To dream is my right
Farm - external (Mazra, Caleb, Anoerith):
Ashes and salt and blackened blood! Why does this always happen?
There she was, about to learn about the wonders of other worlds, and all had to fall apart in the worst way possible. As her prayers went unanswered and both Caleb and Prince Mazra noticed her disguise fall apart, she tried to make make sense of things.
She had to get away. They knew there was something strange, but not what. Maybe there was a chance.
"I am fine. But I... I have to leave.", and with that she ran through the fields towards the forest. But she knew that she couldn't outrun them if they followed. She was too slow, and if they gave chase, she would need to fight.
Unless... unless the wings the dream gave her were functional.
"The dried flowers are so beautiful, and it applies to all things living and dead."
[wasteland city academy - Aunrei, Xeqa, Half, Miyuki, Phoebe, Ashleigh]
At first, Aunrei was more confused about Hana's outburst of laughter than anything else. His cloud-white eyes went out-of-focus as he scanned over everything he's said about himself. PTSD, slavery, whipping, disembowelment... and she thought that was amusing? And there was the dignity thing. Was he 'undignified' because... he was complaining about this? Or was she one of those conservatives who thought he should be grateful he was being used at all?
He let Xeqa step in and question her about it. But the topic of dignity in war did not... exactly seem contiguous with dignity in slavery. Whatever... even though he didn't have Celso here to back him up, they at least weren't paying attention to him anymore. Eyes wide, he formulated a plan to move silently away from the two warrior-women, noting the younger girl's discomfort. He didn't want to leave her there, but he wasn't exactly the picture of respectability right now...
So he picked his blood-dried shirt up off the grass and stood carefully, drawing another water-ball from the fountain. He turned his back to the women and rinsed his shirt as quietly as he could, not even trying to get it clean, just not stiff anymore. The water quickly turned bluish-brown, his shirt returning to a wearable state far quicker than it would have in real life. Perhaps the dream was helping him? He lowered the water back into the fountain, quickly wrung the shirt out over the grass as best he could, then used more aquakinesis draw all of the remaining moisture out of his shirt, so it at least would be tolerable to wear. He put the still-damp, charcoal-colored dress shirt back on, with some difficulty. It was amazing how quickly a shirt could make him look more approachable, even one that was torn enough for his wounds to peek through in places.
Grimacing a bit as he gently lowered his arms, he turned to head around the fountain, waited until he met either Phoebe's gaze or her horse's gaze, then nodded her over to say that she could follow if she felt like it. "I don't bite," he mouthed silently. All of his indignance had flowed straight out of him, leaving him looking more tired than anything.
The whole time when he was washing his shirt, waving the girl over, and walking around the fountain, Ashleigh, her pet fish, and her tree thing were quizzing him. In present tense. Even though 'thirty years ago' is most definitely not 'now'.
"I haven't seen him in thirty years," he hissed. "Normally, I heal instantly, but he'd tell me to wait so he had time to look at his handiwork. Unlike literally all of my other dreams, this dream let me kill that master." He looked away, shaking his head. "I... I- I don't even know why the dream let me do that, or if it's trying to tell me some metaphorical BS..." He sank onto the side of the fountain, trembling as he tried to hide his face. "I just want the dreams to stop..."
edited 1st May '16 6:04:48 AM by CrystalGlacia
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
the cutest lizard
[Farm – Exterior – Field (Min, Varris, Seilaan)]
Min blinked, taken aback by Seilaan’s concern. Her wound wasn’t that bad, was it? She looked at her bloodied hand, and then down at her wound. Blood was still flowing freely from it, even though the pain had started to subside.
Min looked at Seilaan sheepishly. “Oh. Um. You shouldn’t worry about it. It looks worse than it actually is.” She hadn’t been expecting Seilaan to get so worried about a little bit of blood. Did Min just totally misread her? “You don’t need to apologize, anyway. It’s a duel, isn’t it? I got hurt ‘cause I wasn’t paying enough attention. My fault, not yours.”
Min took her jacket off and ran a finger across the tear. It was old, and had never really fit her anyway, so she wasn’t too upset that it had gotten damaged. “I guess I wouldn’t mind new clothes, though. Maybe something like what you’re wearing? I dunno, you probably know more about fashion than I do.”
Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours For graphs of passion and charts of stars...
Barn exterior
"Wait, Ano!" Caleb called and reached out after she started running, "listen, whatever's happening to you back I'm sure it's nothing beyond what I've already seen today!" He let his hand down and motioned to his restraints, "I understand, at least I think I do. There's something about me that people hate too." How loud he says this would depend on if Anoeith responded to his first statement.
You say I am loved, when I don’t feel a thing. You say I am strong, when I think I am weak. You say I am held, when I am falling short.
[farm, inside barn - Ren Yangchao, Vince]
He blinked. Yes... you are biased, he thought. He knew that both girls were at fault, but if they were trying to claim Seilaan was somehow deserving of less blame than Mazra, it wasn't working. That's what little kids try to claim when you catch them in an argument. 'She started it, she kept calling me stupid, nyeh, nyeh-nyeh.' If Seilaan was supposed to be the better person, she shouldn't have escalated the fight in the first place. Best to let that battle go.
Oh... more civics stuff. Great.
