Who..? What..? Floating in darkness, Yara felt herself drifting into nothingness- no, wait, that wasn't right... Not nothingness, but something just as fearsome. Insanity. Fragmented memories swarming her awareness, assaulting her senses. Bits and pieces of different lives, of her-but-not-her, of others, of everything and everyone. Under the onslaught, she sensed herself whimper, wishing for a way out. Wishing to escape the insanity. Wait! Was that my wish? It seems... familiar... it must be. It has to be. I wanted to escape this insanity, this... half-life. And not even a "life", but a fragmented existence... And the promise... Don't you elude me this time! What promise did I make to be free from this existence, this terrifying insanity? Think. Remember. Yara thought, clawing at the wisps of memory tauntingly out of reach. Get your Jackin' arse back here!
<< Hello there. What is your wish? I can grant it, if you make me a promise. >>
"I want to live! I want to escape this Insanity! Please, please, get me out of here!"
<< I can do that. Promise to protect humans others from those whom would wish harm upon them? >>
"Yes, yes, I promise! Just get me out!"
<< Very well. Close your eyes, it'll make it easier for you. And try to remember who you are. It's very important. >>
Oh, that's right... that's what the wish was, what I promised. But... who am I..? Yara tried to remember, tried to weave the fragmented memories of who she was and sift out the memories that weren't hers. It was a difficult task, but she kept at it. Bits and pieces of herself came fleetingly to her grasp. A close friend moving far, far away. Of how her older brother came to her rescue when other young citizens of Halloween started to bully her for being a Reaper, thought to be the lowest of the low. For being so... human. Warmth and laughter as her family and friends went to a festival, flooded with colors, scents, and sounds. If I had to do it all over again... If I was offered another chance at freedom... I would gladly take it. I refuse to let this insanity consume me. It's not who I am! I am Yara! Not just another fragmented forgotten unwanted memory. I was alive. I was loved. I refuse to give up. Wherever you are, strange kitty... I'm ready. This isn't my home... this... fog. This... nothingness. Take me back. I want to go home.
First Encounter Round 1: 7 Round 2: 3 Round 3: 4 DMG: 25% No loot.
Quote:
Second Encounter Damage Dealt: 19 Damage obtained: 68 (DEADLULZ)
Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:02 pm
A crowded hallway. At this school it wasn't an unusual sight. Teachers pretended not to see, not to care. The position for dean of students remained unfulfilled for quite some time. Taking that job would be suicide.
People thronged the stone floors, arms waving and voices chanting. Maybe something about a fight- it was all so hazy. All Magenta could feel was pain. Physical had stopped hurting after a while, but pride would never heal. She could feel an ugly bitterness developing in her core, but instead of ignoring it, she allowed it to reign free. It festered as any wound would, slowly growing until all she could feel was hatred.
Every day she hated being forced to arrive at this school.
Weakness painted her actions, shaded her vision with an angry red. At this point she was sure she'd done something to deserve this torture. There was no other explanation. Perhaps the way she held herself was cruel, perhaps the way she spoke was evil. There had to be some reason she was crumpled on the ground, holding her stomach as she curled in a tight ball. Breathing was hard- they must have cracked a rib.
More than her enemies she hated herself. It was her fault that working out hadn't made her stronger. It was her fault they hurled insults at her. It was her fault she had no friends.
< Do you wish to change? >
A stupid question. Did the ghoul collapsed on the ground want to change? Of course. Wishes didn't come true though.
With what little strength she had left, Magenta looked up in the direction of the voice. What she found confused her. Small, fluffy.
"What?"
< Do you wish to change? I can grant you any wish? >
"I don't understand."
< I'll fulfill any one of your wishes! It doesn't matter what! >
Magenta wanted many things. She wanted her adversaries to disappear. She wanted to stop feeling so weak. She wanted a friend. "Anything?"
< Anything! >
Her voice stuttered, "I wish to be ... I want power. I want to be powerful! I want them to suffer under my grip. I want them to feel the pain I felt!"
< This is your fate. >
---
It was fine at first. When the shadows, the faceless ones would come, now she could pick them off at ease. Classmates revered her now, her aptitude for spells and charms through the roof. Teachers bowed in awe. Magenta was revered. She was happy.
So happy.
Each spell she used cracked her core just a bit more than the last. Every feat of strength, every flash of her smile. Grey lines began to permeate across her skin, coloring and distorting the sweet tan that lay underneath. It became apparent rather quickly that this power the creature had granted her was not the power she'd desired. It was breaking her, slowly descending her into madness.
"Take it back!" she shouted, throwing a dish at the creature.
