drewccapp

LANTERN (redux)

Seems like I accidentally rang the doorbell so to speak. XD

LANTERN (redux)

Elliot

Elliot strolled up to the obelisk and stared at it as it floated there. The yellow glow made him think of sunlight. He wondered if the obelisk was warm like the sun. He cautiously reached out to the mysterious floating object until his fingertips made contact. Hot? Cold? He wondered what the obelisk meant. How it floated like this. He could see no wires holding it up.

He removed his hand quickly as soon as he saw a large winged beast land. Half-eagle, half-lion. Never before had Elliot seen a creature like this before. They were not supposed to exist. All the books he studied dismissed them all as fantasy and myth. However, here it was, a griffin. A proud and courageous creature according to the legend. The legends he read touted them as noble creatures, perhaps they would not attack.

Somehow he had not been seen yet, however he knew that it would be only a matter of time if he continued to stay in this light. He then noticed beyond the griffin was a campfire and around the campfire he could see people. More strangers. More natives? This island certainly was not uninhabited as the shepherd earlier proved that. He could not be certain that they could be trusted, and thus he stepped back into the darkness. It was at this point he realized he had been followed.

He prayed the others would be quiet enough that the griffins did not attack for the sake of defending what he could only guess to be their riders. He raised his finger to his lips in a silencing gesture to anyone that paid attention and then pointed towards the fire. There was no way they could tell if those were friendly people or not, and Elliot's experience taught him to lean towards caution.

LANTERN (redux)

I gotta say it's pretty funny that Elliot decided that the yellow light would be a good place to be alone for a while and everyone decided to head off in that direction.

I think he would still do it anyway.

LANTERN (redux)

Elliot winced in pain as he felt someone grab his arm and pulled him away from his destination. He turned to face Temp whom promptly started to hit him once and lecture him about the dangers. He quietly listened while patiently observing her. In spite of her clear and obvious temper, she was actually quite kind.

He took a deep breath and calmly responded with a light smile. "Thank you, Temp. I did see it, however, I also saw it reel in agony as it bit into Lord Varric. It appears our blood is like poison to the fiend, and if that is the case then we have nothing to truly fear from them with proper planning." He rubbed his arm to soften the ache from it being pulled and then pointed toward where the fiend crawled off. "That fiend certainly learned its lesson. I do hope the Lord avoids an infection."

He pushed the dark feelings that swirled beneath his calm composure a bit deeper. "The native shepherd told us to be quiet, and I will definitely be quiet."

He considered Temp carefully. "That light is not far, and I will be back."

With that Elliot pulled away from Temp and continued to walk over toward the shimmering light. All he needed was some time and space. He silently prayed to the fates that his wish would be granted.

LANTERN (redux)

Elliot

As intense as everything appeared to be with the heated discussion and interaction between Elliot's fellow castaways he witnessed a slow build up. A crescendo so to speak. Temp continued on distracted by the various other castaways and interacting with each of them in a heated way. He almost felt grateful all he got from her was a smack. He certainly preferred the smack to the verbal barrage that followed toward the other castaways.

He listened to Varric blather on and on. Then again, most of the castaways were quite chatty. Aristocrats and nobles simply seemed to do it to an excess. He imagined the noise would attract the attention of any natives, and perhaps even worse things. Just as another castaway awakened, almost as if on queue, a boy appeared from behind the goats.

The boy carried a journal. Elliot’s journal. At least it looked like it could be. He waved in an attempt to gather the attention of the castaways quietly calling out to them. He could barely hear him.

"Keep it down!"

Too late.

Shortly after something slithered out of the nearby craggy rocks. He could hear it repeating the phrases in an empty and meaningless way that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to raise. The fiend shambled towards him slowly, but Elliot had the sense that it could strike much quicker than it appeared.

Elliot took the prudent decision to retreat behind Thomas as the ship’s strangest passenger Ifor tackled the fiend. The action that came afterward Elliot could not tear his eyes away from. Teeth gnashed fiercely as the fiend reacted by lashing out at them. Elliot stepped a little further away to give the defenders some space. A literal brawl unleashed as Ifor began to pummel the fiend into the sand while Varric berated the castaways for their violence. Then came the most interesting scene of the entire confrontation.

