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< 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.
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< 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 Jan 11, 2017 21:34:19 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] Perhaps she’d made a mistake. Not a half hour ago, Nicole was insisting she wanted to kill Markus Woodrow. She had actually acted it out. Shot a goddamn mattress. The whining now just made Leigh roll her eyes as she finished doing up her belt, putting the guard’s pistol in the back of her pants now that she had her own back.
“Lead the way Wight,” She nodded, ignoring Nicole’s dull gibberish. But it was when the red-head asked if they had plans that she slammed her hook against the wall. “What the hell have you lost, you stuck-up prissy bitch? We saved your goddamn hide and you’re sitting here patronizing us. You got asked out on a date with a noble and tried to shoot him, so you wound up in jail. Wanna know what poor people do to end up in jail? Huh? What they do to lose their fucking hands? What they do to have everyone they love killed?”
She shoved Nicole out of the way, her eyes darkly focussed on the middle distance as she tried not to focus too much on the details. On Amelia. Or Karenina. Or all the others she’d lost. “Last I checked, you and your loved ones were still breathing, so why don’t you stop thinking you know shit about us salty criminals.”
She cleared her throat, preventing any emotions (apart from anger) from shining through, and then nodded to Wight. “Ready to go home?”
Post by Maldrem "Wight" on Jan 11, 2017 23:46:45 GMT -7
Don't make me second-guess you, sweetheart I'm not fun when I'm angry
H e was glad Leigh had spoken up. He was glad she had taken on the job of getting angry, like she usually did, so that Maldrem could keep on being the fun guy, the whimsical guy. He didn't enjoy being the angry, violent guy. And with the way Nicole had been talking, he had been very, very close to being just that. His back remained to the two of them while Leigh tore Nicole down, and he tried to ignore the fact that she was making a lot of noise that would carry around right now, because Nicole needed to hear it.
Nicole needed to hear it and hopefully quiet down before Maldrem got sick of her. His gaze was stony as he stared absently down the tunnels ahead, not trace of his usual humor in his eyes or mouth.
"Ready to go home?" Leigh asked him, and Maldrem was sure he wasn't imagining the rare bit of tenderness in her tone there, barely audible to someone who didn't know Leigh. However at odds the two of them may have been on any regular basis, right now they were part of the same family, just trying to get home.
"Boy am I ever," he replied, his voice carrying the faint traces of irritation he was still feeling with Nicole. He started forward, resuming his job of guiding the two of them through the maze, knowing Leigh would follow.
Nicole he wasn't so sure about, but frankly, he didn't care anymore if she did or didn't.
Post by Nicole Vanros on Jan 12, 2017 9:07:24 GMT -7
Nicole didn't follow them. She wanted to fight back against Leigh's insults, but it didn't seem as simple as the pirates just enjoying this. Woodrow either had to die, or live in humiliation, but Leigh would probably prefer to see Woodrow suffer a quick death. "I'm sorry." She couldn't say anything more than that, but neither of them would care. Both of them were coming from a place she couldn't understand. It didn't justify killing the guards, but it did explain that.
Wight led Leigh forward, with Nicole a few feet behind them. It was easy to keep crouching, but she gave them some distance. Once they were out of here, she had to make up her mind. She would have to join their crew, and honestly commit to killing Markus Woodrow. A disgraced soldier joining a band of pirates just to kill a noble she wouldn't go on a date with. It would have been funnier if Leigh didn't have better reasons to hate Woodrow, and Wight probably did as well. They needed revenge, one way or another. The least that Nicole could do would be to help them get their chance.
Post by Maldrem "Wight" on Jan 12, 2017 10:02:44 GMT -7
This somber air is getting dull~
H is ears told him that Nicole had followed after all, even if there was a bit of hesitation initially. She was trailing far enough behind the two of them to make it obvious she was giving them space. Clearly she wasn't feeling so talkative after Leigh ripped into her. It suited Maldrem just fine, as he wasn't really in the mood to hear her anyway.
