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Post by ch00beh on Jun 11, 2010 17:45:45 GMT -5
"I promise I won't shoot," Rie mumbled. As soon as the portal opened above her, however, she jumped straight up, transforming into a large, albino python halfway out. Her tail snagged the broke blade from the bottom of the bubble, flicking it into the air. Her right arm never retracted into her body, instead sticking out of the python body in an awkward amalgam of flesh that would cause everyone to question the shifter's sanity, but said questions would soon be dismissed as the hand caught the knife blade. As soon as the blade was safely in her hand, Rie lunged at Merlin, attempting to stab, bite, and coil him all at the same time.
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Post by Hamuu on Aug 3, 2010 17:38:01 GMT -5
Merlin waved his hand causing Rie to flicker for a moment, like a TV with a static. One moment she was lunging through the air at him, the next she was gone. "Wha did ya do ta her?!" Jonas asked. Merlin shrugged him off, "I just transported the loose cannon to another part of the town. Hopefully it will give her time to cool off." OOC - Ok, so I've got the ending of the thread just about ready. I'll prolly post this weekend if I can get a hold of Lee since I kinda need him for it. Note to self: Non action oriented topics don't seem to go over very well anymore.
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Post by Yoshimitsu on Aug 5, 2010 21:33:56 GMT -5
"Son of a bitch," Felix muttered, a spliff hanging from his mouth and a lighter in his hand. He clicked the lighter a few more times. No sparks. Damn clicker was broken. And he hadn't brought a spare. Just his luck. Another thing to add to his list of things-that-had-gone-wrong-and-should-just-die-somewhere. He glanced around, before pulling out his phone.
"Hey 'sup," he greeted in a fake nonchalant voice. "Look, I need a favour. My bloody lighter's busted and I didn't bring a spare, can you... What do you mean no? I'm dying here! C'mon don't be such a fuckin' scrooge. Alright jeez, I'll get some mage to spark me up then."
Felix's annoyed expression faded for a moment as the person on the other end of the phone spoke. A member of a rival agency was at the festival? What rival agency? And who was the agent? Maybe this festival was a bigger deal than he thought. Wasn't this supposed to just be a recon mission? Felix always got the twisted jobs that started out boring then had some giant unexpected one-eighty and turned into a fight somewhere along the line.
"No extra info? Some fuckin' help you are," Felix muttered under his breath. "Yeah yeah, I got it."
He slipped his phone back into his pocket and looked around again. Maybe that woman had a lighter. Pasting on a fake smile that was completely juxtaposed to how his head was pounding, he walked up to her table.
"Hey there," he greeted her. "I don't suppose I could trouble you for a light?"
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 6, 2010 0:09:18 GMT -5
Just as she lunged, Rie became completely disoriented as the scenery shifted around her. A teleport. Rie knew she shouldn't have blinked pre-lunge. Stupid stupid stupid.
That was the only thought she could muster before barreling straight into a merchant's wagon. The neatly stacked crates toppled over, and brilliantly-colored tropical fruits within spilled, sailed, and splattered right out. Melons cracked on the street. Softer fruits left distinctive wet marks where they bounced.
Teleports were always terrible when there was no warning. It took a moment for the girl to reorient herself. While still in the air, instinct told her to lower her shoulder against the large opposing object. Instinct then told her to right herself as she bounced off the hard surface, or absorb the impact in a crouch if the thing fell. It was after these motions that she tried to reorient herself.
The first thing she noticed was that someone nearby was screaming. She looked towards the source of the sound to find her knife buried in a robed man's arm.
"Oh. It wasn't my fault."
She stood up and approached the man, and before he could recoil, she took the knife out. He screamed again. The girl just turned around, and saw a crowd.
Stupid stupid stupid. Never blinking again.
Rie shook her head then stored her knife in her forearm. She jumped up, and as she did, her pajamaed form quickly bristled with growing feathers, while her entire body shrank down and reshaped into a pure white eagle. The bird flapped its large, powerful wings, soaring straight into the sky above the crowd and the buildings.
fucker's getting stabbed right in the head so he can't think spells anymore. Hate mages.
---
Julia could smell the sticky aroma of marijuana. It was faint, though present. A moment after she identified the smell, she realized it belonged to a man asking for a light. The joint wasn't even lit yet.
She looked up at the man. Casual slump, fake smile, almost squinting against the morning light with eyes that were still recovering from being bloodshot. Classic hangover.
"Hold on."
The doctor opened her purse and sifted around. She paused, then continued her search before pulling out two lighter sized objects. One was, in fact, a lighter, the other was a travel sized bottle of ibuprofen.
"Pick one. As a doctor, I can't let you mix drugs in good conscience."
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Post by Yoshimitsu on Aug 6, 2010 0:27:16 GMT -5
"Lighter, any day," Felix replied gratefully. He accepted the lighter and lit his spliff, taking a deep drag. He handed the lighter back to the stranger, his mouth stretching into a real smile. "If it's a choice between stoned or healthy, you gotta go with the good one."
He pulled a chair out at the woman's table, collapsing into it and spreading his legs into a very relaxed pose. Though one part of him was telling him to find the rival agent, another part of him just wanted an hour to get rid of his damn headache and wake up a bit. Sure, smoking weed wouldn't help him at all but, as far as he was concerned, it wouldn't hurt him either.
Then something clicked into place. Basic training taught him not to show his surprise or give his realisation away. He'd had it drilled into his skull so hard he was surprised the words weren't printed in his hair somewhere. The woman was highly observant, noticing that he had a headache with barely a glance.
"So, a doctor huh?" Felix asked casually, flicking some ash off his joint. "How much does that pay? I'm thinkin' 'bout a change of career."
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 6, 2010 1:13:10 GMT -5
Julia dropped the ibuprofen back into her bag before retrieving her lighter. Interesting. Pulling a "Sherlock Holmes" with body language almost always worked to open people up when meeting them. This guy went straight for the lighter and was now almost avoiding the subject. His nonchalance was either the hangover talking or... something else. It was probably the first, but one didn't stay alive this long around powers by not taking everything into account.
"Pays real well," she said, carefully masking her thought process by coordinating it with the delay of putting the lighter back in her purse. Julia heard a short laugh as she turned to look back at the man. Forced laugh at an offhand comment. Natural. Still, she might need to open him up a bit, and that meant making him feel like they were on the same page. Julia eyed the joint. Plus she hadn't smoked in a while.
The doctor leaned in slightly, resting her elbows on the table, before offering the man an open hand.
"Hey, you owe me?" she tilted her head at the joint.
"What happened to being a doctor?" the man took another drag.
"Nothing wrong with a little medical dose," she smiled as the man nonchalantly handed her the limp roll.
Julia held the nearly weightless tube between her fingers and put the end to her lips. The tip burned brighter as she inhaled. Stinging air briefly went down her throat before she took the joint from her mouth. She continued her breath to get some fresh air. The stuff was strong. Really strong. Expensive cure for a hangover.
She handed the drug back to its owner before releasing the smoke from her lungs and letting it slowly escape her lips.
"Yeah, doctoring pays well, but you can't be broke yourself when getting weed like that, right?"
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Post by Yoshimitsu on Aug 6, 2010 1:26:35 GMT -5
Felix took the join back and placed it between his lips, taking a longer drag than before. A lot of the details from basic training were now screaming at him, though he couldn't quite decide why. Something about this woman seemed off. Especially smoking as a doctor. Now that was something that positively screamed suspicious.
