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Interstellar Travels



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Thu Mar 07, 2019 3:49 pm
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TheSilverFox says...



Aegeas focused his eyes on the pipe. If their whispering was anything to go by, the kid with the tentacles probably wasn't dangerous at all - he was just trying to scare Aegeas. But the kid had still harassed Codix and Nadira, so Aegeas wasn't against taking him down. To do that, however, Aegeas had to deal with the other one. She looked like she could actually use that pipe in a fight, and he wasn't sure how his swords could handle a blunt weapon.

"I'd be really impressed if you could do that," Aegeas said, raising a fist. No need to resort to violence yet - maybe they'd both back down first. "And humans might be scared of you, but I'm not. You're just pretending to be tough."
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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Tue Mar 12, 2019 9:21 am
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Mageheart says...



Spoiler! :
Do you want to post next, @ChristenedPages?
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Sat May 11, 2019 6:28 pm
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Mageheart says...



"Do you see what I am?" the unnamed dai said. Codix couldn't help but stare at him and what had to be some sort of mutation - he wasn't able to fully keep a human form. He wasn't trying to look intimidating and alien; that was just a side effect of the mutation. But what was a dai like that doing out here, especially when those with mutations were presumably killed or hidden away?

"I'm a dai," he said. "My race is known for the ability to take any form our hearts desire - I can make my form so strong that I can crush your throat in an instant, or slam your body up against the wall behind you-"

"You can't," Codix interrupted.

Nadira and Charlie both shot him worried looks. Harper was giving him a glare. And his heart was pounding away in his chest as he struggled to keep his form steady - he was terrified. But he had to be brave now, and had to do whatever he could to protect the people he cared about.

He took a step towards the dai.

"Excuse me?" the dai slowly said.

"You can't," he repeated. "You have the mutation. You can never fully change your form - that's why you had to hide yourself, while your friend-" He gestured at the girl he had once thought of as Harper. "-made herself look human."

The dai stared at him, and Harper uttered another growl.

"You're one to talk," he said. "I might have a mutation, but your whole race has one! We can keep forms for as long as we want - you can only do it for a limited amount of time, and you already have fractures. How long can you keep up your little human disguise?"

"Don't-" Nadira started, knowing exactly what Codix was going to do.

His form shifted from human to sixen in a matter of seconds. It wasn't long before an almost stereotypical gray alien (by Earth's standards) stood in his place, still wearing the same clothing as before.

He held the dai's gaze.

But before either one of them could speak again, he found himself getting jerked over to the dai's accomplice - she was pulling down his collar. Nadira and Charlie both started to step forward, but the unnamed dai got in their way and held them back.

"Let him go!" Nadira shouted.

"Leave him alone," Charlie added. While Nadira stood almost entirely still behind the dai, studying him carefully for any weakness, Charlie wildly tried to push past the tentacles that were beginning to wrap around her.

"Oh, this must be fate," Harper said, running her fingers along a pale, barely visible scar where Codix's left shoulder met her neck - the scar ended in a little birthmark. He felt a chill race up his spine as her fingers lingered on the birthmark. "Meeting you, here on the Sren? It makes me want to laugh."

She let go of his wrist and pushed him back towards Charlie and Nadira; the unnamed dai easily stepped out of the way as Codix's two friends caught him. And he knew he should have been worried about protecting them like before, but he was absolutely frozen in fear. Why would she mention that, unless...

"She knows," Nadira whispered, horror in her voice.

"I should have realized you were him," Harper continued. "You're just as annoying, Oliver - or should I say Prince Codix?"
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Sat May 11, 2019 7:14 pm
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TheSilverFox says...



Okay, so Codix hadn't been entirely honest - he was some kind of a prince. He'd lied to Aegeas. However, the dai had also harassed Codix, had exposed his birthmark, and had still threatened everyone else.

So, Aegeas decided to deal with that anger the best way he could think of, which was to hurl himself at the girl with the pipe.

"Aegeas!" Thytes said, jumping after him.
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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Sun May 12, 2019 1:56 pm
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Mageheart says...



Harper didn't react - she didn't have the time to. The moment Aegeas hurled himself at her, the other dai knocked him down to the ground.

