Shared Story: Character Campfire

"You NEED to hear the truth? You NEED the details? You NEED to know who I am? I DON't EVEN KNOW YOUR NAME! I introduced myself and you gave me a snide comment about eating me!"

"Who the fuck are YOU? What the hell are YOU doing? Why are YOU here? You aren't supposed to be here! You where not in"

Sano stops yelling at the dragon and takes a deep breath, he realised what he was about to say.

"I mean dragons isn't that common at this day and age, gryphons neither, or dodos, don't know about people like Morgan or Mud."

"So Mr. Dragon, what do you think I'm doing? Who do you think I am? What do you think I am? Who do you think they are?"

Sano turns to Mud, gets seated next to him and crosses his legs the same way.

"Morgan, you wanted to ask something?"

edited 3rd Jan '13 6:50:49 AM by m8e

"Yes, I do want to ask you something," Morgan replied, and then reached into the box, picked the bag up, and held it up for everyone else at the fire to see, being very careful to not puncture it with her claws. The look she fixed upon Sano right now could best be described as a death glare, though not a very threatening one given her general appearance (it would probably be completely ineffectual if she wasn't a vampire).

"I'd like to know where you got this," she stated with a cold, commanding tone, "Something tells me that it wasn't yours at one point, assuming it is what I think it is."

"No, this one isn't from me. This is a gift from that man I traveled with, that man with the key and the axe I mentioned."

"Would you rather have one from me?"

Razugual stared silently at Sano as the man shouted at him. When he had finished, leaving without waiting for a response, Razugual slowly lowered himself all the way the the ground and stared at the man as he walked away. His normally blank eyes were full of a churning rage that wanted to leap forth and bore hot circles into Sano until the man gave up true answers. It infuriated Razugual to restrain himself. The glow within him pulsated brightly, spilling light on the surrounding objects with the flow and power of a crushing tide. He dug his claws deep into the dirt and sand and trembled.

But he did not make a move. And after a moment, he had stopped shaking. His glow dimmed and his expression returned to it's normal blankness, though his eyes were sharply narrowed. He removed his hands from the dirt and proceeded to walk to where Sano and Mud were both sitting. Before Razugual was able to offer his rebuttal, the strange winged girl Morgan began talking to Sano, holding up a large bag of red liquid. Blood? It would seem so. Why would a man want to carry around a bag full of blood?

"A gift? Why would you want to carry around a bag full of blood?" Razugual did not wait for an answer. He pushed himself upright again and glared at Sano. "You are deceiving us Sano. You are secretive about everything. You will not answer a single question straight, will you?" He inclined his neck and lowered it closer to Sano, speaking quietly— insidiously. "You're hiding something dark. Are you afraid that we'll turn on you if we find out what it is? Are you hoping to use us before we learn the truth?"

He leaned in closer with every word, finally pulling himself away and declaring, "I will have no hand in aiding you or your business Mr. Sano. Any story can be spun to portray the wrong in the right, and your dancing around every question... it reeks of bad intentions. Prove me wrong and tell the straight truth any time you like."

Razugual turned his head to Mud, who was watching the discourse with a hand pressed to his cheek and a look of supreme boredom. "And I suggest, Mud, that you think very hard before agreeing to help this man."

"Mmmm... done." replied the magician, speaking in a slow drawl. Razugual shut his eyes tightly and sighed. Mud leaned back and shrugged, "Oh good grief. Being a dove has never caused a person harm." he said defensively, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. Then he grinned and added, "Well... mmmrm... yet." Seeing Razugual was by no means amused, Mud winked and said, "Don't you worry yourself Mr. Great. I'll always have the final act."

Razugual heaved another sigh. "...Be responsible." He left it at that, then turned his head toward Morgan, but... Razugual didn't think she needed telling. Nor did Damien, he thought as he passed by the gryphon. Razugual left the four to themselves, and leapt onto the roof of the gas station, as he had done before. He did not want to deal with lies, or aggression, or... anything. Razugual did not at the moment feel very terribly great.

edited 7th Jan '13 2:01:13 AM by Ryuhza

"A gift," Morgan repeated, voice still very cold and now filled with disbelief. "Last time I checked, people don't just give out their own blood, Sano."

Before she could add onto that, Razugual offered up his own thoughts on the situation, wording her concerns better than she ever could. She remained silent while the great glowing dragon was speaking and for a few moments after he departed. She cast a quick glance up at his rooftop position before turning back to Sano.

"I'm not asking because I need it fresh. I'm asking because I have standards, and blood obtained through...suspicious means falls well out of them."

