[farmhouse]
"No, she's young." Tsadro took a sip of the golden-colored lychee wine in his glass and looked at Min.
He chose his words carefully, now interested in how Ren Yangchao would hear that. "And her parents aren't a bunch of nouveau-riche trash." A paradox? A person in politics who cared about people and enjoyed physical activities as a hobby was contradictory now?
Min's politicians still made no sense. Vince almost wanted to ask if hers did anything at all- 'nouveau-riche trash' was also an apt description for most of the younger senators in Mialor, but even they had to act like they ran companies once in a while. At this rate, she'd entirely be the wrong person to ask. It was likely that if her politicians did anything at all, she probably didn't pay them any mind. So he returned to his soup and listened some more.
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
[Snow Castle (Magdalene, Rin, Gliosem, Gwenafer, Alice, Nick, Adam, Jackson)]
Alice made note of Adam's odd behavior and shining pocket, but gave no indication she had seen anything.
Instead, she focused on Maggie. "Broken?" Alice said, with a wry smile. "No, no, that isn't the word I'd use at all." She studied the child-queen levelly, explaining herself carefully. Maggie might or might not also find her tone condescending; Alice was trying not to be, but she was not good with children. "Magic," she said, "has ideas about how the world ought to run. It makes rules without asking anyone, and expects everyone to follow them." What is good, what is evil, what is the self and the soul. But that could wait. "And then it pretends it's just a..." a slight pause. The term neutral force, a bit too much? She corrected herself. Strangely, explaining it simply helped Alice focus on the important details of her quarrel with magic. "Magic pretends," she corrected, "that the rules it made were there all along. But I've talked to people," and her Alice was straining the definition of people, "who remember what the universe was like before magic and its rules." She finally pointed to herself. "That's the oddity you're seeing in my aura, your Majesty. Magic doesn't like me, because I know it's rules aren't as real as it pretends. So it stays away from me... as it should."
She then looked around the room, fully expecting skepticism, and added to the rest of the group, "and if you think I'm crazy, get me a paper and something to write with."
edited 12th Feb '17 7:15:15 AM by KillerClowns
[Yukijou-minato ~ Snow Castle (Main Keep 1st Floor)] (Megumi, Rin, Gliosem, Gwenafer, Magdalene, Adam, Nick, Jackson, Alice)
Rin scooted back a bit when the Queen of Flowers took to a disagreement over the green tea. Raising an eyebrow, she watched the girl convert her bitter tea into a sickeningly sweet slurry of heavily sugared "tea". The Admiral placed her cup down, her quiet enjoyment of it cut short.
Sliding back into position, she listened to the inquiry and explanation of fairies, or at least the version Magdalene was acquainted with. The arrangement she spoke of seemed rather odd and slightly morbid. Individuals of a mystical persuasion tended to have ulterior motives when dealing with normal people. Then again, Rin thought as she glanced over at Alice, One does not need mystical powers in order to manipulate others.
Rin looked over towards Adam when he stated he need to use the restroom. "Megumi can show you where it is," she said before turning towards Alice.
As if on cue, the maid reentered the room, cleaning off the table of the tea Magdalene had spat out, before depositing a dip pen, inkwell, and a few sheets of stationary in front of Alice. Megumi then nodded towards Adam, "If you'd follow me, young sir."
Rin crossed her arms, "In this world, magic, by itself, does not think. It is akin to a force of nature, and can be manipulated by those who know how, the same as any other tool." She paused for a moment, "I would compare your effect on magic to that of a tempest shieldnote on electricity or placing a sufficiently powerful enough pyralnote next to a wireless telegraph."
She glanced down at her tea, the wisps of steam still rising from it. It was starting to look comforting again. Retrieving the cup, she took another graceful sip of tea.
edited 16th Feb '17 3:15:26 PM by WillDeRegio
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Forest (Ferisen, Eve, Tagui)
Shortly after Ferisen introduced herself, she felt a slight disturbance in the air - some sort of ripple spreading out from some unknown source. For a while she pondered just where it could be coming from, but had an idea. From a hip pouch hidden beneath her cape, she retrieved a crystal ball just big enough to fit in her palm. But as she inspected it, she saw nothing peculiar. So it's not Amiluet asking where I went...
She glanced at Eve and Tagui, and saw that the latter seemed to be focused on something. Though she didn't say anything, she fixed her gaze on him for a moment while Eve was still talking. If he is trying to contact one of his friends or relatives, that further corroborates the possibility of him being lost.
"I am also unaware of the term 'larp'," said Ferisen at last, agreeing with Tagui. Even though I am aware of many things. "And unfortunately, the town I just came from, though very hospitable, is in the middle of a war zone, just like I imagine where you came from." In fact, she seemed a bit worried now - with two people coming from areas of conflict, who knew what sort of violent dream worlds they would come across in here? She even had to wonder if this forest was present of the dream of either of these other two individuals. "However, I do sense that there may be other places nearby - that this forest is but an intermediary between spaces. Though this forest seems endless, we may need not look far."
And indeed, the trees around the place had a grayish aura that seemed indistinct from the fog at first, which to her meant that there was a definite vastness and uncertainty about the place.
Snow Castle (Rin, Nick, Jackson, Gwenafer, Gliosem, Alice, Magdalene)
Gliosem merely sipped at more of her tea while Rin and Alice were talking business - affairs of the marketplace never made much sense to a bard like her, as as was believed back on Orenya, true art is free. Perhaps if Emriel were here she might be able to understand, but that gluttonous dancer was either still at the ball or off in some other odd world. In fact, while everyone else was talking amongst themselves, she withdrew a small crystal ball out of a hidden pocket on her dress, and when she focused her thoughts on Emriel into it, she saw a brief image of... a heart? And poison? Her eyes widened. Oh my... Emriel seems like she could be in a peril! But there wasn't much she could do about it, except pray that she knew enough about healing to deal with whatever "poison" she seemed to be worried aboutnote .
