Roleplayer Guild - Roleplay Forum

The OOC is still open, so please join if you are interested. We will need some bad guys (Black Cloaks).

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There is a land called Cashore. In that land, there are people who are born with special talents called Graces. Graces can be any number of things, such as a Grace for cooking, a Grace for dancing, or a Grace for swimming. But there are other Graces that are not so benign. Such as a Grace for mind reading, or a Grace for fire, or even a Grace for killing.

People who are Graced are identified by their eyes. Each eyes is a different color. It can take some time for the Grace, and the eyes, to settle. Some people's Graces establish themselves at birth. Others, a few days, or months, or years. It's different for everyone.

The land of Cashore is ruled by the non-Graced King Rasha, who is fair to all, Graced or non-Graced. There are many nobles throughout the land, most of whom are not Graced, though many of their children are.

Every person who is Graced is generally feared, no matter how benign their Grace is. There is a secret society of the non-Graced who have set out to exterminate the Graced, no matter what their Grace is. They are called the Black Cloaks, because of the clocks they wear when they meet.

This is a story of the Gracelings' survival.

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(I'm starting off in the city surrounding the castle.)

The rundown little cottage thing that she had to live in now was nothing like the palace, and Princess Rosaria liked it. She had grown to despise the royal life, being pampered and protected. She could handle herself. She had felt trapped and cramped in the palace, and when the Black Cloaks had tried to assassinate her, well she felt as though that was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

Because now she was out. Free to do whatever she pleased, go where ever, wear whatever, eat whatever. All with the comfort of not having servants and attendants breathing down her neck. Out here in the city, she wasn't Princess Rosaria anymore. She was just Rose. A commoner and black smith's apprentice.

Despite the fact she preferred the bow and arrow to the blade, Rose liked being a blacksmith. It was nice hard work. And her master, Mr. Gale, didn't care she was Graced. Just that she did a good job. And was on time. So there she was that morning, hammering away while he had stepped out for a morning with his wife.

__________________

you are my sunshine.
my only sunshine.
you make me happy when skies are gray.
you never know dear, how much i love you.
please don't take my sunshine away.

Savryn Amnury trotted down the streets, merrily whistling a tune as she greeted familiar faces. In her right hand she carried a piece of scrap paper with a list on it. She had been sent by her mother to go into town to buy a few things from the market.

Skimming past the various kiosks set up in the main street, Savryn admired and inspected the products they were selling. Every time she came across something on the list, she'd drop a coin or two in the person's hand and then continue on her way. She loved going to the market place. So many different people of so many different cultures could gather together here and go about their business, side by side. Savryn brushed between the people until she had retrieved the last item on the list, then turned around and began the journey back.

The raven-haired teenager emerged from the sea of villagers with a bright smile. It was a bright sunny morning, and Savryn had few chores to do that day. The only thing that could possibly go wrong that day was that her mother might start lecturing her again.

"Child, you're seventeen years old now, and aren't going to get any younger. Why haven't you married yet?"

It was the same every day, ever since she'd turned fifteen. Before then, mother seemed to want to keep Savryn around. Besides, the teenager did all her chores loyally and was a great help with the housework. But then on her fifteenth birthday mother tried to get Savryn to go to parties and such, insisting that she "be more social with young men and find a nice partner." But Savryn didn't need a "partner," nor did she believe that a young man would be interested like that in her. She was Graced. Although not often discriminated against, it certainly didn't help.

Savryn continued through the streets, slowing her pace, hoping that her mother would just leave her be about marriage.

********

Deep grey eyes scanned over the dozens of people arguing and shouting around the huge table that took up most of the grand hall. It was a very heated argument. Kade Ethers leaned back in his chair, resting his feet up on the table, twiddling his thumbs on top of his stomach. He smirked to himself. I can't believe that assassination was ruined. Princess Rosaria is an important target for us.

The most experienced of the Black Cloaks at the table were the quietest, but ultimately had the most say in what decisions were made. They, like Kade, were carefully observing the riot forming around them. It took a long while before the outcries of the Black Cloaks settled, and they were willing to seat back down, returning their faces to unreadable stone. Eventually the entire hall was silent. Someone from way down the table from Kade cleared their throat, and spoke up. "An honest mistake, I dare say. How could anyone have known that there'd be a guard in that specific spot? Also, it was dark and..." Kade couldn't catch the rest of the man's claim, for he was silenced with angry shouts and curses.

Kade decided it was his turn to speak. He slowly rose from his casual position on the uncomfortable wood chair, then stood. Brushing himself off, then clasping his hands together in front of him, the nineteen year old waited for all voices to silence and all ears to focus on him. It didn't take long. Kade had a reputation for being a good speaker.

