< atton revisited > The information page for Atton has been fully revised and updated with the new map!
< updated calendar > The Fortuna calendar has been updated in the "Other" lore section! This includes a document which displays the calendar for you to see, making it much easier to understand.
< moving map > The first functional map has been released in the News section! This map is also interactive, allowing you to drag and drop between points in order to determine distances. This is the first iteration, and there's more and better to come!
< first annual awards > The results for the First Annual Fortuna Year-End Awards have been posted! Go and take a look at who the finalists were, and who took home the big prizes!
< new default skin > Our new skin has passed the beta test, and is now the new Default for the forums! If you have any issues with this skin, send a PM or Discord to Mellie.
< human lore update > Humans have been updated with TWENTY-FIVE subraces/subcultures which add numerous options, and a little extra lore and flavour.
< magic lore update > Magical Lore has been enhanced with the addition of a post on Magical Education. From Beginner to Expert, this is how you learn the spells.
< a change to member groups > Member groups are now based on storyline! You can change your displayed storyline by editing the settings in your profile.
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 Leigh Haskell on Dec 29, 2016 15:42:07 GMT -7
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[attr="class","waveshsubtitle"]Late Evening Just Outside of Magei Liesdro's Highest Security Prison
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] It had been three days since Leigh had been formally charged. She had, of course, continued to refuse to give them her real name, so Jane Doe had racked up another doozy. Leigh was pretty sure she wouldn't mind. It had also been three days since she had gotten the message that there'd be a "guard" coming to let her out today. Likely one of their shapeshifters, or just one of the crewmembers skilled at disguise. She didn't really care - if they let her out, she'd call 'em whatever they wanted.
Which was why when she heard the noise coming down the hall to her cell, she'd stiffened with excitement. She missed her clothes. Her pistol. Her hook. It was still a bit early for the dead-of-night scams they preferred to run, but she wouldn't complain. She adjusted from her position in the shadows, spooking the rats who hadn't noticed her. Her eyes narrowed, and she watched as a guard came into view leading a pretty redhead down the hall. Well I'll be damned, Leigh thought, expecting that both the guard and the girl were there for her, She must be new... Leigh was pretty sure she'd have remembered if the crew had someone that good looking. She worried for a moment that it was just Wight in disguise and had to swallow her bile.
All of these thoughts were ceased as the guard asked for Leigh to reveal herself - she waved her proper hand from the shadows - and then told her she'd be getting a new cellmate today. He laughed a bit as he opened the door, and shoved the newbie in, telling Leigh not to be too rough with her. Leigh just smiled good naturedly and said, "Yes sir."
When the doors were locked once more, and the guard had done away, Leigh took in her cellmate. She was pretty. No, not pretty. Straight up knock-em-out gorgeous -- but she didn't look like much of a criminal. No, her skin looked too soft, too sun-kissed. Her hair looked well-coiffed. She looked so damn uncomfortable in the scratchy burlap they gave the prisoners here to wear. Most of all, she looked like she was pretending not to be scared.
"First timer?" Leigh asked, still keeping herself hidden in the darkness, and shoving her stump between herself and the wall. She wanted to make a good first impression.
Post by Nicole Vanros on Dec 29, 2016 18:39:51 GMT -7
Nicole had not been discharged. She was to be "escorted" back to Dirys, since Liesdro had only been interested in keeping her where she couldn't cause trouble. She was Dirys' problem, it was their job to make an example of her. Not only did she represent a threat to the united forces, she had threatened the Lord of Eersaeb. She risked Submiere retaliating against both nations.
Nicole just wanted to good. She wanted to do something right. Dirys and Liesdro had agreed to work together, and the alliance was almost… romantic, in a way. Two neighboring countries, rallying together in the name of something greater than themselves. Maybe she wouldn't be just one soldier, she could have been the hero. The underdog that would turn things around! It would be like one of Zechariah's story. He had always claimed to be such an academic, but Nicole knew better. Zechariah enjoyed fables of warriors chosen by the gods, riding on the backs of dragons, allied in battle against some unimaginable monstrosity. It would be nice to talk with Zechariah about one of those books.
