Mokley

To Teluval, Farewell

Iiiii am here! Planning a post, mostly to yell at you dweebs for starting fights in the street. Lovingly, of course. :)

Tin Dragon Detective Agency

I'm currently devising all the strange and fun things one might discover while hiking in these woods. >:D

Tin Dragon Detective Agency

Wahoo! :3

What do you guys need from me before you'll be good to post? ;D

Tin Dragon Detective Agency

THERE IS LIFE!

Echo

"It worked!" he said in bewilderment, looking from the stone to Doctor Kalodie and then back to the stone in excitement. Feeling it safe now, Kazuki picked the stone back up, rolling it in his hand for a moment. It felt warm, and oddly, the colors had changed. It still looked like the night skies, but now with splotchy galaxies of bright blue, purple, and yellow. "What do I do now?" he suddenly turned to Kalodie, eyes bright with excitement.

"Ah, so you caught one already!" Kelodie smiled warmly and squatted down closer to Kazuki's level, heartened to see a smile on the boy's face. For awhile there he'd been afraid this child had suffered some irreparable trauma surrounding his death -- but in that excited question was a sort of hope that the doctor wished for the world.

"Well, now," Kelodie said dramatically, raising his head as if he were a wise old sage. "I'd say all you really have to do is concentrate on that stone you've got there, and imagine that creature coming back out of that stone." He tipped his head fondly. "Take your time, just picture that creature in your mind, call it into reality."

The first calling would be a little tricky for Kazuki -- it would take a bit of searching in his mind for the right image, for his own resurrected soul to touch that which resided in the stone -- but the moment it clicked he would almost feel the connection.

The stone jumped suddenly in the boy's hand, and in an instant the three-eyed toad silently poofed into existence around the stone.

Kelodie jumped backward in shock, and he laughed. "Well, that's quite the amphibious friend you've got there!" He squatted down again to examine the creature, fascinated by its size and its third independent eye. The toad shifted and croaked, and it shuffled closer to Kazuki. The doctor grinned. "These are what we call daemons. When you call a daemon out of the stone, it takes on the ability to exist on all the planes at once. Just like you. It means that I can see it now, and it recognizes you instantly." He stretched out a hand to rub the toad's head, but the daemon shuffled away and pressed against Kazuki for comfort. "If you want the daemon to return to the stone, just imagine it happening, or tell it to do so. There's quite a lot you can do just with your imagination -- even I don't know those limits. You can ask your daemons to do all sorts of things for you just by thinking -- and if they like you enough they just might."

A hiss and a whistle issued from the copper pipes on the wall, and Kelodie stood. "I have to go back downstairs, but why don't you go show Mister Sora what you can do?" He pointed out the open doors, toward the dilapidated and overgrown city and the caravan parked just outside. "He'll be wearing a robe just like yours."

Once he was certain Kazuki would be all right on his own, Kelodie descended the stairs to check on the newest resurrection -- hopefully a complete one this time. He'd had so much luck today, he was well-prepared for failure.

---

Though easier said than done, he first hoisted his head up, placing his arms in position before finally forcing his upper half upward. It was hardly by much, but Lucas had positioned himself just enough to make out the surrounding area; a dimly lit room, rusty and oil stained, lined with all sorts off pods similar to his own.

“Where in the world…?” Lucas muttered, trying to make sense of how he could possibly end up in a place such as this.

The doctor had returned to the pod-room, which didn't look conspicuously different from how he'd left it not long ago. He grabbed his clipboard and checked each of the pods as was his habit, making note of the ones that were malformed or needed a little more time in the oven, performing the preliminary checks on the ones that seemed to be complete, when he heard the creak of a pod lid opening and the shift of movement against the metal. Kelodie grinned, but decided not to turn around right away so as not to startle whoever had returned from the dead. At the question, though, he faced the pod in question and gave Lucas a broad grin.

"Ah! Welcome back! I trust you feel all right. Any aches or pains? Can you move each of your joints?" Without waiting for an answer, the doctor leaned forward with a little light and shone it in each of Lucas' eyes.

"To answer your question," he said as he leaned back and flicked off the light, "You are presently in the Echo laboratory, one of the only ones in the world. Technically we're in the basement of an old monastery, in the kingdom of Sink, but no one's really counting anymore I suppose. I'm Doctor Kelodie, by the way. Do you remember your name?"