< I can't. You've made your wish and it came true! >
"TAKE IT BACK," Magenta roared, the voices in her head growing louder and louder. It wouldn't be long now.
---
Freedom. Freedom from the cycle. The looks. The hatred. Freedom from the malignance.
Her core had cracked long ago. Any husk of Magenta was nothing, nothing at all. It was a whisper at the edge of someone's mind, urging them to join her. To come home. Maybe then she would have a friend.
---
The story unfolded in Magenta's mind in the last moments of her consciousness. She knew the truth now. She'd received her power, but she'd paid her price. The debt was forgiven.
< Your wish? >
The words echoed again and again in her mind. The promise. The power. The wish. To protect. Strength. Magenta no longer existed. The black taint of her soul had never washed away- no, it was erased. As though it had never existed at all.
The gluttonous desire overcame her. It was time to go home.
OOC
Name: Magenta (Maggie/Mag is fine) Age: 13 Subclass: Mage - Earth magic Weapon: Giant Axe (think Presea from Tales of Symphonia) Gem: Orange - Hopeful Appearance
This is after the deadline. Was AFK for the week. Sorry, I thought it would take longer to kill us off.
Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:32 pm
Wish.... one wish..... the wish that could give something more.... if only she had one.
What was that wish?
To be able to give others comfort.
After all the yearning and the wanting, it never left. It was always there, she sighed if only she could comfort herself or others. It was the most complete thought there was. At least, for insanity; and it was simple. Comfort.
The memories were halves, nothing full. Yet the yearning, the want, the need to go home. It was something, it was a thirst nothing could quench. It didn't matter where or who they were still there, if there was just one of them or a million. The world was lonely, broken, and almost surreal. As if whatever existed didn't really exist, like she didn't really exist. It was almost worse than fear. Living inside a broken body, broken mind, broken core.
The chance to do something more. The chance to do something that was thought nearly impossible. It was too tempting, she had to take it. So when she'd been asked about a wish, well of course Istas obliged. Who wouldn't oblige to such an offer, and offer that could make her whole again.
Yet... something wasn't right. When she was freed, the broken thoughts, the broken ideas they returned.... Her wish for comfort. Her wish to be able to do something more, the end result was disappointing. Heart wrenching, though she couldn't remember much of it.
What it was... that the thing had offered. What about those faces? Where did she belong?
Where was home?
She wanted to go home. She yearned for the comfort of home, comfort of friends... but she couldn't remember her friends.... she could see them... the shapes but... not the faces or names....
Insanity raced through her. Her soul gem now shattered, left her once again feeling incomplete. The last emotions of that fake life ran through her and reached for Orina, for Ridely and to Simone. She was incomplete more incomplete because she didn’t have them. Regret ran through her, she should have stayed, made the dream last just a little longer. But she was trying to protect them, help in her own way.
They had been adorable. That was her wish. To once again be that cute ghoul who’s memories she contained. She has simply wanted everyone to be cute and adorable and complete. And they had been. In return she promised to protect… protect what, she didn’t have a full concept. Protect her friends? Friends, she called them… but those friends were with her here. They would return soon. She wanted them, to keep them close. Maybe that was why she so easily fell back to insanity. Her will to protect wasn’t enough. She just wanted cute things and friends.
Even now she had a yearning to be complete to reach out and touch her friends one more time.
A young ghoul raced through a large house. There was plenty of other children to play with, at any given time she could find at least two play mates wither that was playing find the human, tea party or a simple game of tag. But her very best friend was a bunny named Rogers. He would play with her no matter the hour and was always happy to see her. He never complained about the frilly outfits she picked for him or about the size of his carrots. He would happily listen to her songs and stories, even if they weren’t any good. And then one day, he was eaten by a passing wolf. No matter how much she cried, he wouldn’t return to her.
Her friends made fun of her for crying over a rabbit, saying he had a wonderfully scary death. From then on, she did her best not to cry. She didn’t even cry when years later her dog died or when some time after that, she started to slowly fall into insanity.
A piece of her wondered if her dolls were still there, or if her parents had forgotten about her; given her up after she fell. They didn’t understand. Neither did her friends. Over the years she had made many, no quiet in the same way as she did her friends from just now. She always did hide her pain. To her friends she was untouchable. No one even knew anything was wrong until the insanity really got to her.
"Tamara, you have been acting odd lately. Won’t you come out of your room?" "Tamara we are going swimming? Won’t you come out with us?" "Tamara… is that doll me?"
They didn’t understand that she was helping them, helping them cute and happy all the time in a world without being eaten, without fighting. She just wanted them to all be together and happy. Her friends thought she was weird, and abandoned her when she really needed someone the most. After that she lost herself. The memories were nothing more than a blur. But she wanted, desperately to keep some part of the days before alive. When she was just a ghoul, walking with her friends to the maul, when they would dress up in cute outfits or pick out minipets together. Those were they days she missed most, the part that felt most incomplete.
