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Welcome to the world of Fortuna, a land of fantastic proportions. This is an original fantasy roleplay that takes place in a world developed over nearly a decade of work and collaboration. We aim to encourage all participants to have a hand in the stories of the characters here, and the world around them. Your choices are key - so make them with pride. You decide who wins the wars, you decide who becomes King, the world is ours, and together we will bring it to life!
Post by Kikuriku Gouken on Dec 27, 2016 17:40:24 GMT -7
8th of the Scales of Judgement, 5152 Unknown Past Midnight
Kikuriku was lost.
His companion of a nearly a day was still unconscious, and Kikuriku had no idea where she had teleported them. It was possible she had had no destination in mind, and simply wanted to avoid the Xankwile threat, but Kiku doubted that. Rose seemed the type of woman to always have a plan of action, as well as a backup plan and an emergency backup plan. She seemed like the sort of woman who came prepared.
Kiku, on the other hand, was ill prepared. He’d waited in a tree for nightfall, wary of monsters or hunters in the area. He had an unconscious Rose with him, and daylight was no place for him to be carrying around a woman in his arms – he would likely draw the attention of law enforcement, immediately cracking down on a thief stealing a woman. He’d had his fair share of run-ins with the police, and didn’t want to add to his experiences with them. Plus, both he and Rose were Ajatar – sunlight was bad.
With the moon high in the sky, Kiku decided to get moving. He had no idea which direction he should be going, but he was too restless to stay still. He’d already slept, napped, rested his eyes and daydreamed – and Rose still hadn’t woken up yet. Kiku couldn’t wait any longer. He gently put his hands underneath her and lifted her up. Even having lifted her numerous times during their last adventure, Kiku was always surprised with just how light Rose was – it almost seemed wrong, as if there should be more to her. He’d wondered if it was some sort of magic.
Not much had happened in the hours that Rose had been unconscious. Kiku used the remains of a campfire to build a new one, in order to keep Rose and himself warm. The cloak that she was wearing didn't seem to protect her from the elements as much as she would need. He'd periodically put his ear to her nose, checking her breathing. Her breathes were less laboured than they had been when they first teleported here, and Kiku took that as a good sign. Occasionally, she would grunt something that sounded like words, but Kiku was never paying enough attention to actually make out exactly what she was saying. He'd heard her call out for diamonds again, and he'd wondered what a woman like her would want with diamonds - she already had a bad ass crystal ball.
Kiku stomped out the fire - he'd waited around long enough. “Rose, I would really like it if you’d wake up now.” Trees riddled every direction he looked, and the idea of being lost worried Kiku. He was in an unknown location with an unconscious woman that he had to take care of, so he did the only thing that he could think of to do. Walk.
Although he was bad with following directions, he had a basic idea of where his Norths and Souths were. The idea was even clearer with his compass, a gift given to him by his mother. She’d known how terrible he was with direction, and found a way to remedy that. Kiku had almost forgotten about it.
“Nameless, what way did he say to go again. East, right?” Kiku asked to no one in particular. With Rose in his arms, he followed his compass and headed east. He didn’t remember what town the Glass Tomb was supposed to be near, but he assumed that he would eventually run into it. He realized that he didn't know what it looked like either - the book that he had skimmed through years prior had no photos. He assumed that it looked like a tomb, only made of glass - though he knew that that was unlikely. Nothing in this world was ever that simple. I mean, it’s a giant tomb made of glass, how could I miss it? I guess I could probably accidentally walk into it, if the glass was cleaned regularly. But who would want to do that? Couldn’t pay me enough gold to spit shine some stinky ass tomb for my life.
OOC: Shoot me a PM if anything here needs to be edited; it's just been so long!
Post by Charlotte Firiana on Jan 2, 2017 13:27:36 GMT -7
Charlotte's dreams were not kind.