As she continued to gaze into the crystal ball, at one point she heard Magdalene say something about "tasting bad", and looked up just in time to see her adding lots of sugar to her tea, a practice Rin seemed to not approve of at all (judging by the tinge of disgust in her aura). But Gliosem was interested. Wakeleaf itself clashes with most fruit extracts, but pure sugar with a weaker version of it... She eyed the sugar bowl and was about to grab it, when she heard Magdalene explain that "Glilly" was a fairy. Gliosem knew that meant her from the gesture, and instinctively cast her a disapproving look. One that she soon dropped, for Nick had a point about Magdalene still being young. Unlike Amiluet, she likely actually was a child.
When she looked away and saw Adam heading off to the restroom, she saw a glowing light at his hip... which confused her, as he and the other teens had seemed to be clueless about magic, unless this glow was a mundane one. Speaking of magic, Alice and Rin got into another discussion about their differing opinions on the matter.
"If magic does manifest as a conscious entity, which on Orenya we call jisu," Gliosem decided to pitch in as she added half a teaspoon of sugar into the rest of her tea, "it is indeed one whose role is to dictate fate, in particular coincidences that show in life. But though it is believed that bad things happen to those who try to manipulate its will, it has no intentions of its own, existing as mere mysteries and possibilities of consequence. But that basically means that you cannot assume to know what is unknown, so magic remains a neutral force as you describe it." She gave a nod to Rin before looking to Alice. "Though I have to wonder if if it is the awareness of magic that came about on Earth, rather than magic itself. If a group of deaf people suddenly have the ability to hear, is it correct to assume that before then there was no sound?"
She turned back to the others. "None of that must have made any sense to you, did it?" She was looking especially at Nick and Jackson when she said this, but soon refocused her attention on Magdalene, taking a sip of her newly sweetened tea (it was actually quite good with just a small amount of sugar; how much the flower queen put in, on the other hand...) before speaking. "So is that what that light you put into the mat was? A soul of a fair... a spirit who has passed? Also, I am not a fairy - I am a sumiri." She sounded quite uncomfortable saying the word 'fairy', and felt the need to explain. "Where I am from, there is an ancient winged race that sumiri are thought to be descendants of, and the term 'fairy' is actually an insult to that race. I know you didn't know that though, so don't apologize. And if my name is too difficult for you, you may call me Glee for short."
edited 13th Feb '17 10:35:28 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.
It's a bird.
Snow Castle (Gwenafer, Magdalene, Adam, Nick, Jackson, Alice, Rin, Gliosem)
Gwenafer listened to Magdalene's explanation with an increasingly skeptical look on her face. "All I have to do is hold on to the dead fairies for King Messy!" Yep, this was exactly the kind of weird necromantic shit that she really shouldn't get involved with.
"Uh-huh, I see," she answered, and quickly drank some more tea, hiding her facial expressions behind the cup for a few seconds. Thankfully enough, Alice's rant about magic gave her a much-needed distraction.
"I ain't a philosopher or priest or anything," Gwenafer told her. "But I don't think magic of all things is gonna tell you what's good or evil and all that. Depths, I doubt even the gods have all that stuff completely figured out. Mine's never claimed that, at least."
Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.
This post will come back...after these messages.
edited 13th Feb '17 9:05:10 PM by Masterofchaos
Into Oblivion
Forest [Eve, Ferisen, Tagui]
"...Oh my God, you guys really are fucking wizards or something."
Eve probably shouldn't have jumped to that as quickly as she did. But the evidence seemed to point to it, and she was adamant about changing her understanding of the situation when the evidence directed her to do so. Like a good scientist. Besides, it would hardly be the strangest thing she had encountered in the last few months.
That didn't stop it from being a shock to the system, though. She held her head like she was getting a headache—which she was, a nasty one at that—and took a deep breath.
"Where the fuck am I...?"
please call me "XionKuriyama" or some variation, thanks! | What is the good deed that you can do right now?
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Eldritch Factory - Heart Forge (Noire, Ashleigh, Emriel)
The way Noire was explaining about the Masquerade her kind apparently put on made it sound to Ashleigh like she was one of the Fair Folk. After all, from what she had read about them in legend, they seemed to have knowledge to pass onto humanity that was rejected... though she always thought that it was the greedy and insular nature of mankind that caused that rejection.
"Indeed, mankind is easily deluded by the promise of power," said Ashleigh in response to that. "I don't suppose you are aware of an entity we call God? He was the one responsible for bringing such occult secrets to the awareness of the general public, particularly simple folk with only instinct to guide them, by speaking to them through a human messenger. Through him we have the practice of ritual and prayer, which I believe is most definitely a form of magic. I think many people just got confused and began associating magic with so-called 'heathens' who don't believe in God. In fact, that association may be one thing your so-called 'servants of humanity' could have told us."
Emriel, meanwhile, was not completely reassured by what Noire said about Eldritch blood. On one hand, it only mutates the affected area. But on the other, touching blood makes one immune? Confused, Emriel couldn't come up with anything to say to that. I suppose if nothing else, this is a dream, so it won't affect me back in the real world. So instead she gave her two lorinote on the topic of magic. "I actually heard some folk tale about an ancient link between Orenya and Earth. I don't remember all the details, but I think it involved us sharing our knowledge of magic with the people of Earth, and how dragons migrated from there to Orenya, and how their legends of fairies, elves, and merfolk came from our three ancient races."