"Define 'deeply involved'. Commentating in the media? Organizing open forums? Assisting an official? Holding public office yourself? I think it's the responsibility of someone who works in government to keep their patriotism more restrained than their people, and civic duty ideally shouldn't consume anybody's life to the point that I can't get a sense of who they are outside of it, but beyond that? There's too many factors to consider, not just in terms of political situations, but also in terms of how one chooses to let patriotism influence the way they go about their life and civic duties."
He brought his coffee closer to him, and summoned another psychic arm to retrieve his candy. "I know that's something of a non-answer, but I don't believe my opinion about appropriate patriotism holds much weight beyond those few facets I mentioned. The social circles I move in do not generally collect patriot-types who are there to conduct political discourse. I became a senator in the first place to fix exactly one civil rights issue, and I still put a great deal of effort into keeping my work as a senator separate from everything else that I do. Of course... this is just what happens to work for me and the strange government-slash-geopolitical situation I've found myself in." He took an orange slice. Yum.
[farm, field]
At long last, the fluffy figure popped out of the fog. It was a Samoyed, the smiling, fluffed-up puffball of a working dog all too excited to meet all of the interesting people at her farm. The two girls holding shiny blades were closest, so she approached them first, sitting on her haunches as she watched the one tend to the other's wound with interest.
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
Drummer Boy
[Farm (exterior, field)]
"Uhm..." Seilaan stared at the roll of bandages that she was clutching, then back at Min's wound. "Well, that's good. That it isn't—you know, very severe. But I mean, I probably shouldn't have swung at you quite so hard, and we'd better wipe off that blood. Here, take them anyway, can't go wrong with keeping a wound clean even if you're not dying. As for clothes... hm."
She crossed her arms and tilted her head, frowning as she tried to figure out what might look good on Min. Her armor faded and was replaced by the same robes she was wearing earlier. "How about... this."
A set of folded clothes appeared in her hands and she used magic to unfold them and suspend them in the air so Min could get an idea of how they might look on her. There was a white undershirt with a standing collar, a knee-length indigo wraparound tunic with gold bands on the edges, matching trousers, and a gold sash. The sleeves had some flare to them, but they weren't as big as Seilaan's.
"So these are a little more practical than what I have, but if you want to go all out, we can definitely arrange that," she said, handing the clothes to Min. "Do you want to try some makeup too? Or another hairstyle, maybe? It's all right if you don't, I'm just in an experimental mood right n—is that a dog?"
It was a dog.
Yes.
She crouched and held out her hands to the dog. "Who's a good baby?"
[Farm (inside barn)]
Ren Yangchao was quiet for a moment, wondering if they should bother telling Vince to do himself a favor and never bring up his opinions on civic duty with a Renesian politician. Would that just be the beginning of another heated discussion? They didn't want another one. Even if they didn't quite like him, they could certainly learn something from someone three times their age. Ren Yangchao was the most ancient sentient being in their home universe and they were already afraid that thanks to their irritation, they'd squandered the chance to have a meaningful conversation with someone older than them. Yinha definitely let her mark. Seilaan might already be, too. Good grief. I'd better get someone more docile after this, but with my luck, it'll be another warrior.
At least she seemed to be doing better now. She always did like dogs. She'd fill the palace with them if she could, but her father's Wolfram wouldn't be very pleased. "More animals now. Any idea where they might have been?"
edited 1st May '16 3:24:56 PM by SnowyFoxes
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
Attitude is prohibited
[Wasteland City] (Academy)
"I'm afraid I don't give tours," Hana said to Peggy. "And the academy-proper is... Quite an exclusive locale," she chuckled. "You are welcome to wander the garden, however. This, as I said earlier, is a safe place, so you needn't fear."
Despite Aunrei's lowered voice and distance from Hana's bench, she still appeared to have heard him. "You killed him?" she said. "Well... Perhaps there is hope for you yet, even if it was merely a dream..."
Not entirely dead.
[Farm -> ??? (Mazra, Caleb, Anoerith)]
Why is she running?!?
Mazra could guess, at least, that it had something to do with those clicking noises her arm was making. And I thought I had invented some unconvincing excuses to leave parties in the past. But she couldn't understand why whatever it was being known by two total strangers from different worlds in a dream would be alarming enough for Anoerith to just outright turn and run away. I'm not that scary, am I?
She thought about detaching her field-sword hilt, but just as quickly thought that it probably wouldn't go over well. So instead she set off after the others at a run of her own, though not as fast as Caleb was. Running too fast (right now) would just tire her out. If it worked like that in a dream?
Though Mazra didn't notice it immediately, as she moved farther away from the farm, the omnipresent mists of the dream swirled, then closed up behind her like a wall, separating the trio from the farm-dreamscape.
the cutest lizard
[Farm – Exterior – Field (Min, Varris, Seilaan)]
Min held the clothes out in front of her, handling them with great care. Even if they weren’t super gaudy or ostentatious, they were still much nicer than anything she’d ever worn before. They even felt really soft. But...
Min’s face scrunched up. Something felt a little off. “I like the style,” she said slowly, trying to avoid sounding too critical, “but the colors don’t really, uh, fit me. Maybe something more like…” The colors of the clothing suddenly shifted. The tunic and pants faded to black, while the undershirt turned bright red, along with the gold bands. The sash, however, changed to silver.