Instead, the officers had ordered her into wearing burlap. They might as well have cut open a sack of flour and stuck the sack on her. Her hands were still cuffed, and she was being led through the prison by one of the guards. "You'll meet your cellmate soon." The guard didn't seem to take any pleasure in saying that. Not a hint of boasting, like "I'm sure you'll get along nicely!" He must not have liked whoever Nicole would be staying with. As they approached a cell, the guard tugged Nicole's arm to stop her. "Get over here, 'Jane'! We've got a new friend for you." A hand waved among the poor lighting inside the cell. The officer chuckled, and whispered into Nicole's ear. "Good luck with that one." He called inside the cell, "Try not to be too rough with her!"
The officer pushed Nicole through the cell, almost knocking her onto the floor. "Yes sir," a voice said. Jane. Nicole stayed down on the floor, only barely moving her head in Jane's direction. "First timer?"
"Yup," Nicole answered. "But if you have to ask that, I'm going to guess this isn't your first time in a place like this. Am I right?"
Last Edit: Dec 29, 2016 18:47:16 GMT -7 by Nicole Vanros
Post by Leigh Haskell on Dec 29, 2016 18:49:23 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] Leigh laughed and nodded her head, even though the other woman couldn't see her, "You bet your crown, princess... First time in this one, mind you... But there've been others. Call me a critic, I guess."
She watched the girl in silence, interested in how little spark she had. She was just there, on the floor. She didn't have enough curiosity to move closer to Leigh, didn't have the fear (or the energy?) to back away from the rats, and didn't have the decency to go sit on her bed. No, she was going to mope like a lump on the floor and kill Leigh's mood.
"First time walking, too?" Leigh teased, a smile in her voice, "Bet they didn't have it rough trying to catch you." Leigh considered going to help the girl, but she wasn't the chivalrous type.
Post by Nicole Vanros on Dec 29, 2016 19:09:35 GMT -7
A critic? This wasn't like restaurants, you don't just visit most of those and decide which ones get to be heralded as five-star. "I can walk plenty, but that's not why they didn't have a problem catching me." Nicole sat up, her back against the bars. It was cold and rough, but she was more interested in knowing who exactly she was expected to spend the next few days with. It would only be a few days, right?
Nicole startled as she saw the woman. At first, she thought the woman's eyes were covered in shadow, or she was sick, starved, but no, the darkness under her eyes was paint. Showoff. Nicole nodded, trying to look confident. Princess. Her father would have liked hearing that someone would call her that, even if it was just a joke. "Anyway, I let them catch me. Fighting back or running away wouldn't have helped. I'm going to guess you didn't put up much of a fight if you're a… what did you say you were? Critic? Please, don't sell yourself short. How about 'prison connoisseur'? That has a nice ring to it."
Post by Leigh Haskell on Dec 29, 2016 19:25:49 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] Teasing worked -- Leigh made a mental note. Where the girl had been lying prone and not as talkative as Leigh might have liked, with a bit of prodding the girl got up, pushing herself as far away from Leigh as possible, and now she was chatting up a storm.
"Prison connoisseur hey? I like that," She decided to give the girl something to look at if she was going to stare, and so stretched out of the shadows and into the glow of the flaming torches on the walls. She seemed all too comfortable in her burlap sack, not worrying as it rode up with her stretches. In fact, she looked straight at Nicole as it did, smirking a little bit. The show was enough to distract from her hand, but that was the next thing she showed Nicole: "I'd clap, but--" She wiggled the stump at her wrist as she walked over to the bars, not allowing Nicole to choose the distance they'd have between them.
"So you just let 'em catch you, huh? What'd you think, they'd treat you better for good behaviour? Give you a burlap suit with cotton on the inside? You're a criminal now, Princess. Ain't nothing gonna change that now." She sat next to Nicole, giving her the benefit of having her handed-side next to the poor thing, "So what'd you do, anyway? Wear white at someone else's wedding?"
