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The Lost City



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Tue May 19, 2020 12:17 pm
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Mageheart says...



Once everyone had agreed to the plan, Kartiel cast the illusion spell. Maahes and Codix flanked his side as they approached the wraith dart Kartiel had been eying; without him saying anything, the two of them had decided to switch their forms to lower ranking wraith. They had to keep their pace slow. The illusion spell Kartiel was casting was complicated, and he had to keep his focus if he wanted Aegeas, Raiden, Bo and Nadira to all stay covered.

They got about a foot away from the dart when a wraith bumped into Kartiel.

The illusion of nothingness broke for a few seconds, but that was all the time that was needed. A group of wraiths that had just come back from whatever planet they had just culled saw the group of prisoners and made a beeline for them. They had no way of knowing that the three wraiths beside them were on in the escape - and were responsible for the illusion in the first place - but Kartiel wasn’t able to use that to their advantage.

Because Codix, frustratingly unsurprisingly, went to protect Nadira the moment the wraith started coming towards them.

Maahes lingered beside Kartiel for a moment before fire and air burst to life at his fingertips. Kartiel knew he could try to fight the wraith, and could probably win against this first group. But then more would come, and more after that, and no matter how hard they tried to win, they would be another wave.

Memories flickered through his head.

--The room was chaos. Empty test tubes spilled their contents all over the floor. Everyone was coughing, and kneeling over, and he was pretty sure some of them were about to curl up in the fetal position. The experiment was supposed to make them stronger, not kill them! And no amount of magic could ever save them--

--He stood in the cavern, whispering the words to a spell that brought back their final moments. He couldn’t make it through more than the first few moments. If he had just been there - if he had just cast the right spell at the right time - he wouldn’t be standing in the forgotten grave of the first friends he had in a long time--

Kartiel didn’t know how he was going to convince Sirun that this was for the best, but he didn’t really care at that point. He was sick and tired of losing the people he cared about, and he was not going to have a repeat of what had happened in the forest. It was a miracle they had survived the mess Boris and him had created; he’d make things right now.

He closed his eyes and concentrated.

Without any warning, the group - save for Maahes, who had never asked to be a part of this - collapsed to the ground. When Maahes heard the crashing, he spun around with his magic ready to go.

“What did you do?” he asked, frantically looking over at Kartiel as the first wraith tried to grab him. Maahes sent the wraith flying back towards the rest of the wraiths with a strong gust of wind; they were all momentarily knocked to the ground.

“I sent them back to their homes,” Kartiel said. “I didn’t want my test subjects to die.”

Maahes gave him a look. For a moment, Kartiel was sure he had been seen through - there was something about the way that Maahes looked at him that made Kartiel wonder if, somehow, Maahes had been through a moment just like this.

“Are you sending me to my reality, too?” Maahes asked.

“You’re one of my subjects,” he said.

Maahes gave a tiny smile. “I had my suspicions.”

Kartiel didn’t get a chance to find out what those suspicions were - when he saw the wraith were starting to get up again, he muttered the words to a spell that would send Maahes home. A few moments later, he was heading towards the wraith dart.

Once he got inside and left the hive, Kartiel wasn’t sure if he wanted to smile or cry more.

This time, he had been able to save his friends.
mage

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

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Wed May 20, 2020 11:14 am
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soundofmind says...



Bo took in a sharp, shuddering breath. He shot up from his bed, trembling as he looked out at his room with one eye like he was supposed to have.

The blinds were barely open, but just enough to let in the faint glow of the early morning light shining over his bed. He was wearing his own clothes. A big t-shirt. His sweats. He leaned forward on the bed, staring down at his plain blue-grey bedsheets as reality began to settle in like a cloud of dust. His bed creaked faintly under the weight of his movement.

It was finally over. Like one long, long nightmare.

