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 Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 9:18 pm
Neither of the two seemed to have reacted much, if at all, to hearing what were basically the only real tenements of his history. Possibly, they may not have understood or been able to flood their minds with so much input all at once. No matter. They would see soon enough.
Trask flashed Zilden a knowing glance. Human expressions were considerably more difficult to facilitate with a reptilian face--most of his smiles appeared vaguely sinister for the jagged shapes of his teeth--but with practice, and a lot of mirror-time, he managed it pretty well. The real reason why he was here was because he needed Zilden to extract the 440 Hz frequency from the Harmonic universe which he could use to turn himself back into a human...with a little help from Zilden's unique and comparatively illegal machinery.
"You know what I want, Zilden. I know 440 is a very basic frequency used for many things, but it'll come back in time. This universe is remarkably regenerative. Besides, knowing your eccentricities, you probably made some auxiliary function the only thing that required 440 to work. As for the others, they're either confused or not paying attention, and you probably only brought them down here so you could make sure they didn't kill each other, but change me back and they'll understand."
Trask wondered why he cared what the others thought about him and his past, but they deserved to know, since he would have died without their help. One or more of them may have died without his, but Trask was quick to forget when he helped others.
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Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 9:59 am
The Mirrian listened as the lizard rambled on, having turned sideways to the diminutive creature that spoke, but it was the sort of listening that occured when information went into one ear and traversed rapidly out the other. It didn't matter to him. He didn't even know why he was even giving remote attention to the ramblings.
Once again, this setting brought back a memory. A memory, once again. It was one that had been pushed back into his mind. It was the reason he had been disgraced.
A human in their midst. And Valenarr had talked to him, regarded him as a friend because he did not know what the man was. The human should have, would have been killed, but Mirrians believed human blood on the stones of the Grand Caverns was a curse upon their ancestral home, and so the human was forced out of the Caverns for good...
And then Valenarr was next. He had spent a good amount of time, having no concept of human time, looking for this man, hoping for revenge. It was his fault! The man had led to his disgrace. His alleged allegiance with the humans, the Mirrian zeal and xenophobia coming into play, and Valenarr himself accused of plotting, conspiring against the current regime upon the throne.
And so, Valenarr was not granted the mercy of death. He was forced to live upon the scorched surface...
And yet here he had found something that bore the resemblance of friends. Here he had found comrades, or something like that. Granted, he would never trust them with his life. He would never trust them with his secrets. He would never trust them at all.
But they could still be... around each other. Looking out for each other, perhaps? Bah, he didn't trust any of them to watch his back. They were worthless, weren't they? These humans and sun-scorched walkers of the surface. They were filth. Lower than filth.
But the filth that had gotten him discharged from his home was lower than the lowest filth. Remembering the man's face brought his already latent anger to a boil, and his fists shook with rage.
"I will find you..." The Mirrian thought. "I know that you'll be here... somewhere on this surface world... and I'll be waiting..." He eventually managed to calm himself down, lest the others notice that he was physically shaking with rage.
He turned his thoughts back to the monotonous present, turning his gaze once again upon the sparkling waters once again, the light reflecting from it not necessarily blinding him nor stinging his eyes, but it was a bit pleasant to behold. At least he would find solace in the man's death... There would be a grand slaughter of the creature, not man, that damned him to this existence...
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RogueKazimeras Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 1:45 pm
((Okay, we all know that the next post that soloist makes would be *soloist points out so-and-so machine* and he's busy now with finals and stuff, so I'm just going to assume that such has already happened between this post and the last. If there's something superimportant about the way that Soloist wants to say before this, then I'll have him PM me the post he wanted and put it up here, in my own post, but before the part where I've written stuffs. I hope you're OK with this, guy.))
