Places to Chat
RP! Anyone want
Chatterbox: Inkwell
RP! Anyone want
RP! Anyone want to join me?
Rhi slumped down against the cold, stone, dungeon wall, after yet another futile attempt to wriggle her legs out of the shackles. It was hopeless to try to do anything. She was stuck here, for good or until someone came down here to get her. And bring her up to her excecution, most likely. Once again she cursed her stupidity. Why had she tried to create a magic fire? The alley had been cold and dark, but not nearly as cold and dark as a dungeon. She had known she would get caught. She had known magic was against the law. And it wasn't as if she was a real witch, one who could turn attackers into toads or whatever. And now she was stuck here. May as well give up, she thought. Can't do anything.
Then a sound jolted her out of her thoughts -- a loud, long creak as the door swung open, and light came down into the dungeon. "Anyone down there?" a voice shouted.
submitted by ZNZ / Rhi
(April 20, 2010 - 12:39 pm)
(April 20, 2010 - 12:39 pm)
((Censoring the captcha, that made me grin :D
So I'm talking to Mentira?))
//Ven//
"I'm not joining your stupid Dodecagon!" cried Temperance, looking distraught and stomping her foot.
Ven looked unfathomably annoyed. "At this point I think I rather don't care if you join or not, if you could just get the blasted name right." She jutted her chin towards Trompeur. "I think I know how you feel now, Thomasina."
"Just go away and stop bothering me!" said Temperance huffily. As she spoke, she flipped her long hair and Ven caught her breath. It took "Temperance" only a split second to figure out her mistake--- Temperance's scar wasn't on her neck.
"Mentira?" Ven gaped, incredulous.
Temperance/Mentira looked pouty. "Ven. Still recruiting for your geometric rebellion group like you have been for the past wasted five years of your life, I see."
"Still..." Ven paused. "What is it you're doing now? Running an inn for renegade witches? I wonder what mother would think of that?"
Mentira scowled at her. "I bet you wish you were a competent enough older sister to persaude me to do otherwise, don't you?"
Ven sneered back. "I will never understand you, Men. In the meantime I have to go catch someone who's dangerously in peril of letting her talents go to waste like you have. We wouldn't want the Captain's daughter, of all people, to end up running a bed and breakfast..." She beckoned to the rest of the little group she'd accumulated and swept away.
((that was kind of spur-of-the-moment and there might've been a plot hole, feel free to correct anything... on the bright side I'm back to past tense.))
(May 3, 2010 - 5:01 pm)
MARY. I cannot explain how much I love what you just wrote. Mentira had no scar? Genius. Dodecagon? Hilarious. Ven is the sister of Men? BRILLIANT! I just picked Mentira because it was the Spanish word for female liar and I figured it would be her boring name while Menteur was her "adopted" name (like Trompeur).
AWESOME.
(May 3, 2010 - 7:17 pm)
My mind goes round and round. Temperance must know something I don't about this geometry group. That's my only explanation. Why else would she by spending all this time and energy running away from them? What, though? I want to call out to her, "Wait, come back! They're going to keep us safe." Aren't they? And Trompeur -- her name means misleading? Who is she really? Suddenly I feel terribly alone.
As Ven sweeps around and goes, with Trompeur and Seryn behind, I hesitate and turn to Mentira. "What's the matter with those Diamond people? Why did you say it was a waste? They'll keep us safe -- won't they?"
She looks down at me and says, not unkindly, "The Rhombus has their own agenda, and I'm not so sure 'safe' is on it. I don't know that they care about 'safe'. They're ruthless." She shook her head. "My sister is strong, though. She'll probably get Temp eventually. But I think Temp has the right idea fighting her."
I look down at my feet, suddenly ashamed at how much I've trusted Ven.
"I'm sure I don't blame you for anything you've done. You probably had good reasons. Just -- be careful."
"Yes. Thank you!"
I run after Ven and the others, trying to catch up. And I do, just in time to hear Ven say, "So, she's probably gone to someplace ridiculously dangerous that we'll have to rescue her from. Maybe the Ridge."
