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 Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 1:18 pm
Tovarishch " Yeah, yeah, look" Cut off Unsane, a hint of annoyance behind his words., " I didn't ask for their life story. Don't even care for their name. I was under the impression something happened to them, though. Did they piss someone off?" Unsane crossed his arms on his chest, poker face on. He wanted to know who was pulling the strings in the underground. Even Malkin, she had been in exile for a while, and apparently was still looking for? What about Perseus? Was he as influental as he sounded like? Being in the dark made Unsane grumpy. Perseus and Saiya exchanged looks. Finally, she spoke. "Maybe. It's...um, it's certainly possible. The Argus doesn't like the hocuses they can't keep track of. And if they don't have the legal training and records and all that s**t... So, maybe." She shrugged. Perseus gave her a withering look. "Remember the heretic groups down on Dryvine?" She went white. "Oh."
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Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 9:35 pm
Unsane felt like the only person who didn't get an inside joke. Except, instead of a joke, it sounded like everyone was sharing some kind of obscure nightmare. Something religious about dried plants. He didn't pay much heed to the whitening of the girl's face, for something else was on his mind.
"What's the big deal with you guys and magicians anyway?" Unsane raised his finger as he spoke, and snowflakes puffed into existence at its tip, dancing in a circle together. "She almost had a heart attack when I told her I could do magic, like if I could make her insides rot just by looking at them hard enough. Prolly the only reason she took me this far, too. Are you guys backwater enough, locked up in your desert, to not know the rest of the world eats magic for breakfast?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:37 pm
Hours later Reinhart was still laying down, fortunately for him it wasn't on his face in the sand, he lay in bed looking upward to the canopy and mosquito netting that hung a bit though pinned to the wood. Everything blurred for an instant and just as he was about to surrender to sleep a voice snapped him back to his senses.
"Fool."
It wasn't exactly what he expected to hear when he finally woke but it was fitting considering the person who sat next to his bed. His head rolled to one side and to no one's surprise Celeste was the origin of the small yet stinging insult. With a brief sarcastic laugh he sat up, a bit too soon however as he felt dazed from shifting his position, he fought the urge to hold his head and stared down his body to his blanketed feet. He was thirsty.
"I'll get some water."
That was annoying. More than usual in fact. It wasn't that she could read his mind, she just had an unnatural ability to know what to do or say and when to do or say it. When she left the room he noticed he was stripped down to his underpants, it was hot in Strata, no matter where you went. He rustled his hair which produced bits of sand, he needed, he wanted a shower. Just then Celeste returned with a small tray which balanced a pitcher and a small glass, she set it down on the nightstand before taking her seat.
"How long was I out?"
A stupid question, he guessed by the light outside it had been at least four hours, he was just trying to stay away from a certain subject. A failed attempt.
"Six hours. It should've been more..."
Yeah, he could detect that bit of dissapointment in her voice, she never liked to see him strain himself the way he did, no matter what the circumstances. Actually that very thing was the reason she...
"...if you ask me. You got a bad habit if rushing things."
...she continued pressing the matter. Reinhart poured himself a glass of fresh water, it cooled him to the core at first gulp. The glass of water was gone in seconds, he exhaled a cool breath before he began to talk, or talk back, either or.
"I don't have the luxury of time and..."
She cut him off.
"And you'll sooner kill yourself than get anywhere. You need more rest."
Standing from her seat she began to move to the door.
"We'll began anew tomorrow morning. Goodnight."
Celeste said with finality. Goodnight?! He thought to himself, it was barely sundown! Though the thought seemed a waste of time to him she was already out of the room, he felt feverish and laid back down resting a palm on his forehead.
"Tch."
As much as he disliked it he had to admit he was still drained, Reinhart closed his eyes and before he new it was asleep once more.
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Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:15 pm
It would be days before anyone realized that there was something wrong. Things like that just didn't happen except in horror movies and fanatic rantings about the coming end of the world. Even the recent news of the zombie threat occupying Barton Town seemed so very far away from the bleak landscape of Strata. After all, in this barren land there was no place for undead to escape the light of the sun.
And with the nearby disaster at the city of St. Agrippina being covered up by the actions of the corporate media and the Alpha~Epsilon organization, no one in Strata really thought that something like Barton could happen in this remote corner of the world.
