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Thread: Blood Red Trees

  1. #11
    Legend

    EXP: 59,606, Level: 10
    Level completed: 51%, EXP required for next Level: 5,394
    Level completed: 51%,
    EXP required for next Level: 5,394


    Stare's Avatar

    GP
    150

    Name
    Avis Tsakaka
    Age
    16
    Race
    Kenku / Tengu
    Gender
    Female
    Location
    Corone
    Well, came the sarcastic drawl, Save me from needing to heal you later.

    She hissed a little with distaste and cradled her injured hand with her well one, eyes dark and irritated. As true as the alchemist had said her hand was stinging harshly now, as if small insects bit her flesh.

    “I do not need paste, Nevin, you don't need to worry about me,” she growled, moving her hand close to her body. “I knew I was endangering my hand.”

    If you were here I would punish you for your idiocy.

    You're going to have to wait until later aren't you, she spat back.

    Then I will, a wicked but sour grin appeared in her mind.

    And she growled back - and then she paused. Suddenly the stinging was gone.

    She realised her hand was actually not hurting any more. At all. Blinking, the anger faded out of her eyes, and she tilted her head as relief swept over her.

    “Oh.” It was better. She paused and glanced up at Nevin. “Thank you …”

    Nevin nodded slightly, one eyebrow raised. Even if she thought she didn’t need tending to, the relaxing of her facial features as the analgesic settled in was evident. A slight shake of his head and he rubbed some of the paste on, then stood back up straighter. “That isn’t the issue here, my friend. The problem is, we’re in a jungle and there are potent threats here. That thing - I called it my responsibility because… well. I’ve killed one of them before, actually more than one. That thing was a part of something else, and they are a threat that hunt me - or are tied to the divine power that I have. I don’t know why they’re here - but it may be that the same thing that draws me here, drew them here as well.” He coughed and shook his head.

    “In any case. We need you in top shape - even if I am far more capable of fighting than I once was, if these things are roaming the forest it will be dangerous. Now then.” He tucked the burn paste away, rolling his shoulders as he looked around. Now that they were in the forest, and the blood mage was aware of it, he could feel the taint of perverted blood magic in the air. It was thicker in one direction, and he settled his face into a grim expression.


    “I can’t ask you to join me in hunting these things - they’re a personal threat, not something I expected. I would of course appreciate it, but I know that you’ve dangers of your own to deal with.” He sighed and shook his head. “But either way, I need to press on and find out just what these nightmares are doing here.” The alchemist gripped his whip tight in one hand and sighed. “It is your decision.”

    Stare blinked at him once and then replied in a firm voice. “We split and both of us die. The plan to kill that creature worked, and that is all.” She shrugged. “I'm not leaving you alone. I came here to help you.”
    Crows: Old nursery rhyme "One for sorrow, Two for mirth, Three for a funeral, Four for birth, Five for heaven, Six for hell, Seven for the devil, his own self."

  2. #12
    Senior Member

    EXP: 61,139, Level: 10
    Level completed: 65%, EXP required for next Level: 3,861
    Level completed: 65%,
    EXP required for next Level: 3,861


    Nevin's Avatar

    GP
    3,657

    Name
    Nevin Aimaparapoiitis
    Age
    22 / 37
    Race
    Human (Godling)
    Gender
    Male
    Location
    Corone
    Though that was not entirely the truth. Looking down at her hand she saw the poultice-covered hand and breathed in slowly. Despite her reluctance, Nevin had given her a way to heal it. It would keep the pain at ease and the worst of the injuries. The best she could do right now was to be entirely honest with him.

    Scowling to herself in her lowered brow ridge and huffing way, she began to shove on the gauntlet. “Okay, I came here to help you and to hunt something that he has requested I find. I won't tell you what it is in case we do not find it, but I mainly did come here to help you.”

    She looked up at him. “Shall we head further in then?” She gestured at the darker, deeper woods.

    Knowing that Vitruvion had sent her in here for an actual reason strangely reassured the redhead as he nodded and started pressing onwards, pushing through the treeline and heading in the direction of the taint of darker blood magic that he could feel. That Vitruvion had a reason for her to be in the woods - it meant that the man - or whatever he is - had been keeping an eye on the forest. At least enough to think that his target was still in these woods.

