Re: The Big Story

by **Areada** Fri Oct 05, 2012 9:06 pm

Syrene cried out, jerking her skirt away from the zombie-like person who grasped at it, "What?" she said, breathlessly and sounding incredibly nervous, "What and who? Are you all right?" she said, bending over to the man who seemed to only be able to produce a gurgle, "Oh, why in the world are we here?"

Miir was at her side in a moment, bending down to examine the newly discovered prisoner. "Who are you?" she asked, then added, aptly, "Can you speak?"

by Nayaby Fri Oct 05, 2012 9:54 pm

“This poor man,” Qasari said quietly, “He has had his voice taken from him. For the people of smokeless flames, that is to say the djinni, the tongue is the most vital organ. To steal a man’s words is the greatest offence one can commit. How can he weave his craft without?”

Qasari seemed taken aback by what he had just said.

“I… do not know how this realization came to me so suddenly.” The magelight flickered momentarily as he frowned. “It seems our memory loss is not entire. Exposure to the correct stimuli may trigger the return of more memories in all of us. I would not have said what I had said if this man had not made his appearance.”

Qasari knelt to meet the crawling man at eye level, “My friend, you have injured and soaked cold your form, allow me the honour of drying you warm.” The spell had not been entirely intentional, but Qasari felt the force leave him nonetheless. At the very least, the man would be slightly less uncomfortable.

“Your eyes exude anxiety,” Qasari said, then turned to face the others, “Is there something this man could write with? A clump of dirt, or a sharp bone?”

by MozytheHealer Sat Oct 06, 2012 12:10 am

“Another one? With no tongue? This will be difficult…” Raiz said softly, finding the wall again. Once more she was feeling a little disoriented. She was starting to remember some of what she had been apparently studying before she came here, or at least more of it, and it was starting to make her feel even more uncomfortable than she had felt previously.

“I, too, would like to get out of here. However, I would first like to know what is going on, and if this man can only tell us through writing, I will need someone to speak it aloud.” She sat down and ran a hand over the ground around her, looking for the bones. She felt something thin and rather pointy and held it out, not quite sure what it was. It felt like a long chunk of rock, judging by the uneven surface of it. “Would this do?”

by **Areada** Sat Oct 06, 2012 2:19 pm

"I can speak." said Syrene, "Are you blind, then? I thought there was something off with your eyes."

While Syrene occupied herself with conversing with the others, Miir gazed around the room, noting the dark corners that were not reached by the light the djinni had produced.

She put a hand to the wall nearest to her and walked, slowly, her hand always on the wall. The chain on her ankle seemed to be long enough to let her walk around the room comfortably, so she reasoned it must only be there to prevent escape, not movement.

Moving slowly along the wall, she finally reached a corner. It was dark, and there were bones around her feet. She turned and went along the next wall, and then to the next. As far as she could tell, there were no other prisoners other than she, Syrene, the blind woman, the djinni, and the two men on the ground. Six prisoners. Why? Why were any of them here?

She returned to the group, staring carefully at them. The djinni was magical and strange, but did not unnerve her. Neither did the blind woman, and while the man with his tongue gone was in a horrifying situation, there was nothing she felt towards any of them.

Except Syrene. The blonde, enthusiastic, bubbly, and in Miir's opinion rather airheaded got on Miir's nerves in a ridiculous way. Miir racked her brains for any reason she would feel this way, but could come up with nothing. She could only assume that she had a predisposition to dislike people who seemed to be idiots. Perhaps she had known some particularly irritating people in her previous life.

Shoving her irritation out of her mind as best she could, Miir addressed the group as evenly as she could, given the information she was about to make known.

"I cannot find a door." she said, "There are no openings, no suspicious cracks in the wall, nothing to give any sign of a potential opening. I suspect we have been put here by magic, and that magic will be the only way out."

--------------
"So what did you do?" the person who had previously been behind the tree said, sitting next to the girl and putting her chin in her hands, "Something bad?"

"No." said the girl, "I just wanted a dragon instead of a dog."

"So?"

"So, well, I was supposed to conjure a image of a dog."

"And you didn't."

"No, I wanted a dragon."

"And they got mad at you for that?"

The girl sniffed, "They said I should put my studies before my imagination and all the other kids laughed at me."

The person who had previously been behind the tree looked skeptical, "Is conjuring an image of a dragon harder than a dog?"

The girl shrugged, "It depends on the detail and size."

"Was yours very different from theirs?"

The girl nodded, sniffling, "Twice the size of theirs and it breathed fire."

There was a delighted laugh from her companion, "You're just a show off!"

"What? No no no." the girl protested, looking devastated, "I just wanted to try a dragon instead of a dog. I like dragons better."

