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Inertia
Mar 30, 2020 6:43:42 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Mar 30, 2020 6:43:42 GMT -6
Kabuki clawed her way up a rock, down the fat end of a log, and tippy toed all the way to the end of a branch. From there, she could almost jump high enough to reach that spot in the tree where the glittering artifact was. She took a deep breath, spread out her wings, and jumped as high as she could. She flapped her wings furiously but with no subtlety, and to her surprise it sort of worked. All of her effort combined was just enough to grab the branch and furiously claw her way into the tree. There, that wasn't so hard, was it?
Silver heard the rustling of leaves and the shaking of trees and it snapped them out of the thought loop they were having about the crystals. It was then that they realized they had lost track of Kabuki. They instantly started to panic since she was so small and poorly equipped to explore on her own.
19
[97.05 - 3.8]
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Inertia
Mar 30, 2020 6:51:27 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Mar 30, 2020 6:51:27 GMT -6
"Kabuki? Ah, Kabuki?" Silver called out. They slipped the crystal into a pocket as almost an afterthought.
'Well, that's it, you've killed her. Good job.'
"No, no," Silver whispered to themselves. "Kabuki? Where are you Kabuki?"
They made the mistake of looking at the ground where they assumed she would be and didn't realize that if they just looked up, her bright orange wings and white tail would easily stand out among the tree branches just above their head. Silver might not know where she was, but Kabuki was sitting there watching everything from her high perspective.
She knew that they were calling her name. It was pitiful, but she was almost touched by it. They did seem very worried on her behalf. While she did love to revel in others' suffering, she decided to make herself known. She still needed them to get out of here, after all. She made a loud chittering sound and clicked at them a few times to get their attention.
20
[97.1 - 4]
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Inertia
Mar 30, 2020 6:58:23 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Mar 30, 2020 6:58:23 GMT -6
"Kabuki!" the sound of Silver's shouting went from panic to relief in an instant. They could hear her strange call from above their head. They couldn't possibly mistake it for anything else, it was a very unique vocalization.
"I'm so glad you're safe," they said, looking up at her. "Hey, how did you even get up there? I'm impressed!" It was like a switch had flipped in their brain and they went from 'freaking out' to 'prattling on about nonsense' in the span of a few seconds. Kabuki really didn't know what to think about the sudden change of demeanor, so she just ignored it.
There was, of course, the issue of getting her down from the tree. She could probably use her wings again like she had done to get up there, but now she was carrying the weird thing, and she didn't really love the idea of falling from such a height, even if she could control it a little.
21
[97.15 - 4.2]
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Inertia
Mar 30, 2020 7:09:33 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Mar 30, 2020 7:09:33 GMT -6
"Oh I see," Silver said when they caught a glimpse of the red and purple jewels she was carrying. No wonder she had climbed all the way up there. They didn't know many creatures to not be fascinated at least a little bit by sparkling gems, and that was a whole bunch of them. They didn't really know what it was, but it sure looked like something that would have caught Kabuki's attention.
"Do you want to come down, maybe?" Silver asked. They didn't offer to help right away, since they thought she might like to give it a shot on her own. It seemed like being carried everywhere bothered her, since she kept asking to be let down. Rather aggressively too, actually. Their cheek still stung a little bit from her claw marks.
She shook her head. No thank you. She would be staying up there. It was just a bluff to see how they reacted, but she was willing to stick with it and see how they reacted.
22
[97.2 - 4.4]
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Inertia
Mar 30, 2020 7:15:13 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Mar 30, 2020 7:15:13 GMT -6
Was she just going to hang out there in that tree? Silver wasn't really buying it, but they decided to play along anyway. If she said she wanted to stay, then she could stay. They shrugged and said, "Okay well if you want help, I'm sure you'll tell me." Then they wandered off to look at some plant or another that caught their attention. They still had one eye and one ear on Kabuki, just in case.
Well that didn't go like she had planned at all. Kabuki frowned. She wanted them to be overwhelmed with concern for her and come climbing up the tree to save her. Instead they feigned indifference. She wasn't so stupid as to think that they would actually leave her up there, but she had expected the whole thing to go a lot differently. She was probably going to have to admit defeat, which was the last thing she wanted to do, but she didn't have a lot of choices.
23
[97.25 - 4.6]
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Inertia
Mar 30, 2020 7:25:29 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Mar 30, 2020 7:25:29 GMT -6
No, she wouldn't beg for help. She got up here on her own, and she would get down on her own, with her new crystal ... thinggy, too! Kabuki adjusted herself on the branch carefully using her tail and her wings to catch herself whenever it shook too much. Then she took another deep breath to steady herself. This was it, all or nothing.
She leaped down from the tree and spread her wings in a gliding position. She could feel them catch the air, and while she couldn't really control it, she could feel them keeping her from plummeting to the ground. It was thrilling! Why hadn't she learned to fly sooner?
Silver held their breath as they watched Kabuki dive bomb out of the tree. They wanted her to be independent but it took every ounce of self control they had not to rush over there to scoop her out of the air and keep her safe.
24
[97.3 - 4.8]
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Inertia
Mar 30, 2020 7:29:18 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Mar 30, 2020 7:29:18 GMT -6
What was that about not being able to control it? Kabuki was starting to get concerned about her landing. Gliding was easy, landing was not. She had watched plenty of other creatures do it in her life, but none of them had the same kind of membranous wings that she had. It wasn't like she could turn her feathers like a bird... or whatever it was they did.
A panic started to wash over her face and show in her bright pink eyes. She was absolutely going to crash into that tree. She dropped her new toy, covered her face with her claws, and hoped for the best.
