Mokley

The Helium Frightful

@Eventua Welp I'll take blame for that -- I gave you a pocket to work with and basically nothing else. xP What does Krita want most right now? Where are the other bobblings and are they OK? Can he tell that Stone is about to eat one?

The Helium Frightful

Just checking in! Anyone working/planning on a post? I guess no sense in waiting the whole 7 days if everyone's waiting on me, haha.

LANTERN (redux)

Poor Ifor, after all he's been through, to wake up like this!

@WittyReference That dream is horrifying -- love it! xD

LANTERN (redux)

@c3p-0h@NorthernGR@Cairo@drewccapp@Virgil@Girlie1Bomba@YungTweak@WittyReference

Opener post is up! :D Here's a chance to introduce characters and get your bearings. If there's any more info about the surroundings you'd like to include in your post but wasn't mentioned, definitely ask!

Oh, and please don't eat the goat. (but nobody's stopping you) xD

LANTERN (redux)

The last moments of the Legend's Forgery

♫

The sea thrashed and roared beneath a howling sky. Waves arose like dark mountains and crashed, collapsing, into chaos. Lightning reached with forked fingers across smoky clouds. Collisions of thunder trembled in the bones of the ship's crew while waves fell on their backs and the deck tilted and tossed beneath their slipping desperation.

Sailors shouted incoherent over the stinging rain and the hiss of foam. Whistles pierced the shrieking wind. A brightness in the sky illuminated a man clambering up the swaying mast before a clap of thunder deafened him. The Legend's Forgery creaked and lilted, vaulted over a wave and crashed down again, flinging its precious cargo against the bulkhead.

The cargo hold, sloshing saltwater, was crammed with sobs and screams. Lanterns swung violent from the rafters, casting horrible shadows on the walls.

"Man overboard!"

A flash of light revealed the outline of a colossal wave that rose up out of the froth. It loomed there, growing blacker and higher, until it darkened the last of the electric sky.

The heavy jaws of the sea swallowed the sound of breaking wood.

Everything was cold, and froth, and dark.

The sea breathed and sighed, twinkling in the light of the first-quarter moon. Little waves splashed and foamed, racing up the perfect beach in fans of glittering saltwater, leaping and hissing over the still forms of those who were left of the Legend's Forgery.

The ocean stretched on forever, to the perfect line of the horizon where it greeted the starry sky. There was no sign of ship nor flare.

The beach was long, white and barren -- miles of gentle, breathing waves and undisturbed sand, glinting in the moonlight.

In the far distance to the southwest, at what appeared to be the end of the shoreline, faraway firelight burned high in the dark sky, reminiscent of a lighthouse.

To the northeast, the end of the shoreline was far closer. Something yellow and shimmering glowed there, like an illuminated gemstone in the sky, but nothing more could be made out -- at least, not from the beach.

The sand became dunes on higher ground, then ended abruptly at a gradual rocky incline. There was no vegetation among the rocks save a few patches of rugged moss, and no indication that anything living had come by here in quite a long while -- except the distinct bleating noise of goats, just beyond the crest of rocks.

The low clatter of an approaching tin bell heralded the arrival of a small white goat over the top of the rocky incline. Its hooves clattered on the stones, and it paused a moment to raise its bearded head to scan the shore through long eyelashes, its little tail swinging. It shoved its chin forward, the tin bell at its throat jangling, and bleated again.

LANTERN (redux)

the trees are ticking

Dragon's Mask

SKREEEEE KFF!

The elevator stopped with a slightly seasick bob. For a moment, the only sound was an underwater gurgle just outside the elevator shaft; a dense closeness, even a threat that only thin metal lay between them and pressurized water.

For a moment, everything was suspended.

The lights on the walls brightened, and quietly the door slid open to reveal purple scales and yellow-green spines and bulbous jowls and tusks that dripped a foul stringy liquid. It wore an evening tuxedo.

