Prepare for the #LodanRespawn2024 Existing characters may choose to be displace from/have memories of different timelines, thereby allowing returning members the option to retcon their whole character. These changes are the result of the "Unnatural Fog" plot device that is running between now and the Respawn. The plot is simple: no matter where your character is, that place is shrouded in a thick fog that suspends time, but not thoughts or memories, so even if they're repeating the same day over and over again, they continue to remember, so each time feels like a new day. For those retconning OCs; this is where new versions of themselves have the opportunity to replace the old versions. Official lore and tree updates will be announced asap
Post by Caitlin Cockfoster on Aug 8, 2015 6:20:23 GMT
Her heart pounded in her ears as the soldiers within seemed startled and began to move.
Wait... wait ... wait.. her brain tried to slow her down, make her think, make her look, but her body was already high off of an adrenaline rush and she couldn't wait any longer. It had been 10 months.
"I've waited long enough." She said stubbornly to herself. Her first cast of the day would be now. She'd been waiting all day, careful not to burn herself out early. Caitlin bear crawled backward in a hustle, then charged forward, rising to her feet and jumping as high as she could vertically up the fence. Before she slammed into it and rattled the chain links, she conjured a platform (Speed I) and pulled the hilt of her sword to pole-vault off the shimmering magical solid as it doubled her jump, up and over the fence. It was glorious..
Landing was a lot less pretty. Caitlin fell the ten or twelve feet to the ground and her knees buckled and she rolled. Thunder rolled with her, nearly a dozen seconds after that last flash of lightening. She was soaked to the bone, dead grass sticking to her clothes from her legs to her shoulders because of the landing, and it wasn't getting any drier from here.
Move Cait, she yelled at herself in her head. RUN! Magic available: remaining Rank I casts: 4 (Speed I used 1x) remaining Rank II casts: 4 remaining Rank III casts: 3
She sat her glass down next to the decanter and leaned back. This was nice... like falling into a vat of marshmallow fluff. Calm, muffled, the rest of the world blocked out by the closed door to his cabin, and here they were safe inside. Safe from reality, safe from their own complicated lives. Safe from duty. Safe from context. Just. Safe. --Caitlin
"Ready now," Caitlin spoke quickly then lead the dash out of the brick covering. She kept her body low to the ground and ran as fast and tight as she could. Thank heaven's she wasn't wearing a dress. She could just imagine the trouble Ikuze would have with hers, swishing and getting tangled up in her legs. Hopefully she wouldn't trip, and no one would hear, been there done that, didn't wish to repeat Cait thought to herself. Once she reached the fence she dropped down to her belly and held herself ready to bolt if anyone came their way. Her eyes were on the guards. There were two... NO... dung, now there were three. A third guard was coming out the front entrance. No turning back now. They needed over that fence while the guards were busy shooing Edel actress off the premises. The change in shift thought might pose potential problems.
Cait looked back over her shoulder and waved her arms to her sides "Spread out," She hissed. If one of them got caught. she'd like to keep it that way...just - one - of them.
The rest would have to make a stealthy dash for it.
Thankfully, the dress wasn't as much of an issue as some would initially think. With the rain crashing down around them, the skirt clung to her like a second skin, and with the slits she'd made in it, the dress was just that. A second, soggy, cloth based second skin. She'd get an earful from her grand-father about it later, but it was worth it. The thief hung low to the ground, her eyes casting around and keeping track of the others as they made their break for the EIRAL command.
The order came to spread out, and spread out she did, albeit hanging back a little. If she spread out too far to the left or right then she'd likely clump herself together too closely to one of the others, so instead she slowed a little to give a more scattered grouping. She reached the fence line and took in a few breaths, her eyes and ears straining against the crashing storm to figure out where everyone, especially the guards, were at. The thief blinked as she just caught sight of Caitlin performing her own branch of magical acrobatics, the blue haired girl taking a mental note to learn that trick next time. This time however, when she couldn't go up and over... She peered around the fence line before smirking as she found a hole.
Some kind of animal had made themselves a little backdoor, and with a little extra work... Ikuze scrambled through the hole, wincing as the wire fencing dug through her clothes and into her skin, cutting her a little. She quickly checked the fence where she'd come in, sighing in relief as there wasn't any scraps of cloth to trace her. She rendezvoued with Caitlin, and went to help the lady up. "Let's move." she hissed, her eyes darting around for any wandering guards.