“I wish to be cute and have friends, just like back then.” She messed up, she should have stayed with her friends, stayed with Orina who was her best friend in that short time, but soon they would return to her, and she could hold them forever. Soon they would complete each other.
“Come home. It’s ok, it is dark, but we’ll be here together. Forever.” With her last tendrils of will she reached out in her confusion towards her friends, leading them back to insanity.
Quote:
Name: Tamara Age: somewhere around 14 Color: red Weapon: bo staff
Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 1:56 am
Gwyn's memories were vivid now. As vivid as they've ever been.
It was a three layer chocolate cake, with cherries and whipped cream in between the layers, that was frosted with chocolate whipped frosting and decorated with rosettes of whipped cream with cherries on top. She picked off one of the cherries by its stem and ate it.
She was swiftly reprimanded by the baker with a thwap to her knuckles. "Now, now, now, dear, you know you have to wait for the party to start in proper. I don't want you spoiling your appetite now."
Today was a special day. It was her birthday. Since she was the leader of the warriors in this region, it was a given that they'd be present at her party. Oh, how she loved parties. It meant she could eat her favorite foods surrounded by the ones she loved and respected.
What she didn't like about parties was the idle gossip. Most of it was lies, but some of it was true. Like the time they split up and she accidentally gave one team the wrong directions, so they waited all day in a forest for no reason, while the enemy ransacked what they were supposed to be protecting. She didn't like to talk about that. Heck, she didn't even like to think about it. It was messed up. Or the time she misinterpreted a demon's contract and everyone got set on fire. That was also messed up. There was also that time she told someone to use a very specific entrance to a castle and they somehow misunderstood her and ended up in a noblewoman's bedroom. That was really awkward and made them both look bad.
Looking back, she seemed to have a bad track record when it came to sending and receiving messages. But she wasn't bad at what she did. She wouldn't be the leader if she was. The ones were supposed to get whacked were most definitely whacked and the warriors who served her thought she was a good leader. Good, but not the best.
The thought of that made her sigh. She was strong, but not powerful. Not great, merely good. Oh, how she wished she could change that.
Just then, as if on cue, a white creature jumped onto the windowsill. "Do you have a wish?" It spoke without moving its mouth. How terribly creepy. She wondered what it could be. It could talk, so maybe it was a shapeshifting monster. "I can grant it. It can be anything at all. In return, all you have to do is promise to do something for me."
She thought that sounded reasonable. It made sense to her that her wish would come with strings attached. "Okay, I promise. Whatever it is, I'm sure it's worth it." She had already made up her mind. She planned to wish for the ability to understand everyone and to be understood by everyone. It seemed like most of her troubles were caused by misunderstandings, so if there was a way to prevent them, it'd help her to gain greater power.
Things got kind of fuzzy after that, but she remembered soon afterward, it said, "Very well. Your wish has been granted."
"Wait!" Something didn't sound right. She hadn't told it what her wish was, so how could it grant it?
It didn't heed her cry. Just as soon as it had came, it had gone.
Now, Gwyn laughed hysterically. It all made sense now. Everything made sense now. And it was hilarious.
The energy to care, the energy to move vanished from her and she let herself fall.
She was...
She'd never been good enough. Not in the eyes of her parents. Of the two siblings, Aria had fallen prey to fear and terror with the things she could see. Her older brother had taken the beasts in stride and defended her at every turn. Ethan had protected his little sister when the monsters she saw would send her into panic attacks and he kept the dark away.
But this was never good enough for her parents. "She's stronger than this, Ethan stop protecting her and let her face them herself!" "Ugggh not again... she's a waste of this family's blood..." round and round the words went until Aria learned that to show weakness was to be treated as nothing. She willed herself to not show weakness, and show her parents she was just as strong as Ethan. Even when he vanished, she kept on fighting.
It still wasn't enough.
Mmmm was she remembering that right? She had to be, though why the name "Wolf" attached itself to Ethan, she wasn't sure. Mmm maybe she was remembering wrong... was is it even her own memory for that matter?
After all, she was...
They'd been good friends at first. They'd taken her under their wing in her first few panic attacks, sheltered her when her parents wouldn't. She'd finally found somewhere she belonged and felt safe, and she was despeirate to hold onto it. The warmth she found from them strengthened her resolved to ignore the dark more often and she really thought she was going to be better.
She was so naive.