But as the minutes crawled by with his mind focused just on navigating, making sure he didn't have any of his turns wrong, he gradually grew bored with the silence. They hadn't even heard the sounds of pursuing officers rattling the metal of the vents, which was rather unexciting, but Maldrem knew not to underestimate the Liesdron police. They were probably staking out the whole building outside, waiting for the pirates to emerge rather than try to chase them through the metal maze.
Not like that mattered. Maldrem wasn't going to be leading his charges out of the building.
"Ok~!" he said as they turned a corner and faced a sudden drop-off. It was dark as it went down, the bottom not in sight, but one could still make out various openings along the chute that would lead into other paths. "We need to go down from here. This chute drops all the way to the ground floor. But we only wanna go down by two. So! Do like I do."
He jumped. He fell for a couple of seconds, and then stuck his hand out to catch the ledge of one of the openings, bracing one of his feet against the chute to stop himself, and then hoisted himself up into it. He stuck his head out, turning to look up at Leigh and Nicole a couple floors above him. He offered a hand, prepared to catch the arm of whoever came next.
"I'll make sure you don't fall too far when you jump. But you use that hook hand, Leigh, and I'll cut off my own hand just to drop you," he joked, tossing her a smirk.
Post by Leigh Haskell on Jan 13, 2017 1:00:59 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] Leigh was still fuming. Nicole had forced her to bring up a lot of things she hated to deal with. Emotions. Memories. All kinds of pansy shit that she wouldn't be caught dead thinking. She counted herself lucky that they were in the middle of a life-or-death prison break, which was the perfect distraction for emotional thoughts. Action. Adrenaline.
Mal stopped them, and she could tell what they were going to do. He explained for the benefit of Nicole, and she didn't bother to nod in response, instead watching as Mal dropped down. Show-off, she thought, smirking in a pleased fashion. "You know, it's good that you said that Wight," She deadpanned, "I always forget that I have this thing."
She jumped down, not as quick as Maldrem - she didn't have the same wispy frame as him. Instead, she used the soles of her shoes to slow her fall. As she got close to him, she made a show of pretending like she was going to fall, gasping, and reaching out for Wight. Before he could grab her, though, she locked her soles to either side of the vent and stood in place with a smirk, looking up, "Just a show of what not to do."
She pulled herself onto the vent with Mal, passing him by. She didn't really care if Princess jumped or fell, she was just ready to get going.
Post by Nicole Vanros on Jan 16, 2017 14:17:56 GMT -7
As if Wight could catch her. Still, she had to trust him that he would. As soon as Leigh jumped down the chute, Nicole laid her uniform and clothes out. She took off the burlap sack. The vent was still too tight, and the cold metal chilled her bare skin, but she managed to squeeze into the uniform. Once they were out of here, it could make for a decent disguise. At least until the public could put a face to her name.
She slid the rifle onto her back, and jumped down the chute. There was some slight banging, but it was quiet even as her back was up against the chute. Her feet pressed up the other side, and she descended down the chute. She saw Leigh and Wight at the second opening, and jumped, grabbing onto the ledge. Pulling herself up, she was sitting back with Leigh and Wight. "So, how much of this place do you have mapped out?" She was genuinely curious, even if Wight wouldn't want to answer. She was already an enemy of the law. She didn't want to be an enemy of outlaws well.
Post by Maldrem "Wight" on Jan 23, 2017 23:29:27 GMT -7
Not much further now...
H e gave Leigh a smirk at her theatrical little show. It wasn't quite like her, based on what he'd known of her thus far, to throw too much jokeyness into her behavior, even for something like pretending to lose her footing and making Wight think he had to reach out and grab her for a moment. It was kind of refreshing to see her having some fun with it, even despite how annoyed they'd both been with Nicole a moment ago.
