Elemecca

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Crazy Ivan, Feb 4, 2007.

  1. Myst

    Myst Active Member

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    The wind screamed defiantly, being pushed aside by the strong gallop of Myst's steed.

    These...powers, he thought to himself. Are they some kind of sign? What did it mean?

    He arched his head upward briefly, greeted by glaring sunlight. He tilted his head to the side just enough to see a trailing stream of fire in the wake of...a flying girl?

    "And I thought my powers were crazy."
     
  2. Frost

    Frost Active Member

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    (OOC: Ok so everyone is headed for me and this blazing fire bird that are all camped into the trees. V good. Fire birds turn)
     
  3. Myst

    Myst Active Member

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    OOC: Which is to say, Crazy Ivan...
     
  4. Frost

    Frost Active Member

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    OOC: Precisley. Also, we need an OOC thread for this so we dont clog the RP thread up.
     
  5. Ferret

    Ferret New Member

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    (We should probably let him start that thread because... reason... a...good...out there, somewhere *cough* Besides, I have a few questions to ask him about his little universe)
     
  6. Crazy Ivan

    Crazy Ivan New Member

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    Unaware of the commotion she had stirred up, Fionix landed in the scrub and looked silently at the sleeping figure before her. Something in her made her know that she was with another one who was- was like her. She was still unaware as to how she knew, but she figured that once he was awake he'd have powers just like hers.
    Until then, she would sit here and wait for him to-
    Suddenly there was a noise from another end of the clearing. Fionix jumped up, wide-eyed, and turned to see a man on horseback and someone else with him run into the clearing.
    Fionix backed up against a tree, fearful and bewildered. Something in her was telling her that these people, too, were like her. What was going on here?
     
  7. Frost

    Frost Active Member

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    Bryce began to stir. He rolled over onto his front and weary pushed himself up, cursing. His wispy hair danced in the natural breeze, and as he finally opened his eyes, he froze solid. He was mystified. A girl, backed up against a tree and two mounted men, or rather, one man, in front of her? A knight, no less? Bryce stepped in front of the girl. "What's going on here?"
     
  8. HeinleinFan

    HeinleinFan Banned

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    Hathi and Gallow arrive too late to halt the horsemen, but not too late to hear the question, "What's going on here?"

    Half-reflexively, Hathi pats Gallow's rump to make her sit and places one hand on the knife handle in the arm-mounted sheath. He can feel the wrong, alien magic centered on the girl. The others don't have the same feeling of wrongness to them, but they don't feel normal either.

    Staying to the side of the group (the better to avoid being flanked), Hathi tries for the first time to extend his magic-sensing abilities toward other people. He looks at the boy who asked the question.

    "A firebolt hit the ground near here. These two - " indicating the knight and his companion with a glance to the side " - were going toward it, so I tried and failed to stop them. Now I discover no fire, but two people. And there is something about her that I don't like."

    (OOC: Hathi doesn't understand or feel comfortable around fire magic, so he's going to mistrust Fionix for a while. Of course, he isn't a moron - he'll learn, albeit slowly, that you fellows aren't evil or unnatural. No more than he himself is, anyhee.)
     
  9. Frost

    Frost Active Member

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    "Now, now, there's no need for judgements before a dawn - who knows what the light of knowing may be bring. I was travelling from my home in the mountains, after a truly tragic accident. It left me with nothing, so I left. I was merely sleeping here when the kind lady you so harshly judged came down from her flight to help me. But what business have you so far from home?"
     
  10. HeinleinFan

    HeinleinFan Banned

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    Hathi looks at everyone, then back at Bryce. He grips the knife tightly.

    "I had to run," he says. "I - hurt a man. A trader. He attacked me when he saw what I can do."

    He looks around at anyone, then closes his eyes and tries to sense the web of power around him. He channels some into the knife's handle, where it flows downward, visibly blue-white (star-blue might be a better descriptor) along the blade.

