a growing recognition of the genius of birds.
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Post by tsun on Jan 1, 2015 23:52:32 GMT
[attr="class","basich"]EVENT [attr="class","basicp"] [attr="class","basich2"]BLOOD & CONFETTI The High City is burning. The topless towers that crowned the shining flanks of the city stream with flame against the night sky. The wreckage of a zeppelin lies amid the debris of the palace's left wing. The Emperor of Shara is dead. Soldiers and civilians alike swarm over the site like ants. It seems impossible that a mere hour ago, the palace buzzed with light and music, with the sound of a thousand people gathering themselves for the winter celebrations. Now the stage is cast in grim colors. The air echoes with crackling fire and the hoarse yells of soldiers as they call to one another. Forty-five minutes past, an Irkallan zeppelin plummeted from the skies to the ground like it had forgotten how to fly. But this was no accident. The emperor died when it collided with his living quarters. Now, you step onto the scene as people try to puzzle out sense from the madness. A battalion Imperial Legion moves to secure the heir. Women wail and rend their clothes as the men carry out the bodies of the dead and dying. There is much to be uncovered here, if you look carefully. [attr="class","basich2"]RULES & REGULATIONS Every time five posts have gone by, or three separate characters have posted, whichever comes first, a staff member will reply to this thread with further updates of what your characters have encountered or uncovered. You are encouraged to work together, and doing so will increase your chances of finding out the good stuff, but it isn't necessary. Should three characters post and each of them goes their own separate ways, the staff member will address each in their post. Should they work together, they will get one reply. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. |
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Champion
HUMAN
25 years old
played by KITTEN
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Post by FLORENT DELACROIX on Jan 2, 2015 5:03:07 GMT
The palace is a canvas painted in the colors of death. Flames still flicker on the remnants of the crashed zeplin, illuminating the night. Its choas, a celebration gone horribly wrong.
Florent looked around the debris, trying to avoid being trampled in the panic stricken crowd. Who the hell crashed into the palace? Didn't anyone care that Florent was there, trying to enjoy himself. He had been so close to getting some pretty young thing back to his place too. |
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Champion
HUMAN
24 years old
CULT
played by CAEDMON
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THE SKY IS LOOKING GREY SO I'LL KEEP MY HEAD DOWN INSTEAD
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Post by ORFIEL on Jan 2, 2015 21:00:51 GMT
| THAT DOESN'T MEAN A GOD DAMN THING |  | he fits in, because he's dirty, and they are too. now, they are, at least. orfiel is from irkalla-- but he isn't behind this. sure, he isn't mourning, but he doesn't appreciate the attack either. he has little pride for where he comes from.
he scans the scene but keeps to himself. ultimately, he is here to find out what happened and go, so he can prepare appropriately for his journeys in and out of irkalla. the palace is a wreck. hordes of crying women huddled around lifeless bodies. he silently pays his respects, and then moves on. |
LAIKA OF GAGNAM STYLE |
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Witch
human
22 years old
vagabond
played by chiaroscuro
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Post by michel delafere on Jan 3, 2015 2:56:09 GMT
 There was no visible difference between this pile of rubble at the others, all flaming wreckages of what had once been the High City of Shara. It was perhaps a bit smaller, since the room was large and the destruction uneven, but Michel distinctly recalled several glass cases roughly in this direction, displaying priceless jewels. Surely if the jewels were genuine, they’d be hardly scratched by a bit of falling rock and wood. Leaning down, Michel tried to look unobtrusive as he pawed at the rubble. One, maybe two, and then he’d be on his way. He had no doubt that basic goods would become even more costly in the face of this tragedy, so really, he was just looking out for himself. |
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Champion
HUMAN
22 years old
IMPERIAL CHAMPION
played by PISCES
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WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME, I CAN'T BE BLAMED, I WANT YOU TO WANT ME AGAIN
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Post by CAMERON GUERIN on Jan 3, 2015 3:48:32 GMT
there's soot smudged on his cheek and a burgeoning thrum behind his temples. he wishes the grieving would quiet down and the crowds would settle down, but in the face of catastrophe, the immediate aftermath is uproarious before solemn, enraged before clinical. the empire must maintain a semblance of order in times of crisis. and he, uniform-clad, is the face of the empire. so cameron moves forward on autopilot, sidesteps the wreckage and sorrow, and shepherds civilians away from the scene. he catches sight of a straggler. tone measured, he calls out, "excuse me. we're vacating the premises." |
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a growing recognition of the genius of birds.