Trask stepped inside the large, box-like machine. The outside of it was rather dirty looking, and had the label "Cancelling Energy Beam Control" taped to it, likely an impromptu and tentative name, but the inside, which probably mattered considerably more, was an immaculate white, including the spiked focusing rod that extended down from the top of the small space. The lizard took a deep breath, and tapped a large red button on the outside of the machine, his arm reaching around through the doorway to do so, and then quickly retracted his arm, shutting the door behind him. What proceded from that, was this:
The box began to bear a striking resemblance to a modern washing machine, the kind that shakes a lot and would cause religious types to blame demonic possession (of a washer?) Certain differences were present, however. The machine was emitting far greater heat, and was emanating a dull glow as well, presumably that beam mentioned on the label, which fell to the ground in all the shaking.
After several moments, the machine stopped. For another moment or two, no one came forth, but then a voice, not that of a diminutive lizard, but that of a young man spoke forth from the box. "Hey...it worked! Gimme a sec to get used to being taller than a foot and I'll be outta here real quick-like."
It took all of Alexander Trask's energy to conceal his utter delight at not only being returned to the form of a human, but also finding that the spell had prevented his human form from aging. He took his time in becoming reacquainted with his body, his skin a subtle medium between tan and pale, his musculature...well, nearly invisible, being that he was a test pilot, and not an athlete, but powerful nonetheless, and at least more powerful than those of a Dzali. His fingers ran through his hair, chesnut brown, and falling past his shoulders and behind his back. It wasn't that long before, he supposed, but the lengthening years he spent as a lizard must have impressed their lengthening on his hair, despite his lack of such as a Dzali.
Through all this, he felt his youth and exuberance returning to him, welling up through his spine, and then, after he calmed down, he realized that his clothes were gone, or rather than they lay in torn scraps at the bottom of the machine. Having had his goal so close at hand, he had forgotten to even bring with him a set of human-sized clothes.
Oh, well, he thought,I've been naked in worse situations before, I'm sure. And, of course, he was quite wrong, as the victim of his betrayal stood mere yards from where he was. It was lucky that his lack of apparel prompted him to beg the others: "You guys might want to turn around. My old clothes don't fit"
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Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 12:46 am
Zilden sat to the side of the contraption carefully operating a series of levers in a completely arbitrary manner. He tugged and shifted levers no differently than a child enraptured by the freedom to push buttons. When all was said and done, he couldn't help but smile appreciatively at his machine's success, especially given it's complex nature. Much aside from the fact that Alexander Trask was once again human, it also went a long way in proving that his theories on magic and it's behaviors were actually much more than just theories.
He didn't have long to dwell on it though, as he arched a quizzical eyebrow when Alex began talking again. It wasn't at any peculiar thing he'd heard, but rather the fact that Alex was at all concerned with clothing when the device he was standing in was on the brink of violently imploding. Thats when he remembered he hadn't told anyone that the machine was about to disentigrate. "Uh Alex...You might want to get out now, naked or not. You have exactly 7.46 seconds before the focusing rod absorbs the chamber youre sitting in into a magical point portal and dissapears into the Ether.....I forgot to correct a cooling problem." As always, his voice was unconcerned at best, making no indication that being transformed into pure magical energy was, in fact, quite an unpleasant process.
His warning dispensed, he once again busied himself with the flying machine, closing up all the panels, adjusting odd trinkets here and there. In fact, he became so absorbed in the process, that when 7.46 seconds later, the machine imploded in a brilliant flash of light, he seemed to have forgotten about it and looked almost taken aback. It was in this absentminded state that his hand illuminated itself in a brilliant blue glow, and the entire flying machine began whirring and humming. Turning around with a wry grin he said "Anyone ever wanted to fly?" And then, he became aware of the very magical state of his hand, and how very much he didnt want others to know that. So he promptly followed it with "s**t."
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RogueKazimeras Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 4:48 am
Valenarr was turned before Alexander had even stepped into the machine, but his head turned to quirk an eyebrow. "Oh, by all means, leave him in there. I'd like to see what kind of mess that makes." Valenarr chuckled.
