RE: Cloudsea - The Chronicle of Alice Van Vaugen
09-06-2017, 12:46 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-06-2017, 08:45 AM by NotABear.)
Alice did not respond. She was actually playing the game now. She was going over every combination of cards in her head. She looked at the cards she had. She tried to imagine what cards Suit could have.
She thought this would be easy. It's a game she invented! By herself! Is it dumb luck that they were trading back points, preventing a conclusion from being reached?
Or was this. . . A plan? She peered at Suit. He was deeply engrossed with his cards. He looked tired. Was that a result of something he was doing...? Alice looked back to her cards.
Suit had no real idea what he was doing, but he had a voice. It whispered to him, always. It told him things. Things he wanted to know. Things he wanted to hear. He snuck a glance at his opponent. She wasn't very old. Not very young either, though. He wondered what she did to earn so much ire. . .
Not that he would dedicate many moments of thought to that. In the end, he was interested in one thing. Although he did give a moment of thought to wondering if her stalling tactic was going to work. Even if any of them survive. . . Hm. He decided to cross that bridge after he set fire to it.
Earl continued chest compression, then checked Jude's breathing. She'd only passed out a few minutes ago, and she was still breathing, but only when Earl forced the air out of her lungs. Honestly, he was impressed. He didn't think he had the strength in him anymore to perform first aid, especially on someone as large as Jude. He always figured she had like, replaced her bone structure with metal as well. . . Probably not. That sounds like it would be painful.
Earl stopped pushing down on Jude's chest long enough to hold out a hand. A terrible chill ran up his back, and he could feel Fatalism slowly wrapping their hands around his neck. . . And then a small tightly wrapped object dropped into his hand. He stuffed it into his mouth and waited until he heard the crackle of electricity- felt it shock him across the face and hands-
He breathed in deeply, reducing the thing to ash in moments, ignoring the self-inflicted lip burns- he only had a moment- He dropped both of his hands on Jude's chest as hard as he could, forcing what air she had out of her lungs and- well, gave her mouth to mouth with a lung full of horrible, spicy smoke.
She breathed it in automatically as he lifted his hands, and just a moment before he started to choke on the stinging sensation, she took in a deep breath- shoved Earl aside, and started coughing violently. The two of them just sat on the ground and did that for a couple moments.
Sebastian watched Katie. She stood over him, clawed foot digging into his broken leg. It hurt a bit- to be honest. Wasn't the first time Sebastian had broken something, however, and probably wouldn't be the last. He was hoping to at least chip Katie's beak here in a moment. . .
Sebastian flinched internally. He added that to the list of 'convenient lies' he was telling himself. He was building a case, against the truth. His own truth, anyway. They would have a long talk after this. After he had figured out what he would say. How does one make a case against themselves?
But first, he needed to live to see that time. He thought about making some sort of- cutting remark. A last biting attempt to put Katie off balance emotionally so he could seize a moment of truth and- . . . Hm.
Katie clicked her pistol's safety on. A flip of the wrist, and it spun up and back, and she holstered it. Then she clicked the safety back off, and buttoned the holster shut. Her claw lifted, and she took a couple paces away.
Sebastian grabbed onto a nearby wall and slowly hauled himself up. He grabbed his rapier- Katie twitched, but didn't draw. He pulled the binding up and around, threading it through the ornate cage handle, peacebinding his sword, so he could pull it off his belt, and use it and the scabbard as a cane. Katie watched him. They stared at each other.
He took in a deep breath. He reminded himself to apologize to Katie for what he was about to do. He reminded himself to take a gallon from True for every pint of blood that has been shed for his lies. . .
He reminded himself that at the end of all of this, he needed to consider what he really wanted to do. He opened his mouth. Katie drew her gun as the words left his lips, and she froze. Seb looked into her eyes, and saw terror reflected in them... then nothing. The bullet grazed the side of his head, and he moved in, lifting his bound blade. . .
Boss tilted his head a little bit. He was sitting in a private room under his bar. With all the chaos going on outside, it was pretty easy for someone of his- . . . 'stature', to get around unnoticed. His inkpot began to shudder, and he took a deep breath and grumbled to himself incoherently.
Eyes closed, he lifted his pen and began to write on the sheet of paper in front of him. As he wrote, his words vanished. . .Occasionally, words would appear in response, pitch black ink welling up and sinking back into the page contrasting against his soft green ink.
The approaching storm clouds. Quite distant, but quite large. . . Large enough to conceal one of those twisted abominations of meat and metal, it's 'whale' like form twisting and writhing, dozens of smaller, but still quite large fish-shapes floating beside it.
The approaching storm. The skywhale. Inside it, hallways of meat and metal. Muscle and bone and plating and tubes. Tanks and tubes dedicated to growing more of those... volf? volfs? volves? And other assorted creatures, all of the same twisted black flesh and gleaming metal. . .
