August 20- September 20

[Amber Eyes]

You wake up shackled to a chair and can’t remember how you got there. Two voices are talking. You recognize one of them. What do you do?

I look forward to reading your entries!

[TheOnlyGhost]

This is when my character was still human since she can't he shackled to a chair being a ghost :p



Blackness ... pure blackness everywhere and the feeling of cold steel until Alicia slowly regained consciousness and was in touch with her surroundings. After regaining her balance she screamed at the top of her lungs but to no avail for no one could hear her in the dark enclosed room.

Suddenly, all of the lights in the room turned on with full brightness as she was temporarily blinded as all the lights turned on. Especially since she was trapped in darkness for so long, for she hasn't seen the light of day for what seemed to be weeks or even months.

"HELP ME!!" she cried ... yet still nothing.

Alicia looked at both of her wrists and noticed that the shackles she was chained in were opened revealing the heavy bruising on her skin. Someone had unlocked the chains, but no one was around. She gradually wobbled back on her feet after getting off the chair, feeling immense pain in her neck and chest. She looked at herself and noticed she was wearing an insane asylums' clothing dress that went to her knees that had jeans and black pants underneath that reached her ankles. The dress was tattered and slightly torn in a few areas as it loosely fitted her body. When she inspected it further she had a dried blotch of blood on her upper shoulder near her breast.

Is that mine?

She reached behind her neck and started to rub it gently as she felt more bruising on her skin. She continued to feel around her neck until she felt a small puncture wound, perhaps from a needle, in the very center. Alicia continued to rub it to see if it was placed there recently or not. After playing around with the puncture wound, she concluded that it was in fact recent for she could feel remnants of blood slowly oozing from it as it was trying to scab over to heal.

Confused, she started to cry as she continued to look at the rest of her surroundings until finally something behind her caught her eye. Now in front of her lay a bed, a water fountain, and a toilet for her uses. She headed towards the bed first and started pushing on it to determine it's quality. Not surprised, it was prison quality: hard, flat, ilthy, and definitely was not a good place to sleep on. She turned on the water next and gave it a taste.

"Ugh! It tastes horrible!" as she spit it out afterwards.

Alicia went to the toilet next as she began smelling the strong scent of urine and feces. The seat of the toilet was covered in rust and mold with no sight of toilet paper around to use.

"Disgusting! I'm not using that! I'd rather pee on the floor!"

Speaking of which, the floor and the walls all around her were made out of solid concrete that were lighted by the fluorescent lights on the walls and ceilings. She placed her hands on it, feeling it's texture and durability. It was cold, and as she knocked on it with her knuckles she could tell it was solid and thick for it had no echo.

Further to the right, she saw a heavy metal security door that had the tiniest window you could think of, it was the only window in the room (if you could call it a window). At the bottom of the door was a small slit of an opening about a foot or two across. On the opposing side of the room across from the bed was a mirror. She ran towards the mirror and looked at herself more closely, especially at her neck. Alicia was right, there was definitely a puncture wound there. Frustrated and not knowing what to do, she sat on the firm bed and held her hands up to her cheeks shaking her head as she did so.

"Now what?"

That is when she noticed marks on the wall near the bed that looked like:


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/06/10/opinion/10homefires4/10homefires4-custom1.jpg

She headed over to them and felt them with her fingertips. They felt like they were made with either a chisel or a laser, she got closer to get a better look as she almost tripped on a chisel. She picked it up and looked at it closely. The shattered rock piece that was used for the chisel was nothing special, it was simply a carved rock that was definitely man made.

Did I make this?

Alicia held it up to the light to see if she could spot anything else, and as she did the sleeves of her prison dress slid down as she witnessed this:


http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSrBGDLT9E-g7bQLMms8jXBfpKjxbUpPltq-cmtMcYoaM0Zf3YGGA&t=1

Dropping the chisel, she counted the tick marks on both the wall and her forearm.

one, two, three, four ......145. Days maybe? How long have I been here? Did I make these?

While she counted, she noticed a faint red light on her fingertips. Turning around to see where the light came from, she noticed it in the corner of the ceiling attached to the wall. It was a camera, and it was definitely recording and following her every move and she could tell it was recording everything she said too. Sighing in frustration and confusion she took a close look at the camera.

092391+121 : 15:54:26 .... 3:54 p.m. military time.

The strange numbers before that seemed familiar some how until she realized it matched something.

0 + 9 + 2 + 3 + 9 + 1 + 121 = 145! The exact number written on myself and the walls! What does it mean?