Post by Nicole Vanros on Dec 29, 2016 20:41:56 GMT -7
Nicole was almost disgusted by the sight of this woman's missing hand, but it explained why she was in here. "So you're a thief. I'm surprised you haven't lost your other hand by now." Nicole moved along the ground, not wanting to be too close to the thief. "I let them catch me because they were doing their job." She didn't deny that she was hoping to get off for good behavior. Maybe that was part of it, but she knew it wouldn't have happened that way. "I'm not a criminal, I'm a soldier." For now. The instant she would set foot back in Dirys, they wouldn't welcome her back as a soldier. "I'm a person, and…"
She buried her heads in her knees. She didn't deserve this, she didn't deserve to be locked up with some thief. "It was Woodrow. Markus Woodrow came here, to Magei." She sniffled, turning her head away from the thief. "He asked me out to dinner with him, and I shot him down. Almost literally, too. I reached for my rifle, and all his men, even the officers stationed here, they stopped me. Just because I reached for my rifle. Now I'm stuck in here. Stuck with you." This women deserved to be here, she couldn't possibly understand what it must have been like for Nicole. She looked so comfortable in prison, like this was her idea of a hotel room. She was used to this. How could anyone get used to this?
Post by Leigh Haskell on Dec 29, 2016 21:05:22 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] She was about to correct her - Leigh was a pirate, not a thief, it was an important difference - but then she said the magic word. Instead, Leigh quieted, listened to the tale of woe and laughed. Not just a chuckle, a giggle, a chortle - she laughed a good long time - long enough that someone in a cell down the row shouted, "Cut that shit out!"
Once she had collected herself, she looked Nicole in the eyes, chuckled again, and then tried to take this all more seriously. "Ol' Woody's in town?" She asked, her eyes flaring with excitement, "And you tried to shoot him?" She got to her knees and bent over Nicole, trying to get the girl to raise her head out of her knees. Leigh wasn't sure if the girl was still in despair, or just embarrassed, but either way -- if she was telling the truth, she had a damn lot of spunk. "You know, I should throw you a damn parade - just for trying it. Most girls like you would fall over themselves for that prick, and yet... Here you are in prison. Proof of his emasculation. Shit, princess. You just became my new hero."
Post by Nicole Vanros on Dec 29, 2016 21:20:02 GMT -7
Why? Why was she mocking her? Why wouldn't she stop laughing? Why couldn't she just shut up?
Or maybe, maybe she wasn't mocking her. This woman, she knew Woodrow. "Woody" was so formal, as if "Lord" Woodrow was someone she would hang out in a bar with. She almost wanted to tell the woman to be quiet, that Nicole was no hero, that this was just more mockery. Nicole wanted to argue, just to keep arguing, but this thief didn't seem to want that. Maybe she did want that parade. As the woman looked her over, Nicole looked back. "You… you believe me? About Woodrow? Have you met him?"
Nicole stepped away, but this time, not to avoid her. Nicole pushed herself to stand, and helped the woman stand up. Nicole put her right out at first, but this woman was missing her own right hand, so Nicole switched to her left. Nicole wiped some tears from her eyes, and waited for the thief to stand up. "First, tell me why you're here. Then I want to hear everything you know about Woodrow."
Last Edit: Dec 29, 2016 21:21:52 GMT -7 by Nicole Vanros
Post by Leigh Haskell on Dec 29, 2016 21:37:42 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] The girl helped her up, and Leigh took her up on it simply to feel how soft her skin was. To her surprise, it wasn't the baby softness of the noble women she often knew - she supposed the girl was a real soldier. Not some kind of doll that filled out paperwork.
She made some demands, and Leigh quirked her brows at them. "Well, well, Princess. Someone's getting a little cocky," The tone sounded like a warning, but Leigh's smirk showed that she was still teasing, "Alright, I'll talk. Let's call it... Petty thievery. I was hanging around in a bar by the shore near Belema. A little cabana kind of place. Not seedy, but not nice enough to turn me away at the door."
