A trick of the light {Open}

[Alearto]

((Open. This is just an introduction to try to get a little experience, really, and I must say I don't have any stories planned for this thread. Hop on in if you have a character who's bored and needs something to do.))

At the Mountain-Tear Falls of Scara Brae, a young man draped in a white cloak is seated near the water's edge watching the play of the light through the endlessly cascading water. The mist of the waterfall catches the midday sun, refracting it into a brilliant menagerie of color.

The figure is cross-legged on a flat river rock, close enough to the base of the falls that he is dampened by the spray. His face is upturned towards the rainbow suspended above him. Without warning, the colors caught in the mist begin to fluctuate, changing intensity and hue. The rainbow alternately becomes brighter and fades to near invisibility as the light is shifted, creating a dazzling display in the air. The light continues to flicker and swirl through the makeshift prism created by the waterfall as the young man watches intently.

[Seth_Rahl]

Damn.
Ifrit cursed the light. It burned his eyes, seared his very flesh as his red cloak blew backwards to expose his black skin. Why was he up here anyways? He had simply gone up here out of mild curiousity, but was now regretting it.
He clenched his fangs and held up a hand to block the searing sun. It was time to go.
He was just descending back down the mountain when he took notice of the boy sitting cross-legged on the river rock. Unlike Ifrit, the boy seemed to bathe in the light itself, soaking it in a serene picture of pure relaxation. Ifrit did take notice, also, of the boy's hunting knife and the seemingly crystal sword.
Another swordsman? Ifrit thought to himself. He changed his mind about going back down to the town and approached the boy.

[HikariAngel]

“It has to be somewhere around here… unless the guy I got this map from was nothing more than a swindler himself.”

Talking to no-one in particular, a small catgirl walked along the small winding trail that she hoped would lead her to the Mountain-Tear Falls. It was her first time in this new land, and she figured that she might as well see it as a tourist before delving into the darker parts of the island where she would spend most of her time otherwise. This was the first stop on her tour map, swindled from another unaware man in the bustling city streets. Her greatest problem came not from the rough terrain but from her inability to make out what direction the map was supposed to face. There was no legend, nothing to tell which way was north, and only half of the roads were marked. Three times already she had doubled back after going down a road that wasn’t marked on the map.

The midday sun shining through the leaves of the trees played tricks with the girl’s olive-colored clothing, sometimes accenting the gold trim and other times allowing the dull green to fall deeper into shadow until it looked like a piece of her body was missing. Her hazel eyes flickered from map to path like a hummingbird’s wings as she stopped at yet another unmarked intersection. According to the map, she was supposed to be on a path that curved to the left, but the road in front of her was a T-shaped intersection. The silvery white hair that fell to her shoulders was still somewhat damp from the morning dew that she had set off in. Sighing, the catgirl’s dark-tipped ears folded sadly against the top of her head and her tail drooped as she took a left at the intersection. She hadn’t had anything to eat since before the sun rose so long ago, and her stomach was making sure she knew it.

Five more minutes of walking later, the girl stopped and her ears perked up. She could hear something… it sounded like… falling water? Dropping the useless map on the ground, she ran with all the speed her little legs could muster; for hardly breaking five feet tall, she was rather fast. Relying on her hearing more than on the map, the girl slowed down as the magnificent falls came into view. Apparently there were two others there before her, a white-cloaked man seated cross-legged by the base of the falls and a red-cloaked, black-skinned man… thing. Her nose wrinkled slightly as she approached the two; the black-skinned man smelled demonic somehow. She hardly gave them a second as she flopped onto her back on the sun-warmed grass, a quiet purr resonating from her throat as she curled up into a ball. Her dark-tipped silver tail twitched contentedly as she lay there mesmerized by the crashing of the water and the dancing rainbow above. She gave no thought to how the rainbow was changing hues or intensity; her only thought was how great the warm grass felt with the rhythm of the falling water drumming away.

[Seth_Rahl]

Ifrit was nearly near the boy with the white cloak when he heard running behind him. He instinctively spun and drew his massive sword, but when he looked back there was no one.

I was sure I heard something... he thought to himself, and was just about to turn back to the white-cloaked swordsman when he noticed the...sleeping?...catgirl on the dew-soaked grass. When did she get here? he thought to himself again, and stared, puzzlingly, at the newcomer.

[Alearto]

Alearto's head snapped around, his concentration broken by the new arrivals; as he did so, the colors filtering through the mist suddenly returned to normal, resuming the familiar curve of the rainbow.

"Oh!" he stammered, seeming somewhat flustered, "I didn't realize anyone else was here. I was just practicing, sorry."

He stood up, glancing at each of them in turn with uncertainty. Had they arrived together? They seemed like a mismatched pair, if so. Alearto made a mental note to try and be more aware of his surroundings while meditating, realizing that this far from town there was little chance of help arriving should he find himself in trouble.

"I... uh... What brings you two out this far into the forest? I hope I wasn't bothering you."

[Seth_Rahl]

The boy spoke and Ifrit turned around, his attention shifting from the catgirl. Her sudden appearence had thrown him off-guard, for he hadn't sensed anything beforehand.

Am I getting rusty? Seth worried. Unconciously he stroked the handle of his giant sword before returning it to its sheath.

"No, you werent' bothering me." Ifrit said politely, but still had to cover his eyes with one arm so he wouldn't be blinded by the sun's rays. "I only came up here out of mild curiousity, but this light...aren't you blinded by it too?"

