Current
Now running: World of Light - Winterland Daybreak, the Sky Unfettered
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like
2 mos ago
Now running: World of Light: The Tale of the Dark Itself
5 mos ago
Forever and ever, amen
9 mos ago
Calling out from Scatman's world
1
like
11 mos ago
Called into action - by threats that seem harmonized
Bio
Current GM of World of Light. When it comes to writing, there's nothing I love more than imagination, engagement, and commitment. I'm always open to talk, suggestion, criticism, and collaboration. While I try to be as obliging, helpful, and courteous as possible, I have very little sympathy for ghosts, and anyone who'd like to string me along. Straightforwardness is all I ask for.
Looking for more personal details? I'm just some dude from the American south; software development is my job but games, writing, and trying to help others enjoy life are my passions. Been RPing for over a decade, starting waaaay back with humble beginnings on the Spore forum, so I know a thing or two, though I won't pretend to be an expert. If you're down for some fun, let's make something spectacular together.
First to step forward was the girl in patchwork. Darkrai returned to its full height, arms crossed beneath its great red jaws like a djinn hearing a wish. A wish did come—Ella volunteered to sacrifice herself, if only the others would be spared. Had it a mouth, the wraith might have snickered, and had it a nose, it would have looked down it at the brave young lady. How romantic! How poetic! How...misguided. Silence reigned in the dreamscape for a transitive moment until Leisy broke it with her refusal. The raven-haired girl took it upon herself to try and talk her friend out of it, citing the grief of pokemon, parents, friends, and so forth in order to reverse Ella's morbid offering. However, the punk proved immune to reason, and in a pity of self-pity hardheadedly refused to reconsider. During this time, Darkrai glanced at the remaining visitor. For all her supposed eagerness to fight, Olivie had yet to speak, let alone to pick a fight. Just as it had guessed, the girl wasn't hard at heart. No matter how convincing the facade, a person's mask would always slip under troublesome circumstances. A look of true concern lay on her face, directed at Ella. At the same time, it asked are you stupid? and declared no way, but Olivie herself said nothing.
No matter. A gleeful edge infiltrated Darkrai's voice as it enunciated, ”Whoa, whoa whoa. Who said anything about dying? Who says I want a sacrifice? Maybe I like you better alive. Maybe I'd do anything in my power to keep you alive. After all, the dead can't dream. What kind of monster do you take me for? A cackle echoed through the empty space. It carried with it some kind of invisible reverberation, one that spiraled into the dark that lay in every direction and made it move. Suddenly, the landscape's serenity was no longer. Like the static of a television, the abyss shook and vibrated. Darkrai floated upward again, revolving as it did. Its voice, louder now, reached the girls once again. ”I've never killed a soul. In fact, when someone is about to die, I give them a final good dream to send them to their rest. But I am a monster, after all. Want to know my little secret? Why I do what I do? Why...I'm a monster?” Returning its one-eyed gaze to the trainers, it loomed over them, crooked as a crone. ”Course you do! It's power. Power is an end, not a means. Having it is all you could ever ask for. Most never get any. Pokemon have more than humans, but they can't put it to as much use. Power is freedom, and monsters are free. Anyone can be a monster. Everyone would if they could. Who hasn't taken pleasure in dreams, delighting in and pining for something more? Perhaps, before we get down to business, you'd like to see what I mean.”
Out of the blue, Darkrai's eye flashed. So blindingly bright was it that Olivie reeled back, hands plastered over her eyes, but the glow remained seared on her retina for several seconds. When the darkness finally returned, she blinked several times to readjust to the light. Once she could see clearly again, she could see that the dreamscape had changed. Instead of standing near the rim of a sea stack, she stood on a great plateau, its surface covered in yellow grass. Beyond the land, the darkness still squirmed and wriggled, but Olivie's attention lay on the scene before her. Every person was gone, and across the top of the plateau, a battle raged. Olivie spotted hundreds of different Pokemon, few of which she recognized. The sky lit up, causing her eyes to follow, and she witnessed an orange dragon sending a gargantuan wave of flame into an airborne opponent she couldn't quite make out.
”Magnificent, aren't they?" Darkrai's voice sounded out from behind the trio. Olivie turned to see the specter hovering with its hands clasped as if in awe. ”Every night it's something new. Usually there's more of a theme going on, but tonight I left it as a grand melee, just for you all. I know,” it said with bowed head, its voice a sigh, ”That you three don't think much of me. A crazy monster, spouting off gibberish to excuse its foul deeds. Well, I am hoping this exercise will show you.”
Olivie felt something brush her shoulders then her elbows, then her thighs and calves. She reached to grab it, and her hands closed around something light and soft. She pulled it into vision and found it to be pure white hair—her own hair, for a tug bought some pain to her head. Two such hairs drooped into her vision, globules of gold on their tips. Memories came rushing back. ”Oh no.”