Post by Edelweiss Fjäril on Aug 9, 2015 1:10:40 GMT
Edelweiss would have given Ikuze a quite angry glare if could have heard she was being called an animal. Alas, she can't hear anyone's thoughts, and started moving as soon as the word 'spread' was uttered. She hid the twisted wire hook used to force open that impromptu entrance back under her own overcoat while continuing the path beyond the fence, sticking to the shadows and running at her top speed. A bolt of lightning hit somewhere behind and she turned to see Caitlin literally kissing the ground as the brightness vanished, but someone else was already coming to help and crowding that single spot would be a very dumb move.
She better keep the pace up and avoid wasting more casted spells just in case there's any situation later when she might need a lot to spare - like, for example, when they would make their way out while sneaking a prisoner along... if they manage to find Skye before other guards find them. But for now, just run. Run and look around to see if anyone else is nearby, from their group or not. And hope Caitlin can still stand up fine and catch up soon.
"All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." - John Dalberg-Acton
Post by Danny Ravensdale on Aug 9, 2015 2:00:13 GMT
Danny followed at a distance back and watched first Caitlin go over the fence, then Edel and Ikuze go through it. She watched for a moment before scrambling up the fence like a cat up a tree. Up and over she went, careful not to hurt herself on the pass over or on the decent to the other side. Instead of grouping with Caitlin, Ikuze, or Edel, Danny made a bolt for the nearest buildings. She was already fast, so didn't bother with a spell which would give her a pearly outline. She neared the building and dipped around the corner, out of sight of the main rescue force and waited. She'd follow after them as they went, or she'd be at the spear front if they went to her hiding spot.
Vladov approached the guard who's shift he was to take and immediately noticed she was heading towards something. Vladov brought his rifle butt to his shoulder and advanced behind her, maybe twenty feet back. His eyes scanned the darkness. Nothing... nothing... A flash! There! Vladov snapped his rifle up and advanced towards where he'd seen the outlines, calling out.
"Do not be movink! Be puttink your hands abofe your heads und waitink until we are arrivink!"
"Shh Shh now, Oh Be Quiet child and answer me!" Jovena reached for the young one to shake her. She was hysterical and that would do none of them any good. "You city people need more tough love in your liv-" Her jaw snapped shut and her eyes snapped up. Lightning split the sky and she could swear she'd seen movement by the fence line. Her jaw clenched and she shoved the sobbing minor at Gladys.
"Get her of military property, then go get Andronikos. Somethings up." She didn't wait for answers, she started creeping toward where she'd seen a dash of movement a moment earlier. It was pitch black again, excluding the periodic glowing orbs on the fence, and the yellow light from the HQ windows and doors. Jovena glanced back for a second, checking her six, and saw the silhouette of a figure standing there. Relief washed over her, the duty swap was on its way. If she had a whistle , she'd be blowing it, but alas, she did not. No time to stand around and brief him on the occurrence, she had to act, and hope he'd use his eyes to figure out the rest.
She lodged the butt of her rifle in her shoulder and held it 45 degrees to the ground as she proceeded to the line between public and private property.
She didn't need to be told twice. Reaching down, Gladys took the girl's hand and pulled her to her feet, as gently as she could manage at least, and began rushing towards the building the new sentry was coming out of. Off the property; find Andro. She could handle that, well, she hoped she could. "Come on, it's not raining inside," she said to the kid, not waiting for an answer. If the girl tripped or slowed down at all, Gladys would pick her up and keep walking. She had to hurry. There might be people outside.
Coming to the reception area, she dropped the child off to the secretary "Get her home," was all she said as she hurried off towards Andronikos' quarters. When he wasn't there, she checked his office. When he wasn't there either, she asked people if they knew where he was. The answer made her cringe, but she turned and ran that way anyhow. As she descended the stairs and found the man in question, she ran up to him, out of breath and not noticing who else was there or what was going on. "Sir," huff huff. "There's been a disturbance," huff huff. "At the fence line," huff huff. "East side," huff huff. "Come right away." Leaning against the wall, she gave him enough room to hurry past if he so chose.
“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” ―William Faulkner
Post by Jovena Barbados on Aug 9, 2015 3:11:35 GMT
"Step away from the fence and put your hands up!" Jovena barked at the lone figure. The consequence of being a straggler after the lightning strikes. She lift her gun parallel to the ground and aimed it at the cloaked figure, but she didn't pull the trigger. Not het. Her eyes squinted in the dark. His face was contorted, wrong somehow... Queens, he was masked too! Her hands tightened on her weapon. He was definitely up to something, and it didn't look good.
She heard similar orders being shouted 20 something yards away in a thick accent, but they were moving to her right - further down the fence to the East. There must be more than one target. That's exactly what she had feared. Good thing she sent Gladys for back up.
