Forest (Milly; Ferisen)
"Agreed, there is naught hereabouts save trees and blessed fog," Milly said, taking a weary glance around at the forest around them, "As for the problems I wish to fix; aye, 'tis a matter of the soul, but also a matter of curses and things of an otherworldly nature as well," she told Ferisen.
She glanced over the sumiri, before having her gaze come to rest on the crystal embedded in the woman's head, "I take it that you are new to the whole "not being dead" aspect?" she asked.
The wind around them picked up, causing the revenant to shiver slightly, not out of feeling cold, but of the disturbing feel about the place; it was reminding her of home. "I... do not like the look of this place," she commented as she kept pace with Ferisen.
Eneritan (Claire; Emriel)
The goat demon paused to attempt to clear the magical goo currently eating away at its eyes, eliciting a bellowing bleat of pain. It stumbled backwards, and fell off the cloud and out of sightnote .
Claire relaxed slightly, quipping, "Well, that was easy." She took a running jump to join Emriel on the nearby cloud. "Nice trick, by the way," she complimented her, giving the sumiri a pat on the shoulder.
"Oh, an aeroponic garden!" she exclaimed as she glanced around at the shrubbery around them. She made a move to pick something, but stopped when she recalled her earlier distractionary tactic. "Uh, would it be alright if I took some stuff from this garden?" she asked Emriel.
She then glanced up at the sky, "So, uh, yeah, they say eclipses are sometimes accompanied by fun stuff, like portals to other worlds or giant castles or stuff," she said, "so, I wonder what a quadruple eclipse might create," she added with an eager grin on her face.
December, 1901; South West England
When Alexandra returned from her rather thorough bath, she found Ms. Leeds entertaining some rather unexpected guests. In the parlor were several red clad soldiers, a rather grumpy looking mustachioed man in an officer's uniform, and...
"Uncle?" she asked the well-dressed, unassuming, bespectacled man bearing a familial resemblance to Alexandra.
The man, Walther Rosendorn, ignored her as he continued talking with the matron of the house, "—recieved by the Home Office, whereupon it was heard by the Privy Council—"
"Bollocks!" Ms. Leeds swore.
While the military men bristled, Walther continued relatively unfazed, "As I was saying, your plight came to my attention, which has lead to me personally paying this little town a visit."
"And what does the military have to do with this?!"
Alexandra's uncle gave a smile, "Oh right, you haven't been informed; your town has been designated a grave health risk. We're establishing a cordon sanitaire. Anyway, if you get a chance, give my brother my greetings; he keeps refusing to take my calls," he overly politely said before he and the soldiers left, with the mustachioed man giving Ms. Leeds an apologetic glance.
Ms. Leeds was left standing white-knuckled in the middle of the now mostly empty parlor, shaking with barely contained fury before noticing Alexandra standing there. "Go to your room," she preemptively ordered the girl before the little vampire had a chance to say anything.
The next day, the townspeople were informed by Walther that the town was now cordoned off from the rest of the country, and that anyone attempting to cross the town line would be shot on sight, a prospect that greatly upset the townspeople and disturbed some of the soldiers.
A few people attempted to leave town, only to find barbed wire had been rather speedily set up around the town, forcing anyone foolish enough to leave town to brave the rather overarmed checkpoint.
Alexandra, meanwhile, was preoccupied with tragedy; Susie died.
A week passed, and the orphanage had converted several rooms to house the sick as over two dozen from the household fell ill with the mysterious illness. Similar issues cropped up across the town, with several among the elderly and really young passing away from the sickness.
The young man who tried to rush the checkpoint brought the death toll to twelve.
Alexandra was returning from buying groceries (Ms. Leeds was practically running herself to death trying to care for the sick) when she saw some of the townsfolk bearing the makeshift stretcher carrying the young man's body. She caught a glimpse of his face; it was the baker's son, Joseph, the one who always used to give her sweetbreads when she stopped by.
She stopped in her tracks. Normally she'd have broken down crying, but now the tears wouldn't flow. Maybe it was because of the intense pain that seemed to always be in her chest these past few days (Ms. Leeds had checked, there wasn't anything physically wrong with her).
A snowflake landed on her nose, and she carried on her way back to the orphanage, where upon she went to her room and buried herself in her blankets.
edited 19th Oct '17 3:59:23 PM by WillDeRegio
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Graveyard - City (Moreena, Sinistrina, Antoinette)
Sinistrina's eyes narrowed at Moreena's mention of mages being used for military purposes. Just as she thought that, the giant wooden soldiers made another brief appearance, and thus, especially with the goddess's mention of more of them being in the strange tower, she felt the need to explain. "Those soldiers... well, in the kingdom of Solevaille, Queen Lucina," she added with a pronounced tone of spite, "uses these soldiers, which I may add came to life with magic, to enforce her draconian laws. Initially she even suggested that I help enforce them as well... but instead I ended up plucking the incomplete soul from every soldier who caused trouble. Thus I would not be too worried about the soldiers themselves."
However, looking at the black building once more reminded her of something. Something Half had said back when Misery Manor was intact. "You may be able to leave this facsimile, if only until you awaken." She paused for a moment, closing her eyes, and... felt something. Though she couldn't place it just yet, having all but forgotten what it was like to feel such things all those years, it reminded her of the sense of longing she had felt on occasion while still alive in the Deathly Glade. Thus when she looked back at the building, she felt drawn to it, now knowing what she might seek within it. But she didn't walk too far ahead just yet - there was still Antoinette.
When she saw the little girl back away when Moreena reached out with her tendrils, she made a gesture, compelling her - forcing her even - to let Moreena contact her. Antoinette even held out her stuffed rabbit to the goddess, letting the tendrils penetrate its chest and grasp at a glass orb hidden within it.
"Hello - you're Antoinette, right? There's no need to be scared."
The consciousness within flickered, trembled, evidently even more scared. And then, apparent only to Moreena, a voice traveled through the tendrils. "Why won't you listen to me!? M-Maman... Maman help..."
For several moments she seemed to be weeping... but then that gave way to a slight surprise, as Antoinette realized things were unusually... calm. After a long pause, though she still seemed a tiny but upset, she spoke once more. "...You are not the witch?"
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.
[Snow Castle (Parlor)]
Jackson gave a heavy sigh.
"I...apologize for my rudeness." he said, "It's just...those are my friends, and I really need to find them. Course, that doesn't excuse what I said." He looked back at the rice cooker, "As for this...I'm not an expert on things magical, so I'm not the right person to ask. Sorry."
He remained silent for the rest of Megumi and Giloslem's conversation. Even with the reassurance that others were going to find his friends, he still felt worried. This rice cooker business seemed like a waste of time, but it wasn't like he could do anything for now. All he could do now was wait.
Shinkyo Market District (Rin; Gwenafer; Friedrich; Adam, Marie, Nick; < Phantom >)
The Admiral frowned at Gwenafer for a moment before speaking, "'Sumi'-sama is rather enthusiastic at her job. One of my maids could not bear child. Several prayers later and a visit from 'Sumi'-sama, she had quintuplets the next day." She let out an exasperated sigh and shook her head.
Rin then turned to the pair of Marie and Friedrich, listening to the latter as he explained about himself. The admiral nodded in agreement before drawing closer and placing a hand on the doll's chest, "Indeed, that much is obvious; you have just aptly described an automaton, little one." Then it was her turn to be puzzled; "Do you... not have an aether core?" she asked.
Her looked changed to that of expressed bemusement as she registered Friedrich's question; an automaton that didn't know what a Coordinator was... that would mean... "You are not an automaton, are you?" she said, stating the obvious. Rin paused to collect her thoughts, "A Coordinator is one who works with an automaton in a symbiotic relationship; it allows both to become more competent than they would be alone, and allows them to become more powerful over time. I myself am an honorary Coordinator; one of my officers is an automaton," she said.
Her hand drifted towards the hilt of her sword as the doll commented on it. "Tōshō is indeed a fine sword, I had her commissioned to my specifications," she said with a hint of pride, before drawing the diminutive blade, "most standard issue weapons would not be able to handle power of my caliber," she briefly explained.
The palpable panic coming from the group of youngsters was quick to garner the Admiral's full attention. Rin deeply frowned before replying to Adam, "I am vaguely familiar with the capitol; I am afraid that Yukijō-minato is unfortunately 3000 kilometers to the north-northeast," she said bluntly, "the only way back would be by ship."
It's a bird.
Graveyard - City (Moreena, Sinistrina, Antoinette)
Moreena's gaze briefly darted over towards Sinistrina as she felt her interference, but once the goddess started to hear Antoinette's voice - or sense her thoughts, rather - she returned her attention to the undead girl.
"No", she answered, "My name is Moreena." While communicating in this way, the name became something more than just a word. Hiding one's true nature and intentions was never easy while speaking soul to soul, and the girl would most likely realize what kind of being she spoke to pretty soon. Hopefully, the fact that Moreena really didn't mean any harm would become apparent as well. She gave the girl a solemn look. "You've been trying to make yourself heard for quite some time, haven't you?"
While her Mind was occupied speaking to Antoinette, she compelled her body to stand up and address the necromancer.
"I suppose they'll fit right in around here then," she said in reference to the wooden soldiers. "I take it that opposing the queen's rule is what got you sent to that 'Deathly Glade' of yours?"
Shinkyo Market District (Gwenafer; Friedrich; Adam, Marie, Nick; Rin)
"Oh..." Gwenafer replied to Rin, instinctively clasping her hands in front of her stomach. "Point taken."
She leaned on the wooden railing, glancing down at the crowd below for a few moments before facing the three teenagers.
"You remember the whole 'crazy dreamworld' thing, right?" she asked. "I doubt distances mean much around here. And you'll probably all meet again once you wake up anyway." She scratched her head, rustling the hair above her scars. "I hope..."
"In the meantime," she continued, addressing the group at large this time, "I wouldn't mind checking out this market." She gave the porcelain boy a glance, still getting used to the sight of him, before plucking a large silver coin from her pocket, casually rolling it across her fingers. "Figure I ought to spend this somewhere before it decides to disappear or transform into a potted plant or something..."
Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Snow Castle - Parlor (Megumi, Jackson, Gliosem)
Linens? Why were those so important to Rin that she could not trust anyone other than Megumi not to damage them? At any rate, she shrugged it off, glad that at least that gateway was still open. Speaking of which, despite what Jackson said, he still seemed anxious to find his friends. So she shook her head at the mention of the physician, gesturing toward the misty gateway she opened. "This gateway will not remain open for much longer... if we wait, I will have to repeat this spell."
She glanced at Jackson. "Do you know how when you think really hard on something, like studying or figuring out how to build something, you feel like you need a break after a while? Casting certain spells, especially ones like these that divine locations and open gateways, works the same way."
In fact, at that very moment she felt her concentration on keeping the gateway open waver, and with a sigh, let the mist dissolve into nothing. Then she sat on the tatami-covered floor and carefully lifted the cloak off her back, wincing when its fibers caught on her wings ever so slightly. Looking down at her lap, she said, "A part of me says that I should be able to heal my own wings with the magic within the songs I sing. But... that is just it, isn't it? Even I have my limits. I have focused so many of my efforts on helping out my sisters, of pleasing our audiences, of easing the worries of people in general... maybe it is time for me to be the little sister for once." She looked up at the maid. "I hope the physician arrives soon so that we do not have to wait for long..."