Opening its eye, Darkrai bared its teeth in a huge grin. ”Oh, yes. The three of you will understand soon enough the unstoppable allure of power! First, you shall gain it.”
Something strange happened to Olivie's vision. Everything grew blurry, then clear again, and when the world returned it was a much wider and taller view than she was used to. She looked down to find a body not her own; she raised her hands to see slender snow-white wrists with long, yellow claws instead of fingers. Anger and confusion surged through her, and in their wake was a new feeling entirely.
”Then, you will revel in it! Think little of monsters, do you? Well, welcome to the club!”
I'll make a post for Krys starting the race today. Should I just write her overcoming the obstacles described and then wait for the course to update further? that seems like the most logical thing but ya know ya never know
That'd probably be the best way. Once more people get involved, mid-race banter and other such happenings can begin.
Gonna need to smash this upcoming contest to be safe.
I assume a complete switch in weapons would count as a major upgrade, right?
If it's a more or less ordinary weapon, like a simple spear, then you could get by with a medium or even minor upgrade depending on how much it would increase your combat effectiveness, but if it's a new mechanized weapon, that's major, yes.
<Snipped quote by Lugubrious>
How do you feel about KNVS, in their boyband-esque glory, decides to run a food cart to advertise promote Beacon, and/or take over a classroom for that purpose?
Ella’s outcry caused Olivie to spin her way instinctively, but whether or not the brunette heard her was not apparent. Finding no suitable target for her mounting hatred, she looked elsewhere. As adrift as her thoughts were, like one so exhausted after a long day’s work that everything had become a cloudy daze, or like a person lost in her dream, she focused on her surroundings. An inky abyss, darkness that seemed to weigh on her; the looming moon, pure as an angel’s robe; the rings of unmoving humans. She narrowed her eyes and stared at the very center, where she remembered the wave of soporific black originated. There knelt a singular figure, clad in a bulky gown the color of charcoal. A large, long wisp of white hair moved back and forth at a steady rate, even though Olivie couldn’t feel any wind. In this bizarre dreamscape, her skin didn’t grow clammy and her hairs didn’t rise in alarm, but she felt that something, something, was terribly wrong.
The centermost individual rose into the air. Olivie’s hands balled into fists as she watched, one hundred percent certain that the host of the nightmare levitated before her. When it gained some height, it showed no trace of legs, but instead gave a gleaming cyan light from one side of its head. This thing, not human at all, tilted its head and watched the three girls for a moment. Then it began to move forward.
No matter how bright the candle, it could not hold out forever beneath the onslaught of a gale wind. Olivie kept her courage together, but didn’t know how long it could last. Could this monster truly be a pokemon? Wraithlike, it floated toward her, its shadowy surface always in motion. She did not know what to expect, but out of every possibility, she did not anticipate it being able to speak.
”Riddle me this,” it demanded, the medium-pitched voice with which it spoke full of mockery. ”Three outsiders poke their noses in what doesn’t concern them. They vanish in the dead of night, never to be seen again. Who are they?”
It ceased moving forward. By now, it was close enough for Olivie to charge forward and attack, were she not in a stunned silence. The wraith cackled. ”Well, ‘nothing’ is a pretty good answer. Too scared to play along, are you? Come on. Tell me you liked how I strung along my little puppets.” An awful claw rose to make a sweeping motion toward all the villagers gathered on the sea stack. ”You know, I could make every one dance right off the cliff and clog up the shore with carcasses, but then all I would have left would be my cousins. What a bore!” It crossed its arms. ”In all honesty, I must thank you three. It’s not every day in this place I get to make a first impression. The locals tend to stop caring after a while. Speaking of which, where are my manners?” Gathering itself up, the monster executed a theatrical bow, its eye agleam with glee. ”Your kind calls me Darkrai. The pleasure is all mine. I sense that you may have...questions...for me?”
You had plans? My apologies--if you had suggested this course of action earlier, I could have incorporated it into the day's official goings-on, but chances are we could still work it in without any issue if it's a development that you've been working on that you think is important.
As it turned out, Leisy and Olivie had something in common: neither had heard so much as an offhanded comment about mass sleepwalking during their individual efforts to learn more about Stillwater's ominous hidden lore. Having joined the procession of people, a lone beacon of consciousness in a single-file sequence of sleepwalkers, Olivie suspected that this hair-raising march was something out of the ordinary. Even more so than when the Green Day had first cast its sickly pallor over the coastal town, she felt as though she, her party, and her acquaintances were in for something nightmarish. Though she couldn't understand them, she got the impression that her pokemon were just as uneasy as she. Periodically, Gespenst would fire off an Energy Ball into the sky, its radiance illuminating the whole column for a moment before it petered out and the Cacnea got to work making a new one. Together with the light provided by Olivie's lantern and Ella's luminescent Inkay, Gespenst's efforts revealed to the trainers that they were headed toward the edge of town. Olivie made sure to control her breathing as she followed in the footsteps of a man in front of her, down a boardwalk stairway and onto the soil. Then came the ascent.
