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Post by Èdan on Apr 25, 2022 3:26:28 GMT -6
What ungainly price to pay for its retrieval.. He's quite certain the glitter has already worked its way between the links of the chain and plates of scales in the armour, tabard or no, where prying them loose is nearly an impossible task (You can only sand-scrub so much, and it tends to work less on particles much finer than itself). Shaking the arm, a cascade of glitter falls off, as he slowly stands. There's worse things in life, to be sure, but glitter isn't that far off.
As a positive, at least the beast can be unstuck from the other room now. It's annoyed roars and growls continue to echo from behind him, as he rolls up the sleeve to reattach the bracelet to the wrist (Still wondering how it got so easily unattached in the first place.. If the manor was using magic to steal it, it wasn't playing fair).
. 82 . Irascor: 16 (2/5) April: 2 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Èdan on Apr 25, 2022 3:32:03 GMT -6
He certainly didn't make it that easy, either. With the bracelet attached, he turns to face the beast, seeing the glint of golden eyes through the shroud of floating glitter dust and strange paper lanterns.
When suddenly something drops just before him, viscous and heavy. The knight takes a step back, assuming first for it to be some form of shade or beast without form. The assumption is not unfounded, but he'd faced tar-like beasts prior before in the manor. It is incorrect in that the goop on the ground, while dark, doesn't appear any more or less animated than regular liquids, but it's also not the only thing moving. Raising his gaze, he watches as the walls and objects around him seem to visually melt, not from any sense of heat, but simply from a lack of physical cohesion.
A sensation runs up the spine, familiar and annoying, as the process accelerates, and soon the whole of the room looks to be wiped away like water colours in rain.
. 83 . Irascor: 16 (3/5) April: 3 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Èdan on Apr 25, 2022 3:37:14 GMT -6
The playground is gone within moments, the surroundings appearing almost to be a blank white space where there's nothing between him and the beast, but just as quickly as that happened, new forms and shapes begin to stretch upwards from the very ground, as if cutouts raised and balloons being inflated, until material space normalizes into a scene of a garden..
Well. 'Normalizes' might be a strong word, for it has the presence and looks of a garden, if everything didn't look just a little bit too 'off' to be real. The plants look plastic, the trees are swaying in the breeze as if made from materials far more frail and lighter, while the grass beneath their feet feels almost gummy. Unfortunately, the signs are all too consistent with something the knight had experienced prior, and he moves to recover the glaive from where it lay on the 'grass', having fallen when the wall up and melted away.
. 84 . Irascor: 16 (4/5) April: 4 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Èdan on Apr 25, 2022 3:42:09 GMT -6
The beast doesn't take this shift any better than it did the last, as it remains growling deeply at anything too close to it. One such poor bush, made from apparent balloon, sways a bit too close from the breeze passing through and there's a distinct popping sound as the beast's tail swats it with all its spikes. With a fizzle and a sad sound, the bush-that-was slowly falls flat to the ground, looking more like plastic debris than what it used to portray.
There's a small smile beneath the knight's helm, as he finishes rolling down the sleeve again. The last time he landed in this type of space, he had been chased by a monster of shadow and tar through maddening landscapes. Perhaps this time around, with his own beast in company, any prospective shadow-monsters would do well to think twice of trying something like that again.
As he takes stock of their surroundings, it seems the transition also has a few boons left over, as a couple of objects lay scattered on the ground around them.
. 85 . Irascor: 17 (0/5) April: 5 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Èdan on Apr 26, 2022 1:08:38 GMT -6
It is tough to tell when something is mansion-made-fake and mansion-made-real, though the shifts usually separate one from the other. The closest of the objects looks to be an egg, seeming no different to those that would explode from those with the odd weight to them. However, given that it survived the passage of the shift, he doesn't even need to feel the weight to know its the latter, as he picks it up. Purple and mottled.. A strange one, but by no means the least strange he's seen.