    Which meant, knowing that Vitruvion had before felt that vile taint of the Cobalt-taken monstrosity in the cathedral in Radasanth, that there was no way that this particular being had set up shop too long ago here. No, its arrival had to be recent, or its attention and efforts focused inwardly enough that it escaped detection in the outside world.

    But as they moved through the trees, Nevin could feel more and more why he had been pulled to this place. Even ignoring the dark magic that he was personally familiar with, this place had a powerful presence even now lingering about it, even though it had clearly faded in time. Someone, or something, had held sway over these woods, and had turned them into a hungry place, and that change still had not been completely eradicated even though its source was long gone from this world. And the blood mage felt like he could…. draw on it, but not quite, it hadn’t accepted him yet, there was a strange desynchronization between his power and the ancient presence in these woods. Even dead, whatever had ruled here wasn’t quite ready to give up its power to the living.

    The alchemist tightened his grip and pressed on, looking for more signs of that damnable beast - or of dark blood magic. He just hoped that he didn’t drag Stare into more danger in the process of his personal vendetta.
    - "We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood; Fear the old blood."

    Nevin: Formal, thoughtful, nurturing, bearer of tropey tentacles.

    "More threads! More! Threads for the Crimson Thread King!"
    A member of the NevCrew:
    Nevin: Thread count: please, don't try.
    Erik: Thread count: five or six. Maybe seven...
    Huntsman: seven. Maybe eight. Shhhhhhh.
    Telli' thread count: zero. I just can't get into writing the little hellion.
    Ronnel: Not even approved yet.

  3. #13
    Legend

    EXP: 59,606, Level: 10
    Level completed: 51%, EXP required for next Level: 5,394
    Level completed: 51%,
    EXP required for next Level: 5,394


    Stare's Avatar

    GP
    150

    Name
    Avis Tsakaka
    Age
    16
    Race
    Kenku / Tengu
    Gender
    Female
    Location
    Corone
    Onwards they went into the dark crimson of Lindequalme. A place that had once been full of life, then poisoned, and was desperately trying to make a come back still. The Forgotten One Pode, who had been the one to scar the forest, had been defeated, and in a way Stare felt a loss for that. She wondered in that moment if Vitruvion had ever met any of the Forgotten Ones and made the connection to the ancients who knew about Althanas so long ago.

    I have met the pantheon gods, he growled back at her. That was enough for me.

    You might have found an ally in Pode, or another? Stare suggested, quite honestly. The story goes that they were once mortals, they have a vendetta against the gods here as much as you do ...

    Bah, he cursed back at her, and that was his answer. Stare could understand, maybe empathise with him for his dislike of the gods. They were the ones, after all, who had forced him into a human form and taken away much of his more godly powers. Omnipotence and bodilessness was beyond him even now with Stare.

    Her eyes kept scanning the darkness before them. It was only when she realised that one of her other sights might be more useful.

    Heat sense. Apparently part of the natural colour spectrum of light. She let her eyes widen and gaze around, letting the range of hot red to black fill her mind, the red all the warmth in the land, black the complete lack of it. She saw small red lights on trees in many places, birds hiding in the crowns. A brood of deer slowly made their way along the edge of a river far away. And … there was a distant figure, humanoid in form, striding away from them.

    She blinked and reached out to grab and tug Nevin's cloak. “Nevin” she whispered, “There is a being over there,” she pointed.

    The blood mage nearly jumped out of his skin when his friend grabbed his cloak - for the past bit, he had been concentrating on pursuing the feeling of the disgusting tainted blood magic in the air - and that had been consuming his attention as he tried to keep pace on the thing that was creating the taint. So when Stare tugged on his cloak - well. He didn’t scream, but there was a swallowed shout that made him cough as he turned to look in the direction that she had indicated.

    In the darkening gloom of the forest, he couldn’t see what she had spotted - but at the same time, Nevin was fully aware of the fact that her eyes were far superior to his own. So he closed his eyes and instead focused on the sense of his own he could trust - and sure enough, the bitter, angry chorus was stronger in the direction that she had indicated. His eyes snapped open and he pulled his whip from his belt, coiling it up to prepare for the fight that was coming. He began moving through the brush after the figure that she had detected, his eyes piercing through the gloom as he did his best to make his way quietly.
    Crows: Old nursery rhyme "One for sorrow, Two for mirth, Three for a funeral, Four for birth, Five for heaven, Six for hell, Seven for the devil, his own self."