Deeper inside, a room, which slowly pulsed, with the heartbeat of the skywhale, but also with the distant sounds of singing. Dozens of voices, imprisoned, singing out in despair. Their voices creating a keening, words and sounds weaving a tapestry of dark emotion, helping to hold and control these beasts. . .
Inside that room, sat a dark mass. To call it a blackened mass would indicate some way of telling that it had any color at all. It absorbed the light around it, and attempts to look at it just sort of slid away. . . It was truly just- darkness. It turned a bit and beckoned to it's 'visitors', the only color a silver pair of dots that were likely meant to be eyes. . .
( ) ?
( ) ? ?
( ) ? ? ?
( ) ? ? ? ?
( ) >_
She thought this would be easy. It's a game she invented! By herself! Is it dumb luck that they were trading back points, preventing a conclusion from being reached?
Or was this. . . A plan? She peered at Suit. He was deeply engrossed with his cards. He looked tired. Was that a result of something he was doing...? Alice looked back to her cards.
Suit had no real idea what he was doing, but he had a voice. It whispered to him, always. It told him things. Things he wanted to know. Things he wanted to hear. He snuck a glance at his opponent. She wasn't very old. Not very young either, though. He wondered what she did to earn so much ire. . .
Not that he would dedicate many moments of thought to that. In the end, he was interested in one thing. Although he did give a moment of thought to wondering if her stalling tactic was going to work. Even if any of them survive. . . Hm. He decided to cross that bridge after he set fire to it.
Spoiler
Spoiler
He breathed in deeply, reducing the thing to ash in moments, ignoring the self-inflicted lip burns- he only had a moment- He dropped both of his hands on Jude's chest as hard as he could, forcing what air she had out of her lungs and- well, gave her mouth to mouth with a lung full of horrible, spicy smoke.
She breathed it in automatically as he lifted his hands, and just a moment before he started to choke on the stinging sensation, she took in a deep breath- shoved Earl aside, and started coughing violently. The two of them just sat on the ground and did that for a couple moments.
Spoiler
Sebastian watched Katie. She stood over him, clawed foot digging into his broken leg. It hurt a bit- to be honest. Wasn't the first time Sebastian had broken something, however, and probably wouldn't be the last. He was hoping to at least chip Katie's beak here in a moment. . .
Spoiler
But first, he needed to live to see that time. He thought about making some sort of- cutting remark. A last biting attempt to put Katie off balance emotionally so he could seize a moment of truth and- . . . Hm.
Spoiler
Sebastian grabbed onto a nearby wall and slowly hauled himself up. He grabbed his rapier- Katie twitched, but didn't draw. He pulled the binding up and around, threading it through the ornate cage handle, peacebinding his sword, so he could pull it off his belt, and use it and the scabbard as a cane. Katie watched him. They stared at each other.
He took in a deep breath. He reminded himself to apologize to Katie for what he was about to do. He reminded himself to take a gallon from True for every pint of blood that has been shed for his lies. . .
He reminded himself that at the end of all of this, he needed to consider what he really wanted to do. He opened his mouth. Katie drew her gun as the words left his lips, and she froze. Seb looked into her eyes, and saw terror reflected in them... then nothing. The bullet grazed the side of his head, and he moved in, lifting his bound blade. . .
Boss tilted his head a little bit. He was sitting in a private room under his bar. With all the chaos going on outside, it was pretty easy for someone of his- . . . 'stature', to get around unnoticed. His inkpot began to shudder, and he took a deep breath and grumbled to himself incoherently.
Eyes closed, he lifted his pen and began to write on the sheet of paper in front of him. As he wrote, his words vanished. . .Occasionally, words would appear in response, pitch black ink welling up and sinking back into the page contrasting against his soft green ink.
Spoiler
The approaching storm clouds. Quite distant, but quite large. . . Large enough to conceal one of those twisted abominations of meat and metal, it's 'whale' like form twisting and writhing, dozens of smaller, but still quite large fish-shapes floating beside it.
The approaching storm. The skywhale. Inside it, hallways of meat and metal. Muscle and bone and plating and tubes. Tanks and tubes dedicated to growing more of those... volf? volfs? volves? And other assorted creatures, all of the same twisted black flesh and gleaming metal. . .
Deeper inside, a room, which slowly pulsed, with the heartbeat of the skywhale, but also with the distant sounds of singing. Dozens of voices, imprisoned, singing out in despair. Their voices creating a keening, words and sounds weaving a tapestry of dark emotion, helping to hold and control these beasts. . .
Inside that room, sat a dark mass. To call it a blackened mass would indicate some way of telling that it had any color at all. It absorbed the light around it, and attempts to look at it just sort of slid away. . . It was truly just- darkness. It turned a bit and beckoned to it's 'visitors', the only color a silver pair of dots that were likely meant to be eyes. . .
Spoiler
( ) ?
( ) ? ?
( ) ? ? ?
( ) ? ? ? ?
( ) >_