"So dragons did exist after all..." Ashleigh remarked. "They certainly do not now - legend has it that they either went into hiding or were all murdered by people."
And then Emriel heard Noire's remark about souls and emotions, at which she had to scoff. "It's not curious at all! What we read is the aura, which is generated by the soul and colored, if you will, by emotion, as well as the state of the body and mind. So the two go hand in hand."
Then there was that new voice. When Emriel heard it, she turned around and saw a teal glow coming from the hairy archway, but Ashleigh saw no such thing. But she was quite the cheery sort, more so than Noire even, and was ranting on about space cops and differences in dreamscapes and calling Earth a "Class E planet" - the latter of course Ashleigh had to scowl at. It was no wonder to Emriel, especially, that Noire seemed obviously annoyed, and expressed caution in confronting her.
"Nen krairan, Emriel muttered, sounding quite annoyed herself. "Has she ever tried shutting up? Though she's right about one thing: Orenya has absolutely no association with any 'space cops'. We haven't had contact with any such force outside of our planet since Earth long ago, as far as I know. Personally I hope she shows herself, so that if she runs her mouth, I can hold it shut."
Ashleigh merely shrugged, as she followed Emriel and Noire into the so-called "control room". "I don't mind it much. They're just words after all, and not ones meant to insult any of us either. By the way, what is Orenya like?"
"Oh right, Noire was asking about that... weren't you?" She cast a brief glance at the lolita swordswoman. "Well, Orenya is divided into two distinct halves. There's Rumia, which is lit by the sun and where I am from; and Zurem, which is lit only by the moons. Naturally there's a lot of trade going on between the two... or there was, but now there's a war going on between them. There are no humans there - instead there are sumiri like me who live primarily in Rumia, there are sunestre which look like what you might call 'elves', and then fylin, the finned sea people. And magic has always been a core element of our culture, which is why the notion of it not existing seems as stupid as the war going on."
By that time they had entered through the archway, which opened to a small circular room with a raised white disc in the center of the floor. Occasionally some small lights flashed around in this disc, and also the fleshy walls vibrated like... the inside of a beating heart. There were even soft thumping noises echoing throughout the chamber. It took only a moment to realize that all three of these occured in sync - the lights, the pulsating, the sounds, all together. Off on the opposite end of this room was a narrow tunnel through which blood was flowing, spurting out from a spring in burst that were also in sync with each "heartbeat".
"All right Teal Mouth, where are you?" Emriel called around.
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.
To dream is my right
Forest
"I... what?", Tagui asked, looking around himself, "I... did I do some sort of wizard thing? Is my shadow pointing the wrong way or something?"
Already he felt his mouth run dry as he pondered on her question. There was no way to answer without painting himself as a "wizard" in her eyes, if her words and expression betrayed her lack of knowledge. Maybe it was time for changing matters?
"Maybe this place is not as flat as it seems? If we go downhill and find a river we can follow and see where it leads.", he said with uncertainty, and looked towards Ferisen, waiting for an answer. Nothing she said about the forest before was truly unknow to him, yet he doubted that was all she had to say.
"The dried flowers are so beautiful, and it applies to all things living and dead."
Drummer Boy
[Marble Corridor]
Seilaan stared. "You're kidding. What's your plan if your bodyguards get mowed down? Fall to your knees and beg for mercy?"
Yet another wardrobe change—this time, a fairly practical tunic and trousers like the white set that went underneath her armor, but these were black. "I've been training since I was a child. Martial arts. Firearms. Combat magic. Anything I took an interest in or that my parents thought would be useful. I was tutored by my parents, palace guard captains, even a few of my parents' military friends. Nowadays I spar with palace guards and an army lieutenant to keep fit. Exercise also relieves stress, but it's not too great of a help for me in that regard. It's like bailing out a sinking rowboat with a teaspoon, you know?"
She produced a wholly ironic fit of laughter, her strained smile pushing the apples of her cheeks into painful mounds. "Wow, I'm so dead inside. It's great. Where were we again? Oh, right." Her face relaxed into a slight frown and her voice turned brisk again. "Hopefully it'll never come to that, but if I ever have to face a potential assassin myself, it'd be an insult to the memories of everyone who died trying to protect me if I couldn't put up the best fight possible. And one should probably be at least able to match the martial prowess of one's own bodyguards because there is, of course, the possibility that your bodyguards are actually the ones trying to do you in. I didn't fare so well when that happened, but to be fair, I was ten. I suppose I can presume your training regimen was a bit less intense."
Maybe... she won't notice and/ or comment on the weird outburst and mood swing. That would be fantastic.
... Why am I like this.
[Blizzard]
"Heh. Giving us the strength to help ourselves. I've heard that line a lot. Delivered it plenty of times, too. It was why we founded the Eyes in the first place."
Friedrich sighed. "But it's good to talk to people, yeah?" he said in what he hoped was an encouraging tone, though he still sounded rather depressed. "I'm already feeling a bit better myself. Been too much of a hermit these days. Go ahead and tell me how you keep your faith. Certainly couldn't hurt me, at this point."
Iveya might catch a glimpse of golden flames shaped vaguely like a child following closely behind Friedrich, but it blinked in and out of existence as it pleased.
[Ritter Clinic - Parlor]
"They wanted you to overthrow another country's democratically elected government? God, that's just madness." Heinrich shook his head. "Sad to hear that the state of affairs in your own country aren't so pleasant, either."