There was something about that voice. The voice coming from within the machine. It seemed... familiar. Oh well. You've heard one human, you've heard them all, according to Valenarr.
But... still. The voice... bugged him.
His head swiveled back around, looking at the waterfall with curiosity. Why build a place like this with water flowing into it? Violently, even?
Humans perplexed Valenarr. But it wasn't civil war, nor the slaugther of their own kind, nor their mating habits, nor anything like that. It was their simple lack of common sense! One did not build a place with a waterfall in it! It could rain torrentially, and flood the chamber. It could damage equipment that got too close. Who knew what it could do, other than that?
This Zilden person seemed to be the apple that spoiled the bunch. Perhaps there was common sense on the surface before this man was born, and like a void sucked it all in and consumed it for himself, only to find that it was squandered and useless to him, and he was doomed to wander about the surface tinkering with things that could explode in his face.
For the first time in a long while, Valenarr prayed. He prayed for both of them to be sucked into that machine when it did whatever the hell Zilden said it would... Valenarr couldn't remember. Nor did he care.
"As far as flying, I'd leave it to an area dominated by the bats and birds, fool. If the gods wished us to fly they would have given us wings." He returned to Zilden, not bothering to turn around.
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Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 9:43 am
((Bloody shortness...))
Ash'rael let out a sharp 'Eep!' and turned around, quickly when she saw his undressed body. Her face flushed a bright pink. It wasn't until she saw the flash of bright light that she finally turned around.
Odd...was Zilly's hand...glowing? She tilted her head and blinked several times to try and clear her vision. The large contraption seemed to have come to life, humming and making all sorts of unusual noises. Fly? Well...it would be an interesting experience, certainly, but it sounded rather dangerous. Floating meters above the surface of the island in nothing but a large contraption that didn't look very safe.
"You mean..." she said hesitantly, "That thing can fly? Really fly?" Maybe he was playing a joke on her. To see if she would fall for it. Well...if it was just a cruel joke then they would be having quite a laugh and her expense.
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Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 5:46 pm
How Zilden managed to have a cooling problem with one of his contraptions was a mystery, considering that the room had so much water in it, but after hearing of this impending danger, Alex burst through the chamber entrance, grabbing a conveniently placed clipboard detailing the schematics of the machine that had just vaporized to block from view that ((HIS PEN15 LOLOL!!)) which would have shredded his last shreds of decency further into tinier shreds. Time seemed to slow down, since, in those seven seconds, he seemed to perceive Valenarr suggest that he remain in the chamber, which would have left the Mirrian dissappointed, as the process of vaporizing rarely leaves a mess, and that if we had been intended to fly, we would have wings; such statements often seemed absurd to the retransfigured man, as identical logic could claim that were we meant to fight with swords, such weapons would be built into our arms. Further adding to the effect of extending time, the youland had time to again doubt the ability of the machine to fly, which was understandable, but even he had begun to have doubts of his own. Surely, the machine could fly, but following what had just happened, it was also likely that the machine would vaporize in mid-air.
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 9:58 pm
From the notes and journals of Jesren Mertichard
"...I've come to the Isle of Soltanarath in search of magic, its history, and its workings. The Isle itself has delivered, for its part, immaculately. Riddled with magical ruins, symbols and home to many magic wielding races, Soltanarath is a perfect place to come to research magic. While it is unfortunate that the authoritive powers frown on magic's usage, the scorn is no worse than suffered in many other lands, meaning that its abundance of magical ties makes it the lesser of many evils. What irks me though is my inability to comprehend many of the mysteries of this island. As is often the case with certain artifacts, they are only meant to be wielded, decoded, or otherwise perused by those skilled in the magical arts. Coming from a mundane background has left me lacking in those skills, and hides from me many of the marvels of this land.