"Nah, you're not far off the mark there," Felix replied, grinning with the joint held between his teeth. "But I know a few people, old friends and shit like that. You can get any-fucking-thing on the black market."
Felix stretched his arms, then plucked the joint from between his lips again. His headache was finally clearing up, even if it was probably going to hit again in a few hours. He'd worry about it when that happened. Until then, he had other stuff to worry about. Dealing with a bunch of powers and trying to find a hidden agent.
"The name's Felix, by the way, since we haven't properly been introduced," he said, extending his hand to the woman, the black ring on his finger shining in the sunlight. "What brings a doctor to a mage shindig anyway?"
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 6, 2010 1:35:11 GMT -5
"Julia." She smiled at Felix before reaching over to firmly take his hand.
"Black market, huh? That's kind of a far call from doctoring. Can't really just change professions like that, right? Unless you specialize in taking people's kidneys..." Julia mocked a suspicious look at him before chuckling.
She stared at her coffee. Not the best remedy for drymouth, but it would have to do. The doctor took a long sip and considered what to tell this man next. She certainly couldn't tell him that she was researching paranormal people.
"Well," Julia put her coffee back on the small table. "Why not, you know? It's magic. Call me a skeptic, I guess."
This was most certainly not true of someone who worked with magical artifacts just about every day.
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Post by Yoshimitsu on Aug 6, 2010 1:42:57 GMT -5
"I met a guy who did that once," Felix said conversationally, flicking some more ash. "Scary guy, looking like he was gonna fuckin' cut me open there and then. Definitely not someone you'd wanna meet down a back alley somewhere."
Felix nodded when Julia called herself a skeptic, noting the brief reply.
"Man it's insane, some of the stuff these guys can do," Felix commented, glancing at Julia's cup of coffee. He sort of wanted to get himself another, but he could just hear Samm's voice telling him to take his job seriously for once. "I saw some guy trading some expensive jewellery or some shit for a fortune. Sounds like a scam to me."
Felix laughed, then took another drag and stubbed the spliff out. He flicked it carelessly over his shoulder.
"I'm seein' if they've got anything decent in the black market here," Felix shared, keeping his tone neutral yet conversational. "Wanna see what smokin' magic crystals or whatever does to you. Best high ever, I'm hopin'."
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 6, 2010 1:57:19 GMT -5
Julia laughed at that last part about smoking crystals. "Wait, you're serious? That can't be good for you."
There was an edge of concern in her voice, though there was still the tone of casual laughter and disbelief. This voice took months to get right. Supposing the patient wasn't completely traumatized, they would usually open up a little bit more, lightening up about whatever situation they were talking about. The short prompt would then make them feel free to continue talking.
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Post by Yoshimitsu on Aug 6, 2010 2:05:12 GMT -5
"Sure, why not?" Felix said, grinning. The look of disbelief on Julia's face was pretty much worth suggesting that. Though actually, it wasn't such a bad idea. Sure, chance of death or complete brain melt but it could also be the best legal, or illegal high anyone could find. His grin broadened slightly at the thought, though it was partially put on.
"Don't tell me you never went through a rebel phase," Felix taunted slightly, relaxing into his seat a little more. Now this movement really was a show, but a well-performed one. For a normally relaxed person to relax further was no big surprise, which was why Felix excelled at his job sometimes. Even if he did resent his superiors for sending him out when he was hungover and caffeine deprived. However, appearing calm and relaxed in any situation was pretty much a sure-fire way to get what he wanted or needed.
"C'mon, I wont tell anyone," Felix urged playfully. "Your secret's safe with me."
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 6, 2010 2:38:40 GMT -5
No catch on getting him to talk a little more about what he did with the black market. She heard his words, but she wasn't processing them very hard, instead trying to predict where the conversation was going. This man was interesting... and likely dangerous. Her heart was starting to beat noticeably. Adrenaline was slowly seeping into her veins.
"Rebel phase, huh? You mean college?" Julia snorted. "Not much of a secret that something happened there. Tell you what, Mr. Rebel of the Black Market. You tell me a secret and I get more specific." There was a hint of flirtation in her voice. "Those adventures you must have in the black market..."
Such a simple prompt was so deceiving. The words were chosen and arranged very carefully; Julia was hoping to induce a brief trance on this guy to get more information on him. There was the use of the word "adventures" and a sentence fragment to induce a transderivational search. Basically, any normal person at this prompt would have to figure out if they had even had adventures in the first place, and then memories would get cued up regarding any matches to fill in the subject of the hanging sentence. The term "Black Market" would help focus the search. The internal search, compounded with the drugs and hangover, would result in mild confusion, thus opening him up to suggestion.
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Post by Yoshimitsu on Aug 6, 2010 2:46:49 GMT -5
"Adventures, huh," Felix repeated, snorting. What an interesting question. Felix took a second to consider it. He hadn't been lying when he said he was involved in the black market, but he had been deliberately vague for a reason. Sure, the run in with kidney guy was true, but adventures weren't typically what he would count black market dealings as. He considered the question carefully, then realised that he was taking a little bit too long to answer.
"Adventures probably isn't the right word," he replied casually, keeping his tone light. "Not much runnin' around. More like fuckin' shady deals with guys in trench coats. Not nice people, but that's my crowd. You sell what you can to whoever the fuck wants it."
Felix flashed a winning smile to Julia, hoping his friendliness might catch her off guard. He still wasn't sure what her game was. She might just be a local trying to get the scoop on what non-magic guys were like. Who knows? Not him, and he was trying to change that.
"Feelin' a bit more open to sharin' now?" Felix asked, subtly changing his tone to appear more friendly and slightly flirtatious. "Or do I have to tell another dark secret?"
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 6, 2010 3:06:11 GMT -5
Julia took a sip of coffee and leaned back, matching Felix's position. Simplest of conversational techniques. After putting down her cup, she rested her hand on the table.
"Adventu-" before he could finish the first word, Julia tapped her nails on the table in quick succession, but made sure to keep her eyes and attention him. She nodded at the appropriate times.
After a brief pause of thinking, Felix began talking again. Again, before he finished the first word, she tapped her nails.
"Not much runin' ar-" tap tap tap.
"-uckin' shady de-" tap tap tap.
"-my crowd." tap tap tap.
"-ever the fuck wants-" tap tap tap.
He didn't even pause. What the hell. Julia was tapping at every mention of "shady dealings" in order to briefly distract his process of recalling those memories. A pattern interrupt after a transderivational search almost always got the subject in a mild trance by now. This was wrong. Julia's heart began beating a little harder. She was trying her hardest to keep her "interested" face.
"Do I have to tell another dark secret?" he asked.
Quickly thinking of the most plausible, yet enticing story she could, Julia began talking. "Oh, you know. Pregame a party with my girlfriends, end up smoking a bowl with the cute boy down the hall, and, well you know. Not nearly as exciting as the black market. But hey, I got to go use the lady's room real quick, I'll be back, ok?"
Before he could start to object, Julia stood up, taking her purse and leaving her half eaten croissant, and started heading into the cafe.
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Post by Yoshimitsu on Aug 6, 2010 3:18:50 GMT -5
Felix smirked lightly. Let Samm see that. That was how the job worked. The use of the word 'adventures' had clued him in slightly, and the tapping had given him the information he needed. The woman was not the standard girl at the coffee shop. The tapping was probably meant to distract him, which meant that she was up to something. Basic training meant not being derailed during conversation, among other things. Julia might be the rival agent, but he'd have to do some more investigating before he reported back in.
