Mokley

Lantern

Aw, poor Artemis! ;-;

Unquiet

@dreamingflowers Does that mean Mira is finished and I can approve her? :O Because she is very much approved!

Unquiet

@Mokley Is Pigeon your character or an NPC?

@Emma

Pigeon basically exists to assist the pcs in whatever they'd have her do, and I'm not emotionally attached to her continued survival. So npc I guess! Though she is fully developed. :)

Unquiet

@Quati I say do whatever feels like it could be fun to play long-term. ;D Personally, (and just a suggestion) I'd say the witch had a vendetta against a particular person and forced your character to possess that person. Maybe that person was a well-known hero that the witch hated with a passion -- so when the hero started acting strange and eventually was taken to the Stone, the witch had won: the witch had not only destroyed the hero's mind and sentenced them to a slow death, but destroyed the hero's legacy as well.

Unquiet

I get the feeling that a lot of you are either striving to be badass or worried you're not badass enough, and that's causing writer's block. I would like to take this opportunity to mention some things for everyone's benefit:

This RP is NOT combat-oriented. You don't need powers to progress. You don't need to be tough. You don't need to even be brave. Those with SUPER AWESOME POWERS OF DESTRUCTION . . . may not get much chance to use them.

Powers, assets, weapons, cool artifacts, allies, etc. will be found in-game as the story progresses. Another reiteration of you do not have to be badass to play this game. In fact, those who start out as badass as possible have no room for development, and will get very little out of this story.

Character development is key. Be prepared to grow, learn, make hard choices, and have your character's views on life and morality challenged. The game will be based on exploration, decision, and personal growth. There IS a core story going on here -- one that involves the characters directly and is the reason the world has gone to hell -- and plenty of opportunity to take advantage of the chaos or strive to bring back order.

TL;DR: You could play as a child with no powers whatsoever and get more out of this RP than the world-destruction-level witch with dragon-wings and a minion army. Just saying. ;)

Normally I put this stuff in the interest check, but I guess I got lazy, haha!

Unquiet

@Quati Hum hrm hmm! For consistency's sake we could say the character hails from a dark dimension and was imbued into a human host by the very witch that had summoned the character. All of this must have been for some purpose for the witch's gain -- which obviously failed since the character was locked away in the Stone. Unless that was the plan. But why would that be the plan? ;)

Mirror, Fox, Key

Who's waitin' fer who now? ;) And/or anyone need some personalized plottyness for inspiration? Secrets!

Lantern

If she could project her emotions and thoughts into other creatures perhaps she had the power to make them believe something that wasn't true. She had no doubt that she could make this work.

Deep within the Lantern, the Dragon howled. A piercing ringing filled Anise's ears and shot through her skull, tinted violet. She'd attempted to move a missing limb -- and the Dragon snarled with phantom pain.

A storm of claws and feathers rushed up at Anise and whisked her into the air, long talons clamped tight around her. The raft shrank far below her, and great wings flapped higher, banked and turned back toward the broken ship. For a short while, Anise had a view of the island that she'd only seen in the Dragon's dreams: in the darkness and through the hawk mask's eyes, the red Lantern sparked bright not far away; the green and violet Lanterns shone together atop a far-off mountain.

The gryphon dove suddenly and dropped Anise a few feet above the ship's deck. As soon as Anise hit the deck, the pirate slammed a foot down on the Lantern.

"That's a pretty glowy thing you got there." He grinned down at her, leaning his weight on the Lantern. He was armored to the teeth in mismatched and dented iron and leather, carved with runes and painted with crude drawings of flowers and birds -- as if a child had used his armor as a canvas. Behind him, the gryphon sat down and stared steadily at Anise.

"Where do you think a squirrel like this got a pretty sort of thing like that?" the pirate asked the gryphon without taking his eyes off the Lantern.

---

She focused her blue gaze on the witch. When she spoke, her voice was a little less slick, a little less composed. Artemis wanted to kick herself at how her voice seemed to quake ever so slightly, as though she were some lost child.

"Where am I?"

The Witch pumped water into a kettle and watched Artemis out of the corner of her eye, grinning faintly.

"You're in my house," she stated factually, as if this weren't the most obvious answer. The kettle clattered onto a grate and with a wave of her hand a little flame huffed to life beneath it. She gestured with the same hand at a chair that was laden heavily with a stack of books -- the only reason it had survived the tree-attack. "Just throw all that stuff on the floor. It's not like it's not all ruined anyway. Sit down, sit down." She completely ignored the fact that Artemis had yet to cross the threshold, and instead assumed the girl was just a bit dense.

The kettle whistled, the Witch filled a cup, and she pushed aside a ferocious stuffed monkeybat and placed the cup and saucer before Artemis. Tea leaves floated freely in the cup. It smelled like ginger and chocolate.

"If you're looking for a more specific answer, you're in the Forest, which is adjacent to the Mountains, which borders the Wasteland, which is all packed up on the Island, which is surrounded by nothing but water for the entirety of the rest of this forsaken nameless world as far as anyone knows." She poured another cup for herself. "I know where you come from, and I know you can't go back. I'm sorry but you're stuck here with the rest of us."

The Witch righted a stool and sat down to sip her tea under a broken dead branch that invaded through the kitchen window. "But it isn't bad, once you get used to the man-eating trees and blood-rats. There's a tin of biscuits beside you there, help yourself. When you're done we'll get you cleaned up. I think I have an extra set of boots, and you can pick from the armor closet. The boys leave their trash here every time they get a new enchantment, like I have a use for worn-out chainmail."

She took another thoughtful sip. The Witch rarely had anyone to talk to besides Reus, who'd gone missing and showed no signs of returning. Her eyes were drawn to the bright red Lantern. "So tell me where you're from, Artemis," she said pleasantly. "I bet you're from someplace perfectly normal, where there's sensible physics and civilization and sunlight."

Unquiet

@dreamingflowers Violence is definitely not necessary, especially for a witch. Have you read much Lovecraft? There's rarely bloodshed (aside from people being turned to goo) but enormous power, mostly in manipulating people and driving them mad, or sacrificing life and energy to old gods, or creating pathways to dangerous dimensions, or raising the dead. The only important thing is what drives her to act: fear, jealousy, vengeance, or a superiority complex to name a few. If she's morally good, why does she practice witchcraft when it's obviously illegal? Something profoundly important, no doubt!

I'm currently at work and not working, so not sure I'm coherent haha.

Unquiet

@dreamingflowers hmm maybe try thinking of it backwards. What do you want to do in the game? What's interesting to you about the premise that you want to explore? How do you want your character to develop over the course of the story? Any vague images or scenes you think would be awesome?