  4. #14
    Senior Member

    EXP: 61,139, Level: 10
    Level completed: 65%, EXP required for next Level: 3,861
    Level completed: 65%,
    EXP required for next Level: 3,861


    Nevin's Avatar

    GP
    3,657

    Name
    Nevin Aimaparapoiitis
    Age
    22 / 37
    Race
    Human (Godling)
    Gender
    Male
    Location
    Corone
    It was strange, he thought, that as he went he could feel the taint in the magic growing stronger - the dissonant chorus of his magic was growing angrier and angrier. But at the same time that that was growing, he could also feel the lingering presence in this forest growing stronger - but it was like it was being pulled inwards, in the direction that the unknown figure was moving. He picked up the pace - and broke through a tree line to see a small stone structure, and a humanoid shape disappearing inside through one of the two doors he could see.

    The structure looked like it had been there for years - moss had grown over the worn, weather beaten rocks. It was low, squat, and rectangular in shape, and at the four corners there were burning braziers - and the fires that were burning in those braziers were unnaturally hued - blued, not red or yellowish. The flickering flames cast strange shadows through the air as Nevin studied the building, waiting for Stare to catch up.

    Stare’s beak halves slowly opened as she let out a silent gasp. Still caught within the throes of her heat sight, she was enchanted. They were a deep violet, almost black, not hot at all. At the edges they flickered black but a border of the natural, yellow heat of the building cast them in a strange, uncertain silhouette.

    She breathed in slow and moved up beside Nevin. “... They are cold fires,” she whispered astounded. “Cold.”

    Delighted she shifted out of the heat sight to grasp a proper glimpse at their natural shimmering blue flames. That others saw. Her heart leapt at the idea of them and she found herself excited, despite the situation. Despite the man they had followed here, now inside of the building. Carefully, she slid a hand around her dagger, her eyes still smiling though.

    “What is the plan?” she asked, suddenly full of enthusiasm and life once more.

    Nevin raised an eyebrow at the renewed vigor that she was displaying, then slowly shook his head. He frowned and focused on the doorways - trying to see if he could see inside. Cobalt - this wasn’t working. They needed to --

    The blood mage staggered as he suddenly felt a powerful tug in the direction of the stone building. All at once he felt an overwhelming urge to be inside - that he had to be inside right then or else something absolutely terrible would happen. He grit his teeth and shot a look to Stare.

    “I’m heading inside now. They’re - something is wrong in there. Something is being done in there and it is ...not painful but it is jarring, grating, screaming at me that it must be stopped.” He swallowed, his throat closed up, and then he shook his head sharply. Even now, he was slowly moving forward towards the building - his own feet fighting him as he tried not to move but at the same time had to move forward. He sent his friend a twisted smile. “I guess the plan is - kill all the damn things inside?”
    - "We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood; Fear the old blood."

    Nevin: Formal, thoughtful, nurturing, bearer of tropey tentacles.

    "More threads! More! Threads for the Crimson Thread King!"
    A member of the NevCrew:
    Nevin: Thread count: please, don't try.
    Erik: Thread count: five or six. Maybe seven...
    Huntsman: seven. Maybe eight. Shhhhhhh.
    Telli' thread count: zero. I just can't get into writing the little hellion.
    Ronnel: Not even approved yet.

  5. #15
    Legend

    EXP: 59,606, Level: 10
    Level completed: 51%, EXP required for next Level: 5,394
    Level completed: 51%,
    EXP required for next Level: 5,394


    Stare's Avatar

    GP
    150

    Name
    Avis Tsakaka
    Age
    16
    Race
    Kenku / Tengu
    Gender
    Female
    Location
    Corone
    Stare tilted her head, the excitement of the cold fire fading fast. It had been steadily as Nevin's expression changed, going from intrigue as much as she had had, then to sudden shock and a need to be … in there.

    So, their plans were moving faster than expected. Stare shrugged, slipping her hand down to take up her helmet strung there. Taking it in hand she swept it up and over the upper half of her skull. Once done she grabbed her dagger and nodded.

    “Let's kill some bastards,” she agreed, and twisted around to face the building. Energy built in her, she took a breath …

    Then ran, shrieking in dire kenku.

    At the start of the charge, Nevin was in step with Stare though he was silent as his blood and magic churned in him. She was faster though, and pulled ahead as she raced past one of the braziers glowing with cold flame and into the stone building. The redhead was not far behind though, as he too charged into the dark interior of the structure.

