Sisyphus

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

Posted. Drunk Hassan is a bit of a Leeroy.

Love how everyone else is having epic adventures while Stina and Hassan are re-enacting Animal House.

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

It would have been a lie to say that Hassan was listening very intently to the briefing. Mercenaries, a smuggler, a ship, an apostate priest, a summoner - it was all very much to process, and even though he felt he had sobered up significantly, Hassan found his attention wavering. "Bad men, smuggler, potential collateral damage. Got it." He yawned and clapped his fellow inquisitor on the back as the ever-practical warrior began drilling the soldiers for information.

"Alright, here's the plan. We kick in the door, I tell everyone to leave, we declare this man under arrest, Stina tears his bodyguard's arms off, and I will get him to tell us... whatever it was we needed him to tell us. Something about where someone was? Whatever." Inwardly, Hassan felt for his reserves of Ether and found that they were rather lower than he would have been entirely comfortable with - perhaps he really had been overdoing it. There might still be enough to tell these 'ice pirates' to drop their weapons... but he had to admit Stina was probably a safer bet.

With a flourish, he drew one of his curved daggers out of his belt and waved it around his head. "Try to keep up! The Word of God goes to do His work!" With a shuffling sprint, the intoxicated inquisitor rounded the alleyway to the front door of the inn and crashed into it with his shoulder, immediately sprawling on the floor. He picked himself up in a hurry without checking to see if his allies were behind him; his second impact on the door managed to knock the bolt off of it, and cold air blew into the establishment as Hassan stood in the doorway.

Calling on most of what remained of his ether, Hassan opened his mouth and let the beautiful Word flow. "Everybody get the hell out!"

Underwater Fire of their Eyes

Slee

NAME: Slee

HAIR COLOR: Red

EYE COLOR: Blue

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES:
Piercing, wild eyes, matted red hair and clothes made of palm fronds and seaweed.

PICTURE:

What she might look like, if she cleaned up a bit and put on human clothes.

SCARS AND BIRTHMARKS:
Face covered in freckles. A big, jagged scar across her back.

DESCRIBE A STRANGER'S FIRST IMPRESSION UPON MEETING THEM.
Slee is a strange, strange person. She has no sense of social graces and a tendency to touch, smell, and/or attempt to groom just about anyone she sees. She’s also clearly very in touch with her emotions and broadcasts everything she’s thinking or feeling constantly – if she’s angry at someone, she’ll punch them in the face, if she likes them she hugs them, if she’s sad she cries. Also, she talks to animals, and seems to think they talk to her, which is hardly normal.

WHO ARE THEIR FRIENDS AND FAMILY? WHAT SORT OF PEOPLE DO THEY SURROUND THEMSELVES WITH?
The Senneli, meaning ‘children’ in their own tongue. An ancient and long-lived race of sea-serpents that raised her from infancy on her island, they are no more than fifteen in number. Slee knows each and every one of them personally by name and considers them her closest friends and family. They are a communal, family-oriented people, constantly broadcasting their thoughts and feelings to each other and speaking in a universal ‘sea-language’ that they have also taught Slee, which every animal is capable of understanding.

WHERE WERE THEY BORN? WHERE HAVE THEY LIVED SINCE THEN? WHERE IS HOME?
As far as she knows, Slee was born on her island, a lush tropical paradise where she has lived her entire life. She lives in a cove on the eastern side of the island, where her family can visit her often when they come up from the deep places where they make their homes.

WHERE DO THEY GO WHEN THEY'RE ANGRY?
When Slee’s upset with one of the Senneli, she goes to the center of the island and climbs up the mountain there, where none of them can reach her.

WHAT IS THEIR BIGGEST FEAR? WHO HAVE THEY TOLD ABOUT IT? WHO WOULD THEY NEVER TELL?
She’s afraid that she doesn’t really belong among the Senneli, being unlike them and unable to live underwater as they do, and that she’ll spend the rest of her life without someone else like her. She tells everyone about this, and the Senneli are doing an increasingly poor job at comforting her.

DO THEY HAVE A SECRET?
Not only does she not have any secrets, the concept of hiding things from other people confuses her.

WHAT MAKES THEM LAUGH OUT LOUD?
Crabs! They tell the best jokes. Also the concept of personal space and the idea of people being unable to swim.

HAVE THEY EVER BEEN IN LOVE?
She’s never met another human being. So, no.