Not sure what to think about the strange numbers at the time, she started to feel very sleepy. The firm bed being the only option, she reluctantly went to sleep on the firm as hell bed to see what the next day would be like in this concrete prison as the camera recorded her every move. After waking each day, she looked at the cameras statistics to see how long she has been here.

092391+176 : 19:14:53

Sighing she put her full body to the floor and began doing pushups hoping to pass the time staring at the tick marks on the wall as they continued to increase in number. She eventually moved on to leg strides using the bed for support for a different kind of exercise to keep her distracted.

092391+187 : 03:22:45

Alicia began to pace around the room walking from one corner to the other over and over again, switching opposing corners every so often as it seemed like she was definitely losing her sanity. It was absolutely critical that Alicia stay as sane and controlled as possible, for she couldn't risk losing it in a place like this.

092391+213 : 09:19:53

Workout ... pace ... workout ... pace ... stare at the camera, drink water, go to the bathroom, count the days and tick marks .... on and on. The slit in the door opening every so often while a tray of food and water slid towards her in order to keep her alive. Every once in a while, when not hungry, she would throw it at the door as she heard laughter while she did it. Alicia could have sworn that one of the laughs sounded familiar somehow, she wasn't sure why.

092391+239 : 11:57:12

"I need to find a way to get out of here." Observing the time carefully, since she knew she would receive her daily food at the same time she awaited for her opportunity to possibly escape this dreadful prison. Many attempts passed and she got closer to achieving her goal but to no success yet. The laughs just got louder as they noticed her trying to take advantage of the situation, it was now becoming a game to them. When they left, she looked through the tiny window of the solid door and noticed a red button and she had an idea.

Alicia waited until she got her food again and waited for the voices to leave. She then sat in the corner underneath the camera so she could not be seen as she created a tool out of the bones of the meat on her plate and the many strings of the pieces of celery and cut carrots overtime making it stronger and stronger as the days went on.

About five days later she was ready as she once again waited for the voices to leave as she slid towards the door, getting her hand underneath the slit as far as possible. estimating where the button was, she threw the bone that was wrapped with many layers of celery and carrot string towards the button missing many times. She fished it back for the 30th-ish time never giving up to push that button. On the 35th try she could hear the bone hit the button as she cried briefly with the tears of joy. Much to her surprise though, the door did not open, instead a hidden slit in the wall near the concrete door opened up revealing an air vent.

Alicia climbed in the air vent almost sneezing from the countless amounts of dust, cobwebs, and debree inching herself forward to see where it would bring her. Eventually the vent brought her to another room. The room was huge and also surrounded by nothing but concrete, but instead there were 10 doors in front of her each labeled '0 - 9'. She got closer to one of the doors (#5) and looked inside but could see nothing but blackness except for a faint light in the distance. All of the other doors had the view of the same thing through the window until she thought of an idea.

092391! That is what it MUST mean! What do I have to lose? I need to escape this dreadful area.

Going through door '0' she ended up in the same exact room, not knowing what else to do, she continued through '9' ; '2' ; etc until the last door was '1'. Trapped in the same exact room for the 5th or 6th time in a row, this was her last chance since she followed the assumed order she was given to take. Praying she was right, she opened door '1' as it changed to a set of stairs that led both up and down. She could hear the same voices and laughter as before as she realized they were coming back to her cell to feed her again.

Shit!

She started heading up the stairs but she was a few seconds to late as they spotted her...

"Hey you! Get back here!"

Is that who I think it is? It can't be.

Without to much time to think she was followed up the stairs all the way up to the top while the two dark clothed figures followed her all the way. Alicia eventually got to the top of the stairs and burst through the hollow door at it's top as she started gasping for now she was finally outside! The bright sun, and the fluffy clouds greeted her with a warm glow and the sense of heat and fresh air overpowered her senses from it being so long. She didn't have time to take it all in though, for she was still being followed. Coming to the edge of the giant prison facility, there was another building below her. She was trapped near the ledge with nowhere to go now as the figures finally caught up to her.

"There is nowhere to go Alicia. Come back to reality."

Shaking her head no, she turned around quickly and took a leap of faith off the building onto the other barely making the jump, while slightly spraining both of her wrists, bruising them as she did so. The figures both stopped at the ledge and simply just watched her ... staring at her as they did with their hollow eyes being completely clothed and covered in black.

