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    1. Iuniper 8 yrs ago

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7 yrs ago
7 yrs ago
When you think about it, all skulls are secondhand.
1 like
7 yrs ago
“In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was within me an invincible summer.” - Camus, Return to Tipasa
7 yrs ago
醤油

Bio

Have time for RP now.

Most Recent Posts

>watch "Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway one time
>"omg i'm suuuuch a theatre nerd xDD"
>watch a big-budget Marvel movie or two
>"omg i'm suuuuch a comic book geek xDD"
>read LotR and watch Game of Thrones
>"omg i'm suuuuch a Fantasy nerd xDD"

What is the appeal of using normie dilettante pop-culture as part of your personal identity?


What is the appeal of using greentext and verbage like 'normie', 'an hero', and 'kek' as part of your personal identity?
I might be interested - looking forward to see where you take this given that this sort of concept isn't new to media or RPG. :)
This sounds really cool and new and ~fresh~. I'm into it.
This is really cute! I'll probably make a CS.
This is such a cool RP. It's fantastical and I definitely see the influences coming through.
@Iuniper@Dismas
I wasn't implying that you'd need to be an Olympian to shoot a bow of that weight. I've known a few people who can shoot that weight easily and are not in the best shape. What I'm saying is, Alaron is skinny is he not? Typically, it is easier for thin people to do pull-ups/chin-ups even when they're not muscle bound because they don't have to lift as much weight. While I can believe that even with sporadic practice, Alaron could become decent with a bow, I find it hard to believe that he could not pull himself up.

In addition to this, a bow that is designed to kill Man or Mer (based on the English Longbow) is anywhere from 70-90 lbs of draw weight. OR, if we were to base the draw weight on the infamous Mongolian bows, 100-160 lbs (Insanely powerful).

So the real question here, is what type of bow does Alaron typically use? If it were a hunting bow (50-60) I could believe him not able to do many pull-ups/chin-ups, but I insist he would be able to do at least one. If he uses bows designed for war, he would definitely be a lot stronger. But from what you describe of him, it seems he favors the lighter hunting bow.

As someone who can't do a chin/pull-up and shoots 50lbs, I beg to differ, as much as I hate admitting that I'm weak. (For science!) English longbows were as heavy as 180 lbs of draw weight, though I don't know anyone personally that shoots more than 125 just because it is incredibly exhausting and kind of dangerous. From my experience, most modern Mongolian Horsebow users only shoot 40 to 60 lbs which is still pretty powerful.

In my opinion, Alaron probably uses a standard barebow given that that's the only type available in the game.
@Dismas So, I just want to ask something about Alaron. You say in his CS that he's a decent shot with a bow but struggles with a chin up. Assuming the type of bow he's using is powerful enough to kill an elk, the draw weight would be 50-60 pounds (22 - 27 kg). Now as I'm sure you're aware, the bow is a weapon that requires the use of shoulders and back. Being a decent shot with a bow (meaning more often than not, you hit what you're aiming at) would require hours of practice, building the muscles in the shoulders and back to comfortably fire the weapon. So when you say Alaron would have trouble with a chin-up, I seem to find myself disagreeing. Now there is a difference between a chin-up and a pull-up. A chin-up engaging the biceps primarily, with palms facing towards you. A pull-up engages back and shoulders, with palms facing outwards. So it could be believable he can't do a chin-up, but I find it very hard to believe. He can definitely do a pull-up. Just something to think about, I'm not trying to harp on your character in any way. I just like talking about fitness and weapons in RPs


I shoot a 50 lb bow as a rather small, scrawny girl (just got back from range shooting, actually). I haven't tried pull/chin-ups in a while but am pretty certain I couldn't do one. So it is unlikely, but definitely possible, speaking from personal experience. .. Hahaha. :/
I'd like to submit my CS, which is virtually the same.



e: I notice the status is set to "Full". If the current number of people is at the sweet spot, that's totally cool too.
Stupid bloody f**king AGHHHHHHHHH

Sorry, this stupid library computer has just revoked from me more than an hour of work on my post, and now I need to nearly completely rewrite it. Damn bloody piece of rubbish.
Even as I write this bloody update the accursed piece of s**t is freaking out, because F this computer! Bloody hell...

I'm sorry, I'll get my post up tomorrow, hell and high water today makes it painfully impossible. And let me tell you, formatting invisible text is hard enough when the text field isn't constantly being unselected somehow and the page goes unresponsive. Damn this computer.


