Kyuseisha no Hikari generated a random number between
1 and 3 ...
2!
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Crew
Dragonslaying Dragon
Offline
Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 7:56 pm
Quote:
It starts off quietly at first. A single, tinkling sound that starts at the back of mind. You think it’s nothing. Ringing in the ears isn’t anything new. But soon enough it rings and rings and rings, to the point where you simply know it’s something more than simple tinnitus. It grows so loudly, developing into a sound beyond the confines of your home.
A mighty urge overtakes you, forcing you out of wherever you are and filling you with a desperate need to locate that awful ringing.
For some, it feels like you walk for hours and hours, for others, mere moments, but either way, you find yourself before a shimmering, frosted archway blocking your path into what seems to be the woods.It seems almost like fogged glass fills it, but you can clearly feel a breeze through it, and when you push your hand through, it gives no resistance.
You choose to...
Walk around the arch
Option 2: Rather than immediately go through this gate, you peek around behind it. From the opposite side, it seems rather normal. No fogged lights, no breeze, it’s as if you’re looking through an open window.
You choose to walk through it from behind, just out of curiosity, then suddenly find yourself being dragged backwards into the fogged gateway, landing hard in a puff of snow. It leaves you thoroughly soaked with melted snow clinging to you, and quickly feel yourself shivering, but otherwise unharmed. You hear a soft voice, like a whisper in your ear.
“Better tread more carefully. You nearly came in the wrong way!” Though you look around, you find no one.
Destiny City had tricks aplenty. Lopezite should have known better but he followed its trail like a bird after breadcrumbs. There was a boyish part of him, still chasing adventures, even when the logical side of his brain told him to stop. To take caution. To be responsible, to get backup.
But here he was, on another adventure he didn't ask for. The ringing hummed lowly in his ears, beckoning him to an archway unlike any he'd ever seen before. There had been something magic about it, of course, so naturally he couldn't just walk away.
...But he wasn't going to walk through it, not when he didn't understand what magic rippled within the arch.
Instead, he did the sensible thing--he investigated.
He looked to the left, to the right. From the front, from behind.
...The back was a mistake, and he nearly lost his footing when the pull dragged him into the portal.
He had been cold before, but now he was drenched in icy water. He grit his teeth to try and stop the shivering.
Another shiver ran down his spine when he heard a voice with no body; he looked around frantically, but there was no one there to answer his questions.
No one to blame for this cold.
Kyuseisha no Hikari generated a random number between
1 and 3 ...
2!
Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 7:57 pm
Quote:
No matter how you arrived there, you see a path before you cleared of snow and made of crystalline bricks, all paved out neat and tidy. Along the path are bright lanterns, alternating with cool blue and warm red colors. Between each lantern is a garland of icy white and fiery orange ranunculus flowers, draping downward but still just barely out of reach.
You’re sensing a pattern here, but you only have a moment to focus on it before a building begins to glow in the distance. A more focused look reveals what seems to be a cathedral, glowing with an unnatural light. Even from here you can see its massive stained glass windows with images of a dancing flames, icicles dangling off a wintery landscape, and a single star between them surround an intricate gate, covered in those same ranunculus blooms.
And again, the bells ring. Loud and clear and echoing throughout the iced woods that surrounds you and your path.
Whether or not you are soaked, melting, or feeling quite comfortable, you have a choice.
You choose to...
Head back through the arch
Option 2: Whatever this place was, or is, you just don’t wish to be here. You decide to head back through the gate from which you came.
Only… It’s not there. Sometime during the brief distraction from the flowers and the path and the constant ringing, you took your eyes off the arch, and it vanished from sight.
Whether you like it or not, you’re stuck here.
And so, you head forward. Nothing changes, after all, you didn’t really want to be here in the first place, so your state remains the same as before.
Oh well, you don’t feel like you’re in any more danger, so you keep heading towards the cathedral.
This world behind the wall was beautiful, but Lopezite wasn't even sure where he was--or if this was his world. The ringing in his ears had faded, and that was resolution enough. There was lingering curiosity, and yet he could feel the call of home--of warm clothes, at the very least.
He took in the sights as best he could in as little time as he could manage. The bells were distracting--either beckoning him closer or warning him away, he could only imagine.