DESCRIBE THE THINGS THAT WOULD BE HARD FOR THEM TO PART WITH.
Her home, her family, a fist-sized pearl that her ‘mother’ brought up from the depths for her.

LOOK DOWN AT THEIR FEET. DESCRIBE WHAT YOU SEE.
Smooth and pale feet on black rock or white sand. The undersides, of course, are as calloused as you would expect from someone who lives on an island and doesn’t wear shoes.

WHEN THEY THINK OF THEIR CHILDHOOD KITCHEN, WHAT SMELL DO THEY ASSOCIATE WITH IT? WHY DOES IT RESONATE?
Seaweed, wood smoke, salt water and tropical fruit – she prepares most of her meals herself as the Senneli taught her, and she’s a strict vegetarian (side effect of being able to talk to animals).

DESCRIBE ONE STRONG MEMORY THAT HAS STUCK WITH THEM FROM CHILDHOOD.
She sits in a crib of driftwood and seaweed on the beach. Five massive, serpentine heads poke up from the water and hover above, peering down at her. The sun is setting, and slowly, her family begins to sing the soft, wordless hum of their people.

WHAT DO THEY WANT MOST OF ALL?
To belong somewhere.

RIGHT NOW, IN THE FIRST MOMENT OF OUR STORY, WHAT IS THEIR BIGGEST PROBLEM?
Something new has happened – a wooden thing her family calls a ‘ship’ has arrived on the island, and strange things that look like her (but bigger and rougher) have gotten off of it. She’s heard them yelling at each other about ‘the cargo’ and ‘laying low’ in rough, coarse voices, and once when she snuck over to take a peek she saw them hauling something off their ship and burying it in the jungle. They’ve been there for about a week already, and it doesn’t seem like they’re leaving any time soon. Her family has forbidden her to go near, but… Slee is a curious sort by nature.

Underwater Fire of their Eyes

Behold! A disney princess!

Slee

NAME: Slee

HAIR COLOR: Red

EYE COLOR: Blue

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES:
Piercing, wild eyes, matted red hair and clothes made of palm fronds and seaweed.

PICTURE:

What she might look like, if she cleaned up a bit and put on human clothes.

SCARS AND BIRTHMARKS:
Face covered in freckles. A big, jagged scar across her back.

DESCRIBE A STRANGER'S FIRST IMPRESSION UPON MEETING THEM.
Slee is a strange, strange person. She has no sense of social graces and a tendency to touch, smell, and/or attempt to groom just about anyone she sees. She’s also clearly very in touch with her emotions and broadcasts everything she’s thinking or feeling constantly – if she’s angry at someone, she’ll punch them in the face, if she likes them she hugs them, if she’s sad she cries. Also, she talks to animals, and seems to think they talk to her, which is hardly normal.

WHO ARE THEIR FRIENDS AND FAMILY? WHAT SORT OF PEOPLE DO THEY SURROUND THEMSELVES WITH?
The Senneli, meaning ‘children’ in their own tongue. An ancient and long-lived race of sea-serpents that raised her from infancy on her island, they are no more than fifteen in number. Slee knows each and every one of them personally by name and considers them her closest friends and family. They are a communal, family-oriented people, constantly broadcasting their thoughts and feelings to each other and speaking in a universal ‘sea-language’ that they have also taught Slee, which every animal is capable of understanding.

WHERE WERE THEY BORN? WHERE HAVE THEY LIVED SINCE THEN? WHERE IS HOME?
As far as she knows, Slee was born on her island, a lush tropical paradise where she has lived her entire life. She lives in a cove on the eastern side of the island, where her family can visit her often when they come up from the deep places where they make their homes.

WHERE DO THEY GO WHEN THEY'RE ANGRY?
When Slee’s upset with one of the Senneli, she goes to the center of the island and climbs up the mountain there, where none of them can reach her.

WHAT IS THEIR BIGGEST FEAR? WHO HAVE THEY TOLD ABOUT IT? WHO WOULD THEY NEVER TELL?
She’s afraid that she doesn’t really belong among the Senneli, being unlike them and unable to live underwater as they do, and that she’ll spend the rest of her life without someone else like her. She tells everyone about this, and the Senneli are doing an increasingly poor job at comforting her.

DO THEY HAVE A SECRET?
Not only does she not have any secrets, the concept of hiding things from other people confuses her.

WHAT MAKES THEM LAUGH OUT LOUD?
Crabs! They tell the best jokes. Also the concept of personal space and the idea of people being unable to swim.