He sat there for a long time, staring blankly down at the bed as his body started to tremble. He started playing through everything that happened in his head over and over and over. His body felt rested, but his mind felt like he hadn't slept at all.

A few minutes passed before he turned to look around his room.

It didn't look like anyone had stepped foot in there besides him. Everything was where it was supposed to be. His sweatshirt, hanging over the back of his desk chair. His dresser in the corner, with the tricky sock drawer that wouldn't quite close all the way. His phone, on the side of his bed, by his pillow.

His eye shot wide. His phone!

He practically leaped for it as he desperately poked the screen to wake it, looking at the date and time. He froze again, just for a moment this time.

A whole day had passed. It was the next morning. He had 6 unread messages and two missed calls. One voicemail.

His fingers danced across the screen to unlock it and he quickly checked to see if he'd gotten any calls from his boss. He'd missed a day of work, and with no notice, he could easily lose his job for that, no matter how good of a rapport he had.

But instead of panicked "where are you" messages and calls, he only found a "Sorry you're sick with the flu - get well soon" message. The two calls were from Petrus, who apparently had stopped by to check on him and see if he needed anything. The voicemail said about that much - Petrus assumed Bo was asleep but told him to call back when he could. The other messages weren't anything pressing - just invitations to things, or memes.

Bo blinked slowly as realization sunk in. Kartiel had created a cover story for why he was gone so no one would bother to ask that many questions. He didn't know why that relieved him as much as it worried him.

If he'd taken a sick day, that meant he still had a job. That was a blessing. But if everyone thought he was just sick... how was he ever going to explain what really happened? And who would even believe him?

Bo sat on the edge of his bed and set his phone-facedown on his pillow.

Adjusting to life after his motorcycle accident had been very difficult, but this... he didn't even know where to begin.

Bo leaned over and held his face in his hands and sat like that for a very long time before he finally picked up his phone and called Petrus back. His stomach felt like a hollow pit as he held the phone to his ear and listened to the ringing, and the click.

"Hello?" Petrus asked, his voice groggy almost to the point of being incomprehensible.

"Sorry, I just saw your messages," Bo said.

"Bo, it's like, 6am," Petrus drawled.

Bo was quiet for a moment. He'd checked the date but completely forgotten about the time.

"I'm sorry. I'm really out of it. I think I took a little too much Nyquil," Bo said, forcing a mirthless laugh.

Petrus snorted. "Well, glad to hear you're getting rest."

"I'll let you go back to sleep," Bo said quietly. "Sorry again."

"No worries."

Click.

Bo set his phone back down and stood up.

He was going to make breakfast.
Pants are an illusion. And so is death.






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Wed May 27, 2020 5:29 pm
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TheSilverFox says...



Of course that didn't work. There was no way a plan of Kartiel's was going to go smoothly. All it took was for one wraith to bump into Kartiel, and suddenly a bunch of wraiths shot towards the group.

Aegeas widened his stance. He wasn't very confident the group could make it out of this. Sure, he could finally use his weapons, but he was still too tired and too overwhelmed to go up against a bunch of creatures that could suck the life out of him. Not that he had any other choice. The group had just been caught on a wraith ship. Even with Kartiel and Maahes around, escaping would take a long, drawn-out battle. And Aegeas wasn't exactly confident that Kartiel could pull an escape off either. Pulling out a sword, Aegeas closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He opened them to find himself in bed. The familiar smell of earth wrapped around him as he looked past his outstretched paw, up to the ceiling of what he knew was the hole he called a house by the river. Aegeas blinked a few times, too surprised to pick up on the sound of something falling over to his right. What happened? Why was he back home? Was he dead?

Pulling himself up slowly, Aegeas rubbed his eyes. He stared at the wooden door across from him, trying to pick out the shapes that he could spot through the cracks. Some kind of conversation on the other end. Everyone sounded hushed, worried, q-

Something tackled Aegeas from the side, causing Aegeas to throw up his arms in surprise and suppress a yell. It took a couple seconds of looking down and pushing back against his panic response before Aegeas realized that the quivering, fuzzy mass wrapping his arms around Aegeas's stomach was, in fact, Kellach. "Kellach?" Aegeas said slowly. "Uh, what happened?"