"Gotcha!" Silver said a few seconds before they felt Kabuki slam into their chest. She wasn't a big creature, but she wasn't so small that her crashing into them had no effect, either. They tumbled backwards, but not before wrapping their arms around her to protect her from the fall.
25
[97.35 - 5]
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Inertia
Mar 30, 2020 10:46:03 GMT -6
Post by Fiera Ferella on Mar 30, 2020 10:46:03 GMT -6
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Post by Silver on Apr 8, 2020 7:11:00 GMT -6
This strange place had been unusually kind to them since their return. They had found a handful of magical trinkets and other things to bring home with them and there were no horrible magical accidents. Weirdly, this made them all the more suspicious. It was like the mansion was building up for something really big. It was unlikely that they would trust the mansion again until something happened to change their mind.
This time, they came alone since they didn't want to bring a creature they cared about into a particularly chaotic time of the mansion's yearly cycle. Well, they weren't entirely alone. Silver was never really alone. There was always Zii floating diligently behind them to protect them from harm, and Quin sitting on their head. They were both sufficiently magical and sufficiently, well, stuck to their aura, so they were okay allowing them to tag along. Not that they had a choice either way.
1
[101.05, 1.2]
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Post by Silver on Apr 8, 2020 7:16:14 GMT -6
Tiken Tekai embodied everything Silver didn't like about this particular magical abode. It was the chaos and unpredictable magic that they didn't like. While it might make sense for someone such as themselves to fear or loathe darkness, the opposite was true. They understood darkness and it's relationship to the light. They had the tools to conquer it, to oppose it. They had no such insight into chaos or power to change it.
They stopped outside the gate to think for a moment. Was this something they really wanted to face? Keeping in mind that the mansion had been kind to them in recent months, they decided to go for it. Maybe they could learn something about the place, or about themselves, or even about Quin and Zii. Quin had been half-napping on Silver's head for a while, but the intense magical energy radiating from the mansion stirred him awake. He was ready to explore!
2
[101.1, 1.4]
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Post by Silver on Apr 8, 2020 7:22:13 GMT -6
Silver was always the most curious about the gardens surrounding the mansion. It was where they preferred to spend their time while they were here. Strange magic or no, the plant life that grew there was utterly unique. Silver always liked to get a good look at it, since they knew that samples taken acted unpredictably once they were removed from the garden. Most of the time, they just decayed into nothing.
It seemed like the mansion had a mind of its own and the artifacts, plants, and animals within it were all synchronized to it. Sometimes they could be removed and remained as reminders of trips taken, but not everything acted this way. With a lot of trial and error, Silver was starting to feel like they figured that out, at least. They had been coming home with more and more tangible items every time. Quin yawned dramatically and floated lazily down into a nearby flowerbed.
3
[101.1, 1.6]
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Post by Silver on Apr 8, 2020 7:27:12 GMT -6
"Careful, there," Silver cautioned. It was pointless to warn him, of course. He was going to do whatever he wanted regardless of their thoughts on the manner, and he was relatively invulnerable from the sort of scary things that usually lived in flower beds. Nonetheless, Silver worried about him and wanted to keep him safe. They had no control over what happened around here.
Quin rolled on to his back and looked up at Silver as if he were daring them to do something about it. They weren't really paying attention to Quin, however, because what was happening near the end of his tail was far more interesting. A bunch of little puffball flowers turned into bubbled and floated away, one at a time. Silver watched them for a moment before reaching out to touch one. As soon as they would have made contact with the bubble, it burst into a ton of little fluffy seeds which blew away in the wind.
4
[101.15, 1.8]
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Post by Silver on Apr 8, 2020 7:33:00 GMT -6
Silver was clearly interested in something that wasn't him, so Quin rolled over and looked where they were looking. There wasn't anything there! As soon as his eyes met the flowers, they went back to being little puffballs full of seeds. The bubbles that had filled the air a second ago were completely gone. He was none the wiser, of course, but Silver was visibly baffled by what had just happened.
"Quin, did you do that?" Quin tilted his head the same way Silver often did when they weren't sure about something. This was all very weird, so he was just going to move on to something else. "I guess not..." they said, sounding defeated.
Nobody was better at finding stray bugs than Quin, and sure enough he managed to find one crawling across a fresh leaf. He crouched down into pouncing position and got ready to launch himself at the little bug. It was going to be his for sure!
5
[101.2, 2]
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Inertia
Apr 8, 2020 16:10:24 GMT -6
Post by Renathan on Apr 8, 2020 16:10:24 GMT -6
  A strange horrific nightmare creature is guarding a glowing pile of shards! Thankfully, it seems to be a small nightmare creature. |
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Inertia
Jun 15, 2020 6:18:36 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Jun 15, 2020 6:18:36 GMT -6
There was something about the firefly festival that was equally alluring and terrifying. The loud sounds and bright colors were beautiful, but startling. Silver faintly remembered coming here a long time ago during the festival, back when the mansion was still a mystery to them... well, more of a mystery than it was now, anyway. Isn't that where their cloak came from? They were curious about the kind of wildlife that lived among the sparks, other than the titular fireflies, so they packed their bag and asked Sylvie to take care of Quintessence for a while. Silver had a feeling that Sanguis would like the festival, so they dragged him along as well. Perhaps he just seemed like the sort that would really like explosions, or maybe they just wanted an excuse to get closer to him. He didn't realize it yet, but there was an endless amount of mischief he could get up to once they were there. It was probably for the best that they left Quin at home, lest they chase two curious pranksters around a constantly shifting magical mansion. 1[108.45, 0.2] [Silver casts Sever Bond.] |
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