Young Writers Society

-edited-!

Okay, then Lumierre should have first post.

Should I add that to the profile? I'm finishing it now.

RazHuni wrote:Should I add that to the profile? I'm finishing it now.

That would be a good idea Raz.

Iceprincess, I've decided to give the leader role to Lumierre just to make things easier. I've talked it over with him.

Note: When you guys post, please make sure that your post is more plot-orientated rather than "teenage-ness".

And just to clear things up, Dolen is the name of the Rain Town (i.e where we are starting). Tiberia is a different place. Don't worry about it for now. More will be revealed soon.

Kadence Brahe | Dolen Sanctum | 5:40AM

Hollow morning light wafted through the stained glass and cast images of a crimson crucifix on the floor. The chancellor pushed his glasses up his nose and sniffed in the cold air of the sanctum, ruffling his white mustache with the breeze. "I assure you all that they'll be here soon," he droned out the words, his voice raspy with age.

A set of heavy footsteps echoed on the marble floor. Somewhere down a distant hallway, a baby cried.

And silence. And footsteps. And crying.

A round of coughs circled the room as the heroes-to-be awaited a complete stranger. The old man cleared his throat and examined his notes underneath a bronze electric lamp. One of the older males grumbled unintelligibly under his breath and the others turned to look at him.

The door to the sanctum opened and, with the authoritative presence of a nimbus cloud, a man in finely-tailored clothes entered the room, escorted by two guards in bronze armor. Once the man stood in the middle of the early-dawn cross, the chancellor nodded. "Now that we're all here," the old man coughed and shuffled his papers, motioning for a duo of soldiers to bring in a large projection machine.

Kade shifted his eyes around the room to occupy his burning curiosity, but only caught the tail of one whispered sentence.

"...suddenly stopped raining this morning..."

The man with the golden hair grinned to himself and crossed his arms, turning his eyes back to the projector machine. The chancellor hobbled down from his perch behind the podium and shuffled to the machine while making wheezing and gagging noises all the way. "This is what our Optirecorder captured earlier tonight when the robbery took," he coughed, "place." With much effort, he shifted the lever and the machine whirred to life with moving fans and grinding gears. A light from a spun bulb projected a gray image on the wall behind it.

But there was nothing happening. Kade shifted his eyes uncomfortably around the room to see if anyone even cared. Were guards like them even aware of the Rain Stone? Certainly they knew of it. Any simpleton who gazed into the sky during the day could see the power. But did they really know? He grinned once more to himself and peered back at the screen just as a flash of light burst through the northern wall to the Rain Sanctum in the video. A surge of adrenaline coursed through Kade's veins as he took in the glory of the illuminated aquatic gem... It was deja vu, really. He could feel the power nearly in his...

Thieves.

A troop of guards surrounded the stone only to be overthrown by a wave of what Kade imagined to be fire in the grey film. A wall of flames seared them all to the floor and left the stone open for taking.

And so one thief stepped apart from the others and pulled its cloak open, retrieving a bag for the stone. A pale hand stretched out and seized the stone with a bit of hesitation and stowed it in the bag. The thieves turned to the self-made entrance and the fire adept from before sent a sphere of fire into the direction of the Optic device.

The screen drew blackness and shut off.

Mireille Arainrhod | Dolen Sanctum | 5:46AM

"Your mission," the chancellor wheezed from the podium, "Is to retrieve the Rain Stone," he coughed for another bit more, "At all costs." The old man surveyed his attentive audience through his rimmed spectacles, and motioned for the guards to take away the Optirecorder. "You must take it back from the thieves, may gods curse their names;" he droned, crinkled hands gripping the edge of the podium tightly. "For doom and disorder will be brought upon us all if the Rain Stone is lost forever."

Well, we all knew that, Mireille thought to herself.

The old man gathered up his notes, stacked them neatly, and tucked them into a briefcase, which was also taken away by the guards. "Is that understood?" he peered at the band of unlikely heroes. "Yes, sir," they all muttered in unison. He gave the youngsters a dry smile, and shuffled away from the podium and into the center of the sanctum. He raised his hands, and muttered a blessing. "May the gods bless you on your noble quest," he proclaimed, "And protect you from harm."

They bowed their heads, solemnly receiving the blessings. All of the people in Dolen depended on us now, Mireille realised, and she tried to suppress the nausea in her stomach. What if we failed them? What if the Rain Stone is lost forever? She shook her head to get rid of the rising panic that was enveloping the very core of her soul and followed the procession out of the door, beginning their descent down the sanctum.