He blinked and frowned at Henry. "Hold on now. Past sixty years? Just how old are you? You look about the same age I am—I mean the same age I was when I died." Heinrich had been in his mid-thirties at the time of his demise, but he currently looked more like a man in his late forties. "That's such a strange thing to say, isn't it? 'When I died.'"
[Farmhouse]
"A paradox," Ren Yangchao repeated slowly, turning over the words in their mouth. "Well. That certainly says something about the politicians of your homeland. They sound like the kind that Seilaan's parents fought so hard to remove from their island. The kind that she so desperately hopes she will never become."
They placed an ever-so-slight emphasis on hopes. "Well, just look at how she dealt with Mazra. There are deep insecurities at work here. Insecurities that she is, unfortunately, projecting upon a total stranger. I still can't reach her, by the way. The dream is interfering with our link somehow."
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
Snow Castle (Magdalene, Rin, Alice, Gliosem, Gwenafer, Nick, Adam, Jackson)
Magdalene listened intently to Alice's explanation. As it went on, her expression turned from somewhere between confused and somewhat sad. After she was done and the others started adding their two cents, she glanced down at her tea, seemingly in thought.
"...Doesn't it hurt to cut your soul off like that?" she eventually asked.
Then Gliosem asked her question, and she perked up again.
"Yep~" she replied, "It was this one, actually~" At that she held out her palm again, her wings reappeared, and the soul in question appeared. "When he was alive he was one of Messy's guards. He could heal from anything, so I thought he'd be able to fix the floor for the ad-meer-all~"
Then she reabsorbed the soul, her wings vanishing in the process.
"'Glee' sounds much faster to say~" she continued, "Is 'summie' okay? Because that's also fast to say. And also fun~" She giggled. "Summie, suuuumie~"
It was around this time that her attention finally settled on Adam, who seemed to be leaving. That in and of itself concerned her, but her attention was clearly more on the glowing thing in his pocket. She got up and walked around him to get a better look at it, or at least as good a look as one could get at an obscured item.
"You got a glowy thingy in your pocket," she said, pointing her scepter at it, "What is it? I want to know!"
Icon by Civvi the Civilian!
[Castle (Room)]
Adam felt nervous about being around Megumi—since, after all, she drugged Rin—but Rin trusted her enough to still be around her and rely on her. Besides, he didn't want to get on her bad side. On top of that, he could feel himself getting even dizzier and desperately needed to go to the restroom.
"T-thank...you..." he said, wobbling.
It was then that Maggie came over and asked about his pocket—which was the first time he paid attention to it. He looked down, reached inside, and pulled out small white gems. To his own confusion, they were glowing.
"Th-that's weird." he said, "These are gems Jackson got for his flying boots, and they don't do this unless he activates them." He looked at Jackson, "D-do they do this...normally?"
Jackson blinked. "No. They shouldn't. Here, hand them to me."
Adam nodded, and with some stumbling, walked over and put them on the table. He then turned to the others and gave an apologetic bow, almost falling over as he did so.
"I-I'm sorry." he said rather weakly, "I promise I'll be back. I...just need...to go for a minute."
With that, he followed Megumi out the room.
Nick quirked an eyebrow at the gems.
"Dude," he said, "You better check this shit out; I got a bad feeling about this."
Jackson gave a slight annoyed glare. "Why else would I ask for them? You just talk with the others; I'm going to see if this is what causing our friend to get dizzy."
As Jackson messed with a scanner on his glove, Nick turned to the others. "I don't understand this magical wordy stuff ya'll are saying, but honestly...to me, it's not about what kind of spells you can pull of that matters. All that I care about is who you are on the inside, or how you treat others. That's more important than any magical trick you can do."
He found himself getting thirsty, so against his better judgement, he drank the tea. It was sweet to his tongue, to his surprise.
edited 14th Feb '17 8:21:22 PM by Masterofchaos
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Eldritch Factory - Forest of Bone (Midnight Stitcher, Ayako, Durnem)
As Durnem watched Ayako apply the healing salve, she felt a sense of relief inside of her, a sense of knowing that she had done the right thing for someone... as opposed to having destroyed the bones of that skeleton without an entirely certain reason to do so. Still, that skeleton was clearly a threat, and she certainly wasn't the type to show mercy to such a threat. And yet it was this tendency, she knew, that the other Oradamin had told her would be her downfall, and one that she had to repress as a result.
Then she saw two peculiar things. One, Ethoya announced her departure, which she saw as rather untimely given the aftermath of the battle. Kraguor... she says she's not a goddess, but only a goddess would leave during inopportune moments like that.
The second was a noticeable grayness beneath the usual light reddish hue of his aura, the latter being the aura of the Eldritch Factory in general. In fact, somehow, his own distinct aura was becoming more prominent, leaving her to wonder if something in that battle with the skeleton monster had brought up feelings - and not good ones either - about how distinct he was from the nature of the place.
Heaving a sigh of what was perhaps exasperation, Durnem took a few finned steps towards the not-(fully)-Eldritch being and was about to say something to him, when she heard a gleeful shout of "Geronimo!" Turning around, she saw Ayako jump right into the pit Stitcher was talking about, and if she hadn't deployed her umbrella, she would have thought she had a death wish. Rolling her blood-red eyes, she swung her staff around and leapt onto it, plummeting down into the pit right after the magical girl, who she could clearly see was still injured - especially in the chest, it seemed, from the fragmented appearance of her aura there. It didn't take her long to descend to the young(ish) girl's level, where she hovered on her staff while speaking to her.
"Do you really think it's krainnote safe for you to jump like that while you're humi-nonote injured?! That salve doesn't repair broken bones, kruiyeh-na tamoatnote !"
