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Post by Èdan on Jul 31, 2020 12:17:24 GMT -6
In some sense it is good - it helps eliminate the confusion of choice. At the same time, it is suspiciously straight-forward, and things in life trying to be that generally have ulterior motives for it. Fences are straight-forward (to herd the cattle), laws are straight-forward (to bend the meek), and people could be straight-forward (to get something they want). Any sane man would treat such approach with the distrust it's due, and he is no different. Of course, treating it with mistrust and having other options tend to be two different things. Sometimes your hand is forced to follow the fenced path.
He can only hope it is a fence to a pasture and not a butcher's house.
The glaive is swung to the side, tip-down as he holds it underarm from the grip. At a ready, should it be needed, but at rest, for now. While this isn't exactly a place he would prefer to practise some rusted martial skills, that isn't to say he didn't have any. Even a fenced beast can still claw and tear.
. 76 . July: 21 Maredian
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Post by Èdan on Jul 31, 2020 12:24:11 GMT -6
The problem with fences is they had a tendency to tunnel one's vision - you're so focused on what you're being lead to that you ignore what's on the sides. The man's eyes scan the path left to right, slowly letting his gaze pass along and back as he makes his way deeper into the room. He has been blind-sided on a few rare occasions, true enough, but they made for good lessons (And better tools. A surprising amount of people seem to ignore their blind spots, he's since found. Generally, their loss).
Nothing stirs the air nor jumps from the haze on the sides, but as he walks the sounds grew duller and deeper, as the rumble that makes them seems to near yet become no less clear, just more intense. Walking on soft sand can cause some stability issues at the best of times, and it's only when he focuses on that feeling that he realizes the inclination of the floor seems to be subtly dropping, as if sloping downward, a few degrees every thirty feet or so. Yet, staring ahead, it seems as level as ever, if not slightly more.. darker.
. 77 . July: 22 Maredian
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Post by Èdan on Jul 31, 2020 12:45:02 GMT -6
Darker.. and deeper. The man's mouth draws into a thin line beneath the helm and a number of curse considerations run through his head at the realization. Not just the sea. The ocean. Out of the two, the decided more worse option. With seas you could at least have a sense of the shore, know that even if it's distant, it's still there. The ocean was a great big nothingness above, and an even greater bigger nothingness below (If the sailors are to be believed. Supposedly there had been times when some poor morons high on wanderlust and discovery have tried to swim as deep as they could in the ocean. Some made it back to the surface, most only resurfaced as drowned corpses. None had even seen, much less touched, anything below).
He has learned a great deal more about oceans since then, as the literature of the Labs tends to fall in the far more.. scientific side of study. It helped explain that the ocean was far from empty. None of the scientists have ever successfully reached it's bottom any more than the sailors, however, so as comforting as the previous notion is, it was still one-zero in favour of the ocean versus mankind.
. 78 . July: 23 Maredian
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Post by Èdan on Jul 31, 2020 12:57:06 GMT -6
So this ocean is looking to bring him deeper in. A glance back still shows the light of the entryway, though the blue haze is stronger now, shrouding and muting the colours some. Very well.. For now he'll play by the rules (The exit is still there, should worst come to it). Picking up the glaive, he continues onwards, deeper into the slowly darkening corridor of waterless ocean.
It isn't long when shadows in the distance draw closer and turn out to be pieces of ships. Debris sunk and cast about the entire ocean floor (Or at least so much as makes up the room itself). Pieces of a shattered mast here, the bow spine there, planking and flooring in the distance. Each one looking to be from a completely different ship in style and make. A graveyard then.. (Or a shrine). He pauses to pick through some of the nearer pieces, but largely finding little more than timber and stone. Finally, he comes up to a large piece broken off from the back of what looks to have been a galleon, the cabins inside still intact.
. 79 . July: 24 Maredian
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Post by Èdan on Jul 31, 2020 13:02:02 GMT -6
The light is fainted here, but it doesn't bother his sight - a glint of something catches his attention in the sand just before the galleon's shattered edge. He walks over, pushing sand side with the glaive to reveal a metal rim against wood planking. He kneels and begins to dig and dust around it, until most of the top is cleared away. It is a chest.. A small one, but well-made enough to survive a ship sinking (Apparently). The edges still rust and the lock is more powder than baring, a quick hit with the butt of the glaive breaking it off without a fuss.