Mirielle shivered as she trailed after the cloaked men down the stone stairs. The cold air seeped through the intricate glass windows and underneath her skin. It bothered her and so she uttered a little incantation. "Pyrobolo," she whispered, and a small ball of fire appeared in her hands, warming and soothing her. One of the guards, without even looking back, barked, "Magic is not allowed here, please." She flushed and extinguished the fire, feeling her pale cheeks redden and heat up. Oh great, she sighed inwardly, they probably think I'm a nuisance now, and she tried to ignore the stares.

The whole procession was silent after that, and after a while, they finally exited the chilly Dolen Sanctum and into the bright morning sunshine. The chancellor silghtly dipped his head, the light illuminating his white locks. "Godspeed," he said, "May you safety return from your quest." He wheezed and continued, "Remember, the fate of the citizens of Dolen now lies," he coughed, "In your hands." The Royal Guards all left without another word and slipped into the midst of the sleepy town.

Imagine a selfish city
perpetually hoarding rain.
The city has no name of consequence
that it hasn't stolen from its people.

In the center of the city looms a forbodeing tower
disguised by sneaky clouds.
Within the tower is hidden a sacred stone,
the Rain Stone, the source of the mystic weather.

For aeons, this weather supplied the city with
needless wealth and blessed water.
And the surrounding alchemist villages
have paid extortionate sums for the necessity.

Our story begins as our group of villains
(if you will tar them with that name)
make ready to leave with the sacred gem...

Sorry I couldn't resist xD Baaaaad Heather, lol.

Lorcan Derail; Outskirts of Dolen; 4:30 AM

There was a movement in the darkness, here and there, shapes bulging and retracting like a hoard of black beetles, stumbling over each other in the night. But there was order to the chaos. There were hurried steps keeping beat with each other and the soft patter of voices like rain. Except there would not be rain anymore. Not with the rain stone firmly in their grasp. The rain stone. Hah! Did they even know what they had lost? What they had kept from the world for so long, using it as a mere trinket. What they had done with the stone was a pathetic party trick compared to its real potential.

And then there was light, just the whisper of a flame as it danced over Lorcan's hand. He stood, his grim visage taking in the four shadowed faces as they turned to him and at last he smiled, a growing curve of the lips that made him look dangerous in the firelight. "Quickly now," he said, shooting questioning looks at their oracle but if the man had anything to say, he kept it to himself.

That was good, Lorcan told himself. Nicolae would have indicated if there was danger, he would have made some sign if they were going to fail now, at the last hurdle.

"Into the fire," Lorcan mumbled, though whether it was meant to be heard or not was hard to judge. The fire slipped off his fingertips, pooling into a glowing sphere on the floor. It settled there for a moment and then up it flew, dancing through the air to hover in front of them, illuminating a little of the desert that lay just beyond the bracken bushes where they hid.

Lorcan led his mount out first, his pack safely tethered to the saddle and he clucked gently under his breath to calm the creature. He didn't know how far they'd take the horses. It was going to be hard to find water and food for themselves beyond what they carried and near impossible for the beasts. Perhaps they would set them free in a day or two and let their hoof prints add to the chaos and confusion. It would be hard to tell Circa that. He could just make out the silhouette of her dress sitting up on the horse. He paused for a moment, caught by the vaguely puzzled expression on her face as she tried to work out why it was she couldn't talk. Lorcan had thought it would be disastrous to raise her with the vocal chords intact this time around but he did so like to see her.

Impatience from behind, the very feel of it creeping down his shirt and breaking the spell. Lorcan shook his body, as if to rid himself of any other troublesome thoughts and then clucked to the horse again, swinging up with ease into the saddle now that he was clear of the thorns and brambles.

And gradually there were little strings of light spilling out across the sky. And no rain. That was important. For the first day since arriving within the city's reach, there was no rain to dampen their cloaks or wash away the marks they made on the world.

Hey guys. Sorry that I let this SB for dead. I've been pretty emo for the last 6 days and wasn't able to do anything about this SB until now. But now that I'm back, I think it's time to get this rolling again! You guys have set the bar pretty high so I need to figure out how to match that, or else I'll be a doing a dis-service to you guys.

I've also deleted my first character, Ellen and replaced her with someone that has more late game potential. I hope she works lol.

P.S: Heather, your post made me lol pretty hard when I first read it lol.

Love the new character Andy! Annnnnd cheap laughs is what I'm for

Laenaya Sevriens | The Streets of Dolen | 6:12AM

“Hey K. Mind taking us to the town’s plaza first for our morning feed? Or are your goggles on too tight to see that we are starving here?”