Kellach lifted his head up. "You don't remember?" the sea otter said, blinking away tears.

Aegeas shook his head. "I remember opening a door," he said, "And then, well." He paused. What was he supposed to say? Had any of that actually happened? He was pretty sure it did - he'd been in far too much pain the whole time - but he couldn't just say that. That wouldn't go over well.

"You passed out," said Kellach with a shaky breath. "Yesterday, in front of me. I carried you back to bed, made sure you were breathing and stuff, and then I ran to town. Everyone's waiting for you outside - I'm here 'cause I volunteered to keep an eye on you."

Well, he had more important things to worry about. "Let's not keep them waiting," Aegeas said, reaching down to give Kellach a hug. "Thank you."

"I was so scared that y, y, you-" Kellach said, looking away as his voice broke. He sighed, blinking a few times and slowly refocusing on Aegeas. "Please don't do that again."

Aegeas couldn't say that'd never happen again - knowing Kartiel, that felt wrong. Though, for now, Aegeas felt like Kartiel would leave him alone. And Aegeas could live with that (not that he had any other choice). "I'll try my best," said Aegeas.
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 Jun 18, 2020 10:33 am
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RaidenCheese says...



Somewhere along the line, Raiden's experiences turned from crystal clear to a haze. Things were muddy in his head, the memories were smeared like an oil painting: ruined before it could be finished.
Finding himself being sent back to his world was...an experience. It wasn't a feeling, it wasn't something he could put into words. But what he was faced with as he woke up in what was supposed to be his old world where he once lived and enjoyed, was instead a simple, ordinary plain room.

A room frayed at the edges.

A room where, if you looked too closely, it hid itself from you. A room where the windows showed not the outside world, but a blank sheet of white.

"Where..." Raiden breathed, sliding out of bed. With wide eyes and shaking hands he made his way to the single door on the opposite side. With a gulp to shove down his fear, he opened the door.

The room crumbled silently behind him, as a new one formed in front of his eyes. A blue room with a small bed and a table next to it. Drawing supplies dominated the table's area, and on the opposite side there sat a television on top of a bookshelf.

In a chair at the table, sketching away at something, sat a young man with glasses on.

"Who-" Raiden began, but the boy cut him off.
"Hey, Raiden," he said, putting the pencil down to look over at the kid in question. "I'm sorry."

What? What was this dude sorry for? I was just going to ask him where I was, the heck's he talking about? Raiden thought, but felt his body relaxing and couldn't bring himself to speak. It felt light.

"For everything."

The light shimmered for a bit where Raiden stood, but ultimately that dimmed too, leaving the boy with glasses alone in the room. He reached over and turned on his desk lamp, picked up the pencil and carried on.
I'm cool as a cucumber
Even if I'm in a pickle


Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.





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Thu Jun 18, 2020 7:08 pm
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SirenCymbaline says...



Ah, there it is, thought Boris, as he made contact with instant oblivion. He's finally come to his senses, and killed me. Took the poor sod long enough.


Lord, don't give me time to regret.


__


But he woke, to no Hell, nor slow boat passing a dark beach on a silent river.

Boris lay crumpled under a dingy table at the cluttered far back of a cheaply lit pub, in the contents of a spilled ashtray. Something alcoholic, hallucinogenic, or- by the smell of it, both- dripped from the table top onto his forehead. His only company was the waitress going through his pockets.

"Mrgrmblff," he groaned. The waitress jumped.

"Bless me soul, I thought you was dead." she said.

"I get that a lot," said Boris.