"Freak! You see werewolves? They don't exist!" "Freak!" "Momma, Aria's obsessed with bad things!" All it took was one slip up, one panic attack in front of the whole student body where she blurted out "There's ghosts in the rafters! There's really ghosts! Why can't you see them!?" and suddenly her one source of warmth and light shattered like a bulb. No matter how she tried, she couldn't get it back. They turned on her, calling her strange, a freak, unworthy of being friends with them.
Aria shut down. She closed off to everything. Her brother was gone, her parents and her friends ridiculed her and isolated her. She kept her mouth shut, her head down, her ears shut. And yet the sound, the voices, they all kept coming to her, reaching her and fracturing her heart. She turned to silent anger, bottling up her emotions and her rage and frustration. She bred a beast that would have destoryed them all if she let herself react to them.
She just wanted it to stop, to be quiet for her life to be quiet and filled with sounds of more pleasant things. Still the sound carved on her heart.
Emptiness shot through her, but it really didn't matter much now.
She was...
It's no surprise that it came to her.
"You should have been stronger." "No daughter of mine would have made a wish and a promise!" Heh, that's what her parents would have said to her.
It approached her on a day she was particularly vunerable. Something terrible had happened, and Aria was barely holding onto her control. It asked her if she wanted to make a wish, any wish at all, and tilted its head at her.
She was hesitant to answer. "Will it help me fight the dark and prove to my parents I'm strong?"
"Is that your wish?"
"No... I want... I wish that I wasn't the class freak."
"Will you promise to fight and protect the humans?"
Ah... that's what sealed the deal for her, she remembered now. The thought that this wish, this promise would help her look stronger in everyones eyes. Hope surged her, and with childish, naive determination, she sealed the deal and made her wish.
"If it'll prove I'm strong, I promise!"
But then she'd just forgotten all of that, now didn't she? A part of her found the irony in the whole thing. She'd made a promise and had almost instantly forgotten it, and only could remember it when she died. How ironic...
Had she even been living at all? Had that even all happened? Aria didn't know anymore. At least it was quiet here, among the Insanity. Finally, the silence she'd wanted. Finally... she was free.
She fell into nothingness.
Quote:
Appearance Name: Aria Age: 14 Color: Blue Class: Mage (Lightning) Weapon: Scythe A young girl with social anxiety and tends to be distrusting of others. She also apparently defaults to anger and cockiness. Status: "Dead"
Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 7:47 am
She felt like all of her body, heart and hollow memories are eaten by dark but it was not evil devil made her scare. Rather, she felt some kind of free, releasing from unknown certain thing that she should have never been. She was a fragment. She was not a whole thing. She was closer to a core but could never be that.
She remembered fleeing memories which were so missing. The first memory was child's. She had sit in the chilly floor in the large house.
She was crying so sadly. But nobody even tried to cheer her up, she cried more loudly.
Then the next floated memory was...more happier one.
She was smile look like angry but not because of hate, because of awkwardness. In front of her there was a boy. He was skinny, however, it was enough mass to relieve her.
She sighed. It was so yearning but she couldn't remember his face and name.
In third memory she was in the vertical rain. She was crying again. But in this time, it was bare sorrow not active full of sadness. She saw the tomb and just be sad. Without him, there was nothing worth in her life.
Then, a man approached to her. He had a creepy jarring voice. It asked her if she had a wish, any wish.
It was evidently clear about the man, surprisingly, different from others. She answered...
Yes. She had a wish at first time in her life. She dreamed to see him again even just a glimpse. She frantically wanted it at that time.
But...but now, she remembered her fervor, just 'remember' her past fever. She lost her eager and became free from all of it regardless of happy or not. Her sorrowful past and the boy who had showed her a light were turning faraway memories like story of famous book, not her own. She obviously remember those despair but they meant nothing to her anymore. They were finally over for her and...
Asherya felt as if she had died. ... But not really... She felt as if she had left the shell of the reaper destined to fight in a battle she didn't understand, as if she was freed and now able to go back to were she belonged.
The ghoul had rejoined with the insanity she had always been a part of. But she was not complete either, always missing something. She had memories, and feelings, and many other things but no shape to tie it all and hold it together. As such, she could not die. She didn't know if it was a blessing or a curse.
Asherya was angry at being denied fullness, she would never be complete, never complete...
A shadow among shadows.... Then no more. Awakening as she had. But the shadow had a chance to merge with its model, in a dream... A dream of being saved from oblivion.
Fear ! Those scraps of memories were stirring fear in the incomplete core once named Asherya. She would be forgotten ! Panic rose, crashing against her consciousness. She didn't want to be forgotten ! She yearned to be with all she was.
Do you have a wish --- ? ... If you do, I'll grant it for you.