He got up immediately and went to a cabinet, from which he drew a loose brown robe and a rope-belt, which he handed to Lucas with a flourish, as if these were grand silken garments. This was followed by a pair of bamboo sandals. "We don't have much to offer here, but there is a caravan outside that might be willing to part with some clothes more to your liking. Are you sure you don't have a headache? Come along, I know you have a thousand questions, and I'll try to answer them the best I can, but there's no substitute for pure experience, now is there?"

On the way through the corridor and up the stairs toward the sanctuary where Kazuki and Sora might be, Doctor Kelodie did his best to explain. "You were dead, but now you're alive. You're what we call an Echo -- that is, an echo of the person you had been. An echo also has the property of being heard across great distances, which is a key ability that might make sense a bit later."

He stopped in the sanctuary where he'd left Kazuki, and he turned to face Lucas. "What year is the last year you remember? Have you heard of the MODO?"

---

He took a second to think before stepping out into the sunlight to address the people of the caravan. What would he say? He walked up to one of the small groups of men standing nearby, bowing his head slightly in greeting before he spoke.

"Excuse me. I think, I may be able to help you get the girl back from those creatures. But, if I am to help you, could you help me first?" He gestured to himself, pulling the hood of his borrowed robe down as he did so the men could see his face. "I need a proper outfit, as well as some decent weapons since this," He held up the blue stone, which now pulsed with a mixed orange and blue light, "Seems to have only one use."

The caravaners had jumped at the flash of the stone, which to them had seemed to hang precariously in the air a moment before it dropped into the grass. Their eyes then followed the man that had thrown it, another one of those odd monks that came out of the old haunted monastery.

At his request, Rin stepped forward, her hair afly and her reddened eyes determined. She peered at Sora a moment, while the rest of the caravaners watched with bated breath, until she nodded firmly.

"You're an Echo, aren't you?" She'd only heard stories -- more like fairy tales -- but from what she'd seen so far, nothing was impossible. There was still a little uncertainty in her expression, but she stepped aside and gestured him toward one of the largest wagons whose wheel was pitted in the mud. "If you can retrieve my sister from those things, you're welcome to everything we have. Those chests there are full of clothes from all over the continent, and weapons are over here in these boxes." She removed a blanket from a pile of wooden crates and chests, and unhooked the latch of one and pushed it open to reveal several sets of clothes from the far west. There were more similar chests deeper in the caravan, where the destructive daemons hadn't bothered them. She opened a long wooden crate, where swords, axes and daggers had been packed carefully in straw. Another crate held muskets and ammunition.

Rin moved out of his way, but remained where she could keep an eye on him. "I've seen those invisible daemons get hit by bullets and blades, but I've never heard of one getting killed. Can you see them, too? What is that glowing stone? How are you going to find my sister?" As she spoke her voice rushed, a little more eager for the safe return of her little sibling. She believed in the existence of the Echoes and in what they could do -- but the longer they waited the farther the little girl could be carried. They could be anywhere by now -- and Echoes, as far as she knew, weren't bloodhounds.

The bird in the stone, however, had found those creatures easily enough.

Echo

Hokay post incoming from me soon!!

To Teluval, Farewell

Saoirse hadn't exactly meant that they should go over and socialize with the crazy long-tail -- she was happier to judge people from a distance -- but Chao being Chao had just waltzed right up and sat down at Dali's table like he'd been expected. Saoirse puffed her cheeks indignantly, but an automaton passed between them holding a thick frothy drink she didn't recognize but suddenly needed.

Within moments she was at the bar, her neck craned for service while she dug in her pocket for the morning's earnings: a pile of coins from a generous automaton with a squeaky leg. A handful of coins clattered on the bar, but something odd lay half-buried among them. While the bartender supplied her precious frothy drink and a basket of fried eel-bits, Saoirse pushed around the coins with a finger and picked up one that didn't look like any currency she'd seen before. She squinted and frowned at the eye that stared out of the coin. That sneaky automaton had jipped her! This wasn't currency at all!

She had enough for the tip without it, though, so she pocketed the counterfeit coin and happily carried her frothy-drink and fried-eels over to the table where Chao and Dali exchanged silent nods. The promise of thick alcohol placated the tinkerer's annoyances, and she plopped into a seat at the table to inhale the froth off the top of the glass, her feet swinging.

