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Young Writers Society


A Chance Meeting



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Tue May 31, 2016 11:17 pm
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TheSilverFox says...



Shiruba:

He was appalled. And, for once, so were Enide and the sailor. Neither stopped him from pulling out his katana in one fluid movement and prepare a battle stance as he faced Nendros. For once, he was calm. Which was odd, as this was a more dangerous scenario than he was accustomed to, what with Nendros having taken two hostages. And, more importantly, demanding to know whatever secrets it was that he was holding, which was, naturally, a few volumes of information that he would rather never openly declare. However, the gravity of this situation seemed to flip a few switches in his mind and hardened his demeanor significantly. He was beyond annoyed at this point, especially with the prospect of leaving now fading away. He was deadly, and anyone who knew him would know that was far worse.

"What is this for?" he shouted. "We found the missing person and managed to reunite them with Zogin. This should be it; we should be able to leave, now that the only reason binding we here right now no longer exists. Why should we care if it's unlikely that any of us have met? After we've all found our escape and left, will that knowledge ever come of use?"

"Yes," commented the sailor, who now stood beside Shiruba with a stern expression on his face. "Our greatest goal is get out of this place, isn't it? And you could do a much better way of trying to make your point by grabbing a few of your friends and holding them hostage. Because everyone knows there's no better way to convince people to willingly agree by forcing them to."

"Precisely," picked up Shiruba. "And why should we tell you our secrets? I happen to value my own past a lot more than the prospect of learning more about why we've been placed here, especially as I come from a place where secrets sell more than lives are worth. And while some people are evidently willing to disclose them" - he gestured to Sakura, whose transformation into a taller, oddly more beautiful, and stronger form left him evidently incredibly surprised. Especially her strange wooden rod, which seemed to be releasing large amounts of magical energy, and certainly not something he was accustomed to. Most those with rods he knew were skilled at healing magics, and she'd certainly been able to heal herself quickly, although he was suspicious that was not the case here, which did make her a bit of threat in his eyes. And, of course, she claimed to be a conglomeration of magic, which explained her past healing abilities, but also made her seem that much more imposing and intimidating, especially given her possible capacity for using weapons. He didn't like it - "I, for one, have enough motivation not to."

"To speak nothing of your second hostage," called out Enide, who stood on the other side of Shiruba from the sailor, who by now had pulled a couple of daggers from his coat pockets and was twirling them in a fashion that wasn't menacing, but implied it would be soon. "She's said so herself - the man that tried to attack us was because of her. He held one of her personal possessions. Fortunately, the one person who was injured was capable enough to heal herself rapidly, but suppose the girl is right, and more of those attackers arrive. Who is to say that the next victim might not be so fortunate? By staying here, you're thrusting us all into jeopardy."

She pulled out a katana of her own from her back, and assumed a similar stance to Shiruba. "Believe me, I have no intention to see blood spilled here today, but my husband does not have such convictions. Let go of your hostages, and allow us to calmly and rationally deal with this situation, or there will be trouble. From all three of us."


Spoiler! :
aaaaah 10 pages. <3
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse
a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo
non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero,
senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.

Inferno, Canto 27, l 61-66.





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Wed Jun 01, 2016 12:12 am
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Kelpies says...



Flaerwin

"If you want me to talk about myself you might as well kill me now." It took me a full thirty seconds to realize that I hadn't stuttered. I was still trying to force my way out, and it didn't seem to be working very well.

Sakura

"As I see it, it's simple strategy. However, it might not be what we all have in common. I have an alternate theory, maybe we could just start with where we were and what we were doing before we ended up in the woods." I settled, cross-legged on the ground. "I don't think that much information would hurt anyone."
We are who we are, and if someone has a problem with that; that's their problem not ours.
***
I do believe that insane is the only way to go.





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Fri Jun 17, 2016 11:54 am
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Mageheart says...



Nendros:

He felt horrible as he let the two girls go. "I was trying to prevent them from leaving...Flaerwin is strong, and she was farther away, so I used my tail instead of my free hand..." He stared at the ground in an attempt to avoid everyone's gazes. How could he have been so stupid? Why did he ever think it would be a good idea to do that?

I'm a monster, aren't I?

That had to be the truth. He no longer simply looked the part. Enide, Shiruba, and the sailor had been planning on killing him. It wasn't just a threat - he could see they were planning on attacking him if he hadn't let the girls go. There was no doubting it.

They believed I was going to harm them.

