[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/vQOmUnK.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/DxUIER1.png[/img][/center] [color=Pink]"Whoooah, did you [i]feel[/i] that?!"[/color] [color=GoldenRod]"....feel what?"[/color] [color=Pink]"Oh, that's right, your abilities are from boring old 'science.' You're not tuned in to the greater goings-on in the metaphysical dimensions. It really must be so dreary, only seeing the world through [i]one[/i] plane of reality."[/color] [color=GoldenRod]"Yeah, keep talking down to me, and you'll get flattened. See how you like your dimensions and planes when you're only [i]two[/i]-dimensional."[/color] [color=Pink]"Whatever. Point is, something [i]big[/i] just made a splash in the higher realms. Like, your mom doing a cannonball off of the high-dive, that's the kind of splash we're talking."[/color] [color=GoldenRod]"Screw you, Jinx."[/color] [color=Pink]"In your dreams. Anyway, normally anyone accessing magic doesn't leave much of a ripple-- even the more powerful casters can't be felt from too far off. But [i]that[/i], that was something powerful. And dangerous."[/color] [color=GoldenRod]"Think it's got something to do with the girl that the fat kid is after?"[/color] [color=Pink]"I'd bet on it, and I'd win. I knew the charm I'd put on Tubby would increase the likelihood of him bumping into them to an eventual certainty, but I didn't think we'd get our payoff so soon. Who would've thought good old Fatso would get lucky before you?"[/color] [color=GoldenRod]"Bite me."[/color] [color=Pink]"Loser."[/color] [color=GoldenRod]"Brat."[/color] [color=Pink]"Oaf."[/color] [color=GoldenRod]"Bitch."[/color] [color=Pink]"......."[/color] [color=GoldenRod]"....you wanna make out a little before we go find them?"[/color] [color=Pink]".....thought you'd never ask."[/color] [hr] [color=MediumPurple]"What the hell?"[/color] I say to myself, looking around my room in disbelief. [color=MediumPurple]"What is this?"[/color] Everything has gone black, the world around me enveloped in a darkness beyond the deepest shadow, the strongest ink. Yet I can still see the shapes of things, outlines in stark white. No shades, no gradients, only black and white in razor-sharp contrast. My vision isn't all that's changed. I can [i]feel[/i] everything in the room-- every piece of dirty laundry crumpled in the corner, every page of my mother's old books of magic and occultism, every molecule of air. Everything that the darkness touches, I feel as if I am touching them, holding them, maybe even able to [i]move[/i] them.... I look at a sock near the corner of my bed, and imagine it moving a few inches to the left. It moves a few inches to the left. [color=MediumPurple]".....you can't be serious,"[/color] I say, still not believing what I'm seeing. [color=MediumPurple]"I did [i]not[/i] just accidentally discover how to control my magic powers. That would be stupid."[/color] Right. As stupid as a bubbly alien space-princess crash-landing right in front of me. I imagine the sock lifting into the air. It lifts into the air. I imagine my clothes neatly folding themselves and being sorted into their drawers. They neatly fold themselves and sort into their drawers. I imagine-- [color=Crimson][i]I imagine seven billion mortal souls bending to my will--[/i][/color] --....I imagine my mom's old journal floating into my hand. It floats into my hand. I-- [color=Crimson][i]I imagine oceans of blood and fire, the air choked with ash and ringing with the screams of--[/i][/color] ...I imagine my feet lifting off of the ground. I lift off of the ground, hovering in the air with my sock and my book, and I imagine-- [color=Crimson][i]I imagine the innocent defiled, the weak trampled, and the proud laid low for all of eternity--[/i][/color] [color=LightBlue][i]Rachel![/i][/color] [color=MediumPurple]"........Mom?"