Awww. That's quite alright, I think there are a few others that don't have their post or entire post up either. I'm sure it'll be great. I just switched to using Google Docs after similar happened to me a few times over.
At Least 24 Hours Before the Fall of Aveless


Her deft fingers slid under the woolen underclothes as she buckled in the small cot that held her, legs tangled in the soft sheets. Back arched, the silken tendrils of hair bobbed underneath her as she pushed herself into a more comfortable position. A small cry of relief erupted from her lips as her fingers slid into place in the deep crease in her back, drawing the blood into her shoulderblades.

The discomfort of the quarters provided by the Legion did not bother her as much as it did others, but it did nothing for the knots and aches that developed from pulling the longbow day after day. The exercise in blood magic had the side benefit of soothing her mind - quite a serene state to arise in, probably. In a fluid movement, her legs bent over the edge of the cot, and her torso twisted until her entire body stood erect in the Legion’s tent.

She pulled on the leather thing and the gambeson as well as some linen pants, which lay at a puddle at the end of the cot. Surely, no one really gave two aces about what she wore underneath the heavy, padded jacket, but Legion had their own dumb rules that Aeudla was in no position to question or disobey. Easily, she set about her usual tasks - the longbow was set against a corner of the huge, linen tent, a slice of morning sunlight warming it, making the wood soft and pliable. Her tentmates were mostly still asleep, or gone for a morning meal, maybe a meditative piss in the woods. The shaft of wood easily moved in her hands, now, the end-loop easily fitting into the horny nock as she strung the bow. In doing so, the light caught her eyes and she swatted a hand across her face to shade herself.

The order forced its way into her brain: Job to be done. Voice's orders. Meet at the Weeping-Gate within the hour. Pack light.

She nearly keeled over, her hand now ripping hair out of her scalp with the unwelcome invasion. Aeudla shivered a moment, pausing in the soft light afforded by the tent. Thankfully, everyone - regardless of rank - was subject to such creepy and unwanted behavior, and this was oddly reassuring.

It must have been Tarkus.

One foot crossed the other as she hobbled out of the tent, one hand reaching out to part the linen fold of the tent’s opening, the other fastened around her bow. The quiver full of freshly-spined arrows was flush to her back, though she could not feel it through the thick padding of the gambeson. They were beautiful arrows, with hawk’s feathers she’d threaded onto the shafts of wood. They rustled together pleasantly alongside some of the Legion’s arrows.

The puddle of mud right under - around - her foot yielded a curse. One of her stupid bedmates probably got drunk and pissed right outside of the tent. Aeudla very, very briefly wished she was an officer of some sort, with her own tent. Archers weren’t really leaders, given that they stood back all safe and rained hell while the real warriors did all the work, out of honor and glory. She was a competent blood mage, sure, but she didn’t really care about turning water into wine or whatever other stupid hound tricks the others did to curry favor. Blood magic was ethereal and sacred. Or so she imagined.

Aeudla went.



At Least 24 Hours After the Fall of Aveless


Soft plumes of smoke meandered through the battlements and did little to temper the harsh smells of blood, ichor, and salt carried in by open air. The smell of smoke persisted deeper and deeper into the Keep, throwing a sedative shroud over the throngs of people scattered through the tower. It eased itself into the lungs, as a beloved cat does, pressing into the crevices of the brain and inducing an artificial sense of calm. The immediacy of the tang of blood in the mouth was lost, momentarily, in the cloying odor of smoke.

It felt calm in here - safe, even - as if the last day or so had ceased to exist. As if the Keep had never been sundered, as if they were not in the torn-open heart of Aveless. As if the sharp, metallic tang of blood didn't bite at the fringes of smoke, as if there were no dead and dying scattered between smashed doors and crumbling walls. All in a moment, one could simply close their eyes and choose to ignore it if they wished, let smoke tease the oxygen from their lungs and feel some sense of safety after all that had transpired.

The sound of soul reverberating through the hall was truly deafening, as bodies wavered between dead and dying. Some persisted. One's own heartbeat was the only consistent meter in the mess of things, and only so in this moment. Silence melded into soft murmuring, into shouting, into cries of pain and sorrow. Explosions in the distance punctuated the mess of sounds, echoing across the Black Mountains. The ebb of sounds echoed in the massive, stone hallways, in the barren parapets.