He tried to stop his hands from shaking at the thought. Not for the first time, he wished Tieth had kidnapped him and transformed him into this monster. But had he always been a monster? When members of his uncle Drenar's court had been killed by the assassin Ruma Glider, he hadn't been upset. Though he had interacted with them hours before their deaths, he had been happy. They were corrupt, they were evil, they didn't care a thing about commoners, and they had probably helped concoct the plan to kill her and her family, but that didn't give him permission to be joyful over their deaths!

Tears started to slide down his face. He was too upset at himself to even care that everyone saw them. "I'm sorry," he managed to get out. A second later, he found himself being embraced by cold, metal arms.

"Aska, you don't need to do that," he tried to protest. "I'm a monster, and we both know it. I don't - and I never have - deserve a friend like you."

"You're not a monster, Nen." Aska tightened his hug. "Deep down, you're a human. A kind, caring human with an uncorrupted heart." He added something else underneath his breath that sounded suspiciously like, "Unlike me."

He didn't press Aska for an explanation, but continued to cry into his shoulder.

"I know this is all emotional and touching and all, but some of us have places to be. You know?" He finally pulled away from Aska and turned to stare at Zogin. She had her hands on her hips as she spoke. "Alright, so where we were and what we were doing? Easy enough. Let's also throw in some introductions for the people who've just arrived." She put a hand over her chest. "The name's Zogin Arwitch, best adventurer around. The idiot next to me-" she hit the man in the armor with a playful punch, "-is Soul Error Arwitch. No, we are not siblings, he is not my father-"

"Why are you bringing that up?!" Soul exclaimed. "I don't sound that old!"

Zogin shrugged. "People have gotten confused. Now, as I was saying, we aren't siblings, Soul isn't my father, and we are not married or betrothed to one another. Before ending up here, I had just finished doing maintenance on-I mean, just finished fixing Soul up after a battle. We were in our room at an inn in Kudia."

Doing maintenance? He hadn't heard that terminology before, but for some reason, Zogin didn't want them to know what she had been doing with Soul.

She gestured at Nendros. "You next, Dragon Boy."

He wiped away his remaining tears. "My name is Prince Nendros of the kingdom of Laetae, but I hate being referred to by any royal title. One year ago, I was kidnapped by the dragon Tieth and brought to a castle, where she made me into a dragon-human hybrid and told me I was the Dragon-Human ambassador. Before this whole incident, I had been..." He had been lounging around in the throne room, complaining about how bored he was-no, before that, he had been doing something else. "I had been mourning the death of my childhood friend and the girl I loved...She died eleven years ago today."

Aska stared at him. He had never brought her up. Why would he? There was no reason to, no chance to mention her in a conversation. Even now, it still hurt to mention Az.

The look in Zogin's eyes softened. "I'm sorry about that," she said. And from the tone of her voice, Nendros realized she had lost people as well. Zogin cleared her throat. "Alright, Tin Can, you're up!"

"M-me?!" Aska exclaimed, startled.

Zogin sighed. "Is there any other suit of armor here?"

"Actually-" Soul began to protest.

"Besides Soul?"

Her partner fell silent.

Aska glanced around at the group assembled, his armor clanging together as he shook. "M-my n-name is As-Aska. I'm N-Nen's best friend. Hundreds of y-years ago, I t-tried to break into the c-castle to res-rescue a pr-princess, but wh-when I was caught, I-I go-got turned in-into a w-walking s-suit of armor." To show everyone what he meant, he took his helmet off to reveal the emptiness inside his armor. There was several gasps, and he was sure he heard Soul give what sounded like a scream. Aska put his helmet back on. "T-that's what Tieth told me, an-anyways. I was in the c-castle earlier, like N-Nen, but I-I was r-reading in the l-library and picking out n-new books to r-read."

Zogin pointed at the new girl. "You're up next, Helmet!"

Spoiler! :
I feel guilty about how long this is. ^^" The whole preventing them from leaving happened mainly because @JokerWritingWorks needed someone to prevent her character from leaving, but I love how it's turned out. :D Messing with my characters is such a beautiful thing.

We've gotten so far, @TheSilverFox! :D
Last edited by Mageheart on Sat Jun 18, 2016 2:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
mage

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Fri Jun 17, 2016 3:12 pm
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RedEyedRunt says...



New Jackie

I was very confused on what was happening, so I stayed. I kept my helmet on.

"Huh?"

I froze. Wow, that mask was very stuffy, but I couldn't take off my mask quite yet. It would be quite a shock for everyone. It was mostly my father's fault what he did to me, so I just stood there.

"Uh, My name is uh, Jackie. And I'm from a terrible city. Where people get killed everyday. I fled, and I ended up here."
Winterfell is cold.





