Mokley

Unquiet

Sorry for the huge delay, guys! I think we might have lost Diggerton. I'll figure out how to move on from here and we'll carry on!

The Tales of Winding

@Mokley I'm a bit confused, I thought this was closed. I'm not opposed to more people joining, but previously we had somebody rejected from here because @Bombardier took the last spot. Seems a bit unfair to me.

@BurningCold

I urge you to take a look at that instance once more. The person asked if they could play a god character, I said no. If that person wishes to come back with a more reasonable request at this time, they're welcome to do so.

It's been awhile since the RP started, and only two people have posted! It seems more and more likely that we'll end up with fewer than all of the characters that are registered. If everyone eventually posts IC, that's cool! But in the meantime, getting the wheels rolling is gonna require more than two IC posts. ;)

The Tales of Winding

@Illogical Jim The good Father is certainly welcome in such a peaceful village as Winding! Approved. :)

@Fubsy@BurningCold@Kaiachi@Hayazo@Diggerton You guys ok? Still floating? Need anything from me in order to introduce your character? Do let me know! :)

Wings Askew

@tex I'd assume everyone else, unless you've got a different idea -- in which case, that. :)

The Tales of Winding

Imma crack this rp open to ooonnee our two more characters. Stay tuned!

Mok's Charries

Name: Oyunguri

Abstract: The Storyteller

Detail: Under the bright stars and planets of the night desert sky, the young ones huddled round the campfire to hear the stories of titans and dragons.

"The dragons swarmed like wasps over the clouds," Oyunguri whispered, her hands curled like claws over her head. "They opened their fangy jaws and howled with a howl like thunder, their breath like the flares of the sun, or the rage of the ocean, or the crack of a mountain. The earth itself shook with fear to behold them, because they were hungry. Do you know what they craved?"

A child squealed: "Sourcestone!"

"They smelled the sourcestone!" Oyungui agreed with a hiss. "The sourcestone which is Telara itself, which is in every Eth and Mathosian, every Kelari and Bahmi, in you and in me. They would taste it, they would bite down with their great jaws, they would devour every last drop for their own bottomless savage greed!"

The children had heard the story a thousand times before, but still they clutched their blankets and dolls with excitable fright.

Since the beginning of Oyunguri's life, she had been earning the name of Storyteller. As a child she made up quick epics of sweeping fiery birds and heroes from afar, conquests and sprites and deep purpose behind the beetle eyes of woodland creatures. Once she had convinced the other children so confidently that the desert foxes were fairies in disguise that it took the village elder to put a stop to the secret smuggling of milk to their dens.

As she grew older, her skills took a shape altered from that of mischief. Oyunguri's sefir tell her own story of wandering alone in the desert for ten days, the last of the search party for a missing child; she had found the little girl buried in the sand against the beat of the sun, and had carried her home. They tell of the bloody attack of dragon-cult raiders, and how she had woven stories to keep the small and the helpless hopeful while swords clashed outside. They tell the story of the cold iced rain of a strange winter, and the fires and shelters that she had dreamed out of the broken totems of the ruins.

The tribe enjoyed a great bounty due to Oyunguri's limitless imagination and her quick use of the shining artifacts they found buried along their nomadic trails. The children declared that she took the artifacts to her dreams, and returned with new toys and warm blankets when supplies were thin. This very campfire had been forged in Oyunguri's dreams, and it flashed with flames of blue and white.

"The dragons circled overhead; their great leather wings boomed with each flap." She flapped her arms, bright with gold trinkets. "And then, the biggest of them all -- the dragon of death and extinction -- rose up dark and empty, and stole the breath from the world. He blotted out the sun, he shrouded the stars in death, and he said --"

KZZZKKKBOOOOOM

The sky cracked, and a colossal force ripped into the campsite. All she experienced was cold and darkness, and she felt her soul being ripped from her body before everything was shrouded in nothingness.

She awoke with a headache, in a cave, surrounded by machines and strangers, with the thunder of a lost battle crashing all around them. The children were long and far gone.

Lantern

Woo Anise! You go girl!

Lantern

It would be totally understandable if she took this with a grain of salt, given the Lady of the Pond's history of lies and manipulation. Just a suggestion, though, haha.

Lantern

"Lady of the Pond, it is I, Anise the new Lady of Light. I understand what you said about the previous Lady of Light. I know that she was killed, and that you were on opposing sides. Even so, I can't imagine that it was easy for any of you to lose a sister." She cleared her throat as her emotions grew high. "I would... We would like to have a conversation. Your mother is quite upset at everything that has happened while she has been sealed away. You can see for yourself that everything is withering away and that the whole balance of the forest is a mess. Don't you think that's sad? Don't you think it is all sad? Don't we all have a responsibility to make everything right?"

For awhile there was only silence, and the gentle lap of glistening water against the gravelly shore.

Peck stood to one side, staring nervously out over the lake, and he very pointedly ignored the presence of the Kith -- who were dangling from the branches of the broken tree-in-the-ship, staring quietly at that curious lady who was talking to the lake.