Speaking of Nicole, she kept them waiting for a moment or two. He heard the telltale shuffling of clothing pretty much as soon as Leigh had started her descent, and guessed that she must have been trying to get changed in record time while she had the chance and the modesty to do so. It still took her an extra minute after Leigh had already descended before she finally made her own way down. Good that she'd not taken any longer, or Maldrem probably would have gotten bored and left already. He was sure the only reason Leigh was still waiting was because she needed him to guide her.
When Nicole finally dropped down, she handled herself well enough that Maldrem was at least confident she wasn't gonna drag them behind. She was a soldier, after all, even if she hadn't been acting like one.
"Sweetheart I've got the whole place memorized," he replied to her question, turning to get moving again. "Kinda my job. This ain't the first prison break I've pulled. But it's probably the first one in a long time where I was actually caught in the act. We'll be movin' through these vents for a bit longer, till we get to a grate that'll lead us back inside. The cops probably have the building surrounded by now, expecting us to eventually pop out from one of the exit shafts out there since they know by now that we're in the vents. They won't be expecting us to stay inside the building. That'll give us an element of surprise on any officers that are still inside. The plan is to pop out near the officer swimming pool. We take out anyone who's still there, then we hop underground through the large drainage grates in the pool area."
He guided them through several twists and turns as he spoke, both his speech and his movements quiet enough not to carry along the reverberating metal. He stopped and turned to Nicole, though, as he finished his explanation. "There probably won't be many cops down in that area right now, especially with them being on high alert outside. But if there are, we will need to get past them. And depending on how it goes, someone might have to die. I'd suggest you make peace with that fact right now, because if you do anything to jeopardize this escape I won't think twice about cuttin' you loose, sweetheart."
Or taking you out, if I have to, he added in his mind.
Post by Leigh Haskell on Jan 24, 2017 11:30:01 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] Leigh didn't mind quiet, in fact - she loved quiet. Particularly in intense situations. As they traversed the vents, however, Mal was explaining the plan in the most words possible... Maybe to brag, maybe because he didn't know how to use less words. Either way, a lot of it was because of Nicole. Nicole, who Leigh had decided to bring along. Gotta stop letting curiosity be my better, Leigh thought with a sigh as they turned once more. At least Mal was driving home the point of kill or be killed with the girl. Leigh was sick of saying it.
"This it?" She finally sounded, nodding her head towards the vent at the end of the next turn. The quiet coming from it is what clued her in, along with the distinct smell of staff safe-room. Sweat and dirt, and some kind of astringent cleaner. Mal nodded, and Leigh went into the turn first, sick of being stuck in a small space with the two of them. She got to the end of the vent quietly, her steps hardly making sounds as they weighted the metal, and observed what she could through the vent. The room was empty - which made sense. Wasn't gonna be anyone changing while there were escaped prisoners and pirates about.
Leigh slid her hook through the slats of the vent, using the perfect angle the rounded metal created to unscrew the vent's seal, popping it off soundlessly before stepping out with caution. She did a check around the angles she couldn't have seen before, and then returned to the vent to nod the other two out. "Let's get out of this shithole," She whispered, not waiting for them to get out before heading for the door. She didn't open it yet, but she was ready.
Post by Nicole Vanros on Jan 25, 2017 11:19:24 GMT -7
They were just doing their job wasn't an excuse that could last forever, could it? The officers thought they were in the right, just as much as Nicole or these pirates thought they were right. They were falling for Woodrow's lies, and would have to die because of him. It would be easy to then justify everything as saying that it was Woodrow who really killed them, but that would just be placing blame onto someone else to keep the blood off her hands. As much as she could blame Woodrow for, even he couldn't be Nicole's scapegoat for everything.
Her father would not have wanted her to hesitate. Would anyone in Liesdro even care to doubt Woodrow? Woodrow had his own servants who helped bring Nicole to this prison. Kissing up to Woodrow was doing their job, and none of them had hesitated to follow this command. They had appeared so quickly, as if they were just waiting for Woodrow to sic them on her. "They'll put me on the firing squad if they catch me." She couldn't tell Wight or Leigh that she couldn't agree with them, but they would leave her behind as soon as she gave them a reason to. "Do whatever you have to do. I'm not going to stop you."
