We think it’s supposed to work like this:
(1) PhoenixMontgomeryGurl posts the first chapter of a long story.
(2) Somebody else writes Chapter 2.
(3) Somebody else writes Chapter 3.
(4) Etc.
All right, MuseBloggers, it’s all yours.
Round-Robin ‘Riting
A blog-wide literary experiment, by special request of Phoenix.
Where’s the first chapter, written by Phoenix’s? Are we going to start on a new one, or do the one about the wolf? I think someone needs to answer this!!!
I dunno. I was thinking a more lighthearted story, but a darker plot is my general style. Plus, I don’t nessesarily have to start it…
Maybe we should all agree on a plot first, and then write it in turns. Or we could just write whatever gibberish comes into our heads. I think we should vote on this…
I vote you start with whatever you feel like and the rest of us write random stuff that comes after it. just whatever gibberish. i don’t know about anybody else but i hate planning out plots.
That might get kind of complicated. Maybe we should just have it that someone starts the story, without telling anyone what the plot is, and then the next person comes along and just goes whatever direction they want to with it. I’ll start.
Veronica sighed, and wondered for the sixth time in the last few minutes why her parents had to name her “Veronica”. With a name that started with a “v” she was always the last to go in games, and everything else. Why couldn’t they have named her Adella, or something like that? If they had, her name would have been the first in alphabetical order, and she would have already had her turn in Monopoly, bkut as it was she was dead last, and by the time she went most of the good properties would be gone.
Right now Lana was going. That left Nancy, Ruby, and Stacy to go before she would have a turn. Drat it.
“Yay!!! Oriental Avenue,” screamed Lana, “I deffinetly want to buy it!!! Oh, this is so fun!!”
“Fun for you maybe,” thought Veronica darkly,” It’s easy to have fun when you aren’t last.” She never had liked Lana. She didn’t know if it had something to do with the fact that Lana always had the best luck, or if it was her too-up personality. It was hard to tell
Stacy was going now, almost time.
Why had she even agreed to come to this sleep-over? She never had fun at these things, and she didn’t even like most of the nine other girls there, Amy, Dana, Emme, Kelly, Jan, Lana, Nancy, Ruby and Stacy. She liked Dana a little, but one girl was not enough to make a sleepover worth her time. Why had she let her mom talk her into coming? She could here her voice now, “it’ll be fun! They’re all nice girls, there is no reason in the world why you shouldn’t like them!” Typicall short-sited mother.
A voice snapped her out of her reverie, ” Lana, it’s your turn now.”
That’s chapter 1. Who wants to write the next installment? I think writers should volunteer ahead of time, to make sure only one version of the next installment gets written and posted.
Veronica started at the voice, jerked suddenly out of her thoughts. She absentmindedly accepted the dice, but only rolled them around in her hand, continuing her thinking. Always she was last. Always she was overlooked. What gave other people such power to always have good luck and fortune? What made some people the untouchable popular, and others the lower-than-dirt sludge? Why could she never be one of the fortunate? Always alone, always cast out. She didn’t belong here, and she knew it. Judging by the way the other girls were staring at her, they knew it too. Their lives fell into such an easy pattern. Why should she be any different?
Veronica stood up abruptly and dropped the dice carelessly on the board, upsetting several properties. She looked down on the girls and their petty game with distaste. Why should she bother being here any longer? The other girls didn’t understand what she was doing.
“Veronica, c’mon, roll and let’s go,” Lana whined. Her pretty face was pouty and displeased. “What’s wrong with you?”
Veronica looked at her and did not answer. She took a deep breath, and seemed to expand with infinite confidence and wondrous power. She stood there but a moment longer, then turned and left the room. Dana started and made as if to follow her; but did not. Veronica’s mind was boiling with relenless cautions and warnings, but she paid no heed. She gathered her sleepover in the next room and left the house quietly, yet with confidence. As she shut the front door, she breathed deeply the wild smell of the night. Veronica was still wearing her day clothes, though it was ten o’clock at night; she put on her raincoat, because it was drizzling slightly, and began the mile-and-a-half walk home with her flashlight to guide her.
Veronica walked in confidence down the dark, quiescent roads, damp with rain and wet leaf litter. She knew no one could touch her; she knew she had power for this time. Veronica reveled in the rain, the dark, the smell of the world, still awake and moving, though sunless, clicking and whispering and rustling to itself. She felt more alive than she’d ever been. Until, that is, she reached her house, and had to deal with the angry voice of her mother, demanding to know what she was doing outside at ten-thirty when she was supposed to be at a slumber party. The harsh sound beat her inner power back down again, to shrink and cower in hiding like it had for so many years.
Maybe this is a little too cruel for what the intention of this story was. But I gotta say it. This is how I feel sometimes. Do any of you identify with me?
I’ll do it.
I feel annoyed like that somtimes, you aren’t alone.
After her mother reprimanded her, Veronica agreed to go back and apologize for her behaviour. She half-heartedly trudged along the alley, feeling unhappy, until something met her nose. It smelled a little of deep lavender, tinged with just the slightest bit of cinnoman, with something else she couldn’t quite recongnize. And than…
She recongnized it. Upon countless occasions, Veronica had been to the dentist. (she had weak enamel.) In one, she had to haves everal teeth pulls. they had put her under for the occasion, and Veronica suddenly revongnized it’s smell. It was the sedative. She quickly collapsed in the alleyway, with no one within a block of her to help.
Short, but concise.
Wow. That was really unexpected, not what I had in mind at all when I wrote the first installment. It’s cool, though. I just would never have thought of having Veronica actually wlak out, probably because I would never do it. It’s funny how different peole see things a different way, and that’s part of why this story is going to be so fun!!!! I wonder what the next person will do now…..
Right, who’s next? Don’t keep us in suspense!
I’ll do it. Perhaps we should have a separate thread just to keep track of who writes which chappie when.
The inner power Veronica felt slowly flowed out of her body into the street.
Three blocks away, Adela turned around and gulped in a breath of air instead of muddy water, gasping after Andrew’s retreating back.
“Curse him,” she muttered under her breath, wiping the icy rainwater from her thin face. She hated Andrew and his sense of humour, his constant teasing and pushing and shoving. She shrugged her shoulders and started after him.
Adela could see him turning the corner when she tripped. Something unseen was pulling her toward the old alley behind her house. Adela had always gone there to be alone, away from Andrew, when she was little. Andrew never seemed to be able to find it. She hadn’t been there for a while, though, and was surprised to find that nothing much had changed. It was still paved with dirty bricks with barrels leaning against boxes and perched on top of the old rusted Dumpster.
She could see that there was something lying in the middle of the alley now. On closer inspection, this turned out to be a girl. Her body felt cool, deprived of the mysterious humming that Adela could feel in people when she touched their skin. Something told her the girl was not dead, and her suspicions were proven when a hand shot out from the body and delivered a jolt of energy so strong thta Adela could feel blackness seeping around the edges of her mind.
“Who are you?” the girl asked just before darkness filled Adela’s world.
Whoa! this sounds like somthing I would write! cool!
Ruby rounded the corner into the allyway, pulling her coat around her for warmth. She knew she had seen Adela come down here somewhere…she stopped dead when she saw the two girls on the ground. Adela and Veronica–the two who had left shelter, one after another. She glanced up at the sky, looking for somthing. There was no moon. Drat, drat, drat! The silly girls had gone out during the Witching Hour with no moon! As far as she knew, she was the only one safe doing that. Slowly, Ruby knelt down beside them and touched first Veronica, then Adela. Good, they both had a pulse. From the looks of things, Veronica had been sedated, but she couldn’t tell what had happened to Adela. She would have a hard time explaining how she had found them, as well. Slowly she streched out a hand toward Veronica, not quite touching her, and another toward Adela. She closed her eyes and hummed sofly, a seemingly random tune. Slowly, the two began to stir. But just then, somthing moved in the alley behind her, and she could smell somthing sweet…
wow this is cool! can i do the next one? plz? if not just delete this…
“Aw mom, I don’t know why she left!” Lana whined. “I don’t see why I should apologize! It’s not our fault she was such a dork!”
“Lana, something obviously upset her. The polite thing to do would be to go over to her house and see what’s wrong.”
“I don’t know, she just doesn’t like us or something! Come on mom, it’s raining out!”
“Well….” Lana’s mom hesitated.
“I’ll drive you there Lana,” Lana’s dad cut in. “Get your raincoat.”
Lana stayed where she was. “I don’t want to go. She doesn’t want to see me anyway. I don’t know why she left! I won’t go! You can’t make me!”
“Ok then forget it,” Lana’s dad said. Lana sighed in relief. “No, you can walk there.”
“DAAAAAAAAAD!!!” Lana screamed. “FINE! I’ll just leave then! But i’m not coming back!”
She grabbed her raincoat and stomped out the door. Her mom flinched but her dad just said, “Leave her. She’ll be back.”
Lana had no intention of going to apologize to Veronica, but she ended up going in the direction of her house anyway. Suddenly, she decided to go back home. She was cold and wet and tired. Unfortunately, just as she was turning around a fist shot out in front of her. It was holding something, something that smelled strong and suspiciously like sedative…
hey guys!
this is awesome!
ok so now everyone is knocked out in the alley?
Just one more, than someone’s gotta do something!
Leah huddled in her cot as the wind blew in through the window. Downstairs, she could hear her mother and father congradulating hers iblings on their beautiful preformances. Leah was up here for telling them it was horrible. It was, though. If the teacher had chosen Leah for the leading role, she wouldn’t have done it like Anastasia… Leah stood up, and did a few moves. Neck straight, good posture, toes constantly pointed… She pirouted and did a jete, and was swept off into the world of dance, which was much better than this. In dance, people cared about her, unlike her parents, giving everyone else the credit. Especially her siblings. Suddenly, someone pounded on the door. “Leah, come out here and apologize to your sister.” Leah tripped in the middle of a turn, and the fanstasy quickly fell away. the first thing she saw was her window.. her window. She smiled. Now was the time. She was on the first floor, she quickly and gracefully vaulted out the window, and skipped off into the alleyways, still in her ballets shoes and a tight bun on the back of her head. She was going to go off and become a dancer by herself. She pulled her glasses out of her pocket and peered into the next alley. Something was lying there… in fact, many things… she crept forward, and realised they were people, all girls, about her age. She was going to scream when an arm reached out of nowhere and stuffed a cloth that smelled suspiciously like sedative out in her face. It instantly smothered her shriek.
Leah’s last thought was, Oh hell, it is sedative. Than she and her dirty mouth collapsed on the asphalt alleyway.
Wow. Everybody’s unconscious. What next? A dream sequence? Enter the villain? Somebody pick up the thread, please!
okey dokey-Phoenix at your service!
A dark figure in what looked like a dastardly villian cloak, but was actually a dentist’s uniform…(just kiddin’…)
Veronica was the first to wake. Her head felt as if it had been pounded by a million iron hammers…With an effort, she sat up and then almost screamed aloud. This wasn’t the allyway. In fact, this looked more like a science lab. She was lying on a bed, and she could see several other girls her age around her. She jerked upwards, and jumped off the bed. But before she could reach the door, it opened…
scary.O.o
A harsh metal clang jolted Adella out of unconciousness. She glanced around her, surprised that instead of a dark alleyway, she was lying in a hospital bed under bright florescent lights. It looked like some sort of lab.
The girl she had seen in the alley was crouched on the floor, her eyes wide in terror. Adella was wondering what she was so afraid of, when she noticed that the metal door was open, and the space behind gaped into darkness. The clang she heard must have been caused when the door handle struck the wall. She was about to ask the other girl where the heck they were, but here words caught in her throat when a women stepped out of the darkness……………..