Next to it lay what looks to be a wooden stick with some vines wrapped around it and a rolled up parchment. One of these days he should really invest in a larger bag to carry all these things, though for now he loops the stick through the belt and inspects the parchment. It's old and worn, though by manor standards that could be aesthetic as much as truth.
. 86 . Irascor: 17 (1/5) April: 6 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Èdan on Apr 26, 2022 3:55:55 GMT -6
Unfurling it shows that it looks to be a treasure map of some sort, authentic in all aspects (Except that in real life X rarely marked the spot. Cute). A few drops of water fell on the paper, causing the knight to quickly furl it up again and glance up. The skies were.. well, 'clear' is too simple a word. 'Complex' fit better, for he doesn't quite have the words to describe the mind-boggling sight of un-sky above them, but in any case, even that sky looked like it isn't about to cascade water on them any time soon.
The gaze moved a notch lower, to the sound of subtle buzzing and caught on what looked like a small dark raincloud hovering through the air, a pale white bird in two. The mansion is filled with an assortment of creatures, great and small, but a sapient rain cloud is certainly a first. With a brief, surprised stare at the sight, the knight slowly furls the rest of the map, folds it, and placed it into the pouch.
. 87 . Irascor: 17 (2/5) April: 7 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Èdan on Apr 26, 2022 6:18:46 GMT -6
Moments later, a bone claw slices through the air and the cloud, looking, for the briefest of moments, as if it shorn the thing in two. And perhaps it did, or would have, if clouds didn't adhere to the same principles as most flesh-and-bone forms. The beast snarled, but could only watch hapless, as the cloud slowly reformed its two halves into one, and continued floating onwards, lightly drenching the path it crossed.
"Settle down," the knight intoned, slight tired note creeping in. This is definitely not the type of 'monster' he needs protection from. "You'll know it, when you see it." Presumably, at least. The beast isn't exactly a shining example of intelligence, but surely it has sense enough to know true danger from unordinary inconvenience. The manticore settled at the scolding, showing that it can obey, if it required to (And in spite of not wanting to. One didn't need to have a sharp eye to see the beast would be just as happy with wanton violence as serving its pre-determined purpose).
. 88 . Irascor: 17 (3/5) April: 8 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Èdan on Apr 26, 2022 6:23:44 GMT -6
With the situation managed, as much as is possible given the very surroundings are very much the opposite of that, the knight turns the focus back to the last couple of items. What looks to be toys for the most part - a pinwheel, an odd shaped rock (or egg?), pieces of a puzzle and some wind chimes. Small enough to carry around, fortunately, though ultimately not something he has use for, except as currency for something else (Even the puzzle, while intriguing, seemed a bit too simplistic for his tastes).
All that remained is to take stock of their situation, relative position, and some measure of way forward. The location is easy enough - a garden, or some approximation of one, if the designer was half mad and had access to unstable arcane forces strong enough to make madness reality. Few enough things in it lacked a certain disconcerting quality, though perhaps most of all the trees, which seemed to be a different dimension any time you changed the angle of perspective.
. 89 . Irascor: 17 (4/5) April: 9 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Èdan on Apr 26, 2022 8:03:30 GMT -6
Though.. he supposes he can't complain. At least this time around the sky remains very much above them, rather than flipping the up-down angle on a whim, as some rooms had done. Paths also lead in very direction like a radial of straight lines, though only about half of them feel real. When the perspective of one doesn't change as he paces about the small clearing, the knight approaches the start of the path only to discover its a solid wall painted to look like one. When he tried to find the edge of it, the wall runs all the way to a nearby trees, suspended in their weird dimensions (And he figures its best not to touch those..)
A few more pops sound behind, followed by sad fizzling sounds, as the manticore swipes its tail across a few more balloon plants, piercing them on the spikes. The beast seems pleased to have the darned things outside its personal space, though it could hardly be called a constructive (Or mature) use of their time.
