Darkraven

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

<Snipped quote by Darkraven>

Yep, bannananananana is right there

@The Fated Fallen

Oh. It looked different on the computer. It's all shades of yellow on my phone but white here...

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

@Banana No such thing. Tell me your story, Mr Banana 🍌

Edit: Wait... Can you guys see that banana emoticon? I typed it out of my phone... 🍌

In any case, would love another story to pass the time :)

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

I could always snip out the science and experimentation bit and turn my nation into a sinister and unpredictable espionage/stealth race bent on weakening most if not all the races it meets so that it could elevate itself above them. Science and experimentation would only be instruments of their espionage machine. They'll still be abducting and doing funny things, but since they're not ancient there won't be that many humans and other aliens in their vaults. Maybe numbering at most in the tens of thousands.

Lemme know ;)

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

*Flies in through an open window*

Caw, caw!

I've been watching you guys like an hawk since the very start. I'm glad I helped a little with conceiving the plans for this RP. I hope it's doing fine?

If things are slowing down, it should be normal. As long as you get to post once a week, I think it's good enough.

I don't mind joining if it could help the RP. I'd hate to see something I contributed to go to ruin.

My idea is a race of isolationist Grey aliens obsessed with science, technology and experimentation. Impossibly old, they are brought to the level of the other races by over-dependence on technology to procreate, and mixed in with genetic failure from over-splicing. They have only recently been recovering, but have never stopped abducting members of other races.

Speaking of abduction, they are advanced in stealth and propulsion technology, non-lethal weapons, espionage and the technologies required to capture and study sentient races. But they have no military in the conventional sense, only border guards consisting of the descendants of abductees whose first generation are conceived via in-vitro fertilisation and artificial wombs. They have numerous science ships for various purposes (including obtaining 'specimens') that could be pooled together into a battle fleet, but that's not their main purpose and they will be weak in direct confrontation.

So I'm thinking that my little Grey aliens can be a wild-card race. They won't attempt to make contact, they'll randomly take anywhere between individuals on shuttles to a whole town on a capital planet, and they will do radical things that fit their agenda of adhering to the 'Great Plan' - Which might involve anything as benevolent as dropping packages the size of skyscrapers to aid a suffering alien colony to something as nefarious as throwing a plague bomb on a sprawling military base but it doesn't have to be a life-and-death thing.

They have regained a special interest in human beings, as they are central to their 'Great Plan'. They have millions of them stored in underground vaults, after all.

EDIT: So basically, they're also going to do a lot of weird things. Their space is going to be like a 3D Bermuda Triangle, there's probably going to be some ghost ships floating around and anomalies from scientific experimentation can be found here and there. Oh, and did I mention that some of the specimens they've collected are from millennia ago? If nothing else, you guys are going to get a lot of alien sightings in space, though I'm not sure how weird that would be when the various spacefaring species already knows they're not alone.

Sum up your week in roleplaying in just 3 words

Slower than Snails

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

@The Fated Fallen@BCTheEntity And what merit is there in tales of kindness where the central figures are very much capable of such goodness? It is far more endearing if goodness be found in places normally empty of it. Below is one such tale, unearthed from an ancient library. - Kravenius Wordsworth the Heretic

Once upon a dark day of ages past, in the wintry days of year-end, a boy and his four brothers and sisters were playing thief-and-watchman in the bushes near half a league from their home. They had been searching for Snowbloom for their parents - they had fallen on such hard times - and found it fitting to play a little after a hard day's work.

Jerome, the boy was called, in hiding from his siblings, had wandered into a forest at twilight. As the sun went down, he found his surroundings changed owing to his inexperience. He had seen but nine winters, and only remembered a few.

Jerome blundered and hurried, called out and cried, but all he had achieved was to dig his grave further, and invite wakening carnivores to his flesh. As night descended and the air grew colder, as snow fell and was kicked up by wind such that the boy could see no more, Jerome fell by a tree, having resigned to a lonely, regretful death.

The tears that fell from his eyes froze the instant they dripped onto his cheeks.

Then, he saw light, dark red light. But he could move no more, and he thought that surely, death was near and whatever creature that would lay claim to his soul had come. Sure enough, as the light came close enough, something none other than a demon came to his view.

But it was not just any kind of demon. Slender and curved in limb and body, muscled enough as to not appear starved, with pony-like legs, the horns of goats and bony wings with membranes. But most striking of all, it had the face and upper body of a woman unparalleled in beauty, albeit surfaced with ashen demon skin.

It was a Succubus, a demon of lust.

It walked up to the boy, naked and baring it all but not freezing. It watched not with demented interest but with curiosity. Despite his impending doom, Jerome, in a seemingly last display of courage, was able to work up the strength to speak to what seemed to be his taker: "Have you come to take me, O demon, to swallow my soul?"