Did she have one? She was sure she had one but couldn't remember. Too many memories...
An old pony thwacking a ghoul up the head.... A young horsewoman not listening... A card booth for something called scarentines... gold and red envelopes... Making someone take a plunge in a barrel of water...
How to sort through all those half remembered happenings she wasn't even sure had happened to herself? Despair was seeping in her partial core, and she was ready let herself go to nothingness. But the echo of the voice was back :
Do you have a wish --- ? Yes, I do ! I wish ...
Ah, that was when she became something more than insanity, by being shaped into a reaper ghoul with almost no memories... To fulfil the promise she made, that she would fight for the humans and Halloween. And her wish would be granted.
There were others like her when she awakened But no one remembered their wishes and their promises. But still they fought... Even if some like herself were lacking strength with the disappearance of their motives and chose to stop fighting when given the opportunity.
And suddenly it came back to her...
A dark figure had accosted her as she was staring longingly at falling tree blossoms. She had been alone and in a melancholy mood. None of witch was unusual. She didn't hear the creature approaching, nor felt it's presence before being spoken to. Do you have a wish ? ... If you do, I'll grant it for you. the ghoul hadn't answered, lost in contemplation. Do you have a wish --- ? Contemplating for a while without letting her eyes leave the rain of petals. Yes, I do. I wish ...
But now she was back to being part of Insanity and her wish would never be granted.
"I wish... I wish I was the wind, caressing the delicate blooms, travelling the sands or raging over the seas.. Impossible to bind, free to travel between the worlds. Everything would feel me and know that I exist."
Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 5:10 pm
The fall it was the most unbearable part of the whole ordeal she thought. The memories in her mind almost unmistakable they were hers right? No, the voices they weren't right, they weren't ones she remembered, not entirely that was the problem.
Tamara...she felt the tendrils wash over her, her name was Tamara. No...not her name the ghoul's name she met a ghoul...she was adorable she was so scared. Like Simone...
Her eyes wide as the smoky wisps changed around her, her name was Simone she had a life, no...she had made up a life. She had been looming brooding over the loss of everything one night. She had lost what little she had left when she realized how weak she was. She wanted to be stronger, she wanted to be able to help her friends.
"Sim hurry! You're going to miss the trip we're going to scarefari!" "I'm coming! Just wait a second...I've just got to find..."
What had been so important, that she needed to find. She should have been on the bus heading towards the scarefari, she should have been there to help. A scream, no it was a memory too. She had lost everything when she found out they hadn't made it to the scarefari, something had happened no one was talking about it. It was as if it never happened.
"...Sim...what are you talking about...there was no trip."
She was going crazy, she must have been going crazy because she knew deep down they hadn't come back. Just as suddenly as the memory appeared a new one took it's place, she could see herself in the single dormitory, she had lost her roommate but no one understood, everyone said she always had a room to herself. Closing her eyes she whispered softly,
"I wish I could.." "Could what?" A voice asked in the darkness "You wish you could go back and fix it? You wish you could see your friend again? Or...do you really wish you could just forget?"
The voice...her head snapped up, that was the voice the night everything changed. It had approached her the night she had thought of taking her life. The voice in her head were too much, but it had stopped her. It had offered her a single wish. Smirking, had it been worth it? Had the creature fulfilled it's end of the bargain?
"I..what are you?" "I...can grant your wish" The voice said slowly again hidden in the shadows of her room. "I can make what you yearn for become reality." "...I yearn for death." "...I can do that too but you're more useful alive. Don't you have a better wish than that?"
Maybe she should have asked for death. Her wish didn't seem so important anymore. Not after she witnessed the other ghouls going through such pain. The tears were no longer there, her pain no longer anything but a memory the swirling tendrils had finally re-consumed Simone back in to the fold, cherishing her making her part of the whole and yet still she felt fragmented. She still thought that the wish was worth it in some small way because at least then she felt wanted, she felt whole.
"...anything?" "Anything" The voice slowly stepped forward revealing a small creature "Whats the catch?" "No catch I just need your help. You will be so much stronger and helpful to me...and your wish will be able to make you understand that. Just a small contract and I will do anything you want. Even bring back the dead..."
The glimmer in its eye's should have been a dead give away. But she didn't think not then at least. She only smiled, shaking her head she quietly chastised the memory. But only in jest because she didn't really regret the wish, she in reality regretted the fact that she couldn't hold on to what the creature gave her.
"..Okay I can do that...I...I wish to be someone that people can count on...I wish to be able to help my friends...I wish to..." "One wish...choose wisely..." The voice didn't sound irritated at the fact that Simone rattled off more than just one wish. "I wish to be..yes I wish to be someone that people could count on." "done..."
