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Post by Quakerlol on Jun 21, 2012 16:33:15 GMT -6
Lerena: Follow that eel!
You follow the eel as it slowly swims to the pile of rubble, looking over your shoulder at Aruale. She's got her goggles back on, so it's safe to assume that she's occupied on the computer. The eel sparks annoyedly for you to hurry up and you quicken your step a bit. You're not sure who it thinks it is, snapping at you like that. You're also not sure how you can understand its moods from the patterns of static it gives off. Now that you think about it, that is a bit weird. Oh well. Probably something inherent with your Sylph powers, or something like that. The eel suddenly disappears behind a large block of fallen marble. You follow it, but there's nothing there but a bunch of cracks in the ground. One of the cracks is bigger than the others, and makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It doesn't expect you to go in there, surely?
You wrinkle your nose and look down into the crack. It looks like you could fit in it. It's more of a chasm, really. You can't see a darned thing in there. Hmm. You hold out a knife and send a single bolt of lightning down into the chasm. It goes straight down for several meters before ending at some sort of priceless marble floor. Which you appear to have just left a scorch mark on. Nice going.
Well, nothing to help it. You step off the ledge and experience a moment of sickening freefall before your sandals kick in, gently allowing you to descend into the darkness, lit only by the crackles given off by your shoes and weapons. In retrospect you should probably have made some sort of lighting device. Oh well. At least you discover when you land that your sandals give off satisfying sparks with each step. Sadly, though, you have no idea where that darn eel went now. The chamber that you landed in seems to be some sort of atrium, which branches out into several tunnels. Wonderful.
Aruale: Pester your friends.
Yeah, you would, but none of them are ONLINE. They're probably all occupied getting their quests and stuff. That's what you get for being so quick to get yours. Now you get to sit here and wait for Lerena to get back. Or for someone to get online. God, your friends are boring. You shift on your pillar a bit and poke around in the goggles' functions. Let's see. Trollian, all the files from your old computer (convenient, but where the heck is this thing's memory?), some sort of map function, a stats function (probably to display health and levels of monsters, duh.), and different filters for the goggles. Probably all standard stuff. The game probably enhances gadgets to help the players. That's nice of it, you guess. You know what else would be nice? If you weren't so BORED.
Your arm twinges, and you remember your wound. This had better heal pretty quickly or you are going to be at a bit of a disadvantage. Come to think of it, you should have made some sort of health thing with your alchemiter. That's like adventure game 101: get all the health potions you can before leaving home base. You really are slipping. As soon as Lerena gets out of there you're heading back to her hive, wherever it is, and making some health stuff. Or changing your bandages. These itch like a motherfucker.
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Post by Shipfish on Jun 29, 2012 17:11:55 GMT -6
You step forward from the residual time energy left over from your trip. Dusting invisible dust off your clothes, you don the DOCTOR'S CHEAP PLASTIC ANAGLYPH GLASSES and sneer in the general direction of the voidstuff that is coating your skin. You would have to to take another shower today, at this rate. You snap your fingers, just for fun, and watch it sparkle away.
You turn and watch the swirl in the fabric of time fade back into nothingness. You learned long ago not to ride with the glasses on, you would be blinded, but you hardly felt comfortable taking them off now. You suppose you shouldn't rely on them, but they sure were dead useful, especially with the alterations that allowed other forms of sight. Well, you ramble. Best get going on your errand.
You straighten the anaglyphs and look around. You though for a moment and then headed off in what you believed was the right direction.
After a few minutes of walking (you knew you had gotten the coordinates wrong in the future) you came up on the place where Aruale is sitting. You walk up behind her, which may not be the best idea, and poke her in the back of the goggles.
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Post by Quakerlol on Jun 29, 2012 17:41:48 GMT -6
==> Aruale: Be startled by time shenanigans.
What? There is absolutely nothing to startle you here. God, Lerena's planet is boring. You should have been attacked by like a billion monsters at this point, what is TAKING SO LONG? Uuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhh. You try poking around on your goggles some more, but there's nothing there that looks interesting. And nobody is online yet. Bluh. You scratch absent-mindedly at your bandages. You really need to heal this soon or something.