Laenaya had the impression that Kadence was someone that had wasted so much of their lives in the labs. There was a pearly white glow to his skin, even as they were walking the sunlight streets of Dolen, and he was always dressed in that thick green coat of his. Must be trying to hide his body figure, Laenaya thought. He looked ridiculous either way.

She was told by her officers that Kadence was an alchemist, and one of the few sane ones at that. The way that they said the word “alchemist” made it seem like he was the much rumored Holy Grail that her Father and his gang have been after for years. But honestly, she couldn’t care less. Whatever wasn’t made into gossip on the streets wasn’t worth thinking about.

As she swaggered in front of Kadence, she did however wonder if she should had even volunteered to join in the search to retrieve the Rain Stone in the first place. The Black Mages after all were a well known organization among the members of her gang and in the criminal underworld, believed to have some connection with the gangs in Palmecia, and possibly her Father’s. If they managed to catch the Black Mages responsible for this operation, then maybe it would help uncover more of her Father’s operations in the North.

The Black Mages that Laenaya saw in the projection back at the Sanctum didn’t seem all that powerful. The wall of fire that one of them had conjured up was crudely cast and would had died out easily if it was raining. They were lucky to had been facing guards that didn’t even know how to spread out when such an attack was made. Yet, everyone in her party kept strangely quiet after what they saw.

“Geeze Captain K. What kind of leader are you? You aren’t even listening to my brilliant suggestions, so now everyone is having an emotional episode,” said Laenaya, twirling a strand of her black hair around her finger. “I said that we should first have breakfast at the Plaza. No point hunting the Black Mages down on an empty stomach right? And while we’re there, I can also dowse for their whereabouts.”

She flashed a smile and gave Kadence a wink. “So how about it champ? Do we have a deal here?”

I hereby claim this storybook in the name of the storybook snobs.

Kadence Brahe | Streets of Dolen | 6:17AM

"...and while we’re there, I can also dowse for their whereabouts.” She flashed a smile and gave Kade a wink. “So how about it champ? Do we have a deal here?”

Kade slowed his pace to a crawl and scanned the remainder of the faces in their little troop, shifting glassy eyes over the tiny clan they had gathered. And, just as the fox had said, they looked miserable. Kade stopped instantly and planted both of his feet on the stone bridge beneath them, waiting for the last of them--the other girl...Mire was her name--to stop. They all turned groggy eyes onto their leader and he waited for a moment as he pondered on their identities. "It's early and you're all hungry..." Kade nodded to himself and the others nodded as well. "So the Black Mages are escaping with our objective, but we'll stop to eat."

There was far too much stress in his voice. But it was justified stress, called for and understood, at least by Kade. His claim to power was probably in the Marsh Lands by that point and he shuddered at the thought of missing his window of opportunity.

One of the men shifted in his posture, tapping a black pastel shard against his pants leg. A stain rested in the same spot, most likely from habitual contact. "Sir, I'd rather have breakfast without guilt."

Kade raised an eyebrow. "I'd rather have success without struggle, but everything warrants sacrifice, and your breakfast is bartering our success."

The younger male shut his lips tightly, leaving them pale white without blood. The others just looked on anxiously until Kade turned his eyes to the grinning Laenaya in the back. She nodded her head towards the plaza, either claiming breakfast to be worth the time or completely oblivious to the stakes, and Kade nodded in return. "Right, then. The plaza cafe."

The tiny cafe served as an Inn as well, smelling of bath soap and roasting lamb. Empty bottles of ale were lined against a counter in the back of the room where the washers did their jobs. A rich mahogany covered the room and the 'mother' of the Inn, Mrs. Dana, she smiled at each customer as they sat down at a table or checked out of the Inn. One of her children walked sleepily to the guards' table and placed five plates of steamy breakfast in front of them.

The others dug into their food while Kade stared at his empty glass of water, motioning his fingers as a small cloud cumulated over the glass, darkening before releasing a small deluge of water into the glass, filling it to the brim. The quieter male, Jaser, locked his eyes onto the minute miracle and grinned, peering then into Kade's eyes. A small, almost unnoticeable ripple of energy shook through the male's eyes before he nodded. "Yes, I can read minds. And I'm impressed that you picked up on it just by looking at me."

The other three peered up from their food. Kade just nodded and stared ahead at Jaser fiercely. Small ringlets of color began to fill his eyes as his face became less confident. "Focus," said Kade, and Jaser furrowed his brow, his eyes gleaming in a dark orange.

Suddenly, Jaser shirked back, tilting his head to the side. The others watched on, curiously anticipating something to explode. "I... Why...?"

Kade shook his head and stuck a bronze fork into the small slice of meat on his plate. "You'll be our tactician and intelligence." Laenaya grinned through her nightfall of hair and sat back, tapping her glass on the table.

