Post by Nathalia on Mar 9, 2011 20:17:19 GMT -5
Callie, Lilac, and her Mother, Sethrae were all found shortly after the explosion downtown.
All of them had hidden inside of a nearby shoppe upon hearing the approach of voices, and peeped through windows as, outside, a Lowlander named Mirung had beaten and wrecked a Josiggy Bird before carrying him off, talking to a Rat.
They were all shocked to find that the inside of the shoppe rather resembled a bakery...with more floors than the shoppe should physically be able to house...
After exploring the apparently 20 floors, they came away none the wiser for the painfully spooky place, especially since floors 2-18 seemed to contain nothing and were full of a horrible, pleading horde of whispers that would not die...
Still, on the 1st floor there had been some tasty food, one small cake turning Lilac's eyes a brilliant orange, and another of which giving Callie tiny antennae!
On the 19th floor, they found an odd-looking Selkie Feline Bird mix...though he was oddly transparent, and he kept shorting in and out of existence...almost as though he were being pulled to many places at once. He gave them a terrifying, disjointed speech about his pathetic state and his desperation to find his daughter, before vanishing all together.
Lilac found a few things on the dreary 20th floor, which had no windows and made all of them feel like they were about to be chased by something horrible. After grabbing the items, they hurtled back down the stairs.
Tiny Silver Moon: How cute! This little silver moon is on a chain that can be placed about the owner's neck. Once Lilac touched it, it snapped itself on and wouldn't come off, a small tingle letting her know she'd gained a new ability. Once per month, the caster can stare directly at another Card ranked Eight or lower and whisper the words 'full moon'. All fur, scales, feathers, or clothing covering the victim's rump will then fall off and must be regrown naturally or put back on.
Little Inkwell: This tiny inkwell was easy to grab. Once touched, Lilac will feel a tingle run down her spine... Once per every three months, the caster can lick the tip of a writing implement. When they place it to paper or another writing surface, they are then able to write the name of the next 'important' person they will meet and the date of the meeting. Of course, the term 'important' is extremely subjective...it could be absolutely anybody, but once they write it out (not able to choose who it is, please PM the admin when this is used for a random roll) they will meet that person...even if it is just a pass in the street.
Upon escaping back down the stairs, Lilac discovered a door that doesn't seem to have been there before; after they all managed to tear it open, they discovered that the shoppe was somehow connected to a pub...after entering carefully, they found that the bar area was littered with the bodies of dead Selkies. Trying to get away from this horrific scene, they bumped into Nephe, HP, and Kyri who had joined the other two from outside. They seemed to have been scoping out a room up above and had just trotted down with a little picture and a small bag of goodies.
Powder Puff Pillow: (For Nephe) This cute little potpourri filled pillow is made of lace and decorated with tiny flowers. When touched it instantly sends a tingle through the Skunk's body and up his spine. Once per week, the caster can enchant a pillow by holding it close to their face and whispering the word 'snuggle'. The next person to lay their head on the pillow, caster included, will immediately fall into a deep and restful eight hours of REM sleep. They cannot be woken during this time and will wake up as though they had been well-rested for the last full week.
Heat Absorbing Scarf: (For Either of Sera's) This item is not automatically assigned and can be later traded or given to another character. Wow! What a cute red scarf! Patterned with oranges and yellows, it's a lovely little Morganberry thing. When worn by someone who actually wants to keep it, they will feel a small tingle and an odd sensation in the back of their throats...almost a burning, though it's gone so quickly, they might have imagined it... (Pm the admin when this item is used).
The little trios informed one another of the fears and horrors they had just encountered, before they made an attempt to simply leave this horrible place.
The front door had vanished while they were talking.
And an odd sound in the next room over made them wonder if the person who had murdered the Selkies wasn't still there..
They snuck around in the room and were surprised when any and all light was snuffed out, Callie suffering a bruised wing and a rather disturbing concussion when a part of the roof and one of the dead Selkies collapsed on her; which caused her to speak as if she thought the entire trip was an illusion and that she was actually in a Corvie hospital for the mentally insane. Try as they might, they were unable to drag her out of it and had to leave her in a corner with Kyri...whose stone protrusions seemed to have a bizarre comforting effect on her.
The remaining four kept as quiet as possible and followed a very faint bio-luminescence given off by HP's tentacles, until they saw the outline of someone long and slinky. Maybe like...a Ferret? It stood suddenly upon being discovered, showing it was actually a Biped, threw a bag haphazardly across its shoulders, and pulled out a knife!
Running at them, and slashing indiscriminately, it slammed into a far wall and slashed the area repeatedly with the knife until it gave way, blinding them all with the dim light from the streets outside!