Suddenly you feel a jab to the back of your head. You whip around, startled, pulling your flail out of your strife deck on pure instinct, finding a surer footing to face whatever it was that was dumb enough to try to attack you. It takes you a second to realize that you are probably not being attacked. Probably.
You're facing a troll you've never seen before, wearing some weird cheapo 3D glasses, with haystack hair and curvy horns. She's smiling at you like she knows you, but you sure as hell don't know her.
"who the he)) are you and what do you want," you say, still not entirely off your guard.
==>
These tunnels are completely identical. Great. You have no idea how you're supposed to find that dumb eel in here, much less your quest. Stupid lousy no-good consort. Ugh.
You sigh and close your eyes. Maybe there's something here you're missing. You let out a deep breath and start listening. There's nothing at first, just the vaguely ominous silence. And then your senses get attuned to the noise, a faint crackle to your left. You open your eyes and turn that way. There's three tunnels there. You walk up to them, close your eyes again, and feel a small prickle on your skin directly ahead. You choose that tunnel.
It goes on for ages, pitch-black except for sparky illumination from your equipment. The walls are collapsed and scorched in places, and you have to step around rubble, on one occasion nearly twisting your ankle when you didn't see a loose pile of stones. Up ahead there's a flickering light.
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Post by Shipfish on Jun 30, 2012 9:50:52 GMT -6
Having poked her with a little bit more familiarity than was perhaps appropriate, you stepped back a little bit so her expected overreaction could be accounted for.
Yep. She sort of flailed off the broken column and her actual flail appeared in her hand, a much older one than the one you were used to. You bet that old thing would barely put a shiver through your vitality gel at your current level.
Anyway, you notice her sort of taking in your appearance, and you belatedly wish you had at least brushed your hair or something, it was probably a complete mess right now. Eh, well, you never brushed your hair so it really didn't matter what sort of impression you made.
And she spoke. "who the he)) are you and what do you want," she said. You sort of looked at her for moment and then sat down on the recently vacated broken-column-seat.
"It's Kyanas and I'm here because I was bored and in the future I was about a quarter-mile"-- you squint and try to remember which direction you came from-- "that wayy." You point in the general direction of behind you.
You don't know what else to do (meeting older versions of your friends is always sort of awkward! They always have to ask "When are you from, can you tell me anything" and the answer is always no. Silly trolls.) so you pull out your staff and inspect it for any dents or scratches in the wood. Though you were up to pretty scary monsters by now, nothing really seemed to affect the light, tightly-grained wood.
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Post by Quakerlol on Jun 30, 2012 10:48:01 GMT -6
==>
You squint at the newcomer, still wary. She says she's Kyanas, but how the hell is she here? And in the future? What?
"okay, ho)d on. future? the he)) are you ta)king about. a)so, why the fu(k are you here? aren't you supporsed to be on your p)anet?" You shift your grip on the flail, fairly certain that she's not going to attack you, and scratch at your bandages again. "are you ta)king about time trave)?"
==>
You head towards the flickering light, a crackling noise getting louder in your ears. Your skin prickles sharply and you smell ozone. The floor vibrates a little as you approach. The light gets brighter as you approach, and you shield your face with a hand to let your eyes adjust. Once the light is just somewhere short of blinding supernova, you try to look around. You are standing on the edge of a large pit, extending for what looks like miles below you. The pit is lined with slithering eels, all crackling and sparking. They all look up at once and see you, letting out a cry of recognition. You smile and wave your hand royally, and they cheer. Well. This is nice.
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Post by Shipfish on Jun 30, 2012 11:09:22 GMT -6
She still looked unfortunately wary. You were already sort of missing the times when no one blinked at you appearing randomly, and didn't give a second glance if there was more than one of you. It occurred to you that this was probably the time that Aruale had mentioned, when you explained time travel for the first time. You had sort of been looking forward to this part! Aruale was the only person who got the whole time travel thing almost as well as you did!
You let her speak. "okay, ho)d on. future? the he)) are you ta)king about." You opened your mouth but thought better of it as she continued. "a)so, why the fu(k are you here? aren't you supporsed to be on your p)anet?" Again, you sort of though about responding, but she still continued, after adjusting her grip on the flail. "are you ta)king about time trave)?" Oh, finally. This was going to be fun.
