|
|
| Have you any idea where I'm going with this journal? |
| Because I don't. |
|
100% |
[ 5 ] |
|
| Total Votes : 5 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 11:05 am
Introduction
Consider the introduction made.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2006 7:36 pm
Pet Info
Name: Lysander
Type: Seelie Fae
Stage: Corsier
Previous Stages: Corsea|Undera|Orb
Companion: Lore
Description: Lysander, like his human companion, is a very sober, very serious Undera. He is fiercely loyal and noble, and takes his duties very seriously, though at the moment they consist mainly of helping Lore keep his work area neat. He is taciturn in his dealings with others, and might best be described as austere. Unlike many of his kind, he has no interest in pretty, sparkly things. He takes pleasure in clearly-defined shapes and in cool earth tones. His favorite object is a slate sphere with a spire through it which he can spend hours taking apart, layer by layer, and then putting back together. One could say he's a bit obsessive compulsive.
History: He has been with Lore since his hatching, doing his best to help Lore in his duties as an apprentice and acting as a sort of comforting companion when Lore despairs, which he does distressingly often. He finds the interest of Lore's mistress, Malecoda, unnerving in the extreme, but he's too polite to say so, and so, since he hatched, he has done his best to avoid her while assisting Lore.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 12:06 pm
Owner Info
Name: Lore
Age: 21
Description: Lore was never the most promising of his father's sons, and so he became sort of retiring and unobtrusive. It made far more sense for him to be thus, as attracting attention to himself would only have attracted attention to the fact that he is much like an overgrown puppy, with feet and hands too large for limbs which are too long. He has never stopped thinking of himself as awkward and gangly, and carries the belief that he is clumsy around with him, believing in it so strongly that it seems to be true, unless he forgets that he's supposed to be clumsy and awkward, in which case he is as graceful and capable as anyone could ask. He is tall, it's true, standing just over six feet in height, and there's very little spare flesh on his body, but he is not unpleasant to look at, having light brown hair which he usually wears pulled back into a low horsetail and dark brown eyes the color of Spanish cocoa. He speaks, when he is not remembering to be socially backward, in a tenor which is largely unremarkable but pleasant to hear, nonetheless, and with a distinct English accent gleaned from his upbringing in the Tudor court of his home. He wears reading glasses which he frequently forgets to remove when not reading. He is extraordinarily sensitive, but hides it well.
History Thus Far: Lore was raised as a magician's son in what people Above think of as an alternate universe, where certain historical events have gone differently than they have on the world most are familiar with. As people on his world are aware, there are hundreds of such worlds. The one on which he was born is one in which Queen Elizabeth married her secret lover and the Tudor line continued unbroken by Stuart intervention. His is also a world where magic was commonplace, which was its first variance from the world with which we are most familiar, which is known as the Aboveground in the Labyrinth.
Because he lives in an alternate universe, he is well-aware of parallel and mirror places, such as the Labyrinth, more so because he was raised by a prominent magician. Thus, when it was made known that a sorceress dwelling in King Jareth's Underground, Malecoda, sought an apprentice, he applied to his father and his father granted him permission to apply for the apprenticeship. His father would have preferred to send another of his sons, but the other were already employed magically and unable or unwilling to try for such a thing.
He was not the only applicant, obviously, for Malecoda was well-known in magical circles for having been granted her powers by the Goblin King, himself. However she acquired her powers, they are virtually unrivaled except by those with whom she would never compete anyway, such as Jareth, to whom she is completely loyal.
To his great surprise he was given the apprenticeship, though he had never shown much magical potential and certainly was nothing like as polished and as superior as many of the other hopefuls. At the time, he did not question his good fortune, but later he began to wonder if it had anything to do with the orb he received from the Goblin King (apparently) shortly before she named him her apprentice.
