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Post by Rainbow Rage on Jan 20, 2015 23:26:17 GMT -5
Shadowland
You feel your skin tight against your body, the cold flesh taut against your cage of bones. You feel empty, starving yet no urge to eat. Pallid, despondent. How did it come to this? The world outside is dark. Night. The clouds cover what little stars remain, most plucked from the sky after it all happened. What light could sprout from the world outside is drowned in a shower of rain, pouring relentlessly in the dead of night. Alone.
You suddenly feel it. You aren't sure what it is... is it hunger? No... but it is something. The urge to press on suddenly fills you as you notice something odd: A flickering of light in what you thought to be an empty courtyard. It's only then that you start to become aware of everything around you: There are dozens of rooms lining this once ancient building, now standing derelict after years of neglect. This forsaken place is cluttered with fallen pillars, shattered pews and rusted candleabras. A single fire is lit in the area before you as you stand on the mezzanine overlooking an open floor before you. Sound. Others are hear, moaning, groaning, aching. How long have you been here? When did the stars fall? Did one fall here and crush the ceiling? Is that what brought ruin to this place? So many questions, yet you cannot recall an answer. It's just then that you hear the clangorous clinking of chains. Something is moving.The world is in focus for once. You stand atop a mezzanine about fifteen feet above a ruined area where you see a shrine to some forgotten faith, a small makeshift fire and several destoyed pews. The area circles around against three walls each with windows leading to the stormy night beyond. Far across the way, near the confessional booths you hear the sound of chains and two sets of stairs flank either side of the mezzanine, allowing you to go to the ground floor.
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Post by SbFe_Fluegel-kun on Jan 21, 2015 0:12:41 GMT -5
Where am I... ?
Thinking for a moment I am blinded, I lay still in the encroaching darkness and stinging rain.
WHO am I... ?
I cannot recall, this ringing in my ears won't stop.
Am I... alive?
Is this pain real? For now, I choose to accept it... Is that what it means to exist?
Am I... alone?
As I open my eyes, the darkness from before seems to abate into a haze of shadows moving in the dark.
Is this real?...
As I try to lift an arm to grasp at the shadows, lightning strikes my bones and sears my mind.
Is this worth it?...
Breaths steam labored from my jaw as I first lift my left arm, then right, and lying prone in this husk of existential quandary I raise my head for the first time since my... death? Memory is blighted by embers of burning electricity coursing in my limbs, or perhaps absent altogether. It matters little, now that I have raised myself above the status of worms; first to one knee and then, with all the labors of the world made manifest on my shoulders, to hunched standing above the misty darkness that coats the ground. I stand and raise myself to full posture, as if to declare to the world my very existence in all the manner of triumph I could muster. I set my eyes to task and for the first time I truly see; a host of objects litter the darkened horizon of my vision, and beyond them... a light? As I try to focus my sight, daggers lash out at my mind and pierce my very eyes, averting my gaze unwillingly. Fighting through the onslaught, my only thought is of the singularity in this enveloping darkness, that beacon which has consumed both reason and madness. Left, right, then left again, the flesh melding slowly back into sync with conscious mind, the aberration in the perfect darkness growing larger, brighter... more painful. The floor gives way suddenly to a sensation of flight and imbalance in gloriously welcome excitement, abated only by the immediate sound of flesh meeting stone as tendrils of hotness flare up my leg and awake my dormant sense of self-preservation. Realizing again that the ground can change form and shift, I take care in placing my feet so that they meet the ground in the proper form. Shuddering, I sense yet another need, lesser than the desire for that abnormal light, a hunger both literal and figurative and for both nourishment and release from the stinging on my skin. My all consuming thought is the light, how beautiful it seems now, as I approach it finally on level ground.
Why do I persist?
Indeed, why? My world has just expanded untold multiples, and I merely walked across a room.
Truly, living is painful.
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Post by Rainbow Rage on Jan 21, 2015 8:51:03 GMT -5
SbFe_Ika-tsun.e
You recover from the pain but only slightly, still stinging as you step out of the small room you previously spent an unknown amount of time in. Below you see a man, clad in robes of brown with a cowl draped over his face. He casts a long shadow as he stands in relative proximity to the fire. He turns to face you as you move as he beckons you over with a quick gesture.
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Post by Madscotsman on Jan 21, 2015 9:49:33 GMT -5
Stand and wrap my arms close around myself, keeping as much warmth in as possible. Descend from the mezzanine toward the fire.
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Post by Rainbow Rage on Jan 21, 2015 11:22:06 GMT -5
Madscotsman
You walk toward the stairs, atop fallen stones and rubble toward the fire. The cloaked man turns to you and rasps, "You're awake, pilgrim. Many of the other pilgrims have already left... don't worry. You're not dead yet."
Another crackle of lightning and roar of thunder before the only sound is the pattering of the rain. This floor seems to have several exits, a few doors that lead further into this building, a single door near the altar on the left, another one near the broken confessionals and a large double door open to the world beyond, out into the rain.