The memory faded slowly much more so then when it came on. Simone, or what was left of her blinked a few times. Had it all been a memory she witnessed or did the creature actually exist. Had that been her life before she became this? The strong urge and pull of going home suddenly gripping her. The memories fading ever so faster as she turned to return to her home.
Astiria found herself about to answer her new friend Ceres, to turn her down, when the inevitable happened. She found herself seemingly floating in the darkness. Within moment she remembered the fear and the last moments of her 'life'. She knew that her guide had told her she had done a good job but she somehow did not feel as if she had fulfilled her part.
She remembered her promise now. She had promised that she would help in exchange for the ability to save the animals from the forest near her home. The forest was scheduled to be torn down for a shopping center, but she knew that they would not take the animals into consideration when they did that. It would have caused hundreds of animals to become homeless and she could not stand that thought. She wondered if the guide had fulfilled his end of the bargain as she floated there. She still remembered arguing with her father over the issue. He did not see the need to help the animals, after all he figured they would just have to find somewhere else to live now.
She found herself sighing, she was happy that she had helped, if very little. But she really hoped that those poor creatures had been able to keep their home. A slight smile appeared on her dark skinned face before she felt herself fading away.. back into the darkness... and then she was nothing, and yet at the same time she was everything.. she was insanity.
Name: Astiria DEAD Age: 14 Subclass: Witch Weapon: Dual Short Swords Gem: Red - Brave Appearance
Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 8:42 pm
Silence. That was the first sensation that registered for Ceres. The next word was "nothingness," though perhaps that word wasn't quite accurate. She really couldn't tell anymore, this place was strange to her. "Why am I here? Where is here?" Ceres knew she was probably dead, the battle hadn't been going well, after all. "Astiria, I hope you made it..." Her thoughts felt jumbled but Ceres clung tightly to the only thing she had left: consciousness. Even knowing she was dead wouldn't make her quit fighting to keep at least her sense of self in this place. For a while, Ceres just floated in the darkness, time no longer having any real meaning. As she drifted, she saw faces, slowly they gained designations in her thoughts. The tall, handsome man had been her father, the pretty woman at his side, her mother. "That's right...I was...a demon." Ceres felt her voice in her thoughts though she had no body left to form the words out loud.
Again, an undetermined amount of time passed as she remembered small details. She had been noble, a firstborn child. She had been lonely. Ceres remembered those things now. Slowly images formed in the darkness. Herself as a child, practicing her magic, later with her pets. The memories made her smile even as she sensed the sadness lurking in the girl. Eventually a figure appeared in the dark and Ceres felt herself react. Long, flame toned hair, wide golden eyes and a lithe but sweetly toned body. The other girl's image hovered in Ceres' thoughts. As she tried to touch that face, Ceres felt herself sucked into a vortex of memories.
It had been just another day for the fourteen year old Ceres. She was alone as usual and had gone into town. While she was shopping, she had seen another girl across the street. The first thought that had entered her mind was beautiful. The other girl was lithe with cascading red hair and lightly tanned skin. It was also obvious she also was far from Ceres' social class. Ceres had simply planned to avoid the other female but she had been entranced with her. Even though she knew her parents would be mad at her, she had introduced herself to the other girl, quickly learning her name was Lorelei.
"We were best friends." The thought coalesced unbidden, even as the memories skipped ahead. Ceres saw herself sneaking away from her home to meet Lorelei, to be with...her....her girlfriend. The memory came with the warm feeling of secret kisses stolen and the knowledge that her family would be furious if they knew. Ceres remembered now, she was betrothed to someone else, a man chosen for her without her consent. "Duty, my parents always said it was my duty[."/i] That memory left her feeling angry and empty. More skips, more missing pieces, then the fight. Ceres was dragged into the undertow of her memories again. She and Lorelei had fought not long after her fifteenth birthday when Ceres hadn't had the courage to stand up to her parents and break the betrothal. After the fight Lorelei had run away and two days later, Ceres found out her fried was in a coma and not expected to wake up.
Trapped in her memory, Ceres wanted to scream or cry but she could no longer do those things. In her memories, Ceres remembered crying in her room that night, cursing herself for not being brave enough to protect Lorelei. It was during those moments that a strange little creature had appeared in her room. It had asked her if she had a wish. Ceres heard herself answering, her voice trembling with emotion. "I wish for Lorelei to wake up and be well again." She had said, "I'm going to be brave enough to stay with her this time." The little creature had driven a bargain that should have made Ceres suspicious but the white haired girl had agreed without hesitation. She would fight to protect the humans if her beloved Lorelei would have a second chance at living.