"My fellow Black Cloaks," he began as if he was scolding a small child. "The resolution is so simple, I am utterly shocked that you've all seemed to miss out on it. The answer is but one mere little thing: we find the princess, and try again." Kade stared down at the Black Cloaks sitting around him, as if he couldn't believe that they had done such a silly thing. "We tried, she escaped. Now she's nowhere to be found, hm? Well I think that with a bit of interrogating, or perhaps intimidation in some areas, we can find her. How inconspicuous could a princess in the streets possibly be?"

The Black Cloaks that surrounded the huge table turned to eachother and the whispers between them caused a hum to echo in the hall. Pleased with his simple speech, Kade bowed slightly and then retook his seat. Leaning back once again in the chair, he resumed twiddling his thumbs. He had no doubt that his speech would cause the Black Cloaks to decide to try again, and when that happened, he hoped that he would be able to participate. These buffoons needed to be shown how it was done.

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Rose, feeling hot and sweaty from all of her hammering and work in the heat of the shop, took a step outside into the cool, fresh air. She pulled the pins from her hair. Her long river of deep chestnut hair cascaded down her back in waves. She sighed and opened her eyes.

Her Graceling eyes surveyed the street with interest. Her right eye, which was gold, sparkled in the sunlight, while her deep blue left eye dimly shined. She decided, since business was slow (the only things scheduled were some order pickups around two), she would take a stroll. And so she set off.

__________________

you are my sunshine.
my only sunshine.
you make me happy when skies are gray.
you never know dear, how much i love you.
please don't take my sunshine away.

Clothes and food had proven to be an easy enough thing to create in emergencies; money too, so in the very least Diana wasn't completely without any hope in this world. The girl of red and blue listlessly shuffled about inside her inn room, tinkering with insignificant objects, opening and closing drawers. Life... it seemed... wasn't going to really give her many opportunities. She had an awesome grace that could bring her unimaginable things, yet the grace was also a curse...

For the year that she had been away from her master, some man that used to be an up and standing member of society, she had at least ten run-ins with the black cloaks, all of which ended in her being forced to kill. Diana hated killing, loathing the very thought of it, and all the times she tried only to run away, or to dissuade the cloaks to stop chasing her, they were too persistent or she had mistakenly killed them. Doubts formed in her mind if she'll always be alone in this world, doomed to accidentally kill someone with her power, or doomed to become an emotionless shell of a human, her only purpose on Earth would be to exist. These thoughts were troubling, and to Diana, she was afraid, and lonely. The only humans that offered her even a hint of kindness were a few of the inn patrons and the inn keeper herself, all of which sometimes gave her some quick words of consolation, despite not knowing her true situation, or some food. After all creating permanent things like food was still hard for her and put strain on her body and mind, and temporary food and clothing always disappeared at the wrong times, especially food, the essential nutrients gained from the meal completely disappearing was really not a good feeling at all.

As such, Diana sighed in resignation, deciding to take a stroll in the sunlight, the girl put on a dark blue cloak and walked out of the room and down the stairs. The inn keeper waved and gave a short salutation, "Good afternoon little Di, how're ya' doin lass?"

"Fine miss, thank you," was Diana's only reply, followed by a faint, if not somewhat forced smile.

"Good to hear child, say... Are ya' leaving off for some other place any time? If you are, please consider coming back soon, you're welcome any time."

"I'll think about it, for now I'm just out to take a walk."

"Alrighty then, take care. Oh, and do watch out for those Black Cloaks now... Terrible people they are, picking on poor Graced folk like you and that poor princess, bless her soul."

Diana gave a quick nod and made her way out, raising the hood of her cloak so that her eyes were covered in shadow, but not enough to cover her whole face. As far as Diana was concerned, the Black Cloaks considered her quite a big target, not that the inn keeper would know. Either way, it wasn't long before Diana found herself in the market, simply glancing at people's faces and the images of food, doing her best to stay out of the way of everyone.

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Something about today made Lola feel heavyhearted. Maybe it was because she was alone, walking around aimlessly. She loved to be around people, but people didn't seem to love being around her. She had tried to hard to keep her emotions in check, to stay calm and cool, but it just wasn't her. No matter how hard she tried, she always ended up jumping around, laughing or grinning wide, and acting 'childish.' She liked having fun. She didn't want to fake her emotions. If she was happy, she sure as hell was going to show it.

