[Roleplay -+IN PROGRESS+-] Journey Across Yggdrasil

[That Zephyr Guy]

The man took the paper and added it to the pile. Picking the lot of them up and tidying them together, he looked at the now finished queue and rung a bell. The other two lines did similar and the crowd of onlookers took a few steps back from the platform the portly man stood on.

The announcer, with a wave of his hand and a jig in his step, bounced off the stage with seemingly renewed vigor. His hand once gain glowed an azure blue and with a snap of his fingers the stage behind him began to tremble. It shuddered for a moment and with a loud rush of air, it expanded rapidly towards the sky.

The portly man raised both of his hands in front of him as he faced his audience, and with a quick turn of the heel he looked upon the wooden monolith. His arms began to move and he closed his eyes as planks of wood began to disassemble from pillar row by row and soar through the air in tandem. Soon the pillar had ceased to exist, there were instead countless of boards dancing in the air above everyone's heads, and with a swift flourish from the conductor, the boards began to piece themselves together all across the plaza.

Soon, the masses of wood began to take shape. Large boxes began to form every few meters. The conductor paused for a moment, raising both of his hands over his head, and with a deep breath he threw his arms in front of him. All of the boxes shattered violently in a burst of splinters, filling the center of the plaza in a fine wooden mist that settled in the air. The mist remained motionless for a few seconds, leaving nothing to be heard, until the cloud began to stir slowly. The motion was slow at first, but grew to boil as the splintered wood frenzied, flying around chaotically in every direction.

Within the mist, the beginnings of various stages, podiums, and platforms began to form almost like sand collecting at the bottom of a lake. In moments, the storm had subsided and the plaza was completely rearranged. The stage was set, and the conductor had become the announcer once more.

With an azure hand, he raised it to his throat, smiled joviously, and spoke.

"And just like that, let the games... BEGIN! First up will be a contest of magical prowess! Will all contestants participating please step forward and report to the front stage!"

 

[brownboy102]

Faron stood in the crowd, waiting for the show to start. Not knowing what to expect, he was excited and ready. Suddenly, the announcer appear in front of the stage. He put up a show, that announcer. Faron was dazzled by what he saw. First, there was the boxes, then there was the most, and suddenly there were stages and podiums. It seemed as if everyone was excited out of their minds.

"And just like that, let the games... BEGIN! First up will be a contest of magical prowess! Will all contestants participating please step forward and report to the front stage!"

Faron snapped out of his trance as the mans voice boomed. The man directed everyone participating in magic to the front stage. Faron started to move, trying to get through the crowd as quickly as he could. As he rushed to the front stage, he noticed many others moving towards, and realized what he truly was up against.

 

[demoness]

Sarai grinned like an imp with a new blood contract as she watched the display. Folding her arms confidently with the posture of a goddess among mortars, she couldn't help but snicker at that wild eyed raggedy crowd. Truthfully Mr. Fun From A Buffet reminded her of her father, not merely a magician, but an artist among men, master of the show. Well, he could never hope to compare to a Caravel, but he might have made a delightful sideshow back home. Truth be told, seeing it made her just as excited as everyone around her, but an exceptional woman had her pride.

Then she saw that young man again.

"And just like that, let the games... BEGIN! First up will be a contest of magical prowess! Will all contestants participating please step forward and report to the front stage!"

Sarai briskly pushed through a couple of contestants--slid underneath them, that is--and followed that young man as best she could. He seemed to be the only one worth her time among these charity contestants, and she did need traveling company. Keeping an eye on him, she marched to her place like am emerald in the rough... or a viper in the brush.

(referring to faron by "the young man" so no one is confused, i'm not making up some random character, but i can't exactly use his name since my character's personality and perspective strongly influences my narrative voice. sparro don't worry about it unless you want to, realistically just because sarai spotted him doesn't mean he's even aware she's there and i was vague in case you didn't choose to acknowledge if you actually did know who i meant)

 

[skarmoury]

(Is "Faustina vibrates with excitement" an okay reply)

Faustina watched the spectacle with gleaming eyes; she knew how the stage was set every year (as she had gone to these festival events since a child), yet she was never tired of seeing it again and again, like a favorite show she'd never keep her eyes away from. Magical powers were a mystery to Faustina, and no matter how much she'd read about it, she could never quite understand how this and that could happen. The science to magic hasn't been explored further; it's as if people just accepted that some were naturally gifted, and Faustina believed that maybe it was better to keep the crowd guessing if it meant livening up their spirits in awe.

