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+---- Thread: Talking to the mirror (/showthread.php?tid=10784)
Talking to the mirror - Maea - 03-02-2025
It was a pilgrimage, of a sort. The time it took to travel from Torchline to the Climb and from the crust down into the burrows left ample amounts of time to think. While normally this wasn't a good thing, Maea had some soul searching to do when it came to the goddess and her lack of appreciation for chaos. On the one hand, she found it upsetting and hair-raising that blood and death and destruction took such a prominent role in the worship of Dygra. On the other, there was an undercurrent of regret whispering in the back of her mind; despite being one among other Ancients, she felt very alone. Odd, uptight - far from the skillful sailor that could stay on her feet in the currents of raging entropy she had hoped to be. Her desire for change clashed with a deeply rooted belief in right and wrong, and it had driven a wedge between herself and those who might have been the makings of a family. Her own fault, no doubt; she just wasn't able to stop caring enough to turn a blind eye.
She lingered in the Cathedral for a long time, seated on a block of obsidian and staring into the darkness. Not for the first time did she appreciate the irony in her becoming a child of chaos. Looking back, it had followed in her wake long before she lost her life the first time. She didn't even have to go out of her way to make a mess - apparently breathing and being herself was quite enough. So perhaps it was alright if she didn't fully embrace the carnivore within? There were plenty of other things to upset, break, unbalance, alter... Things she had a natural talent for, whether she liked it or not. And change wasn't inherently a bad thing. After a firestorm, something new always grew from the ashes. What she wouldn't give, to be powerful like that one day. All rage and inferno, erupting when and where she wished, sparing on a whim while incinerating what got in the way.
Rather than a monster, Maea wouldn't mind becoming a force. And in the end, she wouldn't mind exploring what other aspects came with being Ancient.
Having reached that conclusion, Maea got up and approached the shrine. Puncturing the skin of her wrist with a sharp fang, she let blood dribble into the bowl for a while, until the bottom was covered in crimson.
[say]"Dark lady,"[/say] Maea breathed, stomach aflutter with anticipation and dread at the thought of communicating with the goddess again, [say]"may I ask a boon? Your priestess, Charlie, was using a very clever trick last we met, teleporting around with some ease. It seemed both practical and fun - is that an ability I might be able to obtain? I am more than willing to work for it, if you will allow me to."[/say]
Maea is asking for a quest to obtain the Dart ancient ability.
RE: Talking to the mirror - Random Event - 03-05-2025
[say]”Oh, this?”[/say] Comes the disembodied voice, one that seems to come from the variety of bones lingering around the obsidian pews of previous offerings to the dark lady. The bones wiggle, a humerus rising from the pile to launch itself in a poor imitation of the dart! ability, aiming past Maea’s shoulder to launch into the wall across from the shrine.
The next bone that lifts is smaller, a finger bone sharpened to a point. Perhaps an Ancient in the past used it for cleaning between their teeth? Anyway, this finger bone lifts, rising slowly in the air before it launches at Maea as if in warning. The spirit is clearly upset at being disturbed.
RE: Talking to the mirror - Maea - 03-05-2025
Though there was a response, clearly this was not Dygra. Taken by surprise Maea flinched as a bone launched past her, and just barely reacted in time to attempt dodging the second - far more dangerous - projectile. Really? Sharpened finger bones? Tell her she had a problem with undead stuff without telling her she had problems with undeath. Ghost whale, bone creature, skeletal dinosaurs and now this? Oh absolutely not.
[say]"Yes, something like that,"[/say] she agreed, apprehensive as she began to back away from the shrine. [say]"But perhaps it can wait for another time. Pardon the disturbance."[/say]
Unwilling to turn her back to the scattered bones now that she knew they weren't as prone as you'd expect, she tried to back towards the exit without stumbling over the obsidian blocks lining the Cathedral like so many pews.
RE: Talking to the mirror - Random Event - 03-06-2025
[say]"PerHapS iT CAn WaIt FoR AnOthEr TimE."[/say] The bones agree, and as the pale ancient begins to edge away, several more digits gather together so that they might sarcastically wave in response to her retreat.
A nearby mandible shifted lazily before offering a raccuus cackle in Maea's direction, the force of which caused the last few remaining teeth lodged into the bone to fall out and scatter across the ground.
RE: Talking to the mirror - Maea - 03-06-2025
The laughter bounced against stone walls, riccocheting into the cavernous rafters and hailed down upon her like so much shrapnel. Maybe it couldn't harm her physically the way the fingerbone might have, but it bruised on the inside all the same. Stinging her ego, wounding whatever tattered ribbons remaining of pride, curdling every good intention on her tongue until her lips curled into a snarl.
[say]"Shut up."[/say] Her feet had stopped moving. With some surprise Maea found that she had clenched her fists, and something hot and blistering was making its way up her throat. It was a bit much, wasn't it? Dying. Being yanked back. Arrows in her chest, people asking why she'd gone off without saying anything. The dead silence from Danta, from Asta, from Evie, illustrating in exquisite detail the ashes of what used to be perfectly sound bridges. It was the constant unease of Starfall looming on the horizon, a dead girl on a pyre, the visage of friends rent with grief - and being unable to so much as be there for them, because one person thought she was rude.
And now this pile of bones was laughing at her?
[say]"Shut the fuck up. I didn't do anything to you - so shut up or I'll burn every single fucking bone in here!"[/say]
RE: Talking to the mirror - Random Event - 03-07-2025
[say]"Oh noOooOooOoOo."[/say] The bones wail in mock fear. [say]"Do you know how hot fire has to be before it burns bones?"[/say] Which of the bones the spirit is using to speak through isn't entirely clear, given how many are strewn about. [say]"Even if you could burn them, there will always be more bones brought here for me to haunt."[/say]
Again the fingerbones waggle at Maea, inviting her to leave.
RE: Talking to the mirror - Maea - 03-07-2025
She did not know that, and never had ignorance infuriated her so much. Except it wasn't really about that. Not even about the spirit either, it was just a trigger, a neon sign spelling out how useless she had become.
Still. At least the spirit had stopped laughing, so Maea took that as the only win she'd get today. Affecting an exaggerated bow in the general direction of the voice, she pulled the tatters of composure about herself and left the cavern. She'd go somewhere else, where there were plenty of things that would burn, and hurl fireballs around until something felt better. Given her current mood, it was going to take a while.
[FIN]