HAVE THEY EVER BEEN IN LOVE?
She’s never met another human being. So, no.

DESCRIBE THE THINGS THAT WOULD BE HARD FOR THEM TO PART WITH.
Her home, her family, a fist-sized pearl that her ‘mother’ brought up from the depths for her.

LOOK DOWN AT THEIR FEET. DESCRIBE WHAT YOU SEE.
Smooth and pale feet on black rock or white sand. The undersides, of course, are as calloused as you would expect from someone who lives on an island and doesn’t wear shoes.

WHEN THEY THINK OF THEIR CHILDHOOD KITCHEN, WHAT SMELL DO THEY ASSOCIATE WITH IT? WHY DOES IT RESONATE?
Seaweed, wood smoke, salt water and tropical fruit – she prepares most of her meals herself as the Senneli taught her, and she’s a strict vegetarian (side effect of being able to talk to animals).

DESCRIBE ONE STRONG MEMORY THAT HAS STUCK WITH THEM FROM CHILDHOOD.
She sits in a crib of driftwood and seaweed on the beach. Five massive, serpentine heads poke up from the water and hover above, peering down at her. The sun is setting, and slowly, her family begins to sing the soft, wordless hum of their people.

WHAT DO THEY WANT MOST OF ALL?
To belong somewhere.

RIGHT NOW, IN THE FIRST MOMENT OF OUR STORY, WHAT IS THEIR BIGGEST PROBLEM?
Something new has happened – a wooden thing her family calls a ‘ship’ has arrived on the island, and strange things that look like her (but bigger and rougher) have gotten off of it. She’s heard them yelling at each other about ‘the cargo’ and ‘laying low’ in rough, coarse voices, and once when she snuck over to take a peek she saw them hauling something off their ship and burying it in the jungle. They’ve been there for about a week already, and it doesn’t seem like they’re leaving any time soon. Her family has forbidden her to go near, but… Slee is a curious sort by nature.

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

Should get a post up tonight/tomorrow. My monster Graham Greene paper is nearly done and my student play is nearly over, and then I should have a day or two before I need to start my monster philosophy paper. Fun, fun, fun.

Underwater Fire of their Eyes

Awesome. I'll get to work on my character - I'm thinking something like a Miranda raised by sea serpents.

Underwater Fire of their Eyes (High Fantasy Sea Adventure)

So, so interested.

Kenja no Isan

Prince Arthur Dowling

Name: Prince Arthur Dowling
Race: Human
Age: 22 and, well… 22.
Gender: Male
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 245 lbs.
Continent: Lucerna

Appearance:

Personality: Arthur is, in many ways, a model prince – he’s well-mannered, capable, suave, and intelligent. He’s also very arrogant, a dyed-in-the-wool aristocrat, and very bad at considering or valuing the opinions of others. Arthur is a brave man, unafraid of personal danger or of opposing the social norms of his people. He considers himself an abolitionist, though his family slaves might argue that he’s not exactly doing all he could for the cause of freedom.

History: The Kingdom of Elter occupies much of the eastern coast of Lucerna. Politically, it is one of the foremost powers in the continent; the Kings of Elter are known to be hard in war but loyal in friendship, self-reliant and eternally proud. For generations, the Kingdom has stood as a bastion of stability and order in the continent; and yet, there is a darkness dwelling in the shadows.
Long ago, the Demon sorcerer Algat visited the kingdom in disguise. He was welcomed into the palace as an honored guest, for he was wise in the ways of magic and appealed to the fat king’s vanity. However, relations between the king and the sorcerer soured shortly. The story holds that the Queen became enamored with the visitor, and invited him up to her quarters one day while the king was out hunting – nine months later, the first of the Algati was born, a flesh-hungry demon of claws and gnashing teeth that shunned the light and grew in the shadows.

Whether or not this tale is true, the Algati plague the kingdom to this day. Resembling nothing so much as feral, crimson-skinned men, the Algati are savage, animalistic demons to the last, breeding in the dark corners of the woods and cities and hunting by the cover of darkness. For generations, the royal family has kept this menace a secret; both from outsiders, and from its own people, a compulsion borne from a desperation not to be seen in any way as weak or impure. Long ago, the Order of the Huntsmen was created to fight this menace and to keep the secret at all costs, and they have carried out their shadow war ever since.
As the oldest of five siblings, Arthur is the crown prince of Elter, heir to the throne and all of its secrets. When he was sixteen years old, he was recruited by the Huntsmen in secret, and has since become one of that order’s most trusted brothers, leading many successful hunts and standing vigilant against the darkness that would consume his people. His involvement is a secret to all his family except his father, if at times a poorly kept one, and several of his siblings and household servants started to wonder what he was up to when the letter arrived, calling him at once to the academy – along with one of his favorite servants.