The arch had been the way in, maybe it was his way out; he turned back to it, intent to pass through and return home--only to be met with the empty space where it once was.
Of course.
Nothing in Destiny City was ever easy.
If this was even Destiny City.
If there was no path back, all he could do was head forward; reluctantly, he made his way towards the cathedral--wondering if this was some sort of punishment for draining the civilians frozen in time at the party a few nights ago.
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Crew
Dragonslaying Dragon
Offline
Kyuseisha no Hikari generated a random number between
1 and 3 ...
3!
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Crew
Dragonslaying Dragon
Offline
Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 7:59 pm
Quote:
The closer you get to the looming cathedral, the heavier the flowers’ scent becomes. The garlands soon become wreaths, then become rows and rows of woven treillage, finally meeting at a point right before a pair of great mahogany doors.
In front of these massive doors stands a man draped in red and blue robes, embroidered with fine golden trim. The most striking thing about him is his hat, rising nearly a foot off his head and covered in jewels that you aren’t quite sure are real. It is magnificent, nonetheless.
Nothing seems out of the ordinary, simply a man with a long list that runs onto the floor. Nothing out of the ordinary at all, except there feels to be something magical about him. If you are powered, you feel the energy from him, though it is neither Chaos nor Order. He is simply there and feels powerful.
Eventually, he looks away from his list, and looks down at you over a pair of frameless glasses.
“Hmm… Are you here for the flames, or the ice?” His voice is monotone, as if he’s asked this time and time again, and the longer you wait, the more annoyed he seems to become.
After careful consideration, you answer that you’re here for…
That Funny hat of his. You demand he hand it over.
Option 3: At first he doesn’t react, as if he wasn’t quite paying attention. And then you repeat yourself, and he finally looks up from his list.
He blinks once. Then again, confused eyes looking up at his hat, then down at you in quiet contemplation.
“... You are serious.” The man seems almost suddenly flustered at the very implication that someone was here for someone other than the flames or the ice.
Someone was here for him, or rather, his hat, which was entirely part of him. Not really, but certainly something he treasured.
After a moment, he manages to break his gaze, cheeks reddened, and simply nods.
“You may have the hat later, if you so choose. But… Ahem. For now, you must enter in. I’ll put you down as ‘honored guest’. Please, come this way.” The large door opens behind you, and he comes from around his pedestal, gently placing a hand on your shoulders and guiding you inside. The other ‘guests’, shadowy figures, either holding a ranunculus bloom of red or white turn to see you, but then go about their own chatter as the officiator sits you down near the front. There are others here who bear no bloom, but they do not mind you. In fact, a basket gets passed to you after they seem to accept you, and from it you take a ranunculus bloom of any color of your choosing.
“Stay here, I will see you soon enough.” The officiator whispers softly to you, before heading back to the entrance, leaving you to sit there on your own for a short time.
Those bells begin to ring again, and soon enough, all heads turn towards the doors behind you.
The aroma of flowers was soothing whereas everything else screamed otherwise. A magical world popping up out of nowhere, all chances of escape disappearing?
Lopezite tried to teleport, but that had yielded no results. So, he continued forward, not completely convinced that this wasn't just a dream.
It didn't help that fifteen steps into the idea that this might all be some illusion in his mind, a man in the most ridiculous hat he'd ever seen. He couldn't imagine there was any purpose to it other than to be obnoxious.
So then, it couldn't be real.
But with an energy signature like that...
He'd never dreamed of energy signatures.
The question caught him by surprise; he'd have come for fire if he'd known he had a choice--if only to combat the ice he was certain was spreading across him. Maybe it was because it was a dream, maybe it was because of the cold, maybe it was just because he wasn't thinking clearly--but Lopezite found himself responding to ask for his hat.
The words almost didn't seem like they'd come from Lopezite's lips; he repeated the request, if only to make sure that was still his voice.
It was a surprise, then, that the man responded as if it were a serious request.
What he wanted was to go home, but somehow that didn't seem like it was on the table.
Instead, he was seated here in the cathedral with shadows for company, with a promised hat for his trouble.
He picked a flower from the basket if only because those around him were doing it; he didn't choose any one particularly, simply the first one that his fingers gripped: a pretty red blossom.
When the doors to the cathedral opened, he looked to the door along with the crowd.
Kyuseisha no Hikari generated a random number between
1 and 3 ...