[/color] [hr] [color=YellowGreen]"....and that's why Fourth Edition was basically the worst thing since cancer,"[/color] my new friend Alex of the Dorks regales me with his knowledge. [color=Orange]"Truly, it sounds to have been a dark time,"[/color] I say with solemnity. [color=Orange]"But I have the confusion: if you had already purchased the rules from the Third Edition, did these Wizards of the Coast come and steal them from you when they released their evil Fourth Edition?"[/color] [color=YellowGreen]"....well no, we still had all the rulebooks and stuff."[/color] [color=Orange]"Did the ruling class of your city impose an unjust decree and declare it illegal to play the Third Edition?"[/color] [color=YellowGreen]"....I mean, no, there was nothing like that."[/color] [color=Orange]"Then why did you not continue consuming the entertainment you enjoyed, and merely avoid that which you did not?"[/color] Alex sputters and stammers for a moment, before exclaiming [color=YellowGreen]"I-it's not that simple, okay?!"[/color] I believe I have somehow offended him with this line of query. Even if he is not the mighty warrior I believed him to be, I do not wish to hurt the feelings of those I would have as my friends. [color=Orange]"I see I still have much to learn,"[/color] I nod, hoping to assuage him as I change the subject. [color=Orange]"Tell me more of this LARP and your conquests in--"[/color] There is a sound like a roar of thunder, and in the apartment above, I hear Rachel wail in anguish. Righteous fire burns in my hands, and I take leave of gravity as I rush to her aide. [hr] I'm vaguely aware of my body collapsing back onto the floor, but at the sound of my mother's voice I barely notice it. I've been seeing her, hearing her, more often in my dreams lately, but this isn't a dream this time.....I think. [color=LightBlue][i]Rachel, you have found the Sigil Words. You have awakened your Soul Self. I.....I'm so proud of you, my little Raven.[/i][/color] [color=MediumPurple]"Don't call me that,"[/color] I say, almost by reflex. [color=MediumPurple]"This isn't real. [i]You're[/i] not real. You're......Mom, you're......"[/color] [color=LightBlue][i]I'm gone, Rachel. I was able to leave an echo of myself here for you, but even that will fade. My true soul is....where I belong now. With your father.[/i][/color] [color=MediumPurple]"...my father? You mean Sebastian?"[/color] [color=LightBlue][i]Sebastian Blood was only a vessel, a shell to be used by his master. I did not know who he was, what he was, until it was too late. Even so, I did his will, and for that, I can never be forgiven. But you can fight him, my Raven. You can deny him, and you can defeat him. You must--[/i][/color] [h2][color=Crimson][i]DAUGHTER.[/i][/color][/h2] [color=MediumPurple]"Mom?!?! What's--"[/color] [color=Lightblue][i]Rachel, listen! You must--[/i][/color] [h2][color=Crimson][i]I SEE YOU.[/i][/color][/h2] [color=MediumPurple]"You.....what are you?!"[/color] [color=LightBlue][i]You can defeat him, Rachel, but not here, not yet! First, you--[/i][/color] [h2][color=Crimson][i]YOU HAVE GROWN POWERFUL. THAT IS GOOD.[/i][/color][/h2] [color=MediumPurple]"Get out of my head, get--"[/color] [h2][color=Crimson][i]YOUR POWER WILL BECOME MINE. AND TOGETHER, WE WILL BURN THIS WORLD.[/i][/color][/h2] [color=MediumPurple]"No! I'm not going to burn anything, I'm not going to hurt anyone!"[/color] [color=LightBlue][i]Resist him, Rachel! Deny him![/i][/color] [h2][color=Crimson][i]YOU CANNOT RESIST. IT IS WHAT YOU ARE. AFTER ALL....[/i][/color][/h2] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/hYgtYoO.jpg[/img][/center] [h2][color=Crimson][i]...YOU HAVE TOO MUCH OF YOUR FATHER IN YOU.[/i][/color][/h2] [color=MediumPurple]"N-no, that's.....that's not--"[/color] [color=LightBlue]RACHEL![/color] [h2][color=Crimson][i]RACHEL...[/i][/color][/h2] [hr] [color=Orange][b][i]"RACHEL![/i][/b][/color] I fly as quickly as I can up the stairs and force the door open. I find my friend engulfed in darkness, her face a mask of horror and dismay, as her furniture and trappings spin through the air like a whirlwind. [color=MediumPurple]"I'm not.....I won't....."[/color] is she says between gasps and sobs. [color=MediumPurple]"....no......n-no...."