Min reexamined the clothes, taking her time observing them from every possible angle. Finally, she nodded, smiling. “Yeah, this is better. Blue and white don’t really work for me.” She paused, concentrating for a moment, and the clothes vanished from her hands, instantly switching out with the ones she had been wearing, which then disappeared completely. She looked up at Seilaan. “What do you think, Sei-”
She cut off with a sudden intake of breath, just now noticing the white dog. Hesitantly, Min stepped a little bit closer to Seilaan, but not much, eying the animal warily. Trying to ignore the vague sense of apprehension building inside of her, she asked, “Where did that come from?”
Realizing that the duel was now over, at least for the moment, Varris crept back over to Min’s side, brushing past her ankle. He regarded the dog in a similar vein to Min, keeping a good distance away from it, his wings twitching nervously.
Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours For graphs of passion and charts of stars...
[Wasteland City] (Academy)
Xeqa chuckled at Hana's newfound respect. "You missed that part. Explains it." She shrugged. "Pissed off ex-slaves make great shock troops. You can't teach that kind of hate for an enemy. I've tried." She then looked Hana up and down. "So, survival of the fittest? Who defines the fittest?" But there was something unusual in her tone, even as her eyes studied Hana with a newfound, sinister interest. Hana had probably met many who would argue her brutal Darwinism was too cynical, too cruel, but something about the amused light in Xeqa's eyes suggested she, somehow, found it too idealistic.
[Ritter Clinic]
Iveya shrugged as she contemplated the bottle, before deciding not to pour herself another. Instead, she said,"this Ibram must really be eager to drag you into the fold, disrupting the balance like that. " She studied Friedrich with new eyes. "What makes you so important, then..."
To dream is my right
The Tranquil Underworld - Gate(Anoerith, Mazra, Caleb, Gatekeeper):
Anoerith almost didn't hear Caleb's words as she ran away from the group, hands already on the belt of her robes.
That almost, however, was enough for her to answer. "You don't understand. I don't understand. This dream is making it get worse!", she said before resuming her race, not bothering to see if the vague words meant anything to the strange man. She was too slow, even if Mazra didn't seem to be at the average human running speed as well.
"...There is something about me people hate too."
What Caleb said hit her like a train and made her stop on her tracks. What did he mean? Was he also something not natural? She turned her head towards him and Mazra, not even noticing that she was moving her wings anxiously, making strange bulges appear under her robes at times. She intended to question what he meant, but what she saw rendered her mind inert.
The mist... it was falling behind them, hiding the path back to where they came, enclosing the three like an army besieging a city. It moved faster and faster, as if a ghost had taken possession of the wind itself, and shaped it like a snake constricting its prey, and inside de fog there were shapes moving. They were not visible, not yet, at least to her mundane senses, but soon they would manifest. They were, or would eventually be, birdlike, with small bodies, fast wings and white feathers, but they were not birds. Their angles were too sharp and defined to be of flesh and bone, their heads, claws and even the silhuetes of their wings were of fluid and inky darkness against the impure white of paper. They were like her, almost real, but something told her that wouldn't stop them from dismantling her along with Caleb and Mazra for spare parts.
She looked at the people there with her. They were still clueless, weren't they? It would pain her greatly to leave them to their fates, but she had no idea of how to stop those beings when they finally became real. What did she do? Cirri would have know how to deal with them, but she wasn't there. Ano wasn't good with curses and incantations like her, she was good at building and fixing things, and without time or materials, her only option was to...
Dummmm. Dummmm.
Were those bells ringing? She heard it once, them twice. Yes, the sound was unmistakable, and it was coming from the forest. It brought a memory to her mind, of her Maker and one of his relics, a small bell enchanted to bear the sound of a greater one. That was the bell she was hearing. The Maker said it could only be heard... it could only be heard by those who needed his help.
"I... I must leave. Things are going to get very, very dangerous, and I am going to find help. No matter what happens, don't leave this place until I come back.".
And with that she removed the belt of her robes and quickly took them off by unfolding her wings. Each was longer than she was tall when fully extended, and in the empty patches not covered by feathers of all types and colors they seemed to be artificial in nature, even if more artesanal than mechanical, their skeleton made of wood sculpted to resemble bone, joined with interconnected bronze gears and strings that seemed to move without any external force being applied, as if the universe was convinced they were muscles instead of inanimated matter. Were skin and flesh should be, there as what looked like thick spiderweb, and immersed on it were pieces of paper with undecipherable patterns draw on them.
The wings came from Anoerith's back, and her shirt looked like it had a large hole cut open in it to allow space for them. The exposed skin behind them was... lacking, being either scar covered or absent and exposing torn flesh that seemed to twist to attach itself to the bases of the wings in a both fascinating and disturbing display. The skin of Anoerith's neck was equally wounded, even if her flesh there conformed to human anatomy, and her hair and mask concealed most of her head. Her body was still mostly concealed by tattered clothes made of black silk, that had subtle patterns in dark red along them. The shirt had a single row of buttons made of dark wood, each with the engraved image of a many-legged serpentine dragon circling its borders, and both it and the trousers seemed to be made of many pieces of cloth, wove together by dark red strings. Through holes and tears in said clothing, however, it was possible to see that in many parts of her body skin and flesh gave way to wood and metal. That is, when there was anything at all other than darkness behind said tears and holes.