"Leave my sister alone," he growled.

Codix watched all of this unfold with a dumbfounded expression on his face; he had been trying to figure out who Harper really was, but the realization that the two dai were brother and sister made him even more confused than before. The only dai he had ever really known that had a brother with a mutation like that was-

No, that was impossible. They had died, hadn't they? That was why they had never been found. Codix was trying to shake the thought from his head, but it he couldn't help himself.

"...Signia?" he hesitantly said.

Harper gave him a cold look in reply - he couldn't tell if that was a yes or no.

But, if he was lucky, he didn't need an answer from her. He just needed an answer from her brother - who didn't seem to have grown out of being very expressive with emotions.

"Asteri?" Codix said.

The dai, who was currently on the ground ready to punch Aegeas, froze with his tentacles and hands curled into fists. He looked up from Aegeas with a shocked look on his face, eyes wide and mouth slightly gaping. His hand wavered over Aegeas for a moment, only for him to let his hands and tentacles return to his side.

He got back to his feet.

It was them.

"They thought you were dead," Codix managed to get out.

"They thought the same thing about you," Signia coldly replied. "You're why the war really got started."

"...Codix?" Charlie started to interrupt, but Codix felt an unusual burst of irritation after Signia spoke. Why was she acting like this? They had been friends! He had played with her every single day they were together, and had always made sure to include Asteri whenever he could.

"Don't you dare say that," he said, slipping away from Charlie and Nadira. He stormed over to where Harper and stared her right in the eyes. "You're more of the reason than I'd ever be. The dai blamed us when you disappeared, and that's what started the war. Not me going to another planet after my family died."

"Going to another planet?" she asked. "Is that what they call running away these days?"

"You're one to talk," he shot back. "You ran away first!"
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Wed May 15, 2019 1:36 am
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TheSilverFox says...



Fun as it was to see Aegeas get knocked to the floor, Kendrik decided he didn't want to hang around and see anything escalate. So, grabbing Jaron by the shoulder, the hound started to make his way to the other side of the room, hugging the wall as much as he could.

******


Aegeas, for his part, pulled himself off the floor and growled at his attacker. He made a gesture at Asteri (whose name he didn't think he'd forget anytime soon), but an oversized paw blocked him from picking another fight.

"Enough," Thytes boomed, voice deep enough to even catch Aegeas off guard. "Explain yourselves. What is all this that I hear about your deaths, or running away, or starting a war? What happened here?"
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 May 15, 2019 9:24 am
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Mageheart says...



The two dai and Codix both stopped.

Charlie and Nadira remained on the sidelines, but Charlie felt a tinge of guilt when Thytes suddenly spoke. Theoretically, there was no reason for her to feel that way - she hadn't done anything. But that was almost certainly the voice adults used to scold children, something she knew both Codix and Nadira hadn't heard in a long time. And maybe Asteri and Signia - whoever they were - too, seeing that they might have done the same exact thing.

"There was a war," Codix finally said. "Between my world and hers. But it didn't start until she left with her brother. Her world blamed my world for the disappearance, and a war broke out."

"You let out the part where you ran away and made the war worse," Signia hissed.

He turned and glared at her, which she gladly returned.

Nadira cleared her throat, and the two both looked away.

"Codix," she said, "you still haven't explained how you know each other."

Codix's shoulders slumped. Charlie straightened a little, ready to hear whatever connection the two shared - she knew so little of her friends in time before they came of Earth, and she wanted to understand why Codix looked so upset.

He took a deep breath.

"Signia and I were engaged," he said. "Not officially - we were too young for it. But we both knew it. They kept putting us together whenever they could. It was supposed to unify our two worlds, and stop all the tensions that had happened in the past."
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Wed May 15, 2019 6:51 pm
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TheSilverFox says...



"Well, that did not quite work out, did it not?" Thytes boomed. Aegeas moved away from the paw, making his way to Codix and Nadira. The otter was spooked; Kendrik and Jaron had been standing at the same spot for the last minute; even Taber looked nervous, if his biting his lip and glancing between Aegeas and Thytes was anything to go by.