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Post by Madscotsman on Jan 21, 2015 13:47:31 GMT -5
I jump as the thunder booms, clutching my torso harder. "Where is our pilgrimage taking us? What is this place?"
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Post by Rainbow Rage on Jan 21, 2015 14:25:52 GMT -5
"You've already finished your pilgrimage, like many here have. The Legant Parish was thought to be a place free from the falling stars that scarred the world. I've seen a dozen pilgrims awaken this past month... alas I don't think they survived."
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Post by SbFe_Fluegel-kun on Jan 21, 2015 14:53:42 GMT -5
SbFe_Ika-tsun.eYou recover from the pain but only slightly, still stinging as you step out of the small room you previously spent an unknown amount of time in. Below you see a man, clad in robes of brown with a cowl draped over his face. He casts a long shadow as he stands in relative proximity to the fire. He turns to face you as you move as he beckons you over with a quick gesture. What does it want?Slowly, I lurch towards the character motioning to me, unsure of the motive in the beckoning hand. Stand and wrap my arms close around myself, keeping as much warmth in as possible. Descend from the mezzanine toward the fire. What does IT want?I step out of the way of the newcomer, who looks much more active than I. Perhaps I am damaged goods...? MadscotsmanYou walk toward the stairs, atop fallen stones and rubble toward the fire. The cloaked man turns to you and rasps, "You're awake, pilgrim. Many of the other pilgrims have already left... don't worry. You're not dead yet." Another crackle of lightning and roar of thunder before the only sound is the pattering of the rain. This floor seems to have several exits, a few doors that lead further into this building, a single door near the altar on the left, another one near the broken confessionals and a large double door open to the world beyond, out into the rain. Pilgrim...?I yet cannot recall anything concrete, but I sense something beyond the realm of consciousness... warning? I journeyed here? But why? The answers don't come just yet, playing about in the haze both physical and metaphorical. I shudder as the light and sound fills my senses and inflates the pain in my mind. "You've already finished your pilgrimage, like many here have. The Legant Parish was thought to be a place free from the falling stars that scarred the world. I've seen a dozen pilgrims awaken this past month... alas I don't think they survived." I... survived?The moment of uncertainty is too much to bear. Labored breathing falls rhythmically into the formation of syllables, but what I want to say is overridden by what I need to say. "Food... hungry... please..." come the hoarse words.
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Post by Rainbow Rage on Jan 21, 2015 15:41:19 GMT -5
SbFe_Ika-tsun.e
He turns to you and you see his chin and mouth beneath his cowl against the light of the fire: he looks healthy. Not like the bony shambling figure you just saw.
The man chuckles, "Food? You will never eat again. You will never have to. There isn't much to sate this feeling... I've heard prayer can, but I've not found there to be any stock in that theory."
He looks to the open double doors for a moment and then back to you. "When I leave, no one will be here to protect you from The Fiend. Can you fight?" he says to both of you.
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Post by SbFe_Fluegel-kun on Jan 21, 2015 16:06:36 GMT -5
SbFe_Ika-tsun.eHe turns to you and you see his chin and mouth beneath his cowl against the light of the fire: he looks healthy. Not like the bony shambling figure you just saw. The man chuckles, "Food? You will never eat again. You will never have to. There isn't much to sate this feeling... I've heard prayer can, but I've not found there to be any stock in that theory." He looks to the open double doors for a moment and then back to you. "When I leave, no one will be here to protect you from The Fiend. Can you fight?" he says to both of you. Why would I pray?Prayer... what is that? It is an idea, yes, but my mind is hazy and unwilling to divulge its meaning. Why would I fight?Something stirs behind my eyes, as these concepts more foreign than names (The Fiend?) jaunts memories both painful and distant, seemingly close enough to cause injury and simultaneously so very far from grasp. What is this feeling?"Fight... protect..." I mutter, the cold hoarseness still evident between labored breaths. I inhale sharply as a thought enters my mind unbidden, one so deep and cold that for a moment it abates the stinging rain and banishes the darkness turning the world all to grey. "I... cannot fight..." I say heavily, letting the remainder of breath flow out in a raspy hiss.
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Post by Rainbow Rage on Jan 21, 2015 18:00:16 GMT -5
SbFe_Ika-tsun.e
The man shakes his head, "Then you will die... many times... until you break. Worry not, probably after the first few times, you won't remember a thing. If you wish to fight... let me know," he says grimly.
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Post by Madscotsman on Jan 21, 2015 21:13:33 GMT -5
"I can fight to survive if necessary, but I'm not in the best shape. Do you have a weapon I can use?"
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Post by Rainbow Rage on Jan 21, 2015 21:43:44 GMT -5
Madscotsman
He shakes his head, "No... but I have something possibly more powerful. The essences of spirits long forgotten... " he offers six gems: One dark red, like blood. One pale and pure. One dark and cloudy. One blue and bright. One orange and crackling. One faint and green.
"Take one." he offers to both of you.
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