Eneritan (Emriel, Claire)
Emriel smiled as the demon plummeted to its doom. "I may not be much of a fighter, but man that was satisfying." As the magician put a hand on her shoulder, the dancer did the same. "Thanks. Y'know, my two older sisters like to use really complex incantations for their spells. Me, I like to go for the simple yet effective. Kind of necessary when you move as fast as I do. Of course, with your rings you don't even need incantations, do you?"
She took another glance up at the sky. By now, only a little piece of sun peeked out from behind the big blue moon, the amber asteroid-like one almost caught up, the greenish one now moving close. The fourth moon, a silvery one with clouds on the surface, took on a slightly bluish hue in the shadow of the largest one, and by now started to move in front of it.
"See that moon covered in silvery clouds?" Emriel said to Claire, pointing up at the sky. "That's Telwenthe. Incidentally, I helped compose a song about a castle built within its clouds. I don't know how long ago it was built though."
Again there was that strange feeling that she ought to be anticipating something happening. Perhaps something terrible. But the feeling still felt foreign to her. Instead she took a look at the garden. "I think if you only take a leaf here and a flower there it'll be fine, as long as you leave the entire thing intact. Maybe we can find somewhere else to plant them once we're back on gr... wait a minute..."
She peered over the edge of the cloud they were standing on. In the far distance a great shadow loomed on the horizon, but that was not what she was looking at. Instead there was a range of green mountains directly below them. Far enough down to kill someone with the fall alone, but still suspiciously close, the distance about as high as a twenty-story building. And, if anyone was paying attention, decreasing.
Emriel scratched her head. "Is it just me or is that mountain getting closer?"
Cathedral of the Four Swords (Lacriment, Alex)
It was hard to tell from her hidden face, but easy to tell from the low, warm hum that Lacriment was satisfied with whatever Alex was now seeing. She caught but glimpses, dominated by death, sickness, and heartache. She tilted her not-quite-avian head. "Curious that a vampire would experience these things. But you are undying rather than undead, so that can explain things."
Just after she said this, she felt a tingling through her body, and when she looked up, she saw the spectral bells rocking solemnly in their place. To most who gazed upon them, their motion carried no particular meaning, but to the priestess whose very spirit took the form of this cathedral, they rang with such a resonance that conveyed a particular message:
"Visitors." She raised a faux-wing to her chin, pondering, as the whispery sweetness of her voice rang more from the walls than her mouth. "Two of them. And in forms curiously similar to myself."
A swirl of her cape and she was standing atop the organ bench, and a spread of them wide and darkness spread out of the organ's sides, obscuring both pools in impenetrable shadow. Neither sight nor sound would cross it, and any other senses might betray from beyond the barrier.
Forest -> Garden of the Four Swords (Ferisen, Milly)
At the revenant(?)'s question, Ferisen gave a slow nod of her head and glanced down toward her bluish feet. "Many who face my fate are so enamored by the prospect of immortality and invulnerability that the pleasures of life are but a small price to pay. I wanted mere freedom and yet the price was arguably higher. And it was curses and things of an otherworldly nature that tried to trap me. Thus far, my travels through the dream world brought me through a cursed land that try to steal my soul from my body, and succeeded. Then it brought me to a cursed library whose people tried to trap me in the promise of fixing me, and instead I took matters into my own hands and trapped myself."
As they walked, everything darkened - the trees, the air, the mist therein. And Milly did not like it, so Ferisen invited her to help push the cart bearing her latria, even though she found it surprisingly easy to push the thing herself. "I would simply hold your hand," she explained, "but my hands are full and I feel I need to give my mind a rest. Though... I am not sure if it needs a rest anymore in the first place. In my experience, undead are by definition, restless." She began to hum, creating the same tune that accompanied the song she had sung for Tagui back in the library. Unfortunately, the tune came out a bit hollow and flat due to how much her body had changed, but the unsounds of the latria made up for it, playing a calming melody that echoed around the trees. Eventually she stopped the physical humming, letting her soul do all the voice work, so to speak.
It was too bad the lyrics of the song never came into play, for its chorus spoke of a secret garden at the end of a labyrinthine path. After a while, exactly that came into view. A garden. A dim one, lit by the full moon in the star-bearing sky. An organized one, arranged in a circle flanking a path past an archway. A bleak one, for all the flowers were dead. An ominous one, for at the end of the path lay a cathedral blacker than the sky. In this space the melody of the latria faded, giving way to a different sort of unsound, the solemn toll of spectral bells.
Ferisen gazed all around. "What is this place? And why have my wishes for calmness brought us here?" The place reminded her of Zurem, the dark side of Orenya and technically her enemy. She stopped in the archway, turning to face Milly. "I do not like this place either, Milly. I live in a world of eternal daylight, one currently at war with the night. But that building..." Gazing at it, she felt a presence hauntingly similar to what she felt inside her latria. "...I feel we may find answers there. The question is, do we want those answers enough to take the risk..."
She paused. "By the way, what is that staff for? I do not detect any magic in it at all, and the design is most peculiar."
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.
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Shinkyo Market District (Nick, Adam, Marie, Gwenafer, Rin, Friedrich)
As the group around him talked, Friedrich found his attention divided. The first thing that caught it was the teens' worry over their friend having been left behind at a castle, of which there was none nearby. But just before Rin offered her input on the matter, the explanation of the relationship between an automaton and its coordinator piqued an interest that was almost foreign to him.
"An aether core?" the doll asked the admiral as she touched his chest. "You mean a soul?" He moved a gloved hand toward the pocket watch resting on the frills of his shirt... though anyone else touching it would experience a brief sense of dread or frightnote ; even looking closely at it could give off a bad vibe. "Ether is the material souls are made of, after all. And yes, I do have one. All living beings do, in some form or another."
Suddenly he felt compelled to elaborate on the topic. Figures, he thought. I am surprised Sinistrina never wrote a book on the damned things. Hey wait... A peculiar thought of his own came to mind regarding a book... but he decided not to express it. "So if that is what a coordinator is... then I suppose I do have one. Mine created me actually, and is also the source of my power. And in return I uh, protect her. Sort of." He thought back to the entire soul fiasco in the Magician's Graveyard; that would be far too long and confusing a story to tell, for either of them. Now that he thought about it, though, it made their relationship even more symbiotic. "It is a bit like the bond between a mother and son, only with magic involved."
Then he eyed the sword; indeed, there was a sort of magic about it that resonated with Rin's very essence. One that carried a chill. "Tosho, was it? Well, clearly you must have some master blacksmiths under your command. I don't suppose your doll- erm, automaton I mean, had a hand in its specifications?"
For comparison, he drew his own sword, objectively as false as he was a false human, especially with its dull blade. One that also carried a chill, though of a different sort. "And this is Totenschatten. It's just a repurposed letter opener though, and functions a bit more like a wand." And the shadow it cast on the ground was curiously longer than it ought to be. "My uh, creator just found it around the house - but it serves its purpose."
Speaking of "around the house", there was the matter of Jackson being around the castle. The doll looked up at Nick. "I do believe Gwenafer has a point. I myself arrived here by merely walking through a mirror." He looked around the group. "Perhaps a combination of shopping and search party? I am not particularly after anything to purchase, though..."
He looked around, realizing he was by far the smallest person in the group. "Unless all of you are willing to walk slow or one of you is willing to carry me, the first thing I should be after is transport." One vendor nearby was selling unicycles, though there was no way his tiny little legs would be able to reach its pedals, and he never rode one, let alone saw one, anyway.
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.
Yukijou-minato ~ Snow Castle [Main Keep 1st Floor ~ Parlor] (Megumi; Jackson; Gliosem)
Rin shook her head at Jackson, "You misunderstood, I request your technical assistance with this, perhaps you could identify what might be causing it to... spontaneously combust, among other things. Sometimes I think R&D makes things like this on purpose..." she said, glancing at the rice cooker with clear disapproval.
The maid began to move towards the gateway, only for the sumiri to break the connection. Megumi paused as she watched the portal disappear, before turning to calmly face the now sitting on the floor, "I see," she said, thinking deeply about her own situation, "I'm the same when it comes to M'lady; I even drugged myself to ensure I could be by her side in this dream," she admitted, "You'd fit in well with the staff here, now that I think about it; the castle could use more sane empathetic individuals," she complimented Gliosem.
A resounding boom sounded from somewhere above, as if on cue to the sumiri's inquiry of the physician's arrival. "Exceeding the speed of sound again... That would be the tengu; they're fond of dramatic entrances," Megumi explained to ease the other two of the sudden noise, before quietly adding, "I wonder how many windows they broke this time..."
The maid made for the exit from the parlor, "I won't be long, just making sure the tengu doesn't get lost. They never seem to think to send the same physician twice, that would save me a lot of trouble in the long run."
Eneritan (Claire; Emriel)
The magician girl nodded enthusiastically at Emriel, "My style is a mix of fancy and simple; I don't need the fancy gestures and stuff, but its more fun that way. Otherwise, I've got shoot things, shoot things harder, and whatever utilities I can think of for spells."
Glancing up at the growing eclipse, Claire couldn't help but smile at the prospect of a castle on one of the moons. "Castle are fun to explore, especially if there is treasure to be found. Speakin' of which, I fairly sure my rings will turn up either their or in the Hall," she said, wiggling her currently bare fingers.
Emriel's hesitation by the edge of the cloud distracted the magician from returning the plant she had uprooted from it's cloud. Joining the sumiri at the edge, she too peered down. "Uh, not just you. I don't think that supposed to be happening is it?" she asked, before glancing up at the moons again, "So, uh, ya think we should head to, um, higher ground? I'd rather not find out what happens when cloud meets mountain," she quipped.
December, 1901; South West England
Another week passed, and then the storm broke, sparked by a single gun shot.
One of the more shifty looking soldiers had gotten into a shouting match with a rather vocal orphan across the town's barricade. As some of the other soldiers tried to reason with their fellow man, the unruly soldier drew his side arm and shot the kid dead.
Right in front of Ms. Leeds and Alexandra.
Ms. Leeds roughly grabbed the vampire girl by the collar and abruptly tossed her towards cover as the other townsfolk processed what was happening. The matron dispatched the soldier in nearly the blink of an eye, before continuing on to bat aside another soldier's aimed rifle with a bloody hand before knocking the man out with a single punch.
The other soldiers seemed slow to react as they reeled backwards and away from the enraged matron, except for a panicked pair positioned behind a sandbag barrier. A mental image of the object near the two flashed through the matron's mind. Tripod, black box, shiny brass cylinder—
"Oh ball—"
A bullet tore through Ms. Leeds' arm, another hit her in the side, and Alexandra lost sight of the matron as she hit the ground once the chaos erupted. The girl crawled away while listening to the sporadic firing of the machine gun, signifying the sealing of some unfortunate soul's fate.