She knew she was dreaming from the moment they began, and there was an odd sense of clarity in these dreams that did not typically come with sleep; the clarity to know that Kiku was probably waiting for her to wake up, the clarity to know that she was only dreaming in this moment because she had greatly overtaxed herself and likely put herself into a coma, and the clarity to retain memory of everything she was seeing as she floated through this dream space.
She heard Sojourn's voice in her dreams, occasionally echoing that Charlotte needed to just rest and wait, but Charlotte could not do that. She felt compelled to move, to fly through this strange world that had appeared in her mind. A world of ruin, all too familiar to Charlotte. It was the world from one of her visions, the one in which a terrible creature arises from the underworld. But while the vision had always been seen in various flashes, this time, Charlotte could see it clearly, and with prolonged focus. She was flying around the destroyed, desolate buildings and taking in all the details. The sky was crimson, and looked almost as though it was burning. There were corpses everywhere. Phantoms of inky blackness flitted about the otherwise abandoned world, and sometimes seemed to stop and look directly at Charlotte.
She kept moving. Sojourn urged her to stop, to return to where she had 'awoken' and simply rest. Charlotte asked her where Miss Diamond was, but she never got a response. Charlotte decided she would keep moving. She needed to see more. She needed to find the source of this calamity.
Guided by this wish, Charlotte felt as though she was drawing ever closer to the Doors of Death. She didn't know where in Muerte she was, projected in this vision as she was, but something told her she was close to them. Once she found them, she would find the one who opened them, she just knew it.
Charlotte, don't! urged Sojourn once again. Charlotte pressed forward.
And then she noticed that several of the shadows, the demons crawling the dream space, were all staring at her. They could see her, and somehow the fact that this was only a dream didn't make Charlotte feel better about that. A sinking feeling of dread filled her in the moment before one of them lunged. It grabbed her and she could feel it, it was real, and it was pinning her down, claw clamped around her throat and suffocating her. It leaned in with a horrid, monstrous face, and sneered. Its jaws opened wide to snap down on her face, and Charlotte wondered if she would truly die from this.
But before it could, there was a flash of light that erupted from her body, and the demon was knocked far away. As the light left her, Charlotte suddenly felt much weaker, her form felt more immaterial, her clarity of sight on the world around her suddenly became cloudy and muddy again. The light that had left her took shape before her, and Charlotte was only barely able to make out the shape of a woman before her sight went dark.
It's time to wake up now, Darling,
Charlotte's eyes snapped open and she took a gasping breath. She felt strong arms around her and when she looked up she saw Kiku looking down at her, his face showing concern and relief at the sight of her awake. She could feel the weight of her crystal ball against her stomach, and was thankful he remembered to carry that along with her. Despite how weak she had just felt in her dream, she felt a lot stronger now that she was awake. Kiku stopped walking as she tapped against his chest, and she answered his typical question of 'are you alright' with an affirmative nod as she got him to put her down. She stood on her feet and took a few breaths, then experimentally waved her hand at her crystal ball. It regained its glow and floated up to hover next to her, and she didn't feel any particularly strain in making it do so. So her magic appeared to be alright.
Next, she called for Sojourn and Miss Diamond.
'We're here, Darling. Good to see you up and about.'
Hearing Miss Diamond was comforting. Her sudden absence had been... troubling to Charlotte. Although Charlotte noticed that her voice didn't have its usual... luster? She sounded almost deflated.
'Oh don't you worry about me, dear, I'm fit as a fiddle!'
'You SHOULD be worried more about yourself when I'm done with you!' Sojourn's voice cut in. 'I told you to stay put and rest! Why did you go flying around willy nilly like that! It was dangerous, Char!'
Charlotte frowned, wondering how Sojourn could possibly expect her to do something like that when the world of her vision had been visible to her in such clarity for the first time ever. She needed to see it.
'And look at what almost happened to you for doing so!' Sojourn countered. 'If Diamond hadn't...uuuurgh!'