It's getting late, so Beta Town will have to wait... hey, that rhymes!
edited 15th Feb '17 12:42:28 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.
Mr ship
[Clinic-Parlor/Henry]
"Eh, it's not that weird to say if you've faked your death as many times as I have." Henry told Friedrich nonchalantly.
He then took a sip from his glass before continuing. "As for my age, well as of December 13, 1989 it is 1,544 years. I was born in a city that at the time was called Constantinople. When I was about 35 or so, me, my brother and our friend William were stranded in the middle of the desert. We were stuck out there for I don't know how long, when we were damn near dying we stumbled across a cave."
Sighing Henry took a final hit from his cigarette and put it out in the ashtray. "In the cave we found some ancient fountain. I don't know where it was from or who made it nor did we care at the time, we need water and there it was. Thanks to that fountain we survived and made it to Mecca, at the time we kind of forgot about that fountain. About 10 years later we notice that we haven't been aging, eventually that 10 years tured to 20 and we still haven't aged a day. My brother being the doctor he was quickly investigated. Eventually he figured out that drinking from that fountain is what stopped our aging."
"Ever since then we've just lived our lives." Henry finished sounding like he has told this story so many times before.
the cutest lizard
[Farm – Farmhouse (Min, Varris, Vince, Ren Yangchao, Tsadro)]
Min’s hand twitched involuntarily at Ren Yangchao’s last comment. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she said, “It’s not Seilaan’s fault that Mazra’s so unbearable to be around. Like, what, you would just smile politely at her and say nothing?”
She jabbed her fork into her food. “Politicians always think they’re the good guys. They pride themselves on being cultured and enlightened, and it blinds them into thinking they can do no wrong.”
Varris sighed loudly and gave Min a pointed look, cutting her off, and then said, “It’s pretty empty here with both of them gone. Especially since we haven’t seen anyone new in forever. I wonder if there’s still anyone else out there, or if it’s just us now?”
Min went back to eating her food, chewing silently with her head turned down towards the table.
She turned her eyes to see the ship's fins - they are rising upward to the ring again...
[Snow Castle (Magdalene, Rin, Alice, Gliosem, Gwenafer, Nick, Adam, Jackson)]
Alice just smiled and nodded at Rin as she set to work on the paper. In small, neat letters and numbers, she jotted down a few equations, and the context. Newton's Laws, with accompanying equations, neatly summarized. She only paused to respond to Maggie's question: "what makes you think I ever had one in the first place?"
Still, she was considering, jotting down notes to collect her thoughts. Were any of her fellows on the Board of Directors here, they'd whip together a fancy speech with lots of Latin, or at least references to people who liked Latin. But then again, it wasn't really her style, was it?
"So you're all certain I'm a paranoid," Alice said. "Which, I mean, former Chief of Security for a corp the size of Western Amalgamated, it's basically my job description. That having been said... well, perhaps a practical demonstration?" She shifted her lotus position; her hands rose from her lap to steeple beneath her chin. "My dear magi," her eyes lingered particularly on Rin, Gliosem, and Gwenafer, the three she most trusted to provide useful data, "might I have your kind assistance in a little experiment?" She handed one of themnote the pen and paper and said, "write down a spell, and a... let's say a rice recipe. Then hand it to someone else, and have them do likewise." She permitted herself an enigmatic smile; "all shall become clear soon enough."
I am aware she didn't directly answer Maggie or Gliosem's questions; this is by design. She'll answer if called out on dodging the questions, though.
edited 16th Feb '17 5:16:51 PM by KillerClowns
Graveyard
When the dome collapsed Caleb's mind came close to just shutting down. Each time this mess looked like it was going to end, it just got worse. Just like five years ago. So predictable. As his fists tightened, onlookers may have seen Half fade out, not disappear completely, but was less noticeable.
The lines on Caleb changed again, the dark and light portions continued to contrast until they were black and white. The blue color they usually showed seemed to go all to his eyes, erasing the image of the pupils and sclera.
With their sight overlapping, Caleb and Half could see things once hidden to both. The spirit next to Sentinel, and the presence of something they...he couldn't quite grasp, but saw that the others were facing. Half Caleb reached out to the ant-soul and put a thought in it, "I must ask you to stop this."
You say I am loved, when I don’t feel a thing. You say I am strong, when I think I am weak. You say I am held, when I am falling short.
[Blizzard]
Iveya seemed disappointed by Friedrich's relatively minor reaction, but made an effort to shake it off. She'd been hoping it would be like one of those old plays where a good, rousing speech was all that was needed to shake a person out of bleakness. But the world didn't work that way, and besides, even if it did, Iveya was certainly no Emperor Okul. Maybe she'd helped, maybe she hadn't, but he didn't betray much either way.
She bit her lip, thought for a moment. "I haven't had much of a chance to talk myself," she admitted. How to put this delicately? "More than a few of my fellow Chosen of Amu can be a bit overzealous, and are not the best conversationalists for it. And others seem to assume any nicety I say to them is an attempt to find cause to arrest them. It is no wonder..." she spotted the flickering form. "Er, Friedrich," she said, spotting the flickering form, "I..." she paused. "Hmm. I think I saw something. Not sure." She reached out, trying to sense any magical mischief. "Stay alert."
The Eyes and Teeth, as wary as Iveya herself, complied, sniffing and probing the geometries of both the dreamscape's "reality" and any layers of being that a mortal might ordinarily be unable to perceive, subtly twisting dimensions on the microscopic scale to better get a perspective on anything that could be sensed.