In the darkness, Ceres felt the pain of loss, knowing she wouldn't see Lorelei again. "At least she will be able to wake up....I...I really wish I could have told her I would have fought my family to be with her..." The darkness beckoned but Ceres didn't want to fade into it. Even now, she just wasn't ready to let herself go completely. Still, slowly, she felt herself fading until everything was black as she couldn't fight the pull of this place any longer.
She could feel tears on her face. It hurts. Everything is confusing and nothing is making sense.
The moment she felt that flicker of consciousness, fragments of memories showing a young child, forever bedridden constantly entered her mind. It just came in random segments, yet it was as if her life story had instantly rebuilt itself for her. Of course these memories with him would be the one she remembers. They were so very important. It was of him after all.The two had promised to stay together. No matter what happens, they’ll always have each other. She had promised him that, as his elder sister, she had promised that they would never part.
Sob
She had wanted to see him, so badly after he suddenly disappeared.
He’s so small, he shouldn’t be by himself. Why is the ground red? Oh god, where is he? I’m worried. I’m scared. Did he leave without me? What of our promise? We only have each other.
Those feelings had fueled her for such a long time…and then, the voice. It had promised her a wish in exchange. She took it without even a single thought.
I wish I could see my little brother again.
That was her wish. And for a moment, that promise had stopped the yearning, the need that had initiated her reason for being there. The yearning would have probably be twice as bad as it once had, now that she had a taste of connecting with others.
However, it’s all over now.
Alvar didn’t really care anymore. The yearning could just go and die. There was nothing to care for anymore. There was no actual existence of Alvar to start with. She just broke off from a large chunk of memories thanks to that voice, that was why she existed. She was nothing more than a small part of the insanity.
Breathing suddenly seemed superfluous. Not when there was no need to do so, not when there was no mouth to draw in air and no lungs to turn it around in. Instead there is a sense of brokenness, an odd sensation of disjointedness. A static noise tries to scratch out incomplete, but that is silly for it is known so its better to just not bother. The pieces of a very small consciousness begins to spiral around itself, counting up the things it knows. It is Insanity. It is broken, discarded, off kilter, useless. Incomplete. It is quiet. The little consciousness does not make noise, does not have the capacity to shout but perhaps it is the currently swirling nature of itself that begins to relive bits of its life.
First there is a small black bird, just a tiny little crow with downy wings born without a voice. It was born fractured, which maybe was why now that its part of this odd mass called Insanity it felt at home. Or perhaps that was just the Insanity... Anyways, the little crow couldn't really caw or maybe she could, it was hard to tell when all there is is a murder of crows all opening their mouths and the little ghoul opens her beak only to be drowned out by the others. After all, being born without a voice and not being able to actually use the voice given in a proactive manner is essentially the same thing. Other crows gather around her, perhaps they are family or friends or maybe teachers! Maybe, it is so hard to concentrate when the grey and blue swallows memories whole in its gray maw. None of the images last for very long, just a sweet smile from one of the older crows, then a squawking noise from the elders, instructions from someone, it doesn't matter for they're all gobbled up by the Insanity. The scene of the nest that is home, the big field everyone gathers in, the homes everyone speaks of flying over to caw three times and bring doom to its inhabitants, all of it is crunched up in the jaws of the swirling incompleteness. But there is a little patch of blue poppies the littlest crows visit, hops happily around in and pretends she can sing. It is there between the blossoms that sway in the wind that she yammers on silently, opening and closing her little mouth in imitation of speak. Noise has been robbed of her, this much she knows for sure, and that is something her family cannot understand. It is something wrong with her. Something they should perhaps cast her out for. But they don't. Or they do and only wrap it up as sending her to school. Or maybe school is something else entirely, a whole other entity of cloying images, its all very confusing and unclear. All the little crow knows for sure is that she is trapped by her lack of voice, trapped by her family, trapped in a silver cage without even a song to sing.
So when the memory of making a wish swirls around, when that particular thread curls into view, the little crow perks up. Well, she perks up as much as one who is ill-formed of mist and fog and whispers can do such a thing. This is oddly more vivid in its colors, though there are still shadows that disrupt the images, still colors that don't belong there that bleed into the picture and taint it. The red ribbon in the little crow girl's hair may or may not be just a bit of something else, but she has a piece of paper in her hands that she holds out to the thing before her. It is small, or very large, or both at once it is hard to tell, but she knows she can trust it. That is a very dangerous thing, for rarely do people rely on truth and honesty when they can have what they want, but she just doesn't know any better. So she scrawls in a scratchy hand onto the paper, shows it to the creature with a smile. Its all she wants. Its the only thing she knows that can get her out of this cage. The only thing that can set her free.