After crawling some distance from the chaotic scene, Alexandra's progress was halted by a boot pushing down on her back. Fear gripped the little girl, unable to see much of her surroundings as she heard the cocking of a gun.
"Now where do you think you're going, Alexandra dear? I would hate to tell my dear brother that something terrible had happened to his precious little daughter..."
She didn't respond to her uncle as she shivered with fear. Instead, she found herself being hauled to her feet. Alexandra paused for a moment before bolting for her life.
She didn't even make it a single pace before thunder roared and pain blossomed in her leg. The vampire girl went down, hard, tears filling her eyes as she looked up at her uncle as he approached. "Why?" she mewed.
Walther guffawed. "Why? Explaining my ambitions to a child would be pointless and counterproductive. Though, I must say that things have not gone according to plan at all. And it all started with that damned letter, getting the—"
Terrified screams and panicked gunfire broke out nearby.
"—to investigate matters here was most annoying for my machinations," her uncle said, sighing, "I almost gave away my plans, silly me. Now—" he stepped on Alexandra's injured leg, eliciting a scream of pain from her, "what am I going to do with you?"
Forest —> Garden of the Four Swords (Milly; Ferisen)
"Oh, I see," said Milly, nodding slowly, "I might be immortal, and I'm definitely not invulnerable, and it certainly wasn't exactly a fate I was looking forward to at the time, but, it's leagues better that the alternative. Though," she said, giving the sumiri an inquisitive look, "I wouldn't think this kind of thing would happen in a dream."
Glancing around at the garden, the cleric stated the first thing that came to mind: "The flowers are dead. I don't like that..." she warily said, pointing her staff towards the blackened rose bush. Crystals hummed with power as a faint aethereal glow crackled down the length of the staff, "It's always the unassuming things that get you," Milly stated.
"This staff," she said, tilting her head forward slightly, "is a ward against the unkillable peons of the eldritch darkness, as well a conduit for my magical powers. It's a family heirloom that's been tinkered with and improved over the years, and I was, am the current owner of it. Also, it's effective at shooing away moose. And jackals."
Cautiously skirting the rose bushes, Milly glanced up at the cathedral, "Reminds me slightly of home," she, wariness returning to her voice, "For me, finding any useful answers outweighs all but a short list of risks for me."
[Market Place]
On one hand, the three did desperately want to know where Jackson was, and if he was alright. But they doubted that he would randomly be in a place like this. Then again, the whole dream world was weird, so who knows?
Frendich offered to help, only if someone offered to carry him. Marie's face lit up.
"Come on up, honey." she said, putting the doll on her shoulder. "God, you're just so cute! Ok, let me know if you're gonna slip or if you're uncomfortable, ok?"
"Shouldn't we try to find a dock or a boat somewhere?" Adam asked, "If the castle is that far, there has be a way to get there without walking?"
"Maybe she can dream us up a plane or a car." Nick said, "Or..." he turned to Rin, "You...do know what a car or plane is, right?"
[Parlor]
Much to Jackson's irritation, the mist vanished before he could get a step in. Looks like he had to wait for a physician—though he loathed at the idea of sitting around while his friends are out there.
"If you have a phone," he said, "Or any other means of communication, tell them to haul ass." He sighed, "OK...give me the rice cooker. I'll see what I can do."
edited 6th Nov '17 2:31:38 PM by Masterofchaos
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Graveyard - City (Moreena, Sinistrina, Antoinette)
Seeing that Moreena was occupied with talking to Antoinette, Sinistrina replied to the goddess's question with only a brief "yes". Afterward, she took another look at the black tower; the vibe the place gave off seemed, only to her, to resemble an odd combination of the air of joy and light from the castle Lucina ruled from, and the curse of Misery Manor.
And inside the plush prison for her soul, Antoinette seemed to tremble a bit upon sensing the air of death this "Moreena" gave off. However, being as young as she was, the concept of death as a whole, and its implications on morality and the workings of the soul, were mostly foreign to her. However, she did reply to Moreena's remark about making herself heard:
"You're the Grim Reaper! ...Wait, am I dead? But I thought death was when you sleep forever... But yes, I keep calling and begging for Maman and I never see her. All I see are dead people. Including the witch... sometimes she pulls at me when talking to me, and it hurts! And she lied to me, promised me I would be safe, but I'm trapped and I can't control my body and I want to go home! Do you know where Maman is? Please help me return to her... she's not dead too is she?"
Snow Castle - Parlor (Megumi, Jackson, Gliosem)
As the maid left, Gliosem sat down near Jackson and the rice cooker, still confused at the whole ordeal with the physician's arrival. "I have never heard a sound like that... what was it?"note
Again she gazed at the odd device, glancing once more at the ofuda Megumi had placed on it. To Jackson she said, "You sound like you are quite experienced with strange contraptions like this. Have you ever looked at something that seemed to be cursed, or otherwise did strange things like this? Or do you mainly build things?"
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.
Shinkyo Market District (Rin; Gwenafer; Friedrich; Adam, Marie, Nick)
Rin frowned slightly at Friedrich, "No... hmm, I suppose the comparison is arguably apt." She continued to stare at the doll, her thoughts lingering on what all he said, before having her hand brush against his pocket watch. "Shin-no-eda" she murmured, before backing away from the doll slightly.
The admiral then shook her head at the doll, "No, I do not have any master blacksmiths under my command; regular ones, yes. All of Yukijou's high quality tools and weapons, Toushou," she subtly corrected, "included, come from the Tetsuzaki Ironworks." Rin held her sword up in comparison to Totenshatten; the blade was around the same length as the repurposed letter opener. "I suppose Tōshō would also classify as a wand of sorts as well; most, if not all, other blades would shatter from the sheer cold I can channel through them," she said.
She then stopped to give Nick an incredulous glare, "The getting there by motor car would be nigh impossible barring a ferry, and the latter would be twenty-one hours of sitting in a flimsy wooden deathtrap, no thank you." Rin loosened back up slightly, "Although we could get there by airship; it would be slower than a aeroplane but faster and mostly more direct than by ship..."
At this point, the group was accosted by a portly Western-looking man with a greasy mustache, fedora, and a painful-to-look-at, impossibly white suit. "Hello, would you like to buy a slime today?" he asked, gesturing to a large aquarium containing a writhing blue substance.
Rin pinched the brow of her nose with a sigh.
Yukijou-minato ~ Snow Castle [Main Keep 1st Floor ~ Parlor] (Jackson; Gliosem)
The cat is fetching crows, please standby and continue conversating.
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Eneritan (Emriel, Claire)
Finally, far too late, a sense of dread welled up inside the pink-skinned dancer. "Ack, you're right! The sky is falling! Wait..."
She paused for a while, deep in thought... and finally spoke. "I think this would make for a good idea for a song. Another bard's tale." She looked up to the moons; the sky had dimmed, the silvery moon was now almost lined up with the other three moons, and a little speck of sun remained. "The moons and stars of the celestial family hold this place up with strings... by supporting the healers of the heavens they allow these clouds to support the healers of the clouds... ugh, why am I no good with lyrics. Gotta show this to Lute... And then one fateful day the family gathers for a reunion, and all the strings become entangled, causing the clouds to fall... ah, yes, that would..."
In her rambling she realized that Claire had been looking impatiently at her. "Oh, right right right! You know, I take that back. Start grabbing as many of those plants in the gardens as you can. Especially if you can find any seeds or flowers. Or I dunno, you could check out the Hall of Healing if you want but I'm not sure you'll find your rings there..."
Emriel instantly grabbed a few of what looked like oversized hairy seed pods from the garden they were standing right next to, then jumped and glided onto another garden. These peculiar gardens had small plants of many types, even several she had never seen on Orenya before. One particularly interesting-looking little plant bore almost conical red fruits dotted with tiny seeds.note
The Hall of Healing was as golden and as strangely empty as always. Claire's rings were not in there, but what was in there, lying in the center of the gazebo, was what looked like a large malachite stone at first glance, but was actually an unusually vibrant (and unusually large) green seed.
Cathedral of the Four Swords (Lacriment, Ferisen, Milly)note
Out in the garden of dead black roses, the two mages walked slowly down the path leading up to the cathedral. At first it seemed odd to Ferisen that Milly did not like the flowers, until she mentioned warding off "unkillable peons of the eldritch darkness". She nodded in understanding. "Fortunately, I do not believe plants can become undead - in my experience, some plants even ward them off. There is this one herb I heard about in my homeland of Orenya, that is used as a witch snake repellant; it is magically noxious to the undead and imbued with countercurses against reanimation."
But what realy struck her as odd was the aural energies flowing through Milly's staff when she held it at the ready. "Magic that protects and purifies... how strange. Such magic usually harms the undead." She had to wonder if Milly could even count as undead; she was unusually lucid for a revenant, she didn't show any signs of decay, and she was able to keep her soul inside her body. "I don't suppose it's because it's the same sort of magic that keeps your soul stable inside your body? And yes, now that you mention it, it is a bit strange how we are able to be in a dream, as dreaming involves sending one's soul to an alternate plane."
Finally they reached the steps, which Ferisen had to psychokinetically lift her latria up onto. Again she found it surprisingly easy to move; typically it took a significant amount of training and practice to lift something that large so casually. Then again, considering her soul was inside it, that may have explained things. A shiver ran through her as she approached the door, keeping a hand on Milly's shoulder in an attempt to make her feel safer. It was their fear that brought them here to this paradoxically safe haven... though such a fear felt distant to Ferisen paling in comparison to what she felt back at the library. The shiver likely had more to do with how cold her body felt; if anything it made her cringe a little, as she suddenly remembered that soon it itself would start to decay. Thank Eldarien I'll be mortal again when I wake up... hopefully.
The door opened, and at the far end, the owl-masked priestess of the sacred darkness sat cross-legged on the altar, perking her head up at the new arrivals. Behind her, the organ was partly obscured in shadow; not even Ferisen's aural senses could detect the vampire hidden beyond the shadow. After examining the arrivals, the priestess leapt off the altar and beckoned the two inside. There her voice rang out from the walls.
"Hmm, most interesting. I was wondering whether this place could become a haven for the undead. If there is any sort of being so widely feared and poorly understood, it is those who choose that fate for themselves. Few appreciate the fatalistic beauty in holding tightly onto their soul to avoid a most unfortunate death. Do come in."
Ferisen gazed around in awe. "That... those walls sound much like my latria, only they are speaking with words." Though it did speak through the walls, the voice carried a soft compulsion to focus on the owl-masked priestess, as if it was her voice. Ferisen motioned a hand to her latria, where it played its unsounds, which sounded eerily similar to the priestess's voice. "Who are you anyway?"
The priestess took a very light bow. "Lacriment - maiden of sorrow, mother of forgiveness, crone of the void. Now, what exactly is it that guided you two to this forsaken place?"
Ferisen looked over at Milly, wondering if she would like to reply first.
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.