Charlotte glared. Well, maybe she wouldn't have felt the need to explore if Sojourn, Diamond, or any of the others would just tell her things. Like what exactly was going on with them, why had Charlotte been able to see that world so clearly just now, where had Diamond been, how did she suddenly save her like that, who were they all, really?
She heard no answer in response to this, and she snorted in derision. Of course.
She finally turned her attention back to Kiku, seeing as her sponsors were suddenly intent on being silent. "Thank you, Kiku, for looking after me while I slept. I apologize for the trouble. Have you been well in my absence?" she asked, looking around at their surroundings to see if she could get a bearing on where he'd taken them. If the landscape was any indication, she would guess they were still in the craggy, desert-y expanse that served as the Dirys-Muerte border.
Post by Kikuriku Gouken on Jan 3, 2017 19:40:09 GMT -7
The Glass Tomb. It’s very name sounded ominous enough to make Kiku both excited and nervous. He wondered what they would find there, he and Rose, if they ever did find it. ‘Head east’ wasn’t much of a plan, but as long as Rose was unconscious, it was the only plan that Kiku had. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been walking, but his legs were growing tired, and he had to talk himself out of resting on more than one occasion.
Five more steps. Okay, now five more. Now another five. No, I’m not tricking you Kiku, this team I mean it. Five times five more steps. What’s that? Five thousand steps? You’ve got it, me!
He was walking aimlessly through the desert, lost in thought, when he felt a hand tapping on his chest. The hand startled him, briefly, as he had gotten used to the feeling of being alone. He looked down into the eyes of his companion, who looked surprisingly unrested despite her multi-year nap. He stopped walking, and put her down. She’d answered positively when he asked if she was okay, so Kiku felt as if he could finally relax. They were a team again.
She asked if he had been well in her ‘absence’, and Kiku couldn’t help but smile. It seemed like the perfect sort of response for Rose to give; nonchalant and aloof. He wasn’t exactly sure how to answer her. Not much had actually happened while she had been unconscious, but it had been an eternity for Kiku. He’d watched over her, without sleeping, for hours as his mind raced with all of the imagined dangers that could be lurking about. More Xankwiles? Other, more vicious beasts with a hankering for purple cloaks and dashing men? It wasn’t an easy time. “Me? Oh, I’ve been great while you were sleeping. I left you in a tree, and went exploring. I found this beautiful hot springs, clear across the city. I had a lovely bath, and a wash with fragrant oils! It’s a shame you weren’t there for it!” Kiku laughed as he continued his walk to the east, making light of the many stresses that had plagued his mind for the past few hours. He was so far from smelling like he’d washed with fragrant oils that he briefly feared that his pants might burst into flames any moment.
“I haven’t seen any sign of The Glass Tomb, and there’s no one around to ask. That might be a good thing, though. The last time I was carrying around an unconscious woman, a lot of questions were being asked. I was glared at in the streets!” Kiku resorted to his trademark theatrics by flailing his arms about, which was more exhausting than he’d thought it would be. Now that he was no longer carrying Rose, his arms burned from fatigue. He’d probably need a bath to recover.
“So, do we have any ideas where we’re going? I was just heading East.”
Post by Charlotte Firiana on Jan 8, 2017 18:12:14 GMT -7
He really enjoyed talking and joking, didn't he? It reminded Charlotte of why she had immediately found him irritating when they first met. She supposed she had bad first impressions of people who fancied themselves as jokers. She didn't mind it so much right now, though.
"If you had a bath then I'd demand a refund on those oils if I were you," she stated. Her tone was flat but there was a very light, amused tilt to her lips. "Because you smell positively horrid."
She followed him as he continued to walk, pleased when he laughed at her little joke, and she even found his own next one mildly amusing (if also slightly concerning; how often did he find the need to carry unconscious women around?). As they walked, Charlotte looked to the sky, and studied the stars. If Kiku had been watching her face, he'd have seen the almost trance-like state she looked to be in as she looked at them, taking in their positions, seeing how close they were to the moons.
