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 Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 10:31 am
This Quest is for Callum who is striving to become a Swordsman.
 OOC
||. The quest prompt must be answered with a 2000 word reply (can be more).
||. Respond to the prompt given with an adventure of your own creation as long as it meets the requirements of the specific tasks.
||. NPCs may be used as long as they advance the quest in an interesting manner.
||. You cannot include any playable characters other than the quest taker.
||. Your responses will be graded with a Pass or Fail. Those who fail will have to continue with assistance from the staff.
||. Questions about quests can be asked here.
IC
Callum and his grandmother had been out of the house, heading to the market for some shopping. They weren't there long when they heard an angry voice among the crowd. An older man in an aggressive stance was bullying a younger hybrid boy. He was barely older than Callum, and as they watched the scene only intensified, most of the crowd turning away, not wanting to get caught up in the middle of something like that.
Callum's grandmother began to rush Callum away as well, not wanting her own hybrid grandson to be dragged into the mess.
Quest Tasks
||. The quest should start with Callum and his grandmother being witness to the bullying.
||. Callum's grandmother will try to push Callum away from the scene, not wanting him to be dragged into it or hurt.
||. Callum can tell that the bullying is intensifying and may become dangerous if nothing is done.
||. Callum must choose whether he will step in and become the person who can fight and defend others, or to forever be wrapped in the safety of his grandmother's protection.
||. The quest should end with his decision and his resulting actions.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 9:21 pm
A bright sun filtered through the dense tree tops above the walking pair. What little rays managed to jut through unhampered by the foliage struck a noticeable figure on the jungle's floor. Callum lighted to skip from one illuminated patch to the next with a game in mind. If the patch was particularly big then he could keep his whole foot in the light while others were barely big enough for a few toes. The trick was to move from one to the other without touching the covered ground.
His grandmother clucked her tongue with a firm little frown. "You're going to fall and ruin your one good pair of pants." That was the reason the pair were even out today to begin with. Callum was beginning to fill out, and the clothing he had brought with him from Sauti was past darning at this point. His sole "good pair" of pants had several smaller holes with larger patches around his knees. For the nomad born this was perfectly acceptable, but his grandmother dreamt of marrying him off to a nice girl, so a finer wardrobe was needed. Callum was in no position to argue; his grandmother was rarely wrong, and he was admittedly excited to look at the flashier patterned cloth, even if he knew she likely wouldn't buy any of it.
The walk to the market was relatively mundane in it's calm. As a routine, they stopped by a general trader to barter first before setting about the 'true' shopping. It didn't take long for the soothing atmosphere to fizzle out. Callum craned his neck and listened with a growing frown. He took a step forward, only to be held back by a wizened hand on his elbow. "Don't-"
Of course, it wasn't as if they could have avoided viewing the conflict. The voices became louder with each passing breath. Before Callum could blink a man was being thrown onto his back from a tented stall onto the harsh ground of the market square. No, a boy. A larger shifter flipped the entry way cloth over his head and stepped out into full view. His grandmother's hold tightened on Callum's elbow when the man reached down to take the boy by the shirt front. A gasp was heard, whether it was Callum's gran or the growing crowd as a whole, when the older shifter hefted the boy up off his feet. "If I've told you once, I've told you twice mongrel, I'm not selling weaponry to an Alkidike cast off!"
The cowl he had been wearing fell away and revealed a pair of dark antennae. Callum couldn't see a single crystal on the boy, but he could see lighter markings around his exposed cheeks. He coughed, and grasped at the man's fingers. "P-please, I have the coin...j-just need to protect myself..."
Callum felt his breath hitch when the older shifter threw him back down onto the ground with a disgusted snarl. "You're in luck. By the time I'm done with you, there's going to be nothing worth protecting to worry about."
Someone's going to stop him. Surely some kind of guard was going to show themselves any minute now and come to the boys aid. Right? Callum jerked his head to and fro across the crowd, watching with growing horror as the gossiping masses seemed to disperse. Whispered remarks of "serves him right", among other things, stung Callum to his core. What if that was him? It very well could have been! He had only been a few stalls down, standing with his back exposed to men like that...
"Move!" Corine hissed into her grandson's ear. She wrenched his hand from his side, forcing him to relax it from the fist that had been forming, and tugged him away from the escalating scene. "He's just some begger that showed up a few nights ago...Callum...Callum!" Corine grabbed his chin and forced her grandson to look her in the eye. He could see the fear in her hard gaze. "That boy isn't a fighter, if he stays down the smith will get tired and walk away...he's going to be fine, but you won't be if we stay, do you understand? We are leaving. NOW."
