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 Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 5:58 pm
O R P x R E F L E C T I O NSnowball Fight! Built a fort, threw some snow, found a fairy. What more is there to really say?Results: +1 Meta Point; Fun was had.
ORP Posts: 1
JR Word Count: 16
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Posted: Wed May 23, 2018 2:04 pm
D E V E L O P M E N T A L x S O L O
Quality of Life The rain had turned to sleet, which then turned to a crumbling, slick sheet of ice that coated the ground in slippery, fragmented crystals that crunched under Akiyal’s- and Ahdaia’s- boots as they moved through the village center. The Fire woman, clearly unaccustomed to and uncertain of the various weather changes, was bundled in more layers than Aki had ever seen on a person, arms coiled around herself and face tucked down into the tall neck of her shirt. It suited him just fine. There wasn’t much he wanted to say to her, anyway.
It wasn’t often that his aunt acted as if she was expressly pleased with what was going on around her as far as Akiyal could tell; she grumbled quietly even now. But it had been less quiet when the others were around. When it had been raining, the cottage had been ‘unsuitable for life.’ Now that it was frigid, the air was so crisp that it was ‘suffocatingly stinging.’ She’d complained to Xilarn while he was available, claiming over and over that this ‘inhospitable town’ was no place for someone like him, only to be met with reminders that Sauti was ‘his home now.’ Aki didn’t think it necessary for him to pipe anything into the conversation, but somehow, by the end of it, his father had left to return to Oba and hadn’t made any specific promises of when he might return. All it had taken were Ahdaia’s complaints (and perhaps a little something else), and Xilarn had left. Akiyal had wanted to like her, despite her constant grievances, but now… Now it felt as if she, like everyone else, had decided to turn against him, by aiding in the efforts to convince his father to ‘return home.’
’This is home,’ Akiyal seethed silently as he kept pace at the woman’s side. He could complain all he wanted to about whatever needed to be complained about: that Kesris was small and boring, that he was destined for adventure and oughtn’t be cooped up, that no one should’ve tried to stifle his spirit.. But whatever he said didn’t change the sensation that no one else ought to be able to spew such slander to try and convince his stupid old man to leave Sauti when Akiyal had tried his whole life and always failed.
But when everyone else wanted something… His father had left pretty quickly, towards Zena, with the intention of circling around and winding up in Oba for some unspecified amount of time with a boy. Yiiilck. Akiyal hated Oba. Akiyal hates Obans just as much. Every single time he came into contact with one, the results of the encounter were just… consistently unpleasant, and there didn’t ever see like a way to remedy the upset.
Akiyal puffed softly, a cloud of smoke forming at his lips as his warm breath met the chill air. His gaze skimmed off to the side to glower discreetly at the woman next to him. Ahdaia didn’t seem to notice. Her head was down. She must have seen movement of some sort from the corner of her eye, though. The Oban woman peered up at him from the bundle of fabric swathed around her. Red eyes crinkled up as if she might’ve been smiling, but her lips were still covered. Akiyal didn’t feel especially enthusiastic about doing anything that pleased her, anyway.
“Hey, Akiyal.” Her voice was slightly muffled beneath her layers, but understandable enough. “Thanks for coming out with me. I bought something for you from Oba and had it delivered here. I’m going to head home soon too, so I wanted to make sure you got it before I set off.”
Of course she f'ing was.
It shouldn’t have offended him as much as it did in that moment, considering how much he’d internally complained about her just on the walk from the house, but how dare she f'ing think she could show up when it pleased her and leave on her own time after disrupting everything Akiyal had known. Instead, he tried to focus on something less dissatisfying. She’d gotten something for him, and he did like presents.
So, he looked to her more fully, and tried not to frown quite so hard. ”Yeah?” He queried. ”What is it that you had to get it all the way from Oba?”
“There’s hardly anything worth getting from anywhere outside of Oba,” she retorted, while Akiyal tried to still look more interested than annoyed. “We have the finest craftsmen and mines in the canyon to harvest suitable materials from. There’s not anything I don’t buy from Oba-!”
”Fur?”
“I don’t need fur. Anyway, recently, a good handful of Yaeli tribesmen have come across the sea into my country. They’ve brought some new techniques with them that we’ve managed to refine and perfect so that we may fashion accessories to improve poor vision like yours. Because I’ve noticed in our time together that youuu… don’t see very well. It’s pitiful. I ordered you glasses! I think they’ll improve your quality of life. It’s really a shame your father didn’t have the resources for it before now, but not to worry. I had only the best picked out and sent to us.”