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Graveyard City -> Forest (Sinistrina)note
As Sinistrina continued to gaze at the strange black tower, she noticed a light shining faintly within what she presumed to be its entrance. And soon that light grew brighter, and closer, until it looked like the glass door opened up to the inside of a cloud in the middle of the day. Nonetheless she squinted and shielded her face with her hand, for having spent the past few years trapped in the perpetually-dim Deathly Glade, even with the cloud (or fog; it was impossible to tell) present it still seemed unusually bright to her.
Meanwhile, the surroundings became more indistinct; the buildings and specters faded away into a dark fog not dissimilar to the black mists of the Deathly Glade. And moreover, she was all alone - no sign of Moreena nor Antoinette. All that was there was a wine bottle sitting on the ground. And it only took a look for her to realize that it was the bottle of souls, now missing the enchantment that turned the bottle to crystal. Now, most people would simply reach down to pick such a thing up, but Sinistrina was not most people; it was a hand that emerged from the shadow that spread around her that lifted the bottle up to her material hands. But something seemed to be missing... she looked all around but couldn't find her staff anywhere.
"Now that is odd..."
She didn't worry about it too much though, for she didn't absolutely need her staff to use her magic, and she felt the presence of the will-o-wisps that usually resided in its skull somewhere close by, somewhere she couldn't see. But this was a dream, where things that disappear suddenly could reappear later, and this gave her even less of a reason to worry. And so she walked over to the entrance of the tower, where now she could make out the faint outline of trees through the fog. As she approached, the door opened...
...and as the fog cleared somewhat, she realized she was standing in a forest, with little wisps of the fog hugging the trees in the distance. Looking behind her, she could not see the door she had just walked through, nor any trace of the desolate Magician's Graveyard. Looking up, she could not quite make out the sky. Looking down, she saw that the mosses and grasses around where she stood had wilted and withered away, and as her hand brushed a nearby fern, it too began to wilt. As she walked around, all the other plants she walked past met the same fate; even a tree root she had stepped over blackened and rotted away somewhat.
She stopped and closed her eyes. Figures... with the black mists now concentrated within me, that I should become a walking blight upon the land of the living. Fortunately, not one that spread any more than a few inches beyond where she moved, though she knew that if she willed it, she could probably kill off this entire forest, or at least a large portion of it. And the same was true of the souls inside the bottle she held; though they were stable, the black mists still trapped them, keeping them from a proper afterlife.
As she opened her eyes again and glanced behind once more, though, she saw the black trail she left behind receding, the plants slowly coming back to life. Curious, she walked forward to see if the patch of moss she had just stepped off of would turn green again... when her foot bumped into something unusually soft. Again she let the shadowy hands pick it up; it was Antoinette's stuffed rabbit. Her eyes widened.
"Of course! I did say to Moreena that someday we would find a place to release these..."
And what better place than right here? And so she sat down on a low, thick branch of a very large tree, which stood up surprisingly well as it blackened and rotted. It was here that she uncorked the bottle and retrieved the glass orb from within the rabbit's chest; already a little wisp of black mist emerged from both. Then she poured the bottle's contents out before the trunk of the tree, and dropped the glass orb on a stone, shattering it. Here the ferns at its base withered away and died as they sucked up the black mists, but their sacrifice left the souls within pure and free, dissipating into the dream fog. As they did so, brief and subtle voices even spoke from all around, and though they were indistinct, the very fact that Sinistrina could hear them brought her a satisfaction unlike any she had known. Here she waited, until the indistinct voices faded away into silence.
This brief, silent reverie seemed to last much longer, but as with the Deathly Glade, time was impossible to measure here. Yet, when she rose from her seat (where soon after the tree healed itself), she saw a patch of light peeking through the fog nearby, again squinting at its unusual (to her) brightness. Though at this point the light was beginning to feel uncomfortable to her undeathly form, with how long she had spent in a world as dim and even more so, curiosity overtook her as she moved toward it anyway.
She came to a clearing where the sun shone down on fog-bathed ground. Here her discomfort escalated into pain, at least where her hands became exposed to the sunlight. Quickly she held them close, waiting for the gray burn marks on them to heal, thankful that she was wearing a wide-brimmed hat.
"Well... there goes my insistence that I am not a vampire."
She remembered how several of the victims of the Deathly Glade called her such just before they had to be put out of their misery, and how each time she had called out some characteristic she didn't have, like superhuman strength or speed or lack of a reflection... evidently weakness to sunlight was not one of them. Still, she decided not to think much of it.
Especially not when she spotted what was in the middle of the foggy clearing: a gazebo made of gold, with a sign in front bearing strange glyphs. As she approached, the glyphs morphed into legible letters, which read "Hall of Healing".note Upon reading it, she stepped back, knowing that the undead did not react well to the healing arts. But just as she was about to turn away...
"It's all right, no harm shall come to you here."
The voice came from a small, lithe woman with translucent wings protruding from her back. Incredulous, Sinistrina looked back at her. Some sort of fairy?
"The Hall of Healing operates not on cleansing and purification so much as on the deepest wishes of the soul."
"But I do not have a soul- well, not anywhere near my body anyway."
The fairy woman giggled. "You mean this?" She held up a pocket watch... the exact same one attached to Friedrich's chest. "I sensed in the surrounding fog the release of..." she counted on her fingers, "...oh, about sixty-ish souls at once into the afterlife? And immediately afterward, this fell into my hand. Couldn't move on with the others though - phylacteries, you know, always stubbornly locked. I also received a note from some mysterious 'Golden Being', something about a Gift... I have no idea what he meant, though. Ring any bells for you?"
The lich witch thought back to the battle with Armory Knight back in the Graveyard, to all the destruction the aforementioned Golden Being had unfortunately caused, to the deal she made with him that prompted her to call the very souls she had now released, to the visions from Niru's spirit that managed to do the very thing Gabe was threatening to do to Misery Manor, to her efforts on securing Armory Knight's soul inside his arm after he had been badly damaged. How would she describe that fiasco to this fairy woman? Having no clue, she decided to shake her head in response. "I am afraid not."
The fairy woman shrugged. "Eh, it's pretty easy to figure out what the intention was though. Now are you going to come in or am I going to have to send it to some mysterious land called 'Paradiso'?" She gave the watch an awkward look. "Where did that name come from?"
Sinistrina's eyes widened. "You wouldn't-" At which point the fairy woman looked up and smirked. "Very well." Not saying another word, she walked up onto the golden steps and grasped the hand that welcomed her inside.
Shinkyo Market District (Rin, Nick, Adam, Marie, Friedrich, Sinistrina)
Friedrich smiled a little as Marie picked him up and placed him on her shoulder. It made him think of this girl doll he met back in Solevaille, how she would tell him about the queen often having a marionette on her shoulder, and picking up and hugging some of the dolls to heal them.note So lost in thought was he, that the discussion about cars and planes flew right over his porcelain head. He finally snapped back to reality, though, when Rin talked more about her sword. Indeed, it was a strange coincidence that Tosho was the same proportionate length on Rin as Totenschatten was on Friedrich.
"Control over ice, that right?" he asked her. "I can just imagine you freezing a section of lake just by touching its surface with that. I suppose I can say something similar about Totenschatten..." As he held the blade before him, it became cloaked in a shadow that lengthened it to a more proper point, and the hilt sprouted a sort of shadowy bell guard, such that the sword resembled more of a rapier than a shortsword. "...had it not been specially enchanted as such, it would have tarnished like any other from the decaying shadows channeled through it."
And then the group was interrupted by the slime salesman.
"Now why would I want something like that?" Friedrich casually asked him. "It does smell kind of fishy." Funny how he said that, for just a couple stores down was a fishmonger, showing off his rows and rows of many different varieties of reportedly delicious, easy-to-cook fish. He let his thoughts drift back to that doll, and as he did, his hand instinctively moved towards his chest, where a heart perhaps ought to be.
His eyes flew open in surprise. "My... my watch! Where is it? It's gone!" The pocket watch that had lain atop his chest had disappeared, allowing the frills on his off-white shirt to become more visible. Frantically, he looked around, but it was in vain; not even a trace of its presence. "Oh... oh no, this is bad; if I don't find that watch, my creator will... well, we'll both be doomed."
Just after he said that, a woman looking to be somewhere in her thirties approached the group. Evidently a witch, if the pointed black hat and the old-fashioned black and grey dress was any indication, and if the spider pendant made of bone made it any creepier. Beneath it, only her hands and face showed, with a somewhat pale complexion and baby blue eyes with a few little dark splotches on the irises. After a while, she took off her hat, making her long and wavy black hair even more visible, as she paused for a moment to look around and solemnly appreciate the warmth of the sun on her face... well, relatively speaking as it was not quite warm outside.
Friedrich nearly fell off of Marie's shoulder when he saw her. "S-speak of the devil..."
The witch put her hat back on. "Oh, Friedrich, there you are." From a hidden pocket of her dress, she retrieved a pocket watch. "Looking for this, are you?" As she held it out, it opened, and a spider - a black widow on close glance - crawled out of it and onto her hand. "I will admit I was a little worried when it appeared before me back in the... what?" She saw the surprised stare the doll was giving her.
"Are you... you're alive! But... but how?!" He glanced down at his chest again. "Explains the pocket watch I suppose..."
A stray tear fell out of the corner of her eye, which she quickly wiped away with a handkerchief. "Yes, it truly is surreal... it appears as if the Golden Being's gift of sorts somehow found its way to me after all." As she put the pocket watch away, the spider in her hand fell lifeless, but she was not fazed; she simply placed it carefully on her shoulder.
Friedrich looked back at Rin and the three teens, gesturing back to the witch. "Oh, by the way, this is Sinistrina, the 'coordinator' I mentioned before."
"Coordinator? I suppose a while ago I was one, of a sort... so I see you found some new friends."
Friedrich nodded. "This is Admiral Rin, and Adam and Nick... and Marie." He patted the shoulder he was sitting on. "We're trying to find uh..." He looked over to Rin. "...Sorry, where were we going again?"
edited 16th Nov '17 8:43:21 PM by ladytanuki
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.
Cathedral of the Four Swords (Milly; Ferisen)
"In Magna Terras, you'd be surprised at the things that can come back to life... animal, vegetable, mineral, minutia, etc." Milly solemnly said, "though, a small comfort to us all, the miasma appears to run on bizarre and poorly understood rules that prevent it from becoming an out-and-out catastrophe. Foodstuffs and the like is sometimes agreeable, so long as it was imported."
Milly paused to frown at Ferisen, before tilting her head, "Purification rituals are a daily necessity for all those who are living, as well as preferred course of action when reviving someone. I don't think it would necessarily harm me," she said, "rather, the opposite." She stared at her hand for a moment, "Decay is rather unpleasant," she said quietly.
She blinked a few times, "I don't know about sending one's soul anywhere, but dreaming is more entertaining than being aware of being comatose for eight hours," she said.
The medic was aware of the other girl's hand on her shoulder; she shared the shiver when it reached Ferisen's hand. She glanced around at the inside of the cathedral as they both entered. The place was slightly intimidating to the revenant girl, not helped much by the voice ringing all around them.
She focused her attention on the priestess, Lacriment. "This place doesn't seem all that forsaken; I've been to a forsaken temple before, this place lacks the suffocating air of ruin and impending doom," she commented, before lifting her head up a bit, "We both have a desire to seek answers to problems we have, and I feel that is what drew us here," she said.
