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09Toughy posted:So what do either of us gain from Sarah being Emily's familiar? I haven't talked about that yet have I? First the benefits for Emily, and why she would want one. A familiar is a creature that is imbued with magic, and can act as a conduit for magic. They are basically an extension of the mage themselves, through them they get powers. When a familiar is created, they get tied to the aether, though most people don’t know that much, and the concept of the aether is not taught in schools. Familiars are a guide, they also are imbued with much of the mages own power. They can speak, cast minor spells, and can not be harmed by their owner. In recent years, it is believed that an Imp possesses the familiar and gives them ancient knowledge. Familiars once created can teach the mage new magics, and new spells become possible due to the connection between those two creatures. In Sarah’s time, it was believed that the Familiar was connected to their strand of aether, and that the link between the two created a strand that “caught” ideas and concepts around them, allowing the familiar too improve their mages' magic with insights. A mage with a familiar is more powerful, but the power they gain from a familiar is based on the emotional connection. The specific kinds of magic that need a familiar tend to be more powerful. Emily gets by on her studiousness and raw power but a familiar intensifies that. Familiar’s act like a nozzle on a hose for magic. The strand between them is stretched thin, allowing a greater force of pressure to leave it.  Another way to think of it, is to imagine Emily’s magic like a bathtub full of water. She can try emptying the tub with her hands, and she’ll definitely get a lot of the water out. It’ll be messy but she can do it. A familiar is like a bucket, it takes the magic and shapes it in such a way that it’s more usable. Most people take years finding the perfect animal / creature / companion to make a familiar, because your raw emotional connection strengthens it, the more you love your familiar, the more powerful the magic, though that is not common knowledge in Emily’s time. Instead it’s more the idea of making something live forever is serious, and you don’t want to do it to something that annoys you. Familiar’s die when the owner dies. Sarah is immortal, or at least as close to that as she can get, so she doesn’t fear this, (and whether or not she should will be something she will explore.) Sarah wants this, and it would benefit Sarah because Emily would be given Sarah some of her own aether. She could tap into what Emily has to use magic in some small way. Familiars can not cast many spells, they are merely conduits for the mage. She believes (whether she is correct or not remains to be seen,) that the first step to getting her powers back would be to get to a point where she can touch the aether again. She has been arguing this in her head for the last 500 years, and this opportunity has just fallen into her lap with not a lot of effort on her own. Sarah’s plan was too pretend to be a cat for as long as possible and then “speak” when the familiar ritual was completed. The emotions of a familiar and their mage tie together. Increasing Sarah’s ambition will in turn effect Emily’s ambition. Becoming more empathetic will make Emily more empathetic. Giving into violence, will in turn make Emily more violent. Sarah wants this desperately, but the little demons (you guys) in her head can push her to becoming a different kind of person, or well cat. (IF THIS EFFECTS YOUR VOTE, PLEASE EDIT IT TO CHANGE IT, DON’T QUOTE IT AND CHANGE IT! But make a post that you changed your vote please.) Anything past this point can realistically be skipped, unless you want to know more about the Shards, and the underlying mechanics of the CYOA The CYOA voters, who I consider in this to be “lesser” shards of Sarah, has been pushing her down a more Empathetic path. Following Emily to school showed an interest in her life, outside of how she is useful (I know you guys didn’t quite know all that yet, but it still counts!) Risking your own secrecy to protect Emily also was an empathetic act, not as great as risking your own life was. Teacher was a pair to Empathy and having one empowers the other. Understanding how the shards work, also ties into the familiar section. Telling Emily to skip class and to take classes empowers the more self serving shards. Intellect also has more input, because it was their idea, a happy medium between Queen and Sorcerer. Most ideas picked by Intellect, are going to be compromises between two ideas. Sorcerer would call that destiny, while Queen would call that an opportunity. These two ideas are ideologically opposed, even if there goals sometimes match up. She wants to reconnect with magic and nature, feelings as such are important in so much as it allows you to feel what is around you, and get you more in touch with yourself and your surroundings Queen sees magic as a means to an end. They want to return to power, and represent raw ambition. Getting magic is a step forward to becoming a ruler of their very own. They also represent Sarah’s inhibitions, and squeamish this. The proper way she should carry herself is largely guided by what Queen believes is right. Queen also represents a yearning for civilization, the finer things in life, chasing comforts and luxuries. I could do a write-up on the others, and if you ask I will, but I think the others are more cut and dry. The difference between Intellect and Logic are two sides of the same coin. Every shard eventually has it’s pair. Memory and Guilt Teacher and Empathy Queen and Sorcerer Intellect and Logic Logic is rigid, If this Then that. This thing is happening, erego that thing will happen. Calculations and History are Logic’s domain. Encyclopedic knowledge, and general facts about the universe are Logics domain. Intellect is flowing, this could happen because of that, you should do this because this might happen. Larger concepts that can not properly be processed by pure logic, are instead processed by intellect. Visual calculus, recreating events based on insight, and creating assumptions are Intellect domain. If the two disagree, it is normally because of a fact that one thinks is more important, that the other doesn’t. We haven’t had a good example of this, but it will definitely come up eventually. quote:I’ve been trying to keep info dumps low key, and slowly introduced, because this world has a LOT going on, and I don’t want to write Tolkienesque grimoires about the history of the last 500 years, or what particular grass grows in this city compared to another, but I will answer ANY question. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 10:56 on Jun 6, 2021 |
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Dec 3, 2020 01:52
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I'll stick to my vote, but will say that I appreciate the window into the sausage making.
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Dec 3, 2020 04:16
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B
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Dec 3, 2020 23:47
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Ok, I'm going to go with D then. Let's not push Emily too much, but if Emily wants a familiar, and says as much, obviously it has to be us.
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Dec 6, 2020 09:14
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Hey so if you're reading this, it's because I went overboard and wrote too much The next update is 4.4k words, or 12 pages in google docs. That's a lot to read, and there are pictures (Little animations I did.) The average adult reads between 350 -> 650 words. So it might take you up to 15 minutes to read everything, so this warning is so that you can mark this for later, if you don't have 15 minutes to read this now. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 12:35 on Dec 8, 2020 |
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Dec 8, 2020 12:32
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10 Picking a post: 1d8 8 Iunnrais posted:Ok, I'm going to go with D then. Let's not push Emily too much, but if Emily wants a familiar, and says as much, obviously it has to be us. Emily and Sarah returned to the cottage, Emily’s eyes were wide open and she looked at Grimm; the power emanating from him, “I didn’t realize I gave him so much power...” She said looking at him, she reached out and touched his strand slowly pulled on it. The light in the skeletons eyes dimmed a little, and when she let go of it, the eyes flickered then flared. She ordered him to cook dinner, and she watched as the energy slowly peeled off her finger and tugged at him like a marionette, she could see the strings over his head his body looking fully function, rainbows wrapped over each other like ligaments, pulling and turning and twisting as she watched. She grabbed a pomegranate and started to eat it. She pulled a book that she had grabbed from the city’s library, and silently flipped through the pages. Queen: Ask her. Sorcerer: Ask her. Intellect: Ask her Teacher: Ask her Logic: Ask her. Felinity: Chicken Empathy: We shouldn’t force her into this. Sarah bit her lip, and shook her head, she wasn’t sure she should, something deeper within held her back. Was it empathy? No it couldn’t be, everyone had stopped listening to them long ago. What was it? She thought about Emily. It cut like a knife to use her, and at some point deep down, she felt like she knew this wasn’t right. Forcing her to bend her soul, to push her into it without letting her really consider it. It would be wrong, she wouldn’t balk if Emily asked her, but it had to be her decision. None of the shards seemed to understand that, how important it was for Emily to choose. This wasn’t Sarah’s decision to make. Empathy: We can be a good teacher, without being bound to her. Sorcerer, Queen, Teacher: Shut it. Sarah tried to meditate again, she focussed on the smell of cooking chicken, the hissing of the oils and the crackling of the herbs, the feel of the bed an- ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. Empathy: guys stop ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. D THE SOFTNESS, SHE TOOK A DEEP BREATH, AND LET IT ENTER HER BODY TAKE- ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. ASK HER. A DEEP BREATH, AND THINK OF- Teacher: You want this so bad, we’re so close, just a little push Queen: Just tell her what you want, she’s taken everything you’ve said and internalized it. She looks up to us, and shows us proper reverence. Teacher: She owes us. She owes us nothing, we would help anyone. Sorcerer: But you weren’t just drawn to everyone, and the danger is coming, the wheels are in motion, look out the window.  Sarah looked, but had trouble seeing, she tried to focus on the magic, and the walls and roads slid away. She could see pinstreaks of light rushing towards her, and a miasma. The colors were of… Passion. Melancholy. Sickness. If only I could have studied the aether more. She thought to herself, she couldn’t figure it out. She called out to Emily who was reading a book and humming to herself. “Could you come over here a moment?” Emily stood up and walked over, she sat on the bed and stared out the window that led down the street. “Do you see it?” “It’s… It’s not like the trees, or Grimm, or even you. It’s big, and it’s reaching. Something big radiating outward, what could it be.” “Well, the aether is based on emotion. Could the colors mean something?” Emily looked over at Grimm, his aether was dark, with light blue. Then she looked At Sarah, who was a void, any Aether that got too close was sucked in, disappearing into her form. She looked in the mirror, and she was a swirl of colors, every piece of the rainbow reaching out. There was a pulse to it, and covered everything, crawling over the aether making it bright and hard to look at. But not in the house, anything that got close disappeared into Sarah’s fur, her void like frame a cut out of the aether.  “I don’t understand What… What is that?” She looked. Sorcerer: Dangerous. She looked out the window, and around, the pulse faded out as it touched the edge of the trees, and when she stared toward the sky, she could see a wall of aether that disappeared into the clouds, the thick bands of color covered everything, everything but her cottage. How long had this been happening she wondered. Sarah could focus, Felinity was controlling now, and Felinity wanted chicken. Grimm silently stirred diced onions, chicken, and pineapple in his pan. He reached into the bag and pulled out a few glass jars from the bag. Runes were lit on the front of them, and they made slight popping noises as he popped the corks. Sarah could see condensation on the outside of the jars when he replaced the stoppers. The runes held the food at a safe temperature for storage. Sarah was impressed what people had learn about food, bodies, and how they interacted with magic. There was so much that she didn’t know, if she had half the knowledge these people did, she could have… Well maybe she could have made people’s lives a little more comfortable. He poured thick white coconut milk into the pan, the solids of it slowly melting in the hot heat, then he pulled out a tiny spoon and added a bright red paste that Sarah had never seen before, the heat of it filled the room, and Sarah coughed a little. Grimm added some salt, pepper, and a brown powder that dragged Sarah’s attention, it smelled like caramel and maple. I miss the taste of sugar She thought to herself. Though maybe the way meat tastes now makes up for it... Felinity: Good smell. Big eats. Sorcerer: How does it do that? Queen: I will not be ignored! Listen to me, you tell that girl to bind with you now. Teacher: Don’t you want to get back on track? What would the old toad say, knowing you threw it all away. The smell of mixed herbs and spices, she walked over to the table and salivated staring at the curry as it slowly cooked down into a thick stew. Grimm came over, and gave Sarah her customary offering, and she greedily gobbled down the chicken. Emily poked Sarah in the back, “Have you been listening to a word I’ve been saying?! That aura left, it all went back to the city. ” Felinity: No? “I uhhh…” Sarah said her mouth full, bits of minced raw chicken sticking to her face as she tries to lick it off, and speak at the same time, “Yeah, you said the Aura left. Have you noticed anything like that before?” She tried to retain her composure, but just in the corner of view, she could see the tiniest bit of chicken. She could just barely touch it with her tongue. Emily raised an eyebrow, “Don’t you think I’d have mentioned that?” She was frowning, and looking down at the floor. Something’s wrong. Sarah finally relented, and pushed the chicken off her face with her paw, and then licked it up that way, finally she could focus on Emily, “I was just checking, now…” “I didn’t like it, it felt… Odd.” She was holding her arms to herself, like she was trying to warm herself from a chill, or scrub something nasty off of her arms. “You felt something? But it didn’t enter the cottage, I would have seen it.” Sarah’s eyes went wide. “I stepped out of the cottage to see if I could touch it.” “You What?!” She did her best to snarl in her high pitch voice, “What WERE YOU THINKING?!” “Well it seemed harmless enough, but then it touched my aura, and it… Suckled? At it. It touched it and there was a face. I think it tasted me.” She shivered. “What do you mean?” “When I went out there, there was a face, it wasn’t human, it had so many eyes, but it wasn’t looking at anything. It… All over it, it was constantly shifting, Some of the eyes had bits coming out of it, it had a wide grin, and the aether pooled into it’s mouth. It’s tongue was covered in razor teeth and it rotated like a blender, I wanted to run but I couldn’t, I froze. It didn’t hurt me but…” She looked down at the ground, “Don’t be mad please. I didn’t think there was stuff like out there.” She was obviously shaken. Sarah had no idea what happened out there, b- Teacher: Now is a teaching lesson. Tell her what she did was reckless and foolish. If, as you say, we’re teaching her for her own good she needs to know that there are dangerous things out there. We know nothing about the world, and the aether is not safe to meddle with without proper respect Queen: Admonish her. The fool. Tell her she EMPATHY: TELL HER EVERYTHING IS OK. Sorcerer: HUSH, YOU ARE AN IMPEDIMENT TO EVERYTHING WE NEED TO DO. EMPATHY: I WILL NOT. I WILL NOT BE IGNORED DAMNIT. Sarah gasped, the voices were louder than ever before. Was it the Aether empowering them? Oh how she longed for the simplicity of the forest. Empathy: You like Emily, she is polite, studious and quiet. An excellent student, she explores the world around her and is inquizitive, with enough of her own natural intellect to not be annoying. She is a little too obsessed with romance novels, and she whines a bit about not having any friends, but she has been steadfast in her studies. She opened up to us about her family, she speaks and tells us stories, because she knows we can not share our own. She has an open heart, and immediately accepted us when we lied to her. And she reminds you of Ruby. You want to protect her, because you see yourself in her. You see your family in her. Caring about people is not a weakness. So TELL HER EVERYTHING IS OK. RIGHT NOW. Sarah felt a chill up her spine, and took a step forward, and nuzzled her head into Emily’s arm, “It’s ok.” Emily looked at the cat and picked her up, “I didn’t know the aether had creatures in it.” “I didn’t either.” “It touched my limiter and I think it did something. I couldn’t even touch it, but it made me feel afraid. All the happiness in my body leached out, I could see it leaving me. I thought I was going to die, and I couldn’t move an-” “It’s ok,” “I wish I had more people to talk to. It’s been nice having you around, but I’ve been here almost 4 years now, and… No-one talks to each other. The city is filled with people who keep their head down and ignore each other, reading their books, talking to people with transcription paper, listening to music, anything but interacting with people . The colleges are just people silently moving from class to class, with small groups of people who knew each other before they got there, no way to get a word in edgewise. I don’t get how I can be surrounded by so many people and still be so alone. No-one takes an interest in me, and when I try to talk to people I get all these feelings telling me I’m not good enough, that what I’m saying is awkward, that I don’t know how to talk to people and never should even try. I… I feel like I’m a burden on everyone, and my Dad is too scared about me to ever open up, Mom’s gone and... and that thing… It made me feel all of that at once.” Teacher: We could use this. Sorcerer: Now would be the perfect time to suggest preparing the familiar ritual Queen: If we mention how much stronger she’d be. Teacher: We can take advantage of this. Empathy: You all disgust me. Sarah started to purr, like Felinity did when she was sad. “I… I…” Empathy: Don’t. “I’m immortal, so if you like my company, I’ll probably be around for a while.” Sarah felt so awkward in that moment. She never was a warm person. Teacher: “And if you want to never feel alone, you should take a familiar.” Sorcerer: “Someone or something close to you, that you already trust.” Queen: “Together we could learn, together we could make you so strong...” Guilt: Do it. We both know you can’t resist. Logic: If you’re going to do it, then doing so at the optimal time greatly increases chances for success Intellect: And we may get some magic back. Empathy: You are better than this. “And if you want to talk about things, I’ll listen.” She continued. “In my time, Sorcerers had… groups, there was a matriarch who helped mediate disputes and they would meet up weekly to just talk. We’d talk about our struggles as we went through our lives. In safe spaces where we could talk without worry of repercussion. If we find other sorcerers we could help them. You can’t go it alone, no-one could before me, and no-one could after, but you’re not. I’m here to listen, and guide you through this. Magic is scary, and it’s new, and it brings up all these feelings you don’t know how to control. You’re finding yourself, and that’s great. Your raw power is going to attract all sorts of things, fae, creatures and the like. That’s not your fault at all, but I think we need to work on warding, and other more defensive magics.” Empathy: Tell her her feelings are valid, and that she is safe. Teacher: Oh enough of this. Empathy: No stop, we’re having a break through. Teacher: It’s time to get back to teaching. Did our mentor stop because we got a little sad? No. We were taught to hone those feelings, make them a razor sharp weapon. “But not now, now we should eat dinner, and we should just talk, I didn’t realize you were having so much trouble talking to people.” Emily grabbed a spoon, and absent mindedly spun it on her finger with magic, twirling it on the edge of the handle, sending small flashes of light around the room. Felinity: PREY. “I just… I get all in my head, and I feel like I’m bothering people when I talk to them.” Sarah thought back, she had mentioned a girl, what was her name? Empathy: It was Danielle, they shared Calc 2 together. She left her math classes until the end of her track because she wanted more time to focus on them. Queen: This is pointless prattle. “What about Danielle, I thought you were talking to her.” Sarah said between bites of curry. “She… Well I just say hi to her, and sometimes we share homework problems, but we never got closer than that.” “Didn’t you sketch a picture of her in your notes?” Sarah asked, trying to remember as much as possible about Emily’s life. Guilt: Maybe instead of feigning interest, you should have shown ACTUAL interest. Emily blushed and looked away. Logic: She likes this woman a lot, but has never actually spoken to her erego Empathy: You do NOT have to spell it out. “I just thought she was a good reference that’s all.” Emily blushed. Teacher: If she were caught doodling in my class, I’d have her head on a platter. “Right, of course,” Sarah said knowingly, glad to see that Emily was already cheering up, “You talked about that book you both read.” “You mean Birds of Paradise? Yeah, I guess we do talk about the book sometimes.” Sarah nodded, “If you’ll let me sneak a lesson, this is important to understand, both about people, and magic. We make ripples everywhere we go, we each have our own personal eddy, and it’s constantly shifting. Sometimes we don’t notice the ripples we make in other people's pools, because our own pool is too turbulent. We’re busy being pulled down into our own tide pools, not noticing the splashes we’re making.” Sarah continued, “Did you ever write her? She gave you her… Uh… Thing.” She groaned, “You know the thing. The talky thing.” Emily reached into her bag and pulled out her transcription notepad, “You mean her tran code?” “Right, the little notebook you people use to talk to each other. I don’t see what was wrong with scrying pools.” Sarah grumbled “No-one uses scrying pools anymore, are you kidding? You have to get dressed up everytime you want to talk to someone.” Emily laughed. “Everyone uses Tran pads.” “Right, that thing.” Sarah said, “Have you written to her?” “No… I…” “Just say hello, tell her where you are in the book. Ask her how her break is going. There are quite a lot of things you could talk about.” Emily looked at the Transcription Pad, and put it down, “I… I… Don’t think I can.” “Well, don’t worry, when you’re ready she, and millions of other people will be there, and they will all be lucky to meet you. How about you try to teach me that board game again.” “You mean Half-light Struggle? Sure!” Emily grabbed a box from her closet, opened it and started to put out multi-colored pieces. They spent nearly an hour teaching Sarah the game, and then another 3 hours actually playing it, with Emily using magic to hold the cards for Sarah. Focussing on the game helped Sarah, and when they went to sleep that night, she realized she hadn’t heard from the voices in quite a while, and for once, slept peacefully.  ________________________________________________________ The following morning, Sarah had woken up before Emily, and she yawned luxuriously before stretching herself out. She walked around the small cottage. It was a single room, with cupboards, a sink, and a cooking range on one side, glowing runes etched into the plates, summoning fire when pressed. Then there was the table in the center, the window, and Emily’s bed pushed into the corner underneath it. She waited for Emily to wake up and feed her, she walked out the open window, and walked the area around it. She looked for a beam of sun to relax in, she let time slip by. The voices tried to edge their way in, but she took a deep breath. She relaxed and let her meditation work, the voices in her head quieted them. She wanted a fresh meal. She saw a twitch in the grass and laid her body low, her eyes went wide, and her tail twitched. She wiggled slightly as she pushed her center of gravity to her back legs, she waited as the grass bent around the tiny creature, and then she leapt. Gobbling up the mouse as quick as she could, she heard Emily calling her “Ning! Food.” Sarah ran back, and leaped onto the windowsill where an omelette sat, eggs, chicken, and cheese, it called to her, and she started scarfing it down. “Ning?” Felinity: not now. Chicken Sarah ignored her, and continued her feast. “Ning?!” Felinity: OHEMGEE LADY. CHICKEN. She quickly scarfed down the rest of the food as fast as she could, and then answered with her mouthful. “Hmm?” “If I had a familiar, do you think I would have been able to fight that thing off?” Emily asked. Teacher, Queen, Sorcerer, Logic, Intellect: TELL HER YES. “No, I don’t think so, I think if you had seen it sooner, and had thought to attack it, you would have warded it off easily. It caught you off guard, but now we know they exist. It won’t catch you unaware without it.” Sarah said, honestly. “But if I had a familiar, I’d be stronger, and whatever I bonded with, would be stronger too right?” “Yes, you’d be able to focus your magic much faster, and it would be more precise. You’d also have access to magic that is out of reach of the average mage,” Sarah replied again. “What if it were a person, like another wizard or something?” Sarah’s fur twitched, she could feel her back spasming, and a chill rolling down her spine, “That is… Rare. The maelstrom that connects between the two is strong, it binds them completely, they aren’t two people anymore, they don’t even have separate bodies. I’ve only heard of it happening twice, and the resulting creature was…” “Horrifying?” “No it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, like the imperfections of both were washed away, and all that remained was a shining golden goddess. Their words were like honey that dripped into your ear in fa-” Sarah heaved, and started choking on bile. She heaved again. “I’m not allowed to tell that story apparently. Still the people they were ceased to exist, they were new and beautiful.” “Would that happen to us if I were to… Make you a familiar?” Sorcerer: We are a void in the aether, we would never mix. Intellect: Most experiments we’ve done suggest no. “Well, if that’s something you wanted, it would work because deep down I am a Cat. This body I’m in I was put into. Magic keeps me in control of my actions and words, but I’m not re-.” Sarah gagged again. “Anyways, as you’ve seen I’m a void in the aether. While I… Suspect I may be able to pull power from you, I don’t think I’d have any to provide. I’d be a focal point to stretch your magic thin, and increase the pressure of it.” “Would you want too?” “Yes, I would be honored, I warn you though. If we connect, you may share my curse. These voices in my head, might also end up in yours. My void could swallow yours. There are risks” “But you’d be able to share more of your past?” Emily asked. “Maybe…” Sarah said quietly. “Then let’s do it!” Emily said confidently, walking over and picking Sarah up, “Grimm! Get the chalk.” Grimm and Emily moved the table to the side, and picked up the carpet revealing a blackboard, she and Grimm used ritual chalk to draw the outlines, one big circle for Emily, and a small one for Sarah. “Wait you should think about this!” Sarah said Queen: Don’t screw this up for us. “I have been, if our magic is connected, you’ll feel what I feel and you’ll be better able to teach me.” Emily said “But what if the void I contain is contagious? What if you’re no longer a sorcerer?!” Sarah yelped. “Then I’ll be a normal mage, I’m also almost done with my studies, and I was quite talented at them before your lessons tanked my grades.” Emily replied back, lighting the candles. Sarah sat in the circle and waited, she could think of both nothing she wanted more, and nothing that was scarier. She didn’t know what would happen, and all of the voices were cheering. She couldn’t get them to stop and the sound broke into her skull. She tried to stop them, but they only got louder and deeper. She felt like her head was splitting, and then there was silence she tried to open her eyes, and she couldn’t, her eyes were open but she couldn’t see, why not? She started to giggle, laughing, something felt good, and she opened her eyes, she was in a swirling maelstrom of energy.  she could see Emily, and, she could see the aether, the bonding was taking place. She looked at her paws, and the void around her was covered in rainbow lights. She looked at Emily, and she looked happy. The shards started yelling, chanting, whooping, and calling. They screamed orders and whispered curses, invectives filling her mind and it was all too much. Emily was grabbing her head, and she started screaming. This was wrong they said in unison We have to stop it. Sarah struggled to climb out of the circle, and Emily grasped her head tighter. Sarah pulled her claws out and when she floated close enough to the floor she grabbed, and pulled herself tighter and tighter. Just as she was about to break the circle it snapped. The flames died down, the energy was gone. Sarah and Emily looked at each other and gasped for air. Neither could breathe, and the floor was smouldering. Raw aether had eaten away at the runes. Sorcerer: Something sensed that, it is coming. They looked at each other, and in unison said what they wanted to do: A.) Practice new magics, go to the forest and see what they could do! B.) Tell new stories, have Sarah try and tell one of her forbidden tales or talk about some small part of her life C.) Test out their mental connections, play memory games, walk around the house, see if they can taste and smell what the other can D.) See if Sarah can cast spells with Emily’s magic. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 10:56 on Jun 6, 2021 |
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Dec 8, 2020 12:32
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C i could go for some chicken curry Space Kablooey fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Dec 8, 2020 |
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Dec 8, 2020 15:39
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C! What's the usual reaction? We need to see if more safe parts of the relationship work, before trying spells.
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Dec 8, 2020 15:43
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C then A!!!
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Dec 8, 2020 16:11
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B
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Dec 8, 2020 16:27
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I've decided Felinity is the only shard§with their head on straight. E Chikken dinner
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Dec 8, 2020 17:15
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C then B. Let's find out what exactly this event caused, then after that see if we can say anything about the past. Also not gonna lie, I feel like Empathy is the shard I like the most at the moment.
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Dec 8, 2020 20:23
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A
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Dec 9, 2020 00:41
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E) Okay, this is going to sound weird, but I think what we need right now is some FELINITY to quiet the other voices down so we can focus and screw our heads on straight. This will very likely involve chicken. This may or may not involve some shoe feces (it probably will). But I want, for a short time, to just be a cat, and allow the familiar bond to work the way it should. Just for a bit. THEN, AFTER that, I vote for C, B, A, D, in that order, as long as nothing comes up in the mean time that would require us to make a new decision (a new vote). Talow posted:Also not gonna lie, I feel like Empathy is the shard I like the most at the moment.
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Dec 12, 2020 04:47
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Dec 13, 2020 12:16
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11 Pick a Post: 1d8 5 Outrail posted:E Chikken dinner Iunnrais posted:E) Okay, this is going to sound weird, but I think what we need right now is some FELINITY to quiet the other voices down so we can focus and screw our heads on straight. Picking a post: 1d9 9 <Ning?> Emily probed with her consciousness, and Sarah smiled. Hello Emily, it worked… Wait Oh no… Empathy: Don’t be scared, I think it’ll be fine Sorcerer: Welcome to the mad house Queen: You royally screwed this up. Guilt: I actually can’t think of a more fitting punishment Teacher: I don’t think it’s permanent, but we’re all going to be vying for the opening. Emily. EMILY. LISTEN. Intellect: This will not be permanent I think Logic: This is unfortunate. Felinity: I’m not Ning, there is no Ning, call me Felinity. Chicken, now, I’m hungerbees. Emily raised an eye brow, <Hungerbees?> Felinity bristled, and Emily could see her back twitching. Felinity: My… Old owner would say it. It’s cute. Shutup. <I’ll get you some chicken. Don’t you want to try some things out?> Emily was worried, <What happened to Ning?> Felinity: I’m hungry, Sarah and the others are quiet now. Food first, then experiments. The thing you did to me always makes me hungry. First time I ate a whole chicken, this time I will eat two. Don’t cook the bones. <I don’t think you’d be able to pull that off, but I will have Grimm make you a meal.> Emily snapped her fingers and tugged at Grimm’s aura, gently tugging him from the closet, just the way Ning showed her. EMILY, EMILY WAIT, I’M STILL HERE Felinity: Hush, is time for chicken. It’s my body, I decide what we do. Teacher: ah… haha… ha… We’re now all trapped in the body of a Cat, together forever Sorcerer: Isn’t it wonderful? Logic: The magic is connected to the body, not the souls inside it. And at the end of the day, this body still belongs to Felinity YOU PALMTOP TIGER YOU LET ME SPEAK THIS INSTANT. NO CHICKEN, NO CHICKEN FOR 100 Years. We’ll eat bugs for the rest of our life, I swear to god Intellect: Threatening her may not be the best way to move forward. Empathy: She might not even be able to control it. Emily fed Ning? Sarah? Felinity? She fed the cat, Grimm pulled the bones out deftly, and quickly fried the breast, liver and thighs together, and then shredded them with a butter gravy. He through a bit of cornstarch to thicken it, and deglazed the pan with a white wine sauce. With a slight pinch of salt, and a heavy grind of black pepper, he flourished the dish and placed it gently in front of the Cat. Felinity was pleased, and spent nearly 10 minutes eating the mountain of food, licking up the gravy, stopping only to breathe or gulp down from the small bowl of water on the table. Her stomach was full, and she felt warm, she yawned. Emily noticed the food smelled good, really good. She grabbed a fork and ate a piece of Felinity’s meal, and then her eyes widened, it was good. It was so good, she tasted things she had never tasted before. She didn’t have a word for it, but the meat was so unctuous, each bite an explosion of flavor. Felinity eyes widened when Emily dug into her meal. Felinity: What is that? Emily looked at her, and gasped, she could tell the flavor that Felinity was talking about by just… connecting with her. She had the same question, and quick they started breaking down the different components of it. <It’s… Wine, it’s sweet I mean. Sugar> Emily used the mental connection to speak, it was like instinct, she didn’t even realize she was doing it, plus it let her eat unimpeded. Felinity: Never tasted that before <Not even the… Last time this happened?> Felinity: No, I couldn’t taste what Sarah tasted. <Does all meat taste like this to you? It’s so savory, it’s almost overwhelming, but there’s very little of it.> Felinity: Is meaty flavor, all meat has a little of it. Better ground. <God I could eat this all day.