Within a breath of letting go of his chin Callum heard a shriek. The sound of pure terrified pain sent pulses of reserved energy straight to his heart. He turned his head towards the two males, and with the dispersing crowd he could easily see the quivering hybrid. He held his hands above his head, which had already been struck, or so Callum had surmised because of the blood now coating one side of his dark face. He's going to die! The smith was a known live wire, so with his rage building...this boy wouldn't last.
Corine pulled on Callum's arm. Her eyes begged him to leave, but his were focused. Callum leaned down to place a hasty kiss on his grandmother's forehead before wrenching himself free from her hold. The next shriek was her own; "Callum! Don't do this!" He closed his eyes for the length of time it took him to find his resolve.
Callum hated violence, altercations and arguments. He bowed to every opinion that wasn't his own just to keep the peace. There was a selfishness in his kindness that border-lined masochistic. Callum would willingly withstand any abuse for the hope of seeing a smile and hearing any sweet word.
In that Alkidike boy he saw Nimueh, Talisia, Ming'we and Minga. Callum saw all of his kind and it broke his heart.
So when the smith brought down his sword's pommel on the boy's head for a second time Callum used his crouched position as an opportunity. He leapt onto the smith's broad back, dug his knees into his sides and brought his arms around his throat. The larger man roared as he was forced backwards. Large feet stumbled back onto his own tent and brought the clothed structure down on top of them both.
(WC: 101 cool
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 10:06 pm
"Oooh, my head." Callum cupped the back of his skull as he sat up and rubbed the sore spot forming underneath his fingers. He wasn't sure what he had hit on the way down, but the cloth covering the tent frame had provided just enough cushion to save him from real damage. A pair of dark hands was digging around in the material just within eyesight, and when Callum stretched towards them, he was practically jerked out of the remains.
He struggled to get his bearings, but those same hands were on his shoulders to steady him. When Callum looked it up it was into a pair of pitch black eyes that were only as his smile. "Thank you so much! I...words, they're failing me. I just-"
Callum screamed when a hand snapped out to grasp his ankle. He was pulled back down onto the ground, and when he flipped around onto his side he wished he hadn't. The smith was pulling himself out of the fallen tent, and this time he was armed. "I like to think I'm a reasonable man. The bug kid had a fair warning, and then you? Here you are sticking your nose where it doesn't belong." He speared the ground near Callum's other foot with a sword, and used the hilt as a crutch to rise up into a kneeling position. Once he was stable he pulled the blade free from the ground. Callum pulled against his hold, but that only served in the tightening the smith's grip. "So long as Corine kept her pet under wraps I didn't mind you being around, but no freaks going to stand between me and doing what's right!"
"He's not a freak, and I'm not a BUG." The Alkidike hybrid tossed a rock at the smith. It missed, by a wide margin, but he didn't stop at just one. Callum could only assume he was taking handfuls and lobbing them like a child at the man. He twisted his ankle, found it free enough thanks to the distraction, and slipped out. His eyes darted between the smith, who had his own closed as he cursed the very ground they walked on, and the sword in his hands. The grip he had on the weapon was loose...Callum bit his lower lip, said a quick prayer to Bergchi, and dove for it.
When his hand latched onto the sword the smith opened his own. For a full moment the two males looked at one another, both too stunned to move, until one of the Alkidike hybrid's rocks clocked the smith on his forehead. He reached his free hand up to cradle the sore spot and tightened his grip on the sword with a snarl.
"Come on, you can do it! Get him good!"
Even with his new found partner's enthusiasm the sheer hatred in the smith's gaze was enough to paralyze Callum. In that instant he didn't think of anyone other than himself. What was he even doing?! This was madness! This man was easily twice the size Callum could ever HOPE to be. The only ones that are called heroes are the ones that live, idiot. Was that what he wanted, to be called a hero? Callum didn't think that was the pressing issue; right now he just didn't want to be run through!
He saw the punch as it was coming to him. The smith moved to deck him in the face while he rose up with the sword. Thanks to what little training he had managed to scrounge up Callum dodged the punch and went in with one of his own; straight to the coin purse.
It wasn't an honorable move in the least, but it gave Callum the edge he needed. With the smith shrieking and doubling over, he might as well have dropped the weapon right into Callum's waiting palms. When the older man had gained enough of his composure back to look up Callum had the sword's tip pointed directly at his head.
"W-what are you gonna do with that, boy? A mongrel like you probably hasn't even touched a sword. The weight's gotta be breaking your ar-" He found himself pulling back as Callum pressed the sword a little closer.