"Morgan, it's only a pint. People give away pints of blood all the time and in return they get a cookie and some juice. I saved his life instead."

"If you want to think about it we can put it back in the cooler. Unlike you I need it somewhat fresh and I might need it later."

"Now to the other questions. They the hornet's nest is the mafia, or not the mafia, the name isn't important. I have done a few hits and some other work for them. First because I owed them some money, but then they liked my work. After that that mess started."

"I don't know exactly who or how many will come but they will probably come around noon. They think I'm waiting for someone and that someone will come around then to pick me up. Any other questions?"

"Oh, Mud? How pissed off does that dragon need to be to eat someone? Can I push him some more?"

The magician turned his head and gave Sano a teasing smile, eyebrows raised high in amusement. "Fancy your bloody marys with something other than tomato juice, Herr Sano? Or here, perhaps you were planning on painting a picture with some brand of indubitable artistic authenticity, and... plenty of reds?"

He chuckled to himself. "Indeed, there are oodles and oodles of uses for blood. What's more, it's a very necessary thing to have. A person needs blood, don't they? Whether they like it... or not. Hm?" Mud was talked to Sano, but his eyes fell upon Morgan as he spoke his last few words.

However, the magician quickly returned his attention to Sano and his concerns about Razugual, responding first by blowing air through his nose and shaking his head.

"Ohoho... don't you worry about offending Mr. Great. That one is quite more the type to write dear thoughts in a personal notebook or wear comfortable clothing—mmm..." The magician bit his lip, "...eh- were it that he did wear any clothing at all—when his attitude is agitated."

Mud twirled the end of his mustache, and his face showed indifference. "As to that, he doesn't eat people anyway, which I think is a bit of a shame. I find it difficult not to wonder just how well that would go. In any case, you're estimatedly clear of that particular wrath."





Razugual remained silent on the rooftop, his back facing the group and his head tipped towards the sky. He was listening though; always listening. Sano's grand answering of a few of his questions did not spur his trust, nor his forgiveness, or any sort of concession that he had been wrong. Those were the safe answers, he thought, those were the answers he could give while remaining so very vague about himself. There was so much that Sano wasn't saying. Razugual could hear it in his voice. The way he cut himself off. The way he so quickly changed gears without explaining a particularly questionable thing. The magician's companion would not go easy on Sano.

He remained in his position; sitting on his haunches, and listening.

edited 8th Jan '13 2:06:54 AM by Ryuhza

Sano twirled his nonexistent mustache right back at Mud. "Shame indeed, now we just have to keep wondering. I'll stop messing with him then."

"No point to bully a dragon like that. If he have any real questions I'll give him real answers."

edited 18th Jan '13 5:52:44 PM by m8e

Mud smirked, "Once more, I really wouldn't worry about it were I you- he's just running a bit of a sulk and those never last. I hope you weren't trying to make friends though, that ship may already have sunk! Only good for the fish now." Suddenly, the magician snapped his fingers—resulting in the tips lighting on fire. "Oh, that reminds me! Are we still on for doves gospodin Sano? I could do fish instead, but I don't have a terrible lot of water, so they'd be flopping all over the place— and that can be a bit of a quandary."

He fixed Sano with one eye and dropped his smile. "But do remember Sano, I will not perform anything tasteless."

More like shared snore-y! Yomegami? Dae Brayk?

"Doves? It depends on your taste and Morgans standards, or maybe your standards and Morgans taste, and I assume no-one here fancies squab... or fish with that origin." Sano smirk grew just as big as Muds. There was a long time since he met someone that could talk about stuff like this this way, making bad and gruesome jokes that's not really funny in any way or form. His friends, real friend fancied more practical jokes where he or Doc was the butt, and if he was the butt the jokes could be almost as gruesome as this hypothetical fish ideas.

Sano also thought it was funny, maybe even silly how someone like Morgan could have standards like these. Impractical standards that doesn't do anything good in real life. This blood have already parted with the donor and not using the blood won't undo anything. If no-one use the blood it will only get old and useless. But in this case the difference between her drinking the blood or not might mean be the difference between life and death for Sano. It wasn't likely that this blood would make that difference, but it was still quite a big gesture by Sanos standards. But it seemed like she only thought about the useless morals, the donor, the past, instead of what this blood could do in the future. She knew that they would come and she must have heard that it might get bloody ot at least unfriendly, but still she just commented about the source and her standards.

Sano expression turned slightly more serious and he continued: "A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving, whatever happens happens and all that. This plan of mine isn't really fixed nor is the goal. Do worry and do whatever you feel is right. But don't,don't use any magic on me. I have my own magic for that and no one knows what happens if they get mixed."

edited 18th Jan '13 6:52:43 PM by m8e

Apologies about my general slownesss; been going through bit of a mental crisis right now/giving Dae Brayk some room to say something.