    Hathi puts the tip of the blade to the red, angry scar on his cheek. Focusing again, he mentally encourages the power to run upward again, into the scar and the surrounding tissue. A few seconds later, the power obeys, and the scar visibly reduces itself. Now, instead of a vivid red, it is a fine ridge of paler skin against his tanned face.

    "So you see," Hathi says, lowering the knife. "I am - what is the word? Cursed - tainted. All I seek now is to rid myself of this . . . this illness. And, less importantly, I wish to know why I can sense power in all of you . . . but I only sense wrongness in the winged one."

    He looks at Bryce, then, pointedly, at Fionix.
     
  11. Frost

    Frost Active Member

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    Bryce looked at him with cool, neutral eyes. "You hurt a man with healing powers? How bizarre. I thought it not possible to bring harm through help." Bryce knew the shallow depth of his comments; they were mirrors of the shallow explanation. "You will learn."
     
  12. Myst

    Myst Active Member

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    Myst allowed himself to scrutinise these strangers. They all have 'abilities' as well...?
    Slowly, gently, lightning rippled from his fingers, and then travelled in steady waves from his palm to his arm. The blue thunder fell like waves onto his shoulder, and stray sparks danced off in each of their own mad solo perfomances. Myst looked at his own arm for a moment- seemingly in intense self-reflection- and then clenched his fist tight in an abrupt gesture. The power hissed as it fizzed out.

    "It is not a curse. It is not," he growled.

    "I refuse to believe the devil has taken interest in me."
     
  13. Frost

    Frost Active Member

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    "It would appear it's show and tell. Shall we, then?"

    Bryce spread his legs and put back his shoulders. The hair streaming down his back began to whip around his face randomly. Around them, the trees swayed and bent, the gale force winds sending leaves and lose twigs flying through the air. A whirlwind appeared but 15 feet from then, approaching at a rapid pace; then suddenly, silence.

    "And the devil thinks he can control me."
     
  14. Crazy Ivan

    Crazy Ivan New Member

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    Fionix was at once relieved and frightened even more: These people were like her, but their "talents" were just as fierce as her own...and what was this about the devil? She had never thought of that before. What if these "gifts" had been forced upon her...?
    She felt all eyes in the clearing fall upon her.
    "And you?" Someone asked.
    Fionix, trembling, held her arms out, closed her eyes, and said, "Stand back."
    With a WHOOSH, her body erupted into flame- well, not really. Flames seemed to dance up and down on her skin, but she still retained her pale color. The flames seemed to take form, making giant wings off of her back and curving as if in the shape of a roughly-drawn bird around her.
    "Fire!" Hathi cried. "The mark of the devil! I knew it, I-"
    "No!" Fionix wailed, leaping back as Hathi advanced. "Don't- stop- I don't-"
    She curled up next to a tree, the flames quickly going out, and began to wail as Hathi came down on her-
    "Stop."
    All heads turned to see Kao, sitting on his horse, glaring.
    "Obviously, we have all been through great loss recently," Kao said. "We are all doing our best to control that. I am pretty sure that I, myself, am in shock, otherwise I would probably lose my composure like the firegirl or waterboy. But no one shall harm anyone else until we have come to an agreement, for I think we are meant to be here. I think there is something we are meant to do..."
    "That's all fine and well," Someone interrupted, "But why are you leading us?"
    "Because I-" Kao began, drawing to his full royal stature, and then deflating as Myst swept a glance at him.
    "I know you feel like you should be in power," Myst hissed, "But count yourself lucky that these people haven't realized who you are yet. If they had, they would be even less likely to cooperate."
    Kao wanted to ask why, but decided that there was a time and place for these things, and this was not it. Besides, he noticed that everyone was staring at him.
    "So where are your abilities?" Bryce asked suspiciously.
    Kao turned grim. "I- you- well- you don't want to know. Last time I used them...it was grim. I still don't know what they are or how they work or what they do, and until things make sense...just feel blessed that you have not had to see them yet."
     