Weapon: A matching pair of six-shot pepperbox revolvers, crafted for him by the kingdom of Elter’s Royal Artificer. The words Necessity and Doubt are engraved on the sides.

Pet: Pudge, his loyal mastiff.

Powers: Healing: Arthur is able to heal wounds by channeling energy into them, though the most he can do is stitch a gash or mend a broken bone – more serious internal injuries or diseases are beyond him.

Hard Light: Arthur can make simple tools out of hard light and manipulate them to an extent. He usually uses this for shields or simple hard light blades, which function both in close combat and as projectile weapons in a pinch.

Illusion: He has a limited ability to make visual illusions out of light - flashes of colors, basic shapes and objects, but nothing complex or with any real depth or movement.

Strengths:

Skilled: Arthur is a veteran huntsman, skilled in combating enemies faster and stronger than him, though his training doesn’t extend as far to dealing with actual armed and armored opponents.
Educated: Arthur has received a prince’s education – he is suave, well-mannered, educated in subjects of history, arithmetic, and governance, and is in general a model statesman.

Weaknesses:
Arrogant: Arthur is spectacularly arrogant, unable to consider that he may not be wrong, and rarely valuing the perspectives of others.
Overspecialization: Arthur is an expert at hunting Algati, which is a skill that can be extended to combat with a variety of monsters and wild animals. Armed soldiers, fire-arm wielding bandits or enemy spellcasters? Not so much. He’s not helpless in such an encounter, but he’s not exactly experienced, either.

Other:
Theme Song: youtube.com/watch?v=kYXaWWVeS2U

Falling Skies: Wavering Valor

Ensign Chloe O'Connor

Chloe took a deep breath from inside the drifting Shrike, picking up the conversation on the short range transmitter and trying not to look at the bright red Fafnir drifting across from her. The Bloody Valkyrie. Her first ever mission and she was hovering yards away from the Bloody Valkyrie himself. Her hand unconsciously tightened around the controls as she tried to remind herself where she was. She was controlling one of the fastest and most advanced war machines ever created; she was the best of the best, and she had nothing to fear.

Even so, she nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw the other Fafnir drift closer to her. The pilot was a kid, just like her, though clearly lacking in the good sense to be nervous."What's the maximum output on that thing? I've always wanted to fly one," he asked with a clear, high voice. Chloe furrowed her brow and opened the short-range channel to respond... And then something exploded.

Acting on instinct, Chloe jetted backwards from the Fafnir and powered up the Shrike's autocannon. The Coalition pilots scattered in front of her as her scanners beeped to notify her of enemy weapon systems powering up. She heard Atalyah's orders as though they were coming from underwater. Don't fire first, he said, the dream of peace resting on those three fragile words.

The Coalition rookie had lagged behind his counterparts in the movement backwards; it was foolish to think you could see panic on a machine, but something about the Fafnir's jerky movements and the way it clutched its ceremonial autocannon gave the impression of a soldier who wasn't listening. One of the other Coalition MAS's moved closer, as though trying to get his attention, but the Fafnir stayed rigid, debris from the explosion bouncing off its armor, its autocannon aimed directly at the closest UEE MAS: her. Chloe's MAS screamed again that his weapon systems were powering up and she hovered in space, staring at the ornate machine across from her, knowing somehow that its pilot was staring at her too.

"Don't do it," she breathed, her voice nearly cracking into a sob as she clutched the trigger on her weapon. "Don't..."

The autocannon fired in slow motion. The Shrike was already moving when the shots went sailing past, wing boosters firing to move the machine laterally away from the fire. Chloe responded with a quick burst of autocannon fire that was absorbed by the Fafnir's shields and brought the machine down, hoping to throw off the enemy pilot's aim by moving in three dimensions. "I've been fired on!" she screamed into the squad channel. "The rookie is shooting! He freaked out and he's shooting!"

It looked like her skills hadn't seen her to the end of the war just yet after all.

The Judas-Unit (Mythological Creature team RP)

Sure, I'll bite.