"You were showing off." her companion said, with a bit of an evil grin, "But people don't like it when other people are better than them."

The girl looked even more devastated, "You're being mean."

"It's called a compliment." her companion said, "It's a nice thing."

by Elfie Sat Oct 06, 2012 3:29 pm

Sinjin sighed, partly out of relief, and partly out of annoyance with himself. Of course she wasn't Emyln. Emyln never came into his prisons. He shouldn't have barked at her liked that. Apologizing, he then fell into silence and listened to the woman who had spoken to him speak with two other women. Letting his mind wander, he tried to recall more about Emyln.

“Magic, Sinjin. Why don't you use it? It is---“

His eyes popped open at the cry of one of the women. Frustrated, he turned, making out the shapes of the woman, and... a man? Near her. So there was another man here? Without a tongue? Sinjin felt bile rise in his throat as he thought of it. Being ripped out...

He turned to the corner beside him and retched. Then he started, surprised at his reaction. He must have seen worse than that... why would this effect him so? He knew, or thought he knew, that he had been a fighter. Why, what kind and when, he didn't know.

As he tried to remember, feeling more and more confused, the third woman walked closer to him. Was she coming to him?-- but no, she was touching the walls. No door, she said. Magic... the only way out? Again he heard Emyln's voice, „Magic, Sinjin. Why don't you use it? It is the best power you can weild, one you must learn! I help you...“

The voice faded, and Sinjin clenched his hands. „I have magic!“ He shouted. „I want to try using it to get us out of here. But, my hands...“ He rattled the chains behind him in explanation. He didn't like showing the weakness, but he had to or they would leave wihtout him. More importantly, they'd try escaping without his help, and he'd hate that, more than the leaving him there.

------

„So, you see, I need you to tell me where you have Sinjin.“ The cloaked woman concluded, feeling pleased. She had laid out her plans, marvelous ones, if she did say so herself, and felt sure that her price wouldn't be refused.

„I can see that. What makes you think I would tell you?“ A low female voice asked from her seat near a roaring fire. One arm was laid loungingly across the arm rest, the firm hands holding a glass of wine. The chair was high, hiding the body that belonged to the voice; it was turned so the other woman could not see her.

The cloaked woman was dumbfounded. She had just told her why! He had to help her plans! She needed him! She had to give him back to her! „I- I mean, I just... told you why.“

„No, you told me your goal in life. That is no reason for me to tell you where he is. None of what you just said in the last hour depends on Sinjin. All of it can be done by you alone. Besides, I don't have him.“ The last was uttered with no change of voice, as if it had always been known. As if she hadn't spoken as if she did have him, from the moment she had let the woman in.

The woman threw herself on to a chair, gaping. She had just told herall of her secret ideas, and now she didn't even have Sinjin at all?!

„You lying buffoon!“ she screamed, rising. She stalked to the chair, pointing her finger at it, throwing all her fury at the woman behind the wall of material that hid her. „You tricked me! You only wanted to know everything so you could do everything I had so carefully planned! Well, I won't let you!“

Grabbing the chair, she whirled it around, ready to fight the object of her anger, to the death if need be. When she saw the appearance of her, however, she screamed, backing away.

It really was a sight. The woman was small, with long, black hair. Or, at least what was left of it had been. The remainder were several thin groups of hair, badly scorched. Her scalp was red with bruising, and her face was far worse. Large, blistered burns were all that was left of her once almost pretty face, and black smudges covered what little area was free of the burns.

„Oh, do hush up. You look far worse on a bad hair day!“ The woman sniffed, standing and filling a new glass, the old one having fallen when the cloaked woman had screamed.

„I do not!“ The woman cried, insulted. It was bad enough she'd almost had had a heart attack just now, but to add insult to injury... well! Then, curiosity rising above all other emotions, she asked, „Who did that to you?“

„None of your business. Now, about Sinjin. He's missing?“

„Yes, just as I told you. I assumed you had had him taken again.“

„Not I, not this time. I haven't seen him since... well, not for several months, anyway. So your trip was wasted, your plans finally revealed to me, and you are left hopeless. Whatever shall you do?“

„Will you help me look for him?“

The woman looked at her, then rolled her eyes. „No, Daisy, I will not.“

„But you care so--“ Daisy stopped, seeing the woman tense. She'd gone to far. She tried to back-peddle. „I mean, you do enjoy... erm, taunting him. If we don't find him, how will you be able to?“

The woman didn't answer, instead leaving the room, a signal to Daisy that she should leave. She sighed as she did just as expected of her, vowing that she would come back.

by MozytheHealer Sat Oct 06, 2012 5:49 pm

Raix pushed her hair out of her face again. It didn't normally irritate her, but it kept falling in her face and tickling her nose. “Yes, I am. I think I can normally read, somehow, but I don’t think that that way, whatever it is, would work in here.” She said, in answer to the question.