"Slowly, No sudden moves!" she added, hoping the masked figure on the opposite side of the chain link fence would comply. In her mind she thought, please don't use magic, please dont use magic, please dont... She'd had so few actual interactions with Andersweltlers and she didn't want her first one-on-one match to be under these god-forsaken conditions. The sky was split open again and lightning illuminated the world around them for one frozen moment in time.
Alistair tossed in his sleep, almost awakened by all the shouting, but it was only a moment before he passed back into dream land. It was a good thing, for once roused he would have woken half the barracks with him and demand they secure the yard and the prisoner. It was well for everyone that they had summoned Andronikos instead. There were hundreds of guards asleep at this time of night. Much too many for the small infiltration group.
In his dream he was no longer murdering the queen, but Marrying her instead. To be the Lord Regent of the Capital of Lodan. All were bowing before him, and his first mandate was to relocate all Magicals to their own City. One they could not escape from even if they wanted to.
Post by Lasair Landevier Lupen on Aug 9, 2015 3:44:14 GMT
Maybe cold feet was right wrong expression. Maybe it was the right one. Either way, Lasair was indeed still standing on the opposite side of the fence when the guard approached him. Don’t move? Hands up? Oh no, that wasn’t his style.
When the lighting flashed, what she saw was foxy eyes and a devilish grin.
“You didn’t see anything,” he mouthed the words, lacing them with magic. She might not have been able to physically hear them, but mentally she would. As soon as the magic was cast, he bolted to the side, away from where he heard another voice shouting at what could only be Caitlin and Ikuze. Danny was nowhere to be seen, as expected.
His sprint coming to and end, he turned and threw himself onto the fence, pulling himself over and jumping to the ground on the other side. The guard he had just magiked would surely hear it, but that was okay. Would she realize magic was used? Or would she blame her eyesight instead? Either way, he was over the fence and she wasn’t there to catch him, so off he ran towards the shadows of the building, the rain-soaked ground squishing under his feet.
Post by Caitlin Cockfoster on Aug 9, 2015 7:20:30 GMT
"Let's move!" Ikuze hissed as she reached out her hand to help Cait up.
"Do not be movink! Be puttink your hands abofe your heads und waitink until we are arrivink!"
So much for stealth. She frowned, realizing now that she'd wasted one of her cast on keeping silent, but not invisible. They'd been spotted, the two of them, together. Already her plan was falling apart and she wasn't even inside the building. Her eyes drifted up to see Ikuze in the dark. Rain splashed in her eyes and she blinked them rapidly.
Caitlin's hand was already on the hilt of her sword, but she couldn't reach him with the blade sooner than he could shoot at her. She could try a spell, but the limited casts before her ability to draw on magic ran out made her hesitate. She didn't know how much power she'd need to reach Skye. She didn't want to use it frivolously before then. "If you have any idea's..." She whispered to Ikuze as Cait lifted her free hand slowly up as instructed, rising slowly to her feet in the process. "I'm open to suggestions..." He'd asked for both hands behind their heads, but she hadn't lifted the second from her hilt. Could he tell in the dark? He was getting closer by the second, but it was still storming hard, and they were a good distance from the nearest light source.
C'mon, come within reach, she thought, her fingers wrapped tightly around the blade hidden behind the back of her leg.
She sat her glass down next to the decanter and leaned back. This was nice... like falling into a vat of marshmallow fluff. Calm, muffled, the rest of the world blocked out by the closed door to his cabin, and here they were safe inside. Safe from reality, safe from their own complicated lives. Safe from duty. Safe from context. Just. Safe. --Caitlin
Ikuze froze as the voice called out in some thick accent, but the tone was definitely undeniable. "Got one. Move when I do..." she said whispered back as they stood up and complied with the man's order. The thief peered into the gloom to try and make out where the man was, and more importantly his gun. Given the storm and rain around them, it was bound to be quite wet all over. Concentrate, concentrate... she thought to herself before she snapped her fingers, activating her spell. The thin film of water that was around the trigger, and partially within the mechanism, found itself being frozen shut, rendering the weapon unusable. The thief then bolted, hoping that Caitlin was moving as well, and that the guard didn't have a second gun on them to fire with.