. 90 . (added) Irascor: 18 (0/5) April: 10 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Èdan on Apr 27, 2022 14:09:12 GMT -6
Any other time and place and the knight would be concerned at the noise this brought. In the here and now, deep within the manor with back and forward turned on its head three times now, he knows better - Whether something wants to find them or not isn't so much a question of "if" as "when". After all, hiding in darkness doesn't really work when the thing you seek to avoid is the darkness itself.
Sounds of giggles and laughter dance in the distance, though blissfully different to the mocking impish laugh that had plagued them such a short while ago. He almost reaches for the wrist to check, but feels the weight of the bracelet even without contact. Okay, good.. So far, at least. But the manor certainly isn't done playing tricks, and if the environment was made of play before, it's made entirely of madness now.
And in either case, most likely, something would be looking to play with them.
. 91 . Irascor: 18 (1/5) April: 11 Tiken Tekai
MdG|7Ynu
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Post by Èdan on Apr 27, 2022 14:19:40 GMT -6
The glaive's end taps lightly against the fake grass, as the knight considers the paths. It's a moot attempt, technically, but some habits are hard to break, especially in a place like this. "Come," he eventually says to the beast and turns down a random path. As the manticore rises to its feet, a few more bushes and flowers begins to sizzle and fall, the spikes nicking them along the way. Behind him, the knight hears another content rumbling deep within its throat. (Having a taste for these things? Well, destruction is its nature, even if at something so inconsequential).
The garden stretches further, with the un-trees giving off some shades above, but only at certain angles. At others, it seems as through the trunks and leaves are only paper-thin, perpendicular to the sun above and casting only thin lined along the ground. The flowers continue to look like a mix of plastic and felt, obviously as fake as they could be, though carrying the scents of ones real as ever.
. 92 . Irascor: 18 (2/5) April: 12 Tiken Tekai UwS34rIm
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Yang
Flea Market Artist
Posts: 1,001
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Post by Yang on Apr 27, 2022 21:06:35 GMT -6
Something lays tucked away...
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Post by Èdan on Apr 28, 2022 1:23:04 GMT -6
There's a dream-like quality to the very environment, hard to pin down but strong enough to reach into one's mind and infect it with the daydream-like softness. Of course, the rather abstract surroundings only add to the effect, as something existing largely in the odd unreal space of dreams (As well as nightmares). It's easy enough to think the knight and beast are the only real things to pass through it, but that wouldn't be entirely true.. Some objects had survived the dreamscape even in its passing, last time. Some which seemed almost as impossible and unreal in the real world as in the dream, yes, but otherwise still tangible.
And it's no different now, as the knight spots something within a nearby flower bed. A paper leaf covered in small cuts to make it frilly makes for a poor shade and cover for the egg below, and the distinct yellow-blue tone easily stands out from the general pastel greens that this specific flower bed looks to be sporting.
. 93 . Irascor: 18 (3/5) April: 13 Tiken Tekai LdYzcoYe
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Yang
Flea Market Artist
Posts: 1,001
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Post by Yang on Apr 28, 2022 9:44:58 GMT -6
Something lays just off to the side, tucked away...
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Post by Èdan on Apr 28, 2022 13:56:59 GMT -6
He'd rather thought to have seen the last of those, given the themes of children's games are now past (Though perhaps this odd madness or chaos isn't too dissimilar either. The worst possible form of children's games, given form). The knight leans over the flower bed and reached out to take the egg, but quickly finds the paper-thin leaf to be anything but paper - As the hand begins to push it aside, there's a sudden heft and weight to the leaf, as if it's more made of lead than paper. And yet, the soft breeze seems to jostle and move them, none the wiser to this.
Adjusting the angle, he reaches under it from another side and plucks the egg from among the green grass, bringing it back to light. A pretty thing, all dressed in clouds and sunrise (Not his style, but perhaps there's interest for such things at the market). Behind him, the beast has paused as well, though far less content about it.
. 94 . Irascor: 18 (4/5) April: 14 Tiken Tekai
Lygg|sjn
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