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Post by tsun on Jan 3, 2015 7:31:21 GMT
[attr="class","basich"]REGICIDE [attr="class","basicp"] There's quite a few pretty young things strewn around the area for Florent to feast his eyes on. Most of them are in multiple, bloody pieces, being trampled underfoot by the crowd as they scream for those they hope still live. If he can wrench his gaze away from the pandemonium, two things might catch his attention: (1) the little girl, soot-streaked, who barrels into his legs and sobs for help or (2) the man who shoulders his way past him, working against the flow of the crowd, swathed in a black cloak. [attr="class","basich2"] ORFIELPeople are only people. They die easily, and in a multitude of ways. Even magic fades. Only stone endures. What's that shining faintly beneath the debris next to the mass of women crying? They don't have eyes for it--they are turned inwards to their own grief--and the soldiers haven't secured this area yet. Of course, Orfiel could always wander on. In a tragedy this colossal, there's always more to stumble upon. If he keeps searching, Michel will uncover a trove of garnets and sapphires among the shattered glass shards of their housing. Be careful picking up the pieces. If he looks up, there's a woman perched on a nearby rafter, twirling a strand of dark hair around her finger. "You could at least wait till the beast is dead before scavenging its bones," she admonishes. The straggler looks at Cameron with eyes that no longer recognize any authority, be it mortal or divine. Her pace quickens and she rushes to close the gap between the two of them. "You're a soldier!" she cries, spitting the epithet like a curse. "You're supposed to protect us! Why did you let this happen? Why is she dead?" |
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Champion
HUMAN
24 years old
CULT
played by CAEDMON
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THE SKY IS LOOKING GREY SO I'LL KEEP MY HEAD DOWN INSTEAD
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Post by ORFIEL on Jan 3, 2015 17:54:11 GMT
| THAT DOESN'T MEAN A GOD DAMN THING | | a shimmer. and then another. you are a curious young man, orfiel.
his legs begin to move-- faster and faster-- he won't let anyone get to it before he does. although he moves quickly, orfiel plays it cool. it's chaotic here, yes, but that doesn't mean that no one is paying attention. he doesn't want to draw attention to himself. everyone around him blurs and he only sees a sparkle amongst the debris. he saw it first. no one else may have it.
orfiel carefully investigates the pile and tries to reach through the small openings to reach it. cautiously, of course. although very small, the possibility of danger still exists. there's also a possibility this is just a shard of useless glass.
but the more apparent possibility-- the one that tells him it's special-- that is what orfiel listens to. that is all he can see. |
LAIKA OF GAGNAM STYLE |
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Champion
HUMAN
22 years old
IMPERIAL CHAMPION
played by NETTE
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WHAT IS A GOD TO A NON BELIEVER
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Post by ELEANOR RAVENSDALE on Jan 3, 2015 20:51:21 GMT
the emperor is dead.
in a world of smoke and ash and fire and death, eleanor can believe the claims. only an hour ago, there had been music. dancing. joy, in a world still haunted by monsters. an opportunity to forget.
distantly, she's glad to have had the foresight of carrying her knives with her at least, tonight.
she needs to be helping. she needs to be saving. there are a thousand and one things that she needs to do, and right now, she will do them.