They run out into the street after the perpetrator...only to hear the rattling of wheels vanishing around a corner and see nothing before them except for the unconscious body of Zeki. They spent five minutes attempting to awaken him, before finally succeeding and helping him to stand, before taking him with them.
The group picks Callie and Kyri back up, hoping that Callie's been cured...she "has", in some ways. But, in many others, she still wonders if somewhere...she's actually locked away in a mental institution and her dreams from here on out will try their hardest to delve into why.
After this, they began to hunt through the Capital for the perpetrator, but did not find them. Unable to get what they saw out of their minds, or the thought of the dead Selkies, they trundled off to find the Police.
But, weren't we speaking of the Benayn Riverlands...?
They've begun to accrue quite the unwelcome reputation among traders as being untrustworthy folk who will stab you in the back if you do them wrong. The Midori folk being one of the few who outright will not trade with them now, and the Golfam being one of the few who will...but will probably kill them soon after.
So, while they've found that those trading with them are suddenly acting far more respectful...many are also trying to cut ties in order to avoid saying anything that would get them on the same "hit list" as the lakes.
The Benyan has been completely villainized by the Calloo (along with the Josiggy, for the most part), the Midori, Cranstone Moors, and Avington; everyone else is either frowning heavily on the actions taken, or simply taking the information with a grain of salt when trading with the River people.
As Uluani slowly snuck away from her fallen comrade and confused group of fools, her newly ink-stained and color marred fur seemed to attract the attentions of an odd little creature...
ID: B07 out of 10
Species: Blobling
Characteristic: Blood Ink
Notes: This little Blobling is not elastic, but more of a thick, sticky substance. It is able to secrete a thick, bubbling foam that smells overpoweringly like blood whenever it feels that itself or its master is threatened.
It will only take to the creature it has bonded to, though if that creature dies, it might consider another.
Once a week, it is able to spit its foam with percision, causing temporary blindness of up to one minute, this foam also causes the victim to bleed copiously from the nose during this time.
Bloblings are exceedingly rare, in fact, there are only 10 of them. They cannot breed, cannot be split into multiples, and will not ever be found again. They have a mildly frightening aura and will not be viewed as a normal pet or familiar, many will view them with disgust and trepidation or fear.
Alicia bolted past her without even noticing, on her way out and as far away from these horrible Cards as she could get!
In doing so, she splashed through a puddle of the mess, apparently where the nasty thing had crawled out of the river, and felt an odd tingling spread through her neck and back.
After about ten minutes, she had to stop as an ache had slowly turned into a burning pain that she couldn't shake!
Slowly...her neck began to stretch and her back seemed to explode with something sharp and metallic growing from the flesh.
Wow! She actually looks...quite wonderful. The elongated neck shows her mane off better and those beautiful wings hum with an electricity produced from her own body! She can fly very short distances with them (Up to about half a mile every other day) before they sap her of energy and fail to operate.
She can partially retract them if she chooses, leaving a beautiful ridge of what looks like metallic feathers when she does.
Within 10 weeks of the (Jordan) little group's unfortunate arrival in the Lakes; the Selkies are, on the whole, dead.
The poison spread through the majority of the Realms over that course of time and the poison took its toll far more quickly than anyone could ever have imagined.
For those interested; the symptoms included: sticky black goo running from their eyes that smell either of ink or petrol, lack of interest in food leading to unhealthy weight loss, discoloration in fur, feathers or scales, sticky and over oily skin, vomiting, and fever. All leading to insanity and eventual death. Many Corvies began discretely putting people down upon their entering to save them the torment.
Along with this...Corvies seem to have collected and distilled enough of the eye leakage to have started around a new and horribly addictive drug called Slips; it's very much like morphine in properties, but with side effects more n line with LSD...enjoy, it's very expensive and in limited supply.
About 0.8% of the Lakes population and mixes over all of Wonderland seems to have in them a genetic line that makes them immune to most of or all of the effects of the magical poison.
This, quite effectively, rendered the Selkie Lakes extinct.
(This percentage consists of the boards PCs. They are now the only Selkies and Selkie mixes left alive. People seeing a healthy Selkie now is very nearly a cause for people to stare a bit, as they have become an incredibly rare sight, their genetics are all affected in some ways however, and they are now exceedingly difficult to breed.
For those who desperately wanted one, they will still be orderable and breedable if you choose, though they will be more expensive and will be much harder to roll up in a breeding. You may no longer use custom favors to achieve one.)
Shoshanna and Zhenya became a bit ill during the time when all were dropping like flies, but did not end up succumbing to the disease.
Speaking of Zhenya; his group out in the Capital streets with Eldy, Nova, and the others were soon surprised when people began literally spilling out of the woodwork, reappearing about 20 minutes after they located their last prize. They all seemed a bit woozy and "off", as though they'd been force fed narcotics that were just now wearing off.