Marching up to Signia and Asteri, Thytes crossed his arms. "So, as much of a disaster as child marriages tend to be, why this petty infighting? Why these insults? Why this name-calling? It appears you have quite a lot in common, and there are far too many bodies for any of you to pretend you are better than anyone else. You know what you did, you know why you did it - live with 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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Thu May 16, 2019 9:28 am
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Mageheart says...



"Her...Her people tore my world apart," Codix said. He heard how loud Thytes was, but he couldn't feel guilty about being upset over that. Thytes wasn't there. His own world may have had a war, and wars were messy things. But the wars he had there would have never compared to an interstellar one - he was sure of it. "And when the people of my world got mad about all of the causalities, they went after the royal family - my family."

He glanced over at Nadira; she had been the only reason he had managed to escape. Without her, neither one of them would be standing here right now.

"Not all of them wanted to," he said. "It wasn't a mutual decision. But a radical group did, and now I'm the only person left."

There was a moment of silence.

"They didn't go after our family," Signia said, glancing over at her brother. He was surprisingly silent right now. "It was the Sixen who killed them, according to the reports. They were on a ship heading to another planet for a peace treaty, and...and they were killed."

She pointed a finger at Codix.

"And he represents everything that's gone wrong in my life," she said.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Thu May 16, 2019 8:10 pm
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TheSilverFox says...



"And it is perfectly acceptable to be so frustrated and terse when it comes to someone who is indirectly responsible for the death of your parents," Thytes said. "On the other hand, have you perhaps considered that the fault may lie in the hands of those said parents, or all of those people who forced you into a marriage that you were not content with over a peace that it does not appear they could have reached by any other means? I honestly suspect they were rather asking for war. Your timely departure was all the excuse they needed, but they would have certainly looked for another if you had stayed."
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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Fri May 17, 2019 9:14 am
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Mageheart says...



Codix and Signia didn't say anything in response. They just crossed their arms and gave each other a look. Charlie wasn't sure what she was supposed to say or do in this situation - she barely even understood the war they were talking about. Codix had mentioned it before, but had never gone into much detail. She hadn't even known about the prince or engaged part.

But as they all stood awkwardly around - Nadira going to Codix's side after another handful of moments passed - Charlie caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Asteri was in the middle of cleaning up the clothing he had discarded when the conflict started. He already had his hoodie; he was in the middle of putting it on. But his mask was still several feet away, and was far closer to her than to him.

She hesitated.

Then she grabbed the mask and brought it over to him, extending it as a surprised look passed across his face.

He looked down at the mask and then back up at her.

"Thanks," he said, taking the mask from her hand.

"You're welcome," she said. She watched as he slipped it on. Then came the gloves and the scarf, though he wasn't as careful as he was with the mask. Part of her wondered if he wasn't just trying to hide his appearance because he looked different - it was almost like he was trying to hide his expression, and the clothing provided a great excuse for it.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Fri May 17, 2019 5:08 pm
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TheSilverFox says...



Okay, at least they weren't shouting at each other. Charlie was even taking the time to help out Asteri.

Thytes took a deep breathe to compose himself. He didn't like getting angry; it always scared the people who thought he was cheery and upbeat all the time (in other words, most people), and he really did want to be cheery and upbeat. But the bickering and the arguing had gone on long enough.

"Now, is that not nicer?" he said, clapping his paws together. Kendrik and Jaron slipped into place behind him, the former scowling at Taber and the latter watching Aegeas walk towards the corner of the room, cross his arms, and stare at the ground.

Oof, the lion would have to talk to Aegeas later. At least the otter hadn't started a fight, but Aegeas didn't quite like losing his temper in the first place.
Last edited by TheSilverFox on Sun May 19, 2019 6:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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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Sun May 19, 2019 10:58 am
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Mageheart says...



There was silence for a moment, and then Asteri spoke again.

"I'm going to go check out the rest of the ship," he said, making his way through the group of people gathered at the door. Something about his voice seemed off - he was carefully pronouncing each word, like saying each one took a significant amount of thought. Charlie frowned. Signia gave a nod, still glaring at Codix as Nadira stood protectively by his side.

"I'm going to check it out, too," Charlie decided, hurrying to join Asteri at the door. Her announcement caused him to pause and stare at her, eyes wide behind his mask before he pulled his hood farther down.