I know i write horribly, but u got to give gal some credit for trying.
“Someone turned on the lights,” grumbled Ruby. Adela and Veronica stared at her, than, realising they weren’t alone, stared at each other. “Um,” said Adela awkwardly, “Is this place yours?” “No…” said Veronica, looking around. Ruby’s eyes snapped open and she sprang up, glancing wildly in all directions, “I said turn ’em off!” suddenly she saw where she was and the other girls, and the woman in the doorway.
Adela and Ruby were both very shy. The two of them now were biting their lips and fidgeting. Veronica’s good upbringing immediately took over. “Hello, M’am,” she said politely. “M’am?” hissed the figure in a masculine tone. Veronica was now blushing furiously. “I mean, sir.” “Sir?” “Sorry, um… sorry.” “Sorry sorry?” “Yes,” said Veronica. “Sorry sorry.” “Yes sorry sorry.” The… thing, she guessed it was, approached her menacingly. “I bring,” it said. “Right,” said Veronica hoping she meant food. The thing hissed, and grabbed her by the wrist, and Adela with the other. Than, another limb extended from her robes and snatched Ruby’s collar, whilst yet another grabbed Leah by the back of the shirt, just as she woke, and dragged them out into the corridor.
wooOOooOOoo scary
we have so many different ideas!
Oh yes and the thing got Lana, too.
The thing, having used an impossible amount of limbs already to secure the girls, revealed a further four as it dragged them down the hall, which Veronica noticed was lit with torches set in sconces. The figure continued through the flickering light until they reached an area where there were no torches.
Can i try?
They were all dragged off, legs scraping on the pavement. Lana was about to complain, but was to terrified.
“I got them” the “thing” said.
The girls could just make out a figure sitting in a chair.
“Geese, is that anyway to treat guests?” A cool female voice spoke from the chair.
The figure stood up and turned around. She looked to be about 14 years old at the most. She was very short with green eyes like a forest. She didn’t smile, but at the same time she didn’t frown. Her face was like a Japanese paper mask.
“Hello, I’m Natsuko, you are here for an alchemic experiment.” The girl said. Her voice was cold and clear, but the one it effected the most was Ruby. Ruby was an anime fan and one of her favorite animes was Full Metal Alchemist, and in it “Alchemic reasearch” normally meant turning them into a Chimara. Which wouldn’t be fun, cause then she’d have to share a body with LANA!!!!!!
dun dun dun (lol)
It was 10:00 in the morning, and Veronica’s parents were beginning to get a bit worried.
“Maybe we should call Lana’s parents, and make sure that she is over there, she should be back by now,” Veronica’s father mused.
“She’s probably fine, probably sleeping like a baby at her house.. but maybe we should, just to make sure everything’s fine and..” Veronica’s mother’s voice trailed off.
“I’ll do it now,” replied her father, walking over to the phone.
“Hello, this is Charles Walker, Veronica’s father. I’m just calling to check that she’s alright.. What do you mean she’s not there? We sent her back after she walked out to apologize, and when she didn’t come back, we figured that she had just stayed… No, we haven’t seen Lana, or Ruby. They’re missing? Any idea where they’ve gone?… no, I don’t think Veronica would have gone off somewhere with them.. Do the other’s have any idea.. Okay, I’ll do that, and I’ll report that they’re missing.” He hung up.
“Veronica never made it over there. Ruby Liu wasn’t planning to sleep over and left to go home early, but she never arrived. Lana’s parents sent her over here to apologize to Veronica.. I’m calling the police.”
Veronica’s mother sat in shock, her eyes drifting to the window and the peaceful street outside.
Yay pipS (chewy) u wrote!
I can’t think of anything now. *brain lock*
I know! *stands really tall and acts really proud*
( Oooh, I was going to do the chimera, that’s spooky XD)
“Al..alchemy?” Ruby stuttered, now very much awake. The grip on her intensified, and she felt her breath becoming shallower and shallower. The girls about her seemed to be having the same problem.
“Geese!” The woman’s sharp voice rnag out clearly, her eyes burning suddenly with an intensity not of this earth.
The small figure’s grip released, and he retreated to out the door with much haste.
“Now…where were we?” The woman smiled, her teeth quite white.
“Ah yes. My experiment.”
Alrgiht, I’ll do it next.
Out on the streets, a man cloaked in black with red, frizzled hair strolled up to a black lab. His eyes darted to signs nailed against to the lab. “Experimenting lab, dangers.” With a snort, he reached for the handle, but a mysterious pulse drew him back against the wall. He shook his head, unharmed. “Leana?” He growled. Only a tiny whisper quivered through the doorknob’s hole. “Who is it?” it inquired. “Nigel.” He snapped. There was a small, gentle whimper and the doors swung open. “Where is PDI?” He asked, powerfully. “Oh, you mean-you mean-master’s creation?” Whispered the small voice. “You know what I mean, Leana.” He snarled, dangerously. “Yes sir, I’ll take you to PDI.” Slowly, a small, stout figure appeared from behind a metalic door. “Report to PDI. Come to the central.” It squeked as loudly as she could through and large intercom. Slowly, shuffling against concrete could be heard. A flash of silver, and them a full exposure of a robotic person. “Master?” It said tonelessly, nevertheless not failing to bow. “And PDI?” he said less agressivly. For a small moment their eyes meant with a tinge of recognition. He narrowed his large green eyes, and started into PDI’s. “I want to talk to you later, but not right now. Right now I want to know if Juo has gotten our…” a small, wicked smile bloomed on his face. “Patients, hm?” Again, tonelessly, the creature said, “Most certainly sir. I can take you to them.” “Please do,” he said intrested, “Please do.”
Okay. I’ve done my part. I just get freaked out by people like this guy. Do you?
Oh, and just to let you know my name was orginally. “KitKatUck” but I don’t know why I but the “Uck” part.
And not “but” it’s actually “put” for all of you spelling bee nominies who absoulotely hate typos.
Back in the lab:
“Wait just one moment.” Ruby’s firm voice rang out from the back of the group of frightened girls. “What do you mean, alchemic research? What do you need with a buch of teenage girls? There isn’t anything special about us!” She crossed her fingers behind her back as she said that, all too aware of her rather special abilities. But what if the rest of these girls…
The woman smiled. “Oh?” she said. “You likle to sing, don’t you, girl?”
Ruby inhaled sharply. How could she have known?
The woman turned to Veronica. “and you. Ever had a feeling of power? Invincibility, of being unrestrained by physical limits?” She did not wait for a reply, directing her speech next to Lana. “ever had a feeling of not being what you truly appear to be? want to be somthing else, perhaps? envy cats or some other specific animal for its, uh,” she paused. “flexibility?” Listen, you stupid girls, ever heard of somthing called precognition? how about telekinesis? Clairvoyance, perhaps? or is it just MAGIC? Untill you are properly studied, we’ll never know. And,” she added as an afterthought, “your parents have called the police. Don’t worry, the coppers will escape with thier skins–barely. Goodnight!”
Before long, all the girls were properly contained. The lady walked down the long line of clear plastic cells, reading the lables and smiling. Veronica Moor–telekinetic. Adela McCarson–healer, powers unknown. Ruby Laan–unknown, taps various power through vocal activity. Lana Brown–metamorphosis of self, untapped. Leah Stevenson–pyrotecnotic, untapped…
spleling thengs rong es prety fune. mi frend ande eye ded thet en al are eemales dooring spleling be tym. soe whie ded yoo pute tha uck?
awsom storie peeples! veery interestiinge…
kinda freeky tu. maybee i’lle rite som mor on heere layter bute rite nou eye hav know insparashun.
wel, som peple ned a dictinay lik mee foor ehampel.
I added that man and PDI for all you who didn’t have any insparashun. Well, remind me tommorow and I’ll finish with it. I have a ironic twist ….ha ha.
PDI shuffled down the hall. Quietly, PDI shifted silently away from where the man was, breathing heavily. She slipped out of her shoes, and out of her disguise. Golden locks fell out. “Nigel…” she whispered. She trotted steadily to the lab where Juo, her sister awaited. “Are they here?” she asked, inquistly. “Oh, they been here for awhile.” In tanks filled with a blackish blue liquid were many girls, labels to accomany them. “Radiation at high speed?” She asked, running her slender fingers through her tangly hair. “Yep…” she said, preoccupied with the mechanics. Soon the squek of acceleration was singing steadily. The girls in their cases twitch gently. “Good job.” Then she heard the clang of boots. “Darn…” she cursed, quietly. “Darn, darn, darn!” She rasped, her voice now hissing. “Juo, go lock the doors.” Juo turned her head at her sister, confused. “Do as I say!” she yelled. Juo trotted quickly to the doors, but not quick enough. Nigel came in, his eyes wide. “I knew it, Tignite. I knew it. You couldn’t stay in your clever little disguise forever.” Suddenly, there was a piercing scream. Ruby, whose eyes burned like acid had flowed into them shrieked in fright. “shut off the yedinir system!” Scram Nigel. Altough his boots were wet with the slosh of yesterdays rainstorm, he managed to get past the befuddled Tignite and Juo all the way to the mechinary, where he shut off all the mechanisms so the hum of their work could no longer be heard. “Are you crazy?” He rasped. “You think the coppers can make it past these gates?” Juo looked at her sister. Suddenly, without warning, Veronica bust through the glass as if she had been one of the fantastic four. It was almost as if you were waiting to hear her main theme song, but suddenly she fell to the ground and the pungant smell of gas filled the air. “Are you trying to rid them of their powers?” he shrieked, reaching out for one of the sister’s necks. “Stop it, Nigel.” Said a voice from nowhere, quite smoothely. It was a radiant lady all in red, with red hair–wild red hair. “You’ve gone far enough.” She soothed. Slowly, gently, she made her way to the heaving body of Vernoica. “Oh, great.” She said sarcastically. She laid a gloved hand on Veronica’s jacketed back. Then she tossed her hair behind her back and sighed. “You’re working with a power almost like the sister to death,” warned the lady. “If they are killed, or subsequently just seem to be, when we evaquate there will be no more breath for us. The lab will be done for.” Nigel started at the lady. “I didn’t no Celentra. I didn’t.” Just as they expected all the girls burst out of their cases, liquid spilling all over the floor. Nigel bowed his head, ashamed. Celentra began to twitch. “Did I tell you,” she began. “That these were my children?” Her voice grew louder as her anger quickened to a steady pace. “That metamorphsis and etc., were placed quite sparingly on earth by me? And isn’t it a conscidience that all of these great to-be heriones should get together” she chortled softly, “At a sleepover?” All the bodies of the girls were heaving gently, slowly regaining their strength granted by earth.
And I expect all of your great writers will finish this up for me.
This is awesome.
we can’t finish now. THey have to escape under thier own power first.
the girls lay on the cold concrete floor, breathing hard after thier ordeal. Veronica, the first out, found the strength to lift her head and look around. The lady who had put them in the cases was talking to another, with tangled red hair, bright as rubies. An odd feeling of love flooded through Veronica as the woman put her hand on her hair, and she felt safe somehow. Around her, she saw the others relaxing slightly, and Adela–the healer, she reminded herself–got up, coughing. Lana was the first to speak. Her trial seemed to have softened her a bit, as her voice had only a fraction of its former bratty quality, although her old boldness was still there.
“Uh, listen…” she coughed, and spat out some of the blue liquid with difficulty. “Uh…” behind her, Ruby was crying soundlessly, seemingly unable to make a noise. “Does this mean no more alchemy?”