Eneritan (Claire; Emriel)
The magician girl palmed her face in exasperation, "Ugh, spoony bard..."
Claire gave the pink girl a nod once the musician returned to their current situation. Having been essentially given a hall pass to take everything that wasn't nailed down, she set about lining her pockets with whatever caught her fancy. A few bunches of alien flowers and seeds later, Claire made her way down towards the Hall of Healing.
A grin crossed her face as she spotted the verdant seed; it clearly looked valuable and was placed in a rather prominent location. So, doing what any mentally unstable magician adventurer would do, she ran over, grabbed it, and managed to stuff it in one of her pockets.
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Eneritan -> Garden in the Sky (Emriel, Claire, and someone familiar)
Satisfied with picking all the interesting plants out of the garden she was currently standing next to, Emriel took another look over at the horizon... and jumped in surprise. That shadow that was looming in the distance... was now quickly approaching. Looking up at the sky, she could see the edges of the moon in front flash mauve at its edges; this, she knew, was the metallic amber moon Parushai flashing light diffracted through the largest moon's thick blue clouds. In fact, that big blue moon was Kalena, the same moon Gliosem had sung about far away in another dreamscape.
The cloud she was standing on then shook... and shrank. Finally she panicked. "Not only is the sky falling, but the clouds are disappearing..." In fact, looking over at another cloud, she could see one of the little houses fall right through it as the cloud grew thinner. A couple of other houses nearby did the same; even the center cloud where the Hall of Healing was began to fade. Once the house right next to her fell, she leapt off of what little cloud was left below her and glided, plants in hand, over toward the Hall of Healing, catching the breezes that picked up in the wake of the approaching quadruple eclipse. Quite strong breezes, such that Emriel had to flip over and rearrange her wings several times before she finally had a clear shot to the Hall of Healing. Already, on that gazebo, flakes of gold began to fly off, disintegrating into dust that disappeared in the breeze.
And then everything went dark as the moons completely covered the sun's surface, spreading a fiery corona out one side of it, against a dark indigo sky. Naturally, Emriel's eyes moved over to this sight, and the first thing she thought was I wonder if I could work this formation into a dance somehow. But after a second of it, she realized she had flown right past the Hall of Healing, when a blast of more of that golden dust hit her in the face. Promptly, she turned around and reached as far as she could toward one of the Hall's posts.
"Kadokine-ya!"
It took all the focus she had, but at last she managed to grab onto one of the posts, hoping Claire had the sense to do the same. Around them, everything literally spiraled out of control. More gold dust came off of the gazebo they were clinging onto, the remaining houses fell, clouds dissolved into nothing... and then everything went black.
The next thing she knew, Emriel heard a few buzzing and chirping noises. Opening her eyes, she saw that she had been lying inside the Hall of Healing the entire time... or she thought she did, as the gazebo was now white, all the gold having disappeared.note All around it was a brightly sunlit patch of grass.
Wait a minute, this place looks kind of familiar...
Sure enough, when she looked outside, she realized they were on a mountain - in fact, the same mountain that had appeared below Eneritan earlier. Looking up, she could see that only two moons - the silvery Telwenthe and the shiny asteroid-like Parushai, the former a crescent - were in the sky, and they were far away from the sun, which was in the exact same spot Emriel always remembered it being as it shone on her hometown. Looking down, she could see said hometown, looking like a mere tiny village from way up here, beyond which were some fields and woods and the seashore off near the horizon.
Not only that, a song rang through the air.note A melody plucked on an instrument that sounded somewhere between guitar and harp, and a childlike voice singing along with it. Emriel recognized this voice... but decided to wait until the song was finished to remark on it. Instead she turned around and saw another sumiri sitting on a rock at the far edge of the clearing. One shorter and thicker than Emriel, clad in a puffy yellow and orange dress with a matching cape, fiery amber hair in pigtails and decorated with a wooden circlet, yellow eyes and wings, and holding a deep, lute-like instrument.
"Lute! You're here!" Emriel shouted at her, then looked over at Claire. "Hey Claire, one of my sisters is here! This is Amiluet, our instrumentalist, and a somewhat decent singer."
Amiluet scowled at her sister. "Somewhat decent?" She looked over at the magician. "And who is that?"
"That is Claire, a performing magician. If she weren't from some other world, I might've considered recruiting her to our group. But eh, we don't allow that anyway. By the way, where'd you get that staff and why is there no charm on it?" Leaning against a rocky wall was a wooden staff looking to Emriel to have a definite magical signature, but it just ended in a stump-like protrusion.
Amiluet put her instrument down and retrieved the staff instead, where it sprouted a multicolored faux flame, making the entire staff look more like an oversized torch. Or paintbrush was more appropriate, as as she waved it at the rock wall, the "flame" swished around like the hairs on a brush, and as she did so, a painting of a flower drew itself on the wall. Grinning, she turned back around. "This is Dureminda, and I created her in this dream. With the help of a real fairy in fact! Speaking of, why are there no flowers in this garden?"
Emriel looked around. "Oh, right!" That was why she had retrieved those plants from that garden in Eneritan... or she had, but in holding onto the Hall of Healing she had let go of them. Except for exactly three seeds which had stuck to her hand. She grumbled. "Well shoot. I knew I should've stashed them in my pouch when I had a chance..." She was referring to a little bag attached to a band around her hips. Looking back over at the magician, she said, "Hey Claire, you don't happen to have any of those plants or any more seeds on you, do you? I think we should plant them."
"Those are... interesting clothes," Amiluet said to Claire. "Did you make them yourself or have you just visited some very eccentric shops?"
Ferisen/Lacriment coming soon, hopefully.
edited 19th Nov '17 2:46:31 PM by ladytanuki
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.
[Market Place]
Well, this guy didn't look suspicious at all, nope. Very quickly, they sidestepped away from him, only to run into another person—looked like to be Frendich's owner of some sort.
"Nice to meet you, Ma'm." Adam said, giving a friendly bow.
When Frendich asked what they were doing again, Nick blinked in disbelief.
"...You forgot that quickly?" he asked, "Dude, we're looking for Jackson. We're on mission."
"Yeah!" Adam said, "We ended up here for some reason while he's back at the cas-"
He stopped when he suddenly felt a sharp pain go through his entire body. He fell to his knees, shaking the whole time. Wait...no no no....I shouldn't feel this way in a dream world...I...
"Adam!" Marie and Nick shouted, immediately rushing to his side.
"Are you ok, sweetie?" Marie asked.
"I...I-I don't know..." Adam said, "I feel...so...dizzy..."
"Again?" Nick said, his whole face filled with worry, "Shit, we really gotta find Jacky now. Just...try not to pass out." Then again, can you even fall unconscious while you're already asleep? Shit. Now's not the time to think about that.
[Castle (Kitchen, Parlor, I don't know it's been a while lol)
Jackson looked up at Glem.
"Well, I wouldn't say cursed." he said, "More like looking at faulty wiring. At least, that's what we call it in our world. I'm guessing you don't have this sort of thing in your world, right?"
He looked back down at the rice cooker, and his eyes slightly widened. "Ah. There's the problem. Wiring is all messed up. Won't take long for me to fix."
edited 25th Nov '17 11:19:00 PM by Masterofchaos
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Cathedral of the Four Swords (Lacriment, Ferisen, Milly)
When Milly stated her reasons, Lacriment glanced around the cathedral, noting the broken pews and the silence, despite the bells high above still rocking. "It lacks a suffocating air of ruin and impending doom... well then, either I am not doing a sufficient job with the upkeep of this place, or the place you are from is genuinely hostile. Most peculiar though. Your soul was locked in your body after you died, preserved by your own restorative magic, so that you would not descend into madness. Not a complete resurrection, not a complete undeath either. Do you seek meaning to it all perhaps?"
She glanced over at Ferisen. "You, on the other hand, are a garden-variety lich." A pause, followed by a low chuckle. "Oh, I do not mean to label you. That crystal in your forehead - I have never seen anything quite like it. It is not quite a phylactery, but it seems to serve a similar purpose. Now, which problem are you wishing to have solved?"
Ferisen sighed, though it felt strange as she was still not used to not breathing. "That is exactly it. I became a lich just recently, and only inside this dream. Given the nature of this dream, I am worried about if and how it will affect me once I wake up... whether I will be alive again once I do. And if I do end up undead once I wake up, how I would deal with it. I am a performer, you see. But where I am from, any undead sticks out like a sore thumb, and liches especially are not viewed favorably. I..." Her tone grew more nervous as she went on, until she could no longer find the words to describe what she wanted to say. Her latria, on the other hand, spoke for her in a way, playing a hint of a melody, barely heard within the cathedral walls, and with it, a feeling of... desperation perhaps?
The voice of the soul is difficult to decipher, but fortunately, Lacriment was well-versed in its language. "You perform in a group, and you do not want that group's reputation to be jeopardized as a result of your condition. Yes, ideas could serve you well indeed." She turned around to face the organ. "Where there is a shield against the light, secrets that whisper may make themselves known; possibilities that lead one to infinitely many ends twinkle like the faintest stars in the sky. In the absence of life, all are equal in the arms of death; there is no right, there is no wrong, and harm and altruism and all can be forgiven."
With a nod, she played a melody on the organ. Short and sharp, piercing even the most tightly-locked of souls. When finished, she spread her arm-wings wide, as a low rumble resounded through the ground (though not felt by still-obscured Alex, strangely). Lacriment sprang into the air, twirling around, flourishing her cloak, and perching on the highest row of pipes in front of one of the three swords hanging on the wall. And where she once stood, the stone floor sank into a set of stairs, leading to a place shrouded by teal mist, accompanied by sounds of dripping water echoing in a vast space. It was cool and moist down there, and tiny dark shapes could just barely be made out in the mist-shrouded space.
Gesturing down to the stairway, Lacriment spoke. "I now open up the catacombs, otherwise known as my personal library. But it is not for me; it is for visitors like yourselves. Any and all knowledge you may seek will be found there. Any and all curiosities that ache in your souls will be lurking within its mists. With only one exception: there will be no secrets about any specific person, including yourselves. And you may find that some details in the information would be lacking. Of course, some people prefer only my company, but I feel like you two need something more. Does this spark your interest?"
Ferisen gazed down into the catacombs, taking a step back. Something just seemed... off about the place; she couldn't quite place what. After a quick glance at Milly, she said to Lacriment, "If I were alive I might be fearful of the place. It has a very foreboding aura to it."
"Oh, did I not mention that there is a substantial section, so to speak, on dark arts and forbidden indulgences? On a more serious note, unfortunately, some people discover that they cannot handle the knowledge they seek, that the answers are too terrible for them to bear. So if you do decide to explore, do be careful." The soft giggle she muttered would be enough to send chills down any living spines, and even to the undead there was something notably sinister to her tone.
Ferisen bowed her head, lightly touching the crystal in her third eye, noticing it still had a faint warmth about it. "After death, I have little to fear." Indeed, the very sensation of fear, while its memory was still present, had slipped away a bit. "Milly, what do you think?"