A gasp from Seryn. "She wouldn't go there!"
"That's why I think she would," Ven says calmly. "That's what she would want us to think. She must be on the way to the Ridge."
I am nodding. This makes sense.
Then a confused look passes over Ven's face. "Then why are we going this way? The Cliffs of Despair are in the west."
Wait, what? That doesn't make sense. We're not going to the Cliffs of Despair, we're going to the Ridge! Right?
But -- "Oh, you're right!" Trompeur says. "That is the wrong way."
And Seryn shakes her head and says, "Silly us."
They all have the same confused look on their faces.
Confusion spell! I think. Temp must have put it in place to make us go in the wrong direction. I need to warn the others --
Ven and the others are already ahead of me. Why did I stop? What was I thinking about? Something important, but I can't remember. Then I shake my head. Of course it wasn't important. The Cliffs of Despair are so far away, we need to hurry up. We've already lost so much time by going in the wrong direction. I hurry to catch up with the others.
(May 3, 2010 - 7:20 pm)
Aaand I loved yours, ZNZ. Dude, this thread so rocks. How on earth do you guys manage to keep your scenes so short though? You must know something I don't.
//Temperance// (Have been forgetting to do this, sorry.)
"Temp, seriously," Aalton pressed, grabbing my reins and pulling Ash to a halt. "What is wrong with you?"
"Nothing," I said, trying to snap at him, only I was so weak to even sound annoyed. My vision was fading, my skin was cold and clammy, my head felt as though it were attached by a string, and I had nearly toppled from the saddle thrice already. It was time to give in. "Oh alright, perhaps we should stop for a minute."
Aalton was off his courser in half a second and leading the two steeds towards a copse near the woods. "Don't worry," he said, catching me about to protest, "we're not going in. I just want to have some shelter and someplace to tie the horses. Sun's almost down so I wouldn't want to be in the woods anyway."
Well, okay. As long as we weren't going in. I let my thoughts wander as the horses walked slowly along. This confusion spell was taking its toll on me. It had been foolish of me to do it after feeling the strain of a simple Veil, but I hadn't quite trusted in Mentira's deception. Surely they had recognized something about her that wasn't me. Rhi probably spotted it first; I'd known her the longest. A full five minutes longer than Ven. I let out a high-pitched laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of that thought, which caused Aalton to look around in alarm. I paid him no mind.
Silly royal. What was he still doing here with me? Perhaps it was good though... I wasn't going to be moving for hours once I finally drifted off to sleep and it would be nice to have a human looking out for me instead of just Ash.
I winced slightly as the confusion spell tugged on me. They were getting farther away. Another few minutes and I could drop the spell, knowing that it would last well into the night. And yet I almost didn't want to. I had expected some resistance, of course; Ven was an impressive witch. But the spell had caught Ven as easily as it had caught the serving girl. No, it was Rhi that was giving me all the trouble. Rhi who kept rejecting the spell and forcing me to redouble my efforts. Rhi who was exhausting me. I wondered if perhaps conjuring buttons was a harder skill than I'd thought. She clearly had some untapped power. Hopefully she'd get away before the Rhombus....
My thoughts were interrupted as Ash jerked to a stop and sent my face slamming into his mane. I grumbled into the coarse gray hairs and slowly straightened myself.
"Okay," said Aalton, coming around Ash to my left. He held up a hand. "Down you get."
I debated telling him I didn't have the energy even to dismount, but decided not to since the act of telling him would require energy as well. And so, much like a tree does as it falls, I simply leaned to one side. If Aalton caught me, great. If he didn't, well then hopefully the fall would knock me out so I didn't feel the pain.
Impressively he did catch me. Not so gracefully, and with a few choice words directed at me that would have made his aunt the Queen blush, but at least no one was hurt. It seemed like hours later--though really it was probably only a minute or two-- that I was propped up against a tree watching him make a fire.
"We'll rest here for the night," he said firmly, in case I wanted to argue. "Then in the morning, we'll head for the Rift and hopefully reach it by evening."
I let out a faint, scornful laugh as my vision faded completely. There was no way in the Dark Goddess' Underworld that I was going to be anywhere near conscious by morning. Poor silly royal.