2!
Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 8:00 pm
Quote:
When the bells began to ring before, it was short and brief, loud enough to echo throughout the land as a sign and a summoned. Now they ring lightly, a happy cheery sound that announced the coming of the couple.
Somehow you now know exactly why you are here. It pops into your mind like you’ve known this for months that you had an invite. The joining of the fire and the ice, the marriage of two spirits who had been fluttering around with their romance and their teasing for nearly a millennium. A story long told about how dearly they loved one another but could never be with one another.
They were far too different, too likely to hurt one another.
And yet through everything they made their love work, and decided to share that love with all who could hear their sweet summons with a bell ring.
The Flower you once held suddenly rises from your cupped hands and joins all the others that reach high above your heads, joining in a dance of swirls and dips before coming together in a single giant flower, then bursts into a rain of petals.
The moment the petals rain down upon the guest, the doors come open, and two bright lights, one a bluish white, another an orangish red, float in slowly.
They dance around one another, entranced, as if any other glimmer or soul in the room never existed.
And you feel that.
You feel the love and the warmth and sweetness all wrapped up into one. No matter who you are, what side of the War you find yourself on, in this moment, a pure, kind, and genuine happiness comes over you.
Eventually the light comes to the front of this cathedral, twisting around until two beings come forth from the light.
Draped in beautiful robes and gleaming gems, they come forth, speaking in a language that no one can really understand, not even the other guests.
One thing is for certain though, they are happy. And you can feel that as well. Even the Officiator who allowed you in can be seen smiling and enjoying the playful words between the couple.
And you…
You can’t help but feel moved.
You…
Cross your arms and wait. No amount of good feelings will make up for forcing you to be here and sit through this.
Option 2: You were forced to this event, and you know it. No amount of laughter and dancing can make you feel comfortable.
And no one forces you to play along either. Even after the Officiant says that they are wed, the two beautiful beings snap their fingers and the feast begins, you remain there, disinterested.
A kindly butler who had been going around checking on the guests comes up to you and offers to walk you back to the exit of this party, if you so choose.
And accepting, he leads you all the way back to that arch from which you came.
“I apologize that this was not to your liking, but we truly, and deeply appreciate your decision to stay as long as you did. Please, take this token to mark our meeting, and… Perhaps next time, we can host something far more to your liking.” while he snaps his own fingers, and seems satisfied, you feel no different.
In the next instant he is gone, leaving you alone before the arch.
More bells. More strangers. More questions.
He was here for a marriage he felt more than he knew, and it was partly an answer but mostly more questions.
Since when did he have time for such frivolities?
...Why would he have come to a funeral powered up?
The night was a blur--magic and petals and lights. At some point the cold left him, though he didn't know if it was becuase he had grown accustomed to it or because it had simply been so long that he'd thawed.
He wasn't here for fun. The union was magical, moving, in its own way, but thoughts of home had long since snuffed out thoughts of enjoying this. He analyzed everything, observed, tried to learn.
He did not eat the food. He'd heard stories of fairies that could trap you in their world forever if you ate their food or shared your name.
The moment he was offered a path out, he accepted. He was polite, but the night had dragged on and he was tired. More and more, this felt like a dream. Parting was almost too easy and he almost didn't even trust when he was alone outside the arch.
Except, this time, when he tried to teleport, he could.
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Crew
Dragonslaying Dragon
Offline
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Crew
Dragonslaying Dragon
Offline
Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 8:07 pm
Quote:
When all is said and done, you find yourself at that very same arch you first came through.
No matter how you feel towards the end, you know that the night is over, and that it was finally time to leave (or you were finally allowed to leave).
The moment you pass through the arch again, you feel yourself start to fall. You are surrounded completely by an endless blizzard, the same you may have encountered had you wandered off the pathway earlier. Only this time, there are no ribbons to save you.
You black out, and when you next open your eyes, you’re near where you first arrived in the park, face down in the snow.
Your body aches as you drag yourself up, a hard night of partying (or not) has taken its toll, but as you head back home, you learn that no time has passed at all.
Whether or not this was real, or a strange hallucination caused by stress from just living in this city, you do not know… But you head home all the same, exhausted and pondering just what was it that you saw.
When you wake up the next morning, you find something on or near you that most certainly wasn’t there when you went to bed.