Her declaration seemed to finally get Codix and Nadira's attention. Both of them - though especially Codix - looked alarmed when they heard what she was going to do, but she was already out of the room before either one could even begin to protest the decision.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Sun May 19, 2019 6:31 pm
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TheSilverFox says...



Oh dear - Charlie had run off after Asteri, and Codix and Nadira didn't look too happy about that. The last thing this group needed was another fight, but Thytes wasn't sure if it'd be better to try and calm everyone down or run after Charlie and Asteri.

Fortunately, Taber made his way to the door. "I'll go with them!" he said, beaming at Thytes before slipping out the entrance.

The lion breathed a sigh of relief. At least it'd be a little easier having him around to keep them calm.

"Do we have any other interest in this room?" he said, looking back at the others. "It appears vital, but is there anything we can do here?"
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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Mon May 20, 2019 9:30 am
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Mageheart says...



Codix shook his head.

"I don't think so," he said, trying to ignore the growing knot of worry in his chest. "This room is just what makes the ship run."

"It might be a good idea to check the logs," Nadira suggested. She sent an uneasy glance in Signia's direction and moved just a little bit closer to Codix. "We can't access them from here, but I'm sure most of the rooms have some sort of computer."

She glanced over at Signia, almost like she was waiting for an objection. But the former princess didn't give one; she just nodded as she stared off at the entrance to the room.

xXx

By the time Taber had joined them and they had gone down their first new hallway, Charlie had understood at least some of why Asteri had left the room. He was doing a great job at hiding it, but he was crying - or, at least, had been. She knew what it was like; it was always important to hide something like that, especially when in front of a group of strangers.

But she barely knew him, and she knew he didn't want anyone to notice. That was why he had covered up his face in such a hurry, and why he had been so eager to leave the room.

...But maybe they could talk about other things-

Asteri came a sudden stop. Startled, Charlie bumped into him, and the two had to hurry to regain their balance. But when Charlie tried to ask what had caused him to stop, Asteri put a gloved hand over her mouth.

She took the cue.

He withdrew his hand a second later and pointed in the direction of the room they were beside. He didn't have to gesture anymore; he must have heard someone inside of the room. Charlie awkwardly readied her fist, and Asteri copied the pose with one of his own - and his tentacles, if their sudden movement under his hoodie was anything to go off of.

He tapped on the button that opened the door.

The door slid open.

The room was in a state of disarray. Things had been overturned throughout it, and even the desk that the room's sole occupant was sitting at was covered in stuff. At the sound of their arrival, said occupant turned back to look at them.

And she found a person she hadn't quite been expecting.

For all intents and purposes, the woman in the chair looked normal. She could only be a few years older than Charlie was, in her mid-twenties at the latest. As she rose from her seat, Charlie got even more of an idea of how normal she was - her outfit consisted of plain dark blue letterman jacket that was too big on her, a plain light blue shirt, a black skirt and long black boots with slight heels. Her long auburn hair was put into a ponytail with a braid in it, and her pale green eyes peeked out from behind a pair of glasses.

Her eyes widened when she surveyed the group visible through the doorway, and the computer was promptly forgotten as she got to her feet - only for her to stumble as she headed towards them.

"Why is today the day I decided to wear heels?" she muttered, struggling to quickly regain her balance.

Now that she was closer, Charlie realized that she was a little more than normal - she was almost too normal. Her makeup was perfect but not outrageous: just a little red lipstick on the lips and a bit of mascara around the eyes. And her outfit, though one that she didn't always see, looked relatively normal.

Maybe she was jumping to conclusions, but the people she knew who tried to act that normal tended to be something other than what they presented themselves be - like how Codix, though he did a great job at the act, was not just a smart student athlete.

But before she could voice any of her guesses or opinions, the woman had squeezed past her and Asteri with an "excuse me" and appeared right beside Taber.

"Hi, Taber," she said, grinning, "it's nice to see you again - though thankfully I'm not part of the ship this time."
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.








Uh, Lisa, the whole reason we have elected officials is so we don't have to think all the time. Just like that rainforest scare a few years back: our officials saw there was a problem and they fixed it, didn't they?
— Homer Simpson