-
It began slowly enough... a few missing people. The kind that no one would miss. Drunks that wandered the streets at night after bar closings, lowlifes that stalked the back alleys under cover of darkness, streetwalkers and prostitutes that had no families waiting for them at home. No one would mourn them, and no one would notice if they simply vanished one day.
The first signs of warning came not from an invasion crossing the frozen sands of Barthavos, but from one man in the market in broad daylight -
He looked no different than anyone else that wandered the streets; a little disheveled... possibly a drunk. Wearing a heavy poncho and carrying a walking stick he stumbled from cart to cart along the street side, muttering things to himself in a tone no one cared to get close enough to understand. Nothing more than a weary traveler, or a man who'd had too much to drink in the early hours.
It was when a shopkeeper leaned out of his stall to offer the man a miracle cure for hangovers that things changed. Without warning the man leaped over the stall and tackled the shopkeeper into a pile of his own wares; fingernails digging into the man's skin and teeth biting at whatever presented itself. It was like an animal attack - savage and ruthless...
Two men from nearby stalls jumped in to try and pry the nomad off the shopkeeper. People in the street cried for help in shock and desperation while pressing outwards against each other to put distance between themselves and the raging vagabond...
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 9:36 pm
Water.
It never tastes as sweet as it does here. Every drop is a treasure, a relief from the gazed of a burning eye in the sky. Even coated in frost the sun holds no mercy.
Home.
Sand.
A gritty piece of broken hell, it finds it way into any armor, gritting and grinding testing ones mettle with every passing hour.
Her voice.
Myster Massimos, did you get any wurms today?
He could still see that tiny face, the innocent voice that drug him from madness. Out of instinct even today he walked with his sword strapped to his back. Summoning magics were stylish, but not effective...the wurms. They were everywhere, they cared nothing for style.
Steady steps carried him through Barthavros, and yet every footprint he made took him back to Vergan, back home. As far as the eye can see, waves and waves of golden. A dried sea, waiting to drown out the weakest of souls. Even the dead strayed away from places like this, maybe it reminded them entirely too much of their state.
He thought of books, of a library grand. He thought of a family, his second, and yet his truest. The Shadow Lands held his blood, and his earliest memories...Vergan held his heart. As gruff winds stung his squinting eyes he found himself yet still thinking of Alister's small cottage lost in the sand and three day long nights spent reading to the light of a moon that enveloped the whole of the horizon.
But while the shadow walked down memory lane, he walked with purpose. Ahead of him was his goal, the object of his attention given to him by an unnamed madam in Latent's seaside commons.
The Divining Star. The beacon to lead him to his next quarry.
A cargo airship.
He wondered for a moment, if that last card had not been The Fool. But be persevered. Cloth boots tasted the desert turf, black material kept thin enough to allow the rarest and slightest of breeze, and yet dark enough to keep out the beating sun. Loose black pants flapped in the sandy air, a long torn and flowing black cloak rippled around his form, as the winds carried it, its neck high over his face, and a hood over his head, covering layers of black cloth wrapping which shielded his face, leaving him protected save for a single strip where two eyes peered out. One Black. One White.
Behind him, the desert covered footprints that went on for miles.
Ahead of him, the silhouette of civilization, towns, buildings...perhaps she was there. Lost in memories, day dreams, and hallucinations, time washed by like dunes in the terrain around him. And before, his next drink of water, he was there...Strata.
Only one question remained...
Where is she...?
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Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 12:24 am
"There's a disturbance."
A voice at the door said.
"What kind of 'disturbance'?"
He asked keeping his eyes closed bringing a hand to his face.
"The kind you don't like."
Stifling a growl he sat up, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, then moved to the edge of the bed to face Celeste. It was late, he'd lost track of time again.
"Do I need details?"
Reinhart asked while putting on his clothes yawning.
"No."
"Good."
Moments later after Reinhart was fully clothed and seemingly ready for anything an attendant walked in with what looked to him like supplies. Celeste muttered a few words before the attendant bowed his head and dissapeared into the dark hall behind them. He hadn't noticed yet, but there were no lights on, anywhere. What time was it exactly? It didn't matter, all he knew was that he needed to move, he trusted she'd found a new location away from this 'disturbance' she spoke of.