Callum's pose was a spot on rendition of traditional shifter form. His back was straight, with a good stable berth between his legs so that he could strike at any moment. He couldn't hide the shaking in his arm that vibrated the entire length of the blade, but sheer will kept him strong. "I've held more swords in the past moon cycle than you've made in years." The young hybrid looked down the weapon's edge into the hardened gaze of his opponent. Even beneath layers of growing unease there was too much hatred. Blind, ignorant hatred. "The only freak I see here is you. You sell weapons for 'protection', but then you have the nerve to deny it to those that truly need it? It's disgusting."
Looking back to the Alkidike hybrid, Callum saw the boy had already begun to visibly shrink under the smith's hardened gaze. Even crumpled up as he was the man proved to be the biggest threat in either of their worlds. He took a deep breath to steady his frazzled nerves, and knelt before the smith. Callum turned the sword so that the hilt pointed towards it's creator. "I'm trusting that you won't kill me, at least not for now." His voice was as soft as the sad smile he wore on his face.
The smith just looked at him before spitting on the ground by Callum's feet. "As if I would take that cursed thing back now that you've had your grubby little fingers all over it. Just keep it and get out of here."
(WC: 973)
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Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 10:02 pm
Callum wasn’t aware of just how frozen his posture was until the other hybrid started to tug on his arm. He looked nervously to the shifter, and kept urging Cal to move forward until the white haired boy finally complied. The weight of the sword wasn’t the only reason he limped; Callum’s ankle was damaged, possibly sprained, thanks to the near death grip the smith had held it in. The sword’s tip dug a furrow in the ground as he hobbled after the other boy.
“You were awesome! Do you do that kind of thing...a...lot? Hey, are you crying?”
“Huh? O-oh, yeah….” Callum’s voice was near hysterical. His entire frame was shaking and his eyes were still wide from shock, even with the tears gliding down his cheeks. He tried to brush them off with the back of his crystalized hand, but that only served to shake him from his paralyzed state. Whatever bravado and adrenaline the young hybrid had been running on was gone now. His breathing hitch while he kept his palm pressed onto his cheek bone.
There was no way he could ever return to the market. What if he started another fight? And this sword...he’d practically stolen it! However, it wasn’t fear of the future that caused him to sob. It was fear for his own life. Callum had never been in a fight in his entire life, and the entire act shook him to his very soul.
It took him a while to register a pair of arms around his waist, and even longer to recognized the soothing humming of his grandmother. “G-gran? Whe-when did you…?”
“I was watching the whole thing, sweetheart.” Corine squeezed her grandson around the middle and leaned back to look him in the eye. She wiped at her own tears before reaching for a handkerchief in her satchel to dab at his. “He shouldn’t have said those things about you. About either of you.” Her eyes passed to the Alkidike hybrid, who shifted his feet bashfully. “I’m sorry Callum. I should have seen this coming.”
“What? No, no you couldn’t have-”
“Shh,” Corine placed a finger to his lips, then used that same hand to pat his cheek. “You were so brave today, but stupid. Puffing yourself up like that and talking like a soldier would have gotten you killed if the smith was faster on his feet.” Watching as her grandson visibly deflated before her, Corine sighed and shook her head. “You should...He’s not going to take that sword back, so you might as well learn how to use it. I won’t be around forever to protect you.”
“So...it’s alright? For me to train?”
“Weren’t you already doing it behind my back?”
“I..uhm, well...yeah.”
Corine smiled softly. As a grandmother she wasn’t sure what she should do; coddle the boy so that he was safe, or send him out to fight when he had a heart as soft as a kinfa’s feathers. “Promise me you’ll never raise your blade against the innocent, and I’ll promise I’ll try not to worry as much.”
Callum exhaled a breath he hadn’t even realized he had been holding onto. “I promise.”
“So...I hate to be that guy, but since we both made a scene back there I can’t exactly stay in the area anymore. Can I stay with you guys for the night?”
Corine gave the boy a pointed look, but Callum stepped forward and put his arm around the other’s shoulder. The Alki-hybrid could switch from cowardly to confident at the drop of a hat it seemed, proving himself to be a good actor, but Callum knew it to be all bluster. He had used it more than he cared to admit himself. “You can stay as long as you like.”
“We can talk about this when we get home.” Corine put her hands on the boys’ backs and pushed them forward. “Right now I want us to get as far away from here as possible before the smith changes his mind.”
“I couldn’t have agreed more.”
(WC: 687)
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Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 10:03 pm
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Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 3:49 pm
Class Quest Result
Pass!
Callum has passed and received a rank of Swordsman!
Congratulations Callum!
Heras Box For an interesting ending, Callum may choose 1 regular shop item. Please PM Suhuba with his choice.
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