"We should introduce ourselves," she said flatly, and pounded her chest as she let out a tiny belch. Kade lifted an eyebrow as he chewed apart his bites, watching her eyes as he swallowed. "My name is Laennaya Sevriens and I'm a sweeper."

The other girl chuckled to herself and shook her head, putting her glass on the table as well. "That's too bad, Lae, because I'm the sweeper."

Kade grinned and nodded. "As I am a defensive masterpiece."

The messy eater, Eli, looked around at the others and shrugged. "I make animals."

Eli Uni | | 6:19AM| Plaza Cafe

*Eli would not eat like that*

Eli sat poised in his chair, leisurely bringing a curved spoon of broth to his lips. Food was generally not outwardly beautiful. Its beauty was in its taste. The taste of onions, celery, carrots, garlic all melted together with countless other ingredients, causing his taste buds to dance in glee. He wanted to savor every spoonful as the individual flavors caressed his tongue. With this in mind he slurped it slowly making sure none of it escaped the

He was drawn away from his soup when the mention of introducing ones self was brought. Eli looked up from his bowl and placed used his spoon causing the warm liquid inside to spin like a whirlpool.

“I contole plants,” he said.

The others seemed unimpressed by this statement so he elaborated.

“Life is the most beautiful thing in this world. Well, second if you count a fine lady.” He winked at the two girls in the party. “Few would disagree with life being a majestic masterpiece, if they have ever witnessed the birth of life. A baby being born, a seedling couragesly bursting to the surface to drink in the light. To put it in simpler terms I control plants." His skills was mainly for trapping openents. His skills weren't that offensive, he'd have to rely on the other for most of that.

That idea brought him to his next thought. Which of these two girls interested him more. The one named Laenaya had a nice shape, but her face was a bit squashed. No bad to look at, but not pleasant either. The other girl, Mireille was more his type. She had stunning violet eyes that seemed to contain their own inner light. She was a petite girl with flowing black hair that fell like a waterfall down her back and slightly obscured one of her gorgeous eyes. Yes, she'd was definitely more interesting. Plus he preferred shorter girls.

Nicolae Harcourt | Desert Outside Dolen | 6:19 AM

At the desert, where the only view consisted of sand dunes, Nicolae amused himself by tracking the Royal Guards' movements. The group was far behind their own, the oracle was aware, and unless Lorcan messed up and the Royal Guards worked double time, there was no way they could catch up at the moment. The witch might prove a problem, but Nicolae didn't worry too much about her. In fact, he was delighted the Royal Guards brought her along. Given her track record for rebellion, she might just tear them apart.

Nicolae snickered to himself when Eli thought what he did. Silly, naive human. Terribly untalented, quite useless, and delusional to boot. Oh how far the Royal Guards had fallen. They ought to know Eli would only cripple them. The man's powers were silly, and would only serve to distract those easily thrown off-focus. And none of the men Lorcan hand-picked were so inept at battle to get distracted by a few exotic animals.

Glee, positive and absolute, filled the oracle. Even if those ditzes caught up with them - which was unlikely at this point in time - they'd never be able to take the Rain Stone by force unless Lorcan made a critical mistake.

With that thought, Nicolae turned his gaze to Lorcan, whose horse dutifully trudged on though the sand despite the uncooperative sand shifting beneath its hooves. Lorcan's younger sister sat in front of him, like a little porcelain doll. Only it wasn't so much a doll as it was a corpse-turned-puppet. But that was none of Nicolae's business. Let Lorcan solve his little family problems with the Rain Stone.

Nicolae's job was to keep the party alive. Right now, Lorcan was headed for the shortest path through the desert, but Nicolae couldn't allow that. Shortest, yes. But it was also one of the driest paths. If they detoured through the west, then they might just be able to bring the horses all the way to the bay. Lorcan's plan made little sense as it was. Leaving hoofprints all around would not serve to confuse the Royal Guard, not with that little dowser in their team.

The dark-haired oracle urged his horse to hurry ahead of Lorcan's, nudging it towards the west.

"So much for all-knowing. This way's the shortest path through the desert," muttered Topher to Ian. Ian merely shrugged, and Nicolae knew that though the alchemist held a grudge, he would follow the oracle's lead.

Lorcan himself paused, surveying the landscape and raising an eyebrow. "You're asking us to make a detour through the western valleys? You understand that'll cost us a few more days."

"Better a few days than a few lives," Nicolae replied, keeping his answer vague and his expression neutral. He stiffened just then, realizing what had happened back at diner where the Royal Guards were eating breakfast. The little witch had decided she'd search for them with that little pendulum of hers. Damn her. "We have to hurry," Nicolae added, meeting Lorcan's eye and hoping he wouldn't have any need to explain himself further.

