< 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 Tehodis Kitai on May 16, 2018 19:13:06 GMT -7
Tehodis' first response to Simon was to immediately deny help of any kind, as she usually did. Instead, as her mouth opened to protest, she looked down at herself and pursed her lips against another set of tears. Then-- She nodded, not able to say anything to voice her need. A nod would do, she hoped.
She felt so worthless once again, not even able to properly dress herself. Once again though, Simon was helping her. She realized then that Simon Foster might just be the only sane one in this cottage.
For a moment, just a moment, Simon could practically feel her denial. But she never said it. Instead, she nodded and he could see it must be hard for her to do so. She'd just lost an arm, and honestly he would probably be a raging mess if he ever lost one of his own arms so he was frankly surprised at how well she was taking it so far. Well, it was better than dying from that curse at least, right? Then again, she was probably still in shock. The real weight of what had happened would settle in over time, but hopefully also over time she would get better at being self-sufficient with one arm. Not that he cared, really, because he was probably never going to see her again once she left. Not unless she needed him for a potion or something, he supposed.
"Ok," he said in response, just so she knew he was going to start moving. He started with her shirt buttons, quietly speaking what he was going to do before he did it, unbuttoning them first and then re-buttoning them from the bottom up. Then he looked down and asked "Is it okay if I button your pants?". The question was a little uncomfortable and Tehodis looked hesitant to no surprise from Simon, but eventually she did nod and he tried to make that part as quick and not awkward as possible. Once done he smoothed the shirt back down and gave a little nod of approval. "Might need clothes with less buttons, hey? I'm sorry for what happened to you, by the way. I'm sorry I couldn't do more."
Post by Tehodis Kitai on May 16, 2018 19:50:50 GMT -7
It was almost unbearable: Standing there as Simon helped Tehodis dress herself, as if she were a child. She stared off over his shoulder, hearing his voice announcing what he was doing but not processing it until he got her attention with regards to the trousers. After a bit of hesitancy she nodded, and he performed the task as quickly as someone with two hands could. There were many things that two hands could do more quickly than one hand. There were many things that two hands could do that one hand couldn't do at all.
She was snapped from her self-hating reverie by Simon quirking what seemed to be a small joke, perhaps to ease the tension. She wept out a sob of laughter before forcing herself to breathe in deeply, and nodded haphazardly as he turned to apology.
It made her ache that he was blaming himself. It made her angry that a part of her wanted to blame him, not for her arm, but for keeping her alive at. Still, she tried to resist it. She swallowed in another breath before the last had been used up and shook her head. "You... Did everything... You..." She managed, not able to form the full sentence as she tried to prevent the tears. Charlotte didn't like tears. If there was no other reason to want to go home, it was so that she could cry and wail and sob in the privacy of her own home.
Hopefully if she dealt with Endless, that could be sooner.
With that thought in mind, she nodded her head in the general direction of the living room, as ready as she could possibly be.
Simon was interested now, wondering if there was a way that he could make a Kina's arm grow back. Kina were like people, but also unlike them in that they seemed to be made almost entirely of magic. Simon had no idea if it was possible to grow back a missing Kina arm, but he'd also never really read up on it. Once this was all over maybe he would take it up as a side project, read more about Kina and what made them tick, and if he really could make a workable limb-regrowing potion or something he could sell it for an absolute fortune. And besides he would have to test it on someone, so maybe she'd be interested.
Tehodis looked awful though, and not awful in the way it had been a moment ago when her clothes had been all out of whack but awful in that she looked like she wanted to cry (and who could blame her) but was instead holding it back and that was probably doing no good for her. She said he had done everything, like maybe he'd done everything he could, but it wasn't really a full sentence because again she seemed like she was having a really rough time right now. Again, he couldn't blame her. She looked out toward the living room and nodded toward it and seemed set on going out there, but before they did he gave her one last look and said, "Alright, let's go see what the fuss was about," and then he led her out to the living room.
Post by Charlotte Firiana on May 19, 2018 15:44:16 GMT -7
By the time Simon and Tehodis arrived, Endless had managed to recount a brief but sufficiently-detailed summary of the events he had had restored to his memory, and Charlotte could now understand why he felt such an urgent need to inform Tehodis of it. The situation wasn't one to be taken lightly, she supposed.