Leigh leaned against the bars, not seeming to care about their chill on her arm. It reminded her of her hook - which she felt a bit naked without at this point. "Been there for about an hour when this woman walks in. Gorgeous - a bit like you, actually. But blonde, and not wearing a sack. She catches my eye, I catch her's, one thing leads to another and we're in her boat... Well, her husband's boat. He walks in, she sells me out, I end up here. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame her. Her husband's some hoity-toity type, likely doesn't bother with her needs, but keeps her breathing. It happens..." Leigh's face still held a smirk, but her eyes seemed to fall. They meet her stump and she seems to be lost in memory for a moment, but Nicole's second question brings her gaze back up to meet her cellmate's.
"As for how I know Woody... I think you owe me an apology Princess, calling me names like 'thief'. I prefer..." She closes the distance between her and Nicole, easily towering over her by a good seven or eight inches. But she's not being intimidating. Her pose is relaxed, and her smile is almost contagious, "Something like 'damn dirty pirate'." With a laugh she backs off again, permitting the poor girl her space, "I know more than enough about ol' Woody. He's sunk a ship I been on. Killed a good lot of my friends. And I know he does shit like what he did to you more than enough... He's the shittiest kind of noble. One who thinks they're the deity's gifts to humanity.
"Now... In return for my stories, I get two things from you, Princess--" Leigh raised her stump as if it meant something, then chuckled, winked, and raised her real hand holding up two fingers, "I want your name - you can pick a fake one if you really want - and I wanna know what you'd do to Woody if he were sittin' on that cot over there."
Post by Nicole Vanros on Dec 29, 2016 22:21:55 GMT -7
Nicole's hand met her face as the thief - or "pirate" as she preferred, as if that was any better - recounted her misadventure into the cabana. She had almost missed the woman indirectly calling Nicole gorgeous. Ordinarily, she wouldn't have minded being called that, but she just rolled her eyes at the woman's remark. "Princess" was a little more endearing. Her father would have loved that to live up to its meaning. Nicole could have been a real princess. Maybe if she did, she would have been in a real position to threaten Woodrow. Gods, everything was "what could have been." She had to worry about what was still going to happen. They were no more wasted possibilities. There was only a humiliating future.
She had been mistaken about this pirate. Even a pirate had friends, and with everything she was saying, she probably had plenty of reason to hate Woodrow. More than even Nicole had. "If you believe me about Woodrow, then I'm going to believe you. But I'm not going to pick a fake name. Nicole Vanros. My father is Zota Vanros, he works for…" Right, she was dealing with a pirate. The idea that Nicole worked for an executive of the Kross Mining Company would just be inviting her to call her friends to rob the mines. "…He works for a place." As the pirate pointed to the cot, Nicole imagined Woodrow sleeping on it. He was seating so peacefully, alone, and no one was around to protect him. Nicole pointed her finger like a gun, pointed at his face. She was a soldier, she was expected to kill, but killing a man in his sleep was a coward's gambit. Woodrow's arm dangled from the cot, so Nicole pointed her hand at Woodrow's, and pressed her thumb down. She looked around, hoping that no guards were nearby, and answered in as low a voice as she could manage.
"I'd shoot him. But… I wouldn't kill him. Not yet. I want to see him grasping his arm, trying to stop the bleeding. He begs for me to leave him alone, and he says he'll leave me alone, too." She walked up to the cot, pointing her hand at where the head would rest. "I'd get in close, like this, and put the gun to his head. Hold the gun there until he's begging for me to just let him go. I'd wait for him to cry, and if he isn't, I'll just kick him in the balls. And then? I walk away." Nicole opened her hand, and she could imagine the gun falling, even shattering as it hit the ground. "He humiliated me. He could have done worse to me, but he didn't. He let them put me here because he said he wanted me to 'learn my place'. I'd show him his place. Killing him would be too quick, too good for him. I want him to know that I could have killed him, but didn't. His life was in my hands, and he'd spend the rest of it remembering that."
Nicole might have been saying that just to impress this pirate. Why she would, though, she could not say. She was just making it up on the spot as she went along. But as she played out every action of the story, she was happy with it. Woodrow wouldn't play out the script word for word, but the finale would be the same: Nicole would win.
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