Stanifly

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

@silver21 yarh p much. if the confusion is from the differing environments, I figure Aelvira and Vicis perceive the main bar to be set in the worlds they come from accordingly, but are still able to perceive each other's speech and actions the same

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

@silver21 oh no, I was more referring to Teresa's tendency to do Something instead of chilling and chatting LOL. woman needs to relax.

AYYY hellaverse!! I was wondering, but didn't want to assume. can't wait to see him join the fray heheh

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

me: boy I love character interaction
teresa:
me: where are you going

well at least I have Vicis now lol. also, I've updated Teresa's char sheet a little bit :)

@silver21 I see that char sheet! Damien's adorable :D

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Lost in Translation

@Tlazolteotl@silver21@Auragreedia

Sirpa didn’t answer her question. She did, however, start conversing with Westbound with renewed vigour. Nothing she said made any sense but it didn’t change the way he looked at her with newfound understanding. Something about the nonsense she spoke was reaching him in ways that Teresa and Morgan couldn’t understand. Teresa eyed her drink.

The silver raised itself out of liquid containment. It was a spire that curled in the air, silver stripped away to reveal dull grey, and reached toward Teresa. Drooped towards her chest. Her heart ached, even though all her wounds had long healed since she’d arrived here, even though Arts’ shot had never met its mark.

For the first time in this unknown place, Teresa felt fear for herself.

She immediately hated herself for it. A cowardly hero wasn’t a hero at all. A hero who couldn’t help someone, who couldn’t help herself, was of no help to others. Morgan had been less than pleased with her inimical approach to Westbound’s problem, but it had been necessary; the man clearly wasn’t about to face his devils without someone dragging him along. That was just the way things were – heroes were supposed to be the answer to the problems civilians brought onto themselves.

Eri scoffed. ‘And you seriously believe that?’

The silver shimmered in her drink. The waitress had returned. As Teresa blinked back up at them, Sirpa made to move Westbound back onto the dance floor. Morgan was speaking to her.

‘There’s no need to look around,’ said Teresa. The waitress’ words lingered. She rose from her seat, gripped the hilt of her sword. ‘If the waitress is right, then we’ll find what we need to find. And I intend to stop the music, through whatever means necessary.’

It was for Westbound’s own good. It was for all of their own good. If he wanted to stick his head in the sand and pretend that everything was fine, he could do that in his own time without dragging the people around him down with him.

Decision made, Teresa moved not into the throng of dancing people, but along the outskirts of the crowd, towards the venue’s west side. She glanced at the speakers dotting the wall, ever distant.

A destination in mind, huh? Fine. Show me, then. Whatever drowns this man’s soul in endless, gratifying noise. The grip on her sword hilt tightened. Show me where the music comes from.

Dulled silver lay at the bottom of her abandoned drink.

━━━━━━ ◈ ━━━━━━

@Tlazolteotl@silver21@Auragreedia

In This Catharsis

• The silver rising out of Silver Blade’s drink is visible only to herself. Everyone else probably perceives it as her staring at her (very normal) drink or something equally mundane.

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Vicis’ Catharsis

@Tlazolteotl@spiral origin

The mention of wyrm egg in an otherwise delightfully exotic menu made Vicis’ growing grin falter.

‘Wyrm egg?’ he repeated, reeling in disgust. ‘What self-respecting wyrm would eat their own young?’ He peeked another look at the two elder wyrms he had spotted earlier. They did not seem to be indulging in the cannibalism the light had suggested, but for them to be here at all, knowing of this particular local delicacy... ‘I shall pass on that.’

Admittedly, the rest of the menu was a fair bit tempting. Perhaps he could overlook this light entity’s transgressions on his kin this one time. In the name of research. Yes.

‘I will have the cherub cheeks, if you please. And perhaps some of that crystallised déjà vu, afterward.’

He had been seeking a pick-me-up, after all. If the scrumptious, sweet fat of fearful villagers was not what fate sought to offer him today, he would settle for seared... cherub. Whatever that may be. That peppercorn did sound appetising. He gave the pleasant light a slight nod in thanks.

As he waited for his food, he found his attention drifting to the silver-haired woman sat next to him. She, like all the other patrons in this mystifying place, did not seem to fear his presence. He leered at her, forked tongue flicking in greeting.

‘Hello, human. Fancy yourself a daring adventurer, do you?’

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

@silver21 all good for me! also congrats on your grading freedom 🎉

also just double-checking, is it safe to assume that everyone else besides Wesley is still hearing gibberish from Sirpa?

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

<Snipped quote by Stanifly>

@Tlazolteotl

she meant it in a metaphorical mindscape-y way but yes the thought is a lil' disturbing LOL

A supremacist elf and proud wyrm meet at a bar, sounds like a start to a joke...😂

indeed, the aligned speciest themes were a happy accident

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

HEHEHEH *throws in a giant snake* I love monsters!!!

<Snipped quote by Stanifly>
LMFAO love how you're playing Teresa, she's awesome

@Auragreedia

thank you!! Morgan's a ball of fun too :D I love his Done vibes

<Snipped quote by Tlazolteotl>

I plan to bring in a character from another RP after I'm done with Sirpa, but I can bring him in earlier if that would be helpful! If you need more characters for interactions

@silver21

👀👀👀 the more the merrier 👀👀👀 but it's up to you ofc

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Lost in Translation

@Tlazolteotl@silver21@Auragreedia

The silver simmered in its glass cage.

Teresa had been right to be wary of her drink, considering Sirpa’s deteriorating speech capabilities after a mere few sips of her own. Alarm rose somewhere in her chest. Were they ingesting a part of the man when they drank something here?

‘Are you alright?’ she asked Sirpa. ‘Speech aside. Is the drink affecting you in any other way?’