Charlotte had been to the Feywild on two separate occasions; both visits were, at the time, events which she almost thought of us as insignificant, as they had led to no new discoveries concerning her mission. Just more of the seemingly wild goose chases that were the general backdrop of her life. But every journey anywhere had always left her more informed and educated than when she had arrived, and they eventually led her to where she was now, a person in possession of a great deal of knowledge and a scroll of instructions for opening the doors to hell for her troubles.
It was something, at least.
In any event, her wealth of worldly education made her all too aware, probably moreso than Endless himself even, that Haelrin could be an issue. The God of the Fey was, according to her sponsors at least, not someone to be taken lightly. And Specs was the first to say that this was especially so if he was cheated out of a deal that was made in all fairness with a consenting party. Which did certainly appear to be the case here.
'This isn't your matter to get involved in, Charlotte,' he reminded her, as well. 'They got themselves into this mess and they can get themselves out.'
Maybe so, Charlotte replied. It was possible that they actually could, certainly. Endless was a Moonborn. He had a god-given power in his own right, a blessing from his divine mother that was said to be able to overturn fate itself. Granted, Charlotte had had no prior interaction with any Moonborn, so who knew if that was true, really. But if he is indeed an individual guided by fate, then there is a reason I was guided to meet him. I've come to realize by now that nothing in my journey has been for no reason. You of all people should know that, Specs.
'I know plenty,' he replied to her, and there was most definitely a bitter edge to the tone of voice she heard there. 'And I know that this is little more than a distraction.'
I believe I can be the judge of that, Specs. Your advisory is duly noted.
The mental conversation spanned but a few moments, and Charlotte heaved a sigh as she heard Specs grumble. She turned to the new arrivals, settling her gaze on Tehodis meaningfully.
"You may actually want to hear this. The matter is not one I imagine you'll wish to be surprised by further down the road."
Post by Endless Laeretti on May 19, 2018 20:17:03 GMT -7
Lila had said that she couldn't read minds, but Endless found himself doubting that somewhat. After all, he hadn't actually vocalized his notion that Tehodis seemed to listen to Lila more than him, but Lila seemed to pick up on it just fine. She turned to Tehodis just as soon as she and Simon had entered the room, and immediately informed her that she would want to hear Endless out despite her resistance to the idea of remembering anything. As though she suspected, much like Endless did, that Tehodis wouldn't be willing to listen at all otherwise.
Of course, Endless couldn't know if that was actually true. Maybe Tehodis would be more reasonable about it than he was giving her credit for. Maybe he didn't need Lila to add her two cents to the situation just to make sure Tehodis listened. I mean, just because Tehodis had had one big overreaction to his earlier suggestion and would have rather put herself out in the cold than tell him herself that she didn't want the potion, that didn't mean... you know what, he wasn't gonna finish that thought.
Tehodis's presence and Lila's words had more or less been Endless's cue to start talking again, to tell her what he needed to, but he couldn't quite help but wish that she and Simon had taken a little more time coming out. It was kind of weird, maybe, but once he had started talking to Lila, it was like... Everything he told her seemed to settle in with her in a way that he hadn't much experienced before. Like she was hanging onto every word he said, not because she seemed to think that whatever he had to say was interesting the way Simon did (in fact, Lila seemed to find him very uninteresting in general if he had to place his own personal guess), but rather because it seemed like she had some sort of opinion, or answer, or anything at all, to everything. She didn't vocalize it, but Endless could practically see it on her face with every detail of the story he gave her. "Ah, here you should have done this", "Oh, well that means this", "If I were you, I would progress like this".
Again, it was weird, but talking to Lila just made him feel like he was getting somewhere, even when she had absolutely nothing to say to him the entire time. He just kind of... felt it, he guessed. And it made him want to ask her questions. Ask her if she could explain some of the things that now he COULD finally remember, but still couldn't actually make sense of, like his yearning for the moon or why everything had felt so horribly wrong when he'd eaten the Fey food. Or what the hell that bird was and why he felt like he had to please it. He wondered if maybe this was because Lila was a fortune teller. Maybe they just had a gift for making you want to talk.
But all of it would have to wait. Because Tehodis was here, and Lila had opened the way for him, and now he was expected to say something to her. Particularly seeing as how he had asked Simon to wake her up so urgently for this.
"Tehodis," he began, looking at her and feeling himself freeze up a little. She wasn't even looking at him, her expression seeming fixed on something else entirely. He couldn't tell if she was actively trying to ignore him or not. He also couldn't tell whether or not Lila's statement had made any difference, honestly.