"Man, way to fuckin' lay it on, Julia," Felix complimented the woman, even though she had excused herself. "You're not bad. Almost got me singing my fuckin' life story to ya. Can't wait to see ya again."
He took a moment to think about the conversation they had just had. What were the key details...? A doctor smoking weed. She had a plausible excuse, though, so maybe that was looking at it a bit too closely. Asking about finances? Nah, he'd done that first. No big deal. Adventures? That was a weird choice of word. Keep that one in mind and ask Samm, he was the thinking one. And the tapping. Definitely weird.
"Looks like I've got my mission for the rest of the day," he muttered to himself, pulling another spliff out of his pocket. He went for his lighter again, before realising his lighter was still broken. Swearing briefly, he wandered back into the coffee shop for another coffee and hopefully some magical assistance.
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 6, 2010 4:09:36 GMT -5
Julia quickly locked the bathroom door behind her. She finally allowed herself a sigh of temporary relief. He was still out there, probably. The woman cracked open the door and peeked out. He was in line. The door closed shut again.
Dammit... what to do. She couldn't just waltz out of their and right past him. He'd recognize her and stop her... unless... Julia sifted through her purse and found something hard and cool to the touch. Her newly acquired mask. The woman pulled it out and put it on, checking herself in the mirror. Yes. It covered her face well enough.
The next problem. Clothes. She was the only one in the entire square that was wearing "normal" business clothes, but that didn't help very much when everyone was dressed "abnormally;" the mages with their robes and the performers with their... huh.
Oh she was going to regret this. The woman took off her jacket and just threw it into a corner. Couldn't carry it with what she had planned. Then, with a moment of pause and regret at the very idea, she took off her trousers. She fished around in her purse, eventually procuring a pair of scissors which she used to turn her dress-pants into makeshift shorts. I packed an extra skirt, right? ...I'm thinking of that at a time like this? Minds are weird... She shook her head and put the shorts on, then folded up the bottoms to hide the shoddy hem work.
Next, Julia retucked her shirt and undid the top few buttons. She checked herself in the mirror. This was so ridiculous looking. It couldn't work. Even if Felix didn't recognize her, walking awkwardly in a poor costume would draw the eye of everyone at the cafe. Including his. God, she was not going to let a good pair of pants go to waste just to get caught for not walking with confidence. She could feel a knot in her stomach – mind induced nausea from panic and fear – much worse than what she had earlier that day on the ride over. What to do...
The ride over. That was it. If nausea could be lifted from the body with a simple command, then fear could be taken away too. Julia took out her phone. She calmed her breathing as best she could, taking a minute to let her heartbeat die down. It's going to be ok. This will all work out. Just lower your beats per minute and you can actually believe what you're saying.
Julia was as calm as she was going to get. She raised the phone to her lips and began quietly and evenly speaking into the microphone, matching her cadence to the beat of her heart. When she was done, she undid her necklace's clasp then held the piece of jewelry in front of her eyes. Dangling before her was a simple gold pendant swinging from a thin chain. Her eyes followed its motion, and her free hand hit the play button on her phone.
"1. 2. 3. You are beginning to feel your troubles flutter away. 4. 5. You are not feeling like Julia Romanesco. 6. 7. 8. Now you are just a mask among the crowd. 9. 10. 11. You know where you go, and you have confidence in your steps. 12. 13. 14. 15. You are now in a shallow state of hypnosis. When you feel like being Julia again, you will be able to do so easily, and at a whim. You do not want to listen to anyone's suggestions but your own. Go."
The woman gathered her belongings and placed them in her purse, then slung the bag over her shoulder. She calmly stepped out of the bathroom and immediately fell in step with the crowd, expertly weaving her way through people without disturbing the flow of traffic. In mere moments, the doctor had exited the building, not caring who had bothered to stare at her, just so long as no one stopped her.
She turned to look at the building to make sure the man wasn't watching. Masquerade smiled and lost herself in the crowded square.
OOC: El, gg for letting me pull this one out. Bulbs, you better be happy. Or else!
PS. I cannot write long scenes of action description.
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Post by Hamuu on Aug 6, 2010 9:57:26 GMT -5
OOC: OMG OMG OMG If I wasn't so busy working on character bios I would drive to where ever you live, find you, and kiss you. Then I would drive across the ocean to El, let him have his way with me. Also Pohatu would be in on this man sex spree, cause he's also planning on posting something. Anyways, I'll read this later today. For now I have to get back to work on these character bios.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Aug 9, 2010 20:17:25 GMT -5
OOC: Credit goes to Lee for part of this post and if you can't tell which part then read better! Also, kind of autoing a bit of the resolution of Whisper in my Ear, so if that's not accurate then I'll edit it later. I don't feel like being cagey with my spoilers today so it's the part right after "Are you friends?" and it should help, at least a little, clarify why Alpha is working for Blaise at the beginning of Ishkabibble. "The poor thing I better go look for her," Terrian said in reference to Rie. He immediately proceeded to make himself scarce, which in this context means "actually make himself abundant, but then scatter himself across the city." A dozen duplicates set off in every direction, giving Terrian a chance to get a good look at the expression on his dumb face. He must have appeared exactly as awestruck as the duplicates unanimously did. Awnings in all imaginable hues surrounded him on both sides of the cobbled street, overhanging booths stocked with more exotic goods than Terrian's eye could take in at one sweep. There were some rows of two and even three booths on top of one another, but a closer glance revealed that they weren’t on multiple floors of the same building, but instead appeared to have been magically stacked on top of each other (and not always level, either; often the higher booths tapered forward, back, or to the side, but this didn't seem to bother those within). Though there were plentiful staircases and ladders leading to the higher booths, Terrian saw a distinctly above-average ratio of festivalgoers simply floating up to them as if that was no big deal. Of course the festivalgoers were definitely not an average set to begin with. As Terrian made his way down the street, his overwhelming feeling of wonder was compounded by the overwhelming feeling of getting bombarded with reports from the duplicates he'd sent out: Look at these SWORDS. They're all talking in different languages. I think they are infused with the souls of dead warriors. Prime would go crazy!This guy is juggling colors. He is juggling colors.How come I only recognize like half the flags around here? How many countries are there we don't know about?Saw some kid's shadow talking to him. Nobody batted an eyelash.Terrian sent a message around to experience the joy of discovery in respectful silence for a little while so he could think some thoughts of his own maybe. Once the chatter died down, he slowed to a stop and took another look around. A storefront with an unusual name caught his eye. Remex & Rectrix. The name was etched into the façade along with an insignia in the form of two crossed quills. Looked like a bookstore. Terrian was a fan of books. After waiting for a procession of fabric-twirling masked women to pass, he