    Stare had already found a man and was dealing with him - dagger flashing as she went to work - and now, at the top of her game, not injured by a stay in prison, Nevin knew he could trust her to keep herself safe. So whip in hand, he followed the disgusting feeling of wrongness in the air, letting it guide him deeper into the building.

    He entered what was clearly the main chamber of the structure. Stone pews were ranged in a series of concentric circles, leading inwards to a large stone pedestal at the center. The smell of blood was thick, overpowering in here - and the cause was worryingly plain to see.

    The stone pews were filled with people - with bodies, really. Blood coated the floor liberally here, draining from the bodies and flowing ‘downhill’ towards the plinth at the center of the circles. In the air hung ribbons of red, seemingly emerging from nothingness, and slowly being drawn inwards towards the center of the room as well.

    On top of the stone plinth was a blood-soaked alter, with a figure sitting on top of it. Even from the entrance to the room it was easy to see that the figure wasn't human - instead it seemed to be a collection of those strange beings that they had killed in the woods - smooth, slimy tendrils, wrapped together layer upon layer, mimicking the shape of a human. These ones though, this thing was not a shade of red like the rest had been - instead it was a deep, dark blue.

    Fixated upon this thing, Nevin didn't see the man against the wall who turned, saw the redhead, and moved to tackle him.
    Crows: Old nursery rhyme "One for sorrow, Two for mirth, Three for a funeral, Four for birth, Five for heaven, Six for hell, Seven for the devil, his own self."

  6. #16
    Senior Member

    EXP: 61,139, Level: 10
    Level completed: 65%, EXP required for next Level: 3,861
    Level completed: 65%,
    EXP required for next Level: 3,861


    Nevin's Avatar

    GP
    3,657

    Name
    Nevin Aimaparapoiitis
    Age
    22 / 37
    Race
    Human (Godling)
    Gender
    Male
    Location
    Corone
    “NEVIN!”

    She did not have time to merge into the aura sight, and study this being - the one of twisted, disgusting, bloody-coloured waste. Her mind did recognise the one sitting on the altar as being connected to that she had destroyed outside. But she was not enraptured by Nevin had been. Instead she caught the glimpse of the being in her periforole as she slowed to stalk the building. And there was also a: Man, to the right.

    All it took was for her to launch back into a run, charging for he who charged her friend.

    Luckily her speed was better than most, and she had never come to a complete halt. She slammed into him with a mighty sound, and pushed him to the ground between two pews. Her screech sounded again and she went stabbing at his eyes with her beak at the same time as stabbing his heart with her dagger.

    For this man was nothing. He would never get her friend.

    There was a shout - a familiar voice, calling a familiar name, and for a moment the panic in that voice almost broke Nevin of the grim entrancement that the creature in the middle of the room had wrapped the alchemist in. But then there was a pulse, as crimson light sprang into Nevin’s eyes, and his magic began shrieking in terror and joy, and the almost freedom was washed away.

    No - no this thing it was pulling - Nevin broke from a part of his unnatural fascination, stumbling forward. Unseen, unfelt, dozens of threads slid from Nevin’s skin, surrounding him in a writhing mass of crimson threads, tendrils, and cables, almost like he was a sea anemone. The blue being in the middle of the room began to glow, a cobalt shine breaking forth, and in the air above it blue and red began to swirl together.
    Nevin knew, somehow utterly certain, that if this thing managed to complete whatever it was doing, then something utterly terrible would happen. Something he knew he absolutely must not let occur - because he had seen red swirling in that pattern once before, the night when the outsider had taken over his body and destroyed the cultist village. Whatever this tendril being was doing, it was easily as bad as that, if not worse.

    So Nevin broke into a run, vaulting over any pews that got in his way - and when he was close enough, his threads shot forward, racing for the being. The creature let out a soul-shivering squeal as it was pierced countless times, Nevin’s threads somehow splitting through its skin with ease. Crimson spread across the blue body, washing it away - and with a loud, ear splitting crack, the blue hanging in the air above vanished.

    For a moment the red in the air - the red that grew in the trees, in the plants of this forest - hung motionless. Then it fell, no, then it drove down, washing around Nevin. The mage glowed with the unnatural light - and then crimson began to shine, the brighter red battling the darker as Nevin began to shake, mouth open in a soundless scream as he fell away from the carcass of the creature.
    - "We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood; Fear the old blood."

    Nevin: Formal, thoughtful, nurturing, bearer of tropey tentacles.

