Solo or RP Format Can be used toward Solo or RP req
With the recently discovered Yaeli, the land of Tendaji has been abuzz with talk and gossip about their new neighbors. They're odd, they're strange and skittish, their eyes glow - but that can't possibly be true most say - the word on the street is that they're starting to leave their island. Those that had met the Yaeli know that it's an odd thing to hear. They were terrified of the outsiders, why would they leave their safe villages...
Rumors are filling the toxic island where the Alkidikes extremists were banished along with the Matron. Rumors of monsters clawing their way out of the earth with oil black skin and glowing evil eyes that are even weirder than the strange monsters that landed upon their shores just one year ago. The Yaeli say that their gaze can steal the soul of any person dumb enough to get too close and they're vicious beings trying to take their children.
These rumors have reached the main land as well, mostly through the few Yaeli that have decided they would rather face the scary but similar earthling races than to have to find out what the terrifying monsters want with them and their land.
Is there any truth to these rumors or are the Yaelians seeing things?
[Yaeli characters can respond to the event with their own opinions on the rumors.]
Jhana paced around the home tree anxiously, moving and arranging her Mama’s bookshelf as she flitted from place to place. It wasn’t sitting right with her. Not since she had heard the stories. She shuddered at the thought, moving a stack of books just a little to the left. What she had heard the other kids in her village saying was too much for her. How could there be monsters out there? It just couldn't be true, but then she knew - deep down in her stomach - that there was more to this than met the eye.
Jhana wrung her hands together anxiously. Monsters! In Yael. She didn't even know where that was, but it didn't sound good. It sounded much too close. If they were in Yael, what was stopping them from coming over to Jauhar? Not that she knew that there was a body of water separating them from her, but as far as she was concerned they could get to her. They could take her away! They could steal her brother and sister! Worse: they could steal her mamas. She shuddered at the thought and put her hands to her face, feeling the fright of it all overtake her. What would she do? Where could she go? Where could she take her family so they wouldn't be in danger?
She didn't know of any place besides Jauhar and Tale. And they were much too close together. She thought back to what she had overheard the other Alkidike girls saying. Jhana had followed them again, wanting to join their group. They still wouldn't play with her because of her hair, but she still tried to be close to them. She would watch them from the trees and every once in a while she would ask them if she could play with them yet. They had been huddled together in a group, all of them whispering together and their black eyes moving back and forth. But they didn't seem scared like she was scared. They seemed angry. They talked of taking down the monsters and beating them back and helping their own mamas take care of them. They were being strong and fierce... and stupid. Jhana made a sour face when she had heard them talking. They were monsters! Why would you try to fight monsters? You run from them. Monsters could kill you. And they said that these had oily black skin and glowing eyes and stole the souls of little children. She counted as a children... they all counted as children. That would just get their souls stolen from them. Didn't they believe the stories? Didn't they know better? Jhana knew better.
She furrowed her brow and moved to sit at the table, crossing her arms. There were definitely monsters on Yael, and those of the worse kind. They sucked out souls and devoured little children. They lurked in the night and hunted for them, with their oily black skin grubbing up everything they touched. Jhana thought about their skin and cringed. If there was anything she hated just as much as monsters, it was messes, and their skin was messy. And they would come for everyone, not just the earthlings on Yael. Jhana was so sure of it.
The question now was where did they come from? Little Jhana rubbed her temples. It was too much thinking for her right now, but she knew they had to have come from somewhere. And what if someone had sent them? What if someone was planning to take over again? She shivered at the thought. But she was sure of it. These monsters came out of nowhere. They had to have been sent to Tendaji by someone evil. Or maybe it was a group. An evil group that sent monsters down to take her away from her family.
Jhana had to work to calm herself. Now she was getting too carried away. She couldn't work on a plan if she just kept thinking in circles. She pushed away from the table and stood up. She had to tell her mamas. She had to let them know that there were monsters coming. They would know what to do. Her mamas were so smart they always knew what to do and they would keep her and her brother and sister safe. She was sure of that. She pulled her clothes back into their proper places and took off running up the stairs to their tree home, looking for either of her mamas.
Jhana hustled and bustled through her room, cleaning anything and everything she could get her hands on. It was the thing that she did when she was nervous or just thinking too hard about something. And in this case she was downright frantic. She felt herself vibrating with the worry and stress of it all and she just couldn’t stay still. She moved things off of shelves, then back onto shelves, cleared out dust, moved her smaller furniture. Eventually she had made it to the chest at the foot of her bed. She pulled a blanket out from inside of the big thing and threw it on top of herself, falling onto her bed.
It was hopeless. What was she supposed to do with herself? She wanted to be a guardian, or at least she had thought she wanted to be a guardian… but she just didn’t like it. Animals were messy, she would need to look after it, feed it, watch it grow and become too big for her to handle. How was she supposed to manage that? And on top of that… well… she wasn’t too keen on fighting. She sighed in frustration and threw the blankets over her face. Shima didn’t have this problem. Shima was ready for a fight, ready to defend honors and keep up the Sister’s spirit. She was ready to join the alkidike, just like their mother Jerarda. And dammit Jhana wanted to, too! But she wasn’t born with that spunk. She was too worried all the time, she wanted to control everything too much, and thought the worst about every unknown outcome. She would die in battle. She groaned to herself. She was weak.