“Yeah,” said Leah. “how do we know this isn’t another trick? And I used to be able to light fires. This blue stuff…” she pointed a finger a a pile of damp cloth in the corner. It smouldered feebly, but soon went out. “well, it keeps me from doing it, see?”
Celentra smiled. “I created you. No, I do not want you to die, if I can help it. Right now you five are the only humans who can alter matter without mechanical or manual help. I shall certainly try to avoid hurting you, and another episode like this will not be tolerated.” the other two scientists–or whatever they were–cringed. the red haired woman softened slightly. “I have no power here–why do you think I created you in the first place? Just remember that I love you.” suddenly there was a swirl of light, and the lady dissapeared. A voice echoed in the depths of the girls’ minds. they will try to use you, despite my wishes. Don’t let them. Use your power.
No, no I meant finish what I wrote up, not the whole story.
Verionica glared at the two sisters who glared back. “You put us into this, didn’t you?” She tried to use her powers to move around, but she couldn’t “What did you do?” she whined. Suddenly, Lana stood up. “I won’t put up with this.” she said stubbornly. “I won’t. I’m going to wake up and I’m going to be able to do everything I could. I won’t put up with it. Never.” Juo raised one of her skinny eyebrows. Behind her, Nigel was pulling out his hair. “I knew it,” he roared, “I knew Celentra would be this way.” Tignite rolled her eyes. “Do you really care what Celentra thinks?” Juo nodded in agreement. “What can she do? Cast spells on us or something?” Nigel narrowed his eyes. “You don’t know what she’s capable of.” He snarled dangerously. “And neither do you,” said Juo, unintimidated. But they couldn’t do anything. Leana small voice quivered from all the rest. “They’re here,” she whimpered. Behind her, black figures stood ready and prepared. “I tried.” She squiked faintly. “Who’s here?” Juo inquired. “The cops?” Leana gently nodded.
“Mmhmm…” Tignite snorted. “Jeez, Leana, it’s not so bad….” a nasty grin formed on the prettiest of the sister’s face. She swooped around to face the girls. “Which one of you is capable of transforming?” Lana slowly raised her hand, looking around at the other girls helplessly. “Then come here, girl!” she commanded. Lana shuffled as if entraced over to Tignite. “Stop it, girl,” Celentra’s voice called. “They’re trying to use you, they’ll always be. Don’t let them.” With a squeeze of her arm, Lana turned herself into a dragonfly, swooping around the lab. “Is that the best you can do to escape?” Juo laughed. Nigel raised his hand. Suddenly a strong voice echoed throughout the building. “This is the Colddrun police. Release all weapons.” It commanded. “You’ll have to tear us apart, limb from limb,” Juo squeled under her breath. “Cause their sewn into us.” Suddenly, a muscular figure appeared sillhoutted in the doorway. “Mr. Braxton?” He said confusedly, “I didn’t think you’d be part of this plot.” Nigel wrang his hands nervously. “W-well I’m not. I was trying to get the girls before you had to do anything.” The other man looked intrested. “Really?” Nigel tried his best to give a honest nod. “Then why are they,” he said pointing to the dragonfly and the huddled girls, “All scared and hurt-looking?” Nigel stared at the girls. He squinted, under physchological pain and entrappment. “They’re not,” he said. “I saved them, before these two,” he said, swerving around to Juo and Tignite who were trying to make a run for it, “Did what they did.”
And to be continued by you…
whooooooooo confusing.
What’s a pyrotechnotic? Is it someone who can start fires with their mind.
A sleek, catlike shape landed soundlessly in the alleyway. Sniffing several time, he yowled and leeped at the door, which crumpled like paper under his weight. A stone coridor stood gaping were the door once.
He grumbled to himself as he padded silently down the hallway.
“It took me three days, Celantra, three whole days to track them down. You could have sent Akkaveesh, but no, you had to send me because I’m less noticible . Ba!”
ChinTsu, pyrotechnotic isn’t a word! I looked it up on the internet and the dictionary!!!
I think she means pyrotechnic. Someone who starts fires for funsies.
maybe it’s a ChinTsu-word!
I just made it up. ‘pyrotecnics’ mean manipulation of fire, so I just made up the word ‘pyrotecnotic’. And yes, she can create and control fire.
Adela spoke. Pointing a shaking finger at the man, she said, “what do you mean, save us? If it wern’t for you, we wouldn’t be here! Lana, come here, I think I can change you back.” she held out a finger, and the dragonfly obediantly landed on it. with a pop, it changed back into Lana, who fell with a thump to the floor. “I’ll have to work on that,” she muttered.
You guys, maybe we should all be assigned a certain charecter, because things are sorta chaotic.
Yeah. That’s what it said, but is that a power? Isn’t that a villiany?
Arson, tsk tsk
and no, a person who starts fires for fun is a pyromaniac. Once someone in my school had a nervous breakdown and set a garbage can on fire. We have fires at least twice a year in my school; mainly in the kitchen when the pizza gets set on fire (not making that up), but twice the garbage can caught, and once it was an accident. In the ’02 yearbook for the high school, one of the remember whens is “JD did not realize a lit mach is flammable and carelessly deposited it in a garbage can.” actually it was just smouldering, but it was still really stupid. The principle picked up the blazing garbage can in his hands and ran around the atrium with it, yelling at the top of his lungs. Once we had a fire drill in the middle of a thunder storm, and once in a snowstorm–and they were just drills. My school picks the most evil times to have fire drills. I think thier out to get us
In the old building, which was really old and nasty, even though our new one is good, the ceiling once fell in on Mrs. Bedell’s fourth grade class. My school is wierd. :&
Okay, alright, I’ll finish things up.
The night sky dimmed, and through a small window, dark figures could be seen squirming around the lab. But only one pair of eyes saw what was happening, and his name was Nigel.
“Where did he go?” Roared a cop, with a silver badge.
” I swear sir,” whimpered a junior officer, “I didn’t see him go, or I think he just vanished into the air!”
Outside, Nigel chuckled darkly.
“This isn’t Harry Potter you know,” the greatest cop declared.
After a brief pause, a pair of cops and two villians were pulled into the scene of the crime. The first of the villians was Tikinite and the Second was Juo. Both looked frazzled and dazed, and expecially Juo who loked as she might have just seen a ghost. “Okay, you two,” spoke the badged cop,
“What have you been doing in this pigpen of yours?”
Juo glimpsed briefly at her sister and then began her lie.
“Just preforming some scientific experiments on our new cure for cancer. These girls were to test it. We’ve tested it ourselves-”
“Don’t lie to me, you insufficient citizen!” He roared grabbing Juo by the scruff of her neck.
“Anymore of this dishonesty, and you’ll be gone from the face of this country. Do you understand,” he muttered directly and darkly to her, “Do you understand the condition of what I say?”
She quietly nodded. “Certianly, sir.”
He glared at her. Suddenly there was a scream, and all the lights dimmed.
* * *
“Lana,” Ruby scolded, “If they know we’re down here, we’re done for.”
Verionica scowled, slumped against the wall.
“I didn’t know that going back to you dorks would leave me here.”
Lana screamed again, her face pale and her eyes bloodshot.
Nancy started at her, leaning quite self-conciously against a electricity generator.
“Sssh, Lana. What Ruby said.”
Slowly, Lana metamorphsized, out of control. In the situation they were in, there was nothing they could do about it.
1st, there was only a flash of silver, and then suddenly Nigel appeared with them, as if sent by a unknown spirit. He smiled innocently, something, he recalled, he hadn’t done in a while.
“Come on girls,” he soothed.
“Come on,” Lana echoed as if entranced.
Nigel glared at her.
“Lana?”
“What’s happened to her?” He asked.
“Well, she was trying to be a dragonfly, and then everything went haywire.
in a while, crocodile.
With reference to 43, etc.: pyrotechnics are fireworks. (Pyrotechnicians specialize not in fire but in fireworks and explosions.)
Aaaargh! I took the word from the Dungeons&Dragons spell list, and under ‘pyrotecnics’ it has this spell for making fire, and making it do whatever you want! this is FANTASY, ok?!!!
maybe next time we should make this more like an rpg, with everyone playing one charecter. But not exactly like an rpg, because that would move too slowly…maybe each segment should be in your charecter’s point of view, but all controlling other charecters should be kept to a minimum? and why is Lana out of control?
Ruby stepped foward. She was slightly older than the others, and deemed herself the leader for that reason. “Hold on one moment. None of us are going with you unless you do some exlaining.” she crossed her arms defiantly, ignoring Lana, who was now a small python. “For one, we know you knocked us all out! I for one knew my powers. If you hadn’t sedated me, I would have defended the others and we would have gotten away!” she stepped closer, lowering her voice to a whisper. “and one more thing. If you make one false move against us, you can be sure you won’t survive to see the consequences. After all,” she said with a threatening smile, “there are five of us. Five out-of-control mages with nothing to lose and who bear you a grudge. And I for one would make sure Adela wouldn’t heal you!” She hummed a note, threateningly, and moved back. “sit,” she said, gesturing at the concrete floor. “sit and explain.”
Ok, so i’m very confused, but i’ll try to go from a new point of veiw k.
Somewhere else in the lab , Natsuko was argueing with her sister.
“Natsuko, you can’t use them! Their lifes aren’t yours to take!” a doll yelled standing in front of her sister.
“No, I have to get you back to normal. This is all my fault.” Natsuko said gently touching her sister’s doll face. “Do you remember what happened. What was taken from us?”
>flash backa few days later in a graveyardeven laterPresent
Leah was feeling very iffy about going with Nigel, even if he did seem sufficiently intimidated by Ruby. She carefully got up and minced delicately with the rest. Lana had managed to come back to her human form, and Leah, who had never met Leah before (Hey, hey! Leah is the only one who wasn’t at the sleepover, wasn’t she? Verrrrrry significant.) decided to establish dominance over who she saw as the rest of the herd, the unintellegent girls around her. She sighed and wondered why her mother made her invite them to sleepovers like this. “Hello,” she said formally to the smaller girl. “Same to you,” replied Leah primly. “I’m older than you,” commented Lana after a minute. “What makes you think that?” “I’m taller, and I’m twelve.” “Thirteen.” Lana was dumbstruck. That wasn’t what Leah was supposed to say.
Erm….what was that for, Phoebe?
I think that was showing that lana was a bratty little control freak but she’s not the oldest so it’s like HA! ooh! burn! take that lana! mwahaha!!
i might be wrong though. in that case ignore the insanity of my lana-hating.
I actually didn’t think Lana was bratty, just sort of chearleaderish. But what do I know, I haven’t commented since post three!
Sorry if you objected, I just wanted Leah to do something and for Lana to get burned.
Ruby was the oldest, and thus far unobjcted-too leader, so she was following Nigel in front. She always got nervous, but humming or singing or whistling sometimes helped, so she began humming tunelessly. Nigel turned and slapped a hand over her mouth, trying to stop her – and within instants, the other four (or is it five?) were surrounding him, looking menacing. He let go uneasily. “Just stopping her form acidenty using her voice,” he said awkwardly, and they continued. Dealing with teenage mages is going to be harder than I thought, he thought. The plan is going to be difficult to carry out. He quickly sped up to a brisk trot through the corridors.
Humbled by Leah’s stinging thirteen-year-oldness, Lana was moping in the back, feeling mad about none of her friends from cheerleading practice were mages too.
Achmet padded down the coridor. He paused only to listen for a second, letting a small breeze ruffle his sand colored fur before continuing. Suddenly, without warning he snarled and leaped into the darkness, nocking over a teenage boy.