Getting closer to the view of the city she noticed something strange, it was completely flat. As Alicia got closer she put her hands on the false image of freedom, for it was another wall! A concrete wall of the same material as her cell that simply had the image of freedom to distract her. The image gradually faded and returned back to the cell she was originally in as she now was sitting back in the chair that she was originally shackled in with shackles back in place. The two figures approached her and oddly showed concern as each of them, at the same time, rolled up their sleeves and showed:


http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSrBGDLT9E-g7bQLMms8jXBfpKjxbUpPltq-cmtMcYoaM0Zf3YGGA&t=1

Alicia watched in shock as both of the figures at the same time removed their dark masks and dark hoods revealing their true characteristics. They were both her, both Prolicio Prolixi --- Alicia as they both put their hands on her shoulders and whispered in both of her ears at the same time.

"You've been in this room, in this chair the whole time. You thought you escaped twice before, but in reality you never left. You created images of yourself in dark clothing to give you hope you actually escaped, when in fact you are doomed to stay."

As they said this, they shed all of their clothing and looked at her in their own insane asylums' clothing dresses that went to their knees while wearing jeans and black pants underneath that reached their ankles, the same articles of clothing she was wearing. As she observed all of this in horror, a third reconstruction of her appeared making this her third imaginary attempt.

She faded back into darkness as the lights went off as more hours went by.

As the many hours passes she awoke dazed and confused and noticed the shackles on her wrists were released somehow.

"Where am I and how did I get here? I need to find a way to escape." She could hear three voices and laughter in the distance. As she looked through the only 'window' in the concrete prison, they were all clothed in black and each wore black masks.

You are going to be my ticket out of here suckers.

......

Alicia was forever doomed to this prison, until she truly found her way out. Question is, did she ever?

[Itera]

There was a Fairy of Hangovers and she was very popular at parties. The thought went that if one got the one responsible for hangovers extremely drunk and kept her from waking up before everyone else woke up, then effectively this specific bit of causality would be looking the other way when you woke up from a night of consuming enough alcohol to drown a pondful of fish and you'd avoid the consequences altogether. It seems to work. As a result, only the very unlucky fairies suffered any ill consequences at all despite how Tenger Jerhal had an alcohol flow throughput rivaling several small rivers.

Hence, when Itera woke up and was met with a horrible pounding headache, she was extremely surprised. She's spent quite a while in Althanas now without being on the receiving end of one of these. Noises were horribly loud and distorted. The blackness behind her eyelids were filled with garish, sparkling lights. She cudgeled her brain to try to remember what had happened. Her brain responded limply, like a baby seal.

There were... a lot of bottles. And that one man whose trousers got spilled on and then caught fire. The highly formalized brawl... I think I lost a couple of coins on the betting pool. And then there was more drinking, and...

Itera became aware of a particular sound through the haze of noise and imagined noise. It was breathing, and not hers. The sound was low, heavy, and poorly controlled, like that of a crazed and cornered bull letting his beastly side go wild. A hint of alarm spread through her hazy mind and she opened her eyes.

Everything remained black, with the bright flashing speckles. A momentary panic came over her until her moving eyelids felt the familiar texture of silk cloth. The panic warmed to a subtle terror, instead. Still, the way that her breath had caught did not go unnoticed.

"Ah, you're awake." A beautifully rich voice said, from somewhere to her left. It was a woman's voice and was filled with great love and kindness, like that of an elder sister towards a sibling or perhaps a mother towards her child. An uncontrolled shiver went down Itera's spine. I know that voice! Who? Why is this terror-

Itera reached up to remove her blindfold and was rewarded with the soft clink of metal links. She froze. Iron was anathema to her flesh; even the lightest touch brought frigid-hot pain like a burning ice cube, though no mark showed. At the moment, that wide band of iron was on the other side of the sleeve of her dress, separated by just one layer of thin fabric. An identical pressure about her other wrist told her that someone had a sense of symmetry.

Slowly, Itera gained a sense of where all her limbs were. She was sitting in some kind of wooden chair with wide-splayed armrests. Her ankles were bound in much the same way. There was the sharp smell of hot metal in the air, almost completely hidden underneath a heavy floral bouquet. There were no sounds of the street, so she must have been moved out of town. Her mouth was dry.

"Why?" Greater fairies were, in general, not stupid. Itera didn't waste time with when, where, how, or what and went straight for the only question that mattered.

There was no immediate answer. There was the soft sound of porcelain on porcelain, a noise like pouring water, and the smells of tea joined its brethren in the air. It was good tea, too. Tea was serious business in Tenger Jerhal.

