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 Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:34 am
((Ha, I'm such a slowpoke. Sorry for the wait, everyone. Insert usual life-based excuses here. Anyway, my basic idea for this is that ICly everybody met in the famously seedy Athonian marketplace and Anise, having a certain quest in mind but having lost touch with her former companions, spotted your characters and struck up a conversation with them in the interest of starting a new party. Anise suggested meeting at a local tavern sometime in the evening, though now it's more like the middle of the night. You can come up with your own excuse as to why your char is late. XD
Whether or not everybody was in a group at the marketplace when Anise approached them is up to you--you can all RP as strangers to each other if you want, so long as everybody recognizes Anise. She should be pretty easy to remember ICly what with her attire. I tried to keep everything vague so you guys could play it however you wanted to. I wouldn't have done it all, but I figured it was the only way to smoothly kickstart things.
Anyway, enough of my blathering! Let's get on with the fun stuff.))
***
It was a cold and clear autumn night in Ath, and the darkness was filled with the muffled noises of quiet lives and racous taverns. A cold breeze drifted through the damp and mostly empty cobblestone streets, and towering above everything in the moon's shadow, the huge Battle Dome glistened ominously, it's blood red towers featureless silhouettes in the moonlight. Despite the reasonable weather and the clear, starry sky, a sort of invisible tension hung over the city, like a heavy blanket one could feel but not touch or see. Those who were unfortunate enough to be out this late conducted their business as quickly and quietly as they could, an attitude that made everyone look like they were up to no good, even if their business was enitrely honest. Even the courteseans who were used to every kind of evil a city has to offer seemed unusually jumpy, and they huddled together under streetlights in large groups, wandering as little as possible. Somewhere in the distance, someone--or something--screamed.
Anise turned and went back through the creaky wooden door. It didn't smell any better outside the tavern then it did inside. How the patrons here managed to stand the overwhelming stench of unclean bodies, freely flowing alcohol, and less then fresh food was a mystery to the young girl. She would have left to find a different establishment, but if the past few weeks had shown her anything, it was that these sort of places all smelled the same. That fact coupled with her dwindling purse of gold restricted her choices somewhat.
She sat back down at her table and pretended the wooden mug holding her water was clean as she took a sip from it, the remains of a gravy-intensive meal still laying on the table. Anise supposed the two serving wenches were too busy getting hit on to stop by. To be honest she didn't really care. The food had actually been pretty good, and the little globules of sauce and breadcrumbs were actually kind of fun to play with, as Anise desperately tried to distract herself from the fact that she was bored out of her skull. Somewhere behind her, a table of less than sober fisherman broke into song, and Anise grimaced as she felt droplets of ale--at least, she hoped it was ale--splatter against the back of her head. Muttering, she slid her chair over to the right, closer to the bar and hopefully out of hurling range. She winced as the short sword sheathed at her hip jabbed her in the thigh for the dozenth time that day, and mentally swore at herself for forgetting to move it yet again. It seemed as if she would never get used to her new role as a traveling warrior maiden.
Six months had passed since her arrival in the world of Secotha. It had not been a pleasant journey. Her first three weeks had been spent in utter terror, semi starvation, and eventually had culminated in a series of events that had led to her contracting the dreaded disease known only as "Bloodfire". Her luck had changed slightly for the better when she had encountered a lone man and his wolf in the forest, a pair named Sryne and Max respectively, although journeying with them had almost been as dangerous as staying in the Shelk'ma. Despite this, Anise viewed her time spent with them and what had eventually become a much larger group as time well spent--even if it had led to a lot of pain, terror, and had generally unseated and torn apart Anise's own view of reality. Two constant reminders of this glistened on her body at that very moment. The first sat just below her neck and above her breasts: A huge, mishapen and perfectly smooth circle of gold, burned permenantly into her skin. It was all that was left of a translation amulet that allowed her to understand speech that was not her own. For while Anise was now a resident of Secotha, it was not her home. The plain seventeen year old girl hailed from Earth, a world both very far from and very close to Secotha. A world she had permenantly given up hope of ever seeing again. She poked the melted medallion, grateful that it's magic was still in effect, because the Secothian language was no more familiar to her now then it had been six months ago.