He stared at the fallen form. “Oh hello, Nigel, I see you found them. Lets go out in the moonlight so we can see each other.”
* * *
Ruby, Veronica, Lana, Adella and Leah followed Nigel and the thing down the coridor, and out into the same alleyway that they had lane unconcious in hours ago. Lana gasped as she saw what the thing was he was a huge cat, like a lynx, but much bigger. He had enormous amber eyes that glowed gold in the moonlight.
“Don’t count yourself safe yet!” hissed a voice from the darkness.
Note: ChinTsu wrote her installment (56) before Phoebe’s (55) had been posted.
Okay. I created Adela (I feel special now) so I’ll write from her POV.
As she stepped out into the alleyway, tendrils of memory began moving across Adela’s mind. She was eight, and Andrew had pushed her off the swing. Her arm hurt. It felt like it was broken.
Adela felt the needles of pain again at the memory, followed by the cooling sensation of healing. Her arm had been mended like new again. The memory of Andrew’s startled face was imprinted in her brain forever.
She smiled a grim smile at the thought. Somehow, in the darkness, her foot slipped on rough cobbles and her arm hit the ground. Adela heard bone snapping a second before the pain had fully reached her. With natural motion that came from healing herself so often, Adela helped a hint of fire wrap itself around the break.
The cat turned around, waiting for her with an expression like a sneer in its amber eyes. That look was quickly swept away, though, when it saw the bone fuse together in Adela’s arm. There was shock there, and recognition.
Adela’s mind was brought abruptly back to that day at the swingset. And if the face hadn’t been unmistakeably feline, she could have sworn it was Andrew staring out at her in disbelief…
“Magic, is it?” asked a voice from the shadows, low and menacing and bring Adela back to reality. “We have been waiting a long time for you, child.”
“Child?” asked Adela, trying to focus on something trivial rather than the unseen voice and her terror. “I’m thirteen today.”
“Thirteen on the day of the New Moon. You will come now. It has been too long. Far too long. Adela.”
Adela started at his use of her name. The world and the new moon were growing faint around her as a shimmering mist enveloped everything Adela could see.
*****
The mist cleared, and Adela was gone. Leah rubbed her sore toes through her ballet shoes. She knew that they had to rescue Adela from whatever had taken her. She just wished she knew how.
greeeaaat! Ruby is MY charecter; now I do her.
Ruby, who was following Nigel, didn’t see Adela disappear, but she did see Leah follow her a second later. “Drat!” she said to herself. Somthing told her this was nessesary, but she still didn’t like it. She decided to vent her anger at the only one she didn’t feel responsible for.
“Nigel!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “You idiot! you’re supposed to be saving us!”
Nigel turned, suprised. “what?”
Ruby pointed a shaking finger at where Adela and Leah had been a second before. “You look after the girls. Those two can’t take care of themselves.” she reached inside her shirt, taking out a small silver pendant in the shape of a five-pointed star–a pentagram. She tossed it to Nigel, who caught it. “I’m going after them. I still have thier scent. Just call me with that thing if you need me.” Ruby and Adela were the only two who had not been meant to be captured. Hopefully, the things that had taken the two younger girls would not be expecting her. She opened her mouth, but stopped. “Oh yeah, and Nigel. If anything happens to my girls, I will take it out of your skin!” before he could answer, she sung a note and vanished.
Ruby reappeared in a long, dank corrider. She hummed quietly; a tendril of thought reached out around her, seeking…
finaly, she found what she was looking for.
this story is getting kinda random. Maybe when we finish we should rewrite it, make it more organized?
Okay I kind of invented Achmet(the cat). So here goes.
Achmet stared at the place were Adella and Leah had dispeared. He muttered several Arabic curses under his breath and turned accusingly to Nigel, who felt his thoughts.
You didn’t tell me Akkaveesh was come here, now! Of all the places to test them!
I didn’t know. Nigel shrugged.Do you think we should tell the other two?He glanced at Veronica and Lana.
Of course not!Achmet snapped back.It isn’t a test if they know.
Lana and Veronica could tell something was going on between Nigel and the cat.
“That’s impossible”, said Veronica to no one imparticular. “You can’t communicate without speech or hand motions or something.”
The cat just looked at her intently. If he had eyebrows, they would have been raised.
* * *
Ruby hummed threatenly. She could tell Leah and Adella were huddled in a corner. Gaurding them was some sort large spider.
Ruby hummed again, and a shockwave tossed the the spider agaist the wall. It responed by shooting strings of thick, black webbing at her. Ruby laughed as she easily tossed them aside with her voice.
Then the spider did something totally unexpected. It dissolved. It was like it had become part of the darkness in the corridor.
Suddenly, Ruby felt something covering her mouth. She tried to hum, but the black goo spilled into mouth. She couldn’t sing, couldn’t hum, couldn’t breath. Her last thoughts before she blacked out were I don’t wan’t to die failing like this……..
* * *
Ruby opened her eyes. She was lying in some sort of bed, covered by warm blankets. The spider she had felt in the coridor, only much smaller, was seeted on a stool by her bed, it’s head resting on one leg in a gesture of thoughtfulness.
“Where am I?” Ruby asked as she sat up with a jolt, her hand narrowly missing the spider.
“Now calm down dear”, the spider said in a very different voice from the one she had heard comming from the coridor. In fact, it was almost pleasant.
“I don’t blame you though”, it continued,”I suppose we do have a lot of explaining to do.”
“We do indeed”, said a smooth, purring voice. Ruby looked in surprise, and saw that the voice belonged to a regular sized version of the cat she had seen in the alleyway. She had not noticed him before because his sandy fur blended in with the sandy rug he was sitting on.
The cat looked at her and nodded. “First of all, I am Achmet and my friend here is Akkaveesh. Your friends are safe, and we will not try to use them in any way……….”
I guess Natsuko and her sister are kinda my characters so i’ll write about them.
Natsuko wandered to the area where she remembered leaving the girls. She was just getting ready to create the stone. There was nothing her sister could do to stop her. These girls were worth more than any other human life, they had powers and therefore would be worth 100 times as much as other lifes. She walked quickly, she was tired of waiting.
“What the…?” Natsuko gasped, noticing that her sacrifices wern’t there anymore. She was about to cry when her sister walked in.
“It’s better this way, Natsuko.” She said, quiet like a wisp of smoke “We did what shouldn’t be done, and now we have to pay the price.”
You know what? We need a character index so that we can keep track of the new characters everyone’s inventing.
Adela- Turned thirteen today. Average height. Green eyes and long brown hair. Healer, possibly other powers, unknown and untested. Teased by Andrew (see below.) Wanted by strange people from another world, who say they’ve been waiting for her.
Andrew- Adela’s tormentor and twin brother. Sandy hair, amberish eyes. Adela thinks he may metamorphose into a cat. Powers (if any) unknown and untested.
Adela has one ‘l’. I think a few people are spelling it with two.
Adela awoke, groggy from the mist that had brought her here and its smell, almost like that sedative in the alley. It felt like ages ago, even though it was only tonight, maybe four hours ago.
Leah was still asleep beside her, her toe shoes bearing a faint hint of blood. Adela could fix that, at least. She needed to do something to keep helplessness and terror from overtaking her.
Adela pushed a tiny fraction of her power out towards Leah’s feet, feeling for the skin closing up and removing any blisters the girl had.
At least, that was what was supposed to happen. What actually happened was a huge surge of magic leaving Adela’s fingertips and pulling roughly over Leah’s skin.
Leah woke then, as any person without painkiller would if all the skin had been pulled off their feet. “What are you doing?” she asked through gritted teeth.
“I don’t know!” yelled Adela. “I was just trying to heal your toes from walking around en pointe, and the power just– exploded! I’m trying to fix it.”
Adela concentrated on pulling the tiniest bit of healing fire from her veins and smoothing it across Leah’s mutilated left foot, encouraging the skin to grow across it once more.
Leah sighed with relief while Adela started work on the other one.
After she was done, Leah sat back and asked, “Why did that happen? You’ve always had good control before.”
Before Adela had a chance to answer, the same low, terrifying voice purred, “Thirteen at the New Moon.”
“I’m tired of riddles!” yelled Adela, out of patience. “My whole bloody life has been riddles, about healing, about magic, about New Moons and waiting for me, and I’m sick of it! I’m sick of riddles and fear and magic and secrets. Come into the light so I can see who you are and what you want with me, because I have more power now. I can hurt you now, not just heal you. Come into the light!”
Slowly, a body entered the thin shaft of light. It was thin and female and utterly unworldly. On its back were folded a pair of translucent wings, shimmering with slowly moving designs. Its eyes were pure black pits, free of emotion ar anything else human.
“I will tell you, child. I will tell you everything.”
Sorry. Couldn’t resist picking up where I left off.
“I am Athanath. You are in Aebvoraena, and you must help us. Because you turned thirteen, the age of magic, on the night of the New Moon, the night of magic, in October–”
“The month of magic. I get it.” said Adela. This ancient woman-thing might have all the time in the world, but she didn’t. She had to get back to her own world.
Athanath laughed. It was a harsh, yet smooth sound, like a snake grating on sandpaper.
“Natsuko…” Athanath’s voice trailed away. “She did something that should not everbe done. She gave magic to those who were decreed to live without it, humans. It was for her own causes, causes even I do not know. I also do not know how many she endowed the Forbidden Gift upon. I know you are one of them, and the one beside you. Uunane seems to have caught another in her web. But there could not have been only three…” For a while, Athanath seemed lost in thought. Adela grunted to bring her back to the present, and the creature resumed her narrative.
“It was strangely fortunate, though, that Natsuko did what she did. Aebvoraena is in trouble. Once every millenium, the Powers return from the abyss where we cast them so long ago. Each time, it becomes harder to return them. Last time, it nearly destroyed us. If we do not find help soon, it will destroy us this time. That is why you are here. Because you came into your full powers on the New Moon in October, they are seven times what they would have been. As you pointed out, you can hurt as well as heal now. We will need both. We need you. And we may need the other Gifted before it is too late. I can only hope Natsuko cooperates.”
Adela sat there for a long time, drinking in all she’d just heard.
Leah broke the long, strange silence. “I may not have my birthday on the night of the new moon, but I still have power. I will help you.”
Adela suddenly understood the weight of the problem she was facing. But she wouldn’t face it alone. Leah would be with her, and maybe Ruby, Veronica, or Lana, too.
“Count me in,” she said.
Ruby took a deep breath. She had heard Athanath’s story. She would help; but she needed to make sure her girls were safe first.
“I have a few questions, ma’am, please.” for Ruby, this was very respectful.
Athanath looked around, and so did Adela and Leah. “Yes, child?”
Ruby took a deep breath. “Well, I knew about my power for at least a year before the new moon. What’s with me? and also, what is going to happen to Lana and Veronica?”
Athanath considered this. finally she said, “Lana and Veronica have thier own task. They must face it alone. However, you and your friends, as you agreed, will help me.
“and as for your power, you activate it by song, correct?” Ruby nodded. “well, I think you shall find that you are just as untapped as the rest of these girls. Celentra put her gifts in you, thereby creating you. Natsuko located the gifted ones and took them captive. Adela’s healing gift is hard to detect; her capture was merely luck. Yours, however…” she shook her head. “This may be difficult for you, but you must know. The reason you came in to your power before the time alloted to humans is because…because, my child, you are not human!”
oh, yeah, my charecter:
Ruby is almost fourteen, and a natural leader. She feels responsible for the rest of the girls. She activates her various powers by song; soon she will learn other ways. She isn’t human; the next installment will reveal just what she IS, whoever decides to write it…
she has sorta red, sorta chestnut, longish hair, black eyes that the pupils are indistiguishable from the irises, and long fingers.