Morgan's eyes narrowed slightly for a few seconds, but before long her death glare had softened into a more neutral expression. She couldn't say that she believed anything Sano was saying about the blood (in particular, she found it hard to believe people gave away their blood on a regular basis; such a thing was unheard of where she came from), but at this point further questioning would be the rough equivalent of smashing her head off a rock cliff.

"Whatever you say," she said in a friendlier but still very skeptical tone as she returned the blood bag to its box and replaced the lid, "With any luck, this whole blood deal won't be an issue soon anyway."

She turned to face Mud afterwards, ready to ask him what the exact details of his plans for her, but it seemed he'd struck up another conversation with Sano while he was waiting for her reply. Not really willing to butt into it now, she leaned back again and waited for them to finish talking.

Sorry for the delay. I sent a message to Dae Brayk a while back to see if he was still with us, but still no word.

"Ooooh..." the magician crooned, his lips pursed and an ardent look in his wide eyes. "But my, my! What a lot of fun that could be! Say what you will of precaution and certainty, I know such things are of great concern to you. However a short man may see what he can and declare himself content. But a tall man may see the world as it is in full. A moth, a butterfly. Unabashed truth! A hungry lie! He sees all the things that sweep you up into the air!" Mud twirled his finger upwards, following it with his gaze. "and the things that would help return your feet to the ground. And with this knowledge he can choose to do a great many things. He may choose to believe a great many things too. He may perceive the world as ugly, that his knowledge is a curse, or a danger. Something to be feared, and kept from others, like the short man. Or perhaps he finds that in knowledge there is a great freedom."





Razugual watched the sky. The starlight had begun fading, though he hadn't noticed. The magician's companion was still listening in on the conversation from the campfire, but he hadn't been getting very much out of it. It's all bad jokes, secrecy, and nothing talk. He sighed, dropping his focus from the useless chatting, and leveled his head with the horizon, exploring the distant desert with his eyes.

It was easier to see than before, even minutes earlier and Razugual could make out just how vast the plain appeared. There was not much to be found in the distance. The question reemerged in his head again: where had the others gone? Why would they go— where would they go, when there was nowhere in sight to go? He looked down at the roof beneath his feet. What was a gas station doing all the way out here? How had he and Mud, or any number of those who had come and gone, arrived here?

It bothered him. Many things were bothering him. This entire stop was bothering him, and a part of Razugual wanted now to be done with it. To leap off the roof and go about his merry way, as it seemed so many of the others had done. But he kept these feelings enclosed and in check, and returned his hollow gaze to the night sky.

Immediately, he noticed, the sky no longer belonged to the night. There was a distinct strain of rich blueness that hadn't been there before, and indeed, a brightness roused at the edge of the desert. Dawn had silently approached, and now, finally arrived.





The magician leaned backward, resting against thin air. "The two men may meet at a question: What is the nature of a free existence? The short man looks up at the tall man with curious eyes, perhaps believing that the nature of existence is to continually learn more of existence, and to deepen one's understanding of what he knows. The tall man, with his horizons so vast... perhaps he believes that the nature of existence is to find a comfortable place to stop knowing."

Mud held up his hands and tipped his head. "In this case, what matters more than the truth, is what you hope is the truth." Mud pointed at Sano, raising his eyebrows with a wide smile. "What you wish to be the truth."

He held his pose for a few moments longer, then switched gears again, stroking his goatee and looking generally disinterested in anything. "Well I suppose I will perform however I deem my fancy to be suited at the time of the proceedings. Sounds like a good idea, feels like a good idea; looks, smells, and tastes like a good idea. If I had to venture a guess..."

The magician let the words hang with a playful smile, then tipped his head back to the point that his hat fell off. He threw out a hand to catch it, turning to face Morgan at the same time. "Ah, Madamé Morgan," He placed the hat back on his head and chuckled inwardly, "Is there a thing that you wanted? Some... thing?"

All the while, Mud did not seem to notice, or was ignoring, Razugual, who had turned around, and was watching them all directly.

Morgan was mostly lost in thought while Mud and Sano continued to wax philosophical. She was still worried about what Sano was hiding and what exactly Mud had in mind for her, but there was something else that, up until this point, she hadn't been thinking much about. She still hadn't the foggiest idea of how she got here; how she managed to somehow warp from the mostly forested terrain that composed her homeland to the middle of what was apparently a desert. For that matter, she hadn't an idea of how she was supposed to get back, either. Some part of her seriously doubted that this place was part of her land, and therefore held any of the artifacts she was supposed to be looking for. Given that she really wasn't in the mood to be around when Sano's...assassins got here, she hoped a way back wouldn't be too difficult to find.