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Fri Jun 17, 2016 10:55 pm
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Kelpies says...



Flaerwin

"I-It's nothing p-personal." Said Flaerwin. "I j-just got away from some p-pretty bad people, and being h-held in one p-place has always been an i-issue for me. To p-put it to w-words it was... A prison? N-no, those usually have more than one i-inmate. There, I think- uh -hope it was just me. Maybe a high security laboratory? I don't know how to describe it." I paused. "What was I doing? Well, trying to escape no matter the cost."

Sakura- whom I didn't know what to think of yet- spoke. "I was bored so I went foraging. Looking for potion ingredients, hunting, the like. Then I saw the castle. There's so much magic stored inside those walls that I wouldn't doubt that there would be another sorcerer in two weeks when the bloodmoon eclipse occurs."
We are who we are, and if someone has a problem with that; that's their problem not ours.
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I do believe that insane is the only way to go.





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Fri Jun 17, 2016 11:53 pm
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TheSilverFox says...



Shiruba:

The next few minutes qualified as among the most awkward he'd ever experienced in his fairly long lifetime.

He'd sworn that it was a legitimate threat. That the dragon-man, Nendros, had taken the two girls hostage, perhaps with the intentions to hurt them, in order to inquire about the information that was their lives. Shiruba had been absolutely sure of this, and so had been his two companions. But Nendros's reaction now left him dreadfully embarrassed, and he sheathed his sword during the emotional conversation that followed. Enide did the same, and the sailor shortly after her, begrudgingly slipping his daggers back into his jacket while sneaking behind Shiruba to avoid being noticed. What occurred afterwards were several minutes of mutual awkward stares between each other as each person in the gathering talked about their lives, loved ones, or both.

Shiruba was, needless to say, fascinated. The idea of something transforming a human into a suit of armor was beyond his reasoning, and unnerved him. It suggested incredibly powerful magic, perhaps even like that displayed when his world was first created. The second suit of armor - the person he'd worked so hard to find - was equally perplexing, if only as the adventurer, Zogin, implied that Soul was purely mechanical. A mechanical, yet sentient, being? What were the odds of that? Naturally, he hadn't suspected they would be related, or even something as absurd as Soul's being Zogin's father; pairs of unrelated adventurers were just as common where he lived as, it seemed, where they had come from. And, if anything, finding Soul validated it, given his odd appearance and the explanation of his life.

However, the original goal of their investigation was to find common ground. Unfortunately, he couldn't see any pattern. Many of these people were powerful, whether intentionally or otherwise, and had some fairly tragic backstories. Yet there wasn't any common ground. Some had come from dangerous places, or had acted as dangerous people, while others provided almost mundane stories in comparison. Some had come on purpose, and some seemed to arrived by solely being the wrong place and the wrong time. Shiruba was almost about to question this, perhaps even ask that they prod further (too, of course, he found this discussion very informative, and something he might use if he landed in another dangerous situation here, like several times previously), but a voice called out: "And what about you three? What's your story?"

His mind drew a blank. He stammered. It was like the gears inside of his head jammed up, especially in the face of so many curious - or was it suspicious? - eyes. He tried to not overthink it, resisting the urge to look about him anxiously or begin to sweat, though his head was beginning to pound to the beat of his heart. What was he supposed to say? How could he possibly explain his life? How, in these risky circumstances, could he provide the truth?

Shiruba breathed a sigh of relief when Enide, noticing his nervousness, answered for him. "Ah, he's awfully shy about explaining himself," she began in her calm and almost leisurely tone, no doubt trying to smooth out any suspicion or anxiety in her audience. "We are...," she continued, struggling for the words momentarily, before they came out in a steady stream, "...actors, if you will. Adventurous souls, wandering the lands from which we come, regaling audiences with elaborate stories, and concocting stories about how my husband and I are the children of royalty."

"Yes," continued Shiruba, picking up where Enide left off as his mind worked to craft the idea growing in his mind. "I am supposedly the grandson of the leader of my race, and Enide here my wife, as she is when we aren't acting. We are not humans, of course," he hurriedly explained. "But rather...well, I'm not sure if there is an equivalent creature in your world. However, we have a wagon, filled with props and mementos from our travels, and amuse the crowds that arrive with historical fables and myths, complete with our diminutive idiot companion, who goes by the name Kellach." Shiruba used one of his hands to off a squirming, fairly short, sailor as he tried to punch him in fury.