She grabbed the back of Kiku's shirt and tugged, pulling him to a stop and drawing his attention to her. She then pointed to her left. "Arazus is that way."
It was almost funny, the look of surprise on the other's face. He likely thought that just walking continually east would see them to their destination. Maybe he hadn't accounted for the change in their position when Charlotte had teleported them. She snorted, then stepped away from him, eyeing the open sandy expanse of ground before them. The scene was actually rather picturesque. The hills of desert sands at night, under a canopy of bright stars and a crescent moon that hung low, appearing huge on the horizon, while its sister moon, full, was higher overhead.
"Let's see how well my magic is doing," she said aloud, speaking to Kiku as well as to her sponsors.
'Er, so soon, Char?' Sojourn asked.
Charlotte thought of no answer for her. If she and Diamond were going to be cagey and silent whenever they pleased, she could do the very same.
She utilized Diamond's power first, using her transmutation magic to carve out two reasonably large holes in the sandy ground, and hardening the sand inside into a plaster-like substance, making the inside of the holes smooth. Then she called for Sojourn's magic, conjuring water from the nearest detectable fresh source, and filling both holes with it. When she had finished, she was looking at two small pools, both large enough to fit one adult, and she was only slightly winded. Clearly her strength was not back in full swing yet, but at least she'd been able to manage this.
She reached into her cloak for her storage charm, pressing her thumb against it and mentally cycling through the items it could call, until she finally settled on the two she was looking for. A red potion and a wooden totem appeared on the ground before her. She put the charm away and picked up the potion, pouring some of its contents into both pools of water and watching as the water began to steam, now nice and toasty. She left the totem where it was, simply sitting on the ground near the pools, and conjured a flame to set the thing on fire. It began to burn, very slowly.
"Take a real bath," she instructed of Kiku, already removing her cloak and throwing it into the water. "You stink. The totem will ward away any wild beasts for as long as it burns, so it will give us some time."
She continued to remove more clothing as she spoke, clearly not caring about Kiku's presence, and threw each article into her bath once it was removed. She stepped gingerly into her pool of water once she was nude, sighing at the warmth as she settled in and allowed herself to relax.
Post by Kikuriku Gouken on Jan 9, 2017 18:07:40 GMT -7
Kikuriku thought that he had been doing a wonderful job guiding the two of them to their destination, but apparently he was wrong. Nameless did a terrible job guiding them to the Glass Tomb, and apparently walking aimlessly in a general direction isn’t the best way to find things. Who knew? Still, he was glad now that Rose was awake so that they could start making meaningful strides towards stopping this great calamity.
That is, after they took a bath. It seemed Kiku’s joke about a spa bath clicked something in Rose’s mind, and she used her magic to create two baths – a skill that Kiku noted that he would have to learn from her. The ability to create a romantic bath on command would do wonders for his dating career.
Then, as if she had read his mind, Rose began to disrobe. There was nothing seductive about her removal of clothing, but she took off everything. Everything. She didn’t even seem to mind that Kiku was there, which could only mean that she wanted Kiku to see. Everything.
His first instinct was to avert his gaze – after all, his mother had raised a gentleman. But, he reasoned, the night was dark and full of terrors. Something could jump out at any moment and attack Rose if Kiku wasn’t careful.
I better keep my eye on her, just in case. For safety. Who knows if her Totem works.
Kiku didn’t want to appear shy in front of Rose, so he followed suit. Lifting off his shirt, he got a whiff of himself and instantly knew that this bath was not only a good idea, it was mandatory. He could only describe the smell using words like ‘decaying’ and ‘decomposing’. He threw his shirt into the empty pool of water, and began unbuckling his belt. He tossed his pants into the pool of water as well. He stood proudly over his little sinkhole, fully nude, and prepared.
“CANNONBALL!”