  15. Frost

    Frost Active Member

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    Bryce nodded. Lack of control. "Very well then. If that is what you wish. But now, the sun is nearly beyond the mountains; soon it will be dark. There's a good amount of wood around at the moment. And a fire should be no harder to start." Bryce gave a quiet, meaningful stare towards Hathi. "Come with me," Bryce said quietly. The two began to stroll away from the group into the wood.

    After a short time, when the sound of the group had died, Bryce stopped. "Hathi. I want to know exactly why you fled from...where ever you came."
     
  16. HeinleinFan

    HeinleinFan Banned

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    Hathi puts his hand to his head, sighing. He absently strokes Gallow's head.

    "I'm from Svern- um, a fishing village," he says. "Small magics aren't unusual there. The smith uses them, the fishermen and boaters use them, the weaver uses them to make clothes that won't wear out, like my shirt."

    He shivers a little. "But . . . there's a legend that if any person has too strong a power, he is an aberration, a monster of some kind, and the Kingdom's rulers take him away to be a Lordful One. I think that's some kind of sacrificial thing; I never listened too closely to the old storytellers. Whatever the Lordful Ones are, they're totally evil, as though gifted with dark magic by the devil or the trickster or the Sick One, whatever you call him in your village."

    He meets Bryce's gaze. "I didn't mean any harm. I didn't know how powerful healing magic is supposed to be - I mean, I just used it on hurt seabirds and Gallow here, and once on a little girl who twisted her ankle on a rock. But it is powerful. The Old One told me that right before I fled."

    Hathi looks away again. "The traders bring dogs with them when they travel. Robber insurance or what have you. One of them attacked Gallow and bit her leg. I was angry, but I'm just a youth - I have no authority, and no one listens to complaints against traders because we need their wares to live. So I bent over, grabbed her paw and fixed it. That's all! Surely that can't be evil?"

    He pauses, then says, "The traders saw and started gabbling in that weirdly strange accent they have. I heard 'Lordful One' and then one of them attacked me. He used this." Hathi slowly draws the knife, tosses it on the ground in front of Bryce. "It cut my face, and it was like a wall was torn down. I could feel a, a web or chain of power, flowing through everything - the ocean, people's blood, under the earth, in a pot of boiling water - and without meaning to, I must have called for help somehow, because the boiling water just rose up and attacked the trader."

    He clenches his fists. "Does that make me evil? I don't know - but I do know that boiling water will blind you, and that trader was pretty well messed up. I took out the knife, healed myself a little without meaning to, and ran. I had to. In my village, magic can't be used to hurt anyone, ever. Not even in self-defense. They'll stone you if you do. So I had to run, and I've been running ever since."

    "But on the way out of the village, I ran into the Old One. She told me that the traders were looking for me, and that the Lordful Ones were evil wizards hand-picked for their abilities. She said that it was better to die than to be caught by them, because I wouldn't be able to withstand the kind of magical torture they would use."

    "She also gave me these. Here, look at it."

    Hathi offers Bryce the wooden staff. "She said I could use it to store power for when I really need it. She also said I should be able to do that with my lucklace (the amulet around his neck), but I haven't been able to use either one yet. Actually. . . . I'm scared to."

    "But you can see - I can't go back. Self-defense or not, I did an evil thing. I hurt someone with magic. And I can't stay in a city; the Lordful Ones would find me, and I - I'd rather die than be one of their slaves!"
     
  17. HeinleinFan

    HeinleinFan Banned

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    [oops, almost forgot. Don't worry, Crazy Ivan, Hathi's just waaay too superstitious. As we learn more about magic, he'll ease off. In the meantime . . . ]

    Hathi gestures meaningfully in the general direction of the group. "Maybe that girl isn't evil. But I can tell you now - I can sense all of your abilities, just a little. She's a void, a shadow. I can't sense it at all. Maybe I'm . . . what's the word? Para-something? Maybe I'm para-whatever, but anyone who can shield their magic from prying eyes the way she can seems dangerous. At least with me, you know all I can do is take already hot water and throw it at you. You can do stuff with air and wind. But her - she could torch either one of us, and I don't know that my magic would work to stop her."
     