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.
Garden in the Sky (Claire; Amiluet, Emriel)
As the celestial light show continued onward overhead, Claire reached a hand out to snag some of the flaking gold raining down from above, only to grasp at empty air. She then quickly realized that the floor was literally falling out from underneath her. She leaped at one of the columns, missed, and free fell towards the ground below with a panicked shout.
The magician miraculously landed on the ground, no worse for wear despite the apparent great fall. Looking around at her surroundings, she realized she had somehow managed to fall back into the Hall of Healing... which was now whitewashed and full of grass.
She leaned back and allowed herself to fall backwards onto the ground, laughing in relief at being on solid ground. "Pretty sky," she said, holding a hand, as if to grasp at one of the moons, idly listening to the song being sung nearby.
Claire glanced over when Emriel called out to her, and noticed the sumiri's sister. "Yo, fellow pigtail girl," she said as she sat up, waving a hand at Amiluet, "Nice song."
She then waggled a finger towards Emriel, "I'm theatrical, don't mean I perform for folks," she said, frowning. Her attention then snapped towards Dureminda, and Amiluet's explanation of how she acquired it caused Claire to scoot back a bit.
"Yeah, I'm not too fond of any form of stick that's passed through fairy hands," she said, crossing her arms, "I once briefly "acquired" a spear by the name of Gale Bird— wait," she paused, scowling in thought, "Gay Bulge? No... Guy Bugger?" she briefly paused to snicker, "Eh, close enough I guess— anyway, I acquired this spear, and then— boom! —I get mugged by leprechauns. They take my rings," she held her hands up, only to sigh in disappointment, "and the spear and I had to go and scour that dang psychedelic teary eggnog place to get 'em back."
At Emriel's prompting, Claire dumped a pile of seeds and plants on the ground, larger than the fanny pack they were stored in, with the stone-like seed on top, "I'm well versed in stashin' away goodies," she said, before asking, "Think this will be enough for a garden here?"
She then turned to Amiluet, "It's a mix of hand-me-downs, bargain goods, and such, put together with creative enthusiasm by yours truly," she said, twirling in place, "you like?"
Shinkyo Market District (Rin; Friedrich, Sinistrina; Adam, Marie, Nick)
Rin returned Tōshō to its scabbard before redrawing it, this time activating the enchantment on the scabbard to facilitate the formation of the icy blade; an equivalent demonstration of her own power, as the air around it carried a biting chill. "I froze an entire bay by accident before I obtained this," the Admiral mentioned.
The merchant, undaunted by the group of children edging away from him and the woman brandishing the frozen katana, addressed the doll, "What I have here is a tamed slime, a very useful creature," he said, eliciting an eye roll from the admiral as the man drew forth a pronged metal rod, "allow me to demonstrate."
The merchant jabbed the rod into the bucket, causing an audible zap as the blue material trembled sporadically. The blob moved away from the prod and rose up, forming a blue facsimile of a human being, gender unknown. The creature waved at the others before keeping as much of a distance from the merchant as possible without leaving the bucket.
"They can easily be trained to be used for a variety of tasks as you see fit, and are quite durable despite their looks. This one can be yours for a rather reasonable price of only 2 d'oro," the merchant pressed, "I'll even throw in a training manual and training rod for 10 flan extra."
Rin returned to ignoring the merchant and his antics for the meantime as another woman joined their group (whom the merchant immediately attempted to sell an alchemy textbook {only 50 flan!} he claimed was a grimoire to). Friedrich introduced her as Sinistrina, his coordinator.
"A pleasure to meet you," said the Admiral to the witch.
The time for conversation was cut short by Adam's sudden collapse, prompting Rin to clench her hand in frustration, "I am unsure as to how I can help; I should remind you that Yukijou is very far away from here, and even if I had an inkling of how to duplicate the means of how we ended up here in the first place, the last thing I want is to land us all in the Balamar Empire by accident—"
"May I interest in some Vitalix mineral water? Whatever ails you, it'll cure it," piped the (rather obnoxious) merchant, holding a brown glass bottle with a bold print label bearing "VITALIX certified RADIOACTIVE aetherized mineral water"
Rin gave the man an icy stare, "Sir, would you kindly find someone else to pedal your wares to?" she said, poking the bottle with the tip of her katana, causing the man to fumble the now painfully cold bottle before setting down safely on his table of wares.
"You can have one on the house, then. Don't want my customers dying on me after all," replied the merchant, sweating profusely.
Cathedral of the Four Swords (Milly; Ferisen, Lacriment)
Milly gently bit her index finger. "A decent into madness would honestly be much more enjoyable than what would of happened to me had I not been revived, as inconveniently delayed as it was. But I don't require meaning to my second lease on life; not only do I have a mission, but I'm still training to become a doctor of medicine," she said.
The lich girl gazed at the crystal in Ferisen's forehead. "You know, that crystal vaguely reminds me of the ones in my staff," she said, rubbing said staff gently, before responding to what the sumiri said, "They say that if you die in a dream, you wake up in reality. You're still dreaming, so I suppose that must mean..." she said, trailing off with the hopeful look that Ferisen would come to the same conclusion that she did.
With the seated priestess offering them access to her archive of knowledge, Milly briefly backed away, before being overcome with curiosity. "There— there's a chance that I might be able to learn something vital to my cause down there, then I too am willing to go," she said with hopeful confidence.
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Shinkyo Market District (Rin, Adam, Nick, Marie, Friedrich, Sinistrina)
The witch and her doll were about to reply to the salesman when they saw Adam fall to his knees. Turning around on Marie's shoulder, Friedrich said to him, "Are you all right? And is Jackson a doctor? Or are there any around?" Unfortunately, a doctor was difficult to spot in the crowd, much less recognize.
"Oh my," said Sinistrina, and then she sighed. "Unfortunately I am terrible at healing, but..." She looked up at the other two teens. "Are Adam and this Jackson... connected somehow?"
"They don't seem to know much about magic," Friedrich remarked.
Speaking of magic, Sinistrina then saw Rin use her sword to freeze a bottle. "Hmm, ice magic, interesting," she said to the admiral. "It seems natural to you, like you've had it most of your life."
Noticing the book the salesman was about to sell her on the table, she picked it up and quickly flipped through it, seemingly mildly interested. "A book on alchemy. Unfortunately not my specialty... hmm, as I understand, many of the most renowned alchemists sought to produce the elixir of life, allowing them to cheat death by living forever." She closed the book and set it back down. "I am in no need of such a secret."
Friedrich, meanwhile, took a look over at the slime man, shaking his head at the salesman and pointing his sword at the slime, before dispelling its shadow and resheathing it. "Interesting offer, but no thank you - I already have many servants that are larger and capable of even more tricks."
He glanced over at the bottle of water, then at Rin. "Are you sure that will work? Probably shouldn't have frozen it though. By the way, is the Balamar Empire a rival of yours?"
Sinistrina was already on the bottle situation, grasping the bottle with her cloth-covered wrists so as to not freeze her hands off, and holding it against her chest. It felt comforting yet surreal to actually feel warmth in her body, and to feel her heartbeat through the glass. And she actually smiled. For a moment she felt like her sister Lucina, healing something with her touch... though with it was a small sense of emptiness, a lingering guilt, a coldness that rivaled that of the bottle.
While moving said bottle around, she noticed the label. "Radioactive? Hmm, I have heard of the use of radiation in medicine, though the science behind it is in its infancy. Still, there is a chance it may work..." The bottle's coldness had grown a little painful for her herself, to the point where she needed to wrap it in two handkerchiefs to hold it.
edited 27th Nov '17 12:05:04 AM by ladytanuki
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.
[Market Place]
Marie shot a glare at the merchant. "Our friend is sick and you have the audacity to use this as a chance to sell your product? What the hell is wrong with you?"
Adam tried to smile. "M...Marie....it's...ok...."
"It's not ok! You look like you're gonna pass out at any minute!"
Nick looked up at the others. "Jacky's a friend of ours, and he pretty much makes weapons for us. We don't know shit about magic, but maybe he can tell us what's going on with Adam." He looked back at his friend, "Do you think that water might help you for a bit?"
"It's...radioactive...." Adam said, "I don't...trust it..."
Marie rubbed his back. "Honey, don't talk for a bit. Just..." she looked at Nick, "Can you carry him for a while?"
Nick nodded, letting Adam crawl onto his back. He then turned to the others. "Well? Any other ideas?"
In Adam's pocket, the gems were glowing violently.
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Snow Castle - Parlor (Jackson, Gliosem)
So Jackson knew nothing about curses, but did he say something about faulty wiring? Though her brow furrowed in confusion as he explained that part, the wire part made it all clear. "Ah I see, you are an electrician! Yes, on Orenya we have simple machines powered by batteries connected to wires... I do not know how the technology works though or how batteries are made, though I believe sunlight has to do with it."
Then she watched him as he poked around at the wires. "It is a good thing you are here; I wouldn't know which wire goes to which." She was about to ask him something else, but after a quick glance at the hallway, she decided against it. Come to think of it, she couldn't think of anything else to say without sounding... tactless. So instead she poked at one of the ofuda attached to the rice cooker, and then removed it, glancing it over.note "It is strange... you are from a world without magic, I am from a world with nothing but magic. There are pros and cons to each - and it seems that sometimes, one must look outside their worldview to solve a problem. Evidently, Megumi has failed to do so here."
"Likewise, those glowing stones from before... could it be possible that a magical force activated them? Dreaming itself is a form of magic, so perhaps it could be the dreamscape itself causing havoc with them." Come to think of it, where were those stones? Gliosem couldn't remember who had them last.
Catacombs of the Four Swords (Ferisen, Milly)
Ferisen nodded. "I suppose one plus to being undead is that we are not subject to ordinary mortal fears." She looked over at the mist. "Still, there are other, deeper fears. You seemed quite wary of me before we officially met. And also of those flowers. How many things in Magna Terras are not hostile?"
Once they were near the bottom of the stairway, the stone floor of the cathedral slid back into place with a low rumbling, and the sound of it sliding shut and closing the two undead mages in echoed all around the vast space. Immediately, Ferisen turned back around, a light briefly flashing in her third eye... and as she motioned her arms forward and up, the stone blocks blocking the entryway came apart and flew upward a ways, and when she lowered them, they gently fell back into place. She blinked. "The saying is true then, that a lich's magic is at its strongest when the pathway between their body and their phylactery is blocked. That answers one question."
Speaking of which, she remembered Milly's own remark about crystals, and of dreaming. She paused to think. "It would mean that I did not properly die. See, normally the soul leaves the body upon death, and it also does that when they dream, though in the latter case, only temporarily. Therefore, dying in a dream returns the soul to where it came from: the waking world. And vice versa. However, I sealed my soul inside my latria before it could go anywhere. I would imagine that I would have to simply free my soul and then I'd wake up. However..."
She sighed, stepping down into the mists. "For me at least, this is not a normal dream. I arrived here through... special means. In this state, dying does not wake one up; the soul is so drawn to the dream world that it lingers there, possibly for eternity. That... that was why I became a lich in the first place. So that that would not happen to me. As for this crystal..." she indicated the one stuck in her forehead, "you mentioned the ones on your staff serve as a conduit for your magic? Then I see the resemblance. This crystal has a similar function; without it I would not be able to move my body, and would not have access to any of my senses or abilities."