The monster stooped and waddled, slippery, into the elevator, which dropped slightly with the added weight. The monster blinked once -- with six eyes -- at Arthur's face sticking out of the blankets.

"Argoo gala? Has supper finished?" it asked in a muddy voice, just before it stretched out a long finger and pressed the last button, which Riley would recognize had the same symbol as the marquis for the dining room. It hummed low, evidently not expecting much of an answer, while the door slid shut again and the elevator rumbled downward.

Lantern

"I'm sure this is why the Dragon brought myself and other Sun Children here," Anise reopened her eyes. "I'm sure this land used to flourish just like mine. We can make that a reality again. How would you like that?"

She enveloped the entire space with light and warmth. Healing and soothing. "Remember how relaxing a sun-baked stone feels? Isn't it nice?"

The Lady of Stone was as cold as the darkness; at Anise's touch she grinned and returned to the soil, leaving the princess to try her convincing alone in the illuminated cave. She saw the images, felt the words and their meaning -- and when Anise was finished, the Lady was nowhere to be seen ... but her voice rumbled in the walls, thick with sarcasm.

"How lovely! What a quaint little place. All this talk of light and hope has made me remember something I've forgotten to tell you: Shadow has got himself a new champion, one who will crush you and your precious dragon. And now I have something to tell him: there is a place still bathed in sunlight, that is ripe to be plunged into darkness. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to hear it."

With that, a deadened silence descended upon the cave; the Lady had gone, not to be called back.

After a few moments, the sound of a shovel struck above, and bits of dirt fell on Anise's head; it was Peck, digging his way toward her. A tiny beam of moonlight sifted through -- and Peck's calls of her name were drowned by the roar of the Dragon.

The sword brightened with the call.

Artemis clenched her jaw, her heartbeat heavy in her throat. Then she stepped forward and took the Lantern.

As Artemis' fingers curled around the Lantern's handle -- as the cloth fell away from the bright green within -- the Dragon's roar trembled throughout the island.

The dead flickered and hid from the noise. Their own whispers hissed among the trees, questioning.

Artemis' arm suddenly rippled with shining scales. They gleamed and reflected the light of both Lanterns, raced along her skin -- and within a moment were gone again, though she could still feel a slightly itchy, almost metallic sensation, like an invisible chainmail.

"You hold in your hand the Dragon's defenses." The Lord of Shadow spoke behind Artemis, but all there was to see was the illusion of his silhouette at the edge of the light, standing among the dead. "Invincibility. Immortality." There was a grinning hiss in his silky voice. "As frightening as the Dragon is, without this she is as mortal as a lamb."

He paced around the campsite, slowly. The spirits parted quickly, flickering, to let him pass.

"The dead will do your bidding," he continued, while the Dragon roared again in the distance. "As will the darkness, and the cold. I have asked that the Lady of Stone respond to your call, should you require her."

The dead hummed and whispered again, a haunting sound among the dark trees.

"The Dragon herself is not as fearsome as she seems; she has a psychic power, she will attempt to get into your head, convince you of your errors, turn you against your own reasoning. She has the power of illusion; she can make you see what she wants you to see. Keep your mind clear and cold, strike through. Your greater threat will be her champion -- one like yourself, who wields the blessing of Water and the sword of light. Her will has been known to reach farther than her hand -- ensure she does not get close to the Lanterns."

He stopped, and he faced her. "What, then, will you do?"

LANTERN (redux)

I read the book "The Road" and after I finished I was depressed for a week. xD Nooo let's not do that!

Pan's Labyrinth is more like it! Spooky fantasy, in general -- but we'll definitely have some funny scenes and silly NPCs as well! The same tone constantly gets monotonous imho. We'll probably feel it out as the story progresses.

Hopefully IC will start up soon! :D

LANTERN (redux)

It'll be fiiiiine.

@WittyReference

These are iconic last words and now I'm scared.