[Yukijou-minato ~ Snow Castle (Main Keep 1st Floor ~ Parlor)] (Rin, Gliosem, Gwenafer, Magdalene, Nick, Jackson, Alice)
Placing her cup down, Rin nodded slightly at Nick's declaration of the importance of the character of the person. She looked over to Alice, perhaps something had happened in her life to make her wary of magic. She lightly hmmed as she reached over to acquire the pen, paper and inkwell from Alice.
Dipping the pen in the inkwell, the Admiral began writing in neat, compact Senjimese kana, something loosely translated as Blaze Style: Flame Summoning, followed by instructions that sounded like they were pulled from a textbook. The first step was forming a circle, with a detailed accompanying diagram. The next step was gathering energy and separating "nitroaereus" from the air, followed by igniting said nitroaereus and maintaining a steady flame. Below that she wrote out a recipe for cooking rice, calling for one cup of rice to be washed, drained and set aside for five minutes, allowed to soak for fifteen, and cooked in a rice steamer with one inch of water heated to precisely the boiling point in the bottom for thirty minutes. She added a few notes on making sure to (carefully) disconnect the rice steamer from the battery if it starts shaking or making odd noises, least it explode.
When she was finished, she passed the paper and writing tools over to Gliosem before folding her hands together. Rin then looked at Alice with serene grace, musing to herself about the woman's conviction that everyone viewed her as "paranoid". It was proper to be slightly paranoid, so one would not be caught off guard, but one mustn't be too paranoid. Megumi would probably have pointed out the irony in her thinking that.
[Yukijou-minato ~ Snow Castle (Main Keep 1st Floor ~ Hallway)] (Megumi, Adam)
The maid stifled a sneeze as she walked silently in the lead, Adam trailing behind, his weight causing the floor boards in the hall to creak. Her ears twitched, before she turned her head towards the boy, "Those gems. Are they potentially dangerous?" she inquired before continuing down the hall.
Passing a nondescript soldier and rounding a corner, they eventually arrived at an alcove on their left. Megumi stopped, turning around to block the hallway, her hand outstretched towards the entryway, palm facing up. "Here we are. The men's room is on the left."
Upon entering, Adam might notice the bathroom was very similar in style to ones in an American or European hotel... one hundred years ago, though with very new (and very clean) detail.
edited 18th Feb '17 7:58:17 AM by WillDeRegio
[Marble Corridor (Seilaan, Mazra)]
Mazra gave Seilaan a Look. "My bodyguards are not speed bumps. Yes, I know how to defend myself if I need to - I mean, I would have known that even if I didn't want to be a Paladin - but Father and I don't make our primary plans around the idea of people in our service, our responsibility, getting killed. The idea is to protect us without being 'mowed'..."
The rest of Seilaan's speech (and the clothing change, but that didn't matter as much) caught up to her, and she finished more weakly "...'mowed down'." What was that? That... dead inside thing.
For the first time - a lot later than it should have - it occurred to her that the younger girl might be troubled in some way beyond just her whole problem with projecting whatever awful nobles she had dealt with onto Mazra. She didn't know a lot about mental illness, House Ji having always mostly tending to be neurotypical, but she did take in a lot of fiction, so it wasn't a complete blank either.
I wonder if that's why she seemed to get on better with Min? That's certainly gotta be depression, although it might just be the reactive kind.
Commenting barely even crossed her mind, though - it wouldn't be a subject to bring up if Seilaan didn't want her to, which she obviously didn't. That was just basic civility.
Instead, she moved her hand holding her field-sword very slightly, just enough to draw attention to it. "Um, so are we still fighting or not? You didn't say."
Pause. "...wait, your bodyguards actually tried to kill you when you were ten?"
[farmhouse]
Vince blinked, then took a spoonful of soup. Did she not realize who she was sitting with? Just... fine. Okay. Yes, Varris, go ahead and... point out the obvious. To be honest, he liked it this way. Nice and quiet, with relatively good company and some tasty soup. Who knew if some newcomer was going to be like that drunkard with the grenade launcher, or like that lizard-person who started demanding a bunch of random shit that he wouldn't even be able to produce if he had his entire estate?
He heard Lise get up from where she'd been lounging, her claws tapping against the ground as she moved over to the stairs into the patio.
While she was looking around, a voice sliced through the fog. A woman's voice- middle-aged, inflected like a question, full of concern, and calling out what was probably a name. A name that, although one could tell was two syllables, couldn't quite be made out.
Tsadro snapped to attention, spontaneously lifting himself out of his seat in an attempt to discern where in the fog the voice was coming from. A half-second of fruitless searching and his eyes darting across nothing later, his eyes squeezed shut and he looked away, sitting back down.
"...Sorry. Must be the alcohol." He looked at his wine glass sideways as though attempting to blame its contents, which he'd taken maybe two or three sips of, but ended up seeming like he was looking straight through it instead.
When Vince looked away from the wine bottle, Tsadro's hair had come completely loose, fluttering onto the seat of his chair. Oddly enough, it looked stringy and poorly cared-for. He grew even more bewildered as his Rivari quietly set about taking care of the problem, grabbing hairpins that just happened to be sitting on the table. "...Tsadro, I heard that, too."
Somewhere behind the farmhouse and the barn, a suggestion of a lit building shone through the fog. Just two stories of curtainless windows lit with bright white lights, and a pale blue, neon vertical sign.
edited 22nd Feb '17 6:52:14 PM by CrystalGlacia
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Beta Town (Gon, Ari, Ruka)
Ari had to raise an eyebrow when Ruka insisted on limping along towards the foggy patch. "Looks like the Great User installed the same stubbornness program for you and Gon," she said to her as she walked alongside her, as Satori flew above and set up an Aura Shield similar to the one she had used in the battle to prevent any more debris from falling nearby.