Certainly, when the sorceress showed more interest in the orb than in him he felt that she was, perhaps, less interested in his apprenticeship than she was in maintaining some contact with Jareth, who had, rumor has it, given her the cut direct some years before for offending his pride in some manner.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 12:13 pm
Other Characters
Name: Malecoda
Age: anyone's guess
Species: not quite human
Profession: sorceress
Personality: Malecoda has a vicious tongue which she has no compunction about using on others. She is what's best described as prickly. It's very difficult to get close to her, to get through the very thick protective walls she's built around herself, though she has moments of weakness where her relative youth and naivete becomes apparent. Such moments tend to come without warning and tend to be highly unnerving to any who catches her in the midst of one, for she is usually very cynical. She tends to hold grudges, particularly against those who have seen her weak. However, she is capable of great love and great devotion, though a person may never know that they are included in her affections.
History: Malecoda was born human on the Earth we all know and inhabit. Until she was fifteen she was bounced around from relative to relative. Some of her temporary homes were better than others. In one her older cousins, twin boys, sexually molested her. She never told anyone and retreated further into her fantasy world. It was a little before that event, though, that the Goblin King sent her an orb to help her, to grant her wish: that she might leave the world which she so hated and that she would not be the same powerless person she had been. Out of her orb came Qarouc, who brought her Underground, partially in accordance with her wish, and partly because he sought to protect her from her family. Underground she was introduced to Jareth, and he helped ensure the permanence of her wish's granting. She took Qarouc's life, though it broke her heart, for she had come to love the drow elf that her orb had grown up into, which was a thing forbidden Underground. In taking his life, she was able to combine their essences so that she, a human, could survive Underground, for she could not do so for prolonged periods of time otherwise. Then Jareth trained her as a sorceress and kept her at court as his companion for many years during which she did not age noticeably. She was dismissed from court so that Jareth could pursue Sarah, and she has lived in her castle ever since, awaiting a summons to return, for she truly fell in love with Jareth, and would have taken him up on his offer to fear him, love him, do as he said. But he did not, and as the years passed she built up walls and shields and thorns around her heart to keep herself from being hurt again. Over the years she has tended toward brooding and in her brooding she has come to a conclusion which she had truly reached almost at once: what she did to Qarouc was monstrous, a betrayal, and she does not deserve the life she lives. She loathes herself and would kill herself but that would mean that Qarouc's life went totally to waste, and she would not have that for anything.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 12:14 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 12:16 pm
Journal Entries
Orb, finished
11 entries
In which Lore is given an orb and an apprenticeship, attends a ball, and in which Lysander emerges.
Undera, finished
14 entries
In which Lysander emerges, Lore investigates Malecoda's foul mood, wildflowers are picked, Lore's actual studies as an apprentice begin, and Genevieve puts in an appearance.
Corsea, finished
20 entries
In which Lysander grows and is angsty, snow falls out of season and affects Lysander adversely, Lore learns to make orbs, Lysander learns he is part bug, Lore and Malecoda fight and come to an understanding, Lysander grows.
Okay, so why is Fey doing this if she's got a lovely, handy journal right here which works perfectly well and which she is obviously beginning to use once more? Because I find it helps me organize myself better to do it this way, and it's ultimately my journal, and for my benefit (and 'Chai's and Sho's of course). I also think it makes it easier than having to read through all the dreck here to find stuff. You can just pick a stage and go there. And because I want to, dammit!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 12:17 pm
Miscellaneous
Reasons Why Malecoda Doesn't Want To Teach Lore
1. Because she's afraid he'll show her up.
2. Because prolonged exposure to Lore's naturally easy-going nature might make her a nicer person.
3. Because he's better-looking than she and she doesn't want any comparisons to be drawn.
4. Because it irritates her to have to look up nine inches to look him in the eye.
5. Because he eats scrambled eggs for breakfast and she doesn't like egg breath.
6. Because his hair's almost as long as hers is.
7. Because he asks too many questions.
8. Because he's too agreeable.
9. Because he's too argumentative.
10. Because he's blond.
11. Because he's a brunette.
12. Because he's neither one nor the other, and actually a bit of both.
13. Because he has two brown eyes and she only has one (brown eye, that is).
14. Because he has big feet.
15. Because he has big hands.
16. Because he wears glasses he doesn't need.
17. Because he refuses to be intimidated.
Note: See page 3, post 1 for explanation.Confusion All Around
This is for my own edification at the moment. Don't worry about it.