> Felinity: I know! Emily could barely contain herself, she started to lick the plate, and immediately had Grimm start cooking more. Together they had nearly emptied the Chicken Coop, then they ate Eggs, omelettes with basil and tomato, after that they had Grimm make cookies, and Felinity nearly died. Emily continued to eat, while Felinity with her full stomach took a nap. Emily’s stomach felt uncomfortable, and she was sleepy. So sleepy. Together they slept for a few hours, and then in the late hours of the night Felinity woke up, and nuzzled Emily. Who was also starting to wake. <Is Ning gone forever?> She asked, she didn’t realize how close they were together, and now that she was gone she felt awful. Her aura turned a deep bluish purple, and Felinity recoiled from it. Felinity: There is no Ning. Just Sarah. I just want everything quiet. Was a shard idea. <Shard?> Felinity: Is what we call her mind. It’s in pieces. She’s too old. And cursed. <Ok…> Felinity: Just… We do stuff together, and then I let the rest out. Can’t quiet just one, all or nothing. <Ok, just tell Sarah I’m enjoying this so far.> Felinity: She knows. They started to experiment. Emily closed her eyes, and walked around the room. It was odd, she couldn’t see what was there, and yet she knew what was there, she deftly moved her way around the room, out the door, fed the chickens, or at least the few remaining. She had the unnerving urge to clamp her teeth on one of their necks. To just rip out the throat and let the delicious blood coarse down her throat. They would taste so good, and wasn’t it her right? She was a predator. Emily pulled herself far away from the Chicken coop. She stepped back into the house, and then took off the blindfold. She and Felinity put a bunch of cards on the table, and showed some to Felinity, and she knew immediately what they were. <I guess we can’t play card or board games together anymore.> Her mouth was a grim slash across her face. Felinity nuzzled her. Felinity: You can stop it. Is easy. First thing to learn. Its important. Emily looked at Felinity confused. Felinity: Just think loud. Emily didn’t understand Felinity: Like this… Felinity imagined a dark safe, and it was filled with colors. Emily did the same. Felinity’s safe was full of colors that shined from the cracks of the safe, and when it was open a rush of colors and a single seed of a void that was spewing it all out. Colors that threatened to overwhelm Felinity, then there was a bridge between the two. Emily heard 8 clear distinct voices, that built up over the chatter. The colors swarmed over her own Aura started to frizzle, such bright colors so strong. She could barely hold herself, and she heard them. Queen: Oh new girl, hello ne- Sorcerer: There’s danger, we must b- C Empathy: I’m so glad to meet you, I- Teacher: This is a valuable les- Logic:IM SCREAMING TO HELP. I’M C Intellect: She can’t manage. Queen: -w girl, are you going to be our ne- C Sorcerer: -e quick, we have a few days at most the- Empathy: -think it’s so sweet you and Sarah ha- Teacher: -son, let it overwhelm you, and then sh-. B Logic: LOUD. HEY DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO. Intellect: Too many at once. Queen: -w ruler? Are you read to take the mantle? Sorcerer: -re are things in motion, they can sense you. E Empathy: -ve become so close. I want you to know tha- Teacher:-ut it out. You can do it, if you can do it then Sarah can C then B. Logic: ME. BEING LOUD IS HELPFUL A Intellect: Felinity pull her out. E C Empathy: -t I think you’re absolutely wonderful. You can do this! Emily grasped her head, the voices were so loud and there was so many of them, shouting letters, decisions, yelling at her. She pushed hard against it, and her aura flared. It pushed them back against the bridge, and they were quieter, but she could still hear them. Felinity: Cut the bridge. Imagine the bridge falling away. Emily ran through her thoughts, it was so real even though she couldn’t see it, the feelings rushed back into her body. She moved her hand, and her aura flared, she imagined breaking the bridge, and it shattered. She could still see all of the colors, the auras, and she could hear them, but they were quiet, an ignorable din. Then she heard a voice clear as day. Focus on me. Emily focussed on the voice. Pull me out. Emily reached her hand out, but the bridge was so long. She couldn’t quite reach across the break, and then she recoiled. She saw Sarah in her full glory. Sarah wasn’t reaching. Emily wasn’t sure what she imagined Sarah had looked like before, but she was tall, and strong. Sarah had imagine some feinting willow, a thin lithe person. A mage of academia, but this was not Sarah. Sarah was nearly 7 feet tall, and had biceps like banded steal. She wore a red dress that draped over her figure tightly, the plunging neck line punctuated with 5 holes, roughly 12 millimeters wide right where her heart would be, on her neck she had a scar that had been clearly stitched together, cursed wounds that magic wouldn’t, or couldn’t cure. Gouges punctuated her body, thick claw marks, deep and still an angry red. Over her eye she had a hairline scar, the skin slightly raised. Her hair was cut short, just past her shoulders, her tail was the same pinkish yellow as her skin. Her eyes seemed to see Emily, piercing through her seeing the very essence of her. Emily gasped, but she didn’t know why. In her mind Sarah was beautiful and terrible beyond comprehension. Her arms were resting on a giant warhammer that was resting on her shoulders.  <Is this… Is this how you see yourself? Wounded? Frightening?> It was Sarah’s turn to gasp, and she reached out towards here, You can see me? She thought, the words punctuated with a deep sadness that Emily had never heard Sarah speak with before. I am… Before the ritual… This was the last view I had of me before I died. She stumbled over the words. Emily reached past the shattered bridge for her, and Sarah reached back, but neither could reach. Sarah grabbed the head of her hammer in both hands, and stretched it outwards, Emily grabbed it and pulled her out. Felinity: There you go, focus on Sarah, her voice will be clearer over the others. Emily looked at Sarah in her mind. She was so tall, her muscles bulged with the tight toning of years of work. The hammer was bigger than Emily was tall, and the head of it had huge goring spikes, it was a terrifying thing. Sarah reached for Emily and gave her a hug. Emily hugged her back, and they smiled. Emily felt warmth spreading through her body, a comforting feeling. Teacher: The mindscape is new, it’s something shared by the both of you. The connection you have is stronger than anything between familiar and magician. Emily realized she had been sitting in her chair for… She couldn’t get a feeling for the time, it was later though. 15 minutes? 20? She shaked her head, as Teacher’s voice cut through her head. It was deep, deeper than any creature she had heard before. Like an old frog, and it spoke in such a clipped heated tone, with the gravitas of a professor wronged. She focussed on Sarah and ignored the… Shards? That’s what Felinity had called them. <Is your name really Sarah?> Intellect: Yes, that is her birth name. Brisque, to the point, her voice was lilting, as though every word held great meaning. Or maybe someone excitedly reading from a book Empathy: It is a private thing, her name, though I’d like to think she would have shared it with you. Kind and warm, male? Baritone, and strong “Ye-” Sarah gagged and started to throw up, she couldn’t stop herself, her whole body was choking, and she couldn’t get it out. A small pool of bile collected underneath her as she gagged over and over again. She had planned to say much, and that was clearly not allowed. “I can’t say…” She recognized that voice, but it held so much more emotion. Anger at being ignored, annoyance that she didn’t get to tell Emily herself. Sadness that her stories were still going to remain untold. She could feel a yearning, Sarah wanted to practice magic. Emily couldn’t sleep, it was late in the night. <Couldn’t have been 20 minutes, the sun set.> Sarah nodded, and the two went out to the forest, and Emily held her hands up and tried to see the Aether. It was blinding. She tried to cover her eyes, but it didn’t help, everything was so clear, it was a maelstrom of color and senses and she could barely hold on. She grabbed a trees essence and was surprised how taught it was, normally when she felt for essence, it was at first, like trying to catch threads of silk from the air, now it was like holding a rope, or tightly braided cord. She grabbed the energy and threw it and gasped for the fourth time that day. So many surprises for the little one. <I heard that.> The energy shot forward like an arrow, it struck the boulder she had been practicing with it, the black soot on it immediately vaporized, the rock split in half, and then the ground underneath split open. A huge gash behind the split stone of overturned soiled seemed to stare at her. Sarah was giddy, and Emily felt a sense of elation start to spill into her stomach, before it overwhelmed her. She’s so strong, stronger than any I had ever met. To have such a pupil Sarah thought, I love it, nothing will stop us. Teacher: Her potential is boundless Queen: If we can tap even into a small amount of that. Sorcerer: Please stop ignoring me, Danger is coming. Can you hear them? Sarah asked, worried. Emily could feel her concern emanating, waves of grief, caring. <Yes, they’re quiet when I’m focussing on you, but I can hear them.> Empathy: We should te- Teacher & Queen: It’s irrelevant, it’s time for you to go back to being quiet. Empathy: No. I will be heard. Sorcerer: I don’t think your opinions are… Compatible with our goals, so it’s time to hush. Empathy: I have been quiet for Centuries. We’re in a world that is finally civilized. You will need me, and I’m not going to be quieted. Emily could see the mindscape, she saw… Colors, little orbs of light swimming in a giant pool, there were tiny stars and sparkles in the water, glittering like the scales of a giant fish. At the top were the arguing voices, each with their own colors, shaking left and right as they argued. Sarah was sitting on the floor and grasping her head. Trying to keep things out all together. It was hard to focus on both, in the real world Sarah looked fine, she was smiling, and in the mindscape she was pulling her hair out and grimacing. Emily looked at Sarah and reached down and gently pet her. As she stroked the Cat down the back she saw the voices shrink, sinking below the pool, their voices being silenced. <It’s ok, whatever you want to tell me it can wait.> Sarah shook her head, “I… I just want you to know that I tried not to push you into this, but… I thought it might bring me back my Magic. I… I.. Taught you because I wanted something, the shards are right, I should have told you sooner. Now that what I want is so close, I’m scared. I don’t want to hurt you, but…” “It’s fine,” Emily was a little hurt, but Sarah perked up, she felt the warmth from Emily, she felt her joy, her… Appreciation at having someone who would listen to her, who could feel her feelings, and tell her things were ok. Sarah thought of her own daughter, and regret flooded her form. A tear fell down Emily’s face, she couldn’t see what Sarah thought about, but she felt the pain and guilt. Sarah thought about how harsh she was on her own children. That she kept them in studies, barely saw them. So busy with her own responsibilities, trying to stop a kingdom from falling apart. She could have spent her last moments with her family, enjoying their company. Instead she was fighting with rebels who trapped her soul in a Cat. Their deaths were the forefront of her mind, and she tried to tamp them down, those feelings weren’t helpful, she had to move forward and yet. Emily grabbed Sarah, and held her close to her chest. She couldn’t understand what made Sarah feel this way, but she knew that she couldn’t let her continue. “You’re ok.” She said hugging her, “You’re fine. I don’t blame you. You have been the closest friend I’ve had. I… You…” Sarah didn’t say anything, and neither did Emily. Their feelings were mingling, and where one started and ended started to be confused. Sarah felt so happy, so lucky to have someone to care for her. Someone that wanted her to do better, to see her succeed and teach her. Not the emotionless rote education of a college, but true mentorship, where they get closer and become friends, as one slowly becomes equal, and the other lets them live and grow. Emily felt so broken the happier she got. The voices constantly pushing her towards subtle manipulations, the grief of something long lost <just like my mom> and the pain, knowing that nothing she ever does will bring back the joy she once had, at best she’d find something new that made her happy. That the time had left, and everyone she knew and cared about were long dead. That someday Emily would die, the whole stupid planet would die, and she’d spend an eternity on a dead planet forever, with no-one to talk too but the stupid voices in her head and- Something came for them, Sarah looked at it, and hissed. She felt Emily’s fear as she froze. The creature was like a ripple in the aether, it had brought the maelstrom with it. Emily snap out of it, Sarah thought harshly, Emily didn’t move. Sarah bit her on the leg, gently at first, and when Emily refused to move hard enough to draw blood. <What the hell is that thing?