As Gon walked alongside them, he gave Galaxeon, who was also walking alongside them, a dirty look. "What, so now you're not gonna carry me either?"
"Gon, it is not wise to leave an injured comrade behind," said the space knight. "Ruka, you have fought valiantly, but now we must get you to an inn."
Gon heaved a sigh. "Or whatever they have like it in whatever other bizarre world we go into next. First Misery Manor, then this Messenger business... I have had it with these motherfucking nightmares in this motherfucking dream!"
Entirely unperturbed by Gon's sudden swearing, she instead shot him a quizzical look. "Wait, when were you in Misery Manor? But at least both those places are in Mystrica - who knows what other bizarre worlds we may have ended up in? And I personally want to stay here, as when we wake up, I'll just be back with Virtualmon."
Ohhh Ari, you really shouldn't tempt fate. Ruka just did that earlier, and look how that turned out. And again, fate reacted: shortly after all of them entered the patch of dream fog, Ruka found herself all alone. The two Keepers and their Mystripets were nowhere to be seen, and neither was Beta Town.
Forest of Distortion - Outside Dream
As Gon rose into a sitting position, he caught the lingering scent of mint chocolate chip cookies in his nostrils. And as he looked around, again he saw the strange data fractals in the strange mist around the strange trees. And as he listened, he heard a high-pitched groaning noise behind him.
"Ugh, what a nightmare..."
Gon turned around. "Phoebe? Oh - wait, that means I'm awake! We're awake!"
Phoebe blinked. "Did you have a nightmare too?"
Gon sighed. "I had two nightmares! The one I just woke up from had this weird powerful alien attacking Beta Town, and before that I was in Misery Manor, and then this weird dark forest before that..."
Phoebe's eyes widened. "Oh I remember that forest! We met that gigantic talking crow there, right? The one who said he wanted to take over the dream world? And Yamiko and Ashleigh were there too..."
"Wait- what?" Next to them, Yamiko rose into a sitting position. "I don't remember any of that..."
"You don't?!?" Gon exclaimed. "We went to Misery Manor together! Both Ari and Lupin were... wait, oh man, Ari's... augh! I just saw her too, and now... this is confusing!" He was scratching his hed furiously as he said the last part.
Meanwhile, Phoebe was trying to shake Ashleigh awake. "Come on Ashleigh, wake up... we gotta get out of here! Don't tell me you're still in that weird heart place!"
"Weird heart place?" Yamiko asked her.
"Yeah, at the end of the dream, Ashleigh and I met this fairy woman inside this giant heart and fought a giant butterfly with steak wings... oh yeah, and before that, we stopped by Misery Manor as well, where we saw an angel and dropped off this weird guy with half a face!"
"Wait a minute..." Yamiko closed her eyes for a moment. "I remember now..." Suddenly she opened them. "I was at the manor! For some reason Lucina was there... but for some reason she sounded like a man when she spoke. I don't remember anything else..."
Gon burst into laughter. "That wasn't Lucina! That was this angel guy named Gabe. And he was totally flirting with Sinistrina before we went into the manor! Are you sure you don't remember any of that?"
Yamiko blushed. "Um, no... no, not at all." She sighed. If I was in Misery Manor, I must have confronted Celia... ohh, I wish I could remember what happened in there! Do I really have to do it all over again once we're in Necromere for real? "At any rate, I think we should just carry Ashleigh out for now. Phoebe, think maybe you could send out Peggy?"
Phoebe nodded, and once they hoisted the sleeping violinist onto the flying carousel unicorn, they continued on down the forest path, taking special note to avoid any more of those walking cookies.
Forest (Eve, Ferisen, Tagui)
Soon after Ferisen made her remark about the forest, she heard Eve say something about her and Tagui being wizards. Looking to the plainly-dressed young lady, she could see a very pronounced worry in her aura, one which became even more apparent when she wondered aloud where she was. Tagui seemed a bit worried as well, but managed to retain his composure, even suggesting that they look for a river downhill.
"Or we can just follow this... path..." Ferisen looked around... but all there was around were trees and some brush. "How odd... what happened to the path I was walking on earlier? Neither of you saw a path, did you?" She sighed and, knowing that she would get no for an answer, shook her head. I shouldn't have brought my latria after all...
She looked over to the box sitting on the wheeled cart she had been pushing down the now-nonexistent path. The thing was about as large and heavy as a house oven, and the wheels of the cart were stuck in the brush, such that her light-framed body could not make it budge. So instead, she took a step back and held her arms out towards it. When she raised them, the box rose into the air as well... but the cart stayed put, so she quickly set the box back down and looked to Eve and Tagui. "I don't suppose you can help me carry this? Even levitating it will be difficult after a while."
Snow Castle - Tea Room (Rin, Nick, Jackson, Gwenafer, Gliosem, Alice, Magdalene)
The behavior of everyone at the table was becoming more and more peculiar. Gwenafer was looking a little uncomfortable when Magdalene was explaining about the fairies; the so-called queen herself was retrieving and absorbing the soul that was in the tatami mat. When she asked Adam about the light in his pocket, one of the other boys examined the thing. Gliosem was about to get a better look at it to see if there was any peculiar sort of aura around it, but before she could, Magdalene asked if she could call her "Summie". To which she got an awkward look on her face.