But today was different. The weather wasn't too bad; sunny, warm, nice. Lola hated it. She wished the weather would reflect her emotions. She wanted the dark clouds to come overhead and start pouring, pouring, pouring. She wanted them to cry the tears she wouldn't dare let herself cry. That was what rain was, anyways. The sky was crying. Her mother had told her that, and Lola clung to it with a fierce and almost strange passion. The clouds were crying for her. They cared.

After all, what was life without hope?

Oh, sure, Lola's parents loved her and cared. But she was their flesh and blood, how could they not?

Feeling dejected and more alone than ever, she sat down in a grassy area, tilted her head back, and threw all her emotions out into a melody. A grave, gloomy, desperate wail. Lola didn't have the words to add to it, she had never been good with lyrics. Words were so pointless. Lola had never been a big fan of them. In fact, Lola wasn't good at much but singing, and that was because it was her grace. She wasn't strong, wasn't too intelligent...

But she was genuine. Why wasn't that enough?

Lola smiled to herself when she saw the flowers beside her, the dreadful noise suddenly changing to a light, cheerful one. After every storm, there's a rainbow.

A small girl watched as the house burned, her hood hiding her eyes, her tiny form making her seem nothing more than a child, but it was her unseen stare that made it clear she was not the age she seemed.
"Well done Erika, thats a good fire" the girl felt a hand on her shoulder, the squeeze was one to comfort, but the child looking young woman only smiled slightly at the blaze, she felt nothing for the man next to her, she felt nothing for the people around her, she couldn't see their faces but knew who they were, she knew where each of them lived, knew which ones had families, which had lost them to gracelings.
Erika had killed one man's daughter because she had been pregnant with the child of a graceling, Erika had felt no piece for that, it hadn't been like the others, she wasn't just a killer, she killed to feel anything, she didn't know how else to feel, except when she touched the fire, but that gave her the craving to kill another graceling, to silence the anger and pain.

Erika didn't watch the fire burn till dawn, she had other things to do, turning she walked back into the heart of the city.
A couple of hours later the girl could be found in the market, a blind fold over her eyes made her look nothing more than a blind girl, but the material was thin enough for her to see while it hid her eyes. Her clothing was simple and tatty, while the room she rented on the outskirts of town had a little more comfort, the girl stood and held onto a pole that was also holding up a market stall.
She was just watching today, her eyes looking for anyone who could be a graceling, anyone hiding their eyes, other black cloaks were in the market, watching for Erika's signal to follow a person and find out if they were a graceling. It was a boring job, but kept her hidden and happy (as happy as she could be in the emotional predicament) and it also paid, not that she needed to measly sum but she could pay for her tatty clothing and her blind folds, while also saving her parent's money.

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Rose stopped by the baker's stand. "Morning, Jed."

The baker turned his head. "Oh! Morning, Rose. How's things at the shop?"

Rose shrugged. "Slow. N o one needs swords like they used to."

The baker looked at her. "You only worked there for three months. In fact, I only first saw you three months ago..." He looked at her in thought.

Rose coughed and adverted her gaze. No one payed much attention to her eyes around here (Graceling eyes tended to scare people), which was great, because if anyone had heard that the youngest princess had gold and blue eyes, and then actually took the time to look... "How much for that bun right there, Jed?"

She walked through the streets, munching on the bun, quite content until she heard a voice from inside the inn.

"Oh, and do watch out for those Black Cloaks now... Terrible people they are, picking on poor Graced folk like you and that poor princess, bless her soul."

So people were still talking about it. The assassination attempt. She had no idea how the word had gotten out, along with the word that now the princess has vanished from the castle. She mumbled to herself, taking a large bite from the bun.

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Lyra Burrows listened to the arguments of the Black Cloaks with disgust in her face. How could that idiot mistake a Guard for the princess. The princess was the youngest of her siblings, only seventeen, very petite. She rolled her eyes. Then Kade rose and out of his mouth came the solution. It was so brilliant, so simple, Lyra could have applauded him.

She rose from her seat. "He's right. We can't just give up. We give up, those freaks win. We have to finish the job. We have to kill Princess Rosaria. And all of those Graced freaks. It's the only way to bring order to Cashore."

She glared at them. "Someone in that castle must know where the king sent her. We must use any means possible to find that person and make them talk." Lyra fingered her dagger, longing to be the one who plunged it into the princess's heart.

__________________

you are my sunshine.
my only sunshine.
you make me happy when skies are gray.
you never know dear, how much i love you.
please don't take my sunshine away.