> Sarah was confused, she saw it, but she had never heard of a creature in the Aether, the existence of such a thing was confusing. The Aether wasn’t an ecosystem, creatures didn’t exist in it, and yet there it was. It’s long tentacles and tongue lunged for Emily, but she put her arm up to defend herself. She reached for the tree, but it was dead, she looked around, she couldn’t see anything she could use. She was panicking.  You’re never alone, a sorceress can always rely on the aether. You’ve done this before, use your own magic. Emily took a deep breath, and fell backwards when the creature lunged for her, and her concentration broke. Emily looked at Sarah and yelled, “Help me!” Sarah gritted her teeth, trying to tamp down her feelings, her annoyance was mingling with Emily’s fear making her feel worse, she couldn’t concentrate. Use your own emotions Emily, reach into yourself and use your power. Email was still panicking as the creature got closer, it’s razor tongue plunging into her chest. There was no wound, but Sarah felt her pain, it was great and tearing, like something was boring into it. Emily was trying to hit it with her hands and push it off, but she couldn’t. She reached out for the aether in the tree, but there was nothing around nothing except… Emily plunged her hand into Sarah’s fur, and grabbed the Aether pooling into Sarah’s body, she grabbed a thick strand of it, and smashed the tendril of energy into the creature. Sarah felt warmth spread through her body, her eyes glowed and lines appeared in her fur. She started to laugh, she felt so amazing, she felt it flowing through her. She reached deep into it, but she couldn’t quite grasp, she kept trying. Emily started to laugh, and couldn’t stop, she felt confident and powerful, she was a Sorceress, a creature of the Aether, a woman between worlds, and master of both. She held tight onto her strand of Aether and looked at the pathetic creature. It looked angry, and Emily scoffed, “You’re nothing.” She thought of the spells she knew, so many different ways to kill this thing. She laughed, as it charged her and she slapped again with the aether tendril in her hand. She smiled even wider. She pulled hard on the strand until she had a whole cord, and she fashioned it into an old branch. She ran at the creature, and started to pound on it. She felt so good. She smashed the creature over and over, and laughed as it’s emotions started to leak out. It was scared, Good, it should be. She hit it again, harder this time. The creature spewed a technicolor spray that covered her body. Hit it again. Empathy: Wait, are you sure? It’s beaten may- Emily ignored the voice and struck it again and again. Empathy: You can feel it’s fear, it’s trepidation, it was just hungry, it didn’t understand what it was or what it was doing, you can tell, it’s emotions aren’t that complex Emily grinned even wider, Good, then this will be easy. She kept bashing it. The creatures eyes started to close, and it squealed in a pool of it’s own blood, it’s many mouths started to gag, and it leaked fear, and anticipation, and loneliness, and Emily leaned down on the creature and took a giant bite out of it. She got close to what she thought it’s face was. Felinity: You know what to do. Emily turned the rod of aether into a knife, and plunged it deep in the creatures, being. She sliced off a large piece and jammed it into her mouth. He body pulsed with energy, and it felt so good. Sarah was still trying to grab the tendril of energy, it was right there. She could see it floating out of her, she just needed to grab it. Empathy: SARAH! GO TO EMILY? “What? Wait why am I talking out loud.” She looked around herself, and saw Emily she was… She was carving up the monster and eating it? Why would she do tha- Memory: Power overwhelming. A defenseless deer. Aether consumed Guilt: Blood. Everywhere. She kept stabbing the Aether blade into it and jamming the thing down her throat. She loved it’s fear, it was like a sudden ice cube down the back, exhilarating and freezing. It tasted so good. It wasn’t like the tree. She looked around her, and sensed a wolf. She pushed herself up and grabbed her blade. Chase it. Kill it. Eat it. She ran off at a full sprint. Sarah cursed under her breath, and sprinted after her. Teacher: She can tap into our energy. I noticed Teacher: It seems to induced some sort of… Logic: Psychosis. I NOTICED. Teacher: Something happened similar to you when your master gave you some of his aether I KNOW! Sarah bounded after her. She caught up just as Emily leaped onto the back of a wolf, she slammed her hand down on it, and blood splurted out of the open wounds. She stabbed it again. And again. The whole time laughing. Chase it. Kill it. Eat it. She was giggling, she was so strong, nothing could stop her, she ruled the world and these things, they exist to serve her, them. How dare these people hunt her people down. She was, by right, their ruler. She kicked the wounded animal in the ribs, and slit it’s throat and then grabbed onto it’s aether. She ate it’s pain, she ate it’s fear, it’s memories. She felt herself bounding through the forest with her pack, eating prey. Is it not natural for a predator to eat prey. Sarah was only a cat. She tried to push Emily off the body but she couldn’t. She tried harder, she couldn’t do it. She wasn’t strong enough. Then she heard it. That’s right. Chase it. Kill it. Eat it. It was one of her shards, it had gotten lodged in Emily’s head when she grabbed her strand. She couldn’t get Emily off the body. She bit her hard enough to draw blood but that did nothing. Emily was covered in blood and started to reach into the wolf and wipe it’s entrails on her mouth and started to eat the raw meat. Sarah was so frustrated, if she wasn’t a cat she could have done something. Then she remembered the Mind scape. They could see each other, could she..? Sarah closed her eyes, and tried hard to do what Emily had done earlier with Felinity. She saw Emily on her knees slurping aether and blood, taking the wolf’s final breaths and embracing it. Sarah grunted angrily, and pulled back on Emily’s shoulder. Emily felt a slight tug but didn’t stop. Sarah tried to pull her, but it barely tugged on her clothes. Then she stopped and looked at her hammer, then back down at Emily, then back to the Hammer. Emily was forcefully thrown off the wolf, she flew 10 feet backwards and slammed head first into a tree. Emily picked herself up and grasped her head, then stumbled again, <What happened?> Sarah shook her head, you grabbed my strand. You generally don’t want to grab another person’s strand unless you’re ready to experience them at their… Most intense. <That’s what you think most of the time?> Emily said, shocked, she looked at her hands covered in blood. <God that tasted so good. That was amazing.> Sarah hissed, No, it wasn’t. It was foolish, you put yourself in danger, and you have no idea what you’re doing. If I hadn’t stopped you you would have spent the whole night running in the forest killing things. That’s not who we are. That’s not what we do. <I… I know… I’m… Oh god, I can still feel their pain.> She gripped her chest. <They were so scared… I think I’m gonna. Yep I’m gonna hurl> She doubled over and threw up, once, twice, three times until nothing else had come out. Sarah remembered when that happened to her. Her master insulting her. She was not that kind of teacher. She gently rubbed against Emily, and purred while she vacated her stomach. Bits of flesh and intestine splattered against the ground. The voices were silent for the whole walk home, which left Sarah relieved. Emily opened the tap, and made a bubble of warm water for herself to sit in. She kept it warm with her own magic, and it slowly turned a dark pink as the blood came off her body. Sorcerer: We have to leave RIGHT NOW. Tell her Sarah to grab her things. Didn’t you see? We beat the thing that was chasing us. Sorcerer: No, that’s not what’s coming, it’s bigger. It’s hiding in the aether, but I can see where the aether isn’t and it’s coming. Something has sensed us, and we must leave. We ignored Sorcerer for very long, there’s no more time to prepare. Where will we go? A.) We stay and fight, if things get bad we leave. A must be combined with B or C B.) We go to the Badlands, the creatures there are ageless, many will remember Sarah and we can grow what Emily knows. C.) We go to the Elvish city. The elves have always been impartial, and will more than likely allow us to take refuge. What do we try to grab before we leave? 1.) Grim’s bones 2.) More than 1 set of clothes 3.) Food for a month 4.) Some chickens from the coop. 5.) Emily’s Books on magic and things Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 10:56 on Jun 6, 2021 |
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Dec 15, 2020 08:25
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B 145
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Dec 15, 2020 09:29
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B 3
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Dec 15, 2020 15:10
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C. 1, have him carry our other stuff, 235
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Dec 15, 2020 15:38
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B 1 2 5
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Dec 15, 2020 15:41
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C, 5, 2, 3, 1, 4
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Dec 16, 2020 09:38
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C, 1, 2 I think civilization still has something to offer us, so elves are better than the badlands. I almost went for the books first, but we can teach Emily all the magic she needs to know. Having an old friend/servant will be handy though, so that’s priority #1. If we were heading to the wilderness, food would have been priority #2, but since it’s civilization, clothes to keep up appearances.
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Dec 22, 2020 05:36
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12 So, you'll notice this page was a little slow to load up, I wanted to make a comic, and instead of writing the update for Kitty Quest, I drew it, I'll do it again too if people like it, so give me your opinion on it if you have one. That said, I hope you enjoy this. Picking a Post: 1d5 4 Toughy posted:B    So now that you've read it, we have too decisions (and will always take a write-in,) What do you want to do? A.) Keep running and hope they don't catch up with us? B.) Ask Emily to take off her limiter, see how she reacts C.) Fight but with the limiter on D.) Write-in Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 10:56 on Jun 6, 2021 |
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Dec 22, 2020 10:03
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A.). And along the way, explain as much as the current situation as possible. Theories and ideas are also welcome, though do try to not overwhelm Emily
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Dec 22, 2020 10:43
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Badass comic!!!! Well done!!!! A
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Dec 22, 2020 13:22
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B
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Dec 23, 2020 00:31
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So I've written about 5k words for the next update, but it is leading into a scene I want to draw out, and then I want to add more words. Do you want what I have now finished with a to be continued, or do you want me to wait until everything is finished? Long Update is Long.