Its a miracle, but it happens. While there is no actual cage around her, the metaphorical one breaks and becomes handheld, becomes her weapon. Now she controls the small sphere she once lived in, now it is her power. The field of poppies she loved so much join her and she becomes unstoppable. A tiny scrap of paper with scratchy writing falls to the ground, discarded and useless. I wish to have a voice The little crow who could not sing lets out a holler and never looks back. Whispers are for those with the luxury to do so, she has been given a gift she will not waste. Only she should have been more honest in her wishing. A voice is good, to be heard is beyond brilliant, but her curse is that no one listens. When she tries to help everything shatters. When she reaches out to touch the memory, it is scratched away. There is no more voice. There is no more bird cage to swing around or to trap little crow girls. There are only whispers, there is Home, there are odd colors and mist and fog and incorporeal beings that drift in and out. There are blue poppies. Funny how that should be, she thinks, or remembers thinking. For poppies mean eternal sleep and how clever she had been to wish for a voice, to call herself Poppy and then to slumber forever. At least for a few moments she was heard. At least she had a voice.
Quote:
Name: Poppy Age: 14 Weapon: Birdcage covered in blue poppies Race:Sorceress Misfortune Crow Damage: 25% Assimilated into Insanity
Thank you to Chesh for the awesome art!! *U*///
AyeAvast
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PhiferWolf
Loyal Werewolf
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Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 10:13 pm
A voice. Yes. A young voice that seemed so distant and yet it was one familiar. Her eyes were closed, deep into the darkness the voice called out. Who's voice was it? So familiar. The darkness seemed to illuminate to a scene within herself. Cobbled streets, banners and streamers, carts all around. Laughter and kids running before them, running and playing. It was a festival that came to the town square.
"Mommy, could I go play too?"
The figure holding the little girl's hands nodded. She smiled back before bouncing off to follow the rest of the kids. Her arms swinging beside her as her little shoes clicked against the cobbled pavement. The festival was loud and crowded, and people were all so busy with their games. Elspeth smiled to herself, happy to see the little girl enjoy herself. It was then that realization that she turned around inside her own memories knowing what was coming next. A muffled scream. A scream so terrifying that it would have shattered the festive air, scaring every parent to scramble for their child, if it were not muffled by the dark hand around the mouth of the woman. No one seemed to have heard it. The festival was loud and crowded, and people were all so busy with their games.
"Mommy?" the little girl said, kneeling next to the woman, sitting against a wall. Her little hands clutching her little white dress, looking at her mother beside her. The woman caressed her cheek, her mouth moved and yet no words were heard. She smiled and stroked her daughter's cheek as tears diluted the smudge of blood. "Mommy?" She called again, this time reaching for her arm. In doing so, the woman fell onto her side against the cobbled street, her faceless face staring up at the phantasmal Elspeth.
"She won't answer you..." She muttered knowing the little girl could not hear her.
The little girl sobbed in the alley way of the festival beside her mother who was once sitting against a wall. The little girl sobbed to deaf ears as the festival was loud and crowded. Her dress becoming more red as she kneeled beside her mother, her hands against her eyes, tears dripping onto her lap.
"She is dead."
------
The girl sat within a lavished home. The girl alone at home, her father gone away. She held a book on her lap, one she had recalled seeing before. Elspeth sat next to the girl with the forlorn look. She felt what was to come next and she had wished it hadn't happened. A crash in a distant room startled the girl to her feet, running to see what it was. A candle had fallen over and the sparks had already begun. Elspeth watched in the doorway at the girl's fruitless attempts to put it out by smacking the flames with the book. She watched as she tried to pour water into the fire to only hinder it for seconds before it roared back to life. The flames caught onto more things and crept along the walls. She fled for her life only to be trapped away in another room that she had foolishly gone to without realizing that it did not lead to the foyer. The flames had her trapped. She curled up against a corner, the book clutched to her chest as tears welled in her eyes.
"How!? Who are you!?" "A wish? I wish the fire was gone!" "A-anything?" "I-I can wish for anything? Anything!?" <....> "I-I wish for..."
Elspeth watched from the doorway, looking toward the voice to see the creature, idly lounging just out of sight of the girl. He was there that day... he was there. That was the day she made that wish, that promise. That was the day that she...
"I wished everything returned to the way it was before Mom died! Return everything to the way it was!"
The wish fulfilled and Elspeth found herself back to the same day of the festival. Watching as the events played themselves out again and again and again...
Name: Elspeth Age: 15 Race: Mage (Fire) Gem: Red Weapon: Fan Corruption: 25% Damage Done: 25 Damage Delt: 31
Name: Yara
Name: Elspeth