The second reminder was a thick, leathery gauntlet, colored a pale reddish pink, extended from her left shoulder all the way down to the fingertips of her left hand. Faint circles of orange symbols could be seen glowing all over it, and their glow intensified the closer Anise got to flame's light. The high priest of Lyl who had magically sealed the gauntlet onto her arm told her that this was the only way to protect the rest of the world from the evil that now raged inside her: Bloodfire. It was a disease that would eventually claim her life--as well as the rest of her body--turning her into a flaming demon of destruction, chaos and death. The disease had in fact already done this for a brief period of time in the priest's own temple, which explained the building's almost total anihilation. The disease was part magical, part biological, carried on the teeth of powerful lythos--werewolves--who roamed the Shelk'ma. Anise could barely remember meeting the creature who had infected her, but from what she recalled of him in her nightmares, they were memories she was glad to be without. The disease had already completely claimed her left arm and part of her shoulder, and no amount of white magic would ever heal it. The gauntlet was there to stop her from setting everything on fire. The danger the arm posed to her own person was, ironically, minimal, as Anise was now completely immune to burns.
Anise still wasn't sure whether or not the priest of Lyl had been telling her the truth, especially since the truth seemed like something straight out of a bad fantasy novel. But if nothing else, Anise's time in Secotha had hardened her, and she was quickly becoming used to seeing, hearing, and feeling things that should have only existed in bad novels. She wasn't sure if this growing apathy and lack of surprise was a good or bad thing...and even if the "Bloodfire" wasn't real, there was certainly something wrong with her. The priest's explanation seemed as good as any. Anise winced as the song behind her reached it's fourth chorus, and she flexed her left arm, trying to keep it from going numb as it often did underneath the bulky leather shell. At least it was handy in a fight, augmenting her already growing powers. What at first had drained her so badly was now what kept her alive when she traveled. Many foul beasts roamed the woods and the roads at night, sometimes even in broad daylight, and at first her more experienced traveling companions were all that stood between her and death. But slowly, her weakness had become her strength, until one day she surpassed her companions in physical prowess. The priest said that might happen. Apparently things would get better before they got worse, in this case. The disease would charge her up, give her extraordinary power...before consuming her body and killing her. Or, worse, simply taking over her body and relegating her consciousness to a dark corner of her own mind, doomed to look out through flaming eyes for all of eternity. Anise remembered all too well the struggle for control she had endured in the temple. The Bloodfire was almost like another person, sharing her body. The fear that that person would take over again for good was what kept Anise awake at night. Well, that and the nightmares. It seemed all she could dream about anymore were dancing flames and huge, hulking monsters with dripping teeth and crimson red eyes.
"C'n I take that for ya love?" Screeched the overweight serving wench, looking like too much person poured into too little corset.
"Yeah, sure." Anise said dully, trying not to stare. The wench scooped up Anise's dirty dishes and disappeared behind the bar. Behind Anise, the cavorting fisherman were getting up to leave, for which she was silently thankful. She glanced at the door, and swore inwardly. Where the hell were they? The other adventurers she'd met earlier that day in the marketplace had promised to meet her here sometime in the night. Anise hadn't really been too picky when--any excuse not to sleep was a good one--but she'd underestimated how boring this place would actually be. Anixously she drummed her leather-bound fingers on the table, glaring at the backs of the fisherman as they lurched out of the door. Maybe they would take some of that awful smell with them.
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Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 10:36 am
((Sweetness. I'll stick with Fao. I don't feel like making up another character xd ))
It was official. Fao hated cities. Her first time into the city she'd met an insane band of people in a temple, a temple no less. They'd dragged her into a battle against a vampire and a human with a demon under her flesh. When she went to Gnal, which was small, but still a city in her eyes, men had made it a sport to try to rob her. She always beat them, she was quicker and stronger, so they started betting against their friends about how long it would take. She couldn't rest for fear of another attack.
So she left.
She had headed back the way she came, but this time, fearing more trouble in Amerkand, she went to Ath.
And who should she meet in the marketplace, but Bloofire girl, herself. The girl's name was Anise, and she was crazy. She thought she was from some "other world." Her clothes sure looked like it, but still, how could that be possible?
A few of the men from Gnal had shown up as Fao was heading towards the tavern Anise had invited her to. She was being polite, but she didn't really want to go. She knew that if that girl got one scratch she'd burst into flame and tromp around breaking things, so she was prepared.
Anyway, the men from Gnal, who were there for trading but were finished for the day, had spotted her and tried to sneak up on her. Of course that hadn't worked. She was an elf, after all. And she proceeded to beat the snot out of the piggy humans.
But it had succeeded in making her terribly late. She bounded through the streets, racing for the tavern. She didn't need to hurry, but she wanted to. She was usually a very prompt person.
She spotted the swinging sign attatched to the building, the Parched Trout, and scoffed. What a stupid name.