It is accordingly that my wife, Emi, and I have collaborated on a procedure to rectify this problem. With a careful combination of what magical substances and artifacts we can control (which I will not detail here, lest someone try to duplicate the process for lesser ends) we have devised a magic that will grant us, at the very least, the intellectual and spiritual capacity necessary to have magical powers. Our minds capabilities will grow exponentially and near limitlessly in size, allowing me not only to decipher, but store, all the information that awaits me. Since magic is a latent talent it is impossible to predict exactly what sorts of magical talents we will possess when the process is complete, if any at all, but it still represents a great leap forward, like finally learning ability to speak the language of a culture that has been dying to teach you it's knowledge for millenia.
On a final note, after careful study of all possible side effects, Emi and I have also decided to administer the procedure to our young son Zilden. Even at the age of four, he has displayed a keen interest in the sciences and is most fascinated by my arcane studies. We hope to encourage such curiosity and provide him with oppurtunities and time I will never have...."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zilden was glad for Ash's surprise, it seemed to deflect everyone's attention from the fact that not only was he capable of using magic, he was capable of using it to manipulate large ungainly wooden things into flying through the sky in quite an unnatural manner. Carefully he dropped his hand back to his side, letting the glow surrounding it abate and fade. With a small grin he answered "Well. That's the hope anyway. I suppose there's always the possibility it won't do anything. But it's constructed and engineered off several principles that seem too simple and elegant to be wrong." The truth was, Zilden didn't suppose there was a possibility for his contraption not to fly. As was often the case when he worked, he'd never considered the possibility that he was wrong, so he very rarely prepared for such a scenario. He'd been remarkably lucky in that even without a single iota of common sense, Zilly's dazzling intellect was usually right. He'd even once come up with a logical reason (with scientific evidence to support it) humans were born with the natural ability to eat and swallow whilst upside down, despite the fact that in any situation where a human finds himself upside down, eating is not at all a priority. It was this dazzling intellect that reminded Zilly that Alex was standing much too naked near the former locatoin of his Cancelling Energy Beam Control device. "Alex. Your old test pilot suit is still hanging on the wall over there." he gestured to a coat rack that hung three jumpsuits on it. They had names of men on them that had braved employment with the Mertichard family, which was roughly equivalent to desiring a sandwich because you were hungry, and giving yourself stomach cancer instead. Giving the flying machine behind him a small kick to stop all the whirring and humming, he turned to leave the dank chamber, leaving everyone in the room with a confusingly cheery statement "Ive got to make ready to leave for the capital tomorrow. I trust you three wont murder each other over whatever makeshift sleeping arrangements you can muster in my household. Did you know that the theocracy here on Soltanarath has no idea the world is on the brink of ending?" Smiling as he left, Zilden departed for his library, leaving the hanging silence behind him.
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RogueKazimeras Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 4:29 am
Valenarr scoffed at Zilden's remark about the world being close to ending. "Well, then. That makes my life a bit easier, because I'll die before I live too long upon this blasted, sun-burnt surface with all of its insane residents stumbling around stupidly before me." He remakred bitterly, still staring at the waterfall. Something about it entranced him, made his mind wander far back to his ancestral home... but it did not remind him of the people, and so it was a welcome sight to him.
"I suppose living on the surface will be a tad easier now that I know this cesspool of ignorance and backwards behavior will be destroyed soon by some apocalyptic event." He snorted.
"And it comforts me more that those who cast me out will most likely die as well." He shook his head.
Murder? Why did Zilden have to keep putting ideas in Valenarr's head? The human probably knew that out of all of them, in at least physical strength, Valenarr was the most likely to win. The Youland didn't seem to have much on her side, nor did the lizard turned human, which really didn't faze Valenarr at all. He couldn't really feel surprise anymore. Finding out that for some random reason you were being cast out was the surprise to end all surprises. Well, the surprise of a friend being something he was not, and being cast out for it was...
"Bah." He scoffed, shaking his head. He hadn't really been paying too much attention to anything going on. He hadn't really cared.