"Tehodis?" he tired again, standing from his seat to try and make himself more present in her view. "This is really important."
Post by Tehodis Kitai on May 19, 2018 20:29:01 GMT -7
Tehodis followed Simon dolefully, her feet shuffling a bit on wood and rug until the two of them entered the room. She stuck herself to a wall as they did, her back mostly straight. It was at her neck where it curved down somewhat, her face in seemingly permanent fixation with her toe. In reality, she wasn't fixated on anything inside the room. She was fixated on what was inside her, on breathing, on staying still, on not crying. Her posture was a shrug of a woman anxiously inside of herself.
Charlotte said something then, as the two of them entered, and Tehodis nodded obediently. Perhaps picking up on whatever she was feeling, Endless called her name once-- then paused-- then a second time, moving and managing to catch her eye for a moment before she slid her view to a wrinkle in her shirt.
"Okay," She replied, another obedient little nod punctuating the statement along with a sharp intake of breath as she captured a sob in her throat. She let the breath go slowly, a shaking sigh, then pursed her lips to steel herself. With another sharp breath through her nose, she finally managed (more insistently), "I'm listening, so just... Say what you need to say, Endless."
Last Edit: May 19, 2018 20:35:57 GMT -7 by Tehodis Kitai
Whatever it was that Endless remembered it must be important, as both Charlotte and Endless seemed insistent that Tehodis listen to what he had to say. Whatever it was had nothing to do with Simon though - this wasn't his story, this wasn't his fight, whatever it was he was only tangentially related to it and honestly if it was something as wild as it seemed to be he wasn't sure he wanted a deeper part of it - so he hung off to the side, leaning against the arch that led into the kitchen. He was still going to listen, of course, but he was going to do so from the side where he was out of the way, unassuming. Kilik being who she was though brushed against Endless's leg as he stood up and then moved over to the chair where Charlotte was sitting on the arm and hopped onto the seat of it, curling up and laying down though her ears remained perked to the conversation.
Post by Endless Laeretti on May 25, 2018 17:44:54 GMT -7
Frustrating. That's what this was. Tehodis had only been out here for a couple of moments, but Endless's patience was already wearing thin (likely a side-effect of the fact that he'd been made to remember a lot of urgent business in a brief span of time). She still wouldn't look at him. She just nodded along. And maybe Endless wasn't a mind-reader like Lila apparently could be (with permission), but he felt pretty strongly that when Tehodis told him 'I'm listening', she was not in fact actually doing so. She didn't want to be here. She seemed to have been making an appearance simply to mollify him, if nothing else.
Somewhere in the back of his mind he told himself that he might be thinking a little unfairly right now, that Tehodis had been through a whole lot of her own over just the last couple of days, and that this was probably the last thing she needed. But he couldn't help it. He had very important information that, even if she didn't want to remember it, was still important for her to know if she wanted to have any hope of having a future, and here was Endless feeling panicked and urgent as he thought of their mutual friend rotting in some cell or having faced a grisly execution, and Tehodis just wanted nothing to do with it.
"Are you really?" he decided to ask, instead of just chewing her out completely. It didn't stop his voice from carrying a decisive bite to it, though. It also didn't stop a vaguely frustrated scowl from finding its way to his gaze.
Post by Tehodis Kitai on May 26, 2018 6:26:29 GMT -7
Tehodis was getting frustrated. She just wanted rest. She wanted to heal. She wanted to not be in pain. She wanted her arm back. She did not want to be forced to stand here and be spoken down to about things she had no interest in. Things she did not wish to include in her life. Things she felt like she would rather have died than hear. It would have been easier if Endless hadn't been there at all, she thought. If her body had become consumed by the curse. She would have died within another day or so. The pain would have been awful, but there would have been an end to it. She imagined she would have two arms in Ephilroa, the way she had lived until her death.
Instead, she knew ahead of her was endless suffering. And in front of her, was Endless, who wanted to make her suffer more.
She took a calming breath through her nose, and out through her mouth. Then, her eyes shifted upwards as tears threatened to fall, one of them escaping simply from how much wetness had built up. She brought her hand up to wipe it away and cover her eyes as the rest of the tears followed the escapee's path. "You either tell me now, or not at all," She half-muttered, her voice hitched and breathy.
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