Akiyal was quickly overrun with a slew of conflicting emotions. On one hand, he liked to be given things, but on the other, how could one woman sound so pompous? His ‘quality of life’ was fine. He’d gotten on just fine and could see well enough, and he’d been provided for. ‘Her’ country, Ahdaia called it. ‘We’ve’ managed to refine, as though she had some skill with it herself. Maybe she did, but since she’d had to have her gift delivered, Aki suspected not. Pitiful. Pitiful, pitiful, pitiful, his aunt had called him. But Ahdaia had gotten him a present, and he knew she was trying to help, regardless of how much an a** she sounded.
He’d wanted to like Ahdaia, his aunt, his father’s sister, but regardless of what he wanted, he still grit his teeth and tasted bile half the time she spoke. So Akiyal chose to say nothing else to her as they made their way to the delivery post. He said nothing as she collected her package and paid and nothing as they started back the way they’d come. Ahdaia handed him the parcel, and it was all he could do to grumble out a half-hearted ‘thanks’ and hope it sounded sincere enough to be ‘worthy’ of her attention and presents in the future.x
x
Results: Ahdaia buys Aki a present, but he's still a grump.
Word Count: 1091
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Posted: Wed May 23, 2018 2:10 pm
P R P x R E F L E C T I O NThings Left Abandoned AKIYAL'S THOUGHTSResults: ???
PRP Posts: ???
JR Word Count: ???
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Posted: Wed May 23, 2018 2:37 pm
The last time they rallied us together into a group like this, we all watched as one of our own was abducted into the shadows by a creature that may as well be related to the Alkidike. This time, they ask as to gather for a meeting, and they tell us that not only was that abduction meaningless, since the creatures are not after Earthlings, but also that what the shadow bug mages do want are the Alkidikes.
The same Alkidikes who have indiscriminately killed Earthlings, tried to take over our lands, think of us as lesser, shun us from their territory, are in danger from a threat that they cannot stop. And somehow, the leaders of the Wind and Ice tribes have called upon those in their nations to ask if we would like to help. Them.
I do not understand- I couldn't possibly understand how anyone would think this a good idea.
The way I see it, right now, we have two problems. The Alkidike have always hated Earthlings and tried to be rid of us, first from Jauhar and then from the entire rest of Tendaji. They're a problem. The Dretch are clearly capable of great and evil magic. Maybe it's true that once they're finished with the Alkidike, they'll move on to earthlings. But right now, both the Earthlings' problems are distracted with each other. Either way, by the end of their war, we'll be down to one 'problem,' and regardless of which it is, they'll be weakened and weary and easier to dispose of once the first wave is over.
I will not ever help an Alkidike. In their attempt at conquest, they killed my mother and ruined my life. I will happily watch them be slaughtered before I lift a finger to do anything in their service.Results: +2 Meta Points; the Alkidike are in trouble, and Aki doesn't care.
META Posts: 2
JR Word Count: 303
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Posted: Wed May 23, 2018 2:44 pm
B A T T L E x R E F L E C T I O N[Sauti] Akiyal vs Callum ...
(N/A - NRP battle)Results: Lost the battle.
Word Count: N/A
JR Word Count: N/A
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Posted: Thu May 24, 2018 11:16 am
G R O W T H x S O L O
A Little Bit of a Fixer-Upper He might have been a child again, laying on the floor of his bedroom (not the bed, the floor) with his fingers curled against and his face buried into the dense coat of Naeght’s fur. It felt similarly as it did the first time he’d done it, the first time hearing a thrumming heartbeat so close to his ear and fluffy warmth under his hands and wings draping over him, covering him. Akiyal remembered the handful of days he’d spent wandering alone through Sauti’s plains before arriving here, and he remembered the first few days he’d spent in this house - not so much in terms of being able to recall perfectly specific instances, but he remembered the sensations.
When news of his mother’s death had came, he’d ran from the cluster of other Windlings she’d left him with. Vinestra had wanted to fight to protect her family and their land, their rights, but she could not bring a toddler to the battlefield. She’d left him in safe hands, among other nomads of his tribe unwilling to fight, and she had gone. His mother’s face was lost to him, now, the sound of her voice, gone, but he remembered that she’d almost never left his side before then, and he’d been confused why now was the time.