Anoerith didn't spend much time savoring the sensation of having her wings again, or even testing them to see if they wouldn't break a second time. There wasn't time for that now. If she didn't find the Maker, or at least a experienced enough mage, those wings would probably be torn in thousands of pieces by the devils. So she ran towards the forest with renewed strength, and moved her wings as she ran. It wasn't long until she left the ground, and flew through the mists. She caught glimpses of the yet manifestating bird demons, lines of floating ink tracing their silhuetes in the mist. She ignored them, and flew towards the origin of the sound.
Dummmmm. Dummmm. The treetops under her soon gave way to a clearing, and in the clearing there seemed to be a two story tall pyramidal stone building, above which there was a human ringing a bell. That isn't the Maker... but his bell... it sounds the same. Praying she wouldn't spook the man, Anoerith landed behind him.
"I wasn't expecting one such as you, child of Teman. Not that I am complaining, of course." The human said, without looking at her.
"Child of Teman?", she said, surprised and warily. Cirri had told her the Pallid Prince wasn't evil, but his memory was enough for people to hate beings like her centuries after his death, so being called his child wasn't something that made her comfortable.
The person turned towards her. No, he, or she, wasn't human, but telen. Their skin was grey and no single hair grew on it, and their eyes were dark violet like the night when Mirri was just above the horizon. She resisted the impulse to step back and instead stared them deep in the eyes. they didn't try to turn her into a pile of ashes, so maybe they could help. "There are people, in the edge of the forest. Bird devils are about to attack them."
"What makes you think that?"
She clenched her fists in anger. Would the telen make her play fool while people got hurt? "I saw them!"
"Of course you did. But you didn't see them attack.", they said. "The birds were after you, I think. The girl's sword scares them, you know. It appears to be of fire, and while not as powerful as the fires of my kin, they still fear it."
"So... so they are going to come here?", she said, sounding more afraid than she would like.
"No. You are under my protection. I demand a favor as payment, however."
"What... what kind of favor?"
"A kind you only see in stories, I think. But first, your friends should be here as well."
And, with that, the mist reached to the top of the pyramid from the clouds, first as thin tendrils, which slowly reunited and solidified into the forms of Mazra and Caleb.
updating the thread page tomorrow
"The dried flowers are so beautiful, and it applies to all things living and dead."
[farm, field]
The dog's attention was diverted momentarily by a flash of motion near the barn. Her fluffy ears pricked and she peered through Min and Seilaan, just in time to notice two people vanishing into the forest. Oh, well. At least she had these two girls to cuddle with!
That one girl knew what to do, so best not to keep her waiting! She gave Seilaan a good sniff first. But the other girl seemed scared... why? She noted her smell, too... hm. Was that a- it was a wyvern! She loved wyverns! But he was hiding... better coax him gently. What better way to show him it was okay than to ask his pack mother for scratchies?
Smiling her Samoyed smile, she wagged her tail in a circle, brushing her head against Seilaan's hand before turning and doing the same with Min.
[farm, inside barn]
Vince looked behind him, noting a barrel that had a horse blanket thrown over it. He took a step towards Ren Yangchao, set his snacks on a crate with his coffeepot, pulled the barrel and crate behind him with psychic arms. and sat carefully. Giving both his cup and the pot a glance, they slowly began to steam again.
Huh... what about his animals? He studied Ren Yangchao for just a smidge longer than what might be considered normal for this situation. Realizing what he was doing, almost with a silent 'oh!', he turned his head very sharply to look outside, focusing very hard into the distance. At the same time, it didn't seem that he was watching the girls play with his dog or trying to make out cows in the fog. Rather, his gaze had slipped over them entirely to try and see if there was maybe something else out there that Ren Yangchao could have meant.
All the while, the barn was silent. Even the wyverns were quiet, so he could hear his small livestock making merry, chattering amongst themselves in their pens.
Well... yes. Those were his animals. That is what they were asking him about, he supposed.
"That's true," he said with a tone that suggested he was musing to himself more than anything else, "they're back." A long sip of coffee. He smiled, halfway between quietly satisfied and wistful, meeting Ren Yangchao's gaze as he reached back to set his coffee down. "Who knows where the dream took them, or why it gave them back? Or what it's even trying to tell us, for that matter." A slight shrug.
[wasteland academy]
Aunrei rested his elbows on his knees, trying to steady himself as the girls looked on.
Oh, that voice, it was that bitch again. He might have some hope, given that she had just now figured out that he killed the bastard. He barely raised his head, attempting to hide that he had heard this, and listened, carefully, as Xeqa seemed to steer the topic away from him. If either of the girls or their friends tried to utter so much as a sound, he'd raise an index finger to shush them, so that Hana couldn't see him trying to listen, either.
His motives for waiting, and listening so closely were simple- would Hana try to pursue him, or not? Was he going to have to abandon these girls who had clearly chosen the wrong place and start a shouting match about the ethics of servitude? Or was he going to be able to go on his merry way and continue trying to conjure his family man side for the girls' sake?
edited 2nd May '16 7:55:00 PM by CrystalGlacia
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
Farm area -> tranquil underworld - gate
The dream was making it worse? Perhaps her mind brought in whatever was on her back. The way they rose and fell, were they wings? Caleb breathed easier when Ano stopped and turned around, but that relief was short lived when the mist closed in.
