The Flamebringer
My son is a dumbass
"He is highly optimistic, it seems."
Cor sits up, placing his hands on his knees, and staring out at the extreme beauty and wonder of the view, "Have you ever seen anything like this before...? This is amazing..."
In response to Richard's question, he looks toward his bag, his brow furrowing. Reaching in, he withdraws a folded square of canvas that seems to be trying to squirm. From this he withdraws a bronze amulet, a circular plane of concentric rings and discs with embossed ornate designs, which, when freed from its confines, shimmers and begins to move. Each ring and disc begins to rotate out onto an axis all its own in a grapefruit-sized sphere and revolve around a center that begins to glow. "I'm honestly not sure what it is, I found it at a dig recently and was taking it to the Academy to find out, actually."
"I'm as free as the dust in the solar wind."
"Not really." Richard agrees with Cor. "Definitely first of its kind." He then looks to the amulet. "Oh, wow." He says, reaching out somewhat towards the amulet. "Maybe I can help you study it later. May I take a closer look at it?"
edited 25th Feb '17 1:17:50 AM by AqueousBunnies
Everyday's great at your Junes
Extravaganza
Red's Cabin
Toraq takes a moment to ponder Red's response before he leaves him alone in the room. "...Pay it forward. Well...alright. I will certainly try..."
He takes a look at the new marking having taken over his brand and rubs it for a moment. It didn't hurt anymore, so that was a relief. He grabs his discarded cloak and shirt, but as the latter currently will not fit him without ripping even more, he foregoes it and tucks it into his satchel before leaving the room.
Old habits die hard, especially when no one else lets them die either.
The Extravaganza - Flight Deck
The boy just looked out, a wide eyed look at all that's going on, the manta-ray like creatures flying past equally mesmerized as he stood behind the teenage mage girl his mouth slightly agape."..That are those things?" He questions in a somewhat softer voice, curious but his own attention only half at asking questions.
"After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began."
The Extravaganza
The girl is brought from her reverie when Theodor speaks, and she turns to him.
"Those are Thread Gliders. They float on the current of the Silver Thread eternally, passing forward and backward in the time stream. That's why they fluctuate like that." As she speaks, the Gliders begin to fade off in the fog, moving of their own volition, from the look of it.
"Huh...I wonder where they're going."
"Indeed it is. I've always wondered what it looked like...non-mages don't get much of a chance," says Gideon, close enough to hear, "though I hear that's different for elementals. Got any insight on that, M Iss iz-Rasadi?"
Araton should feel a familiar sinking feeling in his gut. Not a Figment, but the feeling that something isn't quite right. Or, perhaps, the feeling that his suspicions might not be so far from the truth.
As Cor holds up the object, the rings begin to spin steadily faster, to the point where it's almost uncontrollable. The glow also gets brighter, to the point of being almost violent.
Whatever celebrations Captain Gideon and his Needle Fleet might have had planned, they will unfortunately be unable to have them. There is a sudden pulse that rocks the ship lightly.
"Captain! I think you'll want to see this!" calls someone from the helm, and the man looks up to see one of the mages looking down on him.
"Ugh. All right, I'll have to get that answer from you later then," he says, and moves up.
Everyday's great at your Junes
Extravaganza
As Toraq steps out of the room and contemplates where to go, he's caught off guard as the ship experiences the pulse and is subsequently rocked, knocking him off balance.
He flails a bit as he falls and his arms automatically reaching out and making him end up in a handstand to break his fall as his reflexes take over. "That...is not seeming a good sign..." He mutters before righting himself back down into a crouch before standing up again.
Old habits die hard, especially when no one else lets them die either.
My son is a dumbass
"And heeeeere we gooooo...", Araton says in a fake cheerfull tone, as he begins to wander towards the helm, his teeth glowing slightly. "Whether this leads to death or not, apparently there will be a new passenger in this merry rowboat called Theodor Horizonwalker."
edited 27th Feb '17 12:43:07 PM by Blackie
The Flamebringer
As Cor prepares to hand the device over to Richard, it starts getting out of his control and begins trying to tumble out of his grasp, much to the elf's clear distress.
edited 7th Mar '17 9:39:30 AM by GhostElm
"I'm as free as the dust in the solar wind."