crossed the cobblestones and opened the door. If he'd been expecting something mystical and eerie, he would have been disappointed. Remex & Rectrix looked a scaled-down version of any major book retailer. Bright flourescent lights in the ceiling illuminated the room perfectly, and the books – all of them looking to have been printed within the past couple of years – were neatly organized onto tidy shelves. Blue-gray signs marked off the various sections: Supernatural Theory, History of Magic, Power Culture, and so on. The store was filled with customers, many of them as innocuous-looking as Terrian. Pleasant music piped in through modern speakers. Even taking into account the unusual stock, this bookstore would not have been totally inconceivable someplace like Seattle. A spiral staircase in the center of the room, however, led down. Possibly the basement was spookier. Terrian decided to investigate. Well, he wouldn't have called the lower level spookier. It was pleasant enough. More so, actually. The laminate sheen upstairs had been replaced with red brick flooring and walls, and incandescent chandeliers lent a warmer glow. The fare was mostly leatherbound lesson books for various schools of magic, though a large sign near the staircase proclaimed the dangers of attempting to teach oneself even rudimentary forms of magic without the aid of a teacher (and cautioned that not every customer had an affinity for magic at all). This floor wasn't as packed as the one above, but there were still quite a few people milling about. One of them was reading aloud from a book under his breath, but snapped it shut as soon as he noticed Terrian looking at him. The spiral staircase went further down. The next room's walls and floor were made of wood. It was dimmer, lit by gas lamps mounted on the wall at sparse intervals. The books themselves were also bound in wood, and looked very old indeed. There were no longer any signs denoting sections. Apparently that meant customers were supposed to magically know where to look. Terrian was not magic enough for this challenge. The handful of customers on this level would have judged him immensely. He would have opened a book or two just to get a sense of the contents, but he was also pretty curious about what was on the bottom floor. So he descended. The bottom floor room was the darkest. The only light came courtesy of candles set on the tables interspersed among the shelves. The floor, the walls, and just about everything else were made of stone. Not the books though. The books were scrolls. Genuine two-hundred-proof papyrus-and-handwriting scrolls. Terrian could not believe it. He stepped off the staircase and wandered. Didn't look like there was anyone else this far down. Oh wait, no, that was a lie. A girl with an unkempt mop of dark curly hair, still in college by the look of her, was sitting at one of the tables, propping up a book with one hand and scribbling furiously on a sheet of lined paper with the other. There were a handful more books stacked next to her on the table, and a few more sheets of paper. Yes, books: she wasn't reading any of the scrolls, and in fact the book she was holding up at the moment was a perfectly modern-looking paperback which must have been from the first floor. With deductive skills that would have been the envy of any mustachioed detective, Terrian reasoned that the girl had only come down this far because the scarcity of other customers made it the quietest space for her to work. He was about to oblige her and go back upstairs when he got another look at the book in her hand. It was a thin paperback with a plain red cover except for three small bronze-colored diamonds arranged in such a way as to suggest a cube. Old-fashioned design and not particularly arresting. The name of the author was what got his attention. The candles flickered as he approached. The girl looked up briefly, looked back down, and then looked up again. "Excuse me," Terrian said. "Is that by—?"
A Dissertation on the Pragmatism of Prevalent Evocational Conduct
Blaise Euler
"Blaise Yooler," said the girl. She put down her pencil to hold the book up with both hands. The back cover was blank except for the bar code. "No kidding!" "View redder?" the girl asked. Actually wait, she'd asked "Have you read her?", just very quickly. "No, I know her in person!" Terrian exclaimed. "Never told me she'd written any books, though..." The girl fixed him with a level stare. "Uh-huh," she said shortly. It occurred to Terrian that she might think he was making things up in order to have an excuse to talk to her. That would not do. Making things up in order to have an excuse to talk to ladies was all well and good but not when they didn't even look twenty. He bit his lip and tried to think of some proof that would show he actually did know Blaise Euler and that he wasn't just slinging around lies comparable to excrement. What could he tell the girl that she would already understand about Blaise? What indeed? "She... She uses a lot of big words," he ventured. To his relief, the girl smiled. " That's the truth," she said. "God I'm getting through a sentence a minute." It took her maybe a little more than a second to say this. Terrian cleared out his ear with a finger to make sure he didn't miss anything. "Oiler, by the way," he said. "You what her?" "No no – her name's Oiler. Blaise Oiler. Not Yooler." "Oh," the girl said. She flipped the front cover over and had another look at it. "Thank you," she mumbled. Terrian sat tenuously on the edge of the stone table. The smooth surface was very cold. The girl's elbows hadn't done much to warm it up. "So... I'm assuming that's not, like, a novella, or..." She shook her head. "Magianalytic treatise," she rattled out. "I guess the pragmatism of prevalent evocational conduct is all stuff that actually exists, then?" " She thinks it does, anyway." The girl laid the book flat on the table and slid it his way. Terrian took a look. Constituent 17: A Compendious Inspection of the Mystical Conflagration
I am rather positive that my audience has been avidly awaiting this portion of the manuscript for a duration most Herculean. The phlogistonic vortex is a signature action for the majority of conjurers, though it is more typically ascribed the misnomer of a "Fireball".
Undoubtedly, it is expressing a certain degree of an arbitrary nature on my own part to declare the majority of such incantations to be inappropriately labeled by their originator. There are two typical speciations of "Fireball" (sic) spells.
The first of which, and most widespread, is to invoke conjuration in order to produce a quantity of exceedingly inflammable materials, typically compressed under considerable pressure using kinetic force sustained via mystical means. The enclosed portion of fuel is then propelled to a target location or individual, the arcane encapsulation disengaged, and an ignition source is introduced with a singular concluding act of summoning. Though unquestionably a flame, the shape most often produced by such a spell is ovoid, rather than spheroid. One may as well refer to such an enchantment as a "Fire Ditrigonal Isocidodecahedron", for their commitment to accuracy is evidently in a circumstance of perilous deterioration.
Conversely, the other commonly occurring version of the spell is primarily evocational in nature, albeit with some illusionary discretions to the personal predilection of the casting party. It happens with a singular phase, rapidly raising the temperature within an expanding portion of the atmosphere until it engulfs the objective location and/or individuals. This is accompanied by a glamour of flames spreading within the same area, leading to a deceptively faultless facade. Though the precision and efficiency of such a spell is to be commended in comparison to the helter-skelter "Fire Ditrigonal Isocidodecahedron" described above, the ostentatious nature of the illusory conflagration lends itself to even greater unnecessary expenditures of one's reserve arcane energies. This is most disagreeable, and those utilizing this method should be forcefully dissuaded of such affectations...