You stowed your staff back in the deck and shuffled the only two cards in there a bit, as you were wont. "Yes, I can time travel. Can yyou put awayy the flail? It's not a show of welcome, in myy opinion." Though you were slightly interested... "Which one is that flail? I seem to remember that yyou have some reallyy neat ones eventuallyy."
You then noticed that she had a large bandage on one of her arms. Whatever sort of injury it was, it seemed serious. You would ask, once she put away her flail.
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Post by Quakerlol on Jun 30, 2012 11:52:02 GMT -6
==>
You look down at the flail still in your hand. "uh. i think it's the g)oriours first of something or other. neat ones? you mean they get better?" You pop the flail back into your specibus. You guess you're not making the best first impression, threatening her and all. Wait, though, is this your first impression? She seems to have met you before. Ugh. Time travel. Just what you needed today.
"when are you even from, anyway?"
==>
The eels' cheers all cut off suddenly as three of them detach themselves from the wall and swim through the air to face you. One, the most wizened of the three, speaks.
"Zzzzzzylph. You are zzzzzzhere for your zzzzquezzzzt?" You nod, and the one in the middle speaks. "Zzzthen we muzzzzt tell you." The smallest one continues. "You have zzzzzeen the lightning, trapped and zzztied to the earth?"
You decide it's time to speak up. "Yes, I-" But the oldest cuts you off. "Zzzzit wazzzz not alwayzzz thizzzz way." Wow. Rude. The middle eel nods. "Once the lightning leapt from cloud to zzzcloud, wild and free, azzzz we feazzzted from itzzz bounty." So these consorts eat lightning? The smaller eel picks up the story, and you are beginning to sense a pattern here. "But it became zzztrapped. Tied in a knot in the zzzheart of the zzzworld." "We grow weak without itzzz vibrance," the old one continues.
"You muzzzzt free zzthe lightning."
"If you zzzzzdo not-"
"We zzzzwill wither away."
"Now go, Zzzzzylph."
"Fulfill zzzzyour dezzztiny."
All three eels nod in unison, and the crackling and buzzing abruptly shuts off, along with all the light the eels were generating. That's ominous.
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Post by Shipfish on Jun 30, 2012 14:24:57 GMT -6
"uh. i think it's the g)oriours first of something or other." You smiled, you loved that one. The name was quite adorable. "neat ones? you mean they get better?" You smiled even wider: right, this was why you ever came back to this part of the past, it was so quaint when everyone was just figuring out the mechanics of the game.
"when are you even from, anyway?" Right. They always ask.
"Of course theyy get better! Everyyone updates their weapons at some point, I think. Even I have, though myy staff is quite the perfect weapon." You pulled out the time-staff, twirling it around a bit from your seated position, careful as always not to will yourself to any particular nearby time, just moving the staff through space. It was nice to hold it in your hand again, though it had only been a few subjective minutes.
"And I would tell yyou when I am from but it would mean nothing to yyou, and trust me, yyou won't care byy the time yyou reach then." Oh you had almost forgotten! You had healing things for Aruale's arm, you would get those out now.
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Post by Quakerlol on Jul 1, 2012 17:23:22 GMT -6
==>
"And I would tell yyou when I am from but it would mean nothing to yyou, and trust me, yyou won't care byy the time yyou reach then." You frowned at that. What's that supposed to mean? You sort of want to pump her for info on the timeline, but you have a feeling that causal spoilers wouldn't be a good idea at this point. Besides, who knows what would happen if the timeline split because of something you did.
"okay then. so why are you here?" You watch her twirl her slim weapon and cross your arms. "ni(e staff." You shift your weight from foot to foot, still a bit wary.
==>
Well, now that you've been plunged back into the pitch-black darkness, you suppose there's nothing to do but head back to the surface. You turn around and walk back down the tunnel, trailing your hand along the wall. The tunnel is boring and long, and you opt to hover above the ground rather than risk an injury. You finally get back into the atrium and fly up the chasm, landing on the ground outside.
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Post by Shipfish on Jul 5, 2012 8:24:18 GMT -6
"Oh, thank yyou." You did like it when people complimented your fighting, though in this case it was probably to get you to put it away again, which you did with a little unconscious flourish. You wouldn't need it again to travel back, since you know the exact time now, at least unconsciously so.