The fiend launched itself at Varric and bit into him only to react as if it had bitten into some acidic poison. As it slithered back into the rocks Elliot’s attention settled on the blood he saw. The intensity of the skirmish and the adrenaline he still felt afterwards reminded him of his crime. The manslaughter. He had to look away from the blood as a couple of the castaways offered assistance to Varric.

He moved away from them slowly as the weight of his waterlogged clothing made walking take far more effort than it reasonably should. Elliot stopped to remove and wring out his shirt when he spotted the light to the northeast. He glanced back at the castaways as they discussed their next course of action.

Right now he simply needed to get away and clear his mind. To center himself.

A little investigation of a mystery would help him calm down, and the shimmering light in the distance would be perfectly serviceable to achieve that. Once he was ready he would rejoin them.

LANTERN (redux)

I'm about half through a post, I will probably have it done tomorrow. Pretty fun to see how things are going already.

LANTERN (redux)

Going to be a little while before I whip something up. I'm having a hard time focusing due to a very recent break-up. I'll see what I can have up by the end of the week.

LANTERN (redux)

I think Elliot is a little too distracted in his own headspace to fully appreciate the condition of his clothes. Haha!

LANTERN (redux)

Before Legend's Forgery the biggest "ship" that Elliot had been in was a row boat for a fishing trip his Uncle had prepared for when he had just turned ten. He was completely unprepared for the scale of such a vessel as the Legend's Forgery. Compared to everything he had seen before, the landlocked young man was amazed by the ship. Unfortunately, Elliot could not afford to appreciate the Forgery fully due to the circumstances of the current pandemic.

The entire storm he clutched onto the journal he had recorded all observations he made about the plague. The ship groaned and grumbled in the storm and Elliot's heart could barely take it. The whole time he told himself that he would never ever board another ship like this in his life as soon as his feet touched soil. This would certainly be his last cruise. When he felt the ship sinking he simply closed his eyes and held onto the journal as hard as he could. Were the fates to decide this was his time to die, so be it.

---

Elliot felt cold water lapping up his feet and part of his calves. His whole entire body ached from the stress of tumbling through turbulent waters and being tossed ashore. He groaned in pain and discomfort, but kept his eyes closed. He could hear chatter around him, but he paid no mind to it while he took the time to recover his wits. Well, that would have been ideal if moments after his groan someone had not roughly smacked his cheek to wake him up.

Elliot slowly opened his eyes to woman of a rather messy appearance. He vaguely remembered her being called Temp. Elliot sat up slowly as the stinging feeling lingering on his cheek helped distract him away from the pain the rest of his body felt. He rubbed his cheek in an attempt to soften the feeling and looked at Temp.

"Thanks."

He scanned the area quickly and noticed one important thing was missing: his journal. His eyes shot wide open fully alert. "Uh, have you seen my journal?"

He imagined that no one would think of a journal as important for their survival, but those recordings of the plague could be saved for the future in order to save lives. Mentioning it now seemed like a waste of time.

He shook his head. "Sorry, bad question."

Elliot got to his feet and looked around one more time. The journal was nowhere to be seen. There were several other survivors, however the beach was entirely barren besides them. Several points of light caught his eyes and he stared at each of them for a few moments each. Firelight meant there likely was going to be people. Possibly other survivors. Possibly natives. The yellow light he saw to the north felt unnatural, however documenting and learning about such a phenomena could prove worthwhile. If he walked along the shore he could possibly find the journal washed up somewhere, but he knew the odds of recovering it were small.

He then turned his attention to the others. There appeared to be a discussion as to what to do next. For now he had nothing to add to the conversation, and he simply waited and watched. Two questions echoed in the back of his mind: where were they? What did they need to know to survive here?

LANTERN (redux)

@c3p-0h I volunteer as tribute to the slappening!

I will have my post up tomorrow!

EDIT: Oh it looks like I missed my chance haha!