"God damn," Terrian observed. She nodded. "What's... What does that even mean?" With a sigh, then very quickly: "Well she's talking about two different ways to do a fireball spell and with one of them you kind of make flammable stuff yourself and then set it on fire but the other way you, like, bring up the temperature and make everything catch on fire by itself. I'm pretty sure." "Oh." Terrian paused, then asked, "And is that what you're studying? Fireballs? I mean – elemental magic, are you learning that?" Her "Nope" was very quick and flat indeed. But she didn't exactly present the image of a casual reader. Readers as a general rule didn't fill multiple pages with fervently-scribbled notes when they were just skimming through a book out of passing interest. Terrian looked again over her scattered notebook pages before asking, in what he hoped wasn't too rude a way, "Then why are you reading her?" The girl shrugged. "She uses a lot of big words." She slid her current page of notes very slightly around toward him, and he leaned in for a closer look. COMPENDIOUS 95 boring, probably CONFLAGRATION 98 burning stuff PHLOGISTONIC 100 fiery?? OVOID 44 oval-shaped DITRIGONAL 72 ...? ISOCIDODECAHEDRON 111 what the fuuck PREDILECTION 85 preference OVEROXIDATIVE 110 TOO good at burning?? DELETERIOUS 64 harmful PREDOMINATION 88 mastery ENKINDLE 62 all right i get it IGNIPAROUS 88! something about fire??? CALASCENT 57 getting warmer? LETHIFOROUS 80
Along with a smattering of tiny numbers all over the page, none of them higher than the twenties. Before Terrian could work out the pattern, she angled the sheet back toward herself and rested her chin on one hand. "What's she like?" the girl asked. "Oh!" Terrian said. "Well, you know..." "Is she nice?" Terrian recalled Blaise pulling a test tube from her hair, which loosened the bun and caused a few strands to dangle freely around one shoulder. A dislodged pencil dropped down from behind her ear and struck the floor as she swung the test tube down in front of her. She poured the liquid out from the tube into her other hand, where it instantly froze into the shape of a blue wave-patterned knife. She charged at Terrian, brandishing the knife, her face contorted with rage. Sometime during this process she had also cursed him and all his family and loved ones. "She's okay. Yeah," he said. "I mean, she's all right once you get to know her." "Are you friends?" Terrian recalled Blaise's outreached hand dropping a few inches in the air before being redirected. She shook the hand of the duplicate, Alpha, who had just materialized on the stone street by the canal. He gave Terrian a look of mild annoyance. She didn't appear to be feeling the same – Terrian knew her look of mild annoyance by now. Her face was slightly red, her eyes downturned. She said something along the lines of this being an adequate form of remuneration. The next time she looked back up at Terrian, as he spoke, something in her eyes had vanished as quickly as it'd appeared earlier. "Yeah, yeah, I guess so," he said. "You could call us that, yeah. Friends. Sure." The girl's next rapid-fire question, without the merest smirk or arched eyebrow, was: "Is she here with you?" Terrian blinked. Then he laughed. "What? Oh – No! No no. She's in America. The States, I mean. She's not – here. No. I don't think so, anyway. Maybe she is! I'm not sure. Haha." The girl nodded for a moment and then straightened up in her chair. "Well, I don't think they had any more copies of this upstairs," she said marginally more slowly than was her habit, "so if you wanted to do any reading on the flight home you can be my guest..." Terrian was curious, but— "No, come on!" he said. "You're using that." She pshawed and gestured at her other books, which seemed to have come from all three flights above them. "I haven't even cracked these open yet," she muttered. "Not going to be hurting for books any time soon... They're all the same to me anyway." Terrian could have voiced his surprise at that last comment, but instead he decided to accept the offer. "Then thank you very much," he said as she passed along A Dissertation on the Pragmatism of Prevalent Evocational Conduct. "I'm Terrian, by the way." "Esther," she replied. She smiled a little. "Listen, next time you see Euler, tell her thanks from me, okay?" "For what?" he asked as he stepped off the table. "For using so many big words," said Esther. Terrian grinned and waved. As he started up the spiral staircase, he looked back. She'd already moved on to the next book, a large leatherbound brown one. For some reason at a distance it was easier to see the bags under her eyes. Maybe he just hadn't been paying attention up close. She sighed. He wove around up onto the wooden floor. Hopefully the cashier at Remex & Rectrix would accept dollars as legal tender because otherwise he was not going to have the pleasure of stuffing his brain with the polysyllabic preachings of Miss Blaise Euler.
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 9, 2010 21:58:34 GMT -5
OOC: I see what you did there. Getting Lee to post in the RP without actually posting in the RP so you could get everyone to continue being mad at him and thus complete your overthrowal of his not-posting tyranny. Clever. But I'm on to you.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Aug 9, 2010 22:04:08 GMT -5
OOC: I actually have Lee in a cage in my basement with a computer that overheats "often".
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Post by Hamuu on Aug 10, 2010 16:05:54 GMT -5
OOC- I love all three of you so much, this is exactly what I was talking about when I told people to use the open-ended-ness of this topic.
Alright, well, hopefully I will start pointing us towards the conclusion soon. If no one else posts by this weekend I will do the auto that gets us to the opening ceremony and get's it over with. Then it should only be a few more posts after that.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Aug 27, 2010 0:59:49 GMT -5
OOC: Here's my post for DL. BB, better thank him for this. Natalie squinted into the sunlight as they stepped outside. She put her hand over her eyes, letting them adjust to the brilliance. It never got THIS intense in the Archipelago, even in that retarded desert in the middle of Houen. Her outfit, which had been too chilly for the walk over, now felt a bit warm in the weather they had here. And why not? It was daytime, and it was summer for them. She put her hand on a railing, and recoiled slightly. An idea had immediately popped into her head. The weaponry and adventuring gear was the most thickly concentrated about two blocks to the southwest. She stood there blinking for a moment, and then touched it again. Rick was in the company of Tor and would not be available for visiting at the present time. Natalie stepped away from the railings, and turned to face the group. “These railings talk. They’re magic or something. Suggest things based on what you’d be interested in, I guess.” “Well, then…” Zebedee made a show of levitating himself from the cobblestones, “It really would be best for me to avoid touching anything, then. Even residual magic doesn’t sit well if I have to use tap into any holy power.” “We’ll know if he makes a misstep at any point. Just look for the mushroom cloud,” Thyra said with a subtle smile. She produced her sunglasses from her purse, and slipped them on with a practiced motion. “I might be best off just… Finding a tour group or something. It’s kinda like being made of nitroglycerin, now that you guys bring it up,” Zebedee’s ponytail fluttered slightly. “Yeah, actually, speaking of that…” Natalie took a few steps towards the pair of lovebirds, “Ya mind if I take Thyra for a bit?” “Sure, I was thinking of tagging along with yo-“ “No, Zebedee. I mean alone. You know, just us two?” “Oh…” ------- Natalie glanced over her shoulder. The rest of the people from Whelkshore had begun to disperse, but they should’ve been out of an earshot. “Hey, Thyra-“ She inhaled, her voice dropping slightly, “Listen. I’m- I’m sorry about bringing up your parents in the-“ “It’s okay. Natalie,” Thyra slipped her glasses off once more, and tried to met Natalie’s gaze. The warrior tried to hide behind her bangs for a brief moment, and then looked up, “I know how you feel about the whole thing. That December, almost six years back? It hurt- No, not hurt. It ruined my life, I’ll be honest with you.” “I’m sorry,” Natalie tried to swallow. It felt like there was a lump the size of an egg in the back of her throat. “I had never experienced anything like that before in the entirety of my life, and I pray to God that I never, ever experience anything like that again, until the day I die. It was like I had lost everything I had ever cared about, everything I’ve ever loved. Natalie, you and Zebedee are the only two people I regularly associated with that were alive after that day.” “I was way off base with the remark, I get it!” Nat’s shoulders were stiff, and her fists were clenched tight, “You had to lose your parents because I sucked and couldn’t protect them well enough. And then I go and act like a f&[HASH]117;cking asshole, and bring them up for leverage in some pissy little argument I’m having. I f&[HASH]117;cking get it!” She paused, her chest heaving. She used the back of her fist to wipe at her eyes. “That’s not it at all, Nat,” Thyra stepped over, and put an arm around Natalie’s shuddering shoulder. She pulled her tight against the beaded fabric of her jacket. “Listen, Natalie. It hurt me too much for me to even begin to really describe it. I think I caught myself wishing I had died with them when our house collapsed, on more than a few occasions. You know what, though?” Thyra brought up her free hand, and brushed the hair away from Natalie’s tear streaked face. The girl looked away instantly, staring at the ground as if she hated it. “You know what?” “No,” Natalie croaked out her response. “I learned that even if something seems like the worst thing in the entire world, a blessing can come out of it.” “I mean, I didn’t know I was a Power until then. Think of how many times I’ve been