    "More threads! More! Threads for the Crimson Thread King!"
    A member of the NevCrew:
    Nevin: Thread count: please, don't try.
    Erik: Thread count: five or six. Maybe seven...
    Huntsman: seven. Maybe eight. Shhhhhhh.
    Telli' thread count: zero. I just can't get into writing the little hellion.
    Ronnel: Not even approved yet.

  7. #17
    Legend

    EXP: 59,606, Level: 10
    Level completed: 51%, EXP required for next Level: 5,394
    Level completed: 51%,
    EXP required for next Level: 5,394


    Stare's Avatar

    GP
    150

    Name
    Avis Tsakaka
    Age
    16
    Race
    Kenku / Tengu
    Gender
    Female
    Location
    Corone
    Roll away from the altar - now!

    A strange choice of command, but she did as he suggested. Wisdom was enough in her to know that when Vitruvion gave direction in the midst of battle, she was far better responding to them. His vast knowledge, and his ability to see what she otherwise ignored was far too useful. Thus, when he told her to get away from the altar she did so, shoving the bloody body beneath her away - now blinded in both eyes and dead.

    Pushing herself around to the side, her body compacted, she rolled under the various pews. Above her a bright, scarlet light suddenly beamed and she then knew what Vitruvion’s command had been about. Ducking her head she averted her gaze, then hid it into the shoulder of the corpse beneath her. One of many. The light streamed for a second or so, but still she waited until peering out of the corner of her eye. Blinking, she paused for a moment, surveyed where she was (atop a body, naturally), and then she slowly got to her feet.

    Into the now dim world, the brightness having been dangerous or not. She could not know, but his warning had been enough.

    There, collapsed by the altar, was Nevin. Instinct overtook her and she was running for a third time, vaulting artistically over the end of the pew and then charging up the aisle. Desperately, she threw herself into the aura sight, and was on her knees, staring madly at the form of one of the only friends she had.

    Would ever have.

    She stared as she was faced with two thick strands of power origin before her in him. Gone was the tiny hair strand of rose-tinted divine power - now it was a rope, intertwined with his familiar crimson. What was perhaps worse was the flow of his chakras - at least there were dim of like and their pools contorted, with grief, fear, and intense, base desires. Stare let out a long, slow breath as she saw a new man before her - one of suddenly greater concern than he had been, moments before.

    ... Well ... came the grim sentiment.

    Nevin’s body was, even as Stare knelt by him, wracked in pain as his innate magic and his growing divine magic, was battling against the remnants of the power that had been part of the portal that was being opened. Even if he didn't recognize it, this other power was dark, and carried an inherent maliciousness to the. But -

    But it was being overwhelmed, slowly. Because it couldn't be renewed without him trying to pull more in, something he would not, and currently could not do - but his innate magic, and the other, newly innate divine essence, were being replenished, rejuvenating even as they expended themselves. There was a strange, churning twist inside, and his magics enveloped the foreign power, subsuming it. As the turmoil and struggle in his magic ceased, the lines of pain on Nevin’s face faded as his body slowly began to relax.
    Crows: Old nursery rhyme "One for sorrow, Two for mirth, Three for a funeral, Four for birth, Five for heaven, Six for hell, Seven for the devil, his own self."

  8. #18
    Senior Member

    EXP: 61,139, Level: 10
    Level completed: 65%, EXP required for next Level: 3,861
    Level completed: 65%,
    EXP required for next Level: 3,861


    Nevin's Avatar

    GP
    3,657

    Name
    Nevin Aimaparapoiitis
    Age
    22 / 37
    Race
    Human (Godling)
    Gender
    Male
    Location
    Corone
    He slowly, so slowly, cracked one eye open, to see his dear friend watching over him. The redhead forced a weak smile onto his face, only one corner of his mouth turning upwards.

    “That… could have gone better.”

    “Yes, it could have,” she admitted with a slightly tentative tone.

    Peering at him through the eye-slits of her helmet she felt like a doctor surveying a plague patient. If she had a lip, she would curl it with worry, concern filling her from an unquenchable source. Instead her brow creased beneath the metal, and her hands curled uncertainly around the figure on the floor before her. Slow breaths came from her beak and she could not do anything but kneel there and stare almost frightful at his pulsing twisted rope of power.

    Stare … be wary.

    Nevin would never hurt me, she replied. Never intentionally anyway.