She did not come back, so he had left the security of others and quickly became lost in the world.
He remembered thinking that the nights were especially dark and that the stones beneath his bare feet were especially cold and sharp, more so than they had been before. What he didn’t remember was where he’d come from or how far he’d actually traveled. Maybe he hadn’t made it far at all, and had only managed to bumble about through the tall grasses and swatches of trees and crumbling earth far enough that he was out of sight, out of mind for those he’d been left with.
He remembered stumbling often, feeling so small and pitiful and hungry and weak and having no concept of how to even remedy this. There were no others around, once he’d left them, no towns, no animals, nothing… Only cold, dark nights and sharp stones in his feet. He’d probably cried. That felt like a given.
The first person he’d come across hadn’t looked like anyone he’d seen before. All of his mother’s comrades had been like him: pale-skinned, blond-haired, and blue-eyed. The man that had found Akiyal was not any of those things. He’d been dark-skinned, dark-haired, and red-eyed, like nothing Akiyal had ever seen. But the windling had been so small and so weak and so hungry, that even if the stranger wasn’t his mother, wasn’t who he’d been looking for, there wasn’t much he could do to argue, and he definitely remembered trying to argue.
Akiyal hadn’t slept or eaten during those first days. It didn’t matter how tired he was. It didn’t matter how sick. It didn’t matter how hungry. He’d come out here for his momma, and there would be no substitutes.
And that had prompted something he did remember very specifically. ’It’s not right.’ The exact surrounding conversation that had prompted the words were lost to him, but he remembered Xilarn looking at him, while Aki sat on the floor and huddled into himself, and whispering, “It’s not right.”
‘It’s not right’ that you wandered so far by yourself. ‘It’s not right’ that your mother left you in the hands of strangers. ‘It’s not right’ that no one has found you yet. I will not leave you to die alone. ‘It’s not right.’ Something like that, Akiyal was sure. But he remembered he didn’t try as hard to leave after that, and even if he was still uncertain of the man that had found him, he’d obtained a new companion in one of the beasts Xilarn raised. Naeght was soft to the touch. He came when he was called, he stood by while Akiyal slept- laying on him had felt almost like it felt to be with his mother. Akiyal remembered loving Naeght immediately. Nothing had ever been so loyal.
Still nothing was.
Aki skimmed his fingers along the raptrix’s flank. ‘Loyalty’ seemed like one of the most special and prized rewards that anyone could offer to another person. He had been loyal only to his mother. Aki had only ever risked death for her because she had earned it from him. She had been by his side for the earliest years of his life, providing for him, adventuring with him, risking herself for him (though Akiyal wished she hadn’t). He had been willing to do nearly anything to find her, but in the end, she had left him. He’d been ‘loyal’ to her and had found himself alone. No one had earned it, since, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to give his loyalty away again.
Not to his father, who had protected and raised him and cared for him three times as long as Vinestra. Not to his first and closest friend, who had needed Aki’s aid after his own family had been separated. That should have been something he understood and was willing to help his friend out with. But it wasn’t, and now Akiyal was alone again.
For every person that Akiyal met and thought he may not mind being close to, there had always come something that they disagreed on. He knew he was stubborn, and it was true that he wanted what he wanted, but when he should’ve taken the time to put someone else’s needs over his own wants, he didn’t. Akiyal had no loyalty, no compassion, and now he was alone. The thought rang so loud in his head as he lay on his bedroom floor, fingers curled into his raptrix’s fur. He was alone, he was alone, he was alone. Everyone had left him: Xilarn, Kan, Nikaio, Ahdaia, Callum... All gone.
It could be all of their faults, he’d tried to reason. If they would conform to him, they’d have all gotten on just fine.
Except- ‘It’s not right.’ Akiyal grimaced. He could hear the exact inflection of the words as if they were being spoken aloud to him. ‘It’s not right’ for you to be so selfish. They’d tried to be his friends, or his parent, in Xilarn’s case, but when Akiyal heard something he didn’t like or saw something he wasn’t interested in… He left, and when he did, he expected his friends to see the error of their ways and crawl back to him apologizing… They never did, but he’d always expected it.
‘It’s not right.’ How could he possibly be right, when he was always the one left alone?