The fog seemed to take shape, elongated and coiling around them. Caleb stopped to observe, eyes wide. Hidden in it were...were...well, nothing. But the nothings weren't passive, he felt the air expect to move. He started forcefully exhaling, and kept going after he should have ran out of air to discharge. Caleb's eidolon released from his breath and flowed into the mist.
His vision was a thing of matter, so he saw matter. But his eidolon was a thing of concepts, and through it he could feel concepts waiting to be real. And he doubted their intentions were pure. Caleb inhaled back his eidolon and said to Mazra "get ready to use that sword", then concentrated on the space before him.
In this dream Caleb could manifest what he needed. Well he needed Innocent right now. He held out his hands, imagined every piece and mechanism; he remembered the first time he held it, the first slayer he broke with it, how safe it made him feel. And there it was, the double barreled rifle with a weighted stock. Caleb held it downward, ready to shot whatever came out first.
The moment didn't come. Instead he felt himself being lifted and dissolve. The very beginnings of his scream was cut short when, for a brief moment, he was the mist. Then he rematerialized on a pyramidal structure. Before him were two people. With the first Caleb put two an two together and suspected it was Anoerith. So those were wings! The other he didn't know.
Caleb unimagined his gun and said "soooooo...I've come to expect a lot of things. That wasn't one of them." With the initial shock beginning to pass his tone became less laid back, "with that out of the way can anyone tell me what just happened!?"
edited 8th May '16 3:35:50 AM by Novis
You say I am loved, when I don’t feel a thing. You say I am strong, when I think I am weak. You say I am held, when I am falling short.
Drummer Boy
[Farm (exterior, field)]
Seilaan studied the new colors of Min's clothes. "Ooh, it makes you look mysterious. I'd bring in the silver a bit more with a hair accessory, maybe, but you already look lovely! I'm glad you like the style, but if you get bored of it, I'm sure there's more where that came from."
The puppy! She was coming! And what a fluffy pup she was! The fluffiest! And so friendly! This was indeed a most excellent dog. Min didn't seem too happy, though.
"It's probably one of Vince's disappeared animals, like the horses and such," she said, sounding a lot more upbeat than usual. "It think she likes you. What's your name, baby?" She tried to see if there was a collar and tag buried in all that fluff.
[Farm (inside barn)]
What did he tell Seilaan this farm was for, again? Recreation? Farming wasn't a typical recreational activity. Gardening, yes. But running a farm? That was serious business. And he was a senator? Had he mentioned hiring any help earlier? Maybe. Maybe not. Ren Yangchao hadn't been paying very much attention to that part of his conversation with Seilaan, probably. Or they just forgot. Joy.
Maybe he was planning to mull it over on his own time. Maybe he'd already reached a revelation and wanted to keep it private. Either way, this did not seem like a very pressing matter to him. "Ah, to be young and full of vigor," they said quietly, as they watched the two girls and the dog. Come to think of it, he did seem a bit hung up on Seilaan's youth earlier. "I wish I didn't have to watch her and her friends get swept up in this ugly war. Most of them aren't even twenty. All I can do is help her defend them."
edited 3rd May '16 1:17:06 PM by SnowyFoxes
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
the cutest lizard
[Farm – Exterior – Field (Min, Varris, Seilaan)]
Min flinched and yanked her hand away from the dog. For a brief moment, she instinctively raised her sword, before catching herself and bringing it back down to her side again. Okay, let’s not stab Vince’s dog, she thought, and the sword quietly disappeared, the blue gridlines following suit.
Min inched closer to Seilaan, trembling slightly, although she hoped Seilaan wouldn’t notice. Varris stayed by her feet, practically stepping on them.
Min looked away from the dog, turning to Seilaan. “Y-Yeah, I agree. About the colors,” she said, a bit absentmindedly, lifting up one of her sleeves. “Um… Funny thing about that. I was actually in a band once - just a small, local thing - and whenever we’d play live gigs, we’d always dress in black and red like this. I forget which one of us suggested it. Maybe Nora or Avery, those two were probably the most fashionably inclined out of all of us. And I guess when I changed the colors of these clothes, that’s the first thing I thought of.”
She frowned. She’d already been through this with Mazra, and that had turned out horribly. But here she was, dredging up old memories again. She was barely even thinking before she spoke; the words just poured out on their own.
A cool breeze picked up, and the rain began falling more steadily as the sunlight over the field dimmed even further. Min shivered and pulled the tunic tighter around herself, almost wishing she still had her jacket.
edited 3rd May '16 5:40:40 PM by Collen
Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours For graphs of passion and charts of stars...
[The Tranquil Underworld - Gate (Mazra, Caleb, Anoerith, Gatekeeper)]
"What the - ?" Mazra exclaimed as Anoerith shrugged off her robes to show she was a... a what, exactly? Her first, frightened (not that she would say so) thought was machine, but while parts of Anoerith's body seemed to be... inorganic in nature, it was something else entirely from any sort of synthetic life form she'd ever heard of, even in fiction. Besides, Anoerith seemed more frightened of them than anything else.