(May 3, 2010 - 10:09 pm)
((Epiphany is a scary song...
@ Tempest: *blushes* Thank you. :) I'm glad you got the Dodecagon bit because I only learned that that shape existed a couple months ago. As to long posts, don't worry, I like reading them))
//Ven//
As Temperance, miles away, fainted and her spell snapped, something in Ven's head cleared. As she realized what had happened--- "Mentira!" she guessed, furious--- she swore abruptly. Seryn, Rhi, and Trompeur all seemed to have come to the same realization, but were milder about expressing it.
"I'm an idiot," hissed Ven. "I am such an idiot!"
"Well..."
Ven shot a sharp look at Rhi. "Hush please. You have no friends."
Rhi looked vexed. "What d---"
"Shh, you're annoying people." Ven removed a small black device from a pocket hidden within her coat. "Look, my communication device is in the shape of a rhombus."
Rhi leaned in. "Can I see?"
"No, I don't like you." Ven pushed a button on the thing. "Denise can you send something over to the Desert-o'er-the-Rift? ...Like a plane. Something like that." She paused, listening. "Umm... can one of you ugly people hand me a map, please?" Trompeur pulled one out of a bag, and Ven examined it. "N 32 and W 89... Or something like that. You can figure it out, probably. ...when? That's too long! Can't you do something magical or something?" She let out an annoyed huff of breath and looked resigned. "Yes, that's fine. Well, no, not really. I'm just saying it to make you feel better. Okay yes. Bye!"
She pressed another button and turned to the other three. "Hey, guess what? We're going to camp here for a few hours while one of my techy friends sends some kind of transportation because I'm tired and lazy. Does anyone want something to eat while we wait?"
There was a chorus of affirmatives. Ven shook her head, looking exasperated. "You really thought I was nice enough to be serious?"
(May 4, 2010 - 3:07 pm)
Whoa now... tech? Tech AND magic? I was picturing this as a medieval-times kind of era. Sharp twist to the nose, there.
And is it dodecagon or dodecahedron? Or are they two different shapes? Or have I simply pulled that last one out of my--nope. They're two different shapes. Mine's 3D, while yours is 2D. And thats our geometry lesson for today, folks!
(May 4, 2010 - 6:24 pm)
((I know, I know I always bring tech into everything. *hits self* We should try to keep this tech-free I think. I was picturing more medeival era like you were. I supposed the communication device was more of a bewitched magical thing, not tech though. Instead of a techy tranportation thing we could just use a coach?
*frowns at self* I need to get off my Technomancy phase. Sorry))
(May 5, 2010 - 3:00 pm)
Haha... no big. I like the idea of keeping it medieval, but if everyone else likes the tech, I'm in. I'll wait for someone else to write and make the call. It was cool though, don't think I'm dissing it!
(May 6, 2010 - 9:16 pm)
This seems more Georgian era (think Marie Antionette, Duchess of Devonshire, Jane Austen, etc.) than Medival, Maybe even Elizabethan, I mostly picked that up because of the corset comment though, and the fact that you have govoners, and guards not knights. Also, it dosn't seem to take place on our world either, so it's perfectly possible to have techey stuff and corsets at the same time.
(Fashion and technology don't have to correspond you know.)
(August 4, 2010 - 4:51 pm)
((I also pictured it as a Medieval Era))
@ML: Tech in the medieval era is cool. And since Ven belongs to the Rhombus, including tech is a good idea. :-)
//Trompeur//
I was staggering from hunger as we waited for some of Ven's friends (none that I have heard of) prepared to pick us up.
"Shouldn't us Rhomberites (yeah, I'm ripping of City of Ember) be quick and fast at this sort of stuff?" I asked, "And why can't we just transport there."
"Because some of us," Ven answered, glancing at Seryn and Rhi, "Can't transport well enough. And I won't risk transporting more than one person, you know what the results might be."
I shuddered, thinking about my friend Beulah's adventure in transporting. Five went, three came back. Two of them had swapped bodies in the process.