"And just like that, let the games... BEGIN! First up will be a contest of magical prowess! Will all contestants participating please step forward and report to the front stage!"

Like the rest of the audience, Faustina clapped with delight and excitement. Who knows what kind of powers would be revealed today?​

 

[That Zephyr Guy]

With a stomp of his heel, the stage behind him expanded outward and the announcer reached underneath his hat pulling out a stack of papers. He smiled and spoke to the contestants.

"Hello everyone. My name is John Drespur, and I will be your host today. In the next hour or two, all of you will complete three trials that we will judge. The person among you who does the best overall in all three will be crowned the winner. Simple enough, right? Fantastic."

He began to pace in front of the small crowd, his hands clasped together in front of him.

"As many of you may have noticed, magicians nowadays don't seem to receive the respect we deserve. It doesn't matter to them if we pursue the knowledge, power, or the arts like myself. All we are to them are flashy spectacles or laborers. It's a shame, but while we're here, we might as well give them a show. Your first task, is to simply dazzle our audience here in whatever way you can. You get bonus points for creativity, so don't be afraid to be artistic. Think of me as your opener.

Glancing down at the stack of papers, he continued.

"Our first contestant is Sarai. Please step forward and show us what you've got. The stage is yours."

 

[demoness]

She grinned wryly. You want to see a show? I am the show, she thought bitterly, cursing her mother for the flames and screams she imagined every night devouring ancient Caravel heirlooms and friends. For robbing her, Svetlana's memory would burn in the crowd's hungry eyes. And from those ashes would the Caravel name rise like a basilisk huntress, phoenix feathers in her venomous maw. Sarai stepped forward like an empress, hands on her hips, commanding attention with narrowed eyes. She smiled gently.

"My name is Sarai Caravel," she paused, letting it sink into ears.

"Now, I hear you all wanted to see a show," she said booming voice like doldrums, "so don't blink." She cleared her throat. "You may want to put down any valuables, friends, but do pick up something. I'm going to show you how the Caravel Macabre fascinated magic skeptics for centuries. I call this trick... the Haunting!" Curtsying to the spectators, she proceeded to pluck an eyelash from her eye, rubbing it between her gloves and breathing in quartz dust from a pouch strapped across her chest. She blew the dust into her palms and hurled the ominous concoction downward, vanishing before their very eyes. Not truly gone, her invisibility spell was something she'd perfected since she was a child. It may have had something to do with her first kiss with Luna. Grinning to herself, she stood very still, waiting for it to sink in no mere smoke bomb or teleportation had simply displaced her. She meandered behind John Drespur with her back to his back, hoping what came next sent chills down his spine.

"Perhaps I never lived," she hissed dramatically, knowing speaking in hushed voice would cause her to waver in and out of perception, like an apparition as she circled Mr. Drespur, appearing to flicker about him randomly.

"Perhaps I am a specter doomed to haunt this festival forever. Or maybe some magicians can still arouse a sense of mystery. And if you still doubt me..." she purred, standing still, "you could always have a seat." Letting invisibly fade, she went for the second spell in her repertoire that required no preparation anymore; she clasped her hands against her throat, locking eyes on a weapon wielding spectator. A siren's call, an illusory distortion of a song, seemed to escape from her lips. An urchin, without the high wisdom to distinguish distortion from song, or intelligence to learn from repeated use of it (twice or thrice to be exact) without significant time for her to take to rewrite the magic ballad, or possibly a ridiculous blessing of luck to eek out an escape was her ideal project, for this was the spells check. She was compelling him to disarm himself. The urchin felt his arms quiver, sucked in by the beautiful yet hellish siren wail filling his mind. To those few who could perceive the true, unearthly succubus scream, Sarai was surely a terrifying or darkly sight to behold. Quivering with alarm, the urchin suddenly stood very still, a vacant smile creeping across his face. His sword shot from his hand, landing at Sarai's feet.

True, she was placing two cards on the table already, but bedazzle was her strength, and cloak and dagger with 50-50 luck it seemed to her, quite literally, her blade. Dueling, endurance, was not. This was her chance to gain an edge. She bowed.