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 11:59 am
The suit was different from before, no doubt modified to better integrate with the flying machine's systems. More importantly, though, it was clothing. Alex Trask grabbed it quickly and ducked out of view, pulling the suit onto his naked flesh. Valenarr was going on--again--about how he hates the surface and how much he would like to see it end, but not only had all those concerned been desensitized to such clockwork and predictable comments from him, but Alex was more preoccupied with clothing himself. The suit was black now; it had been orange previously, and the change was odd, as Trask could see no scientific reason for the change in color, but he was sure that Zilden had his reasons. There also seemed to be more mechanical inserts in the suit than before, but those stood to reason: The machine was probably more complex than the last time he'd seen it.
After donning the suit, Alex stood and was immediately greeted with discomfort. The suit was somewhat too tight, though still manageable. It was, perhaps, a misconception on his part, anyway, seeing as he typically wore plain, unassuming, but very comfortable clothing, and even the plainest of cloths felt restricting to him at times.
Nevertheless, he felt compelled to ask, "It seems tight... Is there anything we can do about this? I mean, not immediately, since you're busy, but still."
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RogueKazimeras Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 5:39 pm
"Zilden's gone, you unobservant fool." Valenarr berated from afar.
Valenarr was still watching the waterfall, but he still glanced to the side when Zilden left, his eyesight much better down here than on the surface. He would'nt have cared if he had been left down here, because it reminded him so much of home. And besides, the water had to come from somewhere, and he would not have minded to find out.
But still, something about this Alex person disturbed him. If you heard one human, you had heard them all, in Valenarr's opinion, but Alex's voice was... heavily reminiscent of the human that had been in the Grand Underpasses, and the one that had gotten him cast out.
Zilden's hadn't sounded anything like this one's, however, and he had heard a few more voices that sounded different...
Valenarr finally decided to turn around, and he beheld a face that he could not mistake. A face burned in his mind from the very moment his 'friend' had been unmasked, only for about ten seconds. They both had been face-to-face at that very moment, and Valenarr's eyes narrowed.
A hand that had rested upon the hilt of his katana wrapped its fingers around the black leather-bound hilt, drawing it with an soft hiss of steel, and the other hand soon followed the same path down to the hilt of his scimitar, which he drew as well.
"You!" Valenarr shouted, his golden eyes narrowed down to the point where his field of vision was almost obscured. He had a notion to blast this fragile mortal away with a fireball or fry his frail body with lightning, but Valenarr would see this fool bleed for what he had done. His blood would coat his hands, his blades, and he would rejoice that the one that had wronged him in this way would be dead before him, hacked and mangled. He didn't care that the Youland was there; she couldn't stop him.
Valenarr was going by the Mirrian rules of challenge. You draw your weapons and count to five. You make sure your foe knows what you're doing, and then you charge and may the best man win.
Well, maybe he wasn't going by the rules too much. Valenarr had only given him four and a half seconds before rushing in. But who was keeping track?
Blades out and ready to cleave Alexander Trask in half and end it in one swift blow, Valenarr shouted once again. "I'll kill you for what you've done!"
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Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 7:03 pm
As surprising as it was to have an ally charge at him, Alex felt his astonishment rather lessened, considering who was doing the attacking. Still... he thought, This has to be the weirdest punishment I've ever received for this kind of thing.
Sensing a lack of any substantial heat, Alex took evasive action, backflipping into the air, and landing firmly on a wall several meters above the ground, thus poking gravity in the stomach with a large spear. Actually, he was lifting himself up by controlling the air around him, so there was no impalement of newtonian physics, but Gravity was, nontheless, rather miffed. Alex was, on the other hand, very surprised that he had pulled off such acrobatics. Such a display had only been possible when he was a lizard, trapped in a smaller body, less affected by inertia, but it seemed as if the suit was helping him somehow. Such a thing would be unnecessary addition for piloting a flyer, but Zilden may easily have gotten bored enough to modify the suit, somewhat. It was, after all, a different color from before.