"I came back here primarilyy because I was bored and in the area, but also because of a passing comment yyou made in yyour future, myy past, that I came to give yyou a little bit of stuff for yyour arm." You spied around in your modus for a moment, spotted the requisite setup, and sicked your team on it. It would likely take them a few minutes to infiltrate and take the items, longer if their first attempt was unsuccessful, and even longer if they needed you back.
"I'll have the stuff in a moment, in the meantime can I remove yyour bandages?" You motioned in the general direction of her hand and took off your bag to ruffle around for your hunting knife, which you would use to cut the tie of the bandages. They did look rather too tight, you would bet a handful of boonbucks that Lerena had tied them. She acted like she'd never tied a bandage before through half the game.
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Post by Quakerlol on Jul 5, 2012 19:36:08 GMT -6
==>
"I came back here primarilyy because I was bored and in the area, but also because of a passing comment yyou made in yyour future, myy past, that I came to give yyou a little bit of stuff for yyour arm." Your future, my past, ugh. Time travel is going to give you headaches. So, so many headaches. She gets a faraway look in her eye, and you have no idea what she's doing again. Awesome. You have a feeling that she's done this a billion times before in front of you, and assumes that you know what she's doing. Instead, since this is the first time you've ever seen her, she just looks spacey.
She blinks and snaps back to attention. You guess she's done with whatever it is she was doing. "I'll have the stuff in a moment," she says, "in the meantime can I remove yyour bandages?"
You sort of squint at her, trying to ascertain exactly what her deal is. You mean yeah, she claims to be Kyanas, and talks like Kyanas types. But let her change your bandages? Get close to your points of vulnerability with god-knows-what? You're not entirely sure about this.
==>
As soon as you land, you look over the rubble-strewn clearing to where Aruale was sitting on a pillar. She no longer appears to be there. Instead you see her standing up, arms crossed, facing a female troll who seems vaguely familiar, and who withdraws a knife from her bag as you watch. Startled, your shoes kick into action and you have your knives in your hand before you even realize it. In a flash you are across the clearing, your knife pressed to the side of the strange troll's throat. "Put that away," you hiss. "Now, pleaze."
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Post by Shipfish on Jul 6, 2012 9:40:37 GMT -6
"Put that away," Lerena forced through her teeth, "now, pleaze."
You sighed to yourself. She had mentioned this to you too, and it was always rather boring to fight fights you had already heard about from older yous or your present friends.
You'd spied her land, of course, she wasn't being remarkably sneaky in any way. You had missed the no doubt hilarious dance of emotions across her face, which was an absolute shame, but you had been somewhat busy with deciding how best to remove Aruale's bandages.
When she rushed at you, you already had the staff in your hand, the knife dropped to the rubbled ground. She did manage to grab you and force you into a position where you couldn't swing your staff at her. Unfortunately for her, you had grabbed your time-staff and not the regular one, so as long as you could move it, you were free.
And the appearance of a you in the very corner of your eye signaled your cue. Turning the staff a half-turn counter-clockwise, you found yourself standing in the precise spot you had been, only just before Lerena and Aruale arrived in the place. You smartly turned on your heel and marched a step or two backwards, to the point where you had seen the other you (that's you now, you suppose) appear.
Concentrating again, you turned the staff clockwise to almost a half-turn (you found that it really didn't matter as long as you were sure of when you wanted to appear, but it was a helpful visualization) and readied yourself for an attack.
You managed to catch the tail end of your disappearance, and you smiled at past you, always loving the recursiveness of your ability.
You thought about smacking Lerena on the leg or something and sending her a minute or so into the future, but that would be mean and so you probably wouldn't. Unless she tried to attack you again, which was all sorts of rude.
"I'm back here, please don't do that again, it's rude. I'm Kyyanas, byy the wayy, yyou've seen myy dreamself on Prospit so yyou have no excuse for attacking me."
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Post by Quakerlol on Jul 16, 2012 21:01:54 GMT -6
The strange troll disappeared from Lerena's grip and she blinked, surprised. Some sort of trick? Aruale shouted, pointing behind her, and Lerena spun around on her heel to see her standing a few steps back from where she had been. Teleportation?