able to help people since that day,” Even though Natalie wasn’t looking towards her, Thyra smiled warmly. “Just on the way to the funeral, Natalie, we managed to drive the Order of the Mamba out of Ougadougou, catch two dozen people that were smuggling their products, and cripple their operations in the whole country. They had to pull back from a mining operation that would have displaced hundreds of people from the Tin-Akof commune, and you know how the Order is…” “If it wasn’t for us, they probably would have murdered anybody that didn’t move out of their way fast enough. I lost my parents, but do you know how many lives we saved just in the two weeks afterwards? Dozens! Maybe hundreds!” Natalie sniffled. “Do you remember when the Tuosians attacked a second time, aiming for Tokyo? If I wasn’t there, you, Sly, and Zebedee wouldn’t have been able to make it aboard their mothership. Without you three striking their Achilles heel and ruining their primary weapons, they could have burnt the entire city to the ground.” “Now, Nat, I may not be up to date on the figures, but what’s the population of Tokyo again?” The girl looked up, and weakly brushed one of the tears from her cheek. “Like, a… I think it’s like twelve million, or something like that.” “It’s thirteen million, Natalie. Thirteen million lives, every single one of them precious. That’s thirteen millions graves that won’t have to be dug, because we were there. If the Slateport Incident had never happened, I would have been at home, watching television or working on homework. I wouldn’t have been there to protect you all.” “One million, seven hundred and twenty three thousand, five hundred and twenty seven lives, as of the last count, were lost the day the Summoners attacked-“ Thyra felt Natalie’s arms go taut at the mention, “In that one afternoon in Tokyo, we saved more than seven times that many people.” “That’s-“ “In 2009, almost exactly a year ago, my family’s home country had a flood that left hundreds of thousands of people homeless,” Thyra didn’t let Natalie throw her off her rhythm. There was a gleam in her eyes, and her smile had only grown, “I got on the phone with some of the people we met last time we went there, hooked them up with some of my contacts I picked up from the rebuilding effort in Slateport. In less than a week, we had temporary shelters for thousands of people set up, and they were well on their way to resolving the entire issue. That’s certainly not something that I could have done if I had just stayed at home taking piano lessons. It’s only because I’ve been involved in putting the city back together that I could make things happen. Even if I hadn’t been a Power, I still would have been able to help them.” “Natalie, I try not to spend too much time looking back. I miss my mother, I miss my father… God, do I miss them. Every night, I feel like I should be saying goodnight to them before I go to bed. Every morning, it feels wrong to get out of bed without my mother’s hand softly brushing my cheek. But, even if it hurts, I can still live with that. I can look in the mirror, and I can say to myself ‘You know what, Thyra? Things are working out okay.’” “Even if it seems like something’s too horrible to imagine, like it’s some sick joke played by fate-“ Thyra stopped walking, and turned Natalie to face her, hands on her friend’s shoulders, “I’ve learned that it all comes out okay in the end. Every bit of pain I went through there, it’s all just preparing me for a role I can fill, some way that I can help other people to not have to hurt as much.” “Listen, I know you hate church and all that, but there’s two verses that helped me through this whole thing. I read it, and it all just clicked together for me. ‘God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.’” Thyra jerked Natalie slightly, interrupting the girl’s downright intense effort into rolling her eyes. “So, I’m convinc- No, no, that’s not the word. I’m not convinced. I’m certain. I’m certain that when everything is said and done, when I’m looking back at my life, that I won’t be sorry about what happened in Slateport. I can say to everybody around me, yes, that did happen, but because of that, look at all the lives I was able to save, all the people I could cheer and bring help to.” “But the Summoners…” Natalie squirmed slightly, trying to pull her arms free, “They got away with murdering all of those people.” “The Summoners, Nat-“ Thyra licked her lips, and her beaming smile retreated behind an overcast, “They’re not in the right place right now. I don’t hate them for what they did. They’re smallminded people who didn’t consider for a moment what they were doing when they did. They weren’t trying to hurt you or me directly. But they did. Stuff like that happens when people act like they’re entitled to things, when they get proactively violent.” “If I ever see any signs of them doing something like that again, don’t get me wrong, I’ll be right there to stop them. But as is, I think we’re best off just forgetting about them for now. I’m sure that whatever happens with them will work itself out easily enough,” Thyra slipped her hands around Natalie’s back, and pulled her close. She was stiff, her arms still at her sides, but after a moment, returned the embrace, “From what Rick’s been saying, maybe things have already worked themselves out.” “Let’s just go and have a look around. I heard they had cotton candy around the next corner,” She let go of Natalie, a faint smile coming back to her face. “Right now, Thyra, that sounds like the greatest idea in the history of mankind.”
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Post by Kuroboom on Oct 8, 2010 14:24:11 GMT -5
Jacqueline had a hell of a time bargaining with the jewelers without speaking, but she now bore a silver ring with a small orb of black onyx set in it. It didn't seem to do anything special, not that she had asked, but it looked pretty and would serve as a nice souvenir. Heading back into the crowds, she noticed all sorts of unique characters wandering the area. She saw a tan man who she swore was wearing a tail as a belt, men who seemed to have scales instead of regular skin, a somewhat-gaunt looking man walking and talking hurriedly to a taller man whose features were all obscured by his black cloak and mask, a woman wearing a strange mask with 3 feathers, a man in a fancy-pants suit with an adorable cat clinging to his back that seemed to be drinking in the scenery. For a moment she paused and wondered if there were any battle-worn swordsmen with a penchant for carnage wandering around, but that seemed like a silly thought and a terrible addition to what seemed like a mostly peaceful gathering. Jackie ducked into a cafe for something sweet to drink while the man with the odd belt wandered into a restaurant, the two men walking together ducked into what looked like a bookstore, and the man with the cat perused through the jewelers Jackie had visited earlier while scratching his loudly purring cat behind his ears. OOC: LOLCAMEOS. They might evolve into something more, but I dunno. I noticed Jackie was in this RP I'd forgotten about, so I decided to build on it.
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Post by Hamuu on Dec 16, 2010 18:27:01 GMT -5
Auto here because this topic has been close to ending for far to long and I am going to nudge it towards the ending it needs to be at. Everyone had gathered in the center of the city for the opening ceremony. Every time the square seemed that it was about to fill the streets and buildings would shrink back allowing room for more people to flood in. Mages, who know the city well enough, had used back alleys and stairways to reach rooftops and side areas where they could watch without being smothered by the crowd. Humans, elementals, dragon-people, and a variety of other races all mixed and mingled in the crowd. “Welcome!” Tor shouted, his voice had been unnaturally magnified. “To the last mage-city of Shin Ra!” The crowd cheered as streamers began to rain down over the city. Behind him, in bleachers, were the many dignitaries, kings, ambassadors, and faction leaders who’d expressed an interest in making treaties and trade agreements. In the front row sat the council members, all except for Rick and Mia who stood on either side of Tor. “At one time this festival was a small, common tradition. It was meant as a time when those who practiced magic and non-magic folk were able to come together freely and without fear. However, attacks against my people forced us to sever our connections with the rest of the world. Recently we were thrust back into the modern world and, with the help of new friends and allies, decided a show of good intentions was in order!” The crowd cheered again. “Today our festival stands for equality, not just for those who do and do not practice magic, but for all those who share this world and call it home! We have to work together to help one another! United we are strong! As the leader of my people and the keeper of this city, I declare all the festivities officially open!” The streamers, which had paused momentarily for the speech, had begun falling once more though sparsely compared to before. Rick caught one of them and looked at Mia. “They’ll continue falling for the rest of the festival.” Mia said as she smiled and clapped. “Each day they’ll change colors and at night turn into soft glowing orbs of light.” Rick released the streamer, watching it evaporate as it neared the ground. “Cool.” The crowds were thinning as programs were handed out. They included maps, where shows would take place, what races were hosting what, and brief histories of Shin Ra. Rick could see that everyone from Whelkshore had gathered up and attended the opening ceremony together. Miko and Valon were exiting the stage with Mia and himself. As Rick’s father and allies approached them, he could also see Miko’s people coming to greet them. Rick turned sideways towards Miko with a nervous laugh. “Well, looks like we’ll get to see if everyone plays nice…” He faced back toward the others. “Hey Dad! Hey guys! What did everyone think? Pretty cool huh?”