There wasn't much he could do for most of it. Xilarn and Ahdaia were in Oba. Nikaio and Callum could be anywhere after they'd separated. But Kan, his first friend, his best friend, lived here in Kesris, with the mother that he'd had to hunt down alone, since Akiyal refused to help him. They were both here, now. Xilarn had spoken to them, so Akiyal knew they were, even if he'd never mustered the courage to do so himself.
But now seemed the time, even though it was dark, late, and they probably would've gone to bed already.
Akiyal stood, dusted his clothes of the wrinkles and fur they'd collected from laying on the floor with his pet and headed for the door. Somehow being out at night with the wind whipping and a chill in the air always brought forth an uncomfortable ril in his stomach of the first nights he’d spent alone. Luckily, Kan and Janella didn’t live far.
When he reached their home, he knocked and received no answer. So he tried again a bit louder. There was no lock on the door, so he could always invite himself in and explain away his presence afterwards, but that didn’t seem liek the message he was trying to send, at present. He wanted to be polite, and for everything he said to be believable…
A groggy Janella opened the door. Akiyal hadn’t seen her since he’d been in Tale, months and months ago now… She didn’t look as though she’d suffered any hardship, but from what he’d heard, she’d had a difficult and unpleasant time contending with the group of bandits who’d raided them… A pretty woman being abducted by a group of men… It coldn’t possibly have been good. The knot that formed in his throat at the thought of someone he’d known so long being wronged was enough to leave him briefly speechless.
But Janella smiled at him as though looking at her own son. “Akiyal,” her voice was quiet in the night. “Are you alright, hon? It’s a bit late for Kan to come out and play, don’tcha think?”
”A-ah...” He was surprised that even just the one sound managed to crack in his throat. ”No, I was...” Akiyal had come to speak to Kan, to tell him he was sorry for not standing by him and helping him search for his mother when he should’ve. But really… the woman before him had probably suffered more. With Naeght’s sense of smell, they probably could have found her very quickly… Instead, AKi had taken interest in a boy he’d stayed with for only a couple weeks before abandoning him too. ”I’m sorry.” It was almost a surprise how easily they came out when he looked to her.
”I’m sorry I left you and dragged Kan up to Zena instead of helping him find you. I shouldn’t have left him; we both should’ve stayed, I could’ve helped you. Y-you been like a momma to me, and I… I just wanna be there for my family...” Maybe it was a little inarticulate, and Janella clearly hadn’t expected to see him at all, but-
Her arms were around him all but before the words had fully left his mouth. “Baby,” she whispered, and her fingers moved to pet his hair. “I don’t blame you. I’m not angry at you. You oughta know that much… Sometimes we make choices we aren’t proud of, but… I’m home. And you came home too, didn’t you? You didn’t leave us..” She pulled back, cupped his cheeks and her palms and smiled. “And there ain’t much I can’t handle, so don’t be sorry, baby..”
He was still just a boy to her, Akiyal knew, a kid she’d helped raise- a dumb kid.
“Do you want to come in? You can stay the night… Talk to Kan in the morning…?”
Akiyal cast a quick glance down the road he’d come from. He wasn’t frightened of being alone in his home, but… That didn’t necessarily mean he wanted to be. At his nod, Janella led him inside. “Why don’t I put a kettle on the fire? And we can talk some about how you’re feeling…”x
x
Results: Akiyal is a selfish kid. After his mother left him to fight in the war against Alkidikes, he has always feared being alone, and yet consistently has difficulties acting in selfless ways to aid the people he cares about. On some level, he is frightened of forming a strong emotional attachment, since he considers his mother to be the first and only one he had an actual bond with, and she was only with him for a few years. So he has never really seen it as necessary to make sacrifices for anyone else. He expects others to feel loyal to him, without giving anything in return.
But this always seems to result in him feeling 'abandoned' by the people he is trying to be friends with. Even though it is often Akiyal who does the physical act of leaving, he considers that others are always in the wrong and drove him to it.
Here he reflects at length on what has driven him to this point, why he feels the way he does, and comes to the realization that it is at least sometimes not everyone else's fault for taking issue with him. His apology to Janella is an acknowledgement that he has wronged her and a private admission that he does want something more than to just have replaceable comrades. It won't be especially obvious at first, but this is a step toward being someone who can give as much as he takes.
Word Count: 1821
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Posted: Fri May 25, 2018 9:18 am
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