When she heard the man’s voice and the chains rattling, she turned her head towards it. “You can use magic? Useful magic, not just theoretical magic, right? And you think we can get out using it? I suppose it’s worth a try, though I would still like to find out what the mute knows.” She did not mean to say it like that, but she realized slightly to late that it may not have been the most polite thing to say.

by **Areada** Sun Oct 07, 2012 7:53 pm

Miir quickly noted that for all Syrene's apparent airheadedness (in her opinion), the young woman was quick to perceive an insult. Was it defensiveness or sharp perception?

"I can use magic!" Syrene cried, seeming surprisingly outraged, "I can't-I mean! Really! And damned better than-enjoy getting yourselves out of here without my help!"

"And you!" she rounded on Miir, stepping forward accusingly, "You've done nothing but glare at me since you saw me! What did I ever do to you? I wish I knew, so I could make it better! I don't understand-I-this is wrong. This is all so wrong, and you are wrong and everyone here is wrong. I must be dreaming."

"You're not." Miir said, sharply "Deal with the reality of the situation. I don't know what kind of protected lifestyle you had before this, but it was obviously not something that equipped you for even minor difficulties!"

"Oh, and you think you're one to talk!" Syrene said, "You don't remember anything, so how could you know that you had such a tough lifestyle? Maybe you just woke up in a bad mood!"

"I'm dealing with the reality and danger of the situation." Miir said, trying desperately to justify her attitude, which was becoming more and more irrational by the minute in the face of Syrene's accusing words, "This place is deadly. We could all die. We have no time for your babbling about theoretical magics. If you can help, help. If not, stop hindering those who can."

Syrene met Miir's gaze for a long moment, eyes just as angry as Miir's were irritatingly exasperated. Then Syrene looked away, and rubbed her cheek with her hand.

"I'm dead." she said, in a rather choked voice, "I'm dead and I wasn't good enough in life and now-I...this can't be real. None of this can be real."

She walked to a corner of the room, beyond where the light reach, and Miir could not hear or see anything more of her. With several emotions trying to overtake her mind at once, she could not do anything more than stare for a few moments, then shake her head briefly, although to her credit, looking chagrined and even apologetic, "Magic you said?" she addressed the man on the ground, "Excellent. Let's figure out what's going on, then."

-----
"You are terrible at following rules." the person who had been at one point in her life behind a tree said, "No wonder you get bad grades."

"It's not my fault they don't have an ounce of creativity in their bodies." the girl who liked dragons said.

"No, but you're not giving them any chances." said the tree girl, "Why can't you just meet them in the middle?"

"Oh, I don't know, I just...they don't let me do what I want to do. They don't let me learn more than I know. It's frustrating. I understand things just as much as my teachers, and sometimes better. But they don't like it when I say that."

"You're a bit arrogant." tree girl said, "But I see your point. I'll make you a deal."

The girl who liked dragons looked at her skeptically, "Yeah?"

"Try to get better grades, and I'll let you look in my parent's magic library."

"I can't believe you're bargaining with me for better attitudes in school." the dragon girl said, "I've known you for a week and you think you can just walk in and change me?"

Tree girl looked uncomfortable, "That's not it. I just thought that it would be an okay compromise."

"Well, it's not." dragon girl said, "I won't change to please anyone. Never. I'm me and I want to be me and it's no one else's business who I am."

"I see. I apologize, then." tree girl said sincerely, and did not further the discussion. But after a moment, dragon girl spoke again.

"Change isn't bad...is it?"

"It depends. Are you changing for the better or the worse?" tree girl said.

"How do you know which is which? How do you know which is truer to yourself?"

Tree girl shrugged, "I have no idea."

by Lycanthrope Mon Oct 08, 2012 4:28 am

Aboto reaches for the long, uneven chunk of rock. Even though he cannot speak, he knew he could still write letters. Gripping the stone in his strong grip, he attempts to scratch the surface of the stone floor. No avail. He tries again, but with more force, striking the ground with the rock. The crude tool shatters and the floor is left unblemished. Aboto feels the ground frantically, for any location where he could write. Stone cold brick is all he feels.

He fumbles around the dust, searching for the largest rock remaining. A small shard he grasps, no bigger than a skipping pebble. Taking a deep breath and clenching his teeth, Aboto raises the crude blade with his right hand above his left arm. He cuts quickly and precisely on his skin – deep enough to leave mark yet shallow to not leak and blood. This pain is nothing compared to his previous wounds he endured.