  18. Frost

    Frost Active Member

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    Bryce sat silently, absorbing all of what the boy had told him. The Lordful Ones? He had never heard of such beings, he had no idea of what they were; he was half glad. But he wished too know more, at some point. He decided he would not push it further for that night. Bryce looked at the faded pink scar on Hathi's cheek and looked deep into his eyes.
    "Healing magic is not evil. No magic is evil; magic is magic. It is just there. It's the user who is evil, and may use it for evil purposes. I have listened to the secrets carried on the wind; the wind will more or less bow to me. The magic only exists. It's what's here," Bryce pointed at the boys heart, "that decides whether or not one or another is evil."

    "But fear not, Hathi. You will find the girl is not evil. You will learn."

    Bryce rose and gesture Hathi in front of him. They walked back towards the camp in silence.
    We will all learn...
     
  19. Ferret

    Ferret New Member

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    (Not that I want to sound rude, but it seems like a good enough time for my character to pop in to the story...if thats okay with you guys? So heres my first post: https://www.writingforums.org/showpost.php?p=20703&postcount=23
    I have to jam, otherwise I would try to work this in. I suppose the other members of the camp could find them. I really am sorry...)
     
  20. HeinleinFan

    HeinleinFan Banned

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    All right, since Ferret can't weave his character in, I'll do it. Hope he doesn't mind - I'll say he was pursued by the group he accidently hurt with rocks, and he manages to run away from them (or from whatever constabulary or similar law enforcement they call up). He has managed to get at least a day ahead of them, but he's worn out from his little adventure and in need of rest and food.

    ***

    Bryce and Hathi were walking back to the camp when the ground under them twitched slightly. Hathi fell back, gripping the wooden staff hard as he planted it in the ground to steady himself. Bryce easily readjusted his balance, but over Hathi's surprised intake of breath he heard a steady slap-slap of someone running down the road.

    "Hush!" Bryce said to Hathi, who blinked and held his breath. Next to him, the dog, Gallow, whined and turned around to face the road. Evidently, she heard the traveller too.

    The sun was still in the process of setting, but there was lingering dust on the road from the carts, wagons, and riders who had passed upon it during the day. It took a moment for Bryce to focus his power, but his sense of the air around came back to him easily, and he sent a light breeze toward the road with a gesture. It swept away the dust on the road, revealing a running boy - perhaps (insert age here. Seventeen? Ferret didn't specify) years old, with slightly grimy clothing and an intense, worried look on his face.

    Gallow growled. As Bryce (and now Hathi, who had turned to look) watched, the boy veered off the road, unaware that he was headed toward the camp. Hathi took a step forward, but Bryce held out a hand to block him. The younger boy looked annoyed but stayed still again.

    The boy got about fifty yards off the road, then sank down in a crouch. Even from this distance, Bryce and Hathi could tell by the heave of his back that he was severely out of breath. But as they watched, a nearby clod of stone seemed to rise up and throw itself at the boy, then another and a third. A moment later, it was as if a light rain of dirt and rock was rising up from the ground, forming into a low wall around the crouching boy. It became a dome, colored a little like marble statues Bryce had seen, but the dust and dirt that formed its final layer obscured the color enough that the whole thing looked like a large, if dirty, boulder.

    "The others should know," Hathi said. "I can run to tell them. Or - you can work with wind. Can you say something, and have the wind carry your voice to the camp, or is the distance too great?"
     
  21. Frost

    Frost Active Member

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    "I can, though the chance of them hearing is not great. They would have to be seeking to hear messages on the wind. I will keep watch here; you go and tell them. I will be here."

    Bryce watched the boy as he headed off in the direction of the camp then crouched down and stared at the small dome intensely.
    And how many of us do exist, I wonder... There is so much to learn...And not enough time.
     
  22. Frost

    Frost Active Member

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    No one?
     
  23. Crazy Ivan

    Crazy Ivan New Member

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    (ooc: Life currently sucks for me, and also I don't really come to wf anymore. I've kind of abandoned my own project, sorry.)
     

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