Malecoda is not from Terra Prime, as she believes herself to be. Instead, she actually comes from one of the recent Dichotomous Worlds, split from Genevieve's at the juncture caused by Genevieve's mother's first bout of cancer. In Malecoda's world, Genevieve's mother died in that first bout just before Genevieve entered high school, which is how Malecoda, her daughter, that world's Genevieve, came to be shunted about between relatives. The rest of her past is true: she was abused by one set of relatives, and then she met Qarouc and he took her to the Underground with him. Because he was not a mage adept, the passage took him back to the Underground he focused on when he sought to return, which happened to be a memory of the Drow from two hundred years prior. Upon arriving, he merged with the self he was in that time and the story proceeds from there as written.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 5:35 am
Lore glanced disinterestedly at the blue and yellow swirled orb sitting at his desk. He had no need for more such trinkets. He didn't know what the Goblin King meant by giving this orb to him, but he had no troubles that he couldn't handle. All he needed was for Malecoda to recognize him among her other apprentice candidates and choose him to be her apprentice. He suspected that having some sort of orb-thing was going to be of next-to no use to him in that respect, unless he could use it to hypnotise her. So far he had performed abysmally on all of the tests she had posed the candidates. He couldn't help it though: he was completely distracted by the woman who gave them. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, and so powerful it stopped his heart when she passed by him. She had long, shiny black hair and captivating witch's eyes, and a build such as dreams were made of. A tiny waist which her usually tight bodices accentuated to a nicety and a pleasantly feminine figure. Her appearance was not all that distracted him. It was the way her power mingled with his and the other candidates' as she watched them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 5:38 am
A slip of paper slid under the door to his temporary quarters. Instantly, Lore bent to scoop up the small bit of parchment. In precise, clear letters were written the words, Come to my study. Immediately. It was signed Malecoda.
He ran to his mirror and gave his appearance up as a hopeless case. His hair, long and wavy, was only manageable when pulled back into a horsetail, and then he looked like he was wearing some sort of costume. He decided it was worth looking like a costumed buffoon, because leaving his hair loose made him look like a lion having a bad mane day.
He scrambled up the many flights of stairs to Malecoda's study in the basement. He wasn't sure why or how he had to go upstairs to get to the basement, but that was the way Malecoda had ordered her castle, and he was certainly in no position to complain. He just wished he could climb downstairs to get to the regular levels leaving her study, but, no, that was an upwards climb, too.
He hesitated outside her door to check that he looked less disshevelled than he felt. The door was marked with runes in a variety of ancient scripts. He could read some of them. They were runes for silence and solitude. There were wards and common hex-signs too. He could see the power glowing in them. She kept all of them in working order. If he had ever attempted such a thing, he would have blacked out, having exhausted his power totally.
"Come in, Lore. You look no worse than most at this hour," Malecoda said. He could hear her perfectly through the door, which he knew to be at least a handspan thick.
Lore reached out reluctantly to touch the door. He didn't want to touch anything so saturated with magic. Fortunately, the door swung open of its own accord.
Lore stepped into Malecoda's study.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 12:03 pm
Malecoda's study was unlike he had imagined it. It was neither imposing nor extravagant. Indeed, it was decorated in the style of one of the Human worlds. Earth, or Terra, depending on whom one spoke with. He would never have guessed that the sorceress's tastes ran toward Terran. Her wardrobe was unlike anything ever worn on Terra, according to his research. It ran much more toward that worn Underground.
"If you've finished analysing my taste in furniture...?"
Lore flushed. He had only studied the decor because he hadn't wanted to stare at the sorceress who had chosen it.
"I apologise, Sor."
"Of course you do," she replied, looking almost disappointed. The expression vanished as she pushed her black bangs out of her eyes. "I called you here for two reasons."