The Succubus bent down on her hoofed legs to regard the boy on his level. It smiled mischievously, as if death was but a game.

"No, silly boy," it said. "I take only those of a... mischievous, playful tendency - even then, I grow weary of matchmaking them with their nasty end. Besides, I walk in these woods only to enjoy the fresh air that it affords." The Demon surprised the boy with its words. The boy was young, but no fool. He knew that a demon was nothing but darkness, and decided that it was mocking, teasing him.

"What are you doing here anyway, young little pricker?" It turned the odd conversation on the boy, itself playful and mischievous. A reminder of his doom had all but made the boy cry some more.

"I- I'm lost," Jerome sobbed. "And I shall die a foolish boy that no one will miss. Taken by a demon and never to be seen again!"

"Yes. That would be unfortunate," the demon teased further, but surprised the boy some more: "Or, you shall see your kin again, and live to age and mature into a handsome young man- A really handsome young man."

"H-how?" Jerome's voice cracked at the impossible notion. The Succubus answered by picking him up with her arms in the crook of his knees and around his back. It was strong, and the boy's weight was nothing. It pressed him close to itself, and it was warm and good, unlike the cold and darkness he thought it - her to be.

"You will not freeze, young pricker," the Succubus said. Where there was once pretty baldness and ashen-grey skin, yellowish fire and a reddish hue took over. Jerome could feel the cold leaving him, as if the Succubus was a thick blanket. Despite his initial misgivings, the boy wrapped his arms around her, his tears unfreezing, free-flowing. Her hugged her, chest to chest.

Through the night, the Succubus transported Jerome. The journey was slow and tough despite her demonic strength and resilience, but they made it to the bushy field where he was playing thief-and-watchman with his siblings.

The siblings were gone. They had to abandon the search as the day turned into night, and became treacherous.

So the Succubus brought the boy to the outskirts of his family's farm, and finally set him down on his feet, which had regained their strength.

"Thank you," Jerome mumbled, and held the Succubus' hand tighter. "Please, my savior, come inside to my home. My parents would want to meet the woman who rescued me from certain death. Room and food are the least I can offer in exchange."

The Succubus bent down again, seeing the boy eye-to-eye, her gaze and demeanor loving for a demon.

"Oh, you silly little plaything," she said. "You can't - shouldn't let anyone see us together. And I do not need room and food even during such times."

"I understand," the boy said, but would not let go of her hand, that tender, loving hand. "But please, please don't leave. I- I-" Tears flowed anew. Good friends were far and few, and he'd just met a new friend who would soon leave.

"Shhh... Darling boy," the Succubus leaned in, and planted a kiss on his forehead. Her final gift. "Go, live your life. As many more winters come and go, you shall find another lady to befriend. And perhaps - love and marry."

"At least tell me your name, O demon," Jerome asked, his heart swimming with impossible feelings for the horned lady.

"I am Ushael," the Succubus obliged, "but you may call me Shae. Goodbye, love. Perhaps we may meet again."

And with that, the Succubus turned and leave, and eventually faded into the dark.

But that wasn't the end of this tale, no. For a few days later, on another wintry night, Jerome opened the door to some knockings and rappings, only to find a pile of gold and gemstones of various colours on the floor before him. Thus, his family was saved from severe suffering at best and slow death by starvation at worse.

They lived happily ever after.

The End.

- The Boy & The Succubus, a Children's Story retold in 1994, based on a Fairy Tale in 1576 which was banned from circulation and the author executed for heretical crimes against King and Kingdom and Humanity. The few known copies to exist were put under heavy restrictions in the highest libraries of the human kingdoms.

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

@POOHEAD189

Oh my God, that postcard is just so awesome! Where did you get it from!?

No worries about posting. Enjoy Christmas with your friends and family. I myself have plenty to distract me :-)

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

Merry christmas y'all!

@The Fated Fallen

Ho ho ho! Meeeeeeeerrry Christmas!

Would @POOHEAD189 do the honours of starting the 'gift exchange' here? :D

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

The members of my family on the larger scope, as far as I am more closely related to them, have come to the mutual agreement that christmas does not need to equal a requirement to go crazy and shop the hell out of the world in order to have some material present for everyone and to go binge eating all over the place until you've done it with everyone no matter how remote the relationship is. Appreciation can be communicated in other, less concentrated and more temporarily distributed ways if the people involved are willing to - and it saves not only me from experiencing this forced, materialistic massacre christmas more and more seems to have devolved into.

In remembrance of the fact that the christmas tree has its origin in older beliefs - I'm fine!

@Fetzen

tl:dr: Spread the love beyond Christmas. This Christmas isn't as merry. But things might turn around yet.

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

How're your pre-Christmas days, people? Hope you guys are enjoying the countdown to Christmas!