Richard holds on to the chair when the ship jolts. "Whoa, whoa!" He says as he cups his hands next to Cor's to keep the amulet from flying away, and at the same time starts trying to suppress and deactivate its magic.
The boy looks at her, then to the gliders, a still awe filled look in his eyes."This is awesome..." He lets out watching them move around then fade off into the fog.
At her question he shrugs a little. "Dunno, what do they normally d-?" He pauses as he says this, giving a sharp look off to the side for a moment mouthing something to, well nothing before just shaking his head and pretending it was nothing.
"After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began."
[ The Extravaganza
When Gideon makes his way to the helm he is joined by Araton and Ashida. The University Mage who called him up is standing in front of the controls, with a worried look on his face. And no wonder, given how the dials and meters are flicking so quickly and with such intensity that it's surprising they haven't broken from their casings.
"What is it?" he asks, and the mage looks up to the captain with nothing to say for a moment, before shaking his head and rambling into an explanation.
"There's been some sort of flux in the Thread, like something entered in. The problem is that it didn't come from Ma'Rntal and it didn't come from any of the elemental planes - nothing from any of those could make a ripple that big. It seems impossible, but...we think something entered in from the Void."
"You're right, that does sound impossible," says Gideon, but the two don't get much more time to talk when shadows begin to spread on the deck. Gideon gives a powerful command to get ready, but unfortunately a few of the sailors and mages are caught by surprise when the shadows overtake them, seemingly wrapping around and devouring them. Then, in a moment of horror, the shadows reconfigure, taking twisted humanoid forms with claws for hands and feet. They immediately start to sew chaos.
Below decks, the same thing is happening, though Cor and Richard might notice that, as soon as one of the shadows comes close to take the person seated across the aisle from them, the device they both are trying to control unleashes a torrent of Essence, which burns away the shadow as if it were nothing. After this, it goes somewhat dormant, though the two might be able to tell that the thing is gathering more energy. Still, more shadows appear and take more passengers, creating the shadow creatures in their places.
Toraq is alone when one of the shadow creatures rounds a corner and seems to stare straight at him. He's only got a moment before it is going to charge him, it seems.
As the shadows emerge, the young woman takes Theodor and pushes him behind her, and she holds her hands to either side with an angry growl. Flames erupt from her palms and her hair whips in a frenzy as she readies herself for combat.
Roll initiative
Cor's eyes go wide as the amulet disintegrates the looming threat and he lets up on restraining it a bit, looking to Richard, then around in general, "Have any magic that could help with this? I hope someone does other than just my amulet... I hope this thing is charging..."
"I'm as free as the dust in the solar wind."
The Flamebringer
Ashida unslung her rifle, immediately starting to charge it. "This is... not good." Once her gun charged, she fired it at one of the shadow beasts. "Very not good."
All are significantly abnormal in a normal world... All are significantly normal in an abnormal world.
Richard ceases his attempt when he witnesses the amulet protect them from one of the shadow creatures. "That was handy." He quips, before looking around to see more shadows attacking. He shoots magical bolts at a couple of them, enough to disarm or stun but not do much more damage than that, and at the same time trying to look into their nature, including seeing if the people are still there underneath.
My son is a dumbass
"Get us out of here, back to Ma'Rental!", Arator barked as he raised his staff, ready to strike one of the creatures trying to reach the Mage. "I would theorise that the presence of foreign matter may lead to an unprecedented phenomenon, though I cannot say with certainty."
The boy's pushed back by the young woman as he readies into battle posture, Theo looking back and fourth with a somewhat frightened look on his face, this was not what he was expecting, he couldn't just summon it right here, not infront of all these university mages...