The less scuffles they had with the Royal Guards, the better.

Mireille Arainrhod | The Inn | 6:23 AM

Mireille kept silent as she listened to the boy named Eli talk about his turning things into plants. Not very impressive, but she knew with the right back-up, he could probably do some serious damage. Pretty good, she thought, as she absentmindedly swirled her water, making it twist and turn. Quite good-looking, too. The mind-reader --- called Jaser, she believed --- had started asking about the extent of the brown haired boy's powers, so she turned her attention to other more important...matters. They could all sit together and brag about their powers all day (though she knew they weren't) but the Black Mages were getting away at this very moment while they were still eating breakfast.

She grudgingly admitted that Kade did make the correct decision to let them eat breakfast first, but she still resented knowing that the Black Mages were ahead of their game, and she knew that some of her companions did too. Forlorn, she decided to check on the Black Mages, if they hadn't put up some magic barriers already, she thought bitterly.

Gathering the energy in the glass of water, she flicked her fingers to the right to concentrate the energy into the center of the now churning and swirling water, willing the water to tell her what she needed. Show me the Black Mages, wherever they are! An image slowly formed on the choppy surface, and she immediately dipped her head closer to the surface.


A black haired boy around her age nudged his horse towards the other direction than his team leader. The leader raised his eyebrow and asked, "You're asking us to make a detour through the western valleys? You understand that'll cost us a few more days."

"Better a few days than a few lives," the boy replied.


Mireille let the image fade. She had already known enough.

She raised her head and met Eli's eyes over the table. Was he looking at her? she thought to herself, startled, but pushed away the thought. "There's no need for you to dowse, Lae," she quietly said. Everyone stared at her, and Jaser quickly asked, "Why?"

She faintly smiled, smug that she just proved the other girl wrong. "I just found out that they're heading towards the western valleys," she leaned back and tried her best not to put an emphasis on the "I". It just so happens that I'm the better sorceress Lae, she mentally added in her head.

"Shouldn't we get going?" she asked, her violet eyes piercing into her companions', ignoring the pointed glare that the other girl sent her way. "Are we really letting them get away from us?"

Laenaya coldly said, "We haven't finished our breakfast yet, Mireille."

Mireille dimpled at the team, eyes sparkling with mirth. "You can just call me Mir." She picked up her leather satchel and looked straight into Kade's eyes. "Look, are we going or not?"

((I'm afraid I'll have to drop out. The course load for the new semester is heavier than I was expecting. @_@))

Name: Kiro Reece

Role:

Character picture: Still trying to find one.
Character quote: If it doesn't work, kick it.
Character theme: Church is burning, Simon and Garfunkle
Allegiance: Royal Guard

Age: 24
Appearance: Kiro has really long black hair which he keeps back in a plait, and sun-tanned skin. He's short in stature, slightly built, with countless scars on his hands and arms, and a fair few unhealed cuts or scrapes. He wears a golden cross around his neck, and several perculiar looking watches.

Personality: He's very calm and tolerant towards others, even to the point of annoyance, especially when he simply agrees to everything.
Inwardly he has a set of moral rules based around his religion, and makes a calm and unrelenting objection if ever expected to break them.
He loves machinery, transportation vehicles, and anything that ticks, dislikes the unneccesary use of magic and hates fire. He enjoys the company of people who are older than him, eats huge amounts of food,


Character Background:
After spending his early childhood on the streets Kiro was taken in by a church orphanage, who showed him a way of life in which he didn't have to fight or steal to survive.
There he grew up with a simple lifestyle, while his guardians allowed him to pursue his love of technology and were fascinated by the contraptions he made.
The church was destroyed by war, and he went in search of a way to bring peace. The Royal Guards took him in based on his ability to wield metal, before they realised how valuble he could be on the field.

Abilities: Magic-
He can control metals, and change how a mechanism works by touching it. This also means he can control metals inside his body: he has stronger bones and muscles, giving him a high endurance and making him good at throwing punches.
Weaknesses- He heals slow and often scars. He is weakened by high temperatures, and easily fatigued by lack of food or sleep.
-He must be touching the metal, or have some kind of indirect contact (like using a fork to touch an iron) in order to manipulate it.

Equipment: His watches that are equipped with many gadgets, mostly navigational, his bible, and a thin metal chain with a hook that he uses to make contact with other metal objects.

Misc: He likes crunchy vegetables, can't sleep any time between sunrise and sunset, and likes turning stray metal objects into games like chess and marble hop.