"I'm back here," the troll said, "please don't do that again, it's rude. I'm Kyyanas, byy the wayy, yyou've seen myy dreamself on Prospit so yyou have no excuse for attacking me."
Lerena blinked and looked at Aruale, confused. She did recognize the girl now that she looked at her, sort of. She looked different now that she wasn't asleep. "Kyanas? What are you doing here? How did you-"
Aruale cut her off. "time trave) irs invo)ved. a)so she warsn't atta(king me, so you (an put thorse up." Chagrined, Lerena put her knives back into her modus. Time travel. Of course. She supposed that meant that Time was Kyanas' aspect. The Thief of Time. Interesting.
"If zhe wazn't attacking you, then what waz zhe doing with that knife?"
"she said she wars gonna (ut my bandages and put something on the wound. i dunno if she (he(ks out. trursting her for now though." Aruale said the last sentences in a quiet undertone to spare Kyanas' feelings. Lerena took a step back to stand near Aruale, still facing Kyanas skeptically.
"Well?" Lerena said, addressing Kyanas now. "What waz it that you were offering?"
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Post by Shipfish on Aug 1, 2012 20:24:20 GMT -6
You resigned yourself to sitting through whatever sort of conversation they were going to have about you and when you were from, and whether they would ask you about their future. You were infernally tired of that. You will admit that you could barely suppress a chuckle at Lerena's face when you appeared behind her. She looked so surprised and vaguely worried! You thought that was cute, and especially so since several future yous had hinted at a slightly closer relationship that the two developed. All very well and good for them, you had your own problems. You watched their faces in turn as they spoke. Aruale was levelheaded, Lerena was understandably skeptical. Lerena even took a step to stand closer to Aruale, looking at you like you were the enemy. "Well?" Lerena said to you. "What waz it that you were offering?""Oh, right." You bent immediately to rummage in your bag, even though you knew the healing stuff wasn't in there. You had seen the slightly odd look Aruale had given you when you disappeared into your modus for a second, so this time you were going to cover it up. Ah, yes, the team had done their job. You received the clear glass jar with dignity, and it appeared in your real hand immediately. You withdrew it from your bag and showed it to Lerena, who seemed to be the one most concerned about this. In your hand was a short glass jar, full of a clearish ointment with a myriad of tiny sparkles in it, reminiscent of your planet's dust. it had a white cap, upon which was printed in black ink, in your own hand: Heisenberg Jellyy
use for major wounds
not minor aches or scratches
topical use onlyy "This is the stuff I was going to use for Aruale." |
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Post by Quakerlol on Aug 11, 2012 7:34:06 GMT -6
"This is the stuff I was going to use for Aruale."
Aruale stepped forward slightly to take the jar out of Kyanas' hand. She unscrewed the lid and sniffed it, earning a glare from Lerena. "what?" she asked. "it's probab)y not poirsonours." She dipped a finger in the salve, poking at it experimentally. Lerena stepped up next to her and snatched the jar out of her hand.
"Give me that," she said, a bit unnecessarily. She looked skeptically at the contents of the jar, swirling it around to make it shimmer. Aruale wiped her hand on her pants. "Zo what doez it do?" She still hadn't decided whether to trust this incarnation of Kyanas. True, she had seen her sleeping dreamself and was thus reasonably certain that it was her. Then again, from what she had read the game was full of tricks, and a player-mimicking monster was always possible. Or Kyanas could betray them in the future. She wasn't being overprotective, it was an entirely plausible scenario. After all, she didn't know Kyanas that well, and thus she couldn't accurately gauge her motivations. It was a sensible precaution.
Aruale, however, had no such reservations. She was already pulling at her bandages, wincing when they cut into her injury. "damn, )erena, you (ou)dn't have tied these any tighter?" She wished she had brought a knife or something. Ugh. Lerena had never learned to tie a bandage, citing the activity as being 'beneath her.' Which meant that Aruale had had to take care of her own scrapes and bruises as well as Lerena's. And her lusus'. And Lerena's lusus', sometimes, when it was being an idiot. She had a feeling that this was not likely to change.
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