After a brief stint, during which gravity first denied that it had lost control over Alex, then became angry and tried to convince alex to compromise (ignorant of his powerful will and near inability to compromise on anything) then became depressed but accepting of the way things had turned out, Alex spoke. Considering the situation, it would be near-impossible to convince Valenarr to yield, but that was assuming that Alex had spoken to apologize or at least question why Valenarr was attacking him. What he said, instead, was this:
"Whahuh? What's this? Okay, so I didn't notice he left, but you don't have to go killing me for it." His words showed, not only complete incomprehension, but a total lack of memory of previous incident that would incite Valenarr's rage. Regardless of his guilt or innocence in the matter, such words were likely to further anger him.
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Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 8:22 pm
Ash'rael looked shocked. What...what happened? Everything seemed to be going fine and then...
"I'll kill you for what you've done!" Valenarr's voice seemed to echo in the room. The Youland blinked and ran closer to the two of them. Thankfully, Trask, or Alex or whoever he was, seemed to be holding his own.
"Stop! What are you doing?!" she shouted, sounding distressed. Why was the Mirran trying to kill Alex? Ash didn't know Valenarr's past. She would understand, of course, being cast out of society, herself. But...this wasn't going to solve anything!
"Stop! Stop!" she shouted, unable to move. Though she didn't want either of them to be hurt, Ash found herself rooted to the spot. She was frightened. Frightened of losing her own life. She wanted to be brave...she wanted to run there and stop him. But those thoughts were useless. Ash'rael knew that she was weak and wasn't able to stop him, even if she tried. If anything, she'd make the situation worse.
Please...don't let either of them be hurt! She shook her head, continuing to try and yell at them to stop fighting at irregular intervals.
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Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 7:14 am
"You're that human!" Valenarr raged as he reconsidered his posistion, ignoring the Youland completely, knowing that she wouldn't get in the way. She'd be too frightened.
"You're the one that got me cast out!" Valenarr continued, his swords flashing in what little light there was. He gave them a quick twirl. He was sizing this one up, now. Apparently he wasn't too defenseless.
He was really too high up to strike physically, and so a sword, his katana, went back into its sheath, and he raised an open palm, facing it towards Alex, and began to chant.
Magical energies gathered in his palm, orange, red, yellow and other colors swirling prismatically within it, and then forced to the outside, swirling and gathering quicker, into a fiery, luminescent sphere, illuminating Valenarr's face, though the light brought no pain to his eyes, which shimmered golden in the darkness. It made his blackened chainmail sparkle and caused his scimitar to glow. Within a few moments, the blast was ready. "I'll make you pay for what you did! It's your fault! It's all your fault!" He shouted, and the fiery sphere, feeding off of his rage, launched its way towards Alex's torso. It probably was strong enough to kill, if it did connect, but he hadn't taken into account the possible safety measures the suit might have had. After all, Valenarr did not know much about science.
His mind still raged. This human was the center of his agony and pain and anger. If he could kill him, he could finally be at peace...
Or so he thought.
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RogueKazimeras Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 1:40 pm
A twinge of envy floated through Alex's mind. This may seem an unusual emotion for the moment--and indeed it was--but for all the control he had over fire, he was never capable of conjuring it. He could only control what heat was there, and, fortunately for him, Valenarr had contributed considerably to the surrounding heat levels. Turning the fireball away would normally have been a simple enough countermeasure, but the combination of trying to keep himself elevated off the ground, the somewhat restricting pilot suit, the magical nature of the fireball, and the fact that it was motivated by Valenarr's will, as opposed to motivated by the proximity of oxygen and fuel, would make this considerably more difficult. Alex thrusted out his hands, in an attempt to redirect the fireball to the waterfall, but the circumstances stacked against him made producing this effect considerably more difficult. As such, he managed to halt the fireball's progress, roughly halfway between himself and Valenarr, but it was not moving any closer to its watery demise.
"I don't know what you're talking about, you madman!" Alex shouted. "I didn't cast you out! I don't even have that kind of authority in your land!"
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