With a splash, Kiku slammed ass first into the water and plummeted down… for all of two seconds. The water wasn’t nearly as deep as he’d imagined, and he smashed his rear end on the floor with great force. He tried to swim upwards, but he couldn’t. He’d knocked most of the water out of his ‘pool’.
“R…Rose. Is there any more water? My bath doesn’t have any water.” Kiku used what little remaining water their was to wash his clothes.
Post by Charlotte Firiana on Jan 10, 2017 4:10:16 GMT -7
Somehow, Charlotte had gotten the ridiculous notion into her head that she was going to actually be able to enjoy this bath for a moment, to simply relish in the peaceful relaxation. Clearly she had dropped her guard too early around the man she had elected to travel with, because he decided that it would be a MARVELOUS idea to cannonball into the pool she had generously set up for him.
Charlotte turned her head very slowly to meet Kiku's eyes, her hair completely soaked through because of his actions having splashed nearly all of his water onto her. She fancied that she was glowering at him witheringly, but if she could see herself, she might have observed that she looked more like a grumpy wet cat. It wasn't quite that she minded having her hair soaked. She'd have done that herself sooner or later. It was more the fact that Kiku had had to bring needless chaos to a moment of relaxation, and also squandered the warm water she'd given him in the process.
He started complaining that his bath had no more water, and her frown deepened.
'Do it Char, I've got your back,' Sojourn chimed, sounding solemn.
"Here," she said to Kiku. Then she flicked her wrist and conjured a large mass of water above Kiku that proceeded to drop on top of him, refilling his tub in the process.
She made sure the water she conjured was cold.
Amidst what was sure to be his curses of shock at the sudden drop in temperature, she directed her attention to her totem, which had had its fire snuffed out by Kiku's actions. She had Sojourn draw the water off of it, drying it again so that she could flick another conjured flame and relight it, restoring their protective barrier.
With that handled, she proceeded to nestle back into her pleasant, warm bath, smiling contentedly as she rested her head against the sandy edge of the pool, and enjoyed the background sounds of a yelping Kiku.
Post by Kikuriku Gouken on Jan 13, 2017 14:59:00 GMT -7
Kikuriku smiled meekly at Rose as she (very exasperatingly) flicked her wrist to produce more water. In a flash, Kiku was surrounded by water… freezing water. He let out a yelp in surprise as he was up to his ears in the coldest water he’d ever bathed in. It took all of his pride to not jump out of the water and put clothes on, but Rose had made this bath for him – he would do the respectable thing and use it, even if her magic wasn’t good enough to make the water even the slightest bit warm.
His teeth were chattering involuntarily as he washed himself unceremoniously. He couldn’t spend time scrubbing away all of the sweat that had accumulated during his adventure – this was more of a ‘splish-splash move your ass’ type bath. He dunked his head underneath the water and rubbed his face aggressively.
Welp, I’m definitely awake for a while, he thought, rising out of the water. He would have to expertly maneuver himself into his clothes so that Rose wouldn’t see anything. It was one thing to let a girl see you naked when you were prepared for it – no amount of preparation could combat the effects of sub-zero water.
Aww, shit! My clothes are soaked! How am I going to pull this off… I suppose I could shadow walk the rest of the way, but that would be exhausting – who knows how long it is going to take for my clothes to dry?
He looked at Rose, whose bath was steaming in the cold night air. She had clearly produced ice-cold water to punish him. Whether or not he deserved such a punishment was a different story.
Kikuriku again swallowed his pride and climbed out of his ice bath. Covering his manhood with one hand, he shook as much of the water off of himself as he could. He rubbed his other hand through his hair, trying to get the excess water out of it, though he could already feel it turning to ice. It wasn’t too cold this evening, but much too cold to be naked. “So when you’re done,” Kiku began, speaking as politely as possible given the circumstances, “How long do you think it will take to get to the Tomb?”
He wished at a moment like this that he was well-versed in some form of magic that could produce clothing out of thin-air.