Right, plan B. As the boy, arming the staff into both hands of his holds it infront of him defensively, letting his essence flow freely getting ready to fight as well, the orb adoring the edge of his stave turning silver then glowing as his hands grip and he readies himself. "I'm, i'm helping!" He declares, partly not wanting to run away in fear with the girl there.
"After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began."
Everyday's great at your Junes
Extravaganza
"...!" Toraq looks natbly startled when the shadow creature comes around the corner and straight at him. He holds the clasp of his cloak tightly, in which a small stud of an Essence stone is set, and his body seemingly moves on its own as he lashes out with his clawed hand to defend himself.
Old habits die hard, especially when no one else lets them die either.
The amulet does what it does as Richard pelts two of the shadow creatures. They deform for a moment but slowly regenerate and keep coming. With your investigation, you feel nothing but...well, nothing from them. Wherever the people were, they aren't there now. They slow, however, the closer they come to the amulet.
Ashida, as you pull your rifle up and fire, the shot becomes almost impossibly empowered by the Essence of the Silver Thread, completely disintegrating the shadow creature but also veering off and catching part of the structure of the ship, blowing it apart in a shower of splinters and metal shards. Whoops.
As the mages at the helm start working to get the ship back to Ma'Rntal, Gideon relinquishes the controls to someone else and pulls an Essence pistol from his side and looses a couple of shots, both equally as overpowered as Ashida's shot, though not to the same degree (smaller weapon, smaller blast after all). Still, it's enough to blow apart bits of the helm. Double whoops. One of the mages, meanwhile, looks over at Araton and says "We're working on it, keep them busy!" in response to his first utterance, followed by frenzied nods of agreement at the second.
The girl's face flashes as if she is impressed for a moment before turning to an angry grimace as spouts of flame spray from her hands when she raises them, engulfing your enemies. She keeps Theodor behind her, even while he raises himself to fight.
Toraq's cloak keeps him safe at a goop-like arm slaps out against him, and his clawed hand digs deep into similar flesh before the creature backs off a little, hurt but not done by a longshot.
Meanwhile, as all this craziness unfurls, the other ships start to blink out of existence as the mages manage to start getting them home. Unfortunately for the Extravaganza, a ship-rocking bang rings out and, in the turmoil, one might see the machine once on the bottom of the ship floating off into the aether. Still, the mages do their part and a shaky portal appears in the vector the ship is floating, and it quickly sinks in.
As the ship passes through, anyone observant enough might see, for the few seconds they are there, a grim sight - a shadowy, twisted version of the landscape they had left behind not an hour before. Then, a bright flash, and the ship is careening toward the earth.
The crash is tremendous, and after the initial shock many will find themselves relatively uninjured through some means (maybe luck maybe providence), though many too appear to be missing. In particular, most of the University mages have gone, including the girl, and a good portion of the civilians who had been on the ship prior. Gideon remains, slumped against the controls of the ship in a heap, groaning in pain.
Sorry for the delay here, I've been in a funk and trying to fix it. As a plus, things are entering into a more "open world" area, as the plot is over aside from wrapping it up. Again, sorry.
Everyday's great at your Junes
The Extravaganza
Before Toraq can do anything more with the creature, the crash sends him flying forward, having no seat or seatbelt to keep him from doing so. He ends up slamming into the wall next to the doorway in the hall he's in, quickly sinking into a heap on the floor afterwards. "...Ugh..."]
Old habits die hard, especially when no one else lets them die either.
The Flamebringer
"Damnit, they're gone." Richard says in frustration as he readies himself for another onslaught, but then the ship quickly starts crashing. He grabs Cor by the arm and casts a tight protective barrier around the two. "Hang on tight!" He braces as the impact throws everything around.
Once they settle, Richard takes another look around at the wreckage. "Are you alright? We should look for other survivors. Find out where we are." He says to Cor.
Richard smiles at Cor's remark, noticing the humming. "What's that in your bag, if I may ask?"
He also continues looking out. "Will you look at that."