The path wound through the clefts and rises. In no time, the area's unfathomable layout combined with the pitch-black of night left Olivie completely lost. All she could do was follow the villager in front of her, and keep ahead of the villager behind. Through all the twists and turns, however, the brunette was aware that she was steadily rising. The wind picked up as the eerie parade crested the top of a hill and turned out toward the shore. A natural stone archway lay just ahead, suspended upwards of 50 feet over the sand below, and here the wind's steady push became terrifying. Still, the sleepwalkers plodded onward, and Olivie was forced to press on. On her shoulder, Verrine clung to the side of the girl's head with all the strength her tiny limbs could muster, and both Buck and Bifrons kept a low profile to avoid catching a gust. As she made her way across the arch, using various plants as handholds, Olivie's composure suffered, and she could barely find the courage to forge onward. What seemed like hours later, the bridge widened out again, and Olivie could breath easier. She judged that she was on top of a kind of formation known as a 'sea stack', a vast pillar of stone jutting up from the ocean near the shoreline, eroded into a cylindrical shape by time and tide, and overgrown by plants seeded there by the same wind that deposited the dirt. If her guess was true, though, it meant that a potentially lethal drop lay in every direction. This was not, however, her chief concern.
A hole had opened up in the clouds, and in the sky beyond the sea stack the green-tinged moon shone down. It didn't provide much light, but it gave enough to reveal the shapes of at least a hundred people sitting on the grass in what appeared to be concentric circles, each with a black nimbus surrounding their heads. After crossing the bridge, the procession broke up, each individual headed for an open spot to sit, motionless and expressionless. The entire scene freaked Olivie out enough to make her breathing ragged and her hands shake. It was like something out of movie; how could this be happening!?
Movement at the center of the gathering caught her attention. She spotted someone waving, squinted, and only a second later recognized the person waving as Bernard. Her heart, still too beset by the creepiness of the situation to soar, settled for a surge of hopefulness, and she started moving his way. She managed to get within a hundred feet of him, carefully avoiding bumping into any of the sitters, before she noticed the slowness with which he moved and her heart was chilled once again. He, too, was asleep. The realization that it was a trap filled her mind, but it was already too late.
A dark shape arose next to Bernard, and from its imperceptible mass a torrent of blackness rolled out across the top of the sea stack. It crashed into Olivie before she could even turn to flee, its speed to great even for Leisy and Ella to get away. For a moment, all was dark, but then Olivie's eye's blinked open. Having fallen over somehow, she jumped to her feet. For a moment it seemed as if everything was the same, but something gnawed at the back of her mind that caused her to look around more closely.
Everything, in every direction beyond the pillar, was pitch black. There was no trace of clouds, of the shoreline, of the natural bridge, the lights of town, of the sea, or anything. Only one this stood out from the void. Staring directly upward, Olivie could see the moon, its brilliant pure white surface impossibly close. By her estimation, it was only a couple hundred feet up. Whirling from side to side, she spotted Leisy and Ella, both in the same situation as she. Her pokemon, too, were unharmed, but glancing at the ground made Olivie aware of something else that was different. At her feet lay a person, sprawled asleep and snoring, that looked just like her. At the feet of her pokemon, doubles of them slumbered as well. All the while, the people sat in their circles like statues. It's me. I'm dreaming. It's an out-of-body experience. For a moment, she wanted to laugh, but her humor evaporated quickly. In its place came only anger.
Current GM of World of Light. When it comes to writing, there's nothing I love more than imagination, engagement, and commitment. I'm always open to talk, suggestion, criticism, and collaboration. While I try to be as obliging, helpful, and courteous as possible, I have very little sympathy for ghosts, and anyone who'd like to string me along. Straightforwardness is all I ask for.
Looking for more personal details? I'm just some dude from the American south; software development is my job but games, writing, and trying to help others enjoy life are my passions. Been RPing for over a decade, starting waaaay back with humble beginnings on the Spore forum, so I know a thing or two, though I won't pretend to be an expert. If you're down for some fun, let's make something spectacular together.
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Current GM of World of Light. When it comes to writing, there's nothing I love more than imagination, engagement, and commitment. I'm always open to talk, suggestion, criticism, and collaboration. While I try to be as obliging, helpful, and courteous as possible, I have very little sympathy for ghosts, and anyone who'd like to string me along. Straightforwardness is all I ask for.<br><br>Looking for more personal details? I'm just some dude from the American south; software development is my job but games, writing, and trying to help others enjoy life are my passions. Been RPing for over a decade, starting waaaay back with humble beginnings on the Spore forum, so I know a thing or two, though I won't pretend to be an expert. If you're down for some fun, let's make something spectacular together.</div>
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