(who is it a promise to; yourself, or someone else?)
eleanor grabs a squad of soldiers waiting for orders. "we're putting out the fires. where's the closest water source?" |  |
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Witch
human
22 years old
vagabond
played by chiaroscuro
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Post by michel delafere on Jan 4, 2015 4:06:36 GMT
Patience was hard to come by when digging through broken stone. It wasn’t that Michel grew careless, but certainly his movements became more harsh, more efficient and brisk. Appearances were deceiving; for all that the rubble looked lesser than its neighbors, it had quite some depth, and Michel was close to calling it quits. He wasn’t so desperate for money that he would scrounge so aggressively, after all. His hand went in deep and Michel flinched, rearing back while keeping his fingers deeply embedded in the rubble, too cautious to extract them or make any other sudden movements. He heard a voice overhead and stilled, flushing at being caught in such a compromising position. There were no good excuses to be made. “Not so much scavenging as much as… having a taste, per se.” He met the woman’s eyes while moving his free hand, pushing a couple of rocks aside. A quick glance revealed that he had pricked his finger on a bright shard of broken glass, and that underneath lay sparkling gemstones of blue and red. Michel’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction, but he was wary to move with the woman still watching him. |
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Champion
HUMAN
25 years old
played by KITTEN
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Post by FLORENT DELACROIX on Jan 4, 2015 4:51:59 GMT
A stench permeated above the smoke and sweaty bodies—the stench of death. It was an amalgamation of blood, charred bodies, and decay. His stomach vaulted up his throat threatening to break free from his body with everything he ate. Florent swallowed hard to keep the bile down. He averted his gaze from the bodies strewn and trampled.
He had no stomach for carnage.
One step forward, one attempt to move away from the grotesque scene, and he regretted the movement. A nauseating squelch rose up from his freshly place foot, sticky warmth soaking up through the sock and shoe. He stepped back and was just about knocked over by a pleading child. Help, she said. There was no helping her. Her parents were likely dead. Her future just about as bleak as the scene laid about before them.
Twisting to pull her loose from his legs, he catches a figure moving against the flow of the masses—he had nearly forgot there were people still fleeing the chaos. Where was he going? He followed without another thought, still gripping the child’s arm. |
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Champion
HUMAN
22 years old
IMPERIAL CHAMPION
played by PISCES
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WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME, I CAN'T BE BLAMED, I WANT YOU TO WANT ME AGAIN
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Post by CAMERON GUERIN on Jan 4, 2015 20:53:30 GMT
he doesn’t flinch as she lurches forward, doesn’t avert his gaze. it’s practiced professionalism—still, he doesn’t think he can look away. in her eyes unfurl twin disasters, and they hold him in orbit. her spewed invective just falls short of reaching him, withers at his feet. why, he wonders. why does the goddess have a taste for tragedy? his own question goes unvoiced. instead, cameron tries to mollify the despairing woman. “this was...unforeseen.” cautiously, he reaches out for her arm. “we’re doing all we can to prevent further harm and evacuate the area.” “i’m sorry for your loss, miss.” it’s tacked on, an afterthought. |
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a growing recognition of the genius of birds.
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Post by tsun on Jan 5, 2015 18:29:00 GMT
[attr="class","basich"]REGICIDE [attr="class","basicp"] [attr="class","basich2"] ORFIELBeneath the dust and debris, a fine chain of adamantine seems to glimmer with its own light. It is no strangeness to find it here, for adamantine is rare beyond measure, mined from stars fallen from the night sky, and even a piece as small of this would be worth more than a year's salary for any besides the royal family and the elite echelon of nobles. What is strange is this--it is a talisman for a witch. If any who are not arcane witches suited to destruction and black magic touch the chain it will lash out with a burning pain against the unworthy hand. It is suited only to amplify those powers to a considerable extent; perhaps it could even imbue a skilled and talented user with enough strength to destroy a palace. Wrap it in cloth to bear it away without harm, if you wish. How odd that the palace would contain such a thing. The soldiers move forth into action like men awakened from a dream. They are still pale-faced and drawn, but they know their duty. Forming a human chain, they move with unerring precision to put out the fires in the nearest domus and rescue survivors still trapped inside. For a long moment everything moves in clockwork perfection. Then the rotted beams betray their would be saviors and collapse with a fiery roar. The soldiers are