"As for what we were doing before we came here," finished Enide, "We had simply stopped by an open meadow when the sun began to set, and so we decided to make camp in the middle of the field. My husband had the idea of wandering a fair distance to see if he could get a clear view of the night sky. And, well...we don't know what happened next, other than all three of us arrived in this forest, scattered about it at various positions. And that, for what it's worth, is our story."

In the meantime, the surprised and frustrated Kellach was about ready to speak his mind, and loudly. A glare from Shiruba silenced him. Was it the truth? Not in the slightest. But Shiruba's life was not something he had to desire to shout to everyone he met. Having been raised in an environment of manipulative, scheming, vicious people, both he and Enide had worked on the art of lying, and both were now fairly good at it.

Now, Shiruba was curious to see if the ruse would work.

Spoiler! :
My goodness, 10 pages? Already? That's impressive, especially for an RP. I think this one might be one of the biggest of them all, actually. Wow. o-o

And I hope you like this post, @Magestorrow! That seems to be happening a lot, isn't it? It's fun how many mundane or exciting situations we've changed entirely, not to mention the kind of impacts it's having on our characters. I love it; it's what makes this so exciting. :D
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse
a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo
non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero,
senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.

Inferno, Canto 27, l 61-66.





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Sat Jun 18, 2016 12:24 pm
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Mageheart says...



Schadel:

There's something about Shiruba and Enide's explanation that doesn't sit well with Schadel. He tries to forget about it, but the feeling stubbornly stays. They're lying, he realizes. However, he can't make that accusation without evidence.

According to them, the three are a group of actors. They usually act as if Shiruba is the grandson of the leader of their race. That goes with what Shiruba had told them earlier, back in the castle, but that could be the actual truth.

Next part: their fighting skills. As actors, there's no need to know how to fight. He almost calls the three out on that. Then he realizes an incredibly good reason for those skills - in case they're attacked by either monsters or bandits while traveling.

That leaves him back at square one. He groans, gaining curious looks from both Claret and Blanx.

"Zogin, what are you doing?" he hears Soul whisper. He looks over his shoulder at the two. The smaller Arwitch is rummaging through her jacket's pockets. After a minute of searching, she finally pulls something out. It appears to be a piece of bread wrapped in cloth.

She waves the bread in front of Soul's face. "I'm hungry," she explains before taking a large bite out of it. She tries to say something else, but it's impossible to understand with the food in her mouth. Zogin swallows. "Also, we're unfortunately without popcorn."

"Why on Alium do we need popcorn?"

She gestures at Shiruba, Enide, and Kellach. "So I have something to eat while watching Kellach slug Shiruba in the face."

"Zogin."

"Yes?"

He sighs. "Never mind."

Schadel's eyes widen. That's it! That's the thing that hadn't made sense with their explanation! A triumphant grin spreads across his face.

"I think Schadel's lost it," Claret comments to Blanx. Then, upon seeing his form change into his grim reaper one, she adds, "Oh God."

"What?" Blanx asks.

"He always does that whenever he solves a mystery. It's incredibly annoying. Like we'll be at home, and I can't find the cooking supplies. He'll find them, and 'bam!', he's in his grim reaper form."

Schadel turns around to glare at her. With the height gained from his transformation, he towers over her. "It doesn't work like that."

Claret shrugs. "I'm just telling it as I see it."

With a sigh, he faces the three once more. "You're lying," he accuses them. They all manage to keep the same undisturbed faces. "At first I couldn't figure out why I thought that. Shiruba had told us earlier he was the grandson of your leader, so that part lined up. And the reason for your fighting skills and instincts - like raising your weapons against Nendros when you thought he was a threat - is that you need to be able to protect yourself if attacked while traveling."

"This is even better than Kellach slugging Shiruba," Zogin whispers to her partner.

"I would have given up on trying to figure out your lie, but then I overheard Zogin talking about Kellach wanting to punch Shiruba." Schadel points at the sailor. "If he was a 'diminutive idiot' that comment wouldn't have been annoying. Also, Shiruba had to glare at him from yelling out in protest. Why was that necessary? If you were really a group of actors, that wouldn't have been necessary. Shiruba could have let him talk, and then scolded him afterwards."

He walks over to the three so he;s standing right in front of them. "But you had to shut him up, Shiruba, because he might destroy you and your wife's carefully crafted lie."

"I just thought of something," Nendros suddenly adds. "I'm not sure if this really works with your accusation, Schadel, because there is no way to really judge this, but the sailor doesn't seem like an idiot to me."