Guards coming

Aboto motions for the were-light to illuminate his forearm with the important message.

by **Areada** Mon Oct 08, 2012 8:59 am

"Guards!" Miir hissed with delight, "We can overpower them and use their way in and out. If it's magic, one of you magic workers can do a quick analysis of their spell and replicate it to get us out of here."

by MozytheHealer Mon Oct 08, 2012 12:09 pm

Raix felt slightly bad about her comment about ‘real magic’ but didn’t really feel like it was unnecessary, as they didn’t need to waste time with theoretical magic right now. Surprisingly, she felt a little wary of magic being used around her. She wasn’t sure why, but she definitely felt scared of it.

She heard one of the women talking about guards and paused in her analyzation of her feelings toward magic. She hated it when she could only hear half of a conversation, which was actually quite a common occurrence. Or at least she thought it was a common occurrence. “What did he say? Guards? What about them? Would someone please explain? I sort of can’t see, if you’ve forgotten.” She said, trying not to sound to confused, or impatient. She didn’t like the idea of guards either. She just didn’t really like this situation. She wished that she was still in her own…whatever she spent her time in.

by Nayaby Tue Oct 09, 2012 12:58 am

“So our captors are soon to reveal themselves,” Qasari said. The injured man had been soaked, and his tongue cut out. This did not bode well for the other prisoners.

“I agree with the girl,” Qasari continued, “Our abilities do not seem to have been hindered by whatever magic is interfering with our memories. Our captors would be unlikely to suspect a coordinated ambush, wherein we quickly incapacitate them and escape.”

“Really? I found miss Miir’s idea to be a bit preposterous. After all, your captors have been watching your every move since you awakened.”

Suddenly the entire cell lit up, and Qasari was forced to shield his feline eyes from the harsh light. A figure had appeared, entirely cloaked in a deep blue robe and hood which covered its face. Qasari struggled to place the figure’s voice as male or female, but it could not.

The figure continued, “I am Six, and it is my humble pleasure to welcome my guests to the Doleful Bastion! It is truly a magnificent piece of architecture, this citadel, and I would offer you a grand tour, but I’m afraid my time in running short. I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to my guests.” Six walked to the centre of the room, where the caged bottle was situated.

The bottle was seemingly made of a translucent green material, perhaps malachite, with gold and silver rings around it. It sparked an off familiarity with Qasari.

“Qasari, do you know what this is?” Six said, “I suppose not… I went to extra lengths so that you wouldn’t. But I suppose I should tell you anyway: this is your bottle! Is it difficult knowing that your destiny is bound to this pretty little thing?”

“What in Magnificence are you speaking of?” Qasari said, snarling to reveal sharpened teeth.

“Oh, how very frightening!” Six laughed, “Well, if it isn’t important to you, I suppose you won’t mind it I borrow it for a while? Of course not.” Six turned as if to walk away, stopped, then turned back, “You know Qasari, I wasn’t fortunate enough to have breakfast this morning. I do wish I had some waffles to eat!”

Qasari felt an irresistible force wash over him and began to speak before he could think what he was saying though, “Breakfast time may now be of late, but why not have a tasty plate?”

Six grinned as a plate appeared on his or her outstretched hand. “Hmm, these aren’t waffles. These are just square pancakes! Ah well, c’est la vie.”

“What did you do to me!?” Qasari demanded.

“Me?” Six sounded affronted, though the face was featureless, “I’ve done nothing to you! I thought this was just a favour between friends. Anyway, I really must be going. Thanks for the pancakes Qasari!”

“Do not leave!” Qasari snarled.

“No worries my snappy little friend, I won’t leave you alone. You and your new friends can play with Twenty-Nine and Thirty-One!” With a snap of Six’s fingers two clouds of smoke appeared and dissipated, revealing two more faceless guards.

“Play kindly, won’t you?” Six said, then vanished into dust.

by MozytheHealer Tue Oct 09, 2012 3:27 pm

Raix listened carefully to the…person who referred to themselves as ‘Six’, and by the time she thought it/he/she had disappeared, she was standing again, listening for ‘Twenty-nine’ and ‘Thirty-one’. She really hoped that they wouldn’t have to fight, as she did not think that she would be able to be of much help and would probably just get in the way.

“What was that? Qasari, he mentioned your bottle, but you seem confused. Did you perhaps forget about that?” She asked, her hand still on the wall. The mention of his bottle had sparked something in her, and she thought she knew what Six had done. She gestured in the direction that she thought that Thirty-one and Twenty-nine were. “They may be able to tell us why we’re here. It may not work, but it could be worth a try.”

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