"If your friends aren't coming back soon, then I'll go look for some food."
So I walked along the vast plain (If that's where they were) and headed towards a bush. Suddenly, I heard some sort of chopper sound.
That's strange. I thought, In all my years of Necromancing, shouldn't choppers be in the 20th century?
So thinking it was Ven's friends, I ran back to where I had begun.
K, I'm not really sure if they're in a plain, so you should probably change it. And necromancing is sorta like time travel.
(May 6, 2010 - 3:59 pm)
I thought necromancy was magic that reanimated the dead?
Not to be done without a fully-trained professional of course. Don't try it at home.
Admin
(May 7, 2010 - 9:00 am)
((Necromancy is... basically like resurrecting and/or speaking to the dead. Not... exactly time travel but I guess you could somehow figure that through Necromancy she figured choppers are futuristric? *shrug*))
(May 7, 2010 - 3:22 pm)
@Mary and Tempest: You're right. It was mentioned in a book I'm reading and I took it the wrong way. Sorry.
I'm currently waiting for ML's post to show. ;-)
(May 7, 2010 - 3:47 pm)
((Tech: I just figure it's all done by magic, so it doesn't bother
me. Although, with this Necromancing Olive's talking about, maybe they
went to the future and got them? And yes, the name is wrong, but can we just go with it? That can be what they call it in this reality? And I assume by "chopper" you mean heliocopter?))
//Rhi//
Trompeur rushes back. "They're here! In a chopper!"
"You sure?" Ven asks.
"Just about."
"Hey, you!" says Ven. "Stupid Girl! Go see if it is."
"Me?" I say.
Ven rolls her eyes and says, "Duh."
"How will I be able to tell?" More to the point, why are you suddenly heaping me with abuse? Why only me? What have I done?
"There'll be a rhombus on it," she says, as if talking to someone incredibly dense. "But if there isn't, then it's not my friends and you're be in terrible danger. Which is why I'm sending you, Stupid Girl. Because no one cares if you get hurt."
No, they probably don't. I stand up and go and look.
There is a strange-looking machine, with -- yes, it has a rhombus on it.
I run back. "It's them!"
"Thank you, Stupid Girl. Come on, everybody." She leads us over to the strange, sputtering machine, calling out something incoherent. The machine stops buzzing and a ladder comes down.
Ven climbs up expertly, and the rest of us follow, albeit not so fast. Driving the thing, I see when I get up, is a woman about Ven's age, with black, black hair and a slightly purple haze floating around her. "Venecus," she says.
"Prospectus," Ven says, and gives a slight nod of her head.
Prospectus glances at Seryn and me. "New witches?"
"Stupid Girl here is," Ven says, pointing at me. "The other one is ... a friend of hers, apparently. You have the other girl?"
"Yes."
Excited, I look around the thing. But I don't see anyone. Trompeur whispers, "You don't see your friend because they bent the space inside here to make more room. You'll see her soon enough."
Prospectus hesitates, then says, "She was extremely stubborn. She ... she's here, but she forced me to bring her royal friend. And their horses."
Royal friend? Who's that?
"She forced you?" Ven seems to be having a hard time believing this. Then she shakes her head. "Well, of course, everyone knows we don't have you for your magic. Still ..."
"You never miss an opprotunity to remind me of that fact," Prospectus says, a bit sourly. "Yes, she managed to force me. And she's not even unconcious yet."
"Well." I think that Ven does not know what to say.
"We need to go," the other woman says.
Ven nods and shoves the three of us into a wall. There is a pop! and suddenly we are in a small room with Temperance, two horses, and -- Aalton Pryor?
(May 7, 2010 - 7:36 pm)
Oops. I think ML's post is the one about Necromancy.
I never noticed, but CB time is American. That explains so much. :-P
I can get even more specific for you, Olive. All of us Admins live in the Central Time Zone of America as well. We usually check the comment queue around 9:30 in the morning, noon, and 4:30 in the afternoons on weekdays like clockwork. (And of course on the weekends and during the evenings, but I am not responsible for those times!)
Admin
(May 7, 2010 - 5:01 pm)