Character Thing
Leah: Leah is a victim of neglect, I know it’s a bit angsty, but I like that sort of stuff. Anyway, what she does excel at it ballet, which she has quite a talent for. She pretty much hates everyone, including you, and is short and pale, with dark hair.
Anastasia: Leah’s spoiled sister, thus far the only one of many introduced.
Night fell, shimmering with stars in the almost pitch black dark. Ruby felt herself flow into the dark night, as she began to go to sleep, the drumming downstairs as her lullaby. She sighed.
“You’re not human,” the voice chanted in her head, throbbing terribly.
“You’re not human.”
She shook herself, so that her locks of hair toppled down from their position on top the pillow.
Another past voice echoed into her mind. “You’re such a beautiful girl,” Her friend Olive had said.
I might be a girl, but I’m not human thought, and then sighed, a hollow, sad sigh.
Again she stared out the window, and then around the other girls who’s bodies were heaving as they got rest under warm blankets. Their faces were pale and lit by a silvery moonlight and they were snug looking even though outside it was probably freezing. That was only because Ruby was humming very faintly acting like their own personal heater, only because this place lacked one.
Distracted, Ruby stopped to hum, and almost immediantly, a whiff of cold wind found it’s way into the room. She sighed, and started to hum again.
Then, she noticed the small light under the door. It was reddish, gleaming slightly, and it gave her a fuzzy feeling when she looked at it. Contrasted with the pale glow of the moon she felt a sudden feeling of calmness and universal peace. Delighted, she wiggled down on her bed to relax in this moment, but alas, universal peace is bound to end quite quickly, as to the fact that many things happen in the universe. The door opened, and in walked Athanath, now in a dark green outfit, shiny leather, of course. She beckoned to Ruby, who knew that there was no way to resist the girl.
“Good, good Ruby. You are just beginning to learn a way of obedience that will lead to many rewards.” She laid her hand on Ruby’s shoulder, which Ruby shrugged off defensivly.
“Ungrateful snot,” murmered Athanath, but Ruby began to hum louder now, not a slight gurgle from her throat, a hum that could be heard, and teetered on her toes signing her meaning to use her power.
“Grateful enough, I supose.” Athanath gave in.
Ruby nodded approvingly and quieted her hum again.
“Alright,” she began, a whiff of heat blowing from her mouth, she had to concentrate to make it not do heat at the moment, and rather be helpless.
“Say Nodasa girl, and it’ll work well enough rather than telkeny.” She snorted.
“ Nodasa ,” Ruby murmered under her breath.
“Alrgiht,” she started again, “If I’m not human, what am I?”
Athanath smiled at her, a mocking smile.
“It’s a matter of genetics, girl.” She began. “Your mother, who was like one of the others,” she said nodding to the slightly ajar door, “A human with special abilities, otherwise known as a Lihenja.
Ruby nodded, signing as a way to go on.
“Your father, however, was more of a spirit who roamed the earth. On a journey to the far land of Lukandra, they met, in the Temple of Lokanseer. Spirits were not allowed to marry, unless allowed by the Juvi god, but they did, without permission and your father was banished, thankfull not killed. The Spirits were not allowed to marry with a worthy blood or race because they are capable of nearly every power. The inter-mingling of their powers would probably lead to the ultimate accident. Thankfully, they had been good and did not marry at all, until your father, and even his case has gone along unknown until now.”
Athanath continued. “And Ruby, you are living up to your name. After recent tests, we have found that a unknown power we have named Subniyscion is actually a power capable of almost all in the universe. You are the only one to have it, the most rarest of cases. Yet, after another test, we have proved that it will not be easy to master.”
Athanath turned over her arm, laughing evily.
“But when you master it, blood transfusions will certainly allow it to be mastered in everyone!”
Ruby’s eyes widened, startled.
She began to run.
“You can run girl, but they won’t last long,” she nodded to the open room.
Ruby inhaled, and then made up her mind.
That’s your part.
See you later, alligator.
My characters heehee
Achmet-A strange cat-like creature. He is an afreet, specifically a sand afreet, a type of magical animal. He can change size, call up sand to do his bidding, and change into a cloud of sand. He uses a song similar to what Ruby does. He has amber eyes and sandy fur.
Akkaveesh-A dark afreet who takes the form of a spider. She can change size, a character which all afreets have. She can also become invisble, temperarily blind people, turn into black goo, and take the pain away from wounds. Despite her frightning apearance, she is quite kindhearted.
Now for the story
Achmet started swearing as soon Ruby dissapeared.
Akkaveesh remained calm. “Tone down on it Achmet. The only one who could of taken her is Athanath, and Ruby will be safe with her. And besides, she will like being told what’s going on by Athanath much better than a talking cat and spider.”
Achmet stopped cursing. “I suppose your right”, he grumbled.
Just then, the door burst open and Nigel stumbled in. He was breathing hard and looked worried.
“Adela and Leah are gone. Is Ruby-?”
“Of course she’s here”, Achmet interupted sarcasticly,”The bed wouldn’t be empty otherwise. Akkaveesh thinks Athanath has taken them.”
“If it is indeed Athanath, there’s nothing we can do but hold on to Lana and Veronica and wait till Kitsune and Ka’ala get here.”
Suddenly Achmet hummed a neutral, eirie note. It echoed around the room as the outlines of his body began to blur.
Akkaveesh reverted to mind speech. Stop him, Nigel!
Nigel leaped at Achmet, but it was too late. Achmet dissolved , and Nigel fell on the floor.
* * *
Achmet felt the pain begin, but he did not cry out. He it flow through him untill he felt like every fiber of his being was being burned alive…………….
((I’m a little lost, but I’m assuming Leah and Adela are still cornered by the giant spider.))
Leah had by now noticed that she and Adela were cornered by a giant spider, and it wasn’t very comforting. Leah had never liked spiders, which was rather unfortunate, because her room at her house – former house, she reminded herself with a smile – often had them crawling around the ceiling.
Adela, in the meantime, had also noticed this. She decided to take a look at the situation. She was pressed up against Leah’s back (And the bun was digging into her shoulder blade) in some weird misty place, and she could just distinguish a large, eight-legged creature, namely a spider, standing in front of them. Well, that seemed mostly like unavoidable doom. She sighed. She hadn’t been expecting dying as giant spider lunch.
Unless…
Adela had always had a soft spot for spiders. Maybe she could convince it to let them go. How was she going to tell Leah the plan without scaring it? She turned her head as far away from the spider as she could get, and whispered to Leah, “I think I have plan.” “Good,” Leah whispered back, “I’m not feeling to good. I don’t really like spiders.” “Just follow me.” Adela slowly walked towards the beast, while Leah shuffled along uncertainly behind her. “Ahem,” she adressed the monster. “Name’s Akaveesh. Hand me the ketchup bottle.” in mumbled. Adela blanched. “We don’t have any ketchup,” said Leah from behind her. The creature twitched. “Don’t let the camel eat me, Uncle Archanid,” it moaned. Both girls threw each other glances. “I swear thar I’m not an elephant,” it said. “Thnks for the mustard can, Eddie.” “I think it’s asleep,” said Leah. “Right,” said Adela. “Let’s get out of here.” Both of them quietly slipped out from behind the spider and cautiously continued through the mist.
Heck, we have a ton of material….
Round Robin ‘Riting
Veronica sighed, and wondered for the sixth time in the last few minutes why her parents had to name her “Veronica”. With a name that started with a “v” she was always the last to go in games, and everything else. Why couldn’t they have named her Adella, or something like that? If they had, her name would have been the first in alphabetical order, and she would have already had her turn in Monopoly, but as it was she was dead last, and by the time she went most of the good properties would be gone.
Right now Lana was going. That left Nancy, Ruby, and Stacy to go before she would have a turn. Drat it.
“Yay!!! Oriental Avenue,” screamed Lana, “I definitely want to buy it!!! Oh, this is so fun!!”
“Fun for you maybe,” thought Veronica darkly,” It’s easy to have fun when you aren’t last.” She never had liked Lana. She didn’t know if it had something to do with the fact that Lana always had the best luck, or if it was her too-up personality. It was hard to tell
Stacy was going now, almost time.
Why had she even agreed to come to this sleep-over? She never had fun at these things, and she didn’t even like most of the nine other girls there, Amy, Dana, Emme, Kelly, Jan, Lana, Nancy, Ruby and Stacy. She liked Dana a little, but one girl was not enough to make a sleepover worth her time. Why had she let her mom talk her into coming? She could here her voice now, “it’ll be fun! They’re all nice girls, there is no reason in the world why you shouldn’t like them!” Typicall short-sited mother.
A voice snapped her out of her reverie, ” Lana, it’s your turn now.”
Veronica started at the voice, jerked suddenly out of her thoughts. She absentmindedly accepted the dice, but only rolled them around in her hand, continuing her thinking. Always she was last. Always she was overlooked. What gave other people such power to always have good luck and fortune? What made some people the untouchable popular, and others the lower-than-dirt sludge? Why could she never be one of the fortunate? Always alone, always cast out. She didn’t belong here, and she knew it. Judging by the way the other girls were staring at her, they knew it too. Their lives fell into such an easy pattern. Why should she be any different?
Veronica stood up abruptly and dropped the dice carelessly on the board, upsetting several properties. She looked down on the girls and their petty game with distaste. Why should she bother being here any longer? The other girls didn’t understand what she was doing.
“Veronica, c’mon, roll and let’s go,” Lana whined. Her pretty face was pouty and displeased. “What’s wrong with you?”
Veronica looked at her and did not answer. She took a deep breath, and seemed to expand with infinite confidence and wondrous power. She stood there but a moment longer, then turned and left the room. Dana started and made as if to follow her; but did not. Veronica’s mind was boiling with relentless cautions and warnings, but she paid no heed. She gathered her sleepover in the next room and left the house quietly, yet with confidence. As she shut the front door, she breathed deeply the wild smell of the night. Veronica was still wearing her day clothes, though it was ten o’clock at night; she put on her raincoat, because it was drizzling slightly, and began the mile-and-a-half walk home with her flashlight to guide her.
Veronica walked in confidence down the dark, quiescent roads, damp with rain and wet leaf litter. She knew no one could touch her; she knew she had power for this time. Veronica reveled in the rain, the dark, the smell of the world, still awake and moving, though sunless, clicking and whispering and rustling to itself. She felt more alive than she’d ever been. Until, that is, she reached her house, and had to deal with the angry voice of her mother, demanding to know what she was doing outside at ten-thirty when she was supposed to be at a slumber party. The harsh sound beat her inner power back down again, to shrink and cower in hiding like it had for so many years.
Maybe this is a little too cruel for what the intention of this story was. But I gotta say it. This is how I feel sometimes. Do any of you identify with me?
After her mother reprimanded her, Veronica agreed to go back and apologize for her behaviour. She halfheartedly trudged along the alley, feeling unhappy, until something met her nose. It smelled a little of deep lavender, tinged with just the slightest bit of cinnamon, with something else she couldn’t quite recognize. And than…
She recognized it. Upon countless occasions, Veronica had been to the dentist. (she had weak enamel.) In one, she had to haves several teeth pulls. they had put her under for the occasion, and Veronica suddenly recognized it’s smell. It was the sedative. She quickly collapsed in the alleyway, with no one within a block of her to help.
The inner power Veronica felt slowly flowed out of her body into the street.
Three blocks away, Adela turned around and gulped in a breath of air instead of muddy water, gasping after Andrew’s retreating back.