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Jan 2, 2021 13:13
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Boba Pearl posted:So I've written about 5k words for the next update, but it is leading into a scene I want to draw out, and then I want to add more words. Do you want what I have now finished with a to be continued, or do you want me to wait until everything is finished? Long Update is Long. I'm all for waiting
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Jan 2, 2021 15:18
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I am down for either option. If it's relevant to pair them for a narrative reason, I'm down to wait. If not, I love story bumps.
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Jan 2, 2021 18:33
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"To be continued"s can be fine, if there's an interesting break point in the middle. Otherwise, coherence is better. If it can be broken up coherently, do so. Otherwise, don't. Only you can judge that though...
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Jan 6, 2021 06:31
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13 Picking a Post #3: 1d3 1 Talow posted:A.). And along the way, explain as much as the current situation as possible. Theories and ideas are also welcome, though do try to not overwhelm Emily They ran as fast as they could focussing on the pounding of dirt and crunching of leaves and twigs. As they ran, Sarah thought for a minute, and reached out to Emily. <Why are we running?> Emily looked at her, and seemed annoyed, Sarah felt it, a strong underlying bitterness. <Because a bunch of frogs showed up at our home.> Emily seemed unsure, <I’m really not for tests today, I had to leave all of my things behind, all I have is a skeleton dressed in my clothes, a bit of food and almost nothing else> Sarah shook her head, she did her best to keep pace with Emily, but she wasn’t used to having to travel so slow. She would sprint ahead, just to the point where Emily couldn’t keep eye contact, and then stop, waiting for her to catch up. It was painfully laborious, and it took everything to stop Felinity from taking over and sprinting into the woods, leaving Emily alone. <No I mean, why are we running. You’re a sorcerer.> Sarah said, trying to push her intentions through the mental link. Emily slowed to a low jog, <What do you mean?> Sarah leapt up onto a broken log, and stared at her from afar as the sun hit her fur, making it shine with a deep red that caught the air. <I mean, why aren’t we flying. With magic as ubiquitous as it is, it didn’t hit me until right now, why don’t you fly? Why did we have to take the bus everywhere?> Emily kept jogging, and looked at the Cat <There’s an ordinance against flying in the city. If you have 300,000 people trying to all fly through the air it gets very dangerous. I was never even taught, you have to have special permissions for travel, or law enforcement. Or be rich.> <You were never even taught?!> Sarah felt a deep anger bubbling up inside of her. Queen: Disgusting, one of the greatest joys of magic, and it’s kept away from them. Teacher: So much power, and it’s all wrapped up in bureaucracy and permissions. Sorcerer: We will have to walk, while those following us will be able to fly. It will be a miserable trek. First things first. Emily’s mind recoiled against the foreign voices, and the intensity of Sarah’s disgust. Sarah felt how she was effecting Emily, and there was a tinge of remorse <Sorry, I’m not angry at you, just… How did things get this bad? Magic is near universal, and yet almost no-one uses it. Everyone lives like… Beasts, better than I fared in the forest, but just barely. The very nature of our essence has been taken from us and hidden away. From what I’ve learned you are one of the lucky few because you can afford proper education, you can get your hands on things like food, books, and clothes. Yet everywhere you go your soul is stifled. You can not fly, for no reason but it’s not allowed.> Emily caught up to Sarah, and Sarah kept pushing, her thoughts running wild, she was barely aware that Emily was listening, as she sprinted ahead. <You don’t know how to do the important magics, things that would ensure your basic survival. Easy things, like how to transmute different elements into food, or water, or a bed. You go to a store to buy food, even though with magic it should be possible to simply bleed on the Earth and feed yourself. You live in a home that was built for you, instead of singing the soil into the perfect home for yourself. The basic tenets of living have been stolen and bent, in 500 years things that were free and given have been warped into something wrong. What happened to the old magics? The things you call wild magics, like the ability to transmute. To turn the suns rays into sustenance and power, to feel the wind and command it.> Sarah couldn’t stop herself now. Emily interjected, <You say these things like they’re easy for mages. For every spell cast there needs to be a sacrifice. As far as I understand it, Magi give something up to cast magic. Gold, Money, Blood, Resources. A Magi can’t feed himself because it would use up the life energy to make it. If he has money, sure he can turn that straight into food or water, but what is the point of that, if you can go to the Market and exchange it for food that costs less. There are luxuries as well, while I couldn’t afford it in my home, there are books, bottled memories you can re-live, experiences, substances, and better created in a way only a Magi can.> Sarah scoffed, <Even a Magi can turn something as powerful as the sun, or wind, or ocean into creation. It’s easier for Sorcerers, we can tap into the aether of almost anything and pluck it, but you’ve seen the overwhelming colors of the Aether. There is power everywhere. On a sunny day, a village could summon enough food to feed themselves for a week. It took a little work, but with the right runes and circles it was possible. What happened to that?> Emily shrugged, <It isn’t necessary for everyone to know how to grow food. We as a society specialized, some grow food, some purify water, some study human tech and use that with magic to create new things that benefit everyone. We even solved major issues for our society, there are no food shortages, no-one is without a home, not everyone has everything they want, but they are taken care of.> Sarah shook her head, <Why would you have homeless or food shortages? How was that a problem in your society to begin with?! Every person can create their own food and homes with the powers granted to them by right. What took that right away. Why were they stopped being taught how to do so?! Before my time, before I-> Queen: Careful what you say, you don’t want to stop and gag, they are still coming for you.  <Before… What happened… People took care of each other. If someone was sick, the village would band together and give them energy to heal. If people were hungry, mages would band together and make sure you were fed. If there was entertainment everyone would work together to make sure no-one was left out. I’ve watched you for months now, you don’t talk to anyone. Your neighbors have no idea who you, or each other are. You live in increasingly tight quarters and are isolated. Magic is kept out of everyone’s hands, we’ve never discussed this, but you haven’t known any of the spells I tried to teach you. What spells were taught to you?> Emily thought about it for a second, she was surprised how easy it was to talk with Sarah while they were running. It was distracting, and made it easy to keep herself at pace. Emily was going to start listing off her curriculum, when a thought popped in her head. <Wait, I’ve been on a nearly full sprint since we left the house, I’ve never run this much in my life. I don’t feel exhausted or hurt. Why?> Teacher: I will take this one, Girl. Emily groaned, the Instructor’s voice was gravelly and croaky she hated it, and how it made Sarah feel when she heard it. Teacher: No lip. Look down as you run. Emily stared at the ground, and noticed that when her foot hit the ground, the dirt turned dry and cracked. When she stepped on a root there was a slight puff of air around her foot and she didn’t feel it quite connect. Every step was soft and pillowy, and when she took a pounding step her leg would tingle slightly. Teacher: Your instincts are taking over. You probably don’t realize how cushy your life is compared to the average mage. The world bends around you to make you more comfortable. Whether it’s untiring steps, being able to carry more than you thought, the fact that you can eat whatever you want and never look anything but exactly what you want too. Emily gasped, <Wait, but I was on the Swim Team, I got multiple gold medals, and almost got a scholarship until they found out how much my Dad made.> Teacher let out a big cruel mirthful croak Teacher: I’m sure you did, and I’m sure it was easy for you, but it was never a fair competition. In fact, if it was too hard you most likely leeched energy from the people around you. You’ve never had a real accomplishment in your life. Sarah hissed loudly, and tried to cut off the shard. She spoke aloud as she ran, “Shut it you, she can’t help that she’s better than everyone else, and besides she was able to fake casting magic and performed amazingly academically without any practical experience. There was a reason sports competitions separated Sorcerers, and how dare you try and lessen her experiences.” Emily was far behind Sarah, and strained herself to try and listen, <Sarah? I didn’t hear that.> Teacher: I will not, I will not coddle her, if she is going to be able to defend herself she needs to know that she has not even begun to put effort behind her accomplishments. Sarah ignored Teacher, and changed the subject. <What did they actually teach you in school?> Sarah asked <Well, first we learned how to read, write, and arithmetic. Then we learned some of the more advanced maths, I had some art classes. The universal language. History.> <What of Magic?> Sarah pushed. <Not much in Primary School. We’re taught when it is polite or impolite to use magic. How to do basic things like how to move objects. We were given coins and things to power our magic, we were taught the basic costs of things. The simplest formulas to understand the conversion of calories to magic, and the calorie equivalent of currency. We learned about the Rise of the Queen, The Queen’s Ages, The Queen’s War, The Unification Wars, The Failed War in the Badlands, The Starvation Revolution, then basic biology stuff, about how humans are the common ancestor, and the 44 different species of the human genus, basic universal biology, and the outliers like the Beast Men, etc. The difference between a spirit, a demon, and a person.> Sarah looked shocked, <The first two don’t count as people?> <Of course not!> Emily was shocked and continued <Then there’s a test, we have to show basic competency with magic, that we can draw an alchemic circle, that we can list off dates of the wars and things, that we’re able to move an object with the standard energy provided, normally a protein bar.> Sarah wanted to go back to the people thing, but let it go for a moment, <So you only learn how to move objects, and change the color of things? How is that useful?> Emily shrugged, <You learn a lot more in Secondary school. That’s when you can pick some of your classes, and can decide what kind of magic is interesting to you. There’s like clubs for academics, one for each school, Necromancy and Summoning (We just called it NAS), Shamanism, Engineering, Archaeology, Chemistry, Medicine, and Zoology> <What about plants? Or evocations> Sarah asked. <I keep forgetting how old you are, the three schools were broken up, instead your taught magic that applies to different sciences it’s no longer summoning, changing, and creating. Things like that got split up based on how they can be applied to technology and society. You might be taught how to summon fire to cauterize a wound from a human artifact, you might learn how to use it to heat up an alembic, or to melt steel and mold it. It’s more specialized.> A shadow flew over, and Sarah looked up, <Hide!> Sarah could feel Emily’s panic rising in her, and tried to distract her mind. Emily could feel what she needed to do, and tried to push the feelings down deep, and keep talking about school. It was strangely peaceful as she sat under a log, and tried to ignore the earwig crawling over her hand. Sarah grimaced, and ate it. Emily was both grateful and disgusted, thankful the voices were quiet. Sarah prompted Emily, <What about the basics? Flight? Able to carry more? How to run faster? How to create food and water? Teleportation? How to read an animal's emotions? How to clean yourself? How to sing to plants and grow them faster? > Emily took a ragged breath, she couldn’t hold it for long, and she was scared. <Most of those things aren’t needed to participate in society, and it’s cheaper in raw energy to take a bus, use a bar of soap, to just buy food, or to put things on a cart and carry it, then it is to use magic to do those things. Modifying your body with magic is Wild Magic and isn’t taught anywhere, it’s dangerous, you can really hurt yourself, and the people who get caught doing it are sent to the tower. Flight needs a special license, and I think the animal emotions thing is taught in Zoology, it just made people grossed out about eating meat.