She stopped speaking again and looked out the window, where the double moons were perfectly framed as one eclipsed the other. It did not happen often, but it did occasionally occur.
"Have a seat," she instructed him, waving toward a chair. "Before you start to analyse it, it's wyvernhide, not leather, and those are real wyvern talons serving as legs." She smirked as she said this.
"Thank you, Sor." Lore obeyed.
"Lore, why are you here?"
"You summoned me."
"Yes. I did. Do you know why?"
"No."
She smiled again, but it was wistful.
"Because my Lord recommended that I do so. He very rarely makes requests of me any more. Sometimes I wonder if he has forgotten me. And then he sends me one of his minions or a crystal with a message. The most recent being as follows..."
She went to her desk and dumped piles of paper on the floor with seeming indifference until she found a particular piece of paper which looked no different than any other.
"Find yourself an apprentice. I recommend Kion, son of the high mage of Ythyn," she read, and then looked up from the parchment to look at Lore.
Lore knew Kion. He detested him. He was one of those annoyances who always seemed to be right. Kion, of all the other candidates, was the most bent on receiving the apprenticeship, but the least inclined to work. Not that he needed to.
"So, my Lord recommended Kion, but out of fairness I opted to give others an opportunity. So far, you have shown yourself to be clumsy, forgetful, and totally unsuited for the study of magic. And so, I wonder, why has Jareth given you one of his orbs? He seems to contradict himself, does my Lord. Have you any insight?"
Lore shrugged. How had she known about the orb? It had only arrived half an hour ago.
"If you're wondering how I know about the orb, it's because I'm privileged enough to be one of King Jareth's closer subordinates. Therefore, I know what the orbs are, what they do, and how they work. They're given in response to very strong wishes. So, my second reason in asking you here this evening is to ask what you have wished for so fervently that my Lord sent you one of his orbs?"
Lore was astounded to hear the great sorceress Malecoda continually referring to the Goblin King as her lord, and was left quite speechless.
"Lore, please answer me. Contrary to appearances, I have actually got a great deal of work yet to do this evening."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 10:25 am
Lore hesitated a moment more. He knew that there were peoples who believed the telling of wishes destroyed the wishes' chances of coming to fruition, but it was not the belief of his people.
"Lore!" Malecoda said sharply, startling him into speaking his wish
"That you would choose me as your apprentice, Sor."
Immediately he blushed, but Malecoda merely nodded as if this was expected.
"He does contradict himself. Or, perhaps he does not realize that which he has done. Very well. Over all, I suspect the orb and that which it contains shall win out, so I shall remove the period of waiting and select you as my apprentice. If Himself has a problem with it, he may take it up with me."
She was no longer addressing him, Lore suspected.
"I wonder, though. Since your wish had been fulfilled, what will happen to that orb of yours? Would you give it to me to study? His Majesty has never permitted me that."
Lore instinctively recoiled.
"Mistress, I don't believe that I could give the orb away if I tried. If you wish it, I will try, though."
He knew at once that his loyalty to this sorceress was complete, that he would give her this gift from the Goblin King. Yet, why not. She had just granted him his wish. And she knew so much about everything, it seemed. He would give up more than some orb to please her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 12:56 pm
"Sor, I am unsure if I can give the orb to you, but if it would please you - "
"It would."
"I'll fetch it from my room, then - "
"Don't bother. All that's required is your consent. They dislike being handled, I've noticed, by those to whom they weren't given unless the owner's consent is given or implied."
The blue and yellow orb materialized on Malecoda's desk. The sorceress did not look at it, but neither did she look at Lore.
"Thank you, Lore. You may go now. I shall see that the others are sent home in the morning."
Bewildered, but clearly dismissed, Lore left, returning to his room.
Where he found the orb sitting on his pillow.
He returned it to Malecoda.
And it returned to his pillow.
Repeat process ad infinitum.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 5:45 am
At last, Malecoda summoned Lore back to her chambers.
"It would seem that these things cannot belong to any other than he - or she - to whom it was granted. I appreciate your aid in that study of mine."