Spoiler! :
I loved your post, @TheSilverFox! Especially the part about the sailor wanting to punch Shiruba. Your characters' interactions with one another always make me laugh. I hope you like this post. Schadel wasn't the only having trouble figuring out what the flaw in their lie was. ^^"
mage

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Tue Jun 21, 2016 3:00 am
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Kelpies says...



Flaerwin

"No one here seems an idiot to me." Sakura commented.

I spoke up. "A-and if someone would be so eager to share with others that their companion were an idiot, then the 'idiot' would probably be used to it and less likely to punch someone's lights out," Almost didn't stutter. I thought enthusiastically. "What's really going on here?"
We are who we are, and if someone has a problem with that; that's their problem not ours.
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I do believe that insane is the only way to go.





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Mon Jul 04, 2016 4:45 pm
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TheSilverFox says...



Shiruba:

The most smug expression in the history of the world belonged to the person right next to him.

Shiruba was appalled that his attempted lie had fallen apart so easily, even though it had been flawless. Save for one particular detail, which everyone else seemed to have caught on to. Obviously, he'd underestimated their observance skills and capacity for reasoning. And now, the particularly large form of Schadel looming over him, he felt that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to fall back onto another story. He'd lost his ability to do so, now that everyone was more suspicious, and much more liable to expose any other ideas he might have as the falsehoods they are. So, the only option he had left was the absolute last one he wanted - to tell the truth. It was infuriating, but unavoidable.

And all because he'd glared at the smirking idiot now staring up at him with a bemused expression.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" grumbled Shiruba, whose eyes momentarily flashed red, at the small sailor. Kellach now looked confused, but also suspicious.

Shiruba subsequently shoved Kellach forward, almost knocking him onto the ground. "Why don't you tell these nice people the truth?" he quietly, and threateningly, murmured. The sailor glared at him, brushed some imaginary dust from his shoulder, and turned to face the assembled crowd. The man behind him stood expressionless, which was his normal expression when infuriated.

The sailor composed himself, donning a blank, or mildly displeased, expression. "Since our little liar here is a tad too scared to speak," he began, casually dodging one of Shiruba's fists, much to Zogin's approval and laughter, "I guess I'm the one who's supposed to be explaining things."

"As you can probably guess, they are the real deal," he continued. Shiruba was being held back by Enide, who was surprisingly a lot stronger than she looked (or perhaps Shiruba was being calmed down by her presence), at this point. "Grandson of the king and his wife and all that. Not a willing marriage, but they've managed." Kellach sidestepped to dodge another fist.

"I'm not really associated with either of them" by now, Kellach was walking side to side in front of Schadel, who was listening intently. "I call myself a sailor, and I am. Or, I used to be. And I wasn't exactly sailing your ordinary ship, nor serving under your ordinary captain. Airships are beautiful, massive, and dangerous places to work in, what with steam pouring from every nook and cranny and hovering high above hot deserts. But I also managed, even if I was a lowly shipmate with nobody to keep company but a pipe and my own spirit." He played a note or two on the pipe absentmindedly.

"Somewhere along the way, I was handed off by the captain to an army who'd managed to make his day somehow. And I ran into these idiots." Kellach ducked as another fist flew by. "I was told they'd managed to leave for diplomatic reasons - sounds like this guy's grandfather was trying to make him a more fair and reasonable person. You can see how that turned out."

"That's enough from you," scowled Shiruba, in between talking quietly and angrily to Enide. "I was sent by my grandfather for diplomatic reasons, so I could create a deal that would satisfy both my people and the visiting queen."

The sailor laughed at the mention of the word "diplomacy," and dodged another attempted blow. "And yet, somehow, you never left the army. Your grandfather never sent for you, nor did he ever call. Your diplomatic meeting was an embarrassing fiasco, and the only thing that kept you alive was the fact that the queen was somehow even worse at it. Despite that, I hear your country actually did make the effort to send war supplies, so I know those two countries did strike a deal that you never made; since you could never agree on anything yourself, your grandfather must have. Ever think of that, wise guy?"

Enide stepped in between the two of them before they could start another fight. Shiruba's hands were now inching towards his sword, while Kellach maintained his infuriatingly smug and satisfied expression. "Now," she finished for them, "we're here, and this is why. They'd gotten into a spat, wandered from the rest of the troop when it camped nearby a massive forest, and I followed them to try and bring them back. We got separated, and somehow ended up here."

"And that," confirmed Kellach, "is the truth, as far as we can make of it. Anything more you want to ask?"

Spoiler! :
blaaargh I'm so lazy. Sorry this took so long, @Mage. I hope you like it!
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse
a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo
non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero,
senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.

Inferno, Canto 27, l 61-66.








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