"Ask yourself this: where has the magic artist gone? She never leaves!"

(so i didn't know like how much she could perform at once and without creating some random npc i wasn't sure how to initiate a disarm spell we talked about. lemme know tomorrow if that's pushing rules and i'll fix it as soon as i see you, zeph, i kinda word vomited since i'm going to bed. also tried balancing powers because i didn't want them to come across as untouchable)

 

[That Zephyr Guy]

(Feel free to do what you like with your new NPC for now. This contest is your opportunity to give a sense of what your character is capable of)

 

[That Zephyr Guy]

(bumparoo. waiting on you brandi)

 

[demoness]

(oh i'm sorry zeph, just things have been going on. i'll finish up by this evening, probably around 6pm i'll have a moment to write and finish up)

 

[That Zephyr Guy]

(Aight take your time. I was just making sure we were on the same page, as well as scavenging this thread from the pits of hell)

 

[demoness]

After some applause from the more shadowy elements of the crowd, Sarai had held up her hand, signaling silence. Her eyes had absolutely shined, basking in the silent terror of other well-to-do contestants and the hushed whispers of the crowd. While Sarai was not devoid of a moral code, she did operate in a realm of peculiar institutions--the macabre, impish illusions, magical artifacts, and paid murder--and believed in the Circero Edict of Janus, a philosophy that said that humans are inherently chaotic and have three faces: one of love, one of power, and one of law. The supreme duty for any person was to keep the three faces in balance... by any means necessary, so long as it served the greater good. What came next required preparation, and so Sarai waved her hand, coaxing the charmed man from the crowd onto the stage.

"Thank you for your participation, sir," she cooed, touching his face, disenchanting the spell. He held his head, still a little dazed. She opened her satchel with her other hand and reached in, pulling out and wielding a black, hissing snake. "What is it about snakes we fear so much?" she said in a low and predatory voice, gazing downward, hair covering her face. This trick not only took time, one particular snake that could only be purchased from the traveling town of Circero or in expensive shops, blood, which took a physical toll, and quartz dust, the tool of a good illusionist; but it took on a painful metamorphic property that could not safely be repeated for days... at least not something like this. On the surface this was merely an extension of the invisibility skill, but Sarai would claim no paltry finale.

Invisibility was more than some parlor trick of perception: it bent perception. And while blowing dust could frighten someone to scare them off, steal, or catch them unaware, it only lasted until the quartz particles burnt out from channeling magic through them, and haphazard movement or speech could nullify everything. Truthfully, she could have prepared a spell of silence to enhance the invisibility, but short of grave robbing, skulls for casting it probably weren't turning up at the market. The quartz was simply a medium, and while it was dangerous for a novice illusionist due to horrible disfigurement or accidental alteration of your own sanity, living things could be too. Invisibility channeled through a creature produced some interesting effects.

She yanked her hand across the fallen blade and held her bleeding palm against the snake's maw, whispering a few words and blowing more dust around her. When she looked upwards, the face of a gorgon stared back at everyone, long enough to "burn" the image in their memories. Already feeling like she'd fell off a speeding wagon and quite sluggish, she released the snake and the advanced invisibility-camouflage spell.

Sarai glanced over at the announcer.

"And that's who you're dealing with!"

(i figured since i was showing her skills that just this once her just having the materials wouldn't be a problem and kinda talking about ingredients makes it easier on you to determine as GM when she's even able to acquire those things. if there's problems with either post just selectively ignore them bc i'll be occupied tonight and tomorrow and rather than wait for editing i wouldn't wanna hold this up.

also this post is separate only because it's probably easier on eyes than me adding it to before and i decided to do more)

 

[That Zephyr Guy]

(Bump. Was away for a few days so I couldn't post. I'll make a new post sometime really soon.)

 

[That Zephyr Guy]

A silence washed over the crowd like a thick miasma. Few knew how to respond to the sight before them, some with confusion, some with awe, but mostly anxiety and unease. The performance began with a sense of mystery and it snowballed. Sarai certainly knew how to work a crowd, for by the end she had achieved petrification, in the frightened sense.

Drespur was the first to break from his trance. Beads of cold sweat ran miles down his skin, and with a nervous tug of his neckpiece he raised his hand to his throat.

"Q-quite the performance from a M-miss Caravel."