Though the mist was acting a little unnervingly. It was actually a lot like her dream that had originally merged into this one, but the creatures that were forming - less out of the mist than what seemed like holes in it - seemed less humanoid than the villains she had fought. ('Fought', that is.) More magic, or just the dream being... weirder than normal?
She rolled her eyes a little as both Anoerith before departing, and then Caleb, tried to warn her about the 'void-birds'. Am I the only one here who remembers that none of this is real?
It was easy to understand, though, considering how hard it was not to think of this as a place instead of something more mental. And it could never hurt to get in more practice (especially where, a voice in the back of her head added, it was easier to mimic all the fiction about Paladins she'd experienced).
She pulled her field-sword loose from her coat and activated the hilt. This time, the rectangular blade glowed blue. Before she could do anything with it, though, everything just seemed to... white out. There was a very disconcerting rushing sensation, and she might have yelled in panic, though hopefully that was Caleb instead. Then the two of them appeared somewhere else.
Mazra had just enough time to stop yelling and see both that she hadn't woken up (as she half expected), and that they had rejoined both Anoerith and an unknown bipedal sophont. Then she said "Huh" and her legs gave way, dropping her to the ground.
The field-sword flew loose, but rather conveniently shut off in mid-flight before landing nearby on the pyramid.
Attitude is prohibited
[Wasteland City] (Academy)
Hana, it seemed, was far more interested in her conversation with Xeqa than she was in harassing Aunrei.
"Survival of the fittest," she said. "From an evolutionary perspective, is essentially the notion that the species which is best able to adapt to its environment and circumstances will naturally out-compete its rivals. Thus, 'the fittest,' applied to nation-states..." she paused, casting a brief and quizzical glance at Xeqa's furs and steel armour. "Or other such communities of the humans species, are those which, when placed into direct competition with one-another, best succeed."
"Ah, or did you mean, who gets to create the definition?" She shrugged. "The state does, with challenges to its interpretation being suppressed by whatever means are appropriate or necessary," she said. "But in a much broader sense, with sociopolitical matters we are rarely afforded the luxury of a scientific answer. The essence of 'survival of the fittest' can still be applied, however, as it works for ideologies as much as it does for species. Rival ideas compete for space, for prevalence, within a given society. Conflict, violent or otherwise, is therefore inevitable, and the end result achieves dominance."
Not entirely dead.
[farm, inside barn]
"The senators I work with can't seem to get it into their skulls that youth are their future. They're not bargaining chips, they're not lab rats, they're not pawns who exist to fight your problems out for you, they're individuals with their own. Lives." He put his elbow on his knee and propped his chin his hand as rain started to pour further out into the pasture. Weird.
"But they regard my patronage of college-going youth with a bit of a laugh and a polite smile. Like my insistence on raising and preparing my own food, it's just another one of my... peculiarities, I guess. Obviously, watching even the brightest, most driven youth be forced by their economic and living situations to limit their aspirations to pipe dreams and hobbies is something only an eccentric would call a tragedy. I guess that makes us eccentrics."
Talons rapped against the rafters. A wyvern climbed down a support beam to join the farmer and his visitor. One might guess the shy, two-horned wyvern from before was a female from the presence of the plus-one clinging to its back- a child-wyvern. The tiny thing didn't even have horns yet, small enough to sit in an adult's palm, or perch on a child's shoulder. But it was already a confident jump-glider, which it did to get across the maybe foot-wide gap between the beam and a crate within arm's reach of Ren Yangchao. The adult wyvern wyvern followed the baby onto the crate, making no moves to prevent the baby from approaching. The farmer seemed rather comfortable with Ren Yangchao, so they couldn't be bad, right?
[farm, field]
The dog didn't usually wear a collar these days, especially not since moving to her papa's personal realm, but one appeared anyways that gave her name as Lise.
While Seilaan read her tag, Min talked, and became sad. Sad enough that the sky started to cry, too. Lise really didn't like rain since it stuck in her fur, so she tried to make Min happy again and sat against her leg. She tried to lick the wyvern's mouth in a motion the people called a 'kiss', just a bit, then tried to get Min's attention by whining.
She looked between Min's eyes, then the sky, alerting the girl to the rain she made and that she didn't like it in the only way she knew.
edited 6th May '16 9:58:48 AM by CrystalGlacia
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
[Wasteland City] (Academy)
Xeqa considered. "Close," she said. "Like most of it. Simple. Those that survive, survive. Those that die, die. But conflict..." she shook her head here. "Not inevitable, merely useful. When I demand peace, there is the peace only fear can bring. If war serves me, there is war." She crossed her arms. "You may understand. Or you may not. I still don't know." She waved her hands around the great academy. "Would you die for this?"
As she awaited her answer, she looked around. Aunrei was the only other one here she knew for a fact had extinguished another human life, and that earned her respect. She suspected he was corroded with the same ideals that drove so many of the useful idiots that flocked to her throne, but also that he had the will to kill her as he had killed her former master. Could he defeat her in battle? She didn't know, and saw nothing to gain by finding out. She would not censor herself to please him, but nor would she go out of her way to antagonize him.