"Are you ready?"
She asked looking to the supplies then him, a gesture which told him to pick up the items off the floor.
"Sure. You mind telling me where we're going?"
Curiousity lined his words as he picked up various bags, some larger than others, and a tent from what he could tell. Outdoors, how fun.
"Not far."
"Let's go."
An instant later both of them were gone, both from their 'home' and the city of Strata.
Crickets sounded off into the desert night. It took him a moment to realise where exactly they were till he made his way out of the brush and trees to a small pond.
"An oasis?"
Both the question and the anwer. The small gathering of water bounced the moonlight like a mirror to everything around it. In turn everything cast looming shadows over the desert sands. It was both beautiful and frightening at once. As he set the supplies down he took one good look over their new surroundings. The small patch of palms and brush behind him, the water in front of him, and from what he gathered they were sunk just a bit under the horizon. He couldn't see 20 feet past the water, they were in a 'crater' of sorts.
"It's desolate."
Celeste said as if pointing out the up side to their new location.
"It's perfect."
Reinhart confirmed smiling. Though he still wondered what time it was when he almost let out another yawn.
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:01 pm
Every face echoed a memory, every street post a marker of a time long gone.
He was here, yet he was not. Like a living mirage images of Vergan overlapped images of Strata leaving Maximos following the ghost of a small girl lost in his past. The layers of cloth forming her tiny dress blending into the brown and tan shadings. She dashed through Strata and as she passed, she carried Vergan with her, transforming people, buildings, and structures into an ancient city that only existed in the shadow's mind.
Hey! Wait up Aki!
He shouted, as she the girl skipped off, chasing phantom across the market. People vanished in her wake, buildings cleared away replaced by the stately ruins of the small village he had come to know and love. Yet still no matter how fast he jogged she always seemed so far away.
Aki! You know its not safe for you out alone!
He beckoned for her to stop! Every time he tried to stop and rest, she would giggle and taunt.
C'mon! Dont be a slow poke! You'll miss it!
And then off she ran!
Time was lost to the heat and sand, hours passed like minutes, seconds like hours. Through back alleys, side streets and hidden halls until finally she stopped, pointing out over a blank stretch of desert. His feet felt heavy, like the weight of the world was tied to each calf. His clothes were soaked in sweat and grit. His mouth was parched and gritty. The idea of taking a step felt like a titans task.
See! There it is!
His eyes opened wide in shock and horror. That glowing red, that fierce empty hunger which served as the soul for a Sand Wurm lie just beneath the surface of the wavy turf, just ahead of her. He had faced dozens, and was only lucky to walk away with his life. But she smiled and ran off towards it!
He screamed for his legs to move, for his dead worn and blistered feet to carry his weight just a bit more. His limps drug into motion, scrapping across the distance a first step, then a second...and then fell, with a loud...
-Splash!-
As his entire body was emersed from head to toe in icy cold water, snapping him into reality as he fell face forward. With a soaked gasp, his hands shoved him off the bottom of the tub and onto his knees. A free hand peeled back the tattered and soaked of his cloak, clearing his vision of the room around him.
Chairs, tables, shelves...was this a house...?
...Having visions?
A voice called out from behind him, without delay he spun around reaching for his sword only to find his hand swiping through empty air. Behind him sat a middle aged woman, her crown stained in grey, wrinkles just barely kissing her face.
....is that why you seek the sight?
He wiped his eyes pulling himself out of what appeared to be a bathtub, in a strange house, heaven only knows where. In an uncharacteristically rude manner, he snapped back ignoring her questions.
Where is this!? How did I get here?!
She sighed, exasperated.
You would know if you were looking...but you cant look without seeing...can you?
What does that mean?!
He snapped back. Ever so calmly, almost lazily she responded.
I suppose it means you should come with me...if your done with my bath...
But...!?
But...I'd appreciate it, if you didnt drip on my carpet...
She sarcastically tagged on. Embarrassed, confused, angry, worried, but otherwise defeated Maximos sloshed out of the tub, his feet slapping wetly against the wooden floors as he followed the woman into a living room. Where she immediately sat down across from Maximos on a small table with a box set in its center. Maximos hesitantly scanned the room. It looked completely normal, like anyones house, but it couldnt be. Last he knew he was chasing his past, and before that just wandering into Strata chasing the Divining Star...how could he...?