The music ended, the performers packed up, and the resulting stillness broke with a smash of glass and a giggle. From the street outside came the commotion of some drunk or a thief being chased in the dark. Saoirse chewed and drank and sleepily watched the other patrons moving in the damp blue light -- but hope piqued when Dali grabbed his guitar, and she grinned and perched her feet on the chair, clutching her new favorite drink in preparation for the show.

What happened next would be later remembered as an intoxicated dream. A vision of the counterfeit-coin, a tall looming shadow, a story of eyes and madness and demons and secret vaults. A deep voice roared and smoldered, Chao's seat went empty, the room shouted and rumbled and the front door slammed. The guitar strings quivered and smoked in a hellish rendition, Dali's voice hissed electric hallucinations of rising old gods and civilization burning, black inferno, echoes screaming in the dark, of crumbled consciousness and a final halting whispered prayer.

Saoirse sat entranced by a lingering vision of the charred wake of disaster, barely breathing. In a dazed fog she was peripherally aware of Dali talking to her, of a coin on the table that stared at her before it was plucked away by blunted claws.

The door slammed and Saoirse jolted. Her drink had gone lukewarm, the fried eel cold and rubbery. Where did Chao go? When did Dali leave? She rubbed a hand over her face and scooped up the two coppers left at her elbow. For watching his stuff, huh? Not that she would've noticed if anyone had set his stuff on fire during the performance.

She took a few deep breaths to clear her mind, dropped the coins in her pocket -- and guardedly pulled out the counterfeit coin she'd encountered earlier in the night. Her blood ran cold and electric to see the same watchful eye emblazoned there. She rubbed a thumb over it, just to make sure she wasn't still dreaming, but the performance was done and this was definitely real.

In a sudden fervor, Saoirse took a last gulp of the drink and shouldered her backpack in her rush for the door. It opened to the lot of them standing together in the street -- Chao and the angry wizard and Dali -- looking out at the fading light of a distant flare. She couldn't make anything out, though, so instead of worrying about it she tapped Dali on the arm and held the eye-coin up to his snout.

"Hey," she demanded in a serious tone that lilted slightly from the lingering effects of the last performance. "You've got one of these. What is it? The Ceaseless Feast, the castle, did ya make it up?" In the back of her mind she remembered old whispers and passing graffiti, watching eyes and priceless collections, but hesitated to believe anything she'd witnessed in the past hour. The fact that the coin remained solid and real in her hand still sent a shiver down her spine.

To Teluval, Farewell

@PrivateVentures Chills, man. Cheers! x3

@Exit Ok, I'm intrigued and a little scared, hahaha.

Sometime soon I hope to have a proper reply! @Polybius is up to something fishy, I know it. xD

Lantern

When the force of the current had calmed some, Naia removed the roof of the boat to reveal the sky above them.

During the tumult -- while the water hissed and roared against the walls of Naia's ark -- somehow Palla and the little Kith boy ended up clinging to one another for safety, their eyes squeezed shut against the violent shifts and bangs along the swirling waves and barrier trees. The boat tossed and lurched, slammed and spun.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, everything grew quiet. Naia had removed the roof, and only then did Palla and the boy open their eyes to stare up at the sky, clouded by dust and billows of debris. The only sound was the quiet lapping of ripples against the sides of the boat, and the occasional crack of a stone falling in the distance.

The boy wrenched away from Palla in disgust, stumbled back, and turned around to peer up at two blue fiery dots that seemed very different from stars.

Palla shifted to her feet, unsteady on the rocking boat. "The others will wonder what happened. I wonder what the hell just happened --"

"Uh, guys?" The Kith boy straightened his arm and pointed up at the two blue dots in the dusty sky. They moved together, slow and fluid, like eyes. When Pallas squinted, she could make out a dark, enormous shape half-hidden behind the dust-clouds. She could make out a long neck, bony wings, a skeletal and serpentine tail; a lizardlike colossus as tall as a mountain. The creature rummaged in the ruinous rubble of the mountain, and slowly drew out something small and glowing-white between its talons.

"The Dragon," Palla breathed. She glanced to Naia and swallowed. "The Dragon is the ancient god of this island," she explained. "It was supposed to have been sealed away forever."