Jerami didn’t have this problem either. Jerami seemed to know already that the alk life wasn’t for him. He was happy with his fabrics and his dresses. He had found what he wanted to do with himself, and she was so happy for him… but also jealous. It was so much easier for her two siblings, what was life to bring her? What was she to do if she couldn’t handle being a fighter? She was wrapped up in her terrible woes, her hopeless feelings, and overdramatic self pitying. It was typical Jhana style, but it still felt terrible and like the end of the world to her. She needed to make her choices, but she didn’t know what it was she could even doooooo.
She tossed and turned in her bed, throwing the covers over her, then off, then over again, before finally tossing them to the side once more and hopping out of bed. She was a mess. She turned to leave the room and then stopped abruptly, her antennae twitching. She needed to fold that blanket. She tugged and pulled on it, getting it back to neat and tidy and put it gently back into the very spot she pulled it out from. Being upset was no reason to make a mess of things, and to Jhana one blanket out of place was considered a mess. She whipped around and hurried out of the door, closing it with a slam behind her. She needed to think, she needed to know. But she knew she couldn’t fight. She sighed at herself and only stopped when she was far enough away that she couldn’t see her home tree anymore.
She plopped herself on top of a small stump near the creek and furrowed her brows, her hands holding up her chin. She had always wanted since she was little to be a Sister. She felt it in her blood, she needed it to be true… but without the desire to fight, she didn’t feel very Sister-like at all. What hope was there for her? She loved her mama Aminah, but she didn’t want an earthling class. It was hard for her to think of doing anything other than she had wanted to do since she was a little girl. Her mother Jerarda was just so strong and fierce, and it left such an impact on Jhana she wanted to be that. She put her face in her hands and tried, tried like hell to just think of a solution. Throw out the pity and shame and think of how she was going to make this work. Even if her sister was strong enough to be a guardian, it would do Jhana no good to wallow in her despair.
What could she do? She didn’t want to fight… but she wanted to help. She wanted to be a Sister. She wanted to be strong. She felt an idea almost click on in her head, and she started to think together a plan. What if she just worked on being strong? What if she helped her Sisters a different way, a way that would mean she didn’t have to fight? She thought to the woman she had met before, the Alkidike Sister who had lost her vision. She was a blacksmith. Even without being able to see she was useful. She made the weapons and armor that the Sisters wore. It was the first she had met, but surely couldn’t be the first out there. She knew she had heard other Alkidike talking about blacksmiths, and someone had to make the things that the Alkidike used. The question was though, did she like weapons enough to do that? Would she be proud of herself to do that? It wasn’t fighting, but she wasn’t a fighter. She thought of her mothers and what they did, and then her siblings and what they wanted to do. She knew she could be a blacksmith and feel proud she was helping the Sisters, but she still had to think about how much she liked weapons. Well, she could make the weapons more elegant, more sophisticated, more pretty. And that was something she could live with. That was something she could be proud of. Because everything deserved to be sophisticated and less crude. She thought of the weapons she saw the Sisters carrying around and she thought of the improvements she could make. The designs and engravings she could imagine and put onto the weapons and armors. And the armor was just even more opportunities. Leather working and scales, and crystals. It all sounded very exciting to her. She just hoped it wasn’t too late to learn. She wasn’t used to not having a plan until the last second, and while many would argue it wasn’t even close to the last second, Jhana didn’t think so. Everyone she knew already had their life planned out for them. But now Jhana had a plan. And she already liked drawing and scraping in the dirt, she could just… elaborate. It was so overly simplified than what she would be doing that she could laugh at herself, but at least it was a start.
She felt herself swell up, her plan clicking into place. If she did this… she could be a Sister still. She jumped up from her seat on the stump and nearly bounced in her place. She had to tell her mamas, especially Jerarda. She would be so proud of her. She would be a Sister. She tugged on and patted her clothes, trying to get the dust and dirt off of them before she took off for home. She couldn’t wait to share the news.
[word count: 1,236]
kaname423 Crew
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kaname423 Crew
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 4:20 pm
Pem
Jhana sat in her room cross legged on the floor, staring in disbelief at what she was seeing. Her Mama had given her a present. And it was one of the most unexpected things she could have imagined. Her Mama gave her a pet.
The little moracker was scrambling around the room, looking every which way to figure out all that there was to figure out. And Jhana could only imagine that escape was one of the things on its mind. Her mind. Her mama had pointed out that it was a ‘she’, and so now Jhana had to figure out a name for her and while she was shocked, she was also excited. She had her very own moracker. Her whole life growing up, she had watched Aminah’s moracker Niiro and wanted nothing more than to play with him. She guessed her mama had noticed and finally surprised her with her own. She grinned and leaned over, scooping the moracker in her arms and playing with its ears. It was terrified of her, she knew that. She was strange looking to people already, let alone a small animal who had no idea why it had ended up in this room.