    The god in her head sucked in his breath, an audible sound in her ear for a moment before he answered, My dear, I cannot protect you from where I am. We do not know what entity that was there, it was a beast from another world, not one that I am familiar with.

    He would never hurt me, she repeated, more sternly. And this time her hand that had not the gauntlet moved to rest on Nevin’s shoulder. “Can you sit?” she asked.

    A scowl, dark eyes becoming full of suspicion. Be careful.

    She forced a smile into her eyes. “How are you feeling” she asked Nevin, bringing herself out of the aura sight and away from … that.

    Nevin shoved one arm underneath himself and pushed up off the ground, his arm shaking as his magic settled, folding in on itself and slowly settling back into a more peaceful state. He let out trembling breath as he closed his eyes, steadying himself as he recovered from the aftershocks of pain that were still dancing along his nerves.

    “Shaky. And like I just got a direct injection of caffeine into my system. And that pulling feeling I've been experiencing is gone - no, that's not right, it isn't gone, just a lot weaker now.” The redhead let out another sigh as he opened his eyes and looked around. It was only now that he saw the blood staining her beak, and his eyes widened as he leaned forward to check to see if she had been injured.

    “Crimson - what happened to you? Is that your blood? Wait - no, no it isn't, it sings differently than yours does.” That was an unexpected benefit of his magic identifying blood. Nevin slumped back down as relief coursed through him. Knowing that his damnable fixation hadn't gotten Stare injured was a load off his shoulders.

    So instead he turned to the carcass of the creature he had slain, and spat in its direction. “That's the second of those things I've had to kill. Ah - right you wouldn't have - Stare, it was trying to open a portal to its native plane. We ah, interrupted that plan rather effectively.” He gave her a weak smile.
    - "We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood; Fear the old blood."

    Nevin: Formal, thoughtful, nurturing, bearer of tropey tentacles.

    "More threads! More! Threads for the Crimson Thread King!"
    A member of the NevCrew:
    Nevin: Thread count: please, don't try.
    Erik: Thread count: five or six. Maybe seven...
    Huntsman: seven. Maybe eight. Shhhhhhh.
    Telli' thread count: zero. I just can't get into writing the little hellion.
    Ronnel: Not even approved yet.

  9. #19
    Legend

    EXP: 59,606, Level: 10
    Level completed: 51%, EXP required for next Level: 5,394
    Level completed: 51%,
    EXP required for next Level: 5,394


    Stare's Avatar

    GP
    150

    Name
    Avis Tsakaka
    Age
    16
    Race
    Kenku / Tengu
    Gender
    Female
    Location
    Corone
    She blinked, trying to understand what he had said.

    Planes are like worlds. Other planets. The things I showed you that circulate stars.

    Stars. Each one a burning globe of bright hot gas that turned steadily in the sky, created under a force called grah’vee-tay. Not actually a bright fire in the sky. Much more than that. Like the planets - rocky or gassy (like smoke, she remembered) - that were round and rotated around the stars. Each star a sun, each world potentially livable …

    “I see,” she whispered, imagining the dark, crimson land that Nevin hailed similarities to. A black soil running with rivers of scarlet thick waters - blood. Burgundy, burnt skies, hissing cleaves in the land that showed a horrid, blanched earth beneath …

    “And a being from that world is bad,” she whispered. From that world … that plane. The place part of Nevin came from and to which he was gaining … more power from.

    She turned it into a question. “It is bad? Why?”

    “Well.” Nevin gripped the stone altar and dragged himself to his feet, swaying slightly as he did so. He seemed a bit off balance as he righted himself, and kept one hand on the stone to keep upright.

    “I wouldn't say it is automatically bad. That… From why I can feel, remember, it's strange to have memories you know aren't your own…” the last words were very soft, and a frown flickered across his face. Nevin didn't know where these memories had come from, but he could feel that they were, accurate? To some degree? He shook his head and continued.

    “Ahem. That place was peaceful and mostly ignored this plane, with most everything living in a fairly quiet cycle of rebirth, watched over by their God. The problem is, at some point, something foul came in. I don't know where from, and I wish I did. But that thing killed the God that was there and took its place, and began perverting the plane to suit its own darker desires.” Nevin turned his attention to his hand on the altar, which was placed in a thick puddle of blood.