The owner of the meat shoppe was none too happy...good thing you were a bit too far away to be directly included in his list of "suspects"...
At least they seem to have returned to reality without too much cause for issue...though that skeleton that Sergei fished out of the basement seems...off somehow. (If anyone in the group decides to take it with them, please PM the admin.) Odd though...the top part of the skull seems to have been stolen.
When Sergei went back to inspect it, it shocked him horribly and he passed out, a small item clutched in his fist.
Thick Icy Beads: These tiny, icy beads have embedded themselves in the flesh around Sergei's jugular! They're freezing cold and though he'll get used to it, someone snuggling up to him at night might not. They are actually little beads of bone from the skeleton, encased in permanent ice! He is now able to, at will and by default, change his own core temperature in order to make himself, not only comfortable, but completely and healthily at ease in any environment, regardless of clothing he may of may not be wearing.
Beraht and Pascha seemed to be getting along fine with Corporal Rodney...until Pasha's spell wore off of the Joker after two hours spent helping the officer with his cleanup of the "Fallen Wing".
Beraht snapped, recalling and instinctively knowing that the Owl did this to him, he made an incredible effort to get to Pascha and kill him. Believing the Owl to have also done something to his beloved Sorcha and then simply wiped it out if his mind. Rodney was knocked unconscious in the Jokers first attack and lay in a crumpled heap for the majority of their battle, as the Tulgey hid in increasingly unlikely places; the Joker tearing after him through people; on a murderous, roaring, rampage of revenge.
When he got a bit of his sense back, the Joker found himself covered in viscera and up in the attic of the Inn. There was a small black door set haphazardly into the far wall...after a few moments pause (and listening to the cries of the dying below), he slipped through and shut it after himself.
Pascha scooted out as fast as he could, with the cash drawer...and hid in a gem shoppe until other people began to rematerialize.
Rodney regained awareness a few hours later and was aghast at the violence that had taken place, he searched for survivors, found none, and ended up just trying to close off all of the entrances to stop people from going in...and forget about what he'd seen.
The Joker reappeared outside of the Police station (out of a small door on the side of a nearby toy shoppe) about 5 minutes after Rosewood and crew had headed out on their walk to find Cale. Beraht turned the place into an even more incredible chaos-zone; leaving no door not torn off its hinges in his search for Sorcha. Finally being forced to conclude she was not there, he collapsed in exhaustion and passed out.
He was awoken an hour later by an incredibly confused Sorcha who had just rematerialized outside the front doors.
Dr. Zenon and her rag-tag band ended up stumbling back together with Corporal Rodney after Rosewood and Arkady had delivered their cryptic message to the dying Cale. Ark and Rosewood agreed to take Farran with them to find what Cale had mentioned, leaving Dr. Zenon with Rodney. On their way to Mrs. Lovett's old shoppe, they picked up (due to Farran's muttered grumbling and a few quips in a random person's direction) Jeremiah and stumbled over the unconscious body of Mana, hidden in an alley where Lilac had pushed her before sprinting off after Callie in order for the little Kiwi to avoid being stepped on.
After they woke her, they ended up dragging the pair along after them, Miah making doe eyes at Mana the whole way for kicks.
All were quite fortunate to find that the Barber had locked himself into his private room in order to deal with himself...seeing as they're going to search his dead lover's basement...probably a good thing.
They're confronted by Aliohani and Emery, neither of whom seem to inclined to allow this strange and bloody group into the basement while the Barber isn't...um..."well". Mr. Todd had told the two that they were allowed to stay and help until he got "sick of 'em"...letting them take that as they would.
Orin and the babies were taken down the street to help with the other Lowland children (We'll get to them next round) with Karrock and a just woken and groggy Kelsier.
Mana and Miah went with them...wonder what happened to that pair? (Next post tells you.)
Emery seemed unwilling to allow any of them to get too close to the meat-grinder...good thing they were looking for a loose brick and not a metal machine; they listened to him, even though Farran laughed at him and even cracked a few jokes about selling the annoying Ace.
Their search lasted a good two hours, but they were unable to find anything...perhaps if they came back another time and looked through the basement?
Might have to, Rosewood's not looking too good, and Farran's lost a lot of blood., Arkady too.
(PM the Admin if Rosewood, Ark, Farran, Aliohani, or Emery want to continue this, but confer together before poking me, so that you all agree on who will be playing and who won't.)
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More to come in part 3, guys. There's just...a LOT to get through. Especially with Sera's and Ku's characters who didn't get very far.
Sorry for the long wait, but I've got quite a bit to crawl through. <3
~Nathalia