Well, are you just going to stand there, or do you want to see the truth?
With a wet slop, Maximos flopped into the seat squirting a bit of water in all directions, much to the dismay of the woman.
Questers...always so messy. I can tell right here and now, I am not the one you seek. But I can lead you too her. But in order for you to find what you seek to see, you must trust what I see....can you do that?
Maximos' head slowly nodded.
Good.
She said flatly, pulling the box off the center of the table revealing a large softball sized glass, or easily crystal ball. It was a flawless orb, and a beautiful center piece to the table, but nothing else. Or so it seemed. She raised her hands to either side of the globe and gently shut her eyes breathing in steadily, and then out in a long stream.
...cold...
She said, slowly, a small cloud seeping from her lips.
...buried in the ice where the future and past blend in a blur of white, oneness.
Maximos' squinted his eyes, leaning closer to the ball. She seemed to be seeing something in it...but he couldnt as much as see a magical leyline passing through it. Could she be lying?
But she had asked for his trust...
Past a field of skeleton trees....across the bones of the frozen god...
This had to be a crock.
...follow the path of madness directly into madness...
She moved her hands away from the ball and then quickly pushed them in as if forcing an image into focus.
...She waits in the cold...alone...her mind scares her...but she is who you seek.
The womans eyes closed, and her hands lowered back down to the table, and slowly they opened again, locked on Maximos.
But before you can find her...there is something you must do.
Maximos leaned forward slightly.
...yes? Anything!
She smirked.
Wake up.
And without further hesitation or adue Maximos found himself face up laying down in a well...in the middle of Strata. The Divining Star seen soaring by overhead.
What the....?
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 5:49 pm
Tovarishch Unsane felt like the only person who didn't get an inside joke. Except, instead of a joke, it sounded like everyone was sharing some kind of obscure nightmare. Something religious about dried plants. He didn't pay much heed to the whitening of the girl's face, for something else was on his mind. " What's the big deal with you guys and magicians anyway?" Unsane raised his finger as he spoke, and snowflakes puffed into existence at its tip, dancing in a circle together. " She almost had a heart attack when I told her I could do magic, like if I could make her insides rot just by looking at them hard enough. Prolly the only reason she took me this far, too. Are you guys backwater enough, locked up in your desert, to not know the rest of the world eats magic for breakfast?"Saiya snatched at the snowflakes, hiding them within her fist, and glared at Unsane. " Don't do that. It's bad enough that you're in Strata at all. The Argus'll throw a ******** fit if they catch you. Wherever they took Nicolas, you'll end up there just the same." Withdrawing her hand, and wandering to the fire, she said shortly. "Normally, hocuses ain't allowed past the docks district. The Sibyline don't like outsiders.
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 5:37 pm
Of course they'd throw a fit. Unsane did no less than blanket half the freakin' desert in -snow-, for crying out loud, and he didn't think that they'd care wether or not he was help by an emotionally disturbed werewolf in the process. Pleading self-defense has its limits.
"Sounds like they tolerate the gadgets though." He pointed at Perseus' neck, then went on. "Beside, I was planning on finding Nicholas. What's the Argus, then?" Unsane looked about for a chair. Now that things went in a way he liked, the demon started to feel talkative.
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Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 7:30 pm
The madman that had attacked a vendor on the street was dragged off by the two other shopkeepers that had jumepd him. Each one grabbing an arm tightly they wrenched the drifter free of their colleague, but not before serious damage had been done.
The vendor was beaten and bruised; the drifter had torn his clothes and scratched open the man's skin with his fingernails; there were even several places where the man had bitten him hard enough to draw blood. The stall was nearly destroyed; most of the merchandise having been knocked violently to the ground, and a set of shelves behind the counter had been completely broken.
It wasn't long before the guard arrived to drag the man away and throw him into a dark hole where he'd never see the sun.
Of course, there were others waiting for him already. In the dungeons of the desert city there were already many like this man, who had lost their minds and attacked others without any regard. However, the more that the guard locked away the faster the incidents seemed to spread. Today had been the first time an attack had taken place in public, but it had been days since the first man afflicted with 'the disease' had been captured and taken away.