Post by Maldrem "Wight" on Jan 29, 2017 5:28:57 GMT -7
The final stage!
"Yes well, do feel free to help," Wight said, tossing a smirk at Nicole as they hopped out of the vent (Wight making sure to close the grate behind them) and followed Leigh to the door. "After all, it's your hide on the line too, if someone is out there."
Maybe, if she'd demonstrated more willingness to this whole thing already, he would have just assured her that they would watch her back. But given the circumstances, Maldrem didn't feel sure he would be so willing to stick his neck out for Nicole right now, if she got herself compromised. Not unless she proved herself by tossing aside her hesitant attitude and doing what needed to be done first. Well, with any luck, the pool area would be completely empty and they wouldn't need to find out.
Wight gave Leigh a quiet nod, which she quickly returned, and then twisted open the door. The trio stepped out from the locker area into the wide open expanse of the pool room. A quick glance around seemed to indicate that there were indeed no officers immediately present - but the telltale once-wet footprints around the edge of the pool indicated that there probably had been up until around an hour ago, when the officers in here received word of the prison break. There would probably be at least one guard still around to keep watch, though, and Maldrem quietly urged his companions to stick close to the wall for this reason. If there wasn't an officer in sight on the ground, then they would probably be in the small balcony overlooking the swimming pool just above them, on the same side of the room as the door they'd exited. From this angle, Maldrem couldn't tell if there was anyone there; but if there was, the officer wouldn't be able to see the three pirates from their angle either.
They quietly crept along the edge of the wall, Mal keeping his eyes shifting rapidly between the grate at the far side of the room where they were headed, the main door of the pool room where anyone could potentially come in from, and futile glances above them at the unseeable balcony (hoping perhaps that someone would just poke their heads over the side and tip Mal off to their presence). And it was while he had his eyes on the door that he suddenly heard the click from overhead.
"End of the line," a commanding voice said.
Maldrem froze. The other two froze. He didn't move his head to look up, feeling that sort of dreadful sixth sense that only came when you knew a weapon was being pointed at you. The officer aiming the gun must have indeed been poking their head out, somewhere just overhead, out of Maldrem's sight. He didn't want to risk moving and provoking their fire. But, his mind raced with a quick conclusion: given what the pirates had already done, this officer had no reason not to shoot immediately and just kill him where he stood. He was fully legally justified. So why didn't he? The reasonable answer was that he was probably alone, as Maldrem had suspected he would be. A lone officer faced with three armed escapees. His pistol would have two shots before he would need to reload. He could pull the trigger and shoot two of them dead. But the third would then be able to shoot him back. He had no way of knowing if these pirates were fast on the draw, no way of knowing if they could pull their guns to kill him as soon as he pulled the trigger, and he had no comrades to back him up and make sure it didn't happen.
So he was scared. Scared of retaliation, and thus logically seeing greater benefit in threatening death to stop all three escapees in their tracks rather than actually execute two of them and risk his own life. It took no more than a few seconds or so for Maldrem to reason this all out; he glanced at Leigh beside him, seeing a steely look in her eyes, and knew she'd probably determined roughly the same thing. This wasn't their first rodeo. They needed a diversion. Something that would give them a precious few seconds of distraction so that Leigh could pull her gun and fire.
The problem? Maldrem was all but tapped out. Illusions from the second he'd walked into the building, necromancy to break the locks and resist the Gnoll's enchantments, more illusions to hide himself and the girls... Maldrem was not a mage, and he had been using entirely too much magic tonight. He wasn't sure he could manage another illusion right now. And he had no idea how to signal that to Leigh without inciting the ire of the cop above them.
"Hands on your heads," the voice from above commanded sternly.
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