It was this point that she finally noticed that the area was a little bit brighter than it was when she first got here. With a slightly worried expression, she looked towards the horizon. As luck would have it, morning had broken. A worry she had voiced to Razugual earlier came back to haunt her: she wasn't sure what would happen if she stepped out into the sunlight. She was used to not being up at this point, as the natural vampires she was living with before she wound up here were nocturnal, and they thought it best for her if she adopted their sleeping habits. They didn't say much about what happened when they were exposed to sunlight, other than that they didn't like it much. If a normal vampire didn't like the sun, Morgan was rather apprehensive about what it would do to a cursed vampire like herself.

She was nervous to the point that she almost didn't notice when Mud completed his conversation and started speaking to her. "Oh...um...."

Morgan glanced back out at the horizon, and then back at Mud, mentally debating on whether the blood requirement or the possible sun weakness was a bigger problem. She was mostly worried about the blood requirement, if only because the sun wasn't a problem for the majority of her time here and there was a lack of sources of it (she had too many concerns about Sano's blood bag to even consider drinking from it). Even moreso, it was mostly the reason she was talking to Mud in the first place - if she wasn't worried about it, she figured she'd probably be more comfortable speaking with Razugual.

In the end, that was the concern that needed dealt with. She really was not in the mood to risk trying to remove both - given Mud was still a bit in the dark about her own condition, and that she wasn't quite sure if the magic that changed her was compatible (so to speak) with the magic Mud used. Besides, the sun weakness was easily the lesser evil - if she needed to go out in it, maybe Mud could conjure up some shade or something.

"Yes, you were saying something about getting rid of my dietary requirement," she responded after a few moments. "But, I'd really like to know the specifics before we get started. I'm really not much in the mood to get turned into a bat, dragon, or whatever; being a vampire is enough."

The magician nodded. "Well, in truth, it would make it easier if I were allowed to be more flexible in my doings, but I understand that it is your wish to remain the same— sans that peculiar thirst." He frowned and weighed the air in his hands, "I've given it a great thought—perhaps indeed one of my greatest—and I'm inclined to respect that wish."

He framed her head with his hands, fixing her with a raised eyebrow, "As I see you now, and as you see yourself now, minus one little detail... so shall you be at the end of my trick— mm... should you still be inclined to participate." Mud smiled and tipped his head to one side. "Of course, the choice belongs to you. Doesn't it?"





Razugual perched near the edge of the gas station rooftop, eyes fixated on Morgan. He noticed her turning her eyes to the distant sky more than once, but she didn't say anything about it. Instead she continued to talk to Mud about some sort of favor. This too left Razugual uneasy. Trying to guess how Mud would carry out any sort of task or request was no simple task, but the magician had no evident feud with or distaste for the poor girl, so the man had no reason to do anything harmful. Still, Razugual was undecided on whether or not he should intervene. But... perhaps the man was being honest?

Is this dead then? It seems that everyone has either gone missing or is happier in another character thread. If this isn't the case, then do declare so.

edited 4th Feb '13 12:09:49 AM by Ryuhza

Necro BUMP!

Sano didn't like that transformation thingy either, such things shouldn't be taken lightly and Sano had seen no proof that Mud could turn somebody back to normal if he made a mistake. Mixing different kinds of curses and magic was probably an mistake. The best options seemed to be to just interrupt their conversation.

"Indeed, there is great freedom in knowledge and with my knowledge I have chosen to be a short man with a long shadow."

"Many tall men makes the mistake to just not see the ugly things instead of seeing the beauty in everything. The ugly things they don't see is still there. When that sneaks up in them they loses their heads."

"Mud? Can you see the beauty in a caterpillar being eaten alive from the inside or a tall man losing his head?"

edited 20th Feb '13 10:29:58 AM by m8e

This thread has served its purpose for me now that Character Mansion is up. As such, I don't intend on making another actual post. To be honest, I think this thread expired quite a while ago and we're just dragging it beyond its expiration date. That said, I'd be up for another one of these things should the next non-casual CDT not be to my liking.

I have to agree. At this point it'd just be you and me going back and forth m8e. This thread lost it's steam a while ago, and now there just aren't enough people to push it in a meaningful way.

edited 20th Feb '13 10:57:52 AM by Ryuhza

Yeah, I assumed it. Just wanted to have the last post.

Well alrighty then...