Through the doors, to see anise practically twidling her thumbs with boredom.
"Good eveing, Anise," she said cordially, as she slid into the seat across from the strange looking girl. The human didn't look quite as strange anymore, her crazy clothes had been burnt to nonexistence when the demon disease had burst forth, so now she was wearing close from this world.
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Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:37 am
Sachara looked around the large city, still greatly confused. Six months ago, she had been comfortably staying in Amerkand, living off of a bard and her sister. However, through her travels just recently, she had forgotten their names, much to her depression.
Moving through this city was more difficult, by much measure. She had had a guide, or a person who had acted as one, at least, to lead her through Amerkand. Especially after being chased by a large mob. Here, though, she was quite alone.
That, though, was going to change soon. Sachara had met someone claiming to have come through the portal. She had just happened to fall upon the marketplace earlier that afternoon, and was now moving through the crowded streets to find her once more.
As she moved into a district filled with more taverns, an acrid smell reached her, and her stomach lurched. Forcing herself to ignore the putrid stench around her, she looked up at the signs, finally finding the Parched Trout. She moved through the door, being nearly trampled by a band of large sailors. Finally, she made her way into the tavern and found the girl with the leather gauntlet upon her arm. The other had already gotten there. Of course, with Sachara's horrid memory, their names were lost as well. I have no idea what to say to them! I don't know their names! I need to remember things like this much better next time... How embarassing!
She moved to the table, her cumbersome staff hitting a few men on her way. She bowed in apology to each of them, many times hitting more men with her staff. Finally, she reachedit, "Hello there!" she said, taking a seat. Searching her memory one lat time for the names, she found them. "Long time no see, Anise- Fao."
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 8:03 am
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 3:02 pm
((Sweet post, Haeo. Glad you could join us. XD))
"Well, well. Two elves and a wizard. This must be some kind of record. I'm glad you're all here. To be honest I didn't expect anyone to show up at all, but your being here makes things a lot easier for me. And hello again, Faoiltiama." Anise added the greeting on the end of her sentence in a slightly lower voice, with a nod and a fleeting smile. She remembered the she-elf quite well. Part of her felt better that a semi-familiar face was here, and Fao's presence went a long way towards quelling the constant and growing sense of lonliness Anise nursed from day to day. But another part of Anise was scared--she knew what Fao had seen of her disease. She knew the thoughts that went through her mind. They were the same thoughts of the comrades she had left behind, and of every other person she came into contact with. But Anise had been putting a great deal of practice into hiding her emotions lately. When she had first arrived on Secotha, she had let them spill out all over the place--the terror, the pain, the disorientation. Looking back on her early days in this world made her cringe, made her sick. She vowed it would never happen again. And so she strove to keep her attitude towards Fao casual, and hoped desperately that neither of them would start up a conversation about the events in the Temple of Lyl. They were events, Anise felt sure, both of them were anxious to forget.
The other two people were less familiar, though. The second elf maiden worried Anise somewhat; she seemed slightly clumsy. And to Anise, who was chronically unused to any species other than human, the fact that her quest had managed to attract not one but two elves was somewhat disturbing. But she set aside her inherent racism, knowing that she shouldn't judge the woman merely by her ears. Moreoever, the quest Anise wished to embark upon would be next to impossible on her own, and underneath her less than graceful exterior, Anise felt sure the she-elf was a capable warrior. Probably. Hopefully.
Her gaze rested somewhat longer on the pale magic wielder. Racial problems aside, he was most definitely the one who made her the most uncomfortable. Not only was he very strange looking, but his very presence seemed to make her entire body twinge in an extremely unpleasant fashion. The feeling was especially intense in her arm, which Anise later deduced was really the gauntlet, not her arm. The effect did not seem harmful, or even particularly painful, it was just...there. Always in the background. That gnawing, irritating worry that just wouldn't go away. She hated it, and a small part of her hated him. Found him repulsive. Wished desperately she'd never even approached him in the marketplace. Of all the people in the world...she'd attracted this lot...god, she must be insane...
Anise decided to say something more to them, both to keep them interested and to keep her own rampaging thoughts and emotions at bay. She cleared her throat and went on. "As you know, my name is Anise Thomas. I'd like to know your names before we get this conversation started, if you don't mind. I'll warn you I intend on rambling for a good long while about why you're here and what I have in mind, so if you've got anything to say, say it now. I'm afraid don't have time for interruptions. Can I offer any of you some drink, or food? I think I've got a little coin left..." She added hastily, hoping to detract from the potential aggression of her comment regarding interruptions. It had been meant not so much an inflammatory comment, simply a fact. Time was not her ally, and the more of it she spent here, in places like this, looking for people she didn't know, the less of it she could invest on getting home. She hoped the group assembled would be cool-headed enough not to challenge her overmuch--if Anise did not have time for interruptions, she had even less for arguments.