“Curse him,” she muttered under her breath, wiping the icy rainwater from her thin face. She hated Andrew and his sense of humour, his constant teasing and pushing and shoving. She shrugged her shoulders and started after him.
Adela could see him turning the corner when she tripped. Something unseen was pulling her toward the old alley behind her house. Adela had always gone there to be alone, away from Andrew, when she was little. Andrew never seemed to be able to find it. She hadn’t been there for a while, though, and was surprised to find that nothing much had changed. It was still paved with dirty bricks with barrels leaning against boxes and perched on top of the old rusted Dumpster.
She could see that there was something lying in the middle of the alley now. On closer inspection, this turned out to be a girl. Her body felt cool, deprived of the mysterious humming that Adela could feel in people when she touched their skin. Something told her the girl was not dead, and her suspicions were proven when a hand shot out from the body and delivered a jolt of energy so strong that Adela could feel blackness seeping around the edges of her mind.
“Who are you?” the girl asked just before darkness filled Adela’s world.
Ruby rounded the corner into the alleyway, pulling her coat around her for warmth. She knew she had seen Adela come down here somewhere…she stopped dead when she saw the two girls on the ground. Adela and Veronica – the two who had left shelter, one after another. She glanced up at the sky, looking for something. There was no moon. Drat, drat, drat! The silly girls had gone out during the Witching Hour with no moon! As far as she knew, she was the only one safe doing that. Slowly, Ruby knelt down beside them and touched first Veronica, then Adela. Good, they both had a pulse. From the looks of things, Veronica had been sedated, but she couldn’t tell what had happened to Adela. She would have a hard time explaining how she had found them, as well. Slowly she stretched out a hand toward Veronica, not quite touching her, and another toward Adela. She closed her eyes and hummed softly, a seemingly random tune. Slowly, the two began to stir. But just then, something moved in the alley behind her, and she could smell something sweet…
“Aw mom, I don’t know why she left!” Lana whined. “I don’t see why I should apologize! It’s not our fault she was such a dork!”
“Lana, something obviously upset her. The polite thing to do would be to go over to her house and see what’s wrong.”
“I don’t know, she just doesn’t like us or something! Come on mom, it’s raining out!”
“Well….” Lana’s mom hesitated.
“I’ll drive you there Lana,” Lana’s dad cut in. “Get your raincoat.”
Lana stayed where she was. “I don’t want to go. She doesn’t want to see me anyway. I don’t know why she left! I won’t go! You can’t make me!”
“Ok then forget it,” Lana’s dad said. Lana sighed in relief. “No, you can walk there.”
“DAAAAAAAAAD!!!” Lana screamed. “FINE! I’ll just leave then! But i’m not coming back!”
She grabbed her raincoat and stomped out the door. Her mom flinched but her dad just said, “Leave her. She’ll be back.”
Lana had no intention of going to apologize to Veronica, but she ended up going in the direction of her house anyway. Suddenly, she decided to go back home. She was cold and wet and tired. Unfortunately, just as she was turning around a fist shot out in front of her. It was holding something, something that smelled strong and suspiciously like sedative…
Leah huddled in her cot as the wind blew in through the window. Downstairs, she could hear her mother and father congratulating hers siblings on their beautiful performances. Leah was up here for telling them it was horrible. It was, though. If the teacher had chosen Leah for the leading role, she wouldn’t have done it like Anastasia… Leah stood up, and did a few moves. Neck straight, good posture, toes constantly pointed… She pirouetted and did a jete, and was swept off into the world of dance, which was much better than this. In dance, people cared about her, unlike her parents, giving everyone else the credit. Especially her siblings. Suddenly, someone pounded on the door. “Leah, come out here and apologize to your sister.” Leah tripped in the middle of a turn, and the fantasy quickly fell away. the first thing she saw was her window.. her window. She smiled. Now was the time. She was on the first floor, she quickly and gracefully vaulted out the window, and skipped off into the alleyways, still in her ballets shoes and a tight bun on the back of her head. She was going to go off and become a dancer by herself. She pulled her glasses out of her pocket and peered into the next alley. Something was lying there… in fact, many things… she crept forward, and realised they were people, all girls, about her age. She was going to scream when an arm reached out of nowhere and stuffed a cloth that smelled suspiciously like sedative out in her face. It instantly smothered her shriek.
Leah’s last thought was, Oh hell, it is sedative. Than she and her dirty mouth collapsed on the asphalt alleyway.
Veronica was the first to wake. Her head felt as if it had been pounded by a million iron hammers…With an effort, she sat up and then almost screamed aloud. This wasn’t the alleyway. In fact, this looked more like a science lab. She was lying on a bed, and she could see several other girls her age around her. She jerked upwards, and jumped off the bed. But before she could reach the door, it opened…
A harsh metal clang jolted Adella out of unconsciousness. She glanced around her, surprised that instead of a dark alleyway, she was lying in a hospital bed under bright florescent lights. It looked like some sort of lab.
The girl she had seen in the alley was crouched on the floor, her eyes wide in terror. Adella was wondering what she was so afraid of, when she noticed that the metal door was open, and the space behind gaped into darkness. The clang she heard must have been caused when the door handle struck the wall. She was about to ask the other girl where the heck they were, but here words caught in her throat when a women stepped out of the darkness……………..
“Someone turned on the lights,” grumbled Ruby. Adela and Veronica stared at her, than, realising they weren’t alone, stared at each other. “Um,” said Adela awkwardly, “Is this place yours?” “No…” said Veronica, looking around. Ruby’s eyes snapped open and she sprang up, glancing wildly in all directions, “I said turn ’em off!” suddenly she saw where she was and the other girls, and the woman in the doorway.
Adela and Ruby were both very shy. The two of them now were biting their lips and fidgeting. Veronica’s good upbringing immediately took over. “Hello, M’am,” she said politely. “M’am?” hissed the figure in a masculine tone. Veronica was now blushing furiously. “I mean, sir.” “Sir?” “Sorry, um… sorry.” “Sorry sorry?” “Yes,” said Veronica. “Sorry sorry.” “Yes sorry sorry.” The… thing, she guessed it was, approached her menacingly. “I bring,” it said. “Right,” said Veronica hoping she meant food. The thing hissed, and grabbed her by the wrist, and Adela with the other. Than, another limb extended from her robes and snatched Ruby’s collar, whilst yet another grabbed Leah by the back of the shirt, just as she woke, and dragged them out into the corridor. Lana thought she was safe, but a moment later a tendril shot back into the room, and grabbed her roughly by the wrist.
The thing, having used an impossible amount of limbs already to secure the girls, revealed a further four as it dragged them down the hall, which Veronica noticed was lit with torches set in sconces. The figure continued through the flickering light until they reached an area where there were no torches.
They were all dragged off, legs scraping on the pavement. Lana was about to complain, but was to terrified.
“I got them” the “thing” said.
The girls could just make out a figure sitting in a chair.
“Geese, is that anyway to treat guests?” A cool female voice spoke from the chair.
The figure stood up and turned around. She looked to be about 14 years old at the most. She was very short with green eyes like a forest. She didn’t smile, but at the same time she didn’t frown. Her face was like a Japanese paper mask.
“Hello, I’m Natsuko, you are here for an alchemic experiment.” The girl said. Her voice was cold and clear, but the one it effected the most was Ruby. Ruby was an anime fan and one of her favorite animes was Full Metal Alchemist, and in it “Alchemic research” normally meant turning them into a Chimara. Which wouldn’t be fun, cause then she’d have to share a body with LANA!!!!!!
It was 10:00 in the morning, and Veronica’s parents were beginning to get a bit worried.
“Maybe we should call Lana’s parents, and make sure that she is over there, she should be back by now,” Veronica’s father mused.
“She’s probably fine, probably sleeping like a baby at her house… but maybe we should, just to make sure everything’s fine and…” Veronica’s mother’s voice trailed off.
“I’ll do it now,” replied her father, walking over to the phone.
“Hello, this is Charles Walker, Veronica’s father. I’m just calling to check that she’s all right.. What do you mean she’s not there? We sent her back after she walked out to apologize, and when she didn’t come back, we figured that she had just stayed… No, we haven’t seen Lana, or Ruby. They’re missing? Any idea where they’ve gone?… no, I don’t think Veronica would have gone off somewhere with them… Do the other’s have any idea… Okay, I’ll do that, and I’ll report that they’re missing.” He hung up.
“Veronica never made it over there. Ruby Liu wasn’t planning to sleep over and left to go home early, but she never arrived. Lana’s parents sent her over here to apologize to Veronica… I’m calling the police.”
Veronica’s mother sat in shock, her eyes drifting to the window and the peaceful street outside.
“Al…alchemy?” Ruby stuttered, now very much awake. The grip on her intensified, and she felt her breath becoming shallower and shallower. The girls about her seemed to be having the same problem.
“Geese!” The woman’s sharp voice rang out clearly, her eyes burning suddenly with an intensity not of this earth.
The small figure’s grip released, and he retreated to out the door with much haste.
“Now…where were we?” The woman smiled, her teeth quite white.
“Ah yes. My experiment.”
Out on the streets, a man cloaked in black with red, frizzled hair strolled up to a black lab. His eyes darted to signs nailed against to the lab. “Experimenting lab, dangers.” With a snort, he reached for the handle, but a mysterious pulse drew him back against the wall. He shook his head, unharmed. “Leana?” He growled. Only a tiny whisper quivered through the doorknob’s hole. “Who is it?” it inquired. “Nigel.” He snapped. There was a small, gentle whimper and the doors swung open. “Where is PDI?” He asked, powerfully. “Oh, you mean-you mean-master’s creation?” Whispered the small voice. “You know what I mean, Leana.” He snarled, dangerously. “Yes sir, I’ll take you to PDI.” Slowly, a small, stout figure appeared from behind a metallic door. “Report to PDI. Come to the central.” It squeaked as loudly as she could through and large intercom. Slowly, shuffling against concrete could be heard. A flash of silver, and them a full exposure of a robotic person. “Master?” It said tonelessly, nevertheless not failing to bow. “And PDI?” he said less aggressively. For a small moment their eyes meant with a tinge of recognition. He narrowed his large green eyes, and started into PDI’s. “I want to talk to you later, but not right now. Right now I want to know if Juo has gotten our…” a small, wicked smile bloomed on his face. “Patients, hm?” Again, tonelessly, the creature said, “Most certainly sir. I can take you to them.” “Please do,” he said interested, “Please do.”
Back in the lab:
“Wait just one moment.” Ruby’s firm voice rang out from the back of the group of frightened girls. “What do you mean, alchemic research? What do you need with a bunch of teenage girls? There isn’t anything special about us!” She crossed her fingers behind her back as she said that, all too aware of her rather special abilities. But what if the rest of these girls…
The woman smiled. “Oh?” she said. “You like to sing, don’t you, girl?”
Ruby inhaled sharply. How could she have known?
The woman turned to Veronica. “and you. Ever had a feeling of power? Invincibility, of being unrestrained by physical limits?” She did not wait for a reply, directing her speech next to Lana. “ever had a feeling of not being what you truly appear to be? want to be something else, perhaps? envy cats or some other specific animal for its, uh,” she paused. “flexibility?” Listen, you stupid girls, ever heard of something called precognition? how about telekinesis? Clairvoyance, perhaps? or is it just MAGIC? Until you are properly studied, we’ll never know. And,” she added as an afterthought, “your parents have called the police. Don’t worry, the coppers will escape with their skins– barely. Goodnight!”