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Vicis’ Catharsis

@Tlazolteotl@spiral origin

Oh? How intriguing.

The weather was particularly splendid today, so much that Vicis had been moved to make his merry way to the village of Theseus (not to be mistaken for that philosophising human king he’d heard of). Clear skies on a sunny afternoon; a perfect accompaniment for an early dinner! Whoever said elder wyrms held no taste for good weather was an uneducated nitwit.

Then again, Vicis supposed such products of society were unavoidable when humans held the reigns for most of the open land. Any human who stumbled across Vicis typically had two predictable responses: screaming, or running and screaming. This was because Vicis was a 20-metre-long... how did the humans put it? A monstrous snake with the spines and scales of a dragon. Was it too much to ask them to notice the dashing stripes of sandpaper yellow that patterned his scales? What about the sharp ridges along his jaw? Truly, humans were nothing if not reductive with their descriptions of species that failed to resemble them.

Their geographical landmarks, too, seemed to be taking blows from their collectively stunted intellect. The path he had taken that was supposed to lead him to Theseus was leading him underground instead, with an unnaturally steep slope that disappeared into the bowels of the forest. With great bemusement, Vicis found himself wandering into a spacious cavern, dimly lit by glowstones set in the walls. It seemed a place between the constructed and the natural – rock formations hewn into artfully placed tables and stools, jutting stone ledges turned into platforms for visitors to sit themselves.

And there were visitors in this strange place. Mostly creatures – mage beetles, storm dragons, a couple of elder wyrms that Vicis sent awkward polite blinks to – but there were a few humans loitering around too. They all seemed unbothered by the company they shared. Everything in this place seemed to accommodate everyone present, from the shortest human to the biggest dragon.

Were the villagers I ate last week drunkards? wondered Vicis. No, this is far too late for an onset of second-hand ill effects. What in Serpent's name is this place?

At the head of all this stood an entity behind a bar of stone. It was neither human nor creature; this, Vicis deduced from the strange aura emanating off its form. Difficult to look at, even with the lack of shadows or miasma enshrouding its form. If anything, it exuded a pleasant demeanour as it went about serving the guests sitting at the bar. Vicis noted one of them to resemble a human, but he had never before seen one with silver hair. He wondered if it did anything for flavour.

Best not to stir trouble in another’s domain, for the moment. He slithered up to the bar, skipping a stone stool in favour of pressing up against the countertop to loom over the entity.

‘Quite the charming establishment you have here.’ His words were raspy around the edges, sibilance more pronounced than it might have been from other creatures. He blinked slit pupils of poison green down at the silver-haired woman, then reverted his gaze to the entity. ‘Do you perhaps offer cuisine for those of an... acquired palate?’

Dragonbone Liar

Lia grinned as Mr Helmet Man dropped into the mouth of the cavern below. Not a yes and not a no. How shrewd! It seemed a running theme with these underground hunters. She yanked her claws out of the cliff face and fell into a dive. By the time she’d joined him, her hand had shifted back to normal.

She would have liked to fly ahead – the thought definitely crossed her mind – but as wide as the passage was, stealth and flying just didn’t mix. Her boots landed gently on moist stone; she made a face at Mr Helmet Man as he gestured at her to be quiet, but said nothing, her wings folding up behind her. The floor was slick with moisture that could’ve come from the river raging at the bottom of the ravine... or other means. Judging from the handprints all over the walls, Lia was willing to bet the latter. She moved forward, one hand on the crossbow on her belt.

The light from the outdoors was quick to fade. Still, that didn’t mean the cavern plunged into darkness. In between the handprints on the walls weaved cracks in the stone, where soft blue glowed from the crystallised mana that lay within. The cracks ran through the ceiling too, with that same blue glow. The further in the two of them went, the more the handprints grew in number until they overlapped and merged into a smear of pale smudges on the walls.

Then the passage opened up into a cavern far bigger than the one that had greeted them at the mouth of the cliff wall. The tips of drooping stalactites were all that could be seen of the ceiling, swallowed in the darkness above. The sound of flowing water could be heard echoing through the space, even though there were no immediately apparent bodies of water anywhere. The whole space was aglow with the baby blue of mana. Where before they had been tucked away into the walls and the ceiling, raw mana crystals jut out of the ground in scattered clusters. Some glowed fainter than others. There were quite a few with dulled edges, as if worn away by constant touch.

‘Hey,’ whispered Lia to Mr Helmet Man, ‘thanks for the teamwork.’

She took to the air, pulling her crossbow free from her belt and cocking it with practised swiftness as she went. A twist was all she needed to line her sights up with Mr Helmet Man.

This Old One did so seem to love its hoard of mana. No better way to get its attention than this!

She fired. The cluster of mana crystals nearest to Mr Helmet Man shattered on impact. Wisps of magic rolled off the broken pieces like smoke. Half-hidden in the shadows of the ceiling, Lia waited.

A rumbling sound – almost a voice, even – broke through the depths of the cavern. The walls trembled. Mana crystals shuddered. Lia looked down happily at the underground hunter.

Make some noise for me, Mr Bait.

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

every single time I try to get Teresa to drink something, she just... doesn't. curse that responsible hero complex!!

also @Auragreedia Morgan greatly overestimates Teresa's delicate sensibilities LOL

@spiral origin v nice intro 👀 is Aelvira in her own catharsis or can other peeps entering Catharsis interact w her? I've been pondering on bringing another char to the main bar for a while.

@BaronOBeefDip & @Tlazolteotl yep that do be the green tea drink! I'm not really affected by caffeine (I wish I was so I could just chug it and stay awake for a week straight..) but it's more of a "I should drink water instead of sweet drinks" type thing