Partly out of nerves, and partly out of boredom, Anise absent-mindedly started to play with the small, lonely candle situated at the center of the round wooden table. She didn't even realize she'd started to swirl her fingers around in the hot wax, or to run her finger in circles around the tiny flame, until she accidentally managed to put the thing out. Swearing inwardly, she pulled her right hand back and put it on her knee, safely out of trouble and underneath the table where the others couldn't see it shaking. Nervously she smiled at the strangers, hoping against hope her foolish fiddling hadn't disturbed them. Well, maybe not the wizard. She didn't mind if she disturbed him. Maybe if she did, he'd leave.
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:04 pm
Another figure stood at the table. His presence made her shiver. She was used to strange looking people after traveling around Amerkand, however, not only did her look strange, he felt strange. She tried to see any magical energies whirling around him, but soon gave up as Anise began to speak.
As she finished, Sachara couldn't help but wonder one thing, and she was not afraid to voice her question. "My name is Sachara..." her voice trailed off, as though a last name was nonexistant. As though she hadn't stumbled, she moved on, "I wonder, though, why you are in such a hurry. Things have been this way for a long time. Long before I can remember... And no matter how long we take, I do have ot think that things will not change unless we do something about them. Time is... not of the essence."
She knew that things would not be agreed upon as she said this, but it was impossible for her to ignore this notion. She didn't remember a time where there were no whispers of the Gate, and mysterious objects that had never been seen before. It had been years, and she figured that it would be years more.
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 11:55 am
Fao frowned. Her familiar, Beowulf, would not take kindly to this new man when, and if, they left the city. The wolf wasn't particularly fond of males to begin with, and Fao could smell blood on him, if even in the slightest degree. Blood might set Beo off, make her skiddish and nervous and unfocused. That was not what Fao needed right now.
"Faoiltiama Lunaraine," she introduced herself. "Fao is fine, though," she amended, before the two strangers had time to be confused or otherwise.
She turned on the young elf and her comment. "Child, don't you understand? Things won't change until we do something, which is why we must impress haste. Time is of every importance. Before others like our esteemed Miss Thomas," she nodded to Anise, "come tumbling into our world, we must try something. I can only hope our hostess has some ideas.
((By the way, Kurikins, I peeked at the memberlist thing and I think I may have made a typo, because Fao is more around 170. Thus the condescending attitude. Sorry for being rude, Alex, Fao's kind of snobby.
Also, I assume back in the Temple Anise or Sryne told everyone about how Anise is from another world. Fao believed her.))
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 5:36 pm
(Nekcal is pronounced with two hard syllables)
Nekcal watched Anise play with the flame. His eyes focused icily on the flickering spark of heat as her tightly covered and warded fingers toyed with it. There was a vague dimness that flickered in his eyes, a calmly acknowledged and quickly hidden sympathy and pain. His bandaged hand tensed briefly before he turned his attention to the two elves and forced it to relax again.
Nekcal watched and listened in silence as the two women introduced themselves, assessing them physically, magically and mentally in a quite open manner. His eyes were clear and dispassionate, as they swept up and down. Faoiltiama Lunaraine and Sachara. A pretty enough couple of elven ladies, even if they don't seem to like me very much. He smiled, quite ironically, more at his own thoughts than at the conversation.
"My name is Nekcal." His eyes focused on Fao and Sachara and his smile tightened slightly into a more serious expression. "You don't seem to like me. Why is that?" Ever direct, Nekcal spoke evenly in a conversational tone. The dull pain in his hand was fading still further as he watched them.
These two both wield magic. Fao actually seems weaker in that regard than Sachara. Hmmm. I could be wrong though. I know too little of elves. Maybe the younger ones are stronger than their elders. Nekcal's left eyebrow drifted upwards, shifting his expression more in the direction of inquisitiveness. His gray robes didn't blend into these surroundings any more than his odd metallic staff. He shifted the energies around himself so that they would be more visible to others who had skill in magic out of politeness. The twisting flows of energy crossed and looped unnaturally around and through him, warped, distorted and sometimes even jagged. The flows were progressively less distorted farther away from his body and staff but the strange influence would make any normal magic within that area highly unstable if not insanely dangerous to attempt since the behavior of any spell would be unpredictable.