He rolled over, heavily, sat up, tediously, and discovered that he was still wearing a false nose and beard. That explained the itching. It occurred to Boris that he must have come here to tail someone, and upon catching or losing the information he had come for, intoxicated himself on the job. He laughed.

"Son, of a bitsch." he said, settling back into a grimier accent to match his weary, beknobbled visage. "What a dream I had. I dreamed of a group of travelers, one slimy bugger threw the rest of 'em to wolves and 'ellfire, and the poor Christians slapped him on the wrist, waggled their fingers at him a little bit, and sent 'im on his way."

"Bless the poor fools," said the waitress. Boris bowed his head in agreement.

How lucky for them, that they were only a dream. They'dnt last another week. And neither would he have, if that was realer, and they were wiser. Better not to think about it.

Instead, Boris read the worn fists of the waitress, with only a pittance of pence between them. And he gave her a smile, too kind, too sunny for his nose, his face, or even his eyes.

"I pass out in your establishment, and I didn't even bring anything worth pocketing." Boris shook his head. "Where are my manners.

Put it on my tab, eh?"
Bad souls have born better sons, better souls born worse ones -St Vincent





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Fri Jun 19, 2020 11:48 am
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Mageheart says...



Codix was prepared for the worst.

This was where he was going to die. It wasn't where he had imagined it. Just a few years ago, he would have thought his death would be in the middle of a revolution. Just a few days ago, he thought it would be strapped to a lab table after his secret was inevitably revealed. But this? This wasn't anything like the death he had imagined for himself.

But then the world suddenly shifted, and he found himself restrained.

His eyes shot open, and he sat up with a start - letting out a pained cry when his head slammed into the top of what looked like the inside of his pod. But it couldn't be his pod, right? That would mean Kartiel had sent him back.

Or...Or...it had all been a dream?

Whatever it was, he had to make sure Nad was alright. He hurriedly popped open the pod, hurriedly darted out of his room - nearly tripping on some of the little devices he had throughout - and hurriedly ran down the hallway to Nad's room.

He threw open the door.

Nad was laying in her bed, her eyes closed like she was asleep. She was hooked up to the massive battery he had made what felt like an eternity ago; everything was just as it should be.

He went over to her and turned her on.

There was a whirring noise as she started up. A few moments later, she was sitting up and giving him a blank stare - like she always did when she just woke up.

He pulled her into a hug, tears streaming down his face.

"I had a really bad nightmare, Nad," he said. "We were on an abandoned city floating on the water, and there were other people there, and we were abducted by people that wanted to kill us, and-and-"

He pressed his face into her shoulder.

"I thought I was going to lose you," he said.

He felt her wrap her arms around him.

"Codix," she said, "...I don't think that was a dream."

He raised his head up. "...What do you mean?"

"I remember it, too."

He blinked. "But...you can't...dream..."

She nodded.

He sat down on the bed next to her. "That was real?"

Another nod. "It was."

"...Kartiel let us go?" Codix asked.

"He must have," Nad said. "Even though it doesn't make any sense..."

Codix let out a shaky breath. "Hopefully that's the last we see of him, then."

Nadira let out a quiet breath of her own.

"I hope it is, too."

They settled into silence.

Codix stared down at his lap.

"...Nad?"

"Yes?"

"...Can I hug you again?"

When he snuck a glance over at her, she was giving him a tiny smile. "Sure."
mage

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

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Fri Jun 19, 2020 11:48 am
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Mageheart says...



The End


Main Cast



Codix/Oliver Webb by @Magebird
Nadira/Lucy Drake by @Magebird
Maahes/Leonardo Cartwright by @Magebird
Kartiel by @Magebird
Andrei "Bo" Petrov by @soundofmind
Boris Dietrich by @SirenCymbaline
Aegeas by @TheSilverFox
Raiden by @RaidenCheese


Honorary Cast


Lola Peters by @ellasnotebook
mage

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

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.








Attention is the beginning of devotion.
— Mary Oliver, Upstream