The one they called Half seemed more likely than not blooded as well. A strange being, clearly inhuman, but not one of the dark powers that served as intermediaries between her realm and the infinite Void. He'd seemed spooked when he'd seen the power she wielded, but at the same point, his understanding was also his greatest weapon. On the other hand, he seemed to have his own goals, untainted by the shackles of morality. In this strange land, this made him a potential ally; her eyes lingered briefly on him, sizing him up, trying to determine what he made of the rest of this motley crew.
The girls and their strange animals... they had such kind innocence. It was an emotion Xeqa had never known this. Even as a child she had been a bully, delighting in crushing the weak and scheming against those who had what she desired. Deep in her heart, she knew the young Elemental Guardians had things she could not take as easily as she took gold, cities, and lives. And what Xeqa could not take, she would enjoy destroying. But not unless the easy opportunity presented itself... she had not become Emperor indulging such idle fancies. For now, they could keep their naivety.
Miyuki... that child. Xeqa had no strong thoughts on her yet, except to wonder about the relationship between her and Hana. Was Hana, by blood or oath, the girl's mother? It got Xeqa reflecting; something she usually didn't do, but without much future left, she could indulge in the past. She had a son, Okul. A dalliance she'd decided to carry to term as a useful pawn. A pity he'd been a son; a male heir was barely better than none at all. Poor idiot could expect to be challenged by any woman with a camel's ass of a claim and a sliver of ambition as soon as Xeqa's heart stopped beating. His greatest fortune was her negligence; her less insane inner circle had raised him to be about as well-adjusted as a boy could hope to be in the circumstances.
edited 5th May '16 9:52:56 PM by KillerClowns
Academy
Phoebe was right, Celso was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he woke up? Either way he could probably take care of himself; Half instead focused on her comment of the Necromere, "that is hardly surprising, everywhere is full of dead stuff. Much of your own molecules once belonged to lifeforms that died".
No matter where this conversation would go from there, Half would divide his time between it and and listening in on Xeqa and Hana's argument. The comparison of nations to living beings was strange at first, but made more sense as they went on; they both lived and died.
Indeed, from his scant observations, the two humans' ideas of nations and creatures were quite similar: Hana seemed unconcerned with the death of either, while Xeqa sought to dominate them both.
You say I am loved, when I don’t feel a thing. You say I am strong, when I think I am weak. You say I am held, when I am falling short.
Mr ship
[Forest/Lauren]
Lauren looked over to Moreena. "I'm hearing the music those lazy good for nothing hippies used to play on the street when I was a little girl." She said in annoyance as she remembered the hippies bumming around and harassing her and her family when she was young.
"They would play this shit on full blast everyday for years while getting high and dodging service to their county." She continued as she started walking towards the sound again. "It was so often that I recognize it the second I hear it. Doesn't help that my husband plays that kind of stuff all the time too." She added the last part under her breath.
As she continued to walk through the fog filled woods she eventually came to what looked like a clearing where the music was much louder. Continuing forward she managed to walk into a clearing in the fog and stopped at the sight before her.
In front of her was the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, the very place where she grew up. Not only that but instead of looking like it did in 1984 when she left, it looked like it did in 1969 when she was growing up. There were psychedelic paintings on many of the buildings, loud music from Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin was playing, and many anti war and pro peace signs were laying around waiting to be used in protest. The strangest things however was the fact that there was no one there. Instead it looked like everyone just up and disappeared in a flash.
"What the hell?" Lauren said to no one in particular as she looked around.
Drummer Boy
[Farm (exterior, field)]
Min was definitely not comfortable with this dog, for some reason or another.
"No, Lise, no," Seilaan gently scolded. She reached for Lise's collar. It seemed that she was a fairly well-behaved dog, albeit brimming with overenthusiastic doggy-ness. Once Seilaan had a firm grip on the collar, hopefully Min would be more at ease and Seilaan would be able to show her that there was nothing to be afraid of.
The rain... is it like my blizzards, appearing when Min is unhappy? Seilaan didn't mind the weather much, but Min looked like she needed warmer clothing. A black wool cape and a large, folded umbrella appeared in the air in front of Min. The cape, like Min's other new clothes, was virtually identical to an item in Seilaan's own wardrobe. A fairly recent purchase, actually. The beat-up umbrella, however, didn't belong to her. It looked like one of—
She quickly looked back to the dog. "A band, huh? It's kind of funny how artists keep finding their way into my life. Mostly musicians, but I'm also good friends with a painter. I'm more of a math and physics person myself. I mean, I enjoy consuming art, but making it is another thing entirely." She gave Min what she hoped was a reassuring smile, inviting her to say more about her band and her music if she wanted to.
[Farm (inside barn)]
Ren Yangchao watched the baby wyvern, slightly amused. "The young are indeed precious. How people and societies choose to express their commitment to that principle varies quite widely. But young adults are too often forgotten. Old enough to be exploited productively, too young to be seen as a serious threat if they speak up about it."
Of course, there was the other extreme of not letting your children grow up, not preparing them adequately for the future. "But if we don't give those lazy, entitled good-for-nothings anything to do, they'd be a drain on our resources, wouldn't they?" they said sarcastically. "Many of my Witches have been young, and a Witch's feelings mingle with and seep into mine, to varying extents, so that's probably where a good deal of my empathy comes from."