Before long, all the girls were properly contained. The lady walked down the long line of clear plastic cells, reading the labels and smiling. Veronica Moor–telekinetic. Adela McCarson–healer, powers unknown. Ruby Lana–unknown, taps various power through vocal activity. Lana Brown–metamorphosis of self, untapped. Leah Stevenson–pyrotecnotic, untapped…
PDI shuffled down the hall. Quietly, PDI shifted silently away from where the man was, breathing heavily. She slipped out of her shoes, and out of her disguise. Golden locks fell out. “Nigel…” she whispered. She trotted steadily to the lab where Juo, her sister awaited. “Are they here?” she asked, inquisitively. “Oh, they been here for awhile.” In tanks filled with a blackish blue liquid were many girls, labels to accompany them. “Radiation at high speed?” She asked, running her slender fingers through her tangly hair. “Yep…” she said, preoccupied with the mechanics. Soon the squeak of acceleration was singing steadily. The girls in their cases twitch gently. “Good job.” Then she heard the clang of boots. “Darn…” she cursed, quietly. “Darn, darn, darn!” She rasped, her voice now hissing. “Juo, go lock the doors.” Juo turned her head at her sister, confused. “Do as I say!” she yelled. Juo trotted quickly to the doors, but not quick enough. Nigel came in, his eyes wide. “I knew it, Tignite. I knew it. You couldn’t stay in your clever little disguise forever.” Suddenly, there was a piercing scream. Ruby, whose eyes burned like acid had flowed into them shrieked in fright. “shut off the yedinir system!” Scram Nigel. Although his boots were wet with the slosh of yesterdays rainstorm, he managed to get past the befuddled Tignite and Juo all the way to the machinery, where he shut off all the mechanisms so the hum of their work could no longer be heard. “Are you crazy?” He rasped. “You think the coppers can make it past these gates?” Juo looked at her sister. Suddenly, without warning, Veronica bust through the glass as if she had been one of the fantastic four. It was almost as if you were waiting to hear her main theme song, but suddenly she fell to the ground and the pungent smell of gas filled the air. “Are you trying to rid them of their powers?” he shrieked, reaching out for one of the sister’s necks. “Stop it, Nigel.” Said a voice from nowhere, quite smoothly. It was a radiant lady all in red, with red hair– wild red hair. “You’ve gone far enough.” She soothed. Slowly, gently, she made her way to the heaving body of Veronica. “Oh, great.” She said sarcastically. She laid a gloved hand on Veronica’s jacketed back. Then she tossed her hair behind her back and sighed. “You’re working with a power almost like the sister to death,” warned the lady. “If they are killed, or subsequently just seem to be, when we evacuate there will be no more breath for us. The lab will be done for.” Nigel started at the lady. “I didn’t no Celentra. I didn’t.” Just as they expected all the girls burst out of their cases, liquid spilling all over the floor. Nigel bowed his head, ashamed. Celentra began to twitch. “Did I tell you,” she began. “That these were my children?” Her voice grew louder as her anger quickened to a steady pace. “That metamorphosis and etc., were placed quite sparingly on earth by me? And isn’t it a coincedence that all of these great to-be heroines should get together” she chortled softly, “At a sleepover?” All the bodies of the girls were heaving gently, slowly regaining their strength granted by earth.
The girls lay on the cold concrete floor, breathing hard after their ordeal. Veronica, the first out, found the strength to lift her head and look around. The lady who had put them in the cases was talking to another, with tangled red hair, bright as rubies. An odd feeling of love flooded through Veronica as the woman put her hand on her hair, and she felt safe somehow. Around her, she saw the others relaxing slightly, and Adela– the healer, she reminded herself– got up, coughing. Lana was the first to speak. Her trial seemed to have softened her a bit, as her voice had only a fraction of its former bratty quality, although her old boldness was still there.
“Uh, listen…” she coughed, and spat out some of the blue liquid with difficulty. “Uh…” behind her, Ruby was crying soundlessly, seemingly unable to make a noise. “Does this mean no more alchemy?”
“Yeah,” said Leah. “how do we know this isn’t another trick? And I used to be able to light fires. This blue stuff…” she pointed a finger a a pile of damp cloth in the corner. It smouldered feebly, but soon went out. “well, it keeps me from doing it, see?”
Celentra smiled. “I created you. No, I do not want you to die, if I can help it. Right now you five are the only humans who can alter matter without mechanical or manual help. I shall certainly try to avoid hurting you, and another episode like this will not be tolerated.” the other two scientists– or whatever they were–cringed. the red haired woman softened slightly. “I have no power here–why do you think I created you in the first place? Just remember that I love you.” suddenly there was a swirl of light, and the lady disappeared. A voice echoed in the depths of the girls’ minds. they will try to use you, despite my wishes. Don’t let them. Use your power.
Veronica glared at the two sisters who glared back. “You put us into this, didn’t you?” She tried to use her powers to move around, but she couldn’t “What did you do?” she whined. Suddenly, Lana stood up. “I won’t put up with this.” she said stubbornly. “I won’t. I’m going to wake up and I’m going to be able to do everything I could. I won’t put up with it. Never.” Juo raised one of her skinny eyebrows. Behind her, Nigel was pulling out his hair. “I knew it,” he roared, “I knew Celentra would be this way.” Tignite rolled her eyes. “Do you really care what Celentra thinks?” Juo nodded in agreement. “What can she do? Cast spells on us or something?” Nigel narrowed his eyes. “You don’t know what she’s capable of.” He snarled dangerously. “And neither do you,” said Juo, unintimidated. But they couldn’t do anything. Leana small voice quivered from all the rest. “They’re here,” she whimpered. Behind her, black figures stood ready and prepared. “I tried.” She squeaked faintly. “Who’s here?” Juo inquired. “The cops?” Leana gently nodded.
“Mmhmm…” Tignite snorted. “Jeez, Leana, it’s not so bad….” a nasty grin formed on the prettiest of the sister’s face. She swooped around to face the girls. “Which one of you is capable of transforming?” Lana slowly raised her hand, looking around at the other girls helplessly. “Then come here, girl!” she commanded. Lana shuffled as if entranced over to Tignite. “Stop it, girl,” Celentra’s voice called. “They’re trying to use you, they’ll always be. Don’t let them.” With a squeeze of her arm, Lana turned herself into a dragonfly, swooping around the lab. “Is that the best you can do to escape?” Juo laughed. Nigel raised his hand. Suddenly a strong voice echoed throughout the building. “This is the Cauldron police. Release all weapons.” It commanded. “You’ll have to tear us apart, limb from limb,” Juo squealed under her breath. “Cause their sewn into us.” Suddenly, a muscular figure appeared silhouetted in the doorway. “Mr. Brampton?” He said confusedly, “I didn’t think you’d be part of this plot.” Nigel wring his hands nervously. “W-well I’m not. I was trying to get the girls before you had to do anything.” The other man looked interested. “Really?” Nigel tried his best to give a honest nod. “Then why are they,” he said pointing to the dragonfly and the huddled girls, “All scared and hurt-looking?” Nigel stared at the girls. He squinted, under physchological pain and entrapment. “They’re not,” he said. “I saved them, before these two,” he said, swerving around to Juo and Tignite who were trying to make a run for it, “Did what they did.”
A sleek, catlike shape landed soundlessly in the alleyway. Sniffing several time, he yowled and leaped at the door, which crumpled like paper under his weight. A stone corridor stood gaping were the door once.
He grumbled to himself as he padded silently down the hallway.
“It took me three days, Celantra, three whole days to track them down. You could have sent Akkaveesh, but no, you had to send me because I’m less noticeable . Ba!”
Adela spoke. Pointing a shaking finger at the man, she said, “what do you mean, save us? If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be here! Lana, come here, I think I can change you back.” she held out a finger, and the dragonfly obediantly landed on it. with a pop, it changed back into Lana, who fell with a thump to the floor. “I’ll have to work on that,” she muttered.
The night sky dimmed, and through a small window, dark figures could be seen squirming around the lab. But only one pair of eyes saw what was happening, and his name was Nigel.
“Where did he go?” Roared a cop, with a silver badge.
” I swear sir,” whimpered a junior officer, “I didn’t see him go, or I think he just vanished into the air!”
Outside, Nigel chuckled darkly.
“This isn’t Harry Potter you know,” the greatest cop declared.
After a brief pause, a pair of cops and two villains were pulled into the scene of the crime. The first of the villains was Tikinite and the Second was Juo. Both looked frazzled and dazed, and especially Juo who looked as she might have just seen a ghost. “Okay, you two,” spoke the badged cop,
“What have you been doing in this pigpen of yours?”
Juo glimpsed briefly at her sister and then began her lie.
“Just performing some scientific experiments on our new cure for cancer. These girls were to test it. We’ve tested it ourselves-”
“Don’t lie to me, you insufficient citizen!” He roared grabbing Juo by the scruff of her neck.
“Anymore of this dishonesty, and you’ll be gone from the face of this country. Do you understand,” he muttered directly and darkly to her, “Do you understand the condition of what I say?”
She quietly nodded. “Certainly, sir.”
He glared at her. Suddenly there was a scream, and all the lights dimmed.
* * *
“Lana,” Ruby scolded, “If they know we’re down here, we’re done for.”
Veronica scowled, slumped against the wall.
“I didn’t know that going back to you dorks would leave me here.”
Lana screamed again, her face pale and her eyes bloodshot.
Nancy started at her, leaning quite self-consciously against a electricity generator.
“Sssh, Lana. What Ruby said.”
Slowly, Lana metamorphsized, out of control. In the situation they were in, there was nothing they could do about it.
1st, there was only a flash of silver, and then suddenly Nigel appeared with them, as if sent by a unknown spirit. He smiled innocently, something, he recalled, he hadn’t done in a while.
“Come on girls,” he soothed.
“Come on,” Lana echoed as if entranced.
Nigel glared at her.
“Lana?”
“What’s happened to her?” He asked.
“Well, she was trying to be a dragonfly, and then everything went haywire.
in a while, crocodile.
Ruby stepped forward. She was slightly older than the others, and deemed herself the leader for that reason. “Hold on one moment. None of us are going with you unless you do some exlaining.” she crossed her arms defiantly, ignoring Lana, who was now a small python. “For one, we know you knocked us all out! I for one knew my powers. If you hadn’t sedated me, I would have defended the others and we would have gotten away!” she stepped closer, lowering her voice to a whisper. “and one more thing. If you make one false move against us, you can be sure you won’t survive to see the consequences. After all,” she said with a threatening smile, “there are five of us. Five out-of-control mages with nothing to lose and who bear you a grudge. And I for one would make sure Adela wouldn’t heal you!” She hummed a note, threateningly, and moved back. “sit,” she said, gesturing at the concrete floor. “sit and explain.”
Somewhere else in the lab , Natsuko was arguing with her sister.
“Natsuko, you can’t use them! Their lives aren’t yours to take!” a doll yelled standing in front of her sister.
“No, I have to get you back to normal. This is all my fault.” Natsuko said gently touching her sister’s doll face. “Do you remember what happened. What was taken from us?”
Leah was feeling very iffy about going with Nigel, even if he did seem sufficiently intimidated by Ruby. She carefully got up and minced delicately with the rest. Lana had managed to come back to her human form, and Leah, who had never met Leah before (Hey, hey! Leah is the only one who wasn’t at the sleepover, wasn’t she? Verrrrrry significant.) decided to establish dominance over who she saw as the rest of the herd, the unintelligent girls around her. She sighed and wondered why her mother made her invite them to sleepovers like this. “Hello,” she said formally to the smaller girl. “Same to you,” replied Leah primly. “I’m older than you,” commented Lana after a minute. “What makes you think that?” “I’m taller, and I’m twelve.” “Thirteen.” Lana was dumbstruck. That wasn’t what Leah was supposed to say.