The sounds hurt her head, already wracked with fatigue accumulated over the last few days. An incredible amount of raw soul permeated the air around her head, and the sharp edge of burning flesh among the scent of smoke kept her from drifting into sleep. The sense of euphoria from using blood magic was mixed up in all of the noise, still lingering in the back of her head, like warm tendrils of smoke. She was somewhere in between conscious and asleep, an easy medium, and the rustling of activity around her seemed to suddenly awaken her. Her brain was numb, overwhelmed by the sounds around her, by the smells, and the pains that bit at parts of her body, places where gambeson and leather did not hold against iron or blood-shards. She had managed, through it all, to stop the bleeding, to clot the blood. But she was no magician, and there were still open gashes which stung with each and every movement.

Aeudla vaguely recognized that her hands were still a deep crimson with dried blood, likely her own. Drowsily, she unfastened the dark-colored gambeson now decorated in deep patches of oil, blood, and flesh. The gambeson opened, revealing the hardened leather worn underneath, and her woolen underclothes, now stained with sweat. Unthinking, she absentmindedly began to unwrap her right index, middle, and ring fingers. The linen wraps had been necessary in the close quarters they had been in, as in such tight quarters, longer pause had to be given with each arrow. And longer pause with her longbow meant more direct strain on her ruined fingertips, which were similarly strained through use of blood magic. While the bow at three-fourths draw was enough to kill or incapacitate most that came her way, it was not a close-range weapon, so blood magic was necessary. And exceedingly easy, in the small quarters where there seemed an endless amount of it.

She remembered, dimly, that the longbow must still be drawn, and that was not good for it, to be open so long. That it must be unstrung, that the leather stringer was in a pants pocket, and that the warmth of the space around her would make the task easy. She reached around for the longbow, which sat besides her, lain across the barren stone floor.

The wood disintegrated in her hands. The natural light that streamed in through a high window contorted around the wood grain, reflecting the silvery hues of the yew into her hands and she stared at this for a moment. Everyone around stared at her, gazes boring through their heads like water through a leak in a boat, and the light reflected back into their eyes. A brief moment passed as a breeze rolled lazily through the hall, chasing away the prowling plumes of smoke.

She blinked, and the yew moved under her fingers as she tested the string, which hugged the edges of the bow. Her fingertips still dribbled blood, which stained the yew a deep shade of red, and the blotches of blood spread as ink does in water, wrapping around the wood. A line of glossy, delectable cherries, then a mound of cherries with curled, leatherwhite stems. Untasted and sweet-looking, gladdened by the light streaming in. The group around her seemed to draw closer though she dare not draw her gaze away from the sight in front of her, which was - in that moment - completely and utterly perfect. The light of their gazes seemed to penetrate her in a way that was somehow physical, as if the brightness of their eyes could contort her form as the sun did.

A thought entered her brain - she still needed to unstring the bow. It was too warm in the room and the voyeuristic gazes of her companions had drawn her thoughts back to the perfect mound of cherries. Which had, for no reason at all, suddenly become discrete drupes: that one had a deep purplish bruise, another was dried up around its stone, one was completely hard and unripe. Another thought entered her brain as quickly as the other had left and she swiped madly at the image until it disintegrated into a small mass of pits and folded back into the light which now shone bare across the stones.

The bow was already unstrung, with a leather hood secured over the string nock, Aeudla discovered, as her eyelids stretched. This satisfied her, though a chill still ran across the back of her head at the thought of the eyes around her. There was a small group around her indeed, though perhaps not really around her, but around the small fire that separated them. Resting, hobbling to one side or another as if they might tip over, or murmuring to each other. Minutes passed, and she stared intently at the flames which licked the small pile of tinder, turning brown into black into white into grey into the smoke which rose into the depths of the hall.

There was no bow in her hands to steady her brain amidst the rolling fog that obscured any sort of cognizant, coherent, conceivable thought, the words muddling together and chattering endlessly away in her brain as the soul seemed to - and there was soul everywhere, especially with the Undying who were veritable walking battlefields, different shards of soul cobbled together nonsensically, unending and impenetrable, like the smoothstones that made up the huge Keep which was now crumbling around them, crumbling as Aveless was, as the mountains were, as her thoughts were.

Only one voice cut through.

“Let’s move.”
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