Finally she looked all around. It was a very large stone chamber, with pillars dotted throughout, the teal mists covering the floor up to about hip level. The walls were also made of stone... and blank. "What sort of library is this anyway? Where are the books?"
Just then, she heard some muffled clinking sounds. Ten little round objects had rolled down a narrow chute into a stone bowl in the wall. And the priestess's voice, sounding more distant yet more ominous than in the cathedral, spoke from the top of the chute. "These are hazelnuts. They are old and stale, but the salmon like them that way. Try feeding one. Tell it your topic of interest, but do not ask any questions. They do not like details; you must let your intuition guide you. And if you need any more, simply ask."
Ferisen glanced down at the strange black shapes floating around in the mist; they looked kind of fish-like. Was a "salmon" a type of fish, then? Shrugging, Ferisen took five of the nuts, letting Milly take the other five. "This is a very strange library... still, I can feel what Lacriment means regarding intuition. Let's try it I suppose..." Holding a nut, she looked around at the dark shapes swimming in the mist. "Um, which of you has knowledge of deep dr-"
There was a stirring before her; a black salmon made of pure shadow rose out of the mists, hissing at her.note
"...Oh, right, no questions. Well then... deep dreaming, please."
She dropped the nut into the mist, where it made a splash, as if the mist was water. For a second it floated on top of the mist, until another salmon rose to the surface and snatched it in its mouth. When it retreated into the mists, the mist above it turned black... and when Ferisen gazed into it, her entire vision went black.
She felt lost. Hopeless. Desperate. Occasionally, indistinct images floated past her, but she couldn't make sense of any of them. Objects appeared, but though she had seen them before, she didn't know this, and couldn't recognize them. She knew nothing. No idea where she was, who she was, where she was from, how she got here, or why she came here. Even the feeling she felt, and there were plenty of them, became unidentifiable. She didn't even know what feelings were, nor even what the word "feelings" sounded like. There was no time. No space. It was not a void, more like utter chaos, not that she even knew what that was.
And then finally, something recognizable: a faint teal light. And something else: the feeling of cool mist around her legs. And a profound sense of fear... but only for a moment, ending when her memory returned and she saw the catacombs again. But a voice spoke inside her head: "This is what it is like. What happens when one's soul becomes hopelessly lost in the realm of dreams, unable to find its way back to its vessel."
For several moments, Ferisen continued to gaze down into the mists as the blackness faded away, still a little mentally shaken at the experience. Meanwhile, a giggle made itself faintly heard from the stairway. "Very good. Now you have an idea of how this library works. What better language is there than the language of emotion? You were lucky on your first try too. Some of the salmon prefer to bring up books or scrolls, or show moving pictures in the mists. You just never know how this knowledge will present itself, but it will always show something you do not already know or fully understand; that is the beauty of it. Why don't you try, healer?"
As an overview: State your subject, feed a salmon a hazelnut, let it show you whatever seems appropriate to know through whatever means. No questions, no information about a specific person. Otherwise salmon will bite you (it only hissed at Ferisen because she did not complete her question)... not that that'll do much to the undead.
Cathedral of the Four Swords (Lacriment, Alex)
After the two liches left for the catacombs, Lacriment waved an arm and the pathway closed up. Then she swooped down and landed next to the strange crystalline piped instrument sitting there on a cart, precariously touching one of the pipes and shaking her head. "The lavender haired one just left her phylactery here, unguarded. Which means either she is very inexperienced, or she trusts me. I get the feeling it is both; indeed, why would I needlessly harm someone who shares my fate in a way?"
Turning back around, she walked back up to the organ and gestured her arms wide, dispelling the shadowy barrier around the pools. Slowly she walked over to the Pool of Despair, bending down so that her owl-masked face was right next to Alex's. "Alexandra, how are you feeling? Have you found what you are looking for yet?" She knew the vampire couldn't hear her, but it was always nice to say such things.
edited 28th Nov '17 12:23:30 AM by ladytanuki
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.
[Snow Castle (Parlor)]
Jackson only nodded his head in agreement when Glem talked about their world's. When she mentioned the gems, he looked back up at her.
"I...I never thought about it." Jackson said, "I remember Nick's father having one of these for his inventions." He pulled some out of his pocket. "Though, with how they've been acting since they got here, it looks like I know less about them than I thought. Especially when Adam-"
It then dawned on him that Adam had gems. The gems that made him dizzy. The gems that made him feel sick.
And now he was nowhere to be seen.
Dread and fear raced through his mind. He quickly stood up, his eyes widened, and put his arms on Giloslem's shoulder.
"Hey, Glem...please try to make another portal!" he begged, "I'm sorry to strain you like this, but it's an emergency. I have to find my friends quickly!" He turned his heads towards Megumi, "How long is that doctor going to be?!"
December, 1901; South West England
Alexandra found herself being dragged, kicking and screaming, by the hair by her uncle towards the docks. Or at least the cliffs near the docks. Her futile thrashing was cut short by a boot to the ribs and a frozen twig that had managed to lodge itself in her leg wound.
"Little girl," Walther said coldly, hoisting Alexandra up by her hair, "would you kindly stop it before I break you little legs off, hmm?"
The juvenile vampire summoned up all of her strength to spit in her uncle's face.
The next thing she was aware of was star bursts dancing in her eyes and a massive, ringing headache, with incomprehensible angry shouting in the background— and a gunshot. Groaning as she rolled over to attempt to see what was going on, she was met by the blurry sight of her uncle ducking and weaving for some reason.
Her attempts at focusing her eyesight yielded more context to the situation; her uncle was engaged in combat with a one-armed woman wielding a bayoneted rifle. She blinked. It was Ms. Leeds! She was still alive, and, although worse for wear, was apparently pressing the attack. Walther dodged to the left to avoid a ferocious downward strike from the bayonet, swiping at Ms. Leeds with a pocket knife as he leaped away.
Another bloodstain blossomed on Ms. Leeds' blouse. "I won't let you hurt her!" she bellowed, ignoring her injury, instead took aim with the rifle at Walther. She fired, and missed, and attempted to fire again, only to find she'd run out of ammo. Snarling, she instead attempted to skewer Alexandra's uncle with the bayonet, who took a few steps back and casually stopped the blade with his pocket knife.
"I'm afraid you're a bit late on that one, caretaker; anyway," Walther said, ducking into a crouch as he disengaged from the blade lock, allowing Ms. Leeds to charge harmlessly past him, "I'd be more concerned with yourself; you don't exactly have a leg to stand on,"
Ms. Leeds was momentarily perplexed before stumbling, her the back of her ankle red with blood from a new wound inflicted by Walther's pocket knife. Growling, she transferred her weight to her other leg, spun around and attempted another overhead strike with the rifle.
Walther stopped the rifle cold with one finger. A moment later, metal cracked, and the bayonet shattered, one large piece landing by the cliff edge. With a flick of his wrist, Walther was able to grab the rifle, wrest it from Ms. Leeds grip, and cast it off the cliff.
The matron scrambled to retrieve the broken bayonet before turning about to clash once more with Walther.
There was a visceral squelch, and the two combatant backed away from each other.
A look of confusion crossed briefly crossed Ms. Leeds', only to be swiftly replaced with pained horror. Her hazy gaze lingered on the beating heart held in Walther's hand, her heart.
Alexandra's uncle took a step forward and gently pushed the woman with his free hand, causing her to stumble backwards towards the cliff's edge. Her eyes met Alexandra's one final time before she fell over the edge.
"MOTHER!"
Alexandra reached desperately, but went down due to her injured leg; meanwhile, Walther turned to face the sobbing girl with an amused grin on his face.
"Could this mean? Ha, ha ha, my brother had a bastard daughter? And here I thought that insignificant wench was just an overpaid nursemaid," he said, approaching the prone Alexandra and drawing his revolver, "Thing have gotten a bit more complicated, so in the interest of speeding things up, I'm going to need your cooperation—"
The hammer clicked, followed by roaring thunder as the world smashed to black.
Cathedral of the Four Swords (Alex, Lacriment)
Alex's eyes bolted open. She blinked, staring at the owl-mask before her, before making a reflexive grab for her gun, only to blindly splash about in the pool.
Quickly getting herself to calm down, she sat up and struggled to pull herself up to her feet. "I... I don't particularly want to do that again," she bluntly, but weakly, stated to the priestess.
Catacombs of the Four Swords (Milly; Ferisen)
Milly tapped her chin for a brief moment before replying, "Some of the sheep, I suppose, and most things that aren't formerly deceased and being reanimated by otherworldly stuff," she said grimly.
She then followed the sumiri down into the catacombs, observing with keen interest when Ferisen displayed her magic; "I'm not particularly familiar with that form of magic," she noted, before giving the sumiri a quizzical frown, "Wouldn't that defeat the purpose, though?" she asked, misunderstanding the use of the term "phylactery".
The healer blinked a few times, leaning heavily on her staff as she continued down the murky stairs. "Not only is my staff a conduit for my powers, it also acts as a prison of sorts," she said, before glancing around at the subterranean antechamber. "I'd suppose that this would be the entry hall of the archives?" she posited.
She reflexively shivered at the mists all around them, especially with the shadowy salmon swimming through the mists, but at least the mists were teal. Small comforts in an ominous place.
Milly observed Ferisen's actions with keen interest, taking note of the salmon's disagreement with questions. She made a mental note to not make the same mistake; she'd rather not have to chase down a fish that had made off with some body part of hers.
When it was her turn to ask the fish, she paused to pick the right words. "Otherworldly miasma, please," she asked, squatting down to offer a hazelnut directly to one of the salmon. The fish darted forward, plucking the nut from her fingers and swam off into the mists.
Moments passed, and the fish returned, bearing a leather bound tome. Milly picked the book up, and, after noting how old the book was, carefully opened it. The mage skimmed the first page, frowned, and gently closed the book. "I... I can't read it..." she said, dismayed, "it's in a language I don't know..."
Another book, much newer looking, was brought out, this time in a language mostly recognizable to Milly as Veran. She squinted at the print for a moment, "The Theogony of Hesiod... never heard of it," she said, before carefully placing the book atop the other one.
Once more the fish returned, bringing a collection of woodblock prints. The pictures apparently told an epic story involving snakes, unfortunately the associated text was written in what appeared to be some form of Eastern writing that once again she couldn't read.
The undead mage let out a sigh, "This... doesn't exactly help me much... but if the salmon brought these, then there's got to be an answer in them somewhere," she said, cradling the prospective reading materials with one arm.
Shinkyo Market District (Rin; Friedrich, Sinistrina; Adam, Marie, Nick)
The merchant made his attempts at cozying up to the witch, "My apologies; what exactly is your specialty, perhaps I might have a book more suited to your tastes."
Darting over to Friedrich, he knelt down to address him, "I assure you, it might not look much now, but slimes have quite the capacity for becoming something better, so long as you feed it right," he said, smiling.