Lorraine was silent throughout Andronikos' outburst. When he was through, she regarded him cooly before speaking up in her usual calm demeanor, "A murder he may be but the laws are law. Do you think you are the only one to suffer, Andronikos?" Her tone shifted to one a nurturing mother might use. "Many families lost their loved ones to war, to petty thieves and criminals. I understand your pain and your resentment, that monsters should be killed, but be careful, Andronikos, for what you say. By allowing your rage to consume you, you become a monster." She lowered her gaze for but a moment to Skye then lifted her gaze as she stepped away from the door and deeper into the cell. "You say that everything inhuman should disappear, correct? Anders are just like us... he is just like us. He didn't kill his family, Andronikos. You were fed lies from the very moment Alastair approached you the day you stood before those barracks when you enlisted." Perhaps she shouldn't have spoken, shouldn't have revealed what she heard but maybe there was still hope for the brother she spoke with. "You were going to beat an innocent man for nothing because you allowed the true monster into your head."
"If I become a monster in the process, then that is what will have to happen." Andronikos seethed between gritted teeth. Anderswelter were nothing like the humans. Nothing. They were disgusting, dirty creatures who killed for pleasure. He knew this first hand. Those who killed for no reason as Skye had were just as bad as they were. If it would make him a monster to serve justice, then a monster he would be. It was a sacrifice he had to make. With slow, heavy steps he exited the cell, slamming the door with a shrill shriek and twisted the key inside of the lock. Making sure that they could see him, he turned towards the two now locked inside and with death in his eyes, he took one half of the key in his teeth and seared into it with a clink as one of the sides clattered to the ground. The other, still in his mouth, rang when it hit the side of the wall as he spit it out, and with that, he started his descent back into the stormy night. His mind awoke from that topic as the mousemaid came running up to him, warning him of an attack. Of course. Of course it would be now. "Dammit!" He darted out into the rain and looked around to asses the situation.
"Well, now whose going to bring my food," he said hoarsely and tried to laugh, though it came out as more of a coughing fit from heavily disused vocal chords. Lorraine might have even seen him smile if not for the total darkness they were left in. Andronikos had departed with the lantern, but at least Skye's eyes no longer hurt.
Through the whole ordeal, Skye had not moved from his spot against the wall, and he did not attempt to do so now. He had been through all the stages of incarceration. There was pacing and trying to find a way out, but eventually those had faded. The only comfort he had was in knowing he would not die alone, but that also brought sorrow in the fact that he was taking someone to their death with him. He'd never wanted anyone else to die; not for him. Why had she stood up to Andronikos and put herself into such a position. There was no honor in defiance, just imprisonment, and with no one else likely to bring them food, they would slowly starve to death. Not a quick, or painless way to go.
"Why?" he muttered in the darkness, not understanding why anyone would risk their lives for a supposed murderer.
Vladov felt the ice caking over his gun and took a step back. Witches... He turned and bolted back to the building and shouted as loudly as he could. "Witches are attackink die buildink! Witches are attackink die buildink!" He had to fix his gun, and rouse those he could to capture the witches. He turned into the building and rushed towards the alarm system. A quick trigger, and the clarion siren began sounding off.
Post by Caitlin Cockfoster on Aug 9, 2015 21:11:30 GMT
Caitlin didn't wait for Vlad's reaction, as soon as Ikuze ran, she ran.
They beat feet around the side of the building and almost collided with Danny. "The hell?!" she hissed, "Move, keep moving, lets go!" Caitlin slide down the dark wall till she felt a break in the brick pattern for a door. She tried the knob and it opened inward. The hallway was dark, no lights were on in this space. Emergency exit maybe? Smokers probably used it as a shortcut to get outside and puff on their pipes or cigars. She was halfway through to the next door when some kind of Alarm began to wail.
"dung. Ikuze, we're going to have to split, I need you to do something for me..." She reached into her bodice and pulled something out. A small ornate box of sorts. "Remember the demonstration Amon gave us in his shop? I need you to take this, and silence that alarm, if you can't find that easily enough, then emit the thing as close to their armory as you can get-" She shoved it into Ikuze hands. They'd have less than a minute of that noise before every soldier in the barracks was up and on their heels. Either the alarm, or the armory, whichever came first, she left it up to Ikuze to work out. "Do it quickly!"
Caitlin turned to Danny, "We need to get to the lower levels, there's no time to wait for the others to catch up - they either do or they dont, but we have to hurry." Except they were in the wrong building if they were looking for the old dank basement, cellar, or rotting prison cells. They'd have to leave the newer HQ building and make their way to some of the older land marks if they had any hope of success...
She sat her glass down next to the decanter and leaned back. This was nice... like falling into a vat of marshmallow fluff. Calm, muffled, the rest of the world blocked out by the closed door to his cabin, and here they were safe inside. Safe from reality, safe from their own complicated lives. Safe from duty. Safe from context. Just. Safe. --Caitlin
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