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Post by Beelzebibble on Dec 20, 2010 0:28:38 GMT -5
OOC: Oh, the crowd dispersed, did it? Not until there was a right proper PARADE, mister. With a tremendous groan, the front wall of Remex & Rectrix slid backward just as Terrian leaned up against it to have another look at the section titled "A Compendious Inspection of the Mystical Conflagration." He gave a short cry and leaped forward, convinced for a wild moment that the entire building was made of toothpicks which had collapsed under his weight. But as he looked up and down the block and saw that the storefronts alongside Remex & Rectrix had similarly receded, Terrian was forced to accept that this was probably not actually his fault. In fact, the storefronts on all four sides of the square were drawing back – Terrian understood with disbelief: the city center was expanding to allow all the festivalgoers to crowd in. Another rumble and Remex & Rectrix withdrew a further few feet. No books tumbled down off shelves on the first floor within, and while shoppers were bustling out the doors en masse, their faces and shouts indicated not a panicked escape from inside but an excited push to what lay outside. Terrian looked down, not sure whether he was expecting to see the first level below revealed as the ground-floor level slid away over it like a blanket sliding off a bed; but the cobblestones themselves were stretching out to maintain their tangency to the buildings, and he took this to mean that the basement levels were being pushed away too. So the land itself was warping... Probably the work of an advanced geomancer, Terrian thought, proud of himself for knowing the term. A man in elaborate robes on a high platform was making an announcement in a deep, grand voice which filled the square despite the absence of any visible microphone. Magical amplification, Terrian guessed again. He was getting the hang of this. Flanking the speaker were a young man and woman who looked familiar to Terrian. He'd seen them at Whelkshore before, he realized, though not earlier today. He struggled to remember their names, but he didn't recall any introductions. They certainly both looked more dressed up than when he'd last seen them. The speaker's aides, maybe? But Terrian was ignoring the man's words; he shifted focus to listen. "Today our festival stands for equality, not just for those who do and do not practice magic, but for all those who share this world and call it home! We have to work together to help one another! United we are strong! As the leader of my people and the keeper of this city, I declare all the festivities officially open!" The multicolored streamers which had hung suspended in the air throughout the man's speech now burst into motion again, soaring outward and upward before fluttering down onto the ground. Where his ears had been filled, at the time of Terrian's entry into Remex & Rectrix, with the strains of a variety of instruments both common and exotic played by musicians on every corner, now the fanfare of a single band struck up immediately after the speaker had retired off the platform. Revelers pushed one against another to clear the central street, and Terrian saw the source of the music: a marching band was advancing from the next block over, their instruments likely amplified as well, coming through loud and clear all the way down their path. But no, they weren't quite marching, he realized as they approached: they were gliding along a few inches off the ground, barely moving their legs at all. Not a bad trick. He supposed it meant no one was liable to trip on the drifting streamers and skip a beat. As they passed through the cheering and whooping crowd, Terrian looked down the street beyond the band toward even more visually impressive sights. The parade floats were on their way. First along was a living miniature rainforest which pulled itself along on thick kapok trunks, its leafy canopy growing outward and reaching higher with every tottering step; on outstretched vines, it offered to the crowd pastel-colored treats – sugary hummingbirds, butterflies and other such candies, Terrian saw as it drew closer. Following behind it was a massive Sphinx pulled along on chains by faceless clay automata; the Sphinx was made entirely of sand which swirled lightly around and about from shapen to amorphous: as its tail curled and unfurled, it regarded the crowd with a disdainful face which shifted between human, feline, and something altogether more alien. The next float appeared to be nothing more than an ominous sphere of darkness, but as it approached, Terrian realized it was an enormous clockwork contraption, shrouded in shadow and filled with brightly glowing orbs of varying sizes and colors – a galaxy in microcosm. Knobs and levers around the edges of the bubble allowed spectators with quick hands to control the motions of the stars inside, which rattled around on geometrically peculiar tracks; Terrian watched a black hole swallow a planet and regurgitate it again as one onlooker twisted a passing dial back and forth. Next along was a very living, very ferocious steel-blue dragon, its claws bound to a mobile platform which must have been very heavy indeed for the dragon's freely flapping wings not to carry it off. They exist, Terrian registered without much surprise at this point. He would have been terrified if sitting astride the dragon hadn't been an armored mage who, with one lazy flick of his sword after another, turned every spurt of flame out the dragon's snout into a shower of scarlet and golden confetti. Interspersed among the floats were individual mages on foot who busied themselves in casting various spells, showing off their handiwork with magnificent style. The air above the floats had become a kaleidoscope of pinwheeling light and shadows, sparks and snowflakes, bubbles and ashes, birds and fish, and shapes more abstract and, perhaps, illusory. Frequently, onlookers would break out of the crowd and join along with the parade, adding their own magic to the spectacle. As he watched an errant plasma spell fly down toward the gasping crowd and dissipate after bouncing off a clear, reflective hexagon which materialized where a security-looking caster had pointed, Terrian found himself silently singing the praises of mages. It was all very well for someone like him, who'd simply been born the way he was... Of course, you had to be born with the potential for magic, too – most people didn't have it – but then you really had to struggle to cultivate that. You had to give years and years of your life to studying it. Whereas Terrian's power had just kind of developed naturally... Mages were more respectable than he was, he decided. They had a much keener work ethic. And their results were a hell of a lot more impressive than his. Quiet, but very swift words from behind his shoulder: "So what do you do?" Blinking, Terrian looked around him: the girl, Esther, had emerged from Remex & Rectrix as well. How she'd known the parade was going on he wasn't sure – he doubted whether even the loudest sound here was audible three floors below ground amid the candlelit scrolls. A heavy-looking satchel was slung over one arm – filled with new purchases, he guessed. "Oh, I don't do magic," he said by way of greeting. She turned her tired eyes away from the passing float, a tall dreamcatcher-like structure that hummed with different pitches as it absorbed the residue of various spells in the air, to look at him with surprise. "No?" He shook his head. "Nah, I wish. If I—" (how had he phrased it once?) "—had a calling for the arcane arts, I'd be throwing fireballs and thunderbolts around by now." "You're here as a guest, then?" "Yeah," Terrian said, and then, seeing her lip twitch downward in a probably-involuntary expression of dismissal, he felt the need to clarify: "But I am a Power, though! It's just not magic, what I do. It's... I've got a scientist friend – not Blaise! – who calls my power a 'genetic anomaly'." He noticed he was unconsciously speeding up his own words to match. "Oh," said Esther. She hefted her satchel slightly up her shoulder. Then: "Do you want to show me?" "I mean, sure..." Terrian glanced briefly at the other revelers surrounding them, aware of a faint feeling of premature embarrassment which was hard to justify. Sly had given him assurance that the festival was a celebration of all kinds of Powers, not just the oldest variety, but Terrian