> <You should be,> Sarah said, <If I wasn’t an obligate carnivore, I’d never eat a living creature again.> Felinity: Except for Turkey, and beef ribs. Queen: She’s lying, she longs for the days of meat stuffed pastries, and smiling buns filled with barbecue pork. <I don’t think you understand though, hunger and homelessness and sickness were serious problems for almost 350 years, we were losing more people to starvation then we were having children. The poor and the infirm were being allowed to die, it was a huge fight to get the government to care about helping them, we had to pick our battles.> Sarah tried to tamp down her anger, but couldn’t. <I don’t understand how or why?! Safety, clothes, food, homes, and health are the bare minimum a society should provide for its people. Then luxuries and entertainment.> Emily shrugged, she went back to her studies, she pushed the real world out and slowly she forgot where she was. She was talking to an intellectual, maybe over coffee. She could say all the things she was scared to say in the city. <My Dad, he’s almost 300 years old, my Mom was nearly 400. They told me the truth. The new government, after the Queen’s War, was controlled by a few people who had amassed as much power as they could. They tore down the education system, most people weren’t able to get taught magic at all, and had to figure it out on their own. Every time someone got enough power to challenge them they were wiped out. They had so much, and everyone else had so little. It wasn’t until the Starvation Revolution, when people who had nothing went to the badlands and dug up human tech to try and fight. So many died just to get it out of there. Then even more died using it.> <There were massive casualties, but there were too many people, and soon the families were torn apart. Those who were left caved to the revolutions demands. No more unnecessary suffering. A new document was written, that guaranteed that any person living on the planet had rights to food, water, health, education, and a home. There was also a cap on the kiloJoule amount any one person, family, or company could hold onto, the rest going straight to the government to keep people safe.> Emily sighed Sarah was puzzled <So you had basic rights for 500 years, lost them for 350 years, got them back, and then what?> <People started amassing power again. Resource caps were removed slowly at first, but then exponentially as people hoarded more and more tools for magic, creating a power imbalance between people. Now there are leaders that want to take away homes and education again, saying it’s undue ‘burden’ on society. That people should start dying in the streets again, and so much of the population is safe and healthy that they don’t care anymore. People who are comfortable have slowly been warming up to the idea of having more, as long as everyone else has less. The things they create to entertain themselves have become more important than the people they never meet. Magic is being used to keep homes at a comfortable temperature, on mem-bottles, even shared-mems, on new and interesting drugs that can make you believe almost anything, feel almost anything. Sim-domes used with scrolls inscribed with complicated runes that replicate different experiences, allowing you to be anywhere, or be anyone. There’s even spells that remove your memory, allowing you to re-read a favorite book, or watch a favorite play like it’s your first time. These things need a lot of magic to run, and they’re Ok taking that from the people who need it.There is a false sense of scarcity that scares people, they think that the only way to keep their way of life is to keep others from being able to survive. There’s a political bloc that profits off of that idea, filling more and more kilojoules of power into the coffers of a few people. My Dad told me that it was like watching the world slowly go mad. So many had died in the Starvation Revolution, either as a direct casualty of the mining operations, the fighting, or the sickness that came afterwards, that no-one remembered what the world was like. That people were taken care of. There was a reason people were loyal to the Queen, even if she was cruel, harsh, and seemingly eternal.>  <It didn’t take long for laws to start changing, Dad said first they outlawed Wild Magic, calling out specific spells that allowed people to finish their work faster, or things that would give them more leisure time, people would protest, but they were seen as lazy or conniving. Then they built the Tower to rehabilitate wild magicians. He said that what was considered Wild Magic was slowly expanded. Many of the History books were changed, when my Dad helped me with my homework, I remember he would get so mad. There was a journalist who had gotten into the Tower, and it was a big news story for a while, before everyone just… Forgot about it. Wild Mages were being cut off from magic, and many of them were not being released. Ever. The ones that were released were… Like Mom… Empty...> Sarah looked out from the log, they were so close to the densest part of the forest. Even if they flew overhead, they wouldn’t be able to see Emily, and she would be safe until they reached the Badlands. Sarah hoped that her cache would still be there, a lot could happen in 500 years… She looked at Emily, <We’re going to have to sprint for it. Run as fast as you can, but don’t think about it. If you think about it you’ll slow down. Keep explaining things to me.> Emily crawled out from under her log, and started sprinting, Sarah ran ahead of her at a light trot, she kept her eyes glued to the sky. <Now things are the way they are now, I guess. Everyone is happy and comfortable, but there’s a growing need for people to fight for the rights of others, but no-one wants too because it means risking everything, and people have a lot to give up now. People have stopped learning magic, or experimenting with it. Dad said that his grandma would tell him people in the old days would invent new ways to use magic. That new spells were invented and shared, and people would iterate and improve on them. Now I don’t know any spell-smiths, and even if I did, anything they invented that wasn’t directly benefiting one of the few families would just be labelled as ‘Wild Magic’ It’s a fake job for debutantes to sit around doing nothing but collect money.> She couldn’t think of anything more to say about her situation and looked down at her feet, suddenly she felt scared, tired, and alone. Her muscles started to ache, Sarah said this wouldn’t hurt. Sarah looked back, and hissed quietly to herself, <Hey, whoa, tell me what is a mem-bottle? What’s a Sim-Dome? Tell me who the families are! You can close your eyes, your magic won’t let you fall.> Emily shook her head, and focussed on the information. The tingling came back, and she closed her eyes, trying to block everything out. <Mem-bottles are fake memories, they’re recordings done via a complicated rune system on a board. People act out things, it can be anything. There’s stuff that are full complete stories that you watch from the sidelines, where feelings are inserted, so that when the music swells you’re guaranteed to cry, or when a joke lands you can’t stop yourself from laughing. Then there’s personal stuff, like first person, where you’re supposed to be living the life of that person. It requires a lot to make one, but once you have it it’s cheap to reproduce, as long as you have the power to run it. My Dad had a ritual circle for them, he used to let me play with it.> Emily pushed herself even harder. If Magic was going to do all the work here, then why not see how fast she could go. Sarah started moving a little faster, it was working. <There’s a Sim-Dome at the school, they’re pricey, but you can do crazy things with them. You can connect them to other Sim-Domes and have a shared experience, with anyone almost anywhere. They cost a lot of kJ to run, most people’s kJ go into getting things for their Sim-Dome or Mems. There’s public areas for the Sim-Domes where people can go to have long-form conversations, or games they can play together. The scrolls are really complicated, but some people even make their own.> She was sprinting even faster now, how fast could she be moving? Fast enough that the air started to feel cool and brisk as she moved forward, she could almost feel the air wrapping around her back and pulling her down. Not now wind. Sarah was doing almost a full on sprint now, the two of them leaping through the underbrush almost silently, tiny whoompfs of air being the only thing betraying their position., <The Families is what we call them, after the Starvation Revolution, the people who own most of the things around us have done everything they can to obscure their identity. There are ‘Spokespersons’ hype-men who do all of the public facing work for their company, but anyone who is actually collecting is secret. We only have numbers, not faces or residences or even company names. Everyone knows the big 5 though. 697-865-32 653-214-56 620-378-98 616-687-25 610-951-47 My Dad says they are the enemy to everyone who wants to live a calm and peaceful life.> Sarah leaped on Grimm’s back as he kept pace with Emily, who was now moving faster than Sarah could sprint. She looked at Emily, and couldn’t think of anything else to ask her. They were so close, she looked up, and gasped, behind them were two of the Frogs, whatever the hell that meant. They were closing on her, would they follow her into the forest? She had to keep her running, but what would she ask? Anything, anything she started to panic, and quickly tried to quelch that emotion before Emily picked up on it. Teacher: Who do you believe in? <What do you mean?> Emily almost slipped for a second, but kept her eyes closed, Sarah looked over Emily’s shoulder as the Frogs got closer. Teacher: Everything is screwed, your nation has slowly but surely eroded away every right that would allow you to exist without them. Your people are being shipped off, your poor will soon lose everything (and they didn’t have much to begin with,) and almost no-one is willing to do anything to change the system at all. Even now, we’re being chased by secret police for, largely, a crime of being born the wrong way. What, or who do you believe in that will change things? <I… No-one? There are people who say they want to change things, and I support them when I can, but I can’t think of anyone whose name pops in my head when I think about someone changing the way things are.> Sarah’s eyes were wide, and the Frogs were almost on top of them, she couldn’t think of anything, they were going to die, or at least Emily was going to fight, and Sarah didn’t think she was ready. Especially not against two full grown mages who were heavily trained in combat. Queen: Do you believe that is right? That there is no icon for the people. Who was the last icon, the hero of the Starving Revolution. <I mean, some would wear the symbol of the Old Queen, but now most people find that gross. As though it forgave her for her crimes. No-one person of the Starving Revolution was a hero, it was a commune thing, no leaders just fighting against suffering.> Sarah looked at Emily’s Limiter, and thought about pulling it. Queen: Let’s talk about the Old Queen, what were her Crimes that are being forgiven? <She was a colonizer, a dictator, and a brutal tyrant. She destroyed any source of culture that didn’t come from her own kingdom. She banned all religion, and burned temples, monuments, books, so much had been torn down, we know very little of any religion or cultures that existed before her regime, and only a few survived after, with almost no followers. She allowed no-one to argue with her policies publically, and either experimented on, murdered, or enslaved anyone who disagreed. She said her nation was a meritocracy, but used a magic ‘test’ that had no real basis in science, and largely just allowed her to hand pick mages to serve under her. Any good public policies she had also taught unerring loyalty to her and her government. She used secret police, magic, and spies to subjugate those around her. She dealt with Demons, and in fact, only used Demons in her court rooms allowing them to prey upon those she had already decided were guilty. Even her ‘normal’ laws were strict and brutal. Ritualistic branding that could not be removed was common. These brandings worked psionically spreading knowledge of their crime to anyone close to them. This had many too scared to do anything that might run afoul of her and her enforcers. When she perished, the careful nation she had crafted split apart, and it was another 20 years of war before there was unification again. She was awful.