[Ritter Clinic]
Friedrich stared into his whiskey.
Heinrich sighed. "He, uhm, had a bit of a spiritual crisis several years ago when he still lived in the city. He saw the things our people suffered there, tried his best to help, grew angry with Ibram for not doing more about it, eventually concluded that Ibram doen't exist. But Friedrich still doesn't understand that people like him are the help Ibram is sending to us."
"Oh, I understand, all right," Friedrich muttered. "And whether I believe in Ibram or not, I'm not enough. We're not enough. All we can do is take away a little pain without getting at the root of the problem. A god is a totally unscientific concept anyway, so what does it even matter?"
"Well..." For the first time, words failed Heinrich. He simply shook his head and poured another glass. "At least you still follow His principles, so I imagine He won't be too harsh in judging you."
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
Eat my dust!
[Forest]
"Oh it puts on a show alright," Demo replied to Moreena, casually flicking a finger gently across the trigger of his launcher.
He followed Lauren through the clearing, listening to her explanation of the music. He remembered hippies back in his own world. Judging by Lauren's description, they didn't seem to change no matter what time or place they came from.
It was only when they stumbled across the apparently deserted city block that he snapped out of his musings.
"Hmm. Ya must've had it tough in yer childhood, what with invisible hippies walking around littering signs everywhere," he said in a neutral tone. He strolled up fearlessly to the pile of signs and kicked one of them, hoping to get a reaction from...something.
edited 7th May '16 9:44:23 PM by gameknight102xx
"SAID CLOUD TO THE CARTOON PONIES AND UNICORNS WITH PICTURES OF FLOWERS ON THEIR ASSES. A DURR HURR HURR." ~Game Spazzer
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Misery Manor - Real Living Room -> Kitchen (Sinistrina, Gabe)
As Sinistrina watched the Dragon's Daughters descend below the floor, she decided that they seemed pretty safe in their hallucinations. And so she was free to wander around the rest of the manor. First she paused before the stairway, raising her staff to it. The skulls dangling from the top shook a bit, their eye sockets glowing with little purple lights in them... lights that exited the staff and became purple will-o-wisps that flew right up the stairway. Eventually these manifested as a dark specter holding a lantern containing a purple flame. This was an extension of Sinistrina's spirit, a method she often used to check on explorers of Misery Manor in multiple rooms at once.
And then she headed to the kitchen... only to discover Gon hugging Gabe for some reason. She just had to stifle a laugh here. As she appoached the two, Gabe was mentioning to Gon about him not feeling very well.
"Well well," Sinistrina said to Gabe as she sat down on a moldy old stool next to him and Gon. "It seems you have experienced illusion fusion. It's happened to me a couple of times before when I got too close to someone afflicted by the manor's curse. You see, sometimes a person will encounter people from their past, and if I'm nearby, they can sometimes mistake me for that person from their past. I've had people hug me, cry onto my dress, even attack me. And sometimes, depending on which words I use, they can hear me speak."
Deciding to go along with what Gabe was doing for now, Sinstrina placed a hand on Gon's shoulder. "We're not who you think we are," she told him. "We are merely illusions. You must be strong, Gon. You must find the real us."
And then she took her hand off his shoulder and sat up, looking squarely at Gabe. "Well hopefully that should do it." A small smile spread across her face. "It seems you have much to learn about manor-managing."
Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.
[Farm (exterior)]
Seilaan was already trying to concoct witty comebacks to cover up her embarrassment, but she pushed that all aside when she saw the blood.
"I'm sorry!" She grabbed Min's offered hand and scrambled to her feet. She hurriedly sheathed her sword, missing the sheath's opening a few times in her haste. Something hit her helmet and a roll of bandages fell into her hand when she reached up to see what just fell. It didn't seem heavy enough to make the kind of impact that it did, but she knew there was no time to dwell on that. "All right, here we go. Please let me take care of it. I'm so sorry, I just —no, I won't make excuses. I'm sorry and that's all. Let me have a look at it and then I'll see if I can make this dream spit out new clothes for you."
[Ritter Clinic]
"Ibram is the god I worship—and who Friedrich used to worship." Heinrich gave his stepbrother a stern look, but it quickly dissolved into cheerfulness again. "Ibraics are people like Friedrich and me who are descended from the same clan as Ibram's prophets. Some of us still live in the cities, but you can evade a lot of persecution by moving to Ibraic communities out in the countryside, like Andelin. Except—" Heinrich parted the curtain. "Yes, it looks like we're still in the forest, Henry. Certainly a strange development, because this building is supposed to be in the center of Andelin."
"But that's not important," Friedrich said gruffly. "It's a little weird, sure, but I'm not about to go play detective in the middle of a blizzard."
"I can agree with that much, at least. Now—" Heinrich's face turned serious again. "The good lady is quite correct. Ibram has already waited a very long time for you to come back of your own accord. He must be very concerned about your lack of spiritual guidance if He's willing to raise the dead to get your attention, and I doubt he'll be happy if you just wave that off! I don't think a doctor needs to be reminded how rare it is for people who've been declared dead to make sudden, recoveries."
Friedrich made a noncommittal grunting noise before taking another drink.
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!