Lore regarded her carefully, unsure if, beneath her mildly amused visage, she was vexed. He had heard rumours regarding her temper. None were reassuring.
"I am sorry, Mistress."
"Why? You merely made the wish. You did not make the orb. Himself did that."
Lore hoped that meant she wasn't angry. "Still..."
"Lore, you are apprenticed to one who has had many dealings with the Goblin King. I have come to accept most of his eccentricities. This is just one more with which I shall have to live. I place no blame on you, nor do I harbor toward you any resentment."
Lore nodded acknowledgement, and prayed to his gods that none of his relief showed on his face.
"Lore, one other thing. You lack confidence. I suggest you acquire some, else you'll never make much of a magic-user. Magic, after all, stems from one's will, as much as anything else."
Lore nodded once more, recognizing a dismissal when he heard one, and left.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:03 am
The next few days were busier than any Lore had yet to live through. He was amazed that he survived them. First, he had to see to having all the other prospective apprentices sent to their respective homes. That had been an ordeal he never wanted to repeat. They had been bitter, rude, and completely impossible to deal with. Oddly, Kion had been extraordinarily helpful throughout. As the older boy pointed out: "I've got a cushy job waiting for me at home, and an apprenticeship with my da. I came out for this on a lark."
The only other person who had been anything like agreeable was one of the odder candidates: a cat-mage, Starstripe, who was, truly, a feline and a mage. He had been so vague regarding the whole thing Lore was given to wonder if he knew to what point and purpose he had come to Malecoda's tower in the first place.
It hadn't really surprised him that Malecoda had made him arrange for their departures. She called it an "exercise in confidence". He figured, rightly so, that she just didn't feel like dealing with it. He resigned himself to a great deal more such tasks in the future as her apprentice and hoped that the whole thing would be worth it in the end.
That had taken three days. The next three days he had been occupied with more "exercises" of Malecoda's, which seemed to him more work that the sorceress herself did not wish to do. He cleaned the kitchens magically (to make sure that he knew cleaning and tidying spells), catalogued books in her library (to make sure he knew how to find things and organise them in a magical library), he cared for the magical creatures in her menagerie (to see the extent of his abilities with animals), and he gathered supplies for her spells (to test his knowledge of such things).
Each night, when he dropped into his bed - still the same one had slept in during the tests, as he'd never had time to relocate or even to send for his things - he fell asleep instantly, not waking until one of Malecoda's invisible servants handed him a note with another task for him to complete. He didn't see his Mistress once in these days.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 8:51 am
The next time he saw Malecoda, two weeks had passed since their last audience.
He was summoned to her solarium - she was the only person he had ever known of who actually knew what a solarium was, let alone had one and used it - at exactly two thirty in the morning. The door slammed open at his approach, startling him considerably.
"What are you doing here?" Malecoda snarled, her porceline cheeks stained red with fury.
He took a deep breath and touched one hand to the pouch at his waist in which he kept his orb. It had gotten to be a habit with him to do so.
"You summoned me, Sor," he answered, using the formal address for a sorcerer or sorceress.
"I did not. When I discover which of my misbegotten servants did so, I shall nail its ears to the wall and hang it by them."
Lore's every instinct told him that this was the last place he wanted to be if he had any interest in remaining in one piece, but he did his best to ignore the considerable part of his mind which concurred with his instincts.
"What's put you in a temper?" he asked in what he hoped was a calming, reasonable tone.
"Don't try that tone with me, Lore. I spent a great deal of my human life using that same placating tone on my elders, and I will not hear it turned against me."
Power began to gather around her until it was actually visible and shone brightly enough to make Lore's eyes smart.
It was among his abilities that he could see magic as easily as other people saw clouds, and in much the same way. He could watch magic's movements and formations and then predict to what purpose it would be turned.
He didn't like what Malecoda's magic was forming, but he still stood his ground.
"Fine! But I was summoned here for someone's purpose, and if you've no more make-work for me I'd like damn well to know what it is," he shouted back at her.
That was probably a mistake, the rational ninety six percent of his mind said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