[Alearto]

Alearto seemed puzzled by the question at first, tilting his head to the side.

"The light? No, why?" Suddenly he seemed to understand the other man's position. "Oh! Is it too bright for you? Here, hang on a second."

He lifted one hand in Ifrit's direction, and slowly let it fall, brow furrowed in concentration. As he did so, Ifrit appeared to darken, as though a shadow were being cast upon him from some unseen source. To Ifrit, it would appear as though he were surrounded by dark-tinted glass, reducing the glare of the light in his eyes.

"There, is that any better? Or still too bright? And... miss, is it too bright for you as well?" he finished, directing the last question to the catgirl sprawled on the grass.

[Seth_Rahl]

The demon dropped his hand in awe as the boy did some movement that cast Ifrit's entire form in shadow, shading him from the light's harmful gaze. What...what is this?! he thought to himself in amazement. How can he protect me from the sun like this?

Ifrit directed his gaze to the boy, who had asked both him and the...sleeping...catgirl if the light was still too bright. "How? How did you do that?" he asked the boy, still amazed.

[Alearto]

"How did I..." Alearto begins to ask carefully, unsure of the man's meaning. "You mean, how did I cut back the light? I just filtered it, really, it isn't too difficult once you've done it a few times. It's just a matter of gripping it loosely, so that plenty of light can still get through without allowing too much in. I just focused the leftovers on the ground."

Alearto stopped, as though this explained everything, and stood uncomfortably for a moment with his focus shifting between the cat and the demon.

"Wait..." he said finally, "Were you asking how I did that specifically, or just how I was able to make it darker for you at all? Because that's just photomancy, it's what I was practicing when you got here. It's just 'bending' light, moving it, redirecting it, making it do different things and at different wavelengths. That's all."

[HikariAngel]

Lying on the warm grass, the catgirl purred softly and twitched her tail until she caught the more evil-feeling of the two others looking at her out of the corner of her eye. Curling up a little tighter, she fluffed the grass underneath her head into a makeshift pillow. The dancing rainbow was like a silent lullaby as she laid there, the colors hypnotizing her hazel eyes. She enjoyed the colors until they stopped dancing when the nicer-feeling man lost his concentration. The catgirl stood up and stretched out, her fingers and toes unsheathing the claws lying relatively harmlessly at the tip of each finger and toe. Well, perhaps her hands weren’t all that harmless. Covered with olive-colored gloves and golden-painted armor to protect the back of her hands and her forearms, six-inch blades slipped out of the end of each of her fingers as she flexed her claws.

“Bothering me?” The girl said rather innocently, “No… I was rather enjoying your light show.”

The dark-skinned man spoke up as well, though apparently the light was bothering him. This rather confused the catgirl because his dark skin should have been bothered by the sun as much… or at least that was what she learned while growing up.

“I don’t see why the light would be too bright,” she said in response to the man’s query. “I think it is a very nice light.”

Listening again as the now-shaded man asked about how it was possible for the white-robed man to bend the light to his will, the catgirl let out a small chuckle. While she may not have the ability to bend light to her will, she did have an interesting skill of her own. His explanation was simple enough even before he said the piece about photomancy.

“You mean you don’t have any magic, mister?”

Walking over to the base of the waterfall pond, the catgirl extended one of the blades from her left hand and began to stir it slightly in the water. Mere seconds after the steel blade touched the water, a thin layer of frost began to spread across the surface, the intricate crystals forming a beautiful skin atop the water. Retracting her claw, the blade slid silently back into her glove as she stood up and turned to face the other two.

“That’s about all I can do, though. But it’s great for cooling down soup.” She said happily. She didn’t really care how limited her magic was as long as it worked. “Oh I’m Monica, it’s nice to meet you.”

[Seth_Rahl]

Ifrit started suddenly when the cat-girl...awoke?...He still wasn't sure if she had been sleeping or not.

Wait...Photomancy?

Turning to the white-garbed man, he asked with sincere curiousity, "What is photomancy? The power to make light bend to your will?" He looked at his own claws in disgust. "I would give almost anything for that power. The light, it...it bothers me sometimes."

Then the catgirl asked, "You mean you don't have any magic, mister?" To Ifrit, she sounded young and innocent, but he noticed the six inch blades slipping out of her fingers. He was about to answer when she walked over the base of the waterfall, extended one of her claws and put it in the water. Ifrit watched as a thin layer of frost spead like lava across the pond.

"Wonder of wonders." Her power reminded him of his fiance', Shiva. On the outside, he looked the same as always, but his heart grew heavy as he remembered the promise he had given her. Now I won't be able to fufill it... He thought sadly. He had loved her, but his quest had taken him too far, too many places to turn back.

He was in too deep.

"Hello, Monica. Your power is ice? Ironic." He said with a wry smile. "Yeah, I do have magic, but I don't like using it."

He extended one hand out to the frozen pond, palm first. He concentrated for a moment with his eyes shut, then opened them and said, "Burst."

Instantly, a howling fireball of shadows and flame came to being and flew through the air, distorting vision. It exploded on the surface of the frozen pond and water shot up about ten feet, then coming down in a spray of mist.

Ifrit placed a hand on a good-sized rock to steady himself as he panted. Damn..., he cursed. I didn't mean to used half, I only wanted to use a little...

[Taskmienster]

This thread has been sitting for a full year. Since no response has been made to create activity I am going to be moving this. If you would like it to be reopened please feel free to PM myself or another admin and they will be able to move it for you back to Scara Brae.