"Uh no, I'd much prefer Glee. That... word you just said is a derogatory term for a sumiri, and is equivalent to... 'fairy'." She looked clearly uncomfortable saying that last word... and in fact, she instead decided to focus on the teenage boys. Or was about to, when she heard Alice speak up... about an experiment? Writing down a spell and a recipe for "rice"? This sounded very absurd to her... even more so when Rin actually complied with the request, writing something down on a piece of paper... and then handing it to her.
"I still don't understand how this is..." But her voice trailed off as she held the paper close to her, then back away again. There was a circular diagram, apparently something having to do with the rice, but the writing on it was indecipherable, and the only aura she could see on it was traces of the one she had seen around Rin - pretty typical with objects someone just held. After studying the paper, she looked back up, between Alice and Rin.
"How do you even write down a spell without casting it?" And yet, a look from Alice told her that she should be writing, not talking. For quite a while she gave Alice a skeptical look, but looking at her too long made her feel as if her aura was being drained, and ignoring her too long would just create an awkward silence in the room. So, begrudgingly, she reached into a pouch attached to the sash tied around her waist and withdrew what looked like a small scroll, made of what looked like a thick sort of papyrus. As she unrolled it and held it flat, though, she knew just what spell to write on it, and so, withdrawing what looked like a pencil but without the lead, she wrote on it.
Like Rin's writing, Gliosem's consisted of symbols that would be indecipherable to those only familiar with Earthen languages, except hers had more of a variety of shapes, including a few familiar characters like a plus sign, the numeral 8, a triangle, and the Greek letter phi note ; and several non-familiar ones. As soon as she wrote down the spell part, the paper straightened itself out, such that it didn't automatically roll up when she let go (and indeed, it was a spell to straighten something out). For the rice recipe she was also confused, as as far as she could recall, "rice" referred to a type of grain, which could be used in quite a few different recipes. But again she improvised, writing down a recipe for a fruit tart made by boiling "ruby nuts" and molding them into a cup shape, then filling it with the condensed juice of "creamfruit" and leaving out in the sun for "one green-arc". Once she was done, she handed the paper to Gwenafer.
edited 22nd Feb '17 12:23:56 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.
It's a bird.
Snow Castle (Gwenafer, Magdalene, Adam, Nick, Jackson, Alice, Rin, Gliosem)
Gwenafer grabbed the paper, glancing over at Jackson before looking at the writing. What was up with those glowing pearls? As she examined the writing on both Alice's paper and Gliosem's scroll, she once again briefly raised her single eyebrow. Math? It took a while for her to figure out what it all meant - especially as the symbols seemed to almost shift in some strange way - but she finally recognized the equations as Swiftwell's laws of motion, or at least some otherworldly equivalent. Rin's diagram and Gliosem's collection of odd symbols were harder to make sense of, but the recipes seemed straight-forward enough, at least.
"Well, I ain't a mage..." she began, and tried to think back to one of Jann's demonstrations of how his powers worked, "But I guess the one in my crew would describe it a bit like this."
She pointed to the inkwell. "That's the Storm of Creation. The ink is magic." She dipped the pen in the inkwell and held it above the paper. "How I move my hand around is the spell." Finally, she added a few random numbers to Alice's equations. "And that's the result. Just pretend that the ink dries up and falls off or something after a while, and that the mage has to keep filling in it. That's pretty much it, I guess."
With that, Gwenafer quickly scribbled down a simple recipe for mushroom soup, and handed the paper back to Alice, before nodding towards Nick.
"And the kid's got a point, by the way."
Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.
Snow Castle (Magdalene, Rin, Gliosem, Gwenafer, Alice, Nick, Jackson)
"No no, I know you're Glee," Magdalene said, "I was talking about..." She waved her arms in some kind of all encompassing manner, "...You in general...?" Then she crossed her arms and pouted. "But it doesn't matter anyway, because you guys are so touchy!"
After that, her attention turned over to the glowing gems Adam pulled out of his pocket. She walked over to them, and started looking them with a curious expression on her face.
She didn't get very far in her examination of them before Alice replied to her question with an...interesting one of her own. She looked confused for a moment or two, but then a look of realization crossed her face as she realized what she probably meant.
"...King Messy says souls are the center of every living thing," she replied, "If you don't have one, then you should be dead. Yet you're not and think you don't...?"
She tilted her head to one side curiously, before her attention turned back to the gems. Or rather, was divided between staring at the gems intently and whatever it was the others were doing with that piece of paper. She looked intrigued, but also like she didn't quite understand what they were doing with it.
Icon by Civvi the Civilian!
Graveyard -> The ruins of Misery Manor (Ceallagh, Nergui)
"Boring."
Whoever of the powerful and not-so-powerful entities in the Graveyard felt Ceallagh's presence now know that the incarnation of war has left the battlefield.
She then appears amidst the ruins of Misery Manor, descending via a ladder to the wine cellar, which, by some whim of fate remained intact. There she sees, in the center of the cellar, Nergui's clothing lying on the floor in a heap. Snow-white, apart from a stain of blood on the chest.
"Wriggled your way out, haven't you, boy?" Ceallagh produces Nergui's diamond-hilted yatagan out of thin air and violently thrusts it through the heap of clothing. She gives out an exasperated sigh. "Incurious."
She raises her eyes at the wine bottle racks.
"Well, at the very least I have these."
She takes, at random, a dust-covered bottle made of dark green glass, pulls out the cork and takes a sniff of its contents.
"Ergh, flavorless!" She makes a sour face.
Ceallagh dismissively sends the bottle flying, spilling the wine on the ground. Sighing, she disappears into thin air and is gone from the dream realm for good.
edited 11th Feb '17 10:48:53 PM by Millership
Spiral out, keep going.