He then attempted to give Marie a reassuring smile, "You can have the tonic; please don't sue me."
The Admiral continued to ignore the man, instead moving beside Sinistrina to retrieve the frozen bottle, "Of course, I have had these powers all my life, much like my parents and their parents as well," Rin stated to her as she redirected thermal energies to unfreeze the bottle, "It takes me longer, but I can unfreeze as well," she explained.
Rin clasped her hands in front of her mouth, frowning, "The Balamar Empire is not a rival, per say, more a potentially antagonistic nation on the other side of the world that has expansionist ambitions. The current inactivity they have been displaying recently has been keeping me up at night, to say the least."
She then approached the trio, "I am not exactly well versed in any form of healing technique, but if you were to tell me where it hurts, I may be able to help," she said, holding up her hands.
Yukijou-minato ~ Snow Castle [Main Keep 1st Floor ~ Parlor] (Megumi, Raven; Gliosem; Jackson)
It didn't take long for Megumi to return with a relatively short girl in tow. This girl had jet black hair, tufts of feathers behind her ears, and wore a bell-shaped Victorian-era-esqe black and dark green dress, with tiered rings of white ruffles along the bottom half of the outfit. The black cloak draped over her shoulders was fastened at her neck by a brooch and chain consisting of a green cross over a pair of crossed, white feathers, surrounded by a laurel wreath. She carried a black doctor's bag in her left hand. The only thing, other than the feathers that gave away her inhuman status was her scaly, dark gray, taloned feet, upon which she wore a pair of single-toothed geta sandals. The occasional feather drifted to the floor from under her cloak.
The young lady cleared her throat to get the attention of Gliosem and Jackson, "I'm presuming the blue one's the patient?" she asked of Megumi, who briefly nodded before holding a hand up, instructing the tengu lady to standby momentarily.
"If this is an emergency, then we should go post haste," said the maid, "Karasu—"
"Raven..." the girl interjected.
"Ahem, Raven here will be accompanying us; she can tend to your wings on the other side, Gliosem," Megumi stated.
edited 5th Dec '17 5:35:15 PM by WillDeRegio
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Snow Castle - Parlor (Megumi, Raven, Jackson, Gliosem)
So that's what a crow tengu was... There were no crows on Orenya, nor any proper birds for that matter, so the feathered appearance was completely new to the injured sumiri. Speaking of which, Raven looked surprisingly like a wingless sumiri, especially with the feet; she had known a couple of particularly weird sumiri from a cult in Hakushiari who wore scaled, taloned socks.note Gliosem nodded and smiled in greeting upon her arrival.
But before she could treat her, Megumi and Jackson suddenly changed their minds and wanted the portal. Gliosem pouted. "I wish you had told me before I dispelled the last one..." She gently rubbed her forehead. "Even in a dream, portals are quite taxing when it comes to spells. I can try... but I might need some help. Raven, you don't know anything about spells, do you?"
Her hand brushed by the little black purse she wore over her shoulder, and she had an idea... though she seemed hesitant about it. "I do have one thing that may help... hopefully." From the purse, she withdrew a glass vial half-full of a milky white liquid. "Extract of Milky Star.note Normally I'd reserve this for just prior to a performance, but..." Wait, I can make it a performance...
With a meek smile, she also withdrew her selunor from where it hung across her back; this also relieved pressure on her wings. Then she uncapped the vial and drank the contents as quickly as possible. Immediately she grimaced and covered her mouth, a couple of tears leaking out of her eyes. Even when she uncovered her mouth she wore a cringe of disgust. "It's horribly bitter..."note The dried red berry she also took out of her purse seemed to mitigate the taste somewhat though. A ruby nut, mentioned in the recipe she wrote down for Alice's experiment some time ago.
Gliosem sat still and calm for a few moments, seemingly in a meditation, giving enough time for anyone to lend their assistance if they so chose. Regardless, after those moments, she cleared her throat and began a few harp-ish notes on the selunor. By that time the potion started to kick in; she felt as if a cool breeze had blown right through her mind, clearing any fog within it. As she continued playing, she heard each note grow clearer and somehow more meaningful, though it sounded pretty normal to everyone else. The tune was familiar, becoming even more apparent when she added lyrics - it was the chorus of the Kalena song again. As she continued playing the selunor afterward, song turned to incantation, though she decided this time to sing that as well: "Sen Rin-bi nendria, sio timi nen parth kuna-ya..."note Followed by a final strum on the selunor.
Throughout the song, icy blue mist wafted through the hallway, just like before, and at the end, an outline of an archway materialized within it, also just like before. Well not quite; it was a bit fainter than before, seeming to pulse in and out of existence. Closer inspection revealed this coinciding with Gliosem blinking. Carefully, she stood up and walked up to the portal, focusing on nothing else, and then placing a hand inside of it. This seemed to stabilize it; in fact she even felt a small surge of power as she did so.
But she also felt something else, something that made her worry. The mists within the portal even grew darker. "Be careful; I sense something evil beyond the gate." Normally this would have startled her enough to break her concentration on the portal, but it seemed the potion helped to ease her focus.
The gate should likely lead to the Shinkyo Market District. The evil presence there... well, there's a reason for it which should become apparent in my next post or two (or sooner for the particularly observant), provided the portal succeeds without a hitch - i.e. they emerge near where the other group is.
Shinkyo Market District (Rin, Nick, Adam, Marie, Friedrich, Sinistrina)
While Marie tended to Adam, Friedrich re-drew Totenschatten and jumped off her shoulder, softening his fall with a conjured shadow. Just then the salesman approached him again about the slime man. This elicited a scowl from the doll, and (taking Rin's example and running with it) the tip of a shadow-cloaked sword pointed at the salesman's chest.
"That slime could lift carriages or dance the waltz for all I care; I'm still not interested. Now leave me alone or I shall have your soul."
"Friedrich!" Sinistrina scolded. "Peddling one's wares is not a crime." Though I bet Lucina would have him executed if he treated her a similar way.
Speaking of peddling, the salesman then approached hernote , asking what exactly her specialty was. Here she hesitated, but once she remembered she was inside a dream, she felt better telling the truth. "I specialize in necromancy," she replied. "I could already be considered an expert in the art, but with one exception: I have not been able to figure out how to communicate with the dead. I don't suppose you have any books or other tools that could help with that?"
"Don't bother," said Friedrich, sounding quite annoyed. But then something dawned on him. To Sinistrina, he said, "A book might actually help. What would happen if you sealed someone's soul inside a blank one?"note
Sinistrina's eyes widened. "That... is actually a brilliant idea. Remind me to try that once we wake up; the study is full of blank books."
Friedrich looked sternly at the salesman. "So in case you couldn't tell, neither of us are in any need of your wares."
Then he walked over to Adam, hearing what he said about Jackson and noticing the glowing things in his pocket. "What are those? They look magical to me...though they don't look cursed."
Sinistrina, meanwhile, heard Rin's explanation about her magic, about how she had it all her life. "Interesting, so your magic runs in the family. Not so with mine; only my sister and I have magic, and of quite the opposite sort." Then she felt the bottle unfreeze. "And you can reverse it as well. Can you make the water hot as well? Not specifically this water, of course."
Speaking of which, she moved closer to Adam, bottle still in hand. "It is true that some elixirs cannot be trusted. But if nothing else works, this may have to do. At the very least, you do not seem to be anywhere near death; I would know if you were."
"Because clearly death is the worst fate one can suffer," said Friedrich, clearly being sarcastic. Then to Rin he said, "Hmm, I wonder if the Balamar Empire is secretly planning something. But you must have guards about your keep, correct? And your magic appears to be quite strong. Unless perhaps you are worried that theirs might be stronger?"
edited 6th Dec '17 2:11:40 AM by ladytanuki
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.
Forest (Ferisen, Milly)
When Milly coughed, Ferisen looked on in confusion. Now that's odd. Is a cough not a living reflex? She decided not to mention it; medicine was not her specialty after all. Instead, with a slow nod of her head, she said to her, "Then in this world of dreams it is by a stroke of fate that we have met. I do not blame you for your surprise; my world does not take kindly to the undead either. I used to be wary of the concept myself, but..." She shook her head. "...Well, it would be hypocritical of me to do so now."
"What sort of arcane problems? I don't suppose it has to do with matters of the soul, does it? Well, at any rate, why don't we walk a bit - hopefully a path will lead us somewhere."
Leaves rustled and a cold breeze picked up; the vegetation grew slightly denser and the surroundings slightly darker and foggier.
Eneritan (Emriel, Claire)
First thing Emriel knew, some aural disturbance of a sort appeared on the ground around her.note Second thing she knew, Claire shouted something. Third thing she knew, something yanked her by the cape. Before Claire could speak, Emriel dropped and spun around quickly enough to pull the cape right out of her grasp, and took off at a run again. She got a good several meters before finally hearing Claire...
...upon which she flipped around and slid to a halt on the cloudy ground. "Whoa, sorry, I thought you were the demon!" She looked up to see the demon rubbing its eye. "Uh, one problem with going. There ain't nowhere to go, and we are very high up from the ground."
She took a quick glance at the horizon. By then, the small metallic amber-colored moon was getting close to the sun as well, sending many red flashes across the sky, and a larger moon was about to obscure it. Already, the surroundings were a bit darker than when they had first arrived. She looked back at the demon; it seemed to have spotted them.
Grabbing two fistfuls of cloud, Emriel instead turned to face the beast. "If we blind it we can stand a chance. ''Sethema-ya!"
And she tossed the cloud puffs upward, where they condensed and turned a sickly shade of yellow, not unlike the residue that might come out of one's nose. These flew right into both the demon's eyes, where they bubbled and began to erode them away. Emriel smiled. "Fun fact: an enchanter more powerful than I would be able to melt that thing's eyeballs away in a second with that spell." She looked at Claire. "Oh, right, running. Let's jump to one of those clouds over there."
After pointing to a cloud with one of those sky gardens atop it, she took off at a run again. Fortunately this one not only was an easy jump away, but had a good view of whatever the demon was going to do next.
Cathedral of the Four Swords (Lacriment, Alex)
For several moments the owl-like priestess played a soft melody on the organ. When she finished, she breathed a sigh. "And now this place is recharged. The presence of that emperor's light brought a warmth to this place, and now it is cold yet not, and still as it should be."
For now, she decided to check on the vampire in the Pool of Despair. Rising up on a pedestal of shadow and draping a wing over a few inches of air away from Alex's back, she peered into the waters herself.
"Stories. Worry. Sickness. Hmm, something seems to be missing. Ah. I thought this pool did not look as dark as I left it." She conjured another anti-light flame and dropped it into the pool, where it fizzled away. "There. Now may your fears deepen."
She turned away. "Which reminds me, I should open up the catacombs. I feel soon they may need to be traversed." Indeed, looking up at the bells, their silent song seemed to be ringing out louder than before, echoing across the desolate landscape beyond and even rustling the dead roses in the garden.
Alex will not be able to hear anything Lacriment is saying or feel anything she is doing, except for the chance that something may be wrapped or draped across her back if the vision allows.
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.