”So what are we naming you, huh?” She almost cooed to the moracker. It shivered in her arms and thumped its tail against her. ”How about Pem? Do you like Pem?” She knew the moracker wouldn’t respond, but it’s ears twitched at the ‘P’ sound in the name and Jhana laughed out. ”Ok, so Pem it is.” She scratched it behind the ears and it looked at her with curiosity. Maybe she would do a good job taking care of her. To be fair, she had helped her mama look after Niiro when she was younger, she should be able to handle one of her own now.
[word count: 314]
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 5:06 pm
Skin Deep (Growth Solo)
[Jhana meets a Sister who refuses to teach her her trade, based on her lineage, and Jhana must face the fact that not only will some not want to teach her, but some might not want to use her services just for being who she is.]
Jhana was vibrating with her thoughts. She didn’t know what was going to happen, but it had all come out anyways. She had woken up, just like any other morning, but for some reason the words just spilled out of her mouth. Jhana had finally told her mothers what it was she wanted to do, how she wanted to make weapons for her Sisters, and she didn’t want to fight, but she wanted to be accepted as an Alkidike. They were both very happy for her, and she was proud that she could make them proud. But now she needed a teacher. She didn’t know the first thing about smithing, and while she was eager to learn, she couldn’t do that without the help and guidance of being under someone else’s wing. At the time, she had bitten her lip, chewing on her thoughts, and wondering how it was she was going to find someone. She didn’t really have connections; they lived on the edge of the Alkidike village. But her mother Jerarda always came through. She gave Jhana the name of someone who was looking for an apprentice. Someone to take on the craft and someday replace her when she was too old to do the work.
Jhana packed her little satchel with enough to last her the day, and immediately had headed out toward the town, looking for a gnarled looking smokey smithing compound that Kereni worked out of. From what her mother had said, Kereni was an older woman, and stubborn, but she was one of the best to learn from in Andile. And Jhana was excited to have the chance to meet her. She thought to Dyakida, the blind blacksmith she had met not too long ago, and wondered if she had learned from Kereni or some other Sister who had maybe learned under her. If she was an older woman, then Jhana wouldn’t be her first student.
She came to the old gnarled tree quite easily, it was large and the soot of the fires had blackened the bark to the point where it looked like nothing might clean it off. Kereni was already working, and Jhana knew that she probably had been for hours already. Blacksmiths started early after all. ”Um, hello there. My mother Jerarda told me that you might be looking for a new apprentice blacksmith to train?” She opened up, hoping she didn’t sound like too much of a dolt. The woman looked her over briefly… too briefly. ”Nope, don’t need it. Look elsewhere.” Was all the response Jhana could get from her.
She was more than just a little taken aback, and with her antennae twitching, she felt her shoulders tense up. Jerarda did say she was stubborn, was this what she meant? ”Are… are you sure? I was told you needed help.” She pushed. The Sister looked at her with cold black eyes, the exact opposite of her hot furnace and smacked her lips. ”Not from you, send me a real Sister.” And with that Kereni went back to her work. Jhana stood in the entrance, her mouth nearly hitting the floor. A… real Sister? Jhana thought to her hair and her eyes and her odd crystals and felt her anxiety kick in. She was being rejected for being a hybrid. She suddenly felt naked, then felt her skin get hot. She wasn’t prone to anger, but this was her future, and this woman was being a bigot? ”I am a real Sister.” She struggled to get out through her teeth. The woman scoffed at her. ”Honey, I think you and I both know you’re no Sister, and you’re no good here. Now get out.” The Alkidike pointed to the door with one of her tools and Jhana opened her mouth to argue, but then closed it abruptly. ”What good would I learn from you anyways?” She spat out, her back already towards the woman.
She felt the tears well up in her eyes. What good was it wanting to be a Sister if they didn’t want her? She hurried from the village and back towards home, just wanting to be out of sight where she could cry without anyone else seeing. She sat on a flat crystal, holding her head in her hands and feeling miserable for herself. Sure, it’s not like the woman had said terrible terrible slurs or anything, but still, what was she supposed to do? She would always be a hybrid. She couldn’t hide her crystals, she couldn’t change her eyes. Yes, she could have dreads, and she wanted to be a Sister, so she would eventually have dreads, but everyone would know she was different regardless.
She wiped the tears from her eyes and took a deep breath. So she wouldn’t be training under Kereni, soooo… it was harder to accept, but so some Sisters wouldn’t want her weapons. She would just have to make them better than anyone else. She would have to make the Sisters want her weapons. She would earn her name and Sisters would come for her weapons before they even knew she was a hybrid. She would be better. And she would learn from someone better. Kereni couldn’t be that good if she would turn someone away based on just their looks. So she would suck it up, blow her off, and find someone else. It was easier said than done, no doubt she would be crying more tonight, especially when she would have to tell her mothers what had happened, and that she still didn’t have a teacher, but day by day she would get through it. Or at least that was the hope. She had to be determined.
She stood from the crystals she sat on and lifted her shoulders, already squaring up for the tears that would happen once she was home. She couldn’t help those, but she would not give up. This was just the start, right?
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