•
Ruby was the oldest, and thus far unobjected – too leader, so she was following Nigel in front. She always got nervous, but humming or singing or whistling sometimes helped, so she began humming tunelessly. Nigel turned and slapped a hand over her mouth, trying to stop her – and within instants, the other four (or is it five?) were surrounding him, looking menacing. He let go uneasily. “Just stopping her form accidently using her voice,” he said awkwardly, and they continued. Dealing with teenage mages is going to be harder than I thought, he thought. The plan is going to be difficult to carry out. He quickly sped up to a brisk trot through the corridors.
Humbled by Leah’s stinging thirteen-year-oldness, Lana was moping in the back, feeling mad about none of her friends from cheerleading practice were mages too.
Achmet padded down the corridor. He paused only to listen for a second, letting a small breeze ruffle his sand colored fur before continuing. Suddenly, without warning he snarled and leaped into the darkness, knocking over a teenage boy.
He stared at the fallen form. “Oh hello, Nigel, I see you found them. Lets go out in the moonlight so we can see each other.”
* * *
Ruby, Veronica, Lana, Adella and Leah followed Nigel and the thing down the corridor, and out into the same alleyway that they had lane unconscious in hours ago. Lana gasped as she saw what the thing was he was a huge cat, like a lynx, but much bigger. He had enormous amber eyes that glowed gold in the moonlight.
“Don’t count yourself safe yet!” hissed a voice from the darkness.
Okay. I created Adela (I feel special now) so I’ll write from her POV.
As she stepped out into the alleyway, tendrils of memory began moving across Adela’s mind. She was eight, and Andrew had pushed her off the swing. Her arm hurt. It felt like it was broken.
Adela felt the needles of pain again at the memory, followed by the cooling sensation of healing. Her arm had been mended like new again. The memory of Andrew’s startled face was imprinted in her brain forever.
She smiled a grim smile at the thought. Somehow, in the darkness, her foot slipped on rough cobbles and her arm hit the ground. Adela heard bone snapping a second before the pain had fully reached her. With natural motion that came from healing herself so often, Adela helped a hint of fire wrap itself around the break.
The cat turned around, waiting for her with an expression like a sneer in its amber eyes. That look was quickly swept away, though, when it saw the bone fuse together in Adela’s arm. There was shock there, and recognition.
Adela’s mind was brought abruptly back to that day at the swingset. And if the face hadn’t been unmistakably feline, she could have sworn it was Andrew staring out at her in disbelief…
“Magic, is it?” asked a voice from the shadows, low and menacing and bring Adela back to reality. “We have been waiting a long time for you, child.”
“Child?” asked Adela, trying to focus on something trivial rather than the unseen voice and her terror. “I’m thirteen today.”
“Thirteen on the day of the New Moon. You will come now. It has been too long. Far too long. Adela.”
Adela started at his use of her name. The world and the new moon were growing faint around her as a shimmering mist enveloped everything Adela could see.
*****
The mist cleared, and Adela was gone. Leah rubbed her sore toes through her ballet shoes. She knew that they had to rescue Adela from whatever had taken her. She just wished she knew how.
Ruby, who was following Nigel, didn’t see Adela disappear, but she did see Leah follow her a second later. “Drat!” she said to herself. Something told her this was nessesary, but she still didn’t like it. She decided to vent her anger at the only one she didn’t feel responsible for.
“Nigel!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “You idiot! you’re supposed to be saving us!”
Nigel turned, surprised. “what?”
Ruby pointed a shaking finger at where Adela and Leah had been a second before. “You look after the girls. Those two can’t take care of themselves.” she reached inside her shirt, taking out a small silver pendant in the shape of a five-pointed star– a pentagram. She tossed it to Nigel, who caught it. “I’m going after them. I still have their scent. Just call me with that thing if you need me.” Ruby and Adela were the only two who had not been meant to be captured. Hopefully, the things that had taken the two younger girls would not be expecting her. She opened her mouth, but stopped. “Oh yeah, and Nigel. If anything happens to my girls, I will take it out of your skin!” before he could answer, she sung a note and vanished.
Ruby reappeared in a long, dank corridor. She hummed quietly; a tendril of thought reached out around her, seeking…
finally, she found what she was looking for.
this story is getting kinda random. Maybe when we finish we should rewrite it, make it more organized?
Achmet stared at the place were Adella and Leah had disappeared. He muttered several Arabic curses under his breath and turned accusingly to Nigel, who felt his thoughts.
You didn’t tell me Akkaveesh was come here, now! Of all the places to test them!
I didn’t know. Nigel shrugged. Do you think we should tell the other two?He glanced at Veronica and Lana.
Of course not!Achmet snapped back. It isn’t a test if they know.
Lana and Veronica could tell something was going on between Nigel and the cat.
“That’s impossible”, said Veronica to no one imparticular. “You can’t communicate without speech or hand motions or something.”
The cat just looked at her intently. If he had eyebrows, they would have been raised.
* * *
Ruby hummed threateningly. She could tell Leah and Adella were huddled in a corner. Guarding them was some sort large spider.
Ruby hummed again, and a shockwave tossed the the spider against the wall. It responded by shooting strings of thick, black webbing at her. Ruby laughed as she easily tossed them aside with her voice.
Then the spider did something totally unexpected. It dissolved. It was like it had become part of the darkness in the corridor.
Suddenly, Ruby felt something covering her mouth. She tried to hum, but the black goo spilled into mouth. She couldn’t sing, couldn’t hum, couldn’t breath. Her last thoughts before she blacked out were I don’t want to die failing like this……..
* * *
Ruby opened her eyes. She was lying in some sort of bed, covered by warm blankets. The spider she had felt in the corridor, only much smaller, was seated on a stool by her bed, it’s head resting on one leg in a gesture of thoughtfulness.
“Where am I?” Ruby asked as she sat up with a jolt, her hand narrowly missing the spider.
“Now calm down dear”, the spider said in a very different voice from the one she had heard coming from the corridor. In fact, it was almost pleasant.
“I don’t blame you though”, it continued,”I suppose we do have a lot of explaining to do.”
“We do indeed”, said a smooth, purring voice. Ruby looked in surprise, and saw that the voice belonged to a regular sized version of the cat she had seen in the alleyway. She had not noticed him before because his sandy fur blended in with the sandy rug he was sitting on.
The cat looked at her and nodded. “First of all, I am Achmet and my friend here is Akkaveesh. Your friends are safe, and we will not try to use them in any way……….”
Natsuko wandered to the area where she remembered leaving the girls. She was just getting ready to create the stone. There was nothing her sister could do to stop her. These girls were worth more than any other human life, they had powers and therefore would be worth 100 times as much as other lives. She walked quickly, she was tired of waiting.
“What the…?” Natsuko gasped, noticing that her sacrifices weren’t there anymore. She was about to cry when her sister walked in.
“It’s better this way, Natsuko.” She said, quiet like a wisp of smoke “We did what shouldn’t be done, and now we have to pay the price.”
Adela awoke, groggy from the mist that had brought her here and its smell, almost like that sedative in the alley. It felt like ages ago, even though it was only tonight, maybe four hours ago.
Leah was still asleep beside her, her toe shoes bearing a faint hint of blood. Adela could fix that, at least. She needed to do something to keep helplessness and terror from overtaking her.
Adela pushed a tiny fraction of her power out towards Leah’s feet, feeling for the skin closing up and removing any blisters the girl had.
At least, that was what was supposed to happen. What actually happened was a huge surge of magic leaving Adela’s fingertips and pulling roughly over Leah’s skin.
Leah woke then, as any person without painkiller would if all the skin had been pulled off their feet. “What are you doing?” she asked through gritted teeth.
“I don’t know!” yelled Adela. “I was just trying to heal your toes from walking around en pointe, and the power just – exploded! I’m trying to fix it.”
Adela concentrated on pulling the tiniest bit of healing fire from her veins and smoothing it across Leah’s mutilated left foot, encouraging the skin to grow across it once more.
Leah sighed with relief while Adela started work on the other one.
After she was done, Leah sat back and asked, “Why did that happen? You’ve always had good control before.”
Before Adela had a chance to answer, the same low, terrifying voice purred, “Thirteen at the New Moon.”
“I’m tired of riddles!” yelled Adela, out of patience. “My whole bloody life has been riddles, about healing, about magic, about New Moons and waiting for me, and I’m sick of it! I’m sick of riddles and fear and magic and secrets. Come into the light so I can see who you are and what you want with me, because I have more power now. I can hurt you now, not just heal you. Come into the light!”
Slowly, a body entered the thin shaft of light. It was thin and female and utterly unworldly. On its back were folded a pair of translucent wings, shimmering with slowly moving designs. Its eyes were pure black pits, free of emotion ar anything else human.
“I will tell you, child. I will tell you everything.”
“I am Athanath. You are in Aebvoraena, and you must help us. Because you turned thirteen, the age of magic, on the night of the New Moon, the night of magic, in October –”
“The month of magic. I get it.” said Adela. This ancient woman-thing might have all the time in the world, but she didn’t. She had to get back to her own world.
Athanath laughed. It was a harsh, yet smooth sound, like a snake grating on sandpaper.
“Natsuko…” Athanath’s voice trailed away. “She did something that should not ever be done. She gave magic to those who were decreed to live without it, humans. It was for her own causes, causes even I do not know. I also do not know how many she endowed the Forbidden Gift upon. I know you are one of them, and the one beside you. Uunane seems to have caught another in her web. But there could not have been only three…” For a while, Athanath seemed lost in thought. Adela grunted to bring her back to the present, and the creature resumed her narrative.
“It was strangely fortunate, though, that Natsuko did what she did. Aebvoraena is in trouble. Once every millennium, the Powers return from the abyss where we cast them so long ago. Each time, it becomes harder to return them. Last time, it nearly destroyed us. If we do not find help soon, it will destroy us this time. That is why you are here. Because you came into your full powers on the New Moon in October, they are seven times what they would have been. As you pointed out, you can hurt as well as heal now. We will need both. We need you. And we may need the other Gifted before it is too late. I can only hope Natsuko cooperates.”
Adela sat there for a long time, drinking in all she’d just heard.
Leah broke the long, strange silence. “I may not have my birthday on the night of the new moon, but I still have power. I will help you.”
Adela suddenly understood the weight of the problem she was facing. But she wouldn’t face it alone. Leah would be with her, and maybe Ruby, Veronica, or Lana, too.
“Count me in,” she said.
Ruby took a deep breath. She had heard Athanath’s story. She would help; but she needed to make sure her girls were safe first.
“I have a few questions, ma’am, please.” for Ruby, this was very respectful.
Athanath looked around, and so did Adela and Leah. “Yes, child?”
Ruby took a deep breath. “Well, I knew about my power for at least a year before the new moon. What’s with me? and also, what is going to happen to Lana and Veronica?”
Athanath considered this. finally she said, “Lana and Veronica have their own task. They must face it alone. However, you and your friends, as you agreed, will help me.
“and as for your power, you activate it by song, correct?” Ruby nodded. “well, I think you shall find that you are just as untapped as the rest of these girls. Celentra put her gifts in you, thereby creating you. Natsuko located the gifted ones and took them captive. Adela’s healing gift is hard to detect; her capture was merely luck. Yours, however…” she shook her head. “This may be difficult for you, but you must know. The reason you came in to your power before the time allotted to humans is because…because, my child, you are not human!”
Night fell, shimmering with stars in the almost pