ: So, um... Well, perhaps best to change the subject then, yes? You asked about the turtles? PQ: Well, it seems that they believe they are wwizards. PQ: Excuse me, wizards. PQ: No doubt inspired by my own use of white magic, given how they seem to be congregating around me at the moment. It is rather adorable! PQ: The rest are here to tell me about how they desire my help against Zeus' minions. IM: *hehehe* IM: *that is s() cute!* IM: *white magic huh?* IM: *i guess we have ()pp()site themes* PQ: Opposite themes? How do you mean? IM: *i am the heir ()f shad()ws!* PQ: Heehee, it seems so! My own title is the Scion of Hope--the first part effectively being the same as Heir, now that I think about it. IM: *it is yes* IM: *that is kind ()f funny actually* IM: *at least y()ur c()ns()rts are nice and cute th()ugh c:S PQ: Hehe, yes, they are. They even have British accents to go with the monocles and top hats! PQ: Wait, sorry, you do not even know what British is, do you? My apologies. PQ: Are your consorts not nice, though? IM: *is a british s()mething y()u eat?* IM: *they are fairies* IM: *()f c()urse they are n()t nice* PQ: Huh. Fairies are mostly considered benevolent creatures here on earth. Though they are fakey fake fiction, as it were. PQ: Then again, I think some earlier human myths on fairies had them as far more malevolent entities--I suppose your fairies are more akin to that kind? What are they like? IM: *little winged bitey things* IM: *i am c()mpletely c()vered in little bites* IM: *even the tips ()f my ears have bites* PQ: I am terribly sorry to hear that! PQ: I am very thankful for my turtles now, that is for certain. IM: *eh* IM: *i shall be perfectly fine* IM: *y()ur c()ncern is appreciated though!* IM: *C:S* IM: *s() is zeus y()ur denizen?* PQ: Yes. Apparently he has conquered these poor little turtles, and I am attempting to throw off his rule. PQ: Actually, do you have a concept of "Zeus" in your culture? In mine he is the king of the gods from an old earth culture, the ancient Greeks. IM: *n()t technically* IM: *the empress is c()nsidered a g()d by s()me* IM: *they say her t()uch can grant ()ne nigh imm()rtality* IM: *but that is m()st likely pr()p()ganda* PQ: Ehehe, most likely. I am reminded of some Earth propoganda from older times: that the touch of a king could cure any illness. I imagine the situation with your Empress is similar. PQ: Who is your denizen, if I may ask? IM: *elegast* IM: *that pr()bably d()es n()t mean anything t() y()u* PQ: It rings vaguely familiar, but I cannot place why. PQ: Anyway, are there any other questions you want to ask about humans? IM: *n()t that i can think ()f!* IM: *i sh()uld pr()bably let y()u g()* IM: *is it ()kay if we talk again?* PQ: I would very much love to, Trifena! PQ: I shall talk to you later, then! Farewell. IM: *()kay!* IM: *farewell L()relei!* -- insignificantMembrane [ IM] ceased trolling philosopherQueen [PQ] -- Lorelei closed the chat window on her own end with a smile upon her lips. Trifena seemed like a very nice, polite young troll! Always a joy with speaking with another so well-mannered. Nevertheless, duty called. Lorelei retrieved her drill from her specibus and focused. Swirling wisps of white magical energy surrounded the whole of her body, giving her a glow almost reminiscent of old paintings of saints. With a farewell to her consorts left behind, she took off, headed towards the village last visited by the army. You know... she thought to herself as the chill winds whipped and howled past her, I do not think I have ever truly tested how fast I can fly. Lorelei smirked. Well, there is a first time for everything!
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 2:51:43 GMT -5
To those gazing heavenward from below, she looked like a white comet streaking through the sky. Not streaking in the sense of being without clothes, of course. Everyone knows comets are naught but the very soul of propriety, after all. You've never heard of a drunkard or drug-addicted comet, now, have you? Never have tales reached your ears of an unkind or impolite one either? I thought not. To continue our tale, the young Scion was journeying through the sky in a manner that can be compared to a respectable and dignified meteorological phenomenon. As she did so, she made use of a not oft used but intensely useful feature of her glasses: the ability to zoom into that which was far away, much like binoculars. Using this feature she was able to, moments before her arrival, spotted the large army moving about. It consisted of a legion of various monsters, some she had never seen before and others quite familiar, marching in a very loose but vaguely ordered formation. One giclops in particular held between his two great fingers the end of a chain. Attached to this chain was a series of collars which were around the necks of the various political prisoners this army had taken. Lorelei knew what she had to do and, not letting up on her speed in the slightest, pointed to intercept the giclops. Her drill out in front of her, she became a swirling spiral projectile of white energy, headed straight for her target. When she arrived, it was with a crash like a thunderclap, and she drilled straight through her unsuspecting foe, leaving a large, spiral-grooved hole in it. The great beast exploded into a pile of grist and, in the confusion and disarray caused by her sudden arrival, Lorelei destroyed the chain links tying the various political prisoners together with her magic. At Lorelei's beckoning, they all took off in various directions, and the Scion turned back to face the army, drill at ready. "Bravo..." a voice from the throng said. Its owner stepped forward: a Dersite of medium height, clad in a suit, wearing a rather conspicuous gold bracelet around one wrist, and currently lighting a cigarette in his mouth. "You've managed to, ultimately, waste a bit of my time." Lorelei pointed her drill towards the newcomer but no sooner had she done so than the Dersite had his own weapon, what appeared to be a sort of handheld laser gun, pointed at her. " Who are you...?" Lorelei asked, casting wary glances at the legion of various enemies behind and to the sides of the Dersite. " What do you want?" The Dersite made something between a scoff and a laugh. "Sangfroid Emissary. And what else does someone do with an army? Conquer. Not to mention draw you out. See, I talked you up pretty well to my superiors, but honestly? I've read this story before." As he spoke, he gestured with his free hand, which still held the cigarette in-between his fingers. "You're the... virtuous lone hero who slowly becomes more and more powerful and able to confront the Eeeevil Empire." SE chuckled dismissively and took a drag on his cigarette. "Only problem is, I don't make the mistakes all those other villains do. You've got no concept of picking your fights, do you, kid? You gotta be everyone's hero. You couldn't just let this happen and attack us where we're weak. That? That's why you're going to die today, Scion of Hope." The Sangfroid Emissary looked up at something above and behind Lorelei and, his strange bracelet glowing gold, made thumb-cutting-the-throat kill gesture. Lorelei quickly turned around to face the new combatant--while she was sure nothing had been there before, it was all too probable that one of the enemies, cloaked thanks to Zach's prototyping, had snuck up behind her. Just to be safe, she fired white magic in a wide, dispersed arc to try and find her opponent. None of the shots connected for, indeed, there had never been anything there. Lorelei realized this but moments before she was shot. The Scion of Hope cried out and fell to her knees, clutching a burned and bleeding wound in her side. Her life flowed over her fingertips, soaked into her clothes, and painted the white canvas of snow upon which she stood deep crimson. She had just barely managed to move to keep the wound from being fatal. Panic and fear plagued her mind, and all she could think was " No. No, no, no, no, no, no! Not like this! Not like this!" SE smirked. "...Not bad...but nowhere near good enough." The bracelet glowed once again, and this time the true command was given. " Kill her." Lorelei immediately rolled to her left to dodge another shot from SE, and his host surged forward--imps, basilisks, ogres, liches, gyclops, and some things Lorelei had never seen before including a flying enemy that looked a great deal like a gryphon, all with a variety of prototypings. Seeing no other option for her survival, she summoned all the strength she could and took to the air. Every beast that could fly, flew upwards in pursuit of her. Those who could not, to a monster, either raised their hand or claw and fired bolts of lasers or magic at her or breathed fire (if they were --it seemed that, in picking his army, SE had prioritized those capable of, if not flying, then long-range attacks. The sky was filled with missile attacks she frantically tried to dodge. It reminded Lorelei of Florian's stories, told to him by a friend of his grandfather's, who had flown in the German bombings of London, of how the air seemed to be filled with the flashes of light that were enemy flak. The aerial enemies seemed no more immunite to it than her, fortunately, and some were taken down for her in bouts of friendly fire. Yet still they pressed forward to attack her. It was obvious that killing her had all priority. Her side still aching at every movement, Lorelei fought. She counted herself fortunate that, once upon a time, she had out of curiosity read the famous first manual of air combat, the Dicta Boelcke. The guidelines came back to her memory with ease. 1. Try to secure the upper hand before attacking. If possible, keep the sun behind you. The first part was an impossibility at this point, but the second? While there was no sun in the Medium, there WAS Skaia. As Lorelei fought the aerial combatants and franctically dodged missiles fired at her from below (which was mostly successful) she always made sure to keep Skaia at her back, to aid in any way possible blinding her enemies. 2. Always continue with an attack you have begun. For the same reason as pilots of old, she could not break off this attack. Flying away would just present her rear to the enemies below and the aerial ones that swarmed about her. She would be shot out of the air, then. Without some way to draw their attention away, she would be a dead woman if she tried to run. 5. In any type of attack, it is essential to assail your opponent from behind Lorelei's own, wingless version of flight did give her an important edge in this matter: she was more manuverable, and could more quickly change direction. Almost every attack that actually managed to take down one of her innumerable foes was one from behind. The sky was almost covered in all the winged beasts who fought with Lorelei miles over the Land of Gold and Snow. Near the end, as Lorelei and her foes all jockeyed to be above one another, they eventually made their way just out of LOGAS' "atmosphere" and into what counted as space, and the otherworldly Music of the Spheres was the soundtrack to their battle. She had managed to take down fifteen of her foes throughout the battle. In the end, though, every drop of life's blood that dripped from her first wound, every usage of her magic, sapped her strength and thus weakened her ability to act and react. 4. You should always try to keep your eye on your opponent, and never let yourself be deceived by ruses. The final blow of the battle came after a winged basilisk's breath of flame found its mark, though somewhat neutered in its effectiveness by a hasty counterblast of magical energy that ended up acting like a shield. Nevertheless, Lorelei was dazed and woozy, the blood loss blurred her vision. Then she felt the claws rake into her back and tear through her skin--gryphon's claws, but bolstered by the powers of a certain Canadian. Exhausted and defeated, barely managing to remain clutching her drill, the white glow of magic flickered and died around Lorelei's body, and she plummeted from the high reaches of space towards the Land of Gold and Snow below. I can't... Wind whipped and howled in her ears as she fell like a stone to her awaiting death. Not...like...this... Vision blurred, and all Lorelei could make out above her was the shining orb that was Skaia and the host of monsters that descended after her. Not like this!.. It hurt. I can't...let it end...like...this... Her grip tightened around her drill, and the fire burned in those golden eyes. I REFUSE! Moments before the fatal stop, Lorelei's magic once again flared to life around her. Though she was not able to stop completely, she did manage to slow herself down significantly and angle her fall into a large pile of snow nearby that further cushioned it. Exhausted but not defeated, she climbed out of the snowbank ready to face her foes... ...and promptly was caught in the side by a vicious gyclops punch. Her left elbow bent in an all too wrong position with a loud CRACK and she crumpled to the the ground like a rag doll. Trying to put any weight on the broken arm sent a lance of pain up her arm, and Lorelei could not keep the tears from falling. Never before had the young noblewoman broken a limb like this, and the pain was too new, too real. Exhausted, broken, tears flowing down her face, but not yet defeated, she nevertheless got up on her knees. Then she felt the cold press of a metal gun barrel on the back of her head. "Not bad, but nowhere near good enough."
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 2:59:07 GMT -5
" Wait, please, I can help you!" Silence hung in the air. No response came, but neither did any laser through the brain. Lorelei, clutching her wounds with her good arm, took it as a cue to continue. " I...they trust me, the turtles; I can help you!" She turned her head just a bit, so he could see the tears flowing down her face. " Just...Just don't kill me, please!" Her good arm moved slowly upward. Another brief moment of silence, then SE barked derisive laughter. "Look at this! The little hero wants to be a villain now, hmm? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! Aaaaah, kid. Kid. Did you really believe I'd buy that load of shit? I know you; I know your type! You can't betray your ideals. You don't wanna die, but you'd sooner die first. You'd just work undercover to make things worse for us. Don't think I don't know that's what you were thi-" Lorelei's fingers touched a small medallion hanging around her neck, just underneath her clothes. With a flash of light, a golden sprite appeared and slashed a spanish-style rapier down at SE. The Dersite pulled back and dodged, but still his gun was cut in half. Misessprite brandished his sword at the army in front of him. "Flee!" he shouted to his young charge, who immediately summoned the shattered remains of her strength to do just that, leaving the economist sprite behind to buy time. ===> Lorelei flew. She flew and flew and flew until she felt like she was just going to pass out right there in mid-air. Her eventual sanctuary was in a small town bordering a river and nestled snugly next to a small forest from which the native turtles hunted game and scavenged for food. There was no large, industrialized factory here, merely a few small craftsmen making use of the "modern" technology in their individual projects. That meant they were under the radar of Zeus' minions--safe. Lorelei half-landed, half-collapsed in the middle of a dirt road that ran through the center of the town. The village erupted into a frenzy of wots and some of the more altruistic turtles ran to grab her water and food. She refused all offered aid, though. How could she not? She had failed them, all of them. She didn't deserve their help. Her black mood persisted as she fetched some of her healing bread and began devouring it ravenously and in an entirely unladylike fashion. Even had the battle not worked up a ferocious appetite, she wanted to heal all of these wounds as quickly as possible before she expired on the spot. It was only after her worst injuries were healed--the laser wound in her side sown up and her left arm in the right position and fully functional--that her foul demeanor began to leave her, as she thought back on Peter's words after their first botched attempt to take the factory, how he had begged her to see reason and reminded her that fleeing from a situation that would have gotten her killed wasn't abandoning her consorts--death would be the true abandonment. She smirked slightly and took another bite of bread. The only question was...what now? -- asterismAscendant AA began trolling philosopherQueen [PQ] -- AA: *So.* AA: As I was saying before we were so *abruptly interrupted* : What is the role of *fear?* What's this? Another person--probably a troll? What was she talking about, being interrupted? {Spoiler}PQ: ...I am sorry? PQ: I do not think we have ever spoken before. Have you contacted the wrong chumhandle? PQ: All the same, it is nice to meet you. I am Lorelei Catarina Kurfurstin Von Hayek. AA: Yes, you told me that last time we spoke. Will you be *repeating* your *lineage* in *each* *successive* *dialogue*? PQ: ...This is terribly confusing. Are you perhaps a time traveler much like Peter or Guardian? PQ: We have never spoken from my point of view, I am afraid. AA: *...* AA: Ah! So we have *not!* Krrr. *Fussy* business, these sliders. AA: Well, *this* explains a few things. What a world we live in! PQ: Ah, so...your chat program has the ability to talk to people in different times? PQ: My mind struggles to wrap around how that is possible. Though I suppose if you are a troll--you are a troll, correct?--and you possibly live in a parallel universe then it is possible. PQ: Oh, well. Might I have the name of the person I have the pleasure of speaking with today? AA: Perhaps if I'd understood it better *myself,* things wouldn't be quite so disordered, *aye*? AA: *'Course* I'm a troll. Plain as the horns on my head, and the pink skin on your face. AA: It's Khirun. *Khirun Kentar*, sign of the raised key. AA: Of *no* *particularly* *noble* wriggling, save that our shared heritage as *Dreamers* granted, eh? PQ: Well, it is lovely to make your acquaintance, Khirun. PQ: Would you, perhaps, indulge my curiosity regarding what you mentioned when you first contacted me? Were you and I having a conversation about fear or something? AA: *Krrrr.* Of a sort, of a sort. And of *obligation,* an' a few other things besides. AA: Care to answer, jes' the same? Lorelei had to take a few moments to ponder this over, but she would by no means decline from answering the question. Her handle wasn't philosopherQueen just for show! {Spoiler}PQ: Well, I would like some more context, but...hmm... The role of fear? PQ: Heh, I am reminded of a bit of Earth fiction where the main character would often repeat to himself, "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer." PQ: I do not think that is healthy, though. Fear does have its purpose. It is a vital survival mechanism. PQ: And I do not think it is bravery if you are utterly without fear--more like suicidality. Bravery is not the lack of fear, but conquering fear when it is necessary. PQ: Which I suppose is what it comes down to: fear can be useful, but one must also overcome it when it is necessary. PQ: That was a bit rambly, but does it answer your question? AA: Well-reasoned words, *Miss* Lorelei Von Philosopher Queen. You'll do well to *remember* them! AA: Tho' mayhaps a *pithier* format might better serve. *Krrrr*. Hah. Pithy. AA: As opposed to *Pythia.* PQ: Pythia? That was...the young lady who was fighting with TT in the memo, correct? PQ: But yes, thank you. AA: Same initials on th'trolltag as me, *Jadeblood*, *flirting outrageously* with *'Mina*? Aye, that's her. AA: *Krrrr.* Seems I've wandered again. AA: Not that it's so *troublesome*, *this* time aroun'. PQ: Did you wander a lot in our last--well from your point of view--conversation or something? AA: Find me a time I *don't*! AA: *Restless soul*, that's *Kentar*. AA: Speaking o' which, where are you *goin' next*? PQ: Well...I am not sure. PQ: I am still recuperating from a fight I lost with some enemies. I am not sure what to do now. I failed my consorts... AA: Aye, aye. Can't win them all, *can we*? AA: Jus' got to *keep* *going* *forward* 'til you find what you *need*. PQ: Quite true. Shut out doubt and go beyond the impossible, yes? AA: Easier said than done, *that*! PQ: Heh, I suppose so. I just need to figure out what to do now. Maybe go train on some weaker enemies or something? I do not know... AA: *Krrrrr*. Looking for guidance, are ye? PQ: Well, guidance could certainly not hurt, no. Assuming you or someone else can help. PQ: But, um...could you please not tell me exactly what I am going to do in the future? I feel like that might...I do not know, cause some sort of paradox or tempt me too much to change what I am going to do. AA: I've *no* intention of playing *Hero of Time*, an' botherin' about with *that* nonsense, be assured o' *that*! AA: But. *Krrrr.* This trial, SGRUB, it's all but *tripping* over itself t'offer information, *ye ken*? PQ: Ahehehe...Eheehee... PQ: Excuse me, this is terribly unladylike to giggle like this. PQ: But did you know that your accent reads to me much like the accent of an Earth culture? The Scots, to be precise. PQ: Sorry, yes, I do indeed ken, Khirun. Perhaps I should ask my consorts or maybe poke around some of their sacred buildings to see if any records or ~mysterious prophecies~ exist? AA: *What the fuck is a Scot*. Not verra *kind* t'make fun at quirks. AA: Traditional, *though...* PQ: I am quite sorry! I did not mean to insult you at all. I merely thought the coincidence humorous. I meant no disrespect. There was a long and distinct pause on Khirun's end, and for a few moments Lorelei was afraid that she had somehow made a cultural gaff and further insulted her new acquaintance. AA: *Well,* aren't you well-mannered! Was Lorelei a beast o' the wilds, she'd be *belly-up* submissive right now! AA: Nae, *skip* all that *grave-robbin'* and misinterpreting of some sybil's *cagey* hoofbeastshit AA: Ye're Hope, aye?PQ: Hehe, well, I like to think of it as just being polite. That does not mean that silk cannot hide steel. PQ: But, yes, I am the Scion of that element. Why?AA: You and I, we have access to a few sources th'other players *don't*. *Go to them*.PQ: Oh, are you Hope as well?AA: 'M the Scout.PQ: How interesting! So, would you mind letting me know what these unique sources are?AA: *Krra*! The *angels,* Lorelei! Time seemed to stand still for a few moments. PQ: ... PQ: .......... PQ: .......................Angels?AA: Great feathery grim heralds and harbringers, aye. Your Land'll hold their Host, mark my words.PQ: Like... PQ: Actual angels? PQ: Holy and righteous supernatural servants of God? PQ: Is that what we are talking about here? As in "putting to rest her entire crisis of faith over Christianity and affirming her beliefs held from childhood" angels?! {Spoiler} AA: What did I *just say*, girl? AA: *Numinous* and *aweful* servants of some higher invisible Power, cagey and cryptic on th'specifics. AA: What the fuck else would an *angel* be?PQ: Well, I mean... PQ: It is just... PQ: *sigh*. A human religion. One I follow...or followed until now. I still do not know. Angels were a part of it, and they were holy beings that served a loving and benevolent God, according to the scripture. PQ: Actually, are you able to access human websites? If so, here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity AA: I'm nae certain I've the, eh, *cultural context* tae get much more outta *that* than *Damned Weird Alien Religion.* AA: Leave the rest of the *Messiah talk* fer 'Mina, an' later, why don't we?PQ: That is understandable. I certainly do not wish to get involved in some sort of theological debate at the moment, yes. Though I am curious about this messiah talk that Lemina supposedly speaks of. PQ: That is neither here nor there, though. I suppose I should go ask my consorts if they have any information regarding the whereabouts of these angels, yes?AA: Takes too long to get *anythin'* outta consorts, if you ask me. Oh, they're wee little bairns, aye, but *nothin'* but *fluff* in the heads! AA: ...we spoke last (for *me*) an' *next* (for ye) in the trees. *Big*, *old*, forest. Start your *hunt* for that, aye?PQ: That sounds like a good place to start, yes. As much as I love my little consorts, they DO seem to be a tad daft. PQ: Except for one who I had a theological debate with yesterday. I wonder whatever happened to him? PQ: But, yes, thank you very much for all your help, Khirun! I certainly do appreciate it.AA: *Krrrrrr...* Dinnae thank me *yet*, lassie.PQ: Too late! :D -- asterismAscendant AA ceased trolling philosopherQueen [PQ] -- A few questions to her consorts later, she was easily able to figure out the most likely candidate for "huge old forest where angels live". The Godswood, as the turtles liked to call it, was a vast and sweeping forest the next continent over. All turtles had to make a pilgrimage to it once before they perished, but they never went too far in for fear of waking the wrath of the Speaker (who was said to either live in all the time or at least occasionally visit a great pond in the center; the turtles didn't seem to have a consensus on that). Also of note were some rumors that another race of turtles lived in the Godswood, half-turtle and half-frog, descended from the Speaker himself to guard his woods. Lorelei purchased a map from a turtle and, destination set, flew off.
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 3:02:19 GMT -5
"The Emerald Sea" her consorts called it. As Lorelei flew over the seemingly-endless expanse of deep green water, she could hardly doubt how apt the name was. A myriad of exotic-looking fish swam just beneath the surface: one large, orange, and with a series of dorsal fins on its back; another large group of small fish as green as the sea in which they swam, moving in such unison that they almost appeared to be one animal. She dipped low to the point where she was almost skimming the surface of the ocean and ran her fingers along the top of the water (for she was moving far too fast to move her fingers through it). It was almost ice-cold, but not quite--the only significant freezing, according to the turtles she asked, was up north. She resolved to go visit that part of her world when she had a chance. ===> She had arrived in the new continent soon enough and made her way towards a town that bordered the Godswood as a sort of religious pilgrimage site. The word "town" probably did not do the place justice. It was surrounded by a great glistening wall wrought of pure gold (for the custom of building all structures of gold kept here in this new continent) that towered over even her. Every portion of the wall was covered in figures "carved" into the wall (though given a close look at the walls, Lorelei's theory was that this was not the work of a carver but more likely a turtle with a heated metal rod of some sort) and painted black to further make the figures stand out. The figures all seemed to be a part of a grand myth featuring many frogs. The gate into the town reminded Lorelei acutely of the Lion Gate of Mycenae, only instead of lions carved into the keystone of the gate's arch it was two rather regal looking frogs (if, indeed, frogs could be regal-looking at all). Inside the walls were various churches (all built in something akin to the European "Gothic" style), a few normal houses, and many inns and places selling food. It was, without a doubt, a town built around pilgrimage and tourism. Lorelei idly wondered if business was worse due to the war and conquest or better due to the uncertainty and death driving many turtles to seek solace in their holy places. She made a mental note to ask later on. What most surprised Lorelei about this town, though, was the center: the town square seemed to be built around a large, swirling golden portal. A few questions to nearby consorts revealed that it had been there since time immemorial, and the town had been built around it in the first place. Legend had it that it would one day open the way to the Scion of Hope's tower, but according to the particular turtle she spoke to that kind of thing was "fakey fake fiction for dumb-dumb stupidheads". A shocking lack of faith from one living in such a religious town. Lorelei bit back a protest that she was the Scion of Hope. SE, after all, could conceivably be hunting her, and she hardly wanted to bring his attention to this beautiful village when word got out that she was here. She allowed herself a brief smirk thinking about SE. He had been so "genre savvy", as it were, only to fall to the one vice of villains: allowing himself to monologue a bit. Granted, he had no way of knowing Lorelei even had a sprite to call on, much less that she could, and any attack from her by that point could have been easily dodged. Still, a more fitting escape could hardly be imagined. ===> A half-hour later, after a brief tour of some of the lovely golden temples, Lorelei had bought some food and water with her hard-won boondollars. She sat down in a chair far too small for her by a table built for one half her size, and munched idly on some sort of fish wrapped in a kind of leaf (the leaf, apparently, was also meant to be eaten). She thanked her lucky stars that turtles had diets of some things that humans wouldn't find objectionable. Zach likely wouldn't have such luck, poor guy. Speaking of Zach... -- inaneFixation [IF] started pestering philosopherQueen [PQ] -- {Spoiler}IF: nak IF: nak nak nak PQ: Zach? IF: naknaknaknak talking glasses nak PQ: Well, either you are playing something of a prank on me, or it seems that one of Page's consorts have absconded with your glasses. IF: nak nak IF: kill your friends IF: nak PQ: ... PQ: Zach. PQ: Do not joke on such matters. PQ: We just LOST a friend, do you not remember?! IF: snap their naks IF: burn the world nak nak IF: nakkanakkanakka PQ: ZACH! THIS IS... PQ: No. PQ: Wait. PQ: Not even Zach would take a joke this far. PQ: Certainly not considering what has happened recently. PQ: Who are you? IF: i am the omega nak IF: harbinger of the endgame IF: you will all nak die nak nak IF: naknaknaknaknaknaknak NAKnak PQ: ... PQ: I think this conversation has gone on quite far enough. -- philosopherQueen [PQ] has ceased pestering inaneFixation [IF] IF: you're first nak ... Lorelei stared at the screen for a few moments, at that final message sent before her mysterious conversational partner left her be. Maybe it was foolish, to be frightened. Yet something had killed her mother when she was away. Something had taken her life without giving her any chance to cry or scream and alert the others. Lorelei sighed shakily, took another bite of fish, and tried to put it all out of her mind. What was it that she had said to Khirun? Fear was a useful reflex, but not something you should let conquer you. Wariness would certainly be a virtue in this strange new world of Sburb of hers, but not to the point of paranoia. Still, best to at least make a memo about it to let others know. Just in case. -- philosopherQueen [PQ] opened a memo on board TEAM KOUSEI. -- PQ: I know this is going to sound silly, but I truly do not believe it is wise to simply write this off, given the unexplained deaths of...of John and of my mother. PQ: I was recently contacted by someone from Zach's account. Rather than just explain it here, I believe I shall simply put the log here. -- philosopherQueen [PQ] uploaded file sociopathicroc(?).txt -- PQ: It could be a prank, it could be harmless. PQ: All the same, I feel prudence is the best course here, given all that we do not know about this world. PQ: Stay safe, everyone. Minutes later, her meal finished, Lorelei stood and made her way to the Godswood--and, hopefully, to the angels who could help her along the path of her destiny.
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Naevius
Mustardblood
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 3:04:34 GMT -5
The young Scion of Hope had the fortune to, as she left the restaurant to make her way to the Godswood, come across a small group of turtles--led by one that, in addition to its monocle and tophat, wore the robes of some sort of priest. Lorelei merely had to follow them as they made a sort of pilgrimage into the great forest. The Godswood, as spectacular as it was from the outside, was even moreso as one entered it. It was a mix of deciduous (which meant, in this wintery world, permanently barren) and nondeciduous trees, the bark of which were all as black as pitch. Each tree of this ancient forest was enormously large around and towered greatly over those below like city skyscrapers. Lorelei was greatly reminded of the California redwoods she had visited once, but even those trees were dwarfed by these towering giants. Always the snow delicately fell from the sky above, some of it catching on branches and golden pineneedles growing from the evergoldens--for "evergreen" was no longer an apt name in this world--and some of it falling to the earth, lightly covering the trail they walked. In addition, it seemed like each tree had the face of a frog crudely, yet not without skill, carved into the trunk, all facing outward, away from the center of the forest. The priest turtle guiding them explained that these were known as "the eyes of the Speaker". He further explained that, should one potentially incur the wrath of the Speaker by heading too far into the forest, one could find one's way back by simply following the faces, for they always looked away from the center of the forest (where the Great Pond was rumored to lie). "Excuse me, Sir," Lorelei said during the next available lull in his explanations. "Are there, perhaps, any legends related to the Scion of Hope and this forest?" "Wot, I say, you're an enthusiast for that old wives' tale, I take it?" Another turtle who didn't know she existed. I imagine it is simply that word has not had time to spread to this new continent, given I largely kept my efforts confined to the other continent yesterday. They do not appear to have anything like phones, after all. Lorelei nodded, chuckling slightly. "I suppose you could say that." "Well, let me think..." The priest turtle wotted to himself under his breath for a few moments, before appearing to recall something from the darkest recesses of his reptilian memory. "AH! Wot, I remember now, wot wot! I can't say I remember the specifics, but I do recall some sort of prophecy about the Scion entering this forest to seek training from the gods." Lorelei nodded to herself, pleased that she wasn't in the entirely wrong forest (or, indeed, that the forest idea wasn't the wrong way to go at all). "I see. Thank you very much, Sir." It was not too much farther into the Godswood before the priest leading the way stopped. Deeming it far enough into the great forest, he turned around towards his followers. The assembled pilgrims all knelt and clasped their little turtle hands together, and the priest led them all in a series of religious chants--often punctuated, much like the "Ave Maria!" of Catholicism, by "Wot!"s. It was all ludicrously adorable and interesting besides, so while Lorelei did not kneel and join in, she stood to the side and observed. The chants seemed built around honoring the Speaker of the Vast Croak, praying for protection from his enemies (these chants seemed particularly heartfelt from the congregation), and wishing for the day that he would squat on the pond that creates the new universe...or something. When they were finished, the assembled turtles all stood and began to make their way back towards the town, talking and woting happily amongst themselves. The priest hung back, looking at Lorelei with an inquisitive stare through his monocle. "You are not like the other pilgrims, are you?" Lorelei giggled and shook her head. "No, I do not believe I am." She almost added in "Was it my species that gave it away, or the fact that I wasn't praying?" but sarcasm in the presence of one not a good friend was hardly becoming of a lady. The priest seemed to mull something over for a few moments before deciding, "You're the Scion of Hope, aren't you?" Lorelei outright laughed this time. "I thought you did not believe in such old wives' tales, my friend?" "All the same, I say... Wot wot, all the years I've done this, never once have I brought along someone who has only observed but not prayed. You have to have a different reason for coming here, and you did ask about the Scion..." "Superbly reasoned, Sir. I do not suppose there is much sense in denying it." Lorelei, in a pose that was certainly inspired by a certain blue-haired anime hero, pointed to the wintery sky above, towards Skaia which could be barely seen glowing through the cloud cover, and smiled confidently. "I am indeed the Scion of Hope, and if your legends are true then after my training in this forest, I shall make all of Zeus' villainous minions quiver in fright! The liberation of the Land of Gold and Snow shall soon begin!" The priestly turtle looked at her with something of a wistful smile, and muttered to himself, "I never thought I'd live to see the day... Speaker keep you on your journey, then, Scion. Go in the opposite direction of the faces and you will make your way to the center, wot. I don't know whether that is the place you must go, but it is a good enough place to start looking. And be careful of the Wildlings." Lorelei lowered her arm, inquisitive. "Wildlings?" The priest nodded, something of a look of awe and religious fear in his eyes and voice. "Half-turtle and half-frog. They guard these forests for the Speaker, and are the reason we never enter too far. Those who have gone too far in have, to the best of our knowledge, never returned. Be careful, Scion." "I will, thank you." ===> Lorelei did as instructed, always heading in the opposite direction of the faces carved on every single tree, always gazing towards the outside world--for this place very much seemed a world of its own, and Lorelei could understand the religous-level of reverence the turtles held for it. Every howl of chill wind rustled the branches of the great black trees like a symphony of nature, but it was otherwise almost deathly quiet save for the occasional call of some nearby alien animal. She counted herself lucky that she always kept spare clothes in her sylladex and had changed shortly after the arrival to the village. The hole SE's laser had torn into her last garments would only have exacerbated the wind's chill. She pressed forward, occasionally catching glances of some alien animal native to this land (once she could have sworn she saw a three-legged, deer-like sort of animal with a sort of shell all along its back). Always in the back of her mind was a rather paranoid feeling that she was being watched. She tried to dismiss it as the effect of all the frog-faces in the trees, but still it remained. Always she would turn where she thought she was being watched, always she would find nothing. After a while she started keeping her drill clutched in her right hand, just in case. Ten more minutes' travel in, and she suddenly heard a voice speak right behind her. "Well, well. What have we here?"
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SW
Mustardblood
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Post by SW on Jul 9, 2015 3:09:11 GMT -5
((Tluthal's post)) Gita sighed. Why me? The damn kid was going to drive her completely and utterly mad. Again. And she'd been having quite enough relapses lately. While Zach slept she studiously avoided her roof. Thank fuck for that. Instead, she sat at her kitchen table eating pizza, cold chicken, and drinking vodka straight from the bottle. One of the cat consorts wandered up. " Nya?" " Hiiiiiii kitty~" Gita slurred out, offering it a piece of chicken. The cat nommed it down, then scooted. Right for the roof. >Cat: Wake Zach up. Zach is not asleep! He is merely resting. >Cat: Play with not sleeping human Cat Cat what are you doing that is not playing. Stop that, Cat. "GOD DAMN IT! I CAN'T SIT DOWN FOR FIVE MINUTES? FUCK YOU, CAT. OW SHIT" Zach's yelling did nothing to scare the cat away, instead attracting more of the little bastards. They were after his blood (or it seemed like they were), and he had two choices; fight or run. >Zach: Run. >NO. You can't hurt them. They're not the bad guys here, they just happen to be incredibly violent. Plus just look at them. Well there's always back inside. Where Gita is... oddly quiet. That is a terrible idea and you are stupid for thinking of-" NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" INSIDE IT IS. Zach took a quick glance around to find the quickest entrance to her house and found, to his delight, a door that led straight in. With the last of his energy, he sprinted towards it, dodging cats on the way. *SLAM* "Haha... phew. Suck it, cats." --Zzt " And what, precisely, was that all about?" A cold, mechanicly-tinged voice asked. OHGODWHERE'DSHECOMEFROM. ROBOT."Oh, hi... robosprite. There were cats and I needed cover and please don't taze me." Zach took a step back, sizing up the android as though coming up with an attack strategy. He was really just interested in the design but it LOOKED like plotting. "You're not still mad about the stairs thing, are you?" Tri-eye robostare. " As this form allows me to persue my function more efficiently, no. However, no further accidents will happen." "Yeah, sorry about that. Nobody warned me about those. So... can I wait in here 'til they're gone?" " I suppose." "Thank you, you are an awesome ghostbot." " You do realize they are this land's inhabitants." "Yep. They still want me dead. Or maimed, or something." Zach held up a shredded forearm. " They were playing." "How was that playing?!" " I believe the term is 'love scratches'." Robots doing air quotes is funny right? "Ah, yes. 'Love scratches.'" Air quotes right back at it. "We have dismissed that claim." " I suggest you exit downstairs." "Wait. Before I go, what model are you and where can I find blueprints? I wanna' see if I can-" " No." Zzt-- Goddamn ninja robot! "...Build a copy. Okay, nevermind. Then another question; where's Gita and how do I avoid her?" He's speaking to empty air, unfortunately... Or not. Nya~~~~ "Nevermind!" Zach made a mad dash away from the door, forgetting that A) Cats can't open doors, and B) ... "FUCK!" ===> You warned you, bro. That is a pile of frilly dresses at the bottom of the stairs. And the law of cartoon cliches demands it... ===> ===> ===> ===> " What the dripping purple demon cu-" ===> what.
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 3:19:04 GMT -5
Lorelei spun quickly on her heels, heart racing and fear sending an icy chill down her spine--sure, the Wildlings may have just been consorts, but the priest implied they killed those they found, and an arrow through the neck or a stone to the head was just as deadly no matter who threw it. What awaited her gaze was hardly what she expected, given the rumors that surrounded the Wildlings: a simple turtle, not unlike the ones back at the town, but bereft of the usual monocle and tophat worn by their kind. Instead they had painted themselves in black, striped tattoos similar in nature to a tiger's markings. Nowhere, to Lorelei's eyes, was there a trace of frog likeness to the one who stood before her. The little turtle in front of her made vaguely threatening movements with the mini bow and arrow it held in its tiny hands, which prompted Lorelei to stop gawking long enough to speak. " Uh... M-My name is Lorelei Von Hayek. I am the Scion of Hope, and I have entered these woods to seek the wisdom of the angels." This seemed to have quite the effect on the turtle, who promptly lowered his weapon with wide-eyed reverence. Other turtles came out of hiding in the nearby forest--almost seeming to appear from nowhere to Lorelei's perception, such was their skill in stealth amongst the Godswood--and congregated around her in a circle, all with that same look of reverence. "The Scion of Hope?" one from the crowd repeated, as if he dare not believe his...whatever turtles have instead of ears. " That's right." Some of the turtles, apparently the leaders of their little band, broke off from the encircling congregation to wot amongst themselves for a few moments--for that seemed to be one thing they shared with their civilized cousins. A little while later a consensus seemed to be reached, and then turned back to Lorelei. "You are looking for the angels? We can take you there, through the Godswood. However, we have something to ask in exchange," one of them said. " Well, I shall try to help in any way I can. What is it?" "We simply ask that...when the time comes, you do as was foretold and cleanse the Great Tree at the center of our forest." A mixture of awe and melancholy flitted over all of the turtles' features at the mention of this tree. " Well...if it is that important to you, of course! Besides, I could hardly shirk what seems to me one of my duties as the Scion." A wave of relief seemed to pass through all of the tribal turtles around her, and the group began heading off towards what Lorelei could only assume were the angels she sought, so she followed along. "Thank you, Scion," the same turtle as before said. "We all thank you." " This tree certainly seems important to you. What is it?" "The first tree, planted by the Speaker-" "Nonsense, wot!" another turtle interrupted. "It was Saint Tutalus who planted the Great Tree! The Speaker has better things to do than plant trees!" "Then how do you explain its power, wot?!" the first turtle fired right back. "I tell you, the Speaker of the Vast Croak planted that tree and anyone who says otherwise is a fool!" " Now, now, gentleturtles," Lorelei stepped in-between them, eager to head off this potentially heated theological debate before it could go any further--some part of her wondered if it had anything to do with the disagreements over whether the Speaker lived in the Godswood or simply occasionally visited. " We can agree the tree is important, yes? I take it that the whole Godswood is descended from that one tree?" "Quite right, wot," the first turtle responded. "It has the Great Face carved in, and you can enter a sacred temple through the face's open mouth. Unfortunately, some sort of...corruption has taken the place. Any of us who enter never return, but it is foretold that the Scion has the power to cleanse it." Lorelei was about to ask further questions, but was interrupted when her glasses flared to life once again, informing her of an incoming message. To her delight, it was Peter contacting her. -- absoluteTranquility [AT] started pestering philosopherQueen [PQ] -- {Spoiler}AT: Does a black eye count as mauled? AT: I fear I may have disappointed the glorious friendleader :V PQ: Oh, dear. What happened? AT: Some asshole in a polo shirt punched me in the head! AT: I don't know who it was though. Do any of your servants wait around on rooftops to beat up little kids? PQ: No, not at all! PQ: And Grandfather would do no such thing. Nor is he the type to wear polo shirts. PQ: You saw naught but his shirt, though? No face, or identifying features? AT: Just a silhouette AT: I could see the stupid collar though. He like flashstepped away 'fore I saw anything else so i think he's trying to hide or something. PQ: Ugh. This game appears to be attempting to confuse me in every conceivable manner... PQ: I cannot but wonder whether this mysterious man of yours might have something to do with my mother's death, or if I am being too maudlin over a mere strange case of assault... AT: Well to be fair I snuck up on him and he didn't try to stab me :P AT: I guess we should be on the lookout for this guy though. I'll try to follow him if i see him again. AT: Also, asshole aside i can't find any good quests here so if you need help let me know :V PQ: I suppose so. I am both very glad you are all right and quite disturbed that cute face of your did in fact get mauled. :P PQ: I do not think you could find me if you came here, I am afraid. I am currently deep in a very large forest, following some guides. While I would be able to leave just fine, I could not direct anyone to my whereabouts. PQ: Keep looking, though! I am sure there is something the snakes need! AT: Will do. :D AT: OH and one more thing, I forgot to give you your portal gun. AT: I made a bunch of them and they're all kind of just lying around and now I'm out of grist but it was totally worth it because these things are sweet. PQ: I actually had meant to make one of my own after they were mentioned in that memo of ours, it simply slipped my mind. PQ: But thank you very much! Do you have the code for it, perchance? I shall create it when I am able to return to my mansion. AT: tITpWhky AT: I think AT: Yeah that should work. Gotta' go, this building is heating up fast! D: PQ: Do be careful! AT: I'll try! -- absoluteTranquility [AT] ceased pestering philosopherQueen [PQ] -- ===> Twenty minutes of walking later, they came upon what looked like a small cave, its entrance covered in black vines. Underneath the foliage covering the rest of the rock the cave was hewn from Lorelei thought she could see carvings of some figures, but before she could really have a chance to analyze them one of the turtles spoke up. "Through here are the angels you seek. We cannot follow, as they do not take kindly to outsiders entering their domain. Do be careful, wot." " O-of course..." Lorelei took a deep breath, suddenly filled with trepidation. She remembered Khirun's words, on describing the angels. Grim, feathery harbingers. Numinous and aweful. The young Scion of Hope could not help her trembling, her legs feeling like they were jelly, as she entered the cave. It was pitch-black inside the cave, save for the small points of light breaking through the vines behind her. Yet as she moved further into the cave, the more the light deserted her. Eventually Lorelei had to hold up her drill and use her own white magic to light the way forward. She stumbled her way through the black cave, always on the lookout for where the angels might be--and some part of her, in the back of her head, wondering if this was not some elaborate form of trap, but the rest of her dismissed it as the product of naught but her fear. Fear is useful, but must be conquered and controlled. She reminded herself. She had spent roughly three minutes in the cave by the time she came across something: what appeared to be an exit, covered in black vines much like the entrance and with small bits of light managing to shine through. She walked through the vines and came out into a beautiful meadow clearing, surrounded on all sides by still more great trees of the Godswood. And that, as her eyes adjusted once again to the light, was when she first saw them.
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SW
Mustardblood
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Post by SW on Jul 9, 2015 3:30:08 GMT -5
"thip thip thip our hero!" A chorus of tiny voices greeted Page upon her departure from the room she had slept in. While Page was busy recovering, Dahlia had managed to assemble the entire populace of the small village in the main room of the large building they were in -- an inn, she had correctly guessed -- and now stood well aside as the little blue lizards skittered excitedly around tables and chairs awaiting the emergence of their "incredibly cool hero". As a matter of fact, yes, Dahlia was personally responsible for the adoption of that phrase into their lexicon. "three cheers for the hero! thip thip hooray!" The blue lizards swarmed towards Page, all smiles and awed expressions, and Dahlia stepped back to let them past, even urging them onward with gestures towards their inevitably bewildered savior -- not that she would have been able to stand in the way of such exuberance anyway. "thip thip hooray!" The little lizards crowded around Page, some reaching up to offer stubby-fingered hands in greeting, some hopping up and down in an excited cheer, and still others offering little trinkets to their hero; particularly shiny stones of unknown variety, or endearingly ragged 'crowns' of woven clover flowers, or even, in one case, a threadbare jacket much like the ones the little lizards themselves were wearing. "thip thip hooray!" That's right, the little lizards were wearing jackets. And ragged fingerless gloves in some cases, looking rather like something out of Oliver Twist or Les Misérables. "Oh, don't worry about that," Dahlia remarked to the one offering the jacket to Page, waving the little lizard away. She grinned to herself and continued muttering under her breath. "I just saved the poor girl from fashion victimhood not more than a few hours ago, no need to send her straight back to Salvation Armyville just yet." "I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-" Page was like a deer caught in an industrial-strength spotlight. She tried many times to form a coherent statement to her reptilian admirers, but mostly just fumbled, stuttered, blushed, and scanned the surroundings for any viable means out of there (there were none). "I mean, it wasn't, that is, of course, but, possibly, perhaps..." She ended that bizarre non-sentence with nothing more than a tiny little squeak of embarrassment. At this point and in response to Page's obviously flustered response, were she anyone else (say, Lorelei), Dahlia would have intervened and politely excused her traveling companion from the situation. But Dahlia wasn't Lorelei. Dahlia was Dahlia. And Dahlia, being Dahlia, proceeded to do what Dahlia does... which, in this case, involved throwing Page under the proverbial bus. "Aw, look at that, she's overwhelmed with happiness! Your hero, folks -- ever humble, always polite. Just give her a bit and I'm sure she'll warm right up to you," pun entirely intended, "and then you can all get your party on in celebration. But a hero's always got the hero's work to do, so you'd best not let this opportunity pass, or she'll be gone before you know it, wandered off into the sunset to save more silly blue lizards somewhere else!" With that, Dahlia bowed and excused herself, slipping out of the inn as the little lizards crowded around Page and hoisted her into the air, carrying her about in celebratory fashion, all the while cheering as before. "thip hey there," a voice from behind Dahlia just after exiting the inn made her jump in surprise, "so are you thip sidekick or somethip?" Dahlia's eyes narrowed briefly, unseen as she was facing away, but her expression quickly softened and she turned to face a particularly small-looking blue iguana, an adorable ragamuffin of amphibian youth. "I guess..." She trailed off distractedly, gaze wandering briefly to the celebrations inside the inn. She smiled. "...Yeah, something like that." She gave the little lizard a quick nudge towards the door. "Better get inside before they cut the cake without you or whatever it is you guys do." The iguana child looked up to her with what seemed, at first, to be skepticism, but soon turned to a wide-eyed smile and it nodded, scurrying inside to join the others. With nary more than another, half-protesting squeak, the Page of Frost was led away by her comrade's consorts. They kept her for some time, and while there was unfortunately no cake-cutting, Page did have to try some of their bug-related local cuisine, trying her best to choke it down and not show how close to coughing it back up she was. Some part of her knew that she could likely get out of there simply by saying she had to leave, but as a different consort each time ran up to her with some new gift or something they wanted to do with her, she couldn't look in their big, hopeful eyes and tell them "no". It was only when their attention span began to flag, and the consorts began to go about whatever they had been doing before the attack, that Page successfully excused herself and made her way back to Dahlia. She said nothing, upon returning. No dark looks or glares, but neither any smiles. It was, perhaps, the first time since Dahlia had known her that Page was utterly unreadable. She simply kept quiet and waited for Dahlia to say something or go somewhere else. Dahlia was actually looking rather oddly pensive when Page finally escaped her friendly captors, but quickly reverted to her usual half-a-smirk upon noticing her companion returning. "See this is why I don't play hero." Dahlia shrugged and started walking away from the village, checking only once to make sure Page was following before shoving her hands into her pockets and continuing on her way. "Get caught up in all that nonsense and next thing you know you're chasing down a wizard in an icy cave only to find that your so-called friends have sent you straight into a trap that they were all too stupid to see coming and all you can think is how much you wish you'd said no when that lady asked you to get her cat down out of the tree." Dahlia was, of course, talking out of her ass at this point, but she was on a roll. "So we need to keep moving, keep progressing, and keep our eyes on the prize. The prize is stabbing imps, in case we're taking notes or something. Stabbing imps, beating the game, and getting the great flaming Dantean hell out of here." And... back to Earth I guess? Man I don't even know at this point. Dahlia did her best to keep her concern from her expression, but a momentary twitch of her otherwise-grinning lips betrayed her. Just keep walking and maybe she won't notice. That's... Words failed her for a moment. Wrong? Uncaring? Perhaps. Yet it was also an outlook, despite her father's best intentions to shield her, that Page knew very well from her impoverished upbringing. There were days when they were able to stay at a homeless shelter. Some of those days, Page might actually get into a conversation somehow with another one of the fellow occupants. Some of those days, they might say something that tipped off about about that sort of outlook. Some of those days, they might outright state it--always in the form of "advice" for young Page. "Let me give you some advice," they would always start with. So she couldn't hate or dislike Dahlia for that outlook, or even really blame her. Not really. As strange as it was to hear from someone on the opposite end of the spectrum of wealth, Page was sure she had her reasons. That didn't mean she had to agree. That's not what Lorelei...or what I would want to do, I think. Still no words. Still the strangely unreadable face--so unlike the normally expressive young girl. Still, she followed along, looking lost to the world around her as she mulled things over. "I don't regret it," she muttered to herself. This time, Dahlia's eyes did narrow. "That's because you're--" She cut off sharply, then sighed, her voice softening considerably. "I'm not a hero, Page. Lorelei is. You are, now. But me?" Dahlia fell back on her earlier statement, producing a knife from her strife specibus and gesturing sharply with it a few times before flicking it at the ground. She left it stuck there and kept on walking. "I stab things. That's it. I stab things and I fight people and every once in a while I calculate the effects of a gravitational anomaly in Mexico or something just to figure out some obtuse asinine puzzle." As much as that may have seemed like the sort of thing that would make a good deal more sense in context, Dahlia was quite certain context would only make it worse. "I'm not saying I'm not glad to not be a sticky red paste in an impact crater, or that I'm not interested in creating gods or playing tinker toys with a universe or whatever it is that I'm supposed to do here." Dahlia's professed ignorance here, of course, was just that: professed, and nothing more. She knew what her role was, inasmuch as she might have been able to gather from a thorough reading of Lorelei's memo and a recollection of her conversation with Guardian. But there was no sense in getting anyone's hopes up by sounding like she actually knew what she was talking about. "It's just, all this 'savior' nonsense, I'll leave to someone else, someone more suited to senseless bravado and needless self-sacrifice. Because I'm not a h--" Dahlia stopped dead in her tracks -- physical ones and conversational ones alike. She tilted her head slightly, as if something had caught her attention, some sound nobody else could hear, or some sight nobody else could see. All that Dahlia said, which she had been carefully thinking over as her friend had said it, was driven out of her mind for now when Dahlia stopped dead in her tracks. She glanced at her friend(?) with a mixture of confusion and fear. "Wh-what's the matter?" In lieu of an answer, Dahlia turned abruptly to her right, and set off at twice her previous pace towards a mountain looming just beyond a nearby hill. ===> This was a terrible idea. There was no part of this which was logical, or even reasonable. But Dahlia was doing it anyway, marching off towards a cramped, dark cave without explanation... because quite honestly, she was having trouble explaining it to herself. "Are you ok, maybe, Dahlia? Where are we going? Page asked, nevertheless dutifully following along. After all, given her own strange behavior earlier, she wasn't too surprised. Perhaps they had acted strangely for the same reason? "I don't-- I don't know..." Dahlia grimaced mid-sentence, trying to focus. She didn't know where she was going, or why she was going there, but she was following something... like a voice that wasn't a voice, or an image that wasn't there, some barely-tangible tugging on a sense she couldn't quite describe; source unknown, meaning unknown, intent unknown, all Dahlia knew was that it WOULD NOT SHUT UP. Or get out of her sight or stop pulling on her or... were she less distracted, Dahlia might have lamented the inadequacy of human language in describing sensations beyond the scope of normal experience. Of course, that would be something of a paradox, wouldn't it? Dahlia led the way into the darkening cave, slight twists and turns and a pair of branching paths serving to further cut off whatever natural light might otherwise reach into its depths. Fortunately she always had the foresight to carry a flashlight with her, just in case she had to-- --son of a bitch the batteries are dead. "...Well then." Dahlia's disappointment was clear from her tone, even if her face was somewhat less than visible in what dim light still filtered into the back reaches of the cave. "Two choices. One, you can follow me into the poorly-lit cave. It's dark and we may be eaten by a grue. Two, you can wait for me outsi--" Page grabbed onto Dahlia's sleeve with the desperation of a drowning woman. Her fright over entering the dark and foreboding cave was obvious, both from what the dim light managed to show of her face and the fact that she was shivering ever-so-slightly. Yet she did not turn and run to abandon Dahlia, no matter her fears. After a long moment in silence, Dahlia nodded, whether or not Page could see her do so. But she didn't move just yet. Hesitating only briefly, Dahlia raised her opposite hand to lay over Page's, closing over the smaller girl's hand and -- despite herself -- giving a reassuring squeeze. It was only after Page's trembling had calmed that she continued, hand still clasped over Page's for as long as the girl wanted to hold her sleeve, onward into the cave... and towards a faint, distant, greenish glow. "Page... do you see that?" Dahlia's tone as she rounded yet another corner was one of quiet awe. Now that the source of the glow was in view, she very nearly had to shield her eyes, blinking against the light. There, seemingly a part of the cave wall, was a symbol -- an unsteady circle, missing the upper-right quarter, rather like an apple that had been partially eaten. The symbol itself was so bright it seemed white, while the light it cast was a harsh, electric green. Smaller symbols drifted off the pictographic apple, curious combinations of clean geometric shapes that hung briefly in the air before fading away. Much like the sensation that drew her, Dahlia felt like she almost recognized the symbols... almost. Page peered into the darkness with squinted eyes--for that was all it seemed to her: darkness and more darkness, no strange wall symbol to be found. "I...I don't see anything, I guess..." "What do you mean?" Dahlia might have blinked in confusion, were she not already squinting against the bright glow. She reached out her free hand to draw her fingertips over the blazing green-white symbol. "This symbol, right h--" Dahlia fell silent the instant the intangible image touched her skin. Her entire world exploded in light and pain.
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 3:35:47 GMT -5
Hello, this is... Guardian. Call me Guardian. God, I've...had so many names I can't even remember the first one. Altair Ibn-La'Ahad. Perry Northchester. Cao Shu. Cao... Cao... That one seems so familiar... Cao... Nnnngh... I can't remember, it doesn't matter anymore! LISTEN TO ME! I... Everything. It's all gone. Everyone I cared about, dead. To this day I don't understand why. I've puzzled and beat my head against the wall but it MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE! WHY?! WHY, GOD DAMN IT?! *sigh*... It doesn't matter why. What matters...is how. How and when and where and what. That's....that's what I have to show you. That's my final duty as "Guardian". Pfftheh. What a lousy fucking nickname for a guy who ran while everyone he loved died. This has to be a doomed timeline. It has to be. And if it is...well, I won't say this is the way to stop it, or that you finding all of this out actually WILL stop it. Fuck, I'm almost sure it won't. But I can't... I can't just let it end like that, not without trying to stop it. I've hid...glyphs like these. Throughout your land. Maybe some others, I can't remember. Or do I just not know what I'm going to do yet? I can't remember. Whatever. Find them... Only YOU can open them. Your name, it's...Dahlia, right? Yes. I remember. And the other one, the one that's kind of like you, only not? What's her name? Ghhh... It starts with an L! Whatever, these are for you, not her! I'll explain later why you two are the only ones who can find these, it's not important now! I need... I don't have much time left, I need to tell you this. All of this. I'll start from the beginning. The very beginning. Act One: In the beginning... It's not different. It's not different, don't you see? It should be different. It should be...so utterly different, after he leaves his calling card. But it's not. It's the same. The Guardian who's there with you? I don't think he even realizes it. I never did. That's the beauty behind the plan. IT'S NOT DIFFERENT! And yet it is. It's different. She played us...played me...all for fools. It's like a fucking PUPPET SHOW. Dance, you mongrels! Dance! All in the same oft-choreographed act, yet...different. With her own personal flair. You never see it. I never saw it. We only see what we're trained to see. The official history books don't have it, I had to go and find it all out myself... But it's there, if you look. In the beginning... “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. -Genesis 3:2-6. Eve...Mitochrondrial Eve. The common ancestor of all living humans, living 200000 years ago! They all assumed it was chance! But it wasn't. It wasn't. She came to Eve...she...offered her the power of the cueball, DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?! But in exchange... In exchange for the power to see the future and manipulate events to BECOME this mother of all humanity!... Her DNA was changed. A new structure was inserted. It was a DNA structure that would ALLOW her to...to control her! Without her even realizing it! But the cueball? The cueball didn't stop there... She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Genesis 3:6. It was...for the same reason! Thousands of years later, he had the exact genetic structure she NEEDED, that would let her control! Y-Chromosomal Adam... He got the cueball as well... But she wouldn't be satisfied with just breeding people.
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 3:37:41 GMT -5
Aweful and numinous were the angels who floated before Lorelei. Their skin was a white-grey pallor that seemed to have a sort of unnatural glow. They had human-like torsos that ended, rather than in legs, with long, snake-like single appendages that reminded Lorelei of her own sprite. They possessed no arms either, merely having wings in their place--Lorelei wondered how they were able to move things around, or if they even needed to. Every one of them was bald, but each seemed utterly androgynous and without any features pointing towards feminine or masculine sex. Their eyes were without pupils, but purely white and brightly glowing. Their mere prescence implied great power, and their every movement confirmed it. Most unnerving of all was that every one of them--of which there were around thirtyish, Lorelei estimated--were stock-still in the middle of wherever they had been when she was entering, staring straight at her with those glowing white not-eyes. Lorelei had practiced what she might say to these angels upon finding them, but the memorized speech eluded her mind's grasp, and she could do naught but fidget and squirm. A group of five broke apart from the main throng and made their way towards Lorelei. Strangely, they hardly seemed to need the wings on their arms, as they seemed to more float about with incredible ease, kept in the air by some unknown force that Lorelei greatly suspected was similar to her own magic. When the five gathered before her and spoke, they seemed to constantly finish each other's thoughts, as if connected by a hive mind of sorts. " She arrives," one remarked. Another: " Earlier than the others." And a third: " Outside help?" And so on: " Likely." " Another Hero of Hope, perhaps." " The transformation process..." " has already irrevocably changed her consciousness." " Still, she remains..." " Only human." The angels were silent for a moment, staring as if to contemplate her further. Lorelei took this as her cue to speak and, though her knees shook and her throat felt dry, she managed to stutter out, " Ah..U-um...yes... I-I am Lorelei von Ha-" " We know who you are," one forcefully interrupted. " and why you are here." " You seek further mastery of your powers." " R-right...and some information too, I suppose. If that is all right..." In perfect unison, the angels pointed to their left, towards a path that led out of the meadow. In equally perfect unison, they stated: " To the caverns." " You are untested," one stated. " Creator or destroyer?" " The caverns will start you down your path." " Whichever you choose..." " We do not pass judgment." " You shall be trained either way." " Creator...? Destroyer...? What is the difference between those?" She thought for a moment. " Do you mean creator or destroyer of Hope? Why would I ever want to be the latter? Is that not against my entire, well, point as the Scion of Hope?" " Your domain is Hope," " Not necessarily the creation thereof." " Further questions will be answered when you return." Once again, the five in perfect unity of movement and voice, pointed to the path and spoke, " To the caverns." " Um...all right." Lorelei moved to head towards the path they pointed towards, but stopped in her path after a few steps. She turned back to the angels and said, " Actually, before I go, may I ask a not really important que-" The five angels almost seemed to burst into flames, as the unnatural glow around them transformed into a bright, wispy, foreboding energy somewhat like fire. Their eyes glowed even whiter than before, and they loomed over the young Scion. All Lorelei could think as she shrank back in fright was a line from an old historical American sermon: "Sinners in the hands of an angry God." " DO AS COMMANDED!" they bellowed with divine fury all at once. " R-right!" Lorelei took to her heels as fast as she could, heart racing and fear rushing down her spine like a cold chill. " S-SORRYYYYY!"
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 3:39:18 GMT -5
Lorelei really had expected these fabled "caverns" to be more, for what stood before her was hardly very impressive. In another small clearing at the end of the path she had followed away from the angels, there was naught but a simple arching, earthen entrance. There were no identifying markings, no signs, nothing made of gold like all the other structures in this world. And yet, as Lorelei crept closer, she could not help feel a strange sense of foreboding. This could not be all it was. What was she supposed to even do in the caverns, anyway? Maybe find her way through some Cretan labrynth, dodging the horrible minotaur all the while? Whatever the questions that remained unanswered, whatever the fears that rose in her heart the closer she made her way to the beckoning blackness of the caverns' entryway, she had to go in. Never retreat, never surrender, never look back... Lorelei took a deep, shaky breath. Never retreat, never surrender, never look back... > Scion: Descend She made her way down the steps, the sound of her footsteps hitting each earthen step making thick "thump" sounds that echoed slightly off the claustrophobic walls. It was dark, and Lorelei could hardly see her hand stretched out in front of her face. The further she went down, the more the fear in her heart clamored to turn and run, and the more the very air and darkness around her seemed to enclose around her and trap her. She started shivering, not from cold--though it was indeed far colder than even the wintery land she had just left--but from the fear that clawed at the edges of her mind. Still, she descended, hand running along one of the walls for guidance. With her free hand, she took out her drill and attempted to use some of her magic to light the way, but there was no response from the weapon. The focused all of her energy and concentration into the weapon, willing with all her might that it light her path. For a moment, it seemed like there might have been a bit of white magical light springing from the tip of the drill, yet it seemed to be... snuffed out by the darkness, like someone covering a fire with a thick cloth. She thought she began to hear whispers around her. They said nothing definite, but it sounded like many disembodied voices all whispering from every direction at once. They got louder the further down she went, but they all talked over each other, and Lorelei could not tell what was being said. Fear gnawed at her greater still, yet--knees shaking to the point it took her active will to keep from collapsing to her knees--she pressed slowly forward. The stairs ended, the whispers grew louder. Always the whispers. She thought she heard one say something like "You will die", but disregarded it as nothing but a product of her fear. God forgive me... Wait...where did that thought come from? She...she had no forgiveness to ask of God. Why did..? I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! Lorelei's eyes began to tear up and she held her head in both hands, learning against the nearby wall for support. Wh-what's happening to me...?! This place, I... I c-can't use my magic, I don't know what's happening to me! Scenarios began to play out in her head. Scenarios of her dying in this dark place by some unknown assailant, defenseless without her magic. Scenarios of her perhaps going insane and being trapped down here for the rest of her days, never found again by those who cared about her. Scenarios of her going insane and being found again by them, a mad wreck of the friend they once knew. Scenarios of that same mad friend killing them all without even realizing what she was doing. Lorelei began to cry. Sobs racked her body and she wanted to do nothing more than to turn and run away from this place where happiness went to die. FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME GOD I'M SO SO SORRY One step, then another. Forward. Never retreat, never surrender, never look back. She just had to ignore ALL OF THOSE DAMN WHISPERS AGAIN WHY WOULD THEY NOT QUIET DOWN WHAT WERE THEY SAYING I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SO SO SORRY PLEASE FORGIVE ME HAVE MERCY I'M SORRY DON'T HURT ME I'M SCARED One step, then another. Forward. Never retreat, never surrender, never look back. She just to ignore THE STRANGE THOUGHTS THAT ALWAYS ENTERED HER HEAD WHY WERE THEY THERE WHAT WAS GOING ON WAS SHE GOING INSANE FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME IT HURTS One step, then another. Forward. Never retreat, never surrender, never look back. Her eyes were staring to adjust, and she could see that the path in front of her broke off in two directions. With no better idea, she started down the right path. I'M SCARED I'M SCARED I'M SCARED I'M SCARED GOD FORGIVE ME IT HURTS GOD SAVE ME I DON'T WANT TO DIE One step, then another. Forward. Never retreat, never surrender, never look back. She stumbled around a corner, and that was when she smelled it. Urine and fecal matter assaulted her nose, clinging to the greater stench of death that pervaded the air. She froze to the spot. This smell... Memories came back. The body, Adelle's body, swaying lifeless from a makeshift noose tied to her ceiling fan. Those dead, cold not-eyes staring at her from beyond the grave. The smell. The smell from where she had voided her bowels as she died. Lorelei fell to her knees, much as she had back then, still crying. And suddenly, the memory stopped being merely a memory, and Adelle swung before her on a noose attached to nothing, cold and lifeless eyes boring into her soul. "Lorelei" those blue, dead lips said. OH GOD FORGIVE ME I'M SO SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY HAVE MERCY FORGIVE ME I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 3:39:48 GMT -5
((Ripcord's post)) >BP: Take action. That would require knowing where this 'Guardian' guy was, which, unfortunately, neither you or your subordinate do. And while you haven't seen much of him, you have a strong feeling that the two of you would be unable to face him alone anyway. No, if you're going to go after him, you're going to need a much bigger force. ===> ===> ...Or not. ===> You follow after the AUTHORITY REGULATOR, unaware that you yourself are being tailed. The EMISSARY wanders off to take care of his own business. You hope he doesn't mean killing a little girl, but know that's probably it. He's kind of a dick sometimes. ===> ===>
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 3:40:20 GMT -5
((Ripcord's post)) >FLYYYYYYYY, PETER, FLYYYYYYYY >Peter: Investigate douchebag. "Hey! Incoming!" ===> "What are you doing? Don't you know it's dangerous out h-" ===> ===> ===> "Owww.... ===> The mysterious douchebag quickly absconds, leaving you wondering what the hell just happened. ===> Maybe Lorelei knows who that was. She brought a lot of people into the game, he was probably one of them. -- absoluteTranquility [AT] started pestering philosopherQueen [PQ] -- AT: Does a black eye count as mauled? AT: I fear I may have disappointed the glorious friendleader :V PQ: Oh, dear. What happened? AT: Some asshole in a polo shirt punched me in the head! AT: I don't know who it was though. Do any of your servants wait around on rooftops to beat up little kids? PQ: No, not at all! PQ: And Grandfather would do no such thing. Nor is he the type to wear polo shirts. PQ: You saw naught but his shirt, though? No face, or identifying features? AT: Just a silhouette AT: I could see the stupid collar though. He like flashstepped away 'fore I saw anything else so i think he's trying to hide or something. PQ: Ugh. This game appears to be attempting to confuse me in every conceivable manner... PQ: I cannot but wonder whether this mysterious man of yours might have something to do with my mother's death, or if I am being too maudlin over a mere strange case of assault... AT: Well to be fair I snuck up on him and he didn't try to stab me :P AT: I guess we should be on the lookout for this guy though. I'll try to follow him if i see him again. AT: Also, asshole aside i can't find any good quests here so if you need help let me know :V PQ: I suppose so. I am both very glad you are all right and quite disturbed that cute face of your did in fact get mauled. :P PQ: I do not think you could find me if you came here, I am afraid. I am currently deep in a very large forest, following some guides. While I would be able to leave just fine, I could not direct anyone to my whereabouts. PQ: Keep looking, though! I am sure there is something the snakes need! AT: Will do. :D AT: OH and one more thing, I forgot to give you your portal gun. AT: I made a bunch of them and they're all kind of just lying around and now I'm out of grist but it was totally worth it because these things are sweet. PQ: I actually had meant to make one of my own after they were mentioned in that memo of ours, it simply slipped my mind. PQ: But thank you very much! Do you have the code for it, perchance? I shall create it when I am able to return to my mansion. AT: tITpWhky AT: I think AT: Yeah that should work. Gotta' go, this building is heating up fast! D: PQ: Do be careful! AT: I'll try! -- absoluteTranquility [AT] ceased pestering philosopherQueen [PQ] --
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SW
Mustardblood
Posts: 106
Mini-Profile Background: {"image":"http://i.imgur.com/Sn6IifL.jpg","color":"71a6d2"}
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Post by SW on Jul 9, 2015 3:57:53 GMT -5
> Be the Professor.
You cannot be the Professor. As a guardian, her motives are inscrutable, shrouded in a mist of her adopted ward's childish misperceptions and self-centered perspective. Only the Professor can be the Professor. Which she's going to do now, thank you very much. > [S] Professor: Do science to it.
As it so happens, the Professor is in the midst of doing science to it. Just what is "it", you ask? Well, it's a long story, but I suppose all of them are. At some point she may oblige us by telling us what it is, but that point is not this one. Suffice it to say, it's a puzzle. A 65-million-year-old puzzle. A shard of a meteor from the crater of the impact that was in part responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs on Earth. How appropriate that she was solving said puzzle on a planet populated by them. Once upon a time, she was a geologist. Her interest, in particular, was astrogeology, but that in and of itself led to study of a not-insignificant number of earthbound objects as well, as the Earth's atmosphere could only do so much in terms of burning up offending celestial objects before impact. Lately, of course, it was doing a rather poorer job of that. Was it gone already, reduced to so much cratered wasteland? Would the final meteor not fall for hours, days, months? Or is time even a relevant question? Her team had discovered the curious object twenty years ago. God, has it really been twenty years? She was so much younger then, a brilliant firebrand of science, fresh off her doctorate, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Figuratively speaking, of course. Nobody expected to find anything new in that crater. It had been studied by countless others who came before, and quite honestly, to the newly-minted Ph.D., assignment to the project seemed almost an insult. But they were pioneering new techniques in research, here in Middle of Freaking Nowhere, Mexico, and so she went along with only a slight rolling of the eyes. When they found it, she wished she could take back every sarcastic thing she ever said. The strange stone was unlike anything they had seen before -- unlike anything anyone had seen before. It resonated with a certain frequency, as if still shaking from the impact millions of years ago. Much like one could determine the location of a source of vibration based on the direction and intensity of oscillations, they followed the stone to the seeming source of its disturbance. She'd like to think what she did could be called something other than "going rogue", but that was precisely what had happened. Taking her team, she abandoned their present dig and followed a crazy hunch, heading for the north Pacific, with every scrap of research equipment they could grab. Once they found the island, funding for its research was easy enough to come by. She went from blackballed to hero overnight. And eventually, from geologist to computer programmer, and, years later and perhaps most unexpectedly of all, loving mother. That was one of the happiest moments of her life. Oh, but look at me still talking when there's science to do. ...No. This one's composition wasn't a match to the meteor, either. But it was a partial match, which means it must exist somewhere in this planetary system...
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 3:59:03 GMT -5
"Lorelei, why?" The whispers grew to almost deafening levels, clawing at the inside of her mind. Lorelei was seized with a sudden, maddeningly fierce desire to claw the skin away from her head to get them out, and it was only the intense fear that kept her from acting on it. Tears, warm and wet, continued to run down her cheeks as she gazed up at this unholy... demon that wore her face. For a few moments, the relative silence--save, of course, for the whispers, always the whispers--hung lifeless and dead between them. " A-Adelle...I-I...I..." I'M SORRY I'M SORRY GOD FORGIVE ME PLEASE HAVE MERCY FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME I'M SCARED I'M SORRY FORGIVE ME IT HURTS "Adelle" reached her sallow, corpse hand forward and lightly touched Lorelei's cheek. Lorelei felt a chill run down her spine and to her very core. Everything in her screamed that she had to run, to move, to escape. Yet still, she remained on her knees before this specter, wreathed in whispering shadow. "Come with me, Lorelei." She...it...spoke like something from one of those horror films with a talking doll or some sort of creepy little girl: utterly without emotion or inflection, squarely in the uncanny valley of voices. "Don't leave me alone again. Stay." FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME I'M SO SORRY "Adelle" moved closer, though still seemingly unable to lean down due to the fact that she still hung by the neck from a noose connected to nothing at all. "Stay with me." FORGIVE ME FORGIVE ME I'M SORRY IT WAS MY FAULT I SHOULD HAVE NOTICED WHY DIDN'T I NOTICE I COULD HAVE STOPPED YOU I COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING IT WAS MY FAULT FORGIVE ME PLEASE! Another hand on her other cheek, the same chill once again. It began to pull her closer... ...and something, finally, within Lorelei snapped. She jerked backwards and fell onto her back, but she was free. Her heart was racing again, instead of simply being almost frozen in its timidity. Adrenaline and heat coursed through her veins where before naught but the cold chill of impending doom was before. She focused on a simple, single idea with all her mind: If I stay here I'll die. I don't want to die! If I stay here I'll die. I don't want to die! I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I DON'T WANT TO DIE! She picked herself up, turned, and ran. More than once she ran straight into one of the earthen walls, stumbling around in the darkness as she was. Her legs felt like jelly and it was all she could do not to collapse right there and simply cry herself to sleep. But the small point of light at the top of the entrance stairs promised relief. Relief and escape and an end to the GOD DAMN WHISPERS WHY WON'T THEY STOP GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT She stumbled and clawed her way up the steps, not even daring to look back. And when she finally made it back out into the cold, crisp LOGAS day, she promptly collapsed to her hands and knees, and vomited. Her whole breakfast came up, and even when there was nothing left to expunge onto the clear white snow that covered the ground, still she heaved and wretched dryly. The tears still flowed down from her eyes and mixed with the vomit. Her whole body shook like a leaf in the autumn winds. It was an unbearably long, torturous couple of minutes before Lorelei, wiping her eyes and spitting out the vomitus still her mouth, rose shakily to her feet. --asterismAscendent [AA] began trolling philosopherQueen [PQ] AA: Ack. Er. AA: Should I come back *another time*? Searing hot anger shot through her veins, and she was seized with a sudden desire to yell at this...this fucking troll, to scream and rage and take out all her sorrow and fear and pain on Khirun. Yet, though the anger flared briefly on her features, she was able to master her emotions. You are a perfect lady, Lorelei... You are a lady. A lady does not take out her emotions on others. A lady is always calm, collected, and polite no matter the situation. PQ: It's all right. PQ: We haven't talked before, right? AA: Pretty sure I'd *remember* if my pers'nal First Contact was wif a girl what just hurked acidic incompletely-digested nutrient glop all over the snow.PQ: Sorry. PQ: I'm Lorelei. Lorelei Catarina Kurfurstin Von Hayek. PQ: And who're you? She briefly pondered the idea of telling Khirun that this wasn't their first conversation from Lorelei's perspective, but quickly decided against it. She just didn't have the energy to deal with it. AA: *Who're you?* AA: **Who're you?** AA: *What,* that's *all* I get? AA: Where's your sense of *romance,* Miss Puffy-Eyed And Wobbly-Legged? There was a short pause. Just as Lorelei was about to respond, Khirun continued. AA: *Khirun Kentar,* Sign o' the Raised Key. Far-Wanderer, Golden Dreamer, Beast-Talker. AA: An' ye?PQ: You may have missed it, but I already said: I'm Lorelei Von Hayek. PQ: *sigh* Sorry if I'm...terse. I'm not normally like this. Lorelei removed her glasses and once again wiped away tears that welled up in her eyes. She sniffled and took a deep, steadying breath before continuing. {Spoiler}PQ: But I just went through one of the most traumatizing experiences in my life. PQ: ...No, actually, I think this is probably the MOST traumatizing. PQ: So I hope I can be forgiven for it. AA: *Ach*, we cannae always be confronted wit'the *new* an' *strange* when we're at our best, now can we? AA: What's in the *cave*, lassie, to *fright* you so? PQ: At least this isn't my first time meeting a troll. PQ: Memories. PQ: And fear. PQ: And darkness. PQ: I don't really want to talk about it. AA: *Darkness* AA: *Krrr.* AA: Can't dodge it forever, ye know. PQ: It's a cavern full of whispers and darkness and bullshit. PQ: Provided I don't have some sort of stupid and incredibly contrived crash back into the place which would only happen in some dumb story, I think I'll dodge it just fine. AA: *Some dumb story?* AA: Lorelei Golden Eyes Von Hayek, what is the purpose of fairy stories? PQ: There's no singular purpose to any story. PQ: They mean different things to different people. PQ: Why the hell does this matter? AA: They describe *Truth*, that's what they do, ye gormless sun-addled alien! AA: Riddles an' ghosts. Ill omens in th' sky. *Prophecy for Heroes.* AA: *Magic Caves.* AA: Be this the stuff of *fancy,* or your *last thirty-four hours*? AA: An ye wish to survive in *Faerie,* Lorelei had best learn its rules. Lorelei began pacing manically back-and-forth as the conversation continued. Temper, as might be obvious by this point, had largely begun to slip the bounds of Lorelei's self-control. She grinded her teeth together and positively growled her response into pesterchum. PQ: Aaugh, you just go on and on and ON PQ: I'm not going back in there! PQ: I'm NOT! PQ: This doesn't have any god damn thing to do with what I'm here for! PQ: I'm here to protect my consorts, not to dick around in some God-forsaken hellhole full of my worst nightmares!AA: Not a *damn* thing? Then what's it doin' in yer *Land,* lassie!? AA: Do ye *honestly think* th'plight o' a planet fulla *wee daft turtles* is what ye *fell out of the sky* to save? AA: Disappointin', *Lorelei.* I thought any hero'd *know better* by now.PQ: What else am I supposed to save? The DIRT? The pretty buildings? PQ: None of that matters in the end. LIVES matter. PQ: Why does this matter to you, anyway?!AA: Krrr. *Krrr.* *Krrrrrr.* AA: Because I know what a *Quest* looks like and I know what a *Hero* looks like, an' right now ye've gotten th'whole thing ass o'errr teakettle muddled up! AA: An' because *I*want*to*know*: what's in there that you're so *afraid* of? Lorelei's flaring temper finally exploded, and she screamed into pesterchum's voice-to-text program. PQ: Of course I've got the whole thing fucking messed up! PQ: I'm Yet it was a transient thing, a flash fire that erupted to life as quickly as it burned itself out. Lorelei slouched, like the weight of the whole world was upon her shoulders, and stopped her manic pacing to simply stare despondently down at the snow. Far from the yelling earlier, she muttered: PQ: Look, Felett told me a bit about how violent your society is. PQ: It wasn't like that for me! PQ: I led a charmed, secluded life. I was a spoiled little rich girl who never had to hurt a fly or face any real danger! PQ: I'm PQ: I'm not a hero. PQ: Grandfather is a hero. People who can actually stand up to shit like...like this. They're heroes. PQ: I PQ: I'm just some stupid little girl who THINKS she can be like all the great heroes from the stories and fairy tales, and can save everyone but PQ: But I'm not. PQ: I'm just...Lorelei. PQ: And I can't PQ: I PQ: can't PQ: go back down there, where that thing that's PQ: that's PQ: that's wearing HER face is. PQ: I can't go back. I'm not strong enough to face that...AA: *Her,* eh? I'll ask another time. AA: As fer *strength,* well...*that's* something anyone, *hero* or *villain,* can seek and grow, in time. *Krrr* The temper flared back from the ashes, but only for a few moments and utterly without its previous heat. PQ: I'm not going back, god damn it! Just...just DROP IT!AA: I'm stubborner than you, Miss Goldeneye. Ye'll see *that* soon enou'. AA: So *disregardin'* whether ye care or no, I'd like to leave ye wi' a riddle: AA: What is the purpose of -- asterismAscendant [ AA] has ceased trolling philosopherQueen [PQ] -- And that was it. Lorelei would have been worried for a few moments were she not so emotionally exhausted. But I guess that's how our second conversation starts, and it's the interruption that starts it in the first place... Weird time shit... She glanced up at Skaia, still managing to shine through despite the clouds that covered the sky. What was it I said...? "Fear is useful but must be conquered when necessary"? Hmph... Guess there's some fear that can't be conquered. Lorelei's shoulders sagged, and the white aura of her magic flared to life. She flew slowly upwards into the air until she cleared the tree-lines and could see the whole Godswood extending for miles in all directions. From up there she could even see one tree in what she presumed was the center of the Godswood, towering over its peers. Her eyes fell upon the clearing she had been in earlier, where the angels had first sent her on this God-forsaken quest. I don't suppose they'll just accept me with open arms...er, wings, if I just go back... With a sigh, she turned instead back what she believed was the way she came: towards the sea. ===> The Emerald Sea was unusually pacific, and in the waves Lorelei could see her own reflection as she flew over it. A solemn, almost depressed young girl stared back, her lips set in a slight frown. Her golden eyes, normally so bright and full of cheer, seemed almost dull like tarnished, impure gold. There were dark bags underneath those eyes. And as she pondered this, without any warning, her magic suddenly... ceased. The glowing white aura--already shining more weakly than normal--vanished entirely. The young Scion of Hope fell with a startled yelp straight into the shifting green water below. A few moments of confused thrashing and she had broken the surface again, coughing and spluttering out the salty sea water that had filled her open, screaming mouth as she fell in. Her drill she called from her specibus and held it but a few inches away from her face, both hands clenching the handle until her knuckles turned white. As she tread water, she tried with all her might to focus her willpower through to the weapon. Come on, come on, come on! Work! A few stray, errant bolts of magic erupted from the weapon, but nothing sustainable or controllable. Lorelei tried to focus so hard that her head began to hurt and her eyes crossed. WORK, GOD DAMN YOU! Alas, there was no success. Lorelei scanned the featureless shifting seas in front of her, despair beginning to envelop her. " What am I going to do?!"
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 4:03:03 GMT -5
Lorelei desperately tried to fight off the emerging despair and panic as she gazed across the vast Emerald Sea, with not a bit of land in sight. The icy chill of the winter waters bit straight through her nice jacket and chilled her to the bone. A worried part in the back of her mind wondered if it would be hypothermia or drowning that she'd die from first. Don't panic... Don'tpanicdon'tpanicdon'tpanicdon'tpanic... Ok. Worst case scenario, you can ask Peter or Guardian for help. Probably Guardian, he can fly. But first, appraise the situation... There was nothing in sight. Lorelei turned in the water to glance behind her, and she finally noticed something on the horizon. She had to squint her eyes to make it out clearly, but it looked like... "...A b-b-boat?" Lorelei muttered, barely able to believe her eyes, the chattering of her teeth from the shivering making her stutter her words. "A-A B-BOAT!!" Though the shivering positively racked her whole body, she resisted the urge to begin swimming straight for the boat. That, she realized, would be a great way to tire herself out and potentially drown. Instead, she simply swam into the ship's path and tread water until it reached her. The ship itself was quite large, easily the size of a smaller human vessel circa mid 19th century, particularly given the fact that it was crewed by turtles of all things. The ship largely appeared to be made of the black wood common to the land, with some slap-dash iron plating over the side for extra protection. The side Lorelei could see bristled with twelve cannon ports, six on one deck and six on another below. The second-most interesting part of the ship, to Lorelei, was the fact that it possessed both copious sails and what appeared to be a method of steam locomotion on the back of the ship, with a single smokestack towering almost as high as the masts (though it was currently inactive, given that they were headed downwind). The most interesting thing to Lorelei, however, was the flag the ship flew: plain as day, the flag was a white background with a V just like her personal symbol on it. In response to her hails and pleas for help, the ship sailed along side and threw down a rope ladder. Lorelei climbed up to the side as quicker as her nigh-frozen, tired muscles would allow. Waiting for her on the ship's deck were two turtles, each (just like their other ship-mates) wearing red-and-white striped shirts and a red bandana. In their tiny paws they held a couple of diminutive (for Lorelei) towels, which the Scion, still shivering so hard her teeth were chattering, graciously accepted. The two little turtle-sailors (who still seemed to have monocles like all the rest, despite their lack of top-hats) immediately hopped back to work helping the others put the masts at full sail at the barking, British-accented orders of the only turtle not dressed in such attire (who Lorelei assumed was, therefore, the Captain). He certainly looked the part to Lorelei's eyes, with a peg-leg, an eyepatch over the eye that didn't have a monocle, rather nice dark blue navy uniform with shining gold buttons, and a black tricorne hat. The monocled eye glanced down at the V emblazoned on Lorelei's utterly soaked suit jacket, and smirked knowingly. "Well, I can see you're a supporter of the cause then, wot wot. Jolly glad to have you aboard and welcome to the SS Gloriana." "The c-c-c-cause?" Lorelei asked, wiping off her glasses with one of the towels. "I-I-Is that wh-why you're f-f-f-f-flying th-the V?" The captain chuckled and then began half-walking, half-hobbling due to his peg leg, across the deck of the ship towards a pair of doors that Lorelei would, fortunately, only duck her head slightly to enter. "C'mon, let's discuss such matters in my quarters where there'll be a warm fire goin' instead of out here in the winter wind, eh?" "R-right, yes, th-th-thank you." The captain's quarters seemed to be almost like a scaled-down reproduction of a what an old-style captain's quarters might look like in the movies. There was a fairly nice bed to the left, though nothing too extravagant, and an ornate green writing desk across from the entrance. To their right was a small fireplace, currently out, with a few turtle-sized chairs bolted to the wooden floor and small lever next to the fireplace. The captain hobbled over to the level, pulled it from an upwards to a downwards position, and then took out a few matches, which he used to set the black logs in the fireplace ablaze. Lorelei gratefully sat down next to the slowly building fire, all the while attempting to dry herself off with the towels provided earlier. The captain sat down in one of the chairs opposite her and looked at her inquisitively, his paws clasped beneath his chin. "By the way, I'm Captain Sully, if I forgot to mention before. And you are?" "Lorelei. Lorelei Catarina Kurfurstin Von Hayek." "And the Scion of Hope, right?" That knowing grin again, but this time with a distinctly more self-assured flair. Lorelei smiled sadly. "...I suppose so. Many seemed to think I was just fakey fake fiction when I met them... How'd you guess?" The captain doffed his tricorne hat and turned it this way and that with his claws as he spoke. "I was there, in one of the cities you made your presence known. Remember the port of Acre that you freed? I heard your speech and...well, I got a little inspired, wot. Wot, my crew and I have been trying to keep the seas free of those damned monsters threatening our civilization. It's not much, but it's our part to help." "I see..." Lorelei turned her gaze back to the fire, desperate to try and change the subject off her title and the obligations thereof. "Say, that lever... If I had to hazard a guess, it connects the fireplace's chimney to that smokestack that also connects to your steam engines, right?" "I say, yer a smart lass. That's right. And when I'm not using it, I leave the lever up--sealin' off the fireplace's chimney so the smoke from the engine don't come into here." He favored Lorelei with another one of those inquisitive looks he seemed so fond of--indeed, Lorelei couldn't help but wonder if that inquisitive nature was the reason he seemed smarter than the average consort. "...Say, Scion, something the matter, wot wot?" Lorelei sighed. For a few moments she remained silent, weighing the options in her head. On the one hand, telling him--or anyone--might help. On the other hand, he believed in her... She was a symbol as much as she was a human being. Symbols couldn't be tarnished, they had to be perfect. Symbols weren't allowed to fail or have doubts or just want to abandon it all and go home. At the very moment Lorelei opened her mouth to respond, the captain's doors burst open with a loud clatter. A sailor, jumping around wotting excitedly, had to be calmed down by Sully before any sort of coherent message could be passed along. "Wot wot wot wot! Wot, Captain, wot, we're coming on their wot wot wotting ship, wot!" "WOT!" Sully exclaimed, grinning with an almost crazy edge to it. "We have the bastards!" He seized one of Lorelei's damp towels and threw it over the flames in the fireplace. Once the fire was satisfactorily quenched, he threw the lever back into the upward position and went hobbling out onto the deck. Lorelei, half driven by a sense of duty and half driven by mere curiosity, followed along. Just out of cannon range in the distance was another black, wooden sailing ship (though without the iron plating or steam engine attached to the back). It flew a purple flag that Lorelei could only assume was either Zeus' symbol or Derse's, and the ship was crawling with imps and even a few liches (one of which was the one navigating the ship). Captain Sully began hobbling around, bellowing orders so loudly Lorelei was surprised such a loud voice could come from such a tiny frame. The turtles moved quickly to their battle positions. And then the waiting began. Lorelei had read stories about it: the calm before the storm of battle. She had read how as the Roman soldiers would line up against their foe, the air would stink with feces as the soldiers, nervous and terrified, soiled their armor. She had read how air pilots before going into enemy zones would, foolishly, place their helmets over their groins--and sometimes pay the price by receiving a mortal blow to the head. It was another thing entirely to live it. To sit there, with her drill drawn, not knowing whether she would even be able to effectively fight without her magic--for without it, she felt naked and defenseless. She didn't know whether a stray cannonball might take her entire head off. She could see the other turtles standing at the ready, quivering from fear. Even Captain Sully seemed perturbed. Phobos ruled the battlefield, as the Greeks said, and in the silence before the thunder, he was god.
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 4:04:46 GMT -5
Silence, and nothing but the crash of the waves to break it. The two ships inched ever closer. Silence, and naught but the cry of the gull to fill it. Closer, and closer... Silence, and not a thing but the fearful thoughts in one's head to shatter it. The world erupted in a blast of fire and death. The two ships were beside each other, and shot a full broadside at each other. The turtles, as expertly trained as they seemed to be by their captain, had managed to fire the first volley, even managing to take out some gunners, but the return fire was as inexorable as the winter snow that fell amidst the battle. Some of the enemies' cannonballs bounced off the iron plating. Some managed to burst through, and Lorelei flinched when she heard the anguished cries of wounded crewmen below. The ships began to maneuver around, the Captain all the time hobbling around and bellowing orders and encouragement. Lorelei stood on the center of the deck, near the mast, and held out her drill, pointed straight at the enemy ship. She tried to block out the thunderous crashes, the choking smell of the smoke of cannons, the terrified and pained cries of the dying and wounded. All her effort, all her will, she focused on the drill in front of her. "Work, God damn you..." Nothing. "Work!" Nothing. "My consorts need me, they're dying, I can save them!" Nothing. "WORK!" The world seemed to filter out of existence around her. The destruction, the noise, the sights, all of it gone. There was simply her and the drill. She focused on it so hard that she could almost feel the veins on her head bulging. "FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, WORK!" The world erupted in a flash of white and death. All were blinded, friend and foe, as erratic bolts of white magic erupted from the drill. A few smaller ones struck the ship around Lorelei, but the largest of them all fired straight and true ahead. The enemy ship was torn clean in two down the middle, and those few that had not become a pile of grist quickly began to abandon ship, seeking any wreckage on which to cling. The great flash faded, and Lorelei's eyes began to adjust back. It was only then that she heard the pained cry. To her right, collapsed to the deck, was a turtle, with a large hole burned through his chest. Lorelei realized with mounting horror that he was a casualty of her own magic. Tears in her eyes, desperately not wanting to believe it was true, she ran to the turtle, fell to her knees, and held him in her lap and arms, but the life had vanished from his eyes before she could get to him. There was nothing left but the corpse and the blood. The blood that she shed, the blood that now covered her hands and her clothes. Lorelei held her head in both bloody hands, and she screamed.
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 4:05:31 GMT -5
((Ripcord's post)) ===> ===> ===> ===> ===>
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 4:07:19 GMT -5
Lorelei didn't know how long she sat there, holding the dead turtle to her chest like a newborn babe, crying so hard she felt like she was going to be sick. Some part of her was cognizant that Captain Sully hobbled around, directing the care of the wounded, the repairs of the ship, the destruction of the few surviving enemies. It didn't seem to matter. All that mattered was this cute little turtle she held in her hands and rocked slowly back and forth, sobs racking her body. There was just so much blood. It was all over her. Blood she spilt. Accidentally or not... Dead dead dead dead he's dead dead dead DEAD my fault dead he's dead it's my fault I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry forgive me! Time passed, and eventually Lorelei heard the hobbling step-thump of the Captain coming up behind her. He moved in front of her and then sat down with a tired, sad sigh. "...His name was Larent. Didn't have any living parents, so I took him in. Loyal little guy, never left my side even through it all..." Lorelei sobbed and sniffled. "I-I-I'm so so sorry! Oh, God Almighty, I killed him, he's dead because of me, I can't be forgiven for this, I c-" "SCION!" Sully interrupted with one of his trademark bellows, and stamped the black wooden deck--still slick with Larent's blood--with his peg leg to accentuate it. "I'm telling this so you can remember him! Listen... do you want to know how I lost my leg?" Lorelei still did not look into Sully's eyes, yet stared down at the dead, cold, lifeless eyes of the turtle. "Why does this even fucking matter?!" "FOOL GIRL, WOT! Someday you'll learn to listen to an old man's stories, and realize that there's wisdom to be found in each one. Wisdom comes as much from failure as it does success, after all..." The old captain doffed his tricorne hat and fiddled around with it with both hands. He began his story with a solemn voice, gazing up at Skaia as he did so. "I lost my leg as a young little wotter, shortly after I took command of the Gloriana, to a blue drake. Nasty animals, those drakes--very reptilian-lookin', razor-sharp teeth, 'bout as big as a ship sometimes. I was...consumed by thoughts of revenge. I led my crew on a chase after the drake. "And one day, I saw the drake headed into a storm. Without even hesitating, I ordered my men to take us into it after the drake. They were rightly started to get a little mutinous over this fool's errand I was taking them, and this order left them with no shortage of grumbles about the state of my mind, but those loyal fools obeyed nonetheless. We sailed into the storm. It was horrible, and then...something happened that I'll never, ever forget. "My first mate, and my best friend--by that point I thought of him as my only friend--who always tried to reason with me, fell into the drink. I say, he wasn't like some of the dumb little wotters you'll find--he was brilliant. We lost him in the storm, he drowned. The world was much poorer for it, and it was all my fault. "The drake survived, as it still does today, and when my battered ship emerged from that storm I was a changed turtle. I prostrated myself in front of my crew, begged their forgiveness, and the stupid wotters embraced me and kept me on as captain. Since then I've just been trying to keep everyone alive and make money, but the whole thing seemed somewhat hollow and meaningless in the end...until you visited a little port called Acre, freed it, and gave a speech to boot. Then I added the SS to the name--Scion's Ship." Sully put his hat back on with a knowing, if somewhat grim, smile. "It's the nature of mortals to err, wot wot. And people like you and me, we make the big mistakes, because we take the big responsibilities. Why? Because it's gotta be done, and because someone has to. It's our burden to bear, because no one else can." "But I'm..." She petted the head of the tu-...no, of Larent. "I'm...supposed to be a symbol to them. I can't...make mistakes like...like this." "You can and you will, wot. If you're gonna be a leader and a symbol, you need to accept that. Don't hate yourself, but never forget those who die under your leadership. Move on, but do not leave behind." Lorelei let out a long, shaky sigh, then wiped her eyes on her shoulders--just about the only part of her arms and hands not covered in blood. "...What are your funeral rites for the dead?" "Burial and a funeral if we're close to land, wot wot. Usually just send them down to the bottom of the ocean after giving them last rites if we're away from land, for fear of disease. Why?" "Well, I was thinking..." For the first time in the conversation, Lorelei raised her eyes to meet Sully's monocled gaze, "I could take them, and any other casualties we had today to my tower, and bury them there. I can take them there in my modus, so there won't be any risk of disease. I mean, I killed Larent and even the rest...they died for my cause. Because of me." Sully rose to his feet with a grunt and, after a pause to think, nodded. "Only one other died, and that was a lucky shot. The fight was quick thanks to you... Mistake made or not, you saved lives with that shot." Lorelei nodded. She stood up and placed Larent's corpse in her sylladex, almost feeling incomplete without something in her arms after all this time. A minute later, Sully and another turtle brought up the corpse of another turtle. Lorelei instinctively turned away from the gruesome sight: half of the poor turtle's face had been blown clean off by a cannonball. Bile rose in her throat and she thought for a few moments she might have to excuse herself to blow chunks over the side of the ship, yet she was able to keep the impulse at bay. With visible effort, she forced herself to look at the young turtle's mangled corpse, to look at the brains leaking slowly out of the hole in its head, to look at the eye that hung limply from its socket. Look at it, "Scion of Hope". Look at him. She forced herself to look at the blood and the gore, her mouth set in a grim line. This is the price that will be paid so very often for your cause. Is it worth it? Is it worth a hundred more of these? I sure hope so... Lorelei accepted the corpse--learning that his name was "Alder" and that he, too, had no parents or home to speak of. It seemed that Sully had a thing for taking in those who had no family connections or homes. A true hero, Captain Sully was... Lorelei sighed, sitting down and leaning against the mast as she watched the boat toss and turn in the emerald waves. A real, true hero...unlike a coward like me...
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Naevius
Mustardblood
Posts: 201
Identifies as: Male
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Post by Naevius on Jul 9, 2015 4:10:04 GMT -5
The stench of death and blood choked the air around him, mingling with the scant smell of smoke nearby. The Sangfroid Emissary stood in the middle of a small, yet prosperous town, surrounded by his monster minions. Piled nearby were the corpses of the few turtles who--no doubt inspired by their Scion--felt it better to resist and die than to bow against the overwhelming force and survive--and it was also their belongings that were burned and their golden houses demolished to the ground. All others were spared any predation on SE's orders. And now he stood, pointing his gun straight at the face of a quivering little turtle, snearing. "Where is it?" he demanded in a low voice, slick with venom. The young turtle said nothing, merely continued its frightened trembling. SE grimaced. Remember, Emissary... You must be a tolerable evil. You cannot hope to match the Scion in being loved. Yet 'tis better to be feared than loved. SE turned his gun away from the turtle himself to the turtle's equally terrified wife nearby, who held a much smaller turtle in her arms. It was an ugly, nasty move that left a foul aftertaste in SE's mouth. Remember your ambition, Emissary... Remember it. "I'll ask again," he said, letting nothing betray his inner thoughts. "I've heard it called the 'Glow Shape'--something the Scion is supposed to take some kind of legendary nap on. Where is it?" The turtle's shaking only grew greater, and his wife seemed to grow an even paler shade of yellow. Yet still, he said nothing. This time, though the foul feeling deep in his guts only grew greater, he turned his gun on the child. The little mother turtle let out a startled, terrified "Wot!" and tried to shield her offspring. Remember your ambition, Emissary... "Hey, two for the price of one," he said with what he hoped was a sadistic little smile. "I fire now, and BOTH die. So, feel like talking?" "T-t-t-ten miles to the south, wot wot wot!" the turtle blurted out. "Ten miles! Don't hurt them, please!" A victorious smile, and the Sangfroid Emissary lowered his gun. "Good man." ===> It was, in the end, entirely obvious where the "Glow Shape" was, even when a few miles away from the village built near it. The golden Hope symbol of the anchor cross floated in the air high above the tall peak on which the shape rested. SE could not help but facepalm with a small groan. God DAMN IT, I spent all that time fuckin' around with the turtles, trying to get them to tell me where this place was when a simple fly-over could have spotted it? He sighed softly. Well, live and learn, I guess. I had no way of knowing it'd be this damn obvious in the first place. Minutes in the future (many), the Emissary found himself standing before the "glow shape". It was a a rectangular slab of white rock that sat just underneath the glowing anchor cross in the sky, complete with a bedrest on one end (fitting, perhaps, for something that was meant to be slept on, as uncomfortable as it might be). On each corner of the bed there stood tall poles with unlit orbs on the end. Most important of all, to SE, was that mirroring the symbol above there was a golden anchor cross on the middle of the bed. There could be no doubt, then, that it was affiliated with the Scion of Hope in some way. Perhaps it was foolish. Perhaps it was naught but superstition. Yet had not the Scion also been a mere superstition before her arrival? Whatever the true nature of the prophecies, SE knew that this was, in the end, important to his adversary. And most of all, he knew that one should never, ever underestimate one's adversary. SE took a cigarette from the pack he carried with him, and held it to his lips while he set the end ablaze. The bracelet on his left hand glowed, and he gave the order: "Destroy it. Scatter the pieces around the world, particularly into the deepest chasms of the Emerald Sea. I'll be taking some of it with me to Derse as well."
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SW
Mustardblood
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Post by SW on Jul 9, 2015 4:18:18 GMT -5
((Ripcord's post)) Gita looked down the stairs at Zach, hands clasped together in an otherwise uncharacteristic expression of glee Legs like those were born for dresses.Such a shame. Augh, no. What's with you? Don't let him see you leering like an idiot. The attacking cat-consort is picked up, to give her something to do with her hands, and she attempts to instead scowl down the stairs at Zach. Clumsy sexy ass. " What, are you just going to sit there in a heap looking stupidly at yourself?" Zach was not staring at himself. In fact he was looking at... anywhere but her. you cannot let her know you hear this, you will die. "...Yes." why did you say that "No wait. Uh..." Gita rolled her eyes, and descended the stairs. " I'll evict you myself, if I have to. Why are you still here?" Not that I mind the eye-candy, but you've got to go. I'm crazy and stressed-out enough as it is. He was pretty sure that second part wasn't out loud. As long as he didn't respond to what was clearly a thought, he might make it out of here alive. ...and then die horribly as soon as i make it out the door. "The cats..." " What about the cats? They're sweethearts. You're not scared of cats, are you?" The green beast in her arms shifted at this, teeth and eyes affixing Zach with a distressingly predatory expression. "Not usually..." he mumbled, trying his best not to make eye contact with either of them. "But these ones hate me for some reason." " Bullshit." "Hissssssss-" "I'm serious! They're like the crocodiles but worse!" ((AMUSING .GIF TO BE EDITED IN LATER)) " C'mon. Just try petting her. I'll hold the cat, so she won't freak." Gita holds out the kitty. Don't snicker. Don't think 'pet my kitty.' ===> >Zach: Pet her kitty. ===> ===> ===> (((AMUSING .GIF TO BE EDITED IN LATER))) Nookomi's glowing, three-eyed sprite hovers into view. " You are running at unsafe speeds. If you do not cease, I will be forced to restrain you." Gita tore into the room behind Zach and the rampaging playfully chasing cat-consort. She leapt for the cat, reaching to pull it off of Zach by the scruff of the consort's neck, disastrously wrong in her assumption of universal kitty friendliness " BAD KITTY! We do not attack guests!" " Gita. This is unnecessarily hostile behavior. You should not interfere. I am preparing to restrain and subdue." "What and what now?!?" Zach came to a dead halt, or tried to before tripping on a loose rug. Or maybe it was a halt. Either way, the cat proceeded to land on his back and attempt to tear to shreds everything it could get its claws into. Several things happened at once. Gita reaches for the cat, seizing it in one hand. She grabs Zach about the neck and shoulders in the other. And Nookomi has quite enough of this nonsense, from everyone and activates the taser function. 600,00 volts of electricity lance through the brawling trio, accompanied by an unknown factor of weird sprite-powered bullshit. After the screaming and thrashing is over, everything is quiet. The robotic sprite allows itself a small bob of pleasure. Peace and quiet, at least.