Post by Charlotte Firiana on Jan 13, 2017 23:45:32 GMT -7
'Come now Darling, you've tortured the poor boy long enough, don't you think? He won't be much good to you as an icicle.'
Charlotte rolled her eyes behind her closed lids, then deigned to open them and give Kiku her attention. He was standing there in the cold, shivering his rear end off, and covering his crotch with one hand. So he only needed one hand for that, hm? She resisted the urge to giggle, knowing full well the reason why.
Heaving an exaggerated sigh (though the gesture was likely made to look insincere considering her small smile) she tapped her fingers against her storage charm, resting beside her bath, and summoned another of her warming potions.
"These cost gold," she stated as she uncorked the bottle and tossed it unceremoniously into Kiku's bath. "Try not to waste it this time."
After a moment, Kiku's water began to steam again, evidently warmed by the concoction. She went back to relaxing, her eyes closed as she listened to him climb back into the water. "To answer your question..." She thought for a moment, relaxing her mind now as well, and letting her divination magic reach out to the stars. It wasn't a proper scrying, but it fed her intuition. "...After we bathe, if we continue to travel through the night we should reach Arazus by daybreak. The tomb is stated to be nearby, though I suspect we'll need to do a bit of searching."
Post by Kikuriku Gouken on Jan 18, 2017 10:51:55 GMT -7
Kikuriku watched in amazement as his bath began to steam up again. He had never had much interaction with magic before, but he’d decided that it was badass and that he had to learn something. He’d probably be an even better thief if he had at least a little magic knowledge.
Rose made a comment about how these potions cost money and Kiku had to hold back a laugh.
Nothing costs money when your name is Kikuriku Gouken. Because I steal things.
Kiku sat back in the bath, letting his chilled body warm up. He dunked his head underneath the water to defrost his hair. When he came up for air, he listened as Rose explained what the plan was going forward. Get clean, get walking. A very simple plan, and Kiku was a fan of simple. Hopefully, they wouldn’t run into any more creatures as fearsome as the Xankwile.
The idea of walking until the morning didn’t sit well with Kiku, though. Despite the fact that she didn’t weigh much, carrying Rose for a few hours had done a number on his legs. He knew that this bath time would be more about resting his muscles than getting clean. While in the water, Kiku began the massage his legs while lamenting the fact that he’d be walking again in just a few minutes. “I certainly hope there won’t be that much searching. I mean, how hard could it be to find? Do you think it’s actually made of glass? I hope so. And I hope that the Nameless guy that we see there is a little more fun than the last one. With less traps this time. I don’t like falling in to fleshy prisons.”
Post by Charlotte Firiana on Jan 23, 2017 21:05:24 GMT -7
"One would imagine that if it is called the Glass Tomb, then it is indeed made of glass," she replied blandly, absently beginning to scrub at her arms. She'd procured some of her lavender-scented soap from her storage charm while Kiku had been reacquainting himself with warm water, adding it into her own water as she decided that the time for relaxing was already over. She might have offered some to Kiku, but something told her he probably wasn't the type of man who enjoyed walking around smelling of flowers. "In my own experience, the name is often appropriate to the place when the place is one of ancient, mystical significance."
Perhaps the olden peoples who named such old, magical locations simply had an eye for accuracy, Charlotte thought. Not like architects of today who insisted upon the esoteric for something as simple as a hotel. Or perhaps that was just in Liesdro or Rielcia.
"As for the matter of our soon to be associate..." she continued, splashing some water on her face. "I care not for what sort of personality he possesses. But I suppose I can agree that I'd rather do without any traps this time."
She was running some water through her air as she tossed a side glance over towards her burning totem. It had only burned through perhaps a tenth of its life, but Charlotte would prefer to save it for future uses as well. She may end their bath time soon enough. "Relax a bit longer. I'd prefer we get moving within twenty more minutes."
The skin OTHERWORLD was made by JAWN of WICKED WONDERLAND.
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