A deep intake entered his lungs and his shoulders stiffened. He could feel his composure return, like a warm drug seeping through his body. He continued to speak.


"Well? A round of applause is in order I certainly say." He said with an uncomfortable smile and began clapping solo, joined a few seconds after by other rounds of quiet scattered applause.

Cicero had left it's lingering mark on the crowd. Caravel had made it's presence abundantly clear to this crowd. Drespur thumbed through the stack of papers, tucking one into his coat.

"Next to the stage is Faron! Hopefully he has something just as interesting in store for us."





Required Response: Sparro
Recommended Responses: Onlookers

 

[brownboy102]

Faron's heart sunk when he saw the performance Sarai had put up.

How can I put up with something like that?

"Next to the stage is Faron! Hopefully he has something just as interesting in store for us."

Faron felt a bad feeling inside. He was trying to not be discouraged, but he was quickly losing all hope for victory. He did not show it on his face, however. He walked onto the stage, without saying a word. He held out two hands, putting them in front of him, and a small ball of water appeared. Using the moisture in the air, he managed to expand it. Along with that, with the moisture in the air, he managed to make it move, like a serpent in the water. It snaked and it spiraled until it took the form of a serpent. It grew larger and larger as it collected water from the micro droplets of water in the air. He managed to make it to a formidable size, and was visibly tired at this point. He tried to make it into a serpent, which he did, to a certain extent; there was little to no detail on it. He let it fly around, before letting it break into a fine mist that flew through the air and settled onto the crowd.

 

[RainbowCherry]

Freja's jaw dropped as she observed the first magic contestant, lucidity barely gripping on to the folds of her brain and all the odd tricks she performed. They somehow felt... cohesive? But at the same time as their fluidity, they were physically disjointed. Her mind was absolutely muddled. Her final trick, appearing as one of the gorgon sisters from old Greek lore, made her instinctively shield her eyes and brace herself. After her consciousness properly restored itself, a wide grin appeared on her face as she stood in shock and awe, her hands obviously twitching to applaud, if it wouldn't probably have the garden of eyes of the crowd staring at her for being the only one. She couldn't help but feel half bad for the poor old snake, though.

She slowly calmed herself down as the announcer spoke loudly, as she stared at the stage, waiting for the next contestant named Faron, according to ol' announcer.

 

[demoness]

Sarai couldn't help but laugh as she stepped off the stage and aside where she could watch the rest of the contestants. "Oh, you all didn't know today was the day you could never look back at your plebeian lives, did you?" she snickered, covering her mouth with gloved hands to stifle the noise. It was done. She had planted the Caravel seed back where it belonged: the bed of a tree her lessers could weep beneath. Luna had to be weeping tears of gold because heaven was surely burning with envy.

But Sarai also cared for the coattails of society and watched Faron with a sly and pretty smile. It was that young man again, the one she was waiting to speak to with her ambitions. Part of her even rooted for him, but even the wolves admired the hares.

 

[brownboy102]

(Honestly, it felt a little underwhelming, so I'm going to add more.)

He looked through the audience. He found one person who looked like he had a burn. He called said person up. The man was just a powerless man, and he was as quiet as a tiger on a hunt. All he said was, "I have a burn". Faron examined this burn. It did not look too serious, it was rather just a minor burn. Faron created what resembled a plate made of water. He rested it on the area of the burn. The burn slowly disappeared. The man was ready to jump for joy, but Faron calmed him down. He let him down from the stage, and said, "I have cured this man from his burn." and he said no more.

As he left the stage, he realized he wanted a grand finale before he left. He took as much moisture as he could from the air, and let it out in one big "boom". The water broke around him, and shot out like a cannon ball out of a cannon. He brought it back, and forth, and made a circle around the audience. The circle slowly broke away, as some of the water moved to the middle of the circle. He made it disappear into the rain, and a huge fog was created in the audience. He left before the fog cleared.

When he got off the stage, he ran behind it, as he begged people of the stands for food and water. He was on the verge of passing out.

 

[InfinityFlames]

(I'm considering joining, but would this be a bad time?)

 

[That Zephyr Guy]

(I'm considering joining, but would this be a bad time?)

(Always accepting new signups.)

 

[That Zephyr Guy]

(Haven't been around in a while because of finals / Dark Souls. I'll resume the RP when finals are over)