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SW
Mustardblood
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Post by SW on Jul 9, 2015 4:19:54 GMT -5
The glyph vanished; the green glow faded, lingering briefly inside Dahlia's eyes before disappearing entirely. Dahlia recoiled as though bitten. What the hell was that? Then, immediately: Page! You just left her standing there, in the terrifying, pitch black cave, in silence. God damn it Dahlia, even you're not this terrible. Or perhaps she was. In this case, however -- perhaps unusually, perhaps because she was so shaken from her experience, perhaps because she simply wasn't feeling quite herself that day -- her first instinct was apology. She reached out through the darkness to grab onto Page's hands, reassuringly... though, whether that was for Page or for herself, even Dahlia didn't know. " Page, I... god, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to space out on you like that." Somehow, she managed to deadpan that one. Sometime in the future, she would revisit the event and, after mulling in adequate confusion over the glyph's message, spend quite some time kicking herself for that wasted opportunity. I mean, really. 'Space out'? The silence hung in the darkness between them for a few moments. Though Page did not take her hands away from Dahlia, it was only because she thought that Dahlia needed the support. Her brow knitted quizzically, and the smaller girl confusedly tilted her head in such an exaggerated fashion, it was almost completely sideways. " ...What? I'm sorry, I don't understand, I think. What's wrong?" Dahlia paused briefly, but in her distraught state she hadn't quite yet managed to put two and two together. " Look, I've done some messed up things in my life, but leaving you to stand there in the silence and pitch blackness for who knows how long, while I stare at the wall with liquid crazy pouring straight into my brain from whatever the hell that thing was there... that's just not cool. So I'm sorry." She released one of Page's hands, though kept a looser hold on the other just so they wouldn't lose track of each other in the now-lightless cave. " First and last time you'll hear me say that, so remember it." Another bout of silence hung between them, and Page didn't even bother moving her head from its tilted position. " ...Huh? But... I didn't see anything on the wall and you didn't stand there in silence, I guess... You just..stopped for not even a second and next thing you were apologizing to me, sort of." Pause. " Wait, so..." One could almost hear the wheels turning as Dahlia's mind finally caught up with her, after her seemingly lengthy trip to whatever crazyland was inside that symbol on the wall. " I was only standing there for a moment?" " I guess so." " And I'm apologizing for nothing?" Dahlia could feel the heat rising in her cheeks, somewhere between embarrassment and anger. " Yes." Well, that did it. " God I am such a fucking idiot!" Dahlia threw her hands skyward (well, ceilingward) in frustration, releasing Page's hand to do so. " Just like me, to go and do something like that, and make myself look like a total idiot and what the hell was all that even about, anyway? Some... stupid... cueball... thing, and something about mitochondria and fucking Guardian of all people, I swear he's doing this just to mess with me -- it's because I made that stupid joke back then, I just know it, and then you're just gonna let me go on and fall all over myself apologizing for something I didn't even do because hey, why the hell not, I'm a little bit behind on my 'retarded things to do today' checklist, so let's just mark off a few of those all at once why don't we." She crossed her arms over her chest with an irritated huff, and turned on her heel, marching off... ...straight into a wall, being no more able to see in the dark than Page is, now that the green glow was gone. Page had spent the whole angry spiel cringing back, looking at once terrified and confused. After Dahlia's face became intimately associated with the cave's rock wall, she squeaked out, " I-I'm sorry, are you ok, possibly...?" She attempted to walk forward to Dahlia, but merely ended up tripping on a rock she did not see and falling flat on her face. " Ow..." " Oh, yeah, 'm fine," Dahlia grumbled, rubbing her face with one hand. At the very least, she didn't feel anything warm and wet, so she was bruised at worst. When Page landed nearby, Dahlia was quick to help her to her feet, holding onto one of Page's hands as before to keep track of her. " Guess we both decided we could use some more minerals in our diet." Though it couldn't be seen, the wry grin was apparent enough in her voice. Page, who was in the process of tenderly rubbing her scraped cheek, paused for but a moment before breaking out in a peal of girlish giggling. " Th...Heeheeheehee!... That was terrible, without a doubt!" " That? That was nothing. Stick around, there's plenty more where that came from." ...Wait. 'Stick around'? The hell is wrong with you, Dahlia? That is the exact opposite of what you want! She was silent for a while, doing her best not to vocalize the annoyed, confused sigh that her thoughts clearly demanded. Best to change the subject, perhaps. " Though I probably could stand some lunch. We stay out much longer and I'm going to start wondering just how many steps these dinosaurs are removed from chickens... and just where I might find an oven big enough for those drumsticks." She didn't mean a word of it, of course -- it was just something else to talk about, but she managed a dry chuckle all the same. Carefully, slowly, and with one hand feeling ahead to avoid any further mishaps, Dahlia led Page out of the cave. ===> Minutes and several scraped knees and elbows later, the two had exited the cave system and were on their way back to Dahlia's house. The journey so far had been relatively pleasant, unmolested by the local dinosaur fauna and their regrettable REALNESS ATTRIBUTE. Page's glasses came to life, making the skittish young girl jump and yelp a bit, before she set to answering. --- bismerBiblioclasm [BB] began trolling unsettledBookworm [UB] -- { } BB: hello. BB: i suppose now is as good of a time as any to give in to curiosity BB: what are you?UB: Um? UB: Are you one of the trolls, perhaps? UB: I...well, I'm a human, really. My name's Page.BB: so a 'human' BB: i suppose thats an excuse as any to call yourself a Bookworm, if your Books are different from what i know. BB: excuse me. i'm feiren.UB: Ok, it's nice to meet you, I think. UB: But, um, I'm sorry, I don't understand what you said before, I suppose. Is there something wrong with books, perhaps?BB: there absolutely is something wrong with Books! BB: well. i will admit, not every Book. But most Books are quite awful, for reasons that i suppose you wouldn't really know, since you're.. BB: human? human. BB: who is that you're walking with?UB: This is Dahlia. This is her land we're currently in, probably.BB: ah, i see. BB: do humans usually cling together like this?UB: Um, I guess so. UB: I mean, we do tend to stay around each other, mostly. UB: We evolved from primates--very social animals--probably. UB: Not all humans are like that, though, I guess.BB: its almost cute. BB: where are your lusii?UB: I'm sorry? UB: I don't know what a lusi is, I don't think...BB: lusus, the thing that raised you? BB: don't you have a lusus? don't you Both have lusii? where are they? BB: my own was rather lax in raising me, But never enough to simply leave me to my own devices like yours seem to Be.UB: Oh, you mean my Daddy, maybe? UB: He's still at my land and...kind of a ghost...sprite...wizard...thing, I guess. ._. UB: I don't know where Dahlia's mother is, sorry.BB: hm. BB: i still say it must have Been rather poor parenting should you not know what's wrong with Books... BB: do you have rebels in your... own... species... society... thing?UB: Um. UB: Well, I guess so. UB: But...well, there are a lot of governments and... UB: Why would you hate books? UB: Books are nice...BB: words are a rebel's way of immortalizing their angry thoughts and feelings. BB: ideas against a system that, while not truly fair, works just fine. BB: why would you think of that as nice? what is there to gain in a Book?UB: Well, um... I don't really know about your system or the politics or whatever, I don't think. UB: You should probably talk to Lorelei about that, maybe. She's better at that kind of thing than I am, definitely. UB: But what about stories, possibly? Stories that inspire and entertain and take you away from all of the problems of your life.BB: most of it is just hidden rebel propaganda, i'm completely sure. BB: itll make everyone feel Better when it all goes up in flames, anyways. BB: But lorelei? there are more of you... humans around...?UB: Well, yes. Not as many as there used to be, really, given the...well, all that's happened, but there are others, definitely. UB: I think some of the other trolls found the memo Lorelei started, for example, and we all post on there, possibly. UB: ...Wait, what about going up in flames? UB: You...burn them, maybe? Burn books?BB: well this is news to me. i was not aware that your kind existed Before just a few minutes ago. BB: yes. isnt that the easiest option? its hard to read ash, after all. BB: the problem comes in when the fire gets a Bit out of hand. But then, i could just... leave the area. BB: if you want, i could set all of your Books on fire as well. in fact, it would Be my pleasure.UB: NONONONONO UB: Er. UB: Sorry. UB: But UB: Um UB: No. UB: No, thank you. UB: I...really really like books and I don't know why anyone would ever want to burn them, really. UB: I grew up in a library, after all...BB: in a LIBRARY? BB: thats awful! no wonder. BB: well, if you wish to keep one or two of your Books for sentimental value, i'll let that slide... BB: you... are in this game, yes? the medium?UB: Well, yes, I guess... UB: But um UB: I want to keep all my books, probably. UB: I don't understand, sort of. UB: What about books that transmit knowledge, maybe? UB: How could you even know how to...set things on fire if that knowledge hadn't been discovered and passed down by books, possibly?BB: ...my lusus? experimentation? BB: i suppose there may be uses for Books, But their flaws outweigh their uses. BB: especially while there are members of our species who live for sweeps and sweeps and can just simply tell someone else what has happened.UB: But... UB: But that's UB: There's only a few of them who would remember such things, I think. And if they only tell people then that information can't reach a wide audience, probably! UB: And UB: And the people who hear it by word of mouth would misremember, possibly, and the story would change over time and UB: I just...don't get this at all, I suppose. I don't think we'd make much headway arguing about it, maybe.BB: agreed, you don't get it at all. BB: however BB: do you like cooking? do humans cook? what do you eat, i suppose.UB: Well, yes, we do cook, of course. UB: I've never really cooked myself, though, not really. UB: I know Lorelei likes it a lot, probably.BB: you know a lot about this lorelei person BB: But you're not traveling with her. BB: what is she to you?UB: Well, she's my best friend, really. UB: She's not with us now, though, yes. She's on her own land, probably. Or maybe Peter's, perhaps.BB: i see BB: and youre friends with... dahlia, too?UB: Well, yes, I like to think so, probably. UB: Though we haven't really known each other that long, I guess. UB: She did save my life, though.BB: so you have nobody in mind as a matesprit or a kismesis?UB: Uh? UB: Um, n-no... I mean, humans don't have...kismesis and, well...no, I don't think there's really anyone who I'd think of...like...the, um...other...thing, I think.BB: what about the one you're walking right next to- uh, dahlia? BB: she seems nice enough. would you like me to ask her for you?UB: Wh- UB: I-I-I mean...um... I mean, we just met and!... UB: Why are you...?! UB: N-no, I don't...don't think I'd...want you...to ask her...anything like that...definitely not... Dahlia leaned over, already sporting her trademark grin. " Sounds like things are heating up between you and Mr. Troll, huh." A gentle elbow-nudge to Page's side. " You just met, and then...? Maybe you ought to inquire about troll courting rituals." As was often the case, it was difficult to tell whether or not Dahlia was being serious. This would, however, be the second time that day she'd tried to hook Page up with someone -- first Zach, now this. " N-no, she's...trying...to get...well, the two of US t-together...probably..." Dahlia's grin immediately turned to a flat, expressionless line. " ...Alright, so, that whole bit where I was about to have you ask the troll embarrassing questions and then giggle at her misfortune and yours? We're gonna skip that and get straight to the end." As quickly as it vanished, her grin returned, beaming at the prospect of trolling a troll. " That is, the part where you ask her if she's got anyone of her own, to put her off-balance. As confidently as you can. Just pretend you're me." That last, with a sly wink. Page blanched, but after a moment seemed to mull it over. " U-um...ok....if you say so..." UB: Um... UB: Well... I mean... UB: Do you...well...have anyone, perhaps?BB: ...no. BB: not really. BB: well, kind of, yes. BB: it's complicated. you don't want to hear about it. " She says kind of, it's complicated, really," Page passed along to her...fellow conspirator? " Tell her you'd love to hear all about her romantic failures and all the other reasons she's trying to project this onto you." Dahlia had intended to take this opportunity to torment Page -- she was just too nice and sweet to not have a little fun poked at her -- but this was rapidly turning into "the two of us vs. the world". And, to Dahlia's abiding confusion, she was actually enjoying the prospect. " That...seems kind of mean, I think..." Dahlia frowned, more from concern than disappointment, this time. " So, what, you're just gonna let this book-burning jerk walk all over you?" Yes, she had been paying attention earlier, despite doing her best to act like she didn't care. Dahlia, of course, rather empathized with Page's response to the thought of book-burning, what with growing up completely surrounded by them. " Alright, maybe the harsher response is more my department, but you've got to stand up for yourself here," if solely to put someone making such a ridiculous accusation in their place, " you know, let her know you're not to be trifled with, or some other great literary comeback. You've got a head full of books," Dahlia punctuated her statement by punching the air ahead of herself, " use them!" Page took a moment to comb through all the little quotes from books read throughout the years that were stored in her memory. Yet, in the pressure of having to come up with something perfect right then and there without a lot of time to think, she was only able to remember a quote that pertained but the slightest bit to the conversation at hand. Still, it was all she had before Feiren might get suspicious about how long it was taking her to respond. UB: Methinks the lady doth protest too much. UB: ...if you don't mind me saying, maybe...BB: what?UB: I mean... UB: ...well, I just... UB: You seem like you're... UB: That is... Page shot Dahlia a look like a drowning woman looks at a nearby life raft. " If you ask me," Dahlia muttered through a wry, lopsided smirk, " it seems like she's compensating, or trying to cover for something." She laid a hand on Page's shoulder, as unshakably confident as she had ever been. " Let her have it, just like that, Page. You can't let some lame troll take advantage of you like that." " But she wasn't...I mean she didn't really...at least...seem like she was doing something like that....possibly... But ok..." Such an innocent... I almost feel bad for messing with her earlier. Almost. { } UB: W-well...I mean...it just kind of seems like you're.. UB: Trying to... UB: I don't know, cover up for something...possibly? UB: Sorry.BB: what would i Be covering up? BB: theres no real reason for me to keep things from you.UB: Or, I guess...maybe compensating for something, perhaps. UB: I don't know, I think I'll just...be quiet now, I guess.BB: ... i suppose? BB: were you talking to your dahlia friend just now? i can hardly tell, what with this resolution. BB: what did she say?UB: Nothing really that important, I guess... UB: Just kind of...commenting on our conversation, sort of.BB: i see. BB: in that case, i will leave you two alone now. i have a puzzle or three to finish and- BB: i guess you do too? you seem to Be in the medium, after all...UB: I think so, maybe. UB: Goodbye, Feiren. -- bismerBiblioclasm [BB] ceased trolling unsettledBookworm [UB] -- Well, that's quite enough distractions from the mission. The mission being lunch, that is, and nothing further would stand between it and the two adventurers. Nothing at all. ===> Ah, home sweet wait what the hell, seriously.
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