LadyAnnaLee

Grayscale : A World in Black & White

Fritz

Each of the individuals took a seat. It was crowded at the table, or maybe it just felt crowded to Fritz who never dealt well with crowds of strangers. He looked around at the group. There was a woman that looked like a scientist, a woman that looked like a bedraggled queen, a see-through boy with an umbrella, and a boy dyed hair and headphones. Then there was him, some sort of doll. This had to be a dream or hell or something. None of this made any sort of sense. Maybe it was some sort of drug induced hallucination. That could be it.

He didn't have much time to think about it before the laws of physics flew out the window. The possessed table barely whispered a request, or maybe it was a demand, for a secret when the ceiling fan moved or changed or something. Fritz wasn't sure. Suddenly they weren't on the floor and he found himself looking down from his chair at the floor beneath the table now on the ceiling. He gripped the table's edge so tightly his knuckles turned white, well, whiter. He didn't want to fall but they didn't appear to be falling. How could they be on the ceiling looking down at the floor without falling? Fritz was seconds away from a full blown panic attack; if he wasn’t in the middle of one now.

Fritz no longer wanted to be here. Well, he had never wanted to be here, but now he really didn't want to be here. From the corner of his eyes he saw a pair of doors. The white one was on the ceiling with them. The black one was on the floor. Would Fritz fall if he let go of the table and got out of his seat? That would let him know what door he should aim for. Then again, he wasn't sure he wanted to try. Maybe this was a hallucination happening while ... what was happening was happening and if he started falling again it would finish. Did he want it to finish? He wasn't sure. He might not have a choice. It might have to finish. Did he regret it? Fritz still wasn't sure about that.

He spoke, "A secret? A secret from all of us or just one secret. There is a difference."

Frtiz wasn't even sure that he had a secret to tell. Did the possessed table, the ghost, want a secret he had never told anyone? Or did it want a secret that these people didn't know? The first might be okay. Fritz could tell these people that he liked this dress. He could tell them that he wanted to be a model or designer. If it got them out of this mess, he could even tell them that he struggled with anorexia. The first one might be a problem. At the very least Marta knew most everything about him. Fritz wasn’t sure what he could tell that she didn't know. Then again, he could wait for an answer to his question. Though he had to wonder. Something strange had happened when they all followed the first request to sit down. Who knew what would happen if they kept giving into demands? He wasn’t sure he wanted to find out.

Grayscale : A World in Black & White

Are we keeping to the rotation and/or pattern and/or posting order?

RPG Pet Pageant - Voting Thread - Final Round!

3 points- McKenzy
2 points- Onyx
1 points- Peep

RPG Pet Pageant - Voting Thread!

Category: Dog

1st Pick: Gizmo
2nd Pick: Mckenzy
3rd Pick: Elin

Category: Cat

1st Pick: Phat Boi
2nd Pick: Munju
3rd Pick: Boris

Category: MISC

1st Pick: Danica
2nd Pick: Enigma
3rd Pick: Peep

I can't believe I can't vote for them all. Narrowing it down was hard.

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Darin’s smile fell from her face she hurried after the warrior, “Ridahne! I can’t hold my alcohol! You know this!” She urgently told Ajoran, “Every so often we both forget that and I drink why too much, which for me is like half a serving, and the next thing I know I wake up with a headache and no memory of the last night.” She exclaimed again, “Ridahne!”

In the end it didn’t matter. Ridahne took to showing Darin Tasen with vigor and enthusiasm. It wasn’t long before Darin forgot about the upcoming alcohol as her pervious good mood returned. She tried ever snack Ridahne pushed into her hands. The fruit was yummy. The sweetened almond was amazing. The smells were incredible. Darin looked over pottery and fish and scarves. Children came up at random times to give her trinkets that Darin couldn’t help but love. In the end she had to have Ridahne and Ajoran pick out a box to carry the sheer number of them. She didn’t know what she was going to do with them all. She couldn’t take them with her, but she couldn’t just tell the kids no. She tried the drink Ridahne pushed into her hands and sputtered at the bubbles and tangy sweetness but drank the whole thing, which was probably a mistake, but she didn’t care. She was in far too good a mood.

Though when Ridahne asked her opinion on the market Darin had to pause for a moment to look around. In all honesty it was just another market. Darin had been in so many over the past year. People should things to make a living. The only real difference was the amount of attention she had been getting. She had acted the same why otherwise. She ate all the delicious food and even some that didn’t look quite as yummy. She looked, but didn’t buy unless it strictly necessary, like the box for the children’s gifts. She had considered a scarf the color of a dawning’s purple or to realize she didn’t need it. It was the same for a uri that almost matched the one Ridahne wore most days. She did find a visiting Eluri cobbler to leave her boots to be resoled only to discover that she needed a new pair. It was easy enough find a new pair that reached her knees with thick soles that fit. She sat still just long enough to have a willing Azurei woman cut the dead ends of her hair and let the woman’s children braid flowers into her hair. She had clapped along with the crowd as she watched a group of street performers dance and sing. In short, for her, Tasen was just another market. One of her favorites yes, but there were few markets she disliked. She got both Ridahne and Ajoran to teach her more about Azurei dancing.