> Teacher: If she was so bad, why would people support her? This was nearly 150 years after she fell correct? So it can’t just be loyalists to a broken system there must be something that spoke to them. <A large part of it was that she didn’t require anyone to work if they didn’t want to. Many just sat around and produced art, or plays, or taught each other how to read and write. As long as it wasn’t critical against the queen or her policies, they were largely allowed to live in peace. People were given access to everything they needed to live and be healthy, and there were government instructors that gave the people a general curriculum of magic, with those who were especially capable even being taught more advanced sciences, this was at a time where most nations only had a few literate scholars. The Savarian Nation had some of the most learned scientists of magic and technology in the world.>  They broke through to the dark side of the forest, where Sarah had sequestered herself away from society. She felt grim, she tried to quell the feelings rising inside. Guilt: Excellent, you’ve left the forest, and in less than a year, managed to completely ruin this poor girls life. Good show. And now look, the thing wrapped in human tech has caught up to us. <Emily,> she intoned grimly, <We’re going to have to fight.> Emily turned around, and the Frog landed on the forest floor. The trees closed in, their dead branches blocking out the sun, yet no leaves were on them. They seemed to curl inward, and everything started to bleed together. <I don’t know how to fight! I don’t even know how to use magic, what are we going to do!?> Sarah took a deep breath <You are far stronger than he is, and I’m sure Grimm is carrying something to use as a weapon. Let your power be your shield, there is no way he knows how strong you truly are. There’s only one, you can do this.> The Frog held one hand aloft, coated in some ethereal flame, he looked at Emily and barked, “Emily Parnsoak You are under arrest for Wild Magic. Hands over your head where I can see them.”     The Frog fell limp as Emily perforated his body over and over again, bloody wounds leaking over the cloth like armor. Emily panted hard, Sarah looked her over, she had deep wounds on her hand and leg, and emotionally she was bereft. <Emily… It’s ok…> She didn’t seem to be listening, <Emily?> Sarah nuzzled against Emily, trying to comfort her, but Emily was frozen in place. She sat there panting for minutes, that stretched out like an eternity. Sarah looked out into the forest, but the darkness was suffocating, even for a cat. Emily sniffled, and rubbed her eyes. She took a deep breath and just screamed as loud as she could, she kicked the body over and over. She cursed loudly, striking it over and over again, her wounds bled profusely, soaking the side of her pants as the blood leaked out of her. She didn’t care. She kept kicking the body of her attacker, crying and yelling. She couldn’t help herself, she was so frustrated. Everything is screwed, she thought, I’ve lost everything. Sarah spoke aloud to her. “You did not lose everything,” she said gently, calmly to Emily who was kneeling on the ground, tears pouring mixing with the two pools of blood that stained the forest floor. “You still have your Skeleton. You have your intelligence. You have your power.” Emily looked like she was ready to kick Sarah, she threw the knife and Sarah quickly lept away, “My power doesn’t do ANYTHING. It didn’t stop them from breaking into my apartment. It didn’t stop this guy from following me. It didn’t stop my life from falling apart. What good is this?! I thought you said no-one could stop me. You said we could fix my mom. Now we’re running for our lives to go to a cursed wasteland, how does any of this help me? How does any of this help my mom.” Emily sat down next to the corpse, and tried to pull herself together. “Oh… You poor thing…” Sarah cooed, and gently put herself in Emily’s lap, Emily absent mindedly stroked Sarah’s fur, and started to calm down, “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but this was a major victory. This was a trained mage, with powerful magic, technology, and he knew what you were, even with all of that, you won. Don’t you understand? Your power is already growing. What you’ve done here is amazing. Think, you’ve never been in a fight before, and honestly, most of the damage you received was from yourself. We can work on that.” Sarah looked at Emily and then at the corpse, “You can’t let his aether go to waste, use what’s left to heal your wound.” Emily groaned, and reached out to the swirling aura that was quickly dissipating away, she reached out and grabbed a strand of it and started to push that energy into her body. She could feel the wounds starting to knit, the skin itched as it first quickly scabbed, then aged, and finally left two thick scars. She grimaced and looked at the wound. “Grimm, Hand me new pants,” She changed, and felt better as she took off the bloody, sweaty clothes. The new ones feeling fresh and clean. She took a deep sigh, and once the wound healed, she started to follow Sarah. “Sarah, what’s in the Badlands? I thought they were cursed, and Demons lived there?” Sarah nodded calmly, “There’s not much I can say about it, but if we are polite, and do not cause trouble we will be safe there. The Demons of the Badlands have always been outcasts, and I don’t think that’s changed in your time, as it was in mine. It’s cursed, just as any area full of Human Tech is. People who stay there too long end up losing their hair, their skin, and slowly melt. Whatever this energy that Human Tech projects, it stifles magic. The Demons are spirits, with no real corporeal form, at least not one with an anatomy, so they live there. Well they stay there more like. It’s a place to go that is safe, they will not harm you, and the environmental factors can easily be avoided with the proper precautions.” Emily looked at Sarah, “How are we going to be safe?” “The demons will help us.” Sarah said, she tried to say more and started to gag uncontrollably. Emily grimaced, “Don’t Demons steal souls?” “There’s no such thing as a soul dear. Even if there was, what would a Demon do with it? No, Demon’s live for entertainment. They live to see what happens, to experience life. It is a crime we basically keep them locked up in a swamp.” Sarah grimaced. “Like I said, just be kind and polite, and everything will go fine. Now we should stop speaking, the forest is not accepting of strangers, but I have lived here long enough that I think it will accept us..” <Before we go, we might be able to use that suit, or at least learn more about it.> Sarah said, Emily looked at it, and jerked her head at Grimm who quickly took the suit. The man that was underneath was a Fire-Born. A type of Humanoid that was in tune with a specific element, there were many kinds, this one had hair that flickered and glowed like a burning ember, though it was slowly dying out. When Grimm put the suit away, the man groaned. Emily gasped, his wounds were great, and she had taken so much from his aether, the fact that he was still fighting for life was shocking. He gingerly raised a hand and pointed it at Emily. Sarah looked at Emily, and then back at the man. Sorcerer: We can’t leave him alive. Teacher: Not to mention, she needs to know how to kill something, at this point she’s mostly stabbed things until they died of blood loss. We can use this as an anatomy lesson Empathy: Don’t make her do this, just leave it, the forest will take care of it. Teacher: So? When are we going to get a better chance? If we’re going to teach her how to be powerful then she is going to need to know how to win a fight. Empathy: We can teach her with something we catch in the forest. Teacher: There’s no humanoids in the forest. She needs to know this, even if it’s rough. How do you want to handle this? A.) Have Emily finish the man Sorcerer: It’s important she learns to do this herself, and it will color her aura. She will have to do it eventually B.) Have Emily use Grimm to finish the man Teacher: I think having her do it herself may be… A little intense, and we want the lesson to stick, not necessarily the trauma of it. C.) Have Emily leave the man to die in the forest Logic: We can have anatomy lessons when we have access to the books in the Badlands, we don’t necessarily need to have this lesson now, and she may feel better knowing that she wasn’t the one to do it. D.) Have Emily just leave, don’t mention the forest’s appetite Empathy: I think it’s more important that she has some time to rest, today was very hard for her, let’s not add killing her first Man to it. Queen: You are pathetic, Do anything but this, coddling her will not help, and she may later come to resent us for not teaching her what is necessary. E.) Do it for her. Felinity: Is meat, eat meat, neck is already stabbed, just make the hole bigger. It’s a 2 week trip to the Badlands, we can teach Emily some more things that could be useful. A.) Combat Training, enter the mindscape, and Spar with Emily drilling how to fight with magic, and how to use magic even those armored with human tech. More people might come into the forest to catch them, and they can fly, while Emily can only walk. Who knows what lurks in the forest. B.) Court Etiquette, Emily will almost definitely have to dine with Demons, or deal with them in some larger capacity as they hide out in the Badlands. Manners and Etiquette, word games and logic puzzles may be very useful, but would take a while. C.) Flight, Emily doesn’t know how to fly, making most travelling dangerous. On top of this, it might distract her from what’s going on around her. D.) Nothing, Emily has had a very rough time. There will be more time to teach her in the Badlands, they could just walk and answer questions / try to bond more with each other. Boba Pearl fucked around with this message at 10:56 on Jun 6, 2021 |
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Jan 7, 2021 15:24
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C-C I almost went d-a, but Queen is right. Shielding her from death entirely is not being fair. She shouldn’t have to “color her aura” right now, but she should know of the way of the world, not kept innocent. As for combat or flight, I went with flight because that is such a huge advantage for anyone that has it— not just in combat, but for simply living and traveling. Combat might help her in the short term, but flight will also help with combat, and combat against someone or multiple someone’s who can fly... well, we’d wish we could fly anyway.
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Jan 7, 2021 16:22
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D C>A>B
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Jan 7, 2021 18:02
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C BC
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Jan 7, 2021 20:34
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E B Mostly because watching a housecat eating someone is grim funny. E: and a fire person might taste like bbq chikken Outrail fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Jan 7, 2021 |
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Jan 7, 2021 20:52
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C C>A>B
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Jan 7, 2021 21:43
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C D
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Jan 8, 2021 01:07
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Slowly, a voice not so much 'heard' as felt rumbled to life. "The rumbling of honey-soaked gravel." Aaaah. What a good nap. ...My, what a scene to wake up to. I do believe that mortal is just about dead. If only Emily just... reached in, and twisted. We have taught her how to do that, haven't we? No? The simple act of reaching into a weakened creatures aura and crushing the parts closest to any vitals in ones fist? Sigh. "Snuff", so named for its similarities to extinguishing a candle, is hardly a complex act of magic. The hardest part is mustering up the will to simply do it. A: Finish the man. "Snuff" would be preferred as a learning experience, but the method of delivering finality is Emilies prerogative. B: Court Etiquette. There is little worth practicing the arts of hunger in these parts, so instead let us see if we can get through to Emily that demons are indeed people. If untrustworthy ones.
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Jan 8, 2021 07:30
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Arcanuse posted:Slowly, a voice not so much 'heard' as felt rumbled to life. Did we just introduce sadism? Hey, gently caress, we're a necromancer, OOC, does Emily know how to get a new skelly-friend?
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Jan 8, 2021 16:36
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 22:19 |
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C, B
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Jan 9, 2021 04:47
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