trapped. The survivors are trapped. Eleanor must choose. The woman laughs, high and musical, one pale hand raised to cover her mouth. "Are all citizens of the empire so loyal as you? That with their holy father dead, they would paw through his remains like grave robbers? Maybe instead of exerting myself I merely should have informed the Old Town rabble that his treasure ought to be theirs for the taking."The girl clings to Florent as tightly as he grips her--tighter, perhaps, because she has the solid strength of someone who has lost everything and cannot bear to lose one thing more. As he follows the man, the crowd breaks around them and they emerge into a sudden silence, a clearing in front of the wrecked palace. The girl's sobs cut the air and the man spins on his heel, eyes widening as he sees Florence. "You are not--" He cuts himself off and reaches for the hilt of a sword beneath his cloak. "Why are you following me?"She draws herself back like a cobra and spits at his face when he reaches for his arm. "It's your job to die for us!" she screams. "It's your job to die so that we don't!" She shudders, and then a blank composure comes over her. "At the very least, retrieve her body for me," she commands with an icy dignity. |
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Champion
HUMAN
24 years old
CULT
played by CAEDMON
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THE SKY IS LOOKING GREY SO I'LL KEEP MY HEAD DOWN INSTEAD
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Post by ORFIEL on Jan 6, 2015 0:46:11 GMT
| THAT DOESN'T MEAN A GOD DAMN THING | | just a touch, and it sizzles. burns his skin like a hand on a stovetop- orfiel flinches and resists from wincing or groaning out loud, not wanting to draw attention to himself. he rips his hand out of the rubble, slicing it across stone. blood trickles down and it stings from the burn, but he quickly draws cloth from his pack.
...
...cloth, he thinks, squinting. he goes back into the fray with his raw (at best) hand and tries to retrieve the hot, shimmering object-- instead trying to pick it up with the cloth.
stone. it takes his a moment to put two and two together, but adamantine, he realizes. orfiel recognizes it. he hasn't worked with it personally, and he doesn't know anyone who has, but the knowledge retained from a few books can do you well in situations like these.
he thinks for a moment, then decides.
the power of adamantine is great. his eyes widen eventually, remembering just what the capabilities of this meteorite are. yes, the power of adamantine is great-- in the hands of a black witch.
he searches for one, asking various people if they have seen anyone who possesses magical capabilities. |
LAIKA OF GAGNAM STYLE |
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Monster
JACKALOPE
17 years old
STREET RAT
played by kappaccino
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Post by MIKA on Jan 6, 2015 3:58:08 GMT
BBQ meat.
The high city was a banquet, and for the first time Mika would know the meaning of feasting. He dragged his sleeve against his lips, chapped and cut from months of sawdust and rats, smearing the spittle overflowing at the smorgasbord of scents and sights. The shrieks and sobs were jarring notes in the song of delight, made worse by the fact the jackalope had lost the deafening protection of his hat. However, his prey instincts to flee were smothered now by the scent of barbequed flesh.
He licked along his fangs in anticipation, shivering at the taste of his own pricked tongue. The predator instincts were shuddering in his bones, tangling his thoughts into a bloody mess. He scurried closer to the sight of the human catastrophe. Tugging his filthy hood up as an afterthought, he nestled in close to an indeterminable hunk of meat and picked it up with hands that shook.
“Hnnnnng.”
He took a bite.
...He probably should have looked around first.
|  dunno EVENT1
holy run on sentences batman. i'm so srry he a freak
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Champion
HUMAN
22 years old
IMPERIAL CHAMPION
played by NETTE
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WHAT IS A GOD TO A NON BELIEVER
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Post by ELEANOR RAVENSDALE on Jan 6, 2015 17:51:49 GMT
for a moment, she thinks that she needs to grab the first bucket and put out the fire herself, but that moment passes and eleanor stands back to let the men work. the soldiers do as they are told, and for a long, long, moment, there is a period in which everything goes right. the fire fighters move with trained precision, they will rescue the survivors, she will do this one thing right --
then the beams collapse and the saviors are trapped with the ones they are trying to save. in an ideal world, this would never happen.
this is not an ideal world, and eleanor knows that, but --
she is an imperial champion, a weapon wielded in service to the empire.
the empire is the people; the people are the empire. the soldiers sign up to die.
everyone else is busy evacuating; there is no one else left. there is only her, and her choice.
eleanor prays that they will understand and slips out a knife from its holster, and runs into the fire in the direction of the civilians, intent on rescuing them first. | |
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