"You must be thirsty. Please, have a drink." The woman said again. She sounded like she was perhaps six or seven feet away. The heavy-breather moved closer, right over Itera, and a cup was thrust near her mouth. It was a man; his sweat surrounded his hand as a cloud of vapors. Itera grimaced and turned away; being fed tea like this is just undignified.

"It's not your usual way, but there are some circumstances out of your control here. Please, drink." The woman said. I know it! Who?!

A massive hand seized Itera by the throat. Two of its fingers pressed and her jaw opened involuntarily. The cup was poured in (truly, it was really good green tea) and it was all that the fairy could do to swallow as fast as she could to keep from choking. The overflow dribbled down the front of her dress. After a few very long seconds, it was over. The hand removed itself. Itera sat there coughing.

"That wasn't so bad, was it? How do you feel?"

When Itera didn't answer, she heard the scraping of something thin and metallic being picked up nearby. Something cold lightly touched her cheek and the iron-pain scorched through her mind. As quickly as it arrived, it was gone, leaving her gasping. She also realized that everything was starting to feel warm, even hot. The feel of the fabric of her dress was... wondrous. Even the slight air currents were like passionate kisses.

"How do you feel?"

"I... Iron."

"Steel, actually. They were specially made. It would be unseemly to be trying to use an old, rusty sledgehammer."

"... drugs..."

The voice brightened, "Do you like it? I thought you would appreciate that, since you introduced me to this particular one in the first place. I worked hard on duplicating and improving it over the years. It's a fair bit more potent and lasts almost the whole day now. Please, enjoy."

Several things clicked together in Itera's slowly-clouding mind. A cold sweat of terror mingled with the hot sweat already covering her. "Isylle."

"Yes, Itera?" There was no triumph in that voice. It sounded like a mother answering her child's query, preparing to marvel at the newest crayon drawing. It sounded like Isylle.

"Is this for the time when I dumped the entire bottle into your beer?"

"Yes, Itera." Isylle was closer now, speaking from barely a foot away from Itera's ear, "Please remember that you also informed every reporter in the realm. They invaded my house and my room while I was under that prank of yours. The articles and the sketches circulated for quite some time afterwards."

A soft, long-fingered hand lifted Itera's chin. She felt a collar click into place around her neck, then there was another click against the high back of the chair. The smell of iron was very close now.

"You." Isylle had stepped away. There was the creaking of door hinges.

"Yes, mistress." The man in the room finally spoke. He didn't sound eager. More... resigned. The voice sounded like resigned gravel inside a wooden box.

"It's mid-morning. You have all of today to get our guest to apologize. You may use any of the steel on the second shelf and any of the toys on the third shelf. I would be upset if I find a bruise or wound on her afterwards. If she apologizes, you can have her tonight. If she doesn't, I'm going to have you tonight."

"Yes, mistress."

The door started squeaking shut, "Oh, and please put away the brands. What made you think that I was going to allow those? She's a good friend of mine."

Over the next eight hours, Itera suffered indignities. Her voice didn't carry very far out of the cottage cellar, but neither did she get hoarse. It was probably the tea. Towards the end, as she laid limp and sobbing in her restraints, her tormentor was practically begging her and sobbing, too.

"You gots to apologize! Please! She's- she's vicious! You won't like if she gets t'work!" His voice sounded low, almost like he was on his knees. "Fer botha us! I beg of you! Don't let her take me an-"

The door creaked open. "Well?"

"She din't apologize, mistress."

"Ah, I see. Please leave us. Your dinner is in your room."

Twenty minutes later, Itera rolled and bit carefully into a crepe, then took another sip of tea. It was still excellent tea. The covered porch of the house was just the right size for a small tea table and two comfy chairs. The brilliant colors of the sunset covered the sky and the pine forest was like a black cutout speckled with the dancing green lights of countless fireflies.

She looked across at her dining companion and said, "I'm sorry, Isylle, for pulling that prank on you. I'm sorry for calling the newspapers, especially Iya."

"Oh? Was he close?" Isylle almost looked regretfully disappointed. Almost.

"I was ready to apologize within ten minutes." Itera sipped her tea. The antidote had worked quickly, but she still felt a little residual heat.

"Why didn't you?"

"He was a human."

In companionable silence, the two watched the last of the light disappear and the myriad stars peek out like static, heavenly mirrors of the fireflies below. The food disappeared and the teapot dried. As always, Isylle's cooking was fantastic.