still felt strangely uncomfortable about showing off a power that had nothing to do with magic. No one but Esther paid him attention, though – all eyes were on the parade. After a moment, several duplicates stepped back toward the storefront from where he was standing. They gave Esther identical somewhat awkward half-waves before reconvening into Terrian. She had drawn back, though not in alarm. "That's very good, isn't it!" she exclaimed. "Thanks," he grinned. "It's okay. Gotten me out of a few scrapes – then again, it's gotten me into a few scrapes, too. And it's not all it could be, I mean, it's kind of lame really, when you think about it..." The college-aged girl nodded and pointed down at A Dissertation on the Pragmatism of Prevalent Evocational Conduct. "Notice that didn't get copied." "Yeah, exactly. Clothes work, I still don't know why, something about surface area I'm guessing... but other stuff..." The hand holding the book gave an evocative flick. "Nothing." "All the same, it's cool." Esther smiled gently and returned her gaze to the parade. Following, Terrian watched a pair of mages who were engaged in some kind of friendly competition, transforming themselves into ever-increasingly-impressive animals as they proceeded down the street. Somewhere around the time that they had become a mastodon and a sauropod jostling for room to stomp along abreast, Terrian put forth the delicate question: "Were you thinking of returning the favor, or...? I'm getting a little curious over here, is all." "I know you are," she said, "and I'm just trying to figure out whether it'd be worth it." He balked. " Worth it? Ouch for me!" Shortly: "No no, you don't understand, it's – Well okay I guess I could probably pull something together." She paused for a moment in thought, then said, "Do me a favor. Tell me what you see." "What – like – anything?" "Sure." "Um..." Terrian scratched his arm. "There's a parade. Celebrating mages. We're here at the Shin-Ra Mage Festival actually. There's a bunch of floats passing by and people casting spells, and streamers everywhere, and..." He glanced at Esther, who had closed her eyes. Hearing him trail off, she waggled her hand to egg him on. "Okay, the float that is going by right now is some kind of Viking longboat-type deal. Is it—? No, it's not hovering on the air, it's sailing on water – the water's going with it – look, the street after it is completely dry!" But she didn't look. "There are some glowing guys in furs and armor aboard... Might be ghosts, actually – what's that they're tossing into the crowd? Horned helmets, oh my god, that's so awesome, I always wanted one—" "Use bigger words," she interrupted, shaking her head rapidly. Terrian blinked. "All right," he said. "The, uh, battle-adorned Scandinavian poltergeists are bombarding the bystanders with headgear which is... I don't know a bigger word for 'horned', sorry..." It occurred to him in a flash of inspiration that what he was really trying to do was express this situation the way Blaise would, and he looked down at the book for guidance. "This is truly an extravagant, all-encompassing, 'compendious' even, arrayal of – uh – hocus-pocus in all its many... many manifestations—" " Compendious," Esther repeated. She frowned; her eyes squinted further. COMPENDIOUS = 12 + 4 + 14 + 19 + 1 + 6 + 10 + 5 + 4 + 13 + 7 = 95 = 16 + 11 + 4 + 9 + 5 + 16 + 1 + 9 + 4 + 13 + 7 = " Floriferous," she murmured. And then a large flower, its petals violet at the center and white around the edges, burst into being from the tip of her finger. Terrian, who had jumped at nothing in the procession, jumped at this. Immediately another followed it, and another, and then an entire floating chain of flowers was blossoming forth out of Esther's hand. As she turned her palm this way and that, the chain snaked out into the air, curved around, and formed a wide ring of violet and white petals around her. She held up her hand for scrutiny as the makings of another ring emerged. "That's okay, I guess," she said, more slowly than was usual for her. "Can't imagine what I would have needed that one for anyway." "It's amazing." She smiled briefly but shook her head as if to say it was nothing. "I think you misused 'compendious,' by the way," she said. "Excuse me?" Terrian asked. "You used it as if it meant 'all-encompassing,' but it doesn't," Esther explained. "I looked it up inside. It means 'conveying the substance of a subject in a concise manner'. This festival isn't all that concise, is it?" "Oh," he said. Then, after a moment, he spoke as her elder: "You know, a lot of people don't like having their language corrected like that! They consider it rude." She said, "Yes, I know. I don't think you're one of them, though. You seem like the type who'd like to get it right..." The blooming flowers did loop-de-loops around her. She gave him a knowing half-smile. "If I had to be honest, I'd guess you were probably being a little facetious just now." "Well damn," he chuckled, "there goes that." And then the voice of his scientist friend who wasn't Blaise piped into his head: < Terrian. Would you mind joining us at the grandstands? Our party is gathering there.> He looked back onto the street. "Listen," he said hastily, "the parade's just about finishing up. You better get in there while you can." "What?" "Hey, come on, you're not going to show that off?" He gestured around at the flowers. "That's the coolest thing I've seen today. Go! Go strut your stuff! They'll love it, I'm serious." Esther's eyebrows rose and she drew the satchel tighter against her hip. Now it was she who had the faint look of oncoming embarrassment. The color rose slightly in her cheeks. "Really?" "Go! Jesus! Get out there! My god!" If he could have reached her through the flowers, and if it wouldn't have been slightly untoward to invade the personal space of a woman who didn't look twenty, he would have hustled her along toward the street. As things stood, he settled for pointing out a path through the gradually dispersing throng. She hesitated, looking nervous. "Walk with me?" she asked. And without missing a beat: "You could keep the parade going for a while..." Terrian laughed. "Still not a mage," he said. "Doesn't feel right. But you are. So go finish it off proper." After another second, Esther nodded and stepped forward. "It was nice meeting you," she said, and he realized that neither of them had expressed that back in the bookstore. "I know it was," he replied. "Hey! I'm kidding. Nice to meet you too. Now go, go, off with you..." And so with a wave from her finally-empty hand, and the fullest smile he'd seen on her in either conversation, Esther maneuvered through the crowd to follow the receding parade, encircled in slowly spinning bands of violet and white. Terrian was about to start off before he noticed something on the cobblestones. A single flower had fallen off one of her rings to the ground. He held it up. "You dropped this," he started to say, before realizing that that was pretty stupid: She was well gone. Then the potential awkwardness of the situation dawned on him. He grimaced. Still, he found no urge to discard the flower. Indeed, in a moment, he had tucked it idly into his lapel. Next he crossed the empty street in the parade's wake. On the other side, a robed older woman pressed a program into his hand. He thanked her, flipped through it without taking anything in, and on the way to the grandstands nearly ran into a lamppost which was sliding back into his path as the enormous city square slowly contracted to its original proportions. OOC: IDE/theory: Esther is Inspector Landsvale's daughter. Calling it right now. They both have tired eyes and skip the hedging when they talk. You heard it here first, guys.
Oh yeah, and happy 7000th toooo meeeeeeee
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Post by Hamuu on Dec 21, 2010 18:32:48 GMT -5
I love you. I love you and I want you to marry me. Plz?
Seriously though, this is why I love leaving my topics so open for people to do things with there own plots and add to the flair. I would have never thought to have had an awesome parade like that.
Alright, well this will be open for a bit still if anyone wants to do anything else. I Think it's down to me and Lee to finish the topic. I have to message him and see when he's free to do it and make sure we know what will happen. So until then all you kids are free to give your stuff ago.
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