    “Before, the God of that plane would never have wanted sacrifices like this. Detested then, in fact, because deaths like this disrupt the Great Flow that it watched over. The Cult that made me is a twisted form of the Crimson Church, and instead of being the peaceful, accepting and tolerant individuals that the Church is supposed to espouse, well. They made me. I know what I was supposed to be now, I think.” He shuddered as he stared at the carcass by his hand. Even now, the thing looked like nothing human, just a massive collection of ‘threads’ woven together.

    Stare looked at him with a fond smile in her eyes. Honestly, she felt happy for him as he said that he had found part of his being here. He knew what he ‘was supposed to be now’. In that type of knowledge, comfort could be found - personally she knew that well, having had unanswered questions for much of her life where the kenku came from. Rather than have an absolute answer the kenku-told histories, compiled in the earlier works of Karas the Wise, spoke of simply a place they had come from where a beast, or a darkness called the ‘Kage’ came from. They spoke of coming ‘across the sea’ with the ‘kami to guide them.’ But that had never been enough for Stare. Instead she had found the truth of her people - that in fact they were a discarded race from a planet so very far away, and would have died out had it not been for their enslavers taking them across an ocean to Corone.
    Crows: Old nursery rhyme "One for sorrow, Two for mirth, Three for a funeral, Four for birth, Five for heaven, Six for hell, Seven for the devil, his own self."

  10. #20
    Senior Member

    EXP: 61,139, Level: 10
    Level completed: 65%, EXP required for next Level: 3,861
    Level completed: 65%,
    EXP required for next Level: 3,861


    Nevin's Avatar

    GP
    3,657

    Name
    Nevin Aimaparapoiitis
    Age
    22 / 37
    Race
    Human (Godling)
    Gender
    Male
    Location
    Corone
    Ever since Stare had learnt the truth of her people, and more importantly, herself, she had felt a sense of relief. Even if it might mean that she was stuck with a power-obsessed, possessive dick-head for a god, answers were still there. Answers she could not share, but answers nonetheless. A sense of belonging, a sense of security, a truth …

    “You are of that world,” she acknowledged, “Or at least part of you is. And you feel a responsibility to it.”

    She looked down at her cuff at her wrist briefly, wondering if Vitruvion was listening, and feeling the emotions she had right now. Tilting her head she thought about how similar worlds all sounded when you lined them together. Each had a deity, or deities. Each could express a time of peace and perfection. Each had its trials since.

    Glancing back up at Nevin she nodded. “Shall we move on from this desecration? I think it would be wise to burn it.”

    Nevin curled one hand into a fist as he thought about what she had said. That was - that was right. It felt like he had a responsibility, no, two. He had to protect this plane from that damn able thing’s attempts to come in. And, more important - he had to get strong enough to go and… And…

    Why did it feel like he had to take his place back, like the Cobalt thing had usurped him? Crimson threads slipped from his closed fist and slowly swayed in the air in front of his eyes as he thought about this gut feeling, this low urge. He knew that the Scarlet, the Cobalt demon, didn't belong in the position it had taken, but why did he feel like he should be there? That made no sense -

    He was roused from his thoughts by Stare’s decision, and he nodded. “We should check around first, there might be important notes that these things left behind or their followers made. But I agree, this place needs to be destroyed.” Nevin was steady now, and he glared at the carcass one last time before looking around the chamber, finally actually taking it in. Aside from the door they had entered through, there were too more doorways in the back, looking like they lead to separate, smaller chambers. He gestured towards them.

    “One a piece you think?” With a quirk of one corner of his mouth, the Alchemist suited action to word, and headed towards the room on the right. He was definitely more alert than he had been when he entered the altar room, in case there was anyone left who hadn't come during the brief scuffle before, but it seemed like now the place was abandoned.

    .

    Stare nodded and followed suit, moving to the left. Hand grasping tight around her dagger she headed with caution. The entrance was dark, a shadowed place and she paused before striding in, certain that there would be little to no danger. Her eyes, adapted to the dark, gazed out without reverting to heat sight.
    - "We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood; Fear the old blood."

    Nevin: Formal, thoughtful, nurturing, bearer of tropey tentacles.

    "More threads! More! Threads for the Crimson Thread King!"
    A member of the NevCrew:
    Nevin: Thread count: please, don't try.
    Erik: Thread count: five or six. Maybe seven...
    Huntsman: seven. Maybe eight. Shhhhhhh.
    Telli' thread count: zero. I just can't get into writing the little hellion.
    Ronnel: Not even approved yet.

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