[/color] I do not know what has overcome her. But I cannot let her suffer so. [color=Orange]"I am here, Friend Rachel!"[/color] I call out, stepping into the darkness and swatting away a pair of jeans that whirl through the air towards me. [color=Orange]"I will assist you in whatever ways I can!"[/color] More detritus from the room assails me. A chair, a sharpened writing implement, a pair of undergarments, all try to bludgeon or pierce or smother me as the darkness and chaos of the room swirl and crash. Still, I persist. [color=MediumPurple]"....no...."[/color] Rachel whimpers, her eyes full of tears. [color=Orange]"Hear me, Friend Rachel!"[/color] I implore. [color=Orange]"Whatever this is, you must fight it! I have seen your strength, I have seen the good in your soul! You can resist this, you can defeat it!"[/color] Since coming to this world, I have often felt like a failure and a fool. But I persist, because I must. I am Starfire, and the flames of Starfire must burn ever bright, even the darkest of shadows. Here, in the deepest blackness I have ever seen, I let my light shine, and I take my friend's hand. [color=Orange]"You can defeat it,"[/color] I assure her, with all of my heart, [color=Orange]"But you will not have to defeat it alone."[/color] I see her blink. I feel her hand tighten around mine. And what she had said as a whimper, she now says with conviction. [color=MediumPurple][i]"No."[/i][/color] The darkness shudders, and the debris flying around in the room falls to the floor. [color=MediumPurple]"[i]NO[/i],"[/color] she repeats, staring at some point beyond me. [color=MediumPurple]"You won't have me. Or anyone else. This isn't your power. It's [i]mine[/i]. And I'm going to use it to stop you."[/color] The swirling, chaotic mass of shadows suddenly goes still. And it takes form. Around Rachel, what was a whirl of grasping tendrils becomes a pair of wings. The shape of one of this world's avian creatures. A powerful black bird, which lets out a piercing cry. .....then she collapses into my arms, and the darkness dissipates like fog in smoke. [color=Orange]"Rachel!"[/color] I exclaim as she flutters in and out of consciousness. [color=Orange]"Are you all of the right? Do you require the assistance of a healer?"[/color] [color=MediumPurple]"Nnnnngggghh,"[/color] she groans. [color=MediumPurple]"I'm.....not really sure. I must have, I don't know....blacked out. I had a crazy nightmare, I started moving things around with my mind, and then--"[/color] [color=Orange]"...I do not believe this was an event of the dreaming,"[/color] I tell her. [color=Orange]"Your gifts of power, they were active. I saw them throw this whole chamber into darkness."[/color] She blinks in disbelief, and looks to me. [color=MediumPurple]"So that was all real? I'm not seeing things?"[/color] [color=Orange]"I believe you are still capable of sight,"[/color] I answer, unsure how that is relevant, [color=Orange]"but yes, I believe your experience was true."[/color] [color=MediumPurple]"........shit."[/color] [color=Orange]"....you are in need of evacuating your bowels?"[/color] [color=MediumPurple]"No, it's.....it's an exclamation. Something you say when things are about as bad as they can get."[/color] [color=Orange]"I see,"[/color] I say to her. [color=Orange]"If you would like some comforting, I would be happy to provide an application of the snuggles."[/color] [color=MediumPurple]"Not right now,"[/color] she shakes her head, and stands up, dusting herself off. [color=MediumPurple]"We've got some work to do. But first, I think we ought to come up with an explanation for that Alex guy. We probably scared him pretty bad there."[/color] [color=Orange]"Oh, of course!"[/color] I exclaim, as I begin to float toward the staircase. Then, remembering Rachel's admonitions about 'freaking people out' by flying around them, I place my feet on the floor and walk down the stairs. [color=Orange]"My apologies, friend Alex, but friend Rachel has--"[/color] I look down into the book store, and see that friend Alex is nowhere to be found.