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 8:21 pm
Sachara narrowed her eyes at the man after giving Fao's coarseness at her the brush off. His aura flowed oddly, and even Sachara, who had never been very good at assessing auras, could tell. "You have an odd feel to you," she said, emotionlessly. "But we are not here to discuss our own feelings toward each other," she added in a most-important tone of voice.
This was a strange group, in her opinion. Two elves, a human from another world and... this man who gave her such an odd feeling. Her eyes sftened, and she returned them to Anise, "You can continue now, unless anyone else has anything to add?" She looked at both Fao and Nekcal questioningly.
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 6:43 am
Fao smirked at the man's blunt question. "Let's call it intuition," she said smartly, adding to Sachara's reply. She felt the shift in his aura, it was clearer now. It skipped and swam and was shaped in odd ways, nothing she'd seen before. "Surely you've seen your own aura recently?"
At an impulse, Fao reached out, and pointing at the candle with two tapered fingers, she thought a simple spell and the candle flickered back to life.
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 11:53 am
((Just as a note, Haeo, Anise played with the flame using her right hand, not her left one, which bears the gauntlet. Her entire body is immune to flame now, not just the gauntlet.))
"That's enough," Anise said in a low but firm voice, giving them all a look somewhere between a glare and a plea. She had been willing to let them talk amongst themselves a little, but this conversation was quickly falling into a pattern that, in Anise's mind, would lead to bickering. "I think we've all established that Mr. Nekcal here is generally weird and freaky, let's move on shall we?" She said dismissively, but not in an aggressive way. "It's nice to meet all of you. In answer to your question, Sachara, well. I'll be blunt. I don't have any time to be waiting around. The world may last in this condition for many more centuries to come, but I don't have the advantage of a nice long elven lifespan. Or good health, for that matter. You see this?" Anise raised her left arm and grabbed hold of the reignited candle, holding it close to the gauntlet's reddish pink leather. Endless circles of vivid orange runes sprang to life instantly in the flame light. "This basically means that I'm dying. Slowly, yes, but dying nonetheless. I don't have a lot of time to waste. I need to get moving now, not later, so I'm sure you can understand it if I'm a little impatient."
Anise replaced the candle in the center of the table, flicking the rapidly drying wax off her right fingers. Had anyone else's digits been dipped in hot wax, burns would have showed, but her fingers came away just as dirty and unhurt as they had been before. Meanwhile, the runes on the gauntlet faded away, and she replaced the heavy burden back on the table, trying to ignore the fact that the damn thing had gone numb once again.
"OK. Before I go into all the gory details, I'm going to lay a few key facts down for you three to take in. First, my name is Anise Thomas. Second, I'm not from this world. I'm from a place called Earth. I arrived here in Secotha about six months ago. Third, I've been reading about this Gateway thing everyone's on about in the papers and stuff. I don't really have any proof, but the more I read, the more I think that's how I got sucked into this...place." She had wanted to say "hellhole", but caught herself when it occured to her that these three probably considered this place their most beloved home. Anise thought it best not to insult them all right off the bat. "Fourth and final: My goal is to find it. Fast. I want to go through it. How I get there and what it costs to get there doesn't really concern me. But I can't do it alone. It's too dangerous, and I don't know where I am. That's where you three come in. It's gonna be tough. I'm probably going to be a real b***h to travel with. There's probably going to be lots of nasty bitey things chasing after us. So if any of that sounds unappealing to you: You might want to consider leaving. Now. I'd prefer if you didn't, obviously, since I don't have a lot of time to go adventurer hunting, but I'd rather have you all walk out that door here and now then face huge morale problems down the line. OK?" Anise smiled a little, to show them all that she wasn't trying to be a bitchy hardass. She would have much preferred to be nicer about this, to buy everyone a few drinks and say that they all had time to get to know one another before they left, but she didn't. She'd wanted to leave almost a month ago, but money problems had pushed that date back. A lot. Too much. Her luck at finding these three had been enormous, and while she was grateful for it, the less time they spent talking and the more time they spent going, the happier Anise would be.
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:12 pm
Fao nodded. These were perfectly reasonable things Anise was stating. Although Fao didn't quite understand why Anise would want to go back to her homeworld with a malicious and deadly disease (not only to herself either) running rampant inside her.
The black-haired elf wished to question Anise about this Earth, but knew now would definitely not be the best time. Fao was on a mission for information, after all, and what better to come home with but information from an entirely different world?
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