With a creak the lid comes free, opening up to a sight of a chest filled with sand.. and something colourful on top - a necklace of some sort. The style and make are strange, but the work itself seems fine. He picks it up from the chest and takes some steps back, bringing it to more light (He could see it just fine, but the colours didn't translate in dimness quite so well). So, the leading was neither meadow nor butcher, but to treasure, this time..
. 80 . (added) July: 25 Maredian
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Post by Nadia on Jul 31, 2020 13:24:16 GMT -6
The creaking of wood can be heard, along with the whisper of a breeze over the sand. Sadly, nothing else can be found.
[Nothing happens.]
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Post by Èdan on Sept 6, 2021 8:40:28 GMT -6
Now, in his defense, he didn't mean to get lost. To further elaborate, the only purpose to the exercise had been to cut across an orchards field in order to save some some time in getting back to Centu street. A perfectly normal, perfectly fine looking orchard that was about as suspicious and threatening as tissue paper. And yet.. apparently said orchards field was attached directly to the one place he really didn't want to end up in. Such instant karma for a simple attempt at innocent trespassing.
It had been an hour. Presumably at least because for the life of him he cannot tell whether the sun has remained high due to lack of temporal perception or because the cursed-damned-Goddess-forsaken manor simply decreed it should always remain stationary. Admittedly the hour has been rather uneventful, with the highlight of the events being that the foal apparently has a craving for apples, of which there is certainly no shortage in the orchard. The apples might yet come back to haunt him in some fashion (Of that, he's relatively certain), but if there had been anything to be concerned about, the foal would have surely already reacted in the relevant manner.
. 1 . Chalceus: 2 (1/5) September: 1 Serpent's Dawn
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Post by Èdan on Sept 6, 2021 8:58:59 GMT -6
Rather instead it seems almost as though the foal is the most at ease of the two of them. He can chalk it up to a lack of experience and a simpler mind, but even so a creature's senses tend to be sharper than those of people (And Goddess knows if that isn't a constant issue in and of itself on another matter). That deep-set sense of unease seems less easily dismissed than the previous times (Although perhaps it's just the lack of armour. The courier's attire is just that - plain clothes. At least with the knight taking a hit meant being able to blunt it somewhat).
Regardless, he doesn't intend to stay long, and so the ever-present quest of finding the exit restarts anew for the third time.
In so far as he's seen, the orchard stretches equal distance either way. It figures that as soon as the realization hit of this place not being very typical in nature, the fenced edge was long behind them. Thus, leaving the only way forward.. pretty much any chosen direction, equally.
. 2 . Chalceus: 2 (2/5) September: 2 Serpent's Dawn
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Post by Èdan on Sept 6, 2021 9:49:44 GMT -6
The only difference to prior time is that this time it's him with a beast in tow. While the foal has had some training to steel herself against certain.. senses.. then she's about as wet behind the ears as they come. A good stock, yes, warhorse and all, but certainly not prepared for the absolute chaos that the manor might throw at them. So, he makes sure to keep the lead tight in hand, the better to prevent her from turning and running should something spook them.
And until then, they can keep walking towards a designated spot in the distance. None of them seem any better or worse than another, so the man chose a far-off hedge. Whether the hedge would even get closer or always remain out of reach is another matter, but best to first try. The fruit trees pass by numerously enough, each seeming to bear a different kind of fruit and some types he's not entirely sure are supposed to be on trees (Or perhaps he simply doesn't recognize them properly).
. 3 . Chalceus: 2 (3/5) September: 3 Serpent's Dawn
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Post by Èdan on Sept 6, 2021 10:30:21 GMT -6
This particular season certainly didn't match up with those summer-time months of sea and sand. In some sense it was blessing, in another a threat. With fall around the corner it could threaten to get cold any day now and the manor had a tendency to hasten certain conditions. The courier's attire is well-made for pleasant summer-day excursions, but he hasn't had the sense to grab a jacket along just yet. With only so many layers covering him now, the threat for feeling cold is a much realer possibility.