"Isylle?"

"Hmm?"

"Could I please have a few bottles of that?"

[Ashla]

NOTICE: I have permission from BlueEvilGhostofSeaside to use and control her character!

Ashla moaned, she felt drowsy and sick... She felt something cold wrapped around her, but what what it? She opened her eyes, despite the fact that they wanted to drop right down again! When her eyes were open though, she was wide awake and terrified; she was chained to a chair, in the middle of a dark, underground road! It was obviously abandoned, hadn't been used is year. She gasped and called out for her cat, "Fireleaf! Fireleaf!"

There was no reply.

"Somebody! Help me!" Ashla called; but there was still no answer. "How did I ever get here? I don't even remember what happened before!"

Then she heard footsteps! Please let it be a rescue! Please! "Hello?" she asked. But no one replied.

"Drat!" Ashla snapped; she leaned back into her chair and tried to make plans to get out of this mess. Plenty of ideas came to her mind, but she realized they would all fail in some spots... She then turned her attention to what sounded like a pair of two voices from around the corner:

"Are you sure this plan will work?" a male voice asked impatiently.

"Indeed." a female's voice replied, "and after you get that gem, I get the money! Deal?"

The male sounded uncertain, "But I don't think she-"

"I saw that little brat holding that gem! I swear!" this female sounded so familiar to her!

That voice! Where have I heard that voice before? She kept asking herself.

"Are you positive?" the man asked.

"I'm sure of it! Now go!" This voice was young, but dark. It could send chills up your spine, if she didn't kill you first! that voice belonged to-

Ashla opened her mouth to speak, "FlameShadow! I know this is you, show yourself this instant!"

Out of a corner came the exact person Ashla had expected: young but lethal bounty huntress Dawn Ivy FlameShadow!

"I should have known..." Ashla growled and bared her teeth, trying to show aggression.

"Why, Icebreaker! You're up already, which is a good thing!" She pulled out a knife and walked up to her; she grabbed Ashla's face and gave her a small cut across her cheek, "Where is it!?" she snapped.

Ashla didn't know which she didn't like most: the pain from the cut, or the feeling of her own blood dripping down her face. Ashla moved her tongue around the inside of her mouth, then replied, "Where's what?"

She felt the knife cut her skin again, the other cheek, "You know what I'm talking about!"

"What?" Ashla asked, feeling afraid that she may get cut again.

Instead though, the assassin rolled her eyes, "you know! The gem from the Duchess's house!"

Ashla remembered now, "... Ohhhhhhh! that gem!"

Ashla had been working as a cook at the the Duchess's house for about a week, because she needed money for a tent. When a valuable gem had been stolen from her. Ashla then made a deal the Duchess that if she could find this gem and brought it back, the Duckess would pay the remaining amount for what she needed. It had taken an entire week, but Ashla had finally found out who took it, FlameShadow, and stole it back! While she had been making the run for it through the town they were in though, she had been caught by FlameShadow. Ashla knew she had been caught, so she had looked behind where she had been cornered, which was next to a market, and threw the Gem into the trough of apples. Thankfully, FlameShadow didn't catch that. From then on, Ashla didn't remember. It was then that an idea of how to get out of this mess, and reacquire the gem and jumped into her mind! She smirked, "I'm afraid I don't have the gem."

"What??" FlameShadow asked, anger inflaming her!

"I dropped it in the orange trough right before you captured me." She was trying not to laugh.

FlameShadow growled, "Fine, then!" and she began to stalk away.

Ashla knew she was going after the gem, so she reverted to trying to get out of these chains that tide her to her seat. it took about a full hour, but she managed to get free! It was then that she scrammed, following FlameShadow's footsteps out into the cityYes! she was so happy to see the city light again! She only took a second to rest before dashing to the market though. Once she got there, she was surprised to find that FlameShadow wasn't there. She was very nervous as she salvaged through the tough of apples, then she found it! She smiled brightly as she held the Duchess's gem in her hands!

Now to get it back to her! Ashla dashed away hiding the gem in her pocket, her mission was a success!

[Silence Sei]

Stepping in for Amber Eyes until our computer gets fixed. Due to these same computer restraints, I will try my best to get a vignette submission out whenever I have the opportunity.

1st place goes to Itera and recieves 200 exp, 200 GP
2nd place to TheOnlyGhost and she recieved 160 exp, and 175 GP
3rd place to BlueGhostOfTheSeaside and she recieves 100 exp and 0 GP

[Letho]

EXP/GP added.