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:58 am
It would only be another day's time before trouble again returned to the market... once again originating from the fruit vendor's stall... but the drifter was nowhere in sight.
The shopkeeper sat in a slump behind his counter; scratches and wounds scabbed over but not healed, his storefront patched and mended but not as good as new, and what he could salvage of his merchandise offered for sale at reduced prices. But that was not why he was so devoid of life today... He sat back on a box under the canopy above his store; keeping out of the desert sun while picking at his scabs and itching at his bruises. He could hardly pull himself away from that fascination long enough to attend to customers, and his neighbors had already interrogated him several times about his melancholy behavior.
He was just beginning to wish that there were something wrong with him to explain that intolerable itch when it happened...
His hand blinked.
The shopkeeper was so startled he almost fell off of his box. The men from the other stalls looked to him questioningly but had already been so put off by his behavior that they did not feel the need to investigate his sudden and brief outburst. However, he felt the need to investigate... to know why the place he had been itching on the back of his hand now had a green eye that looked back at him.
So he continued to itch.
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 5:19 pm
Tovarishch Of course they'd throw a fit. Unsane did no less than blanket half the freakin' desert in -snow-, for crying out loud, and he didn't think that they'd care wether or not he was help by an emotionally disturbed werewolf in the process. Pleading self-defense has its limits. " Sounds like they tolerate the gadgets though." He pointed at Perseus' neck, then went on. " Beside, I was planning on finding Nicholas. What's the Argus, then?" Unsane looked about for a chair. Now that things went in a way he liked, the demon started to feel talkative. Perseus fingered one of the fetishes, a leather thong with a small gilt fish at the end, and shrugged. "They'll tolerate 'em, yeah. Just as long as you pay the right hocus, from the right school, with the right amount, and are willing to wait ******** indictions to get even a luck-charm delivered. Margot could make one of these in--oh--triune, maybe." He glanced towards Saiya in confirmation, and she nodded. "Threeweek by your calendar. And lot 'less shitty than some of the hocuses up in Argus." Then, with a sigh as she crossed the room and settled into an armchair, she added. "Argus's hard to explain. Um. 's a building, in the Upper City, but it's also a kind of...court, I guess. All the nobles with a drip of talent get apprenticed there, and grow up there, and maybe join the Maw if they're old or experienced or talented enough." She gave Unsane a little sideways glance and a smile. "Y'don't need to worry about it, I reckon. Only time you'll ever see it is if you get caught, while they're dragging you up Chrysogon's Spine to burn."
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:26 pm
Unsane was all ears. He liked the idea of it being full of rich wannabe mages. He liked the idea of it being up in the higher spheres. A place where nobles wanted to go. It was music to his ears. The demon ran a finger through his hair as he let his thoughts wander for a minute.
Until finally, he asked: "Who's in charge of that thing, Argus? Local government, or it's more of a private thing?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 5:13 pm
Tovarishch Unsane was all ears. He liked the idea of it being full of rich wannabe mages. He liked the idea of it being up in the higher spheres. A place where nobles wanted to go. It was music to his ears. The demon ran a finger through his hair as he let his thoughts wander for a minute. Until finally, he asked: " Who's in charge of that thing, Argus? Local government, or it's more of a private thing?" She shrugged slightly. "The nobles have all their galas, the soirees and that kind of s**t up there, if that's what you mean. And the Councils meet there. Most of the archons live in there, too. It's ******** huge--there's something like six layers to it, and the catacombs supposedly start up there. But no one's dared go that far in ages."
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 7:05 pm
"Needs a first for everything, y'know?" Unsane could barely conceal the smile that was creeping up the corner of his lips. The more he heard about the Argus, the more he wanted to go. A place where the people that counted met and discussed. He could compare it to the Place d'Armes of his family's lands in the Underworld. In the higher spheres, you simply did not exist unless you were seen there daily.
The tip of his foot tapped the floor impatiently. His decision was made, and although it would be reckless, he knew the profits were worth the investment.
"Can I buy you a map of the city or a guide? I also need snub clothes, I don't know what's in in the desert, and half a dozen bottles of water. I'll pay however much you need to get it all before noon tomorrow."
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