At least the foal didn't seem bothered, whether due to her excitement towards being up and about for once, or because of some innate ability. (He swears half the things inhabiting the City breathe fire, and the rest breathe ice. Either option wouldn't have surprised him in the foal's development, and both could have accounted for an ease of lower temperatures). Though she seems more interested in the passing trees and fruits than anything else, making their respective goals somewhat misaligned.
. 4 . Chalceus: 2 (4/5) September: 4 Serpent's Dawn
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Post by Èdan on Sept 6, 2021 10:42:08 GMT -6
On more than one occasion he has to make a slight tug on the lead to direct her away from snapping at yet another branch or tree trunk, seeming to crave some of that bark there. (And somehow, of all the beasts, he had assumed the pup to be the most unruly given how quiet the foal is, but he's beginning to understand it's certainly a lot more contagious than initially anticipated). "Eh, eh!" the courier minds her, "Come on, there's food at home. You'll get your fill." Goddess knowns they don't have enough time to spend yet another eternity here and the exit could be anywhere.
To that point, the hedge in the distance does seem to grow closer, though not quite as rapidly as he's hoping. So, most likely their progress isn't being prevented, but the manor might yet wish to play some tricks before all is done. (Which is not surprising, considering past experiences. With luck, the worst of what he has to deal with is particularly spiteful trees throwing apples at him).
. 5 . Chalceus: 3 (0/5) September: 5 Serpent's Dawn
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Post by Nadia on Sept 7, 2021 12:09:54 GMT -6
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Post by Èdan on Sept 9, 2021 4:19:50 GMT -6
The truth ends up being stranger than fiction, since something falls and lands not two feet from where he is walking. There's a reflexive turn of the head, scanning the ground as well as the tree for any type of movement. Falling apples aren't unusual for an orchard, but the type of the sound this one made was strange and different enough to alert a subconscious part to be vary. Eventually he spots something round and green halfway buried in the dirt, though no indication on where it had come from.
Leaning down, he picks it out from the soil and rolls it between fingers, claws scraping off some of the dirt. Round, green and shiny, it seems. A glass sphere with something suspended within, although he can't quite tell what from the green tint. Neither does he have an overabundance of time to investigate before another one lands a short distance from the foal, causing her to skip backwards a few steps.
. 6 . Chalceus: 3 (1/5) September: 6 Serpent's Dawn
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Post by Èdan on Sept 9, 2021 4:47:05 GMT -6
So. It's come to that, has it? Now it's raining glass, it seems. He would be shocked if he didn't know the manor better than when he started some months back. A glance up to the tree does not, in fact, show that it's bearing glass eyes as fruit. Ironically that expectation is actually less shocking of the two. But as he rolls the two spheres around within the ball, the similarities (No, exact copies) quickly reminds me of another type of glass he kept finding scattered around the manor. Those had been roses, these ones eyes..
Another primrose path, eh? Short a leopard and a dragon, however.
The eyes are placed in the pouch at his side, the use of which can be determined at a later time. "Come on," he lightly tugs on the lead to get the foal going again and begins a step. But the lead has more resistance than usual, and the step immediately pauses as he turns to look at her.
. 7 . Chalceus: 3 (2/5) September: 7 Serpent's Dawn
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Post by Èdan on Sept 9, 2021 4:53:56 GMT -6
The foal remains standing stubbornly in place, largely because she has found herself something far more entertaining - From where or when it came, he honestly can't tell, but a black pointed hat dangles from her jaws, as she slowly gnaws on the edge of it. The thing already looks quite tattered on its own, so the foal's beaked teeth are hardly doing it any favours. (And the fabric is less likely to do so to her stomach, either). The courier stares a moment, spending the time stuck in that wonderful position where the soul gradually accept this as 'it might just as well happen'.
Then, finally, he reaches and pulls the hat away, "No. Food at home, remember?" not that the foal would comprehend. The shadow, yes, that one had a spark of intelligence going for it. The foal seemed more easily tamed than other horse-types, perhaps due to the inherent war-styled breeding, but regretfully remained none the less as sharp as one.
. 8 . Chalceus: 3 (3/5) September: 8 Serpent's Dawn
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