While she watched, the Dragon raised the little white-glowing Lanter up to its bony jaws and swallowed it whole. Sparks of energy rippled along the Dragon's skeletal frame, and leather grew between the black bones of its wings. The Dragon was so distant, so huge, that all this was completely silent to those watching from the boat.

Both Kith and Pirate stared in fascination -- until the Dragon's bright blue eyes spotted them.

The Dragon turned toward Naia's boat, raised its head, and focused its attention entirely on her. The new wings stretched and tested the wind, preparing to take flight.

Palla gasped, put her fingers to her lips, and blew a piercing whistle to call her gryphon. "Naia, it wants the Lantern," she said quickly, pressing her hands against Naia's arm. "You mustn't let it have the Lantern. Promise me."

The gryphon lighted on the edge of the boat, which lilted deeply with the added weight, and flapped precariously. The light of the violet Lantern illuminated its runed armor and frayed tawny feathers. "Take the gryphon, his name is Goldquill," said Palla. "Go alone -- go! The Dragon has its sights on you. We'll get to higher ground, don't worry about us. Hurry!"

---

The person standing before him wasn't Artemis. It was the girl she'd abandoned with her family. Still grieving. Still in pain. She couldn't keep from holding her halting breath as she looked up at Oseely.

Still waiting for answers.

For a moment, Oseely only stood staring out at the vision of the Dragon's moving black bones, and the brief spark of the Lantern of Flight before it disappeared into what remained of the creature's gullet. His fingers curled against the ashen bark.

Finally he turned his head, peered back at Artemis out of the corner of his eye. He shifted on the branch and turned his back on the Dragon to face Artemis. With steady eyes he studied her, his mouth set to a grim line.

"It's probable that the Dragon could have attached a link to your bloodline," he said, gentle but firm. "Used that link to draw power. Maybe you resisted or you were immune. That bloodline link would've made it easier to summon you over anyone else. The cause is the same, the effect is different."

Oseely dropped lightly to the ground, but didn't approach. The moonlight shifted in and out of the moving clouds of dust; the burned-out wasteland undulated in the passing shadows, haunting and alive at the same time. "That link -- that same link -- probably still exists. You could give in to it -- or it could be your advantage."

He waited while she processed this -- grieved, fought, whatever she needed to do. During this time he noted the mask, the glowing stone she'd picked up, the pocketwatch, the lightning-staff -- and the slight sparkle of a green rune on the back of her hand.

"Those people's spirits are what powers the Dragon -- and the Lanterns. Your family, your brother, might be dead, technically. But here, as long as the Lord of Shadow's in charge, the dead never really die." He tilted his head a little in thought, while in the distance behind him, dark leathery wings shifted in the smog. "Your link is with the fire Lantern, right? That'd be the same part of the Dragon that took your family. I'll bet their spirits are still in that Lantern. All you'd have to do is crack it open." He gestured to the pocketwatch. "Looks like ya already found the machine that can do it."

---

Wake up, we have much work to do, Princess.

Anise would wake to find herself sheltered by a lamplit tent. She lay in a bed of furs, with bandages wrapped around her head. Her old clothes had been removed and replaced with a blue smock-dress. She was barefoot, though soft shoes had been found and set on the floor for her.

The inside of the tent was stacked with books; the oil lamp burned atop one of these stacks. At first glance, something shadowy shimmered at a corner. It took the shape of the old man she'd killed in the woods so long ago, grinning at her -- but he faded when Peck scrambled forward, having just noticed that Anise had opened her eyes.

"Hey, you're back." He grinned a little, uncertain. "Don't move fast, you're okay, you're at the Roost. There's nothing to be done right now."

When he was sure she could handle sitting up, he handed her a cup of cold water. Outside the tent, people were running and gryphons were huffing and scratching; murmurs of voices mentioned dragon and lantern in rough and hateful voices.

"The white Lantern is with the Dragon now," Peck informed Anise. "Everyone sees this as a bad omen, but we know the Dragon's return will be a good thing, right? Just three more Lanterns -- is that how it works? -- and the sun can come back." He offered her a smile. "You did it. Too bad Pirates are hard-headed and hard-convinced."

Mirror, Fox, Key

@chukklehed ha! Unfortunately not, but there could totally be some complicated clockwork games related to those coin operated automaton creepy things that I forget the name of.