The water rippled out from the circle Anise had made; the rune glowed on the back of her hand, and the golden specks throughout the water multiplied and glowed brighter throughout the lake. The Kith yipped and clambered higher in the tree; the cat-masked one pointed out over the golden lake while the mousey one squealed with delight.

Anise would know, instinctively, that she had the power to raise the water -- to call the healing waters of the lake and the grottos, and to call the deadly waves of the ocean surrounding them. She was tapping into the balance of power that belonged to the Lady of the Pond.

She stepped seamlessly out of the air, walking toward Anise along the surface of the golden water. She was as beautiful as before, and just as expressionless.

Peck swallowed hard and stumbled backward, clinging to a tree for balance and protection from the presence of the Lady of the Pond.

The Lady stopped in front of Anise and stared through her.

"What is right?" she asked quietly, but with a hint of sarcasm that suggested she thought of Anise as merely a child. "I gave you my rune because I'm curious that you might succeed where my sister had failed -- to return the light, return balance, to a time when the dead were allowed to pass on and greed did not exist."

A cruel smile crawled up her porcelain face. "The Lord of Shadow is accepting of me, now that I'm free. I raise and rush my waters freely in the darkness, but only as long as he allows it. I tolerate his egomaniacal actions, and he leaves me alone. I prefer this to the return of the Dragon you seem to love so dear."

She stared at the Spirit Egg for a moment. She did not step any closer. "There is something you should know, Lady of Light. We the Lords and Ladies of the elements are purposely holding the sun hostage. That will not change unless and until we are certain the Dragon will never return. There is only one thing to which we all agree: the Dragon's return would mean the death of all of us. The Dragon is not she, is not our mother, as you so offensively put it. The Dragon is merely it -- an entity that decided to create life because it was bored. When we became self-aware, when we ceased to obey, the Dragon would have devoured us. We sealed it, with the pirates' assistance. We gave the Lord of Shadow the balance of power so that he might prevent the Dragon from devouring the souls of the dead from beyond its prison."

She lifted her chin and stood calm upon the water. "So, Lady of Light, how do you intend to return the balance of power? Return the sunlight? Shall we sacrifice ourselves for the greater good? Can you assure me the Dragon will not continue its thirst for all-encompassing power?" Her blue eyes narrowed. "Ask it, then, how it gained enough power to bring you here, when it was trapped and weak. Ask the Dragon what it has done in order to summon the Children of the Sun, and you will know why we have done what has been done."

---

And then there was this one, the Lord of Flame, being ever so informative and helpful. Why was that? Because he was interested in her? Because he wanted to use her? Because she was an entertaining outsider in an otherwise closed environment he'd been living in for the past few centuries? She had made quite the show of herself, screaming and flailing into the earth like an ungainly comet. Maybe he was hoping for a second viewing.

"And how exactly do the Lords and Ladies work into all of this?"

Oseely watched with an interested eye everything Artemis did -- her interactions with the gryphon, her execution of ideas and slapdash runes. No, he didn't rest any high hopes on her -- not like Pirates might semi-worship the Sun Children, hopeful for heroes and an easy solution to problems they were too weak or scared to solve themselves -- but this was a strange and curious thing in front of him; he simply looked forward to what it would do next. Everything was bound to get more interesting from here.

A curious, easy smile grew on his face. "You mean, what the hell are we even good for, if all the power's between the runewriters and the masked ones? Or ya mean, what do we do, exactly, that the runes can't do?"

He lazed back, and for a moment he thought carefully. "Well, think of it like this. When you write a rune, ya tap into the power that's flowing all over the island. My siblings and me, we're a part of that power. We're the regulators of balance. If there's a push on the power flow, we push back. Except, right now the whole balance is tipped in favor of mister Lord of Shadow. The Lady of Light's not around to tip that balance back. But as I said, there's a reason for it. As long as it's dark, Shadow's got all the power. As long as Shadow's got all the power, he can keep control of the spirits of the dead -- and as long as he's got those spirits locked up, the Dragon can't feed off them. As long as the Dragon's weak, it'll stay sealed up -- and as long as it's sealed up, we're safe from being devoured."

He drew a circle in the air with his finger. "So it all always comes around to balance and power. If I got lax, Pond-Lady might decide to flood the place, turn it all to ocean. Maybe I could make the whole island a volcano, if she didn't keep me doused. Reckley could turn gravity upside-down if he had a mind to -- but the Lady of Stone wouldn't have it. So that's what we do. We play tug-of-war." He nodded toward Artemis' wrapped feet. "And what'll you do with your lightning-stick and sneaky-feet? No plans? Well, good. I like people without a plan."

The Tales of Winding

I appreciate all your patience and understanding -- I promise we'll be stronger for it. You guys are great. These characters are amazing. EACH AND EVERY ONE.

@Fubsy@BurningCold@Kaiachi@Hayazo@Diggerton@Bombardier HUGPILE!!!!

Let's kick on and create the best damn story this site has ever seen. ;)