Darin didn’t want to ruin Ridahne’s good mood by implying that her home was just the same as everywhere else. So, she closed her eyes and tried to imagine what it would be like when they finally got to Lively. She would take Ridahne to the bakery with the amazing scones. She would insist and showing her sister the festival pole. She would show Ridahne the home where you could always find a dog or cat to adopt to take to your own home. If the merchants were in town she would take her to the tents to show her the jeweler that everyone knew was cheating them but his stones were so pretty and the pieces so well made and the stories that came with them were so fantastical that no one really cared. Darin would show her the place that sold fine silks for weddings and fleece so soft Darin saved and saved and saved her coins for just one scarf of it only to be set on this adventure. They would visit the candy shop with caramel so smooth that it practically melted on a person’s tongue. Darin would be so excited to show Ridahne this hub that wasn’t home but was close enough that it might as well be. She had to imagine that was how the Azurei felt right now, and she had to imagine that how the human felt now would be how Ridahne would feel when they finally made it to Lively. She didn’t want to say anything that downplayed Ridahne’s excitement.

Darin finally opened her eyes, “It’s beautiful. I can see how living here helped shape you into the woman you are today. I can’t wait to see Atakhara, to see the place that gave birth to my amazing Guardian.”

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Thank you for letting me know.

Grayscale : A World in Black & White

Fritz

Fritz blinked blearily as he moved to rub at his eyes. To be honest he was surprised that he could rub at his eyes. He didn’t expect to wake up again. He gathered that he hadn’t been as successful as he wanted in his endeavor. He couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not. Now he had to deal with the consequences. Right now he had to be waking up in a hospital and in any moment he would be swarmed by doctors, nurses, and psychiatrists. Who knew? Maybe even his parents would show up, but to be honest he highly doubted that.

Then again, there was something wrong with his theory about waking up in a hospital. He was face down, which wasn’t how he thought people were put in hospital beds. He slowly got to his knees as he finally managed to get his mismatched eyes opened. Looking around showed him in a room with at least four other people, people he didn’t know. His eyes quickly widened in alarm. He was in a room full of strangers wearing a dress! He knew what wearing a dress felt like. Why was he in a dress in a room full of strangers. That was a risk he didn’t want to take! He didn’t mind wearing dresses or skirts or heels or makeup but that was a thing for him and his friends. He needed to figure out if he could salvage this and quickly.

His alarm at his attire was quickly cut off as he finally processed what his hand looked like. It didn’t look like skin. In fact, Fritz almost wanted to say that it looked like porcelain. Parts of his arm were missing, and he sat back on his heels as he raised his other hand to poke at the empty spaces. The young boy bit off a scream as his finger went into his arm. It felt a little strange, but mostly it felt like poking at nothing. What was going on? He was some sort of hollow porcelain thing in a dress in a room full of strangers. Fritz was about two seconds from a full-fledged panic attack.

That was when, well he could only call it a ghost, entered the room and told them to take a seat. At a lost for what else he could do Fritz elected to follow the order. He slowly got to his feet and took a step towards the table only to discover something else strange about him. He was limping. A quick look confirmed that his right leg was shorter than his left one. It looked like the leg had broken off and had been badly matched and glued back together; very badly matched, like a child had done it. Fritz bit back a whimper. What was going on? He forced himself to not think about that and continue on his way to the table.

There were only five seats and two were already taken. He would have to sit next to someone which was not ideal at all. The question was did he want to sit next to the partly see though boy with the open umbrella or the girl in the lab coat? Fritz wasn’t sure. The easiest solution would be to take the seat between them, but that wasn’t happening. In the end, he limped his way around the table to take the seat next to the boy. At least they both looked inhuman. Would the seat he took mean anything to the ghost? This all had to be a dream, right? Or worse.

Fritz found himself asking the near silent room and the ghost in particular, “Is this hell?”

That made sense, in a twisted kind of way. Instead of failing in his plans the boy had succeeded. The only thing wrong with that was this wasn’t like any hell he had ever heard of. He did take a moment to look at what had been in his hands the whole time. He bit back another sob as he saw the brand-new tube of lipstick his sister hand given him mere hours before he had acted. She had given it to him to replace the old one he was out of. It was still in the box. This had to be hell. The memento of his sister was torturing him, leaving him to only guess at the pain he was putting at least Marta though. Why did he have to be so damn stupid? Why did he have to be so reckless?

Grayscale : A World in Black & White

At least we haven't followed the following trope that usually comes with thee boys two girls

Leader boy that's clueless
Brainy boy that's socially inept
Bad boy that secretly compassionate
Pretty girl that's ditzy
Tomboy girl that may or may not wish she was more girly

Cause I'm not sure who would be which.

Grayscale : A World in Black & White

@Dr Lovecraft

Does the monster count? I think the monster is pretty cute.

Grayscale : A World in Black & White

FULL ROSTER! This is so exciting!