Alex sat on a barrel outside, next to the front entrance to the inn, he had been playing a soothing song that he wrote for the past hour and was about to change to a cheerful, happy tune to appeal to a different audience. He brushed his hair from his eyes before noticing two girls, one had stopped outside the inn after having heard something from what he could tell about her body language and the other girl was slowly walking through the streets slowly. They both looked like they could do with cheering up, so he changed his music to a happy, bouncy tune that he hoped would lift at least one of the two girl's spirits, it was his grace to make music after all.

As he played he covered up his eyes again, a little smile on his lips as he blew into his flute. "I've always thought about seeing if my Grace can change, but I'm certain that's not possible, I would be safer if I could get it removed somehow though." He thought to himself.

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Raven sat sunning herself by the little lake in the woods. It was a small clearing, but it had been her home for a long six months. She didn't have a job, she didn't need it. Raven stole what she wanted living off her own grace.
The lake was peaceful, just how she liked it. Positioned in a wood just off town, away from all the hustle, let alone the black cloaks. Raven had never met them personally, but heard many stories by just lurking in the shadows. She knew they wanted to kill people like herself, but she knew they weren't a threat to her at the moment, and never have been in her 18 years of life.
A butterfly fly past her vision, with a perfect shadow mimicking its every move on the ground. Taking control, Raven made the shadow circle round her finger before returning back to the butterfly. Letting out a sigh, Raven got up and waded out into the lake. Cooling herself down, she submerged herself in the lake's grasp, before returning to the grassy bank, where she dropped down and returned to her sun bathing.
"What a life."

It was a nice warm breeze that made Lillian halt in the middle of the buzzy market stream it blew several emotions straight to her. She had donded a soft lace dress the sleeves reaching just down to her ellbows. A small white umbrella made of the same fabric as her dress was used to shade her from the sun but also to hide her gracling eyes. The stream continued and several people bumped into her small frame. She felt two large hands on her exposed shoulders she flinched and turned around. It was a young adult man he had dirty blonde hair and sea blue eyes, at the touch she felt his intentions and they were genuine. His voice was low and a little rough "Hey now you shouldn't stop or you'll get run over" He said as he pushed her out of the row gently. We were now at a market stand safe from the suffocating row of people, it was all the more suffocating for her as she felt the mixture of emotions. “Here we are now, are you alright little miss?” He glanced under the small umbrella as he couldn’t measure her facial expression. She could feel he meant no harm but she was still uncertain. She quickly hid her soft green eye behind a lock of soft brown wavy hair. Lowering the umbrella slightly she was shy to speak up. Her tone of voice was soft and almost inaudible, “ Um yes I’m alright thank you dear sir” “Good” he said almost cheerful. How strange why would he care about her? she was just another girl in the crowd. Wait a moment she knew that voice and emotions. In a large place filled with people it always took her some time to recognise an emotional presence. She glanced from under her umbrella “Evan? Is that really you?” Evan also seemed to recognise her tone of voice as his enthousiasm took over “Lilly!!” He attempted to hug her but being taller he bumped into the small umbrella making it fall to the ground. “Damn...... my nose ouch, hey you wait up” he made a run for the umbrella as it was blowing away in the light breeze. She now realized how warm it really was the rays of the sun burned her fair skin slightly as they now had free reign from the umbrella. He rushed back now breathing heavily. “Here..... you.....go, he handed her the umbrella. “Pfff I can be so clumsy sometimes”
She accepted the umbrella back with a slight laughter on her cheeks. It grew to a smile in seconds as she felt his embarassement. “Thank you, you don’t have to feel embarassed you know I’ve know you since our childhood. His face took on an angry frown after her words. He grabbed her arm gently and took her behind some empty market stand. Glancing around a few times he spoke in hushed tones. “Lilly you can’t speak to anyone about your grace you do know that do you?” He looked dead serious. Actually she didn’t know, “I won’t tell anyone”
“Promise” He nudged her arm firm but gently. “Yes I promise” She looked at him with her graceling eyes showing her honesty. They walked back into the market stream, she appreaciated the soft breeze but was worried about the emotions it would carry. After a while Evan glanced at the sundial on the church tower. He hit himself on the head for his stupidty. “Damn I was supposed to get the swords from the blacksmith at 2” “I’ll see you again, but be caref...” he was cut of by the stream of people. She gave him a small nod understanding it anyway as he dissapeared in the crowd. She continued her walk but was eager to escape the crowd for a while. Luckily she noticed a inn just a few feat away from her next to a bakery store. She quickened her pace, she pushed the door open softly. A seat near the window was all that was left. Finding it ridiculous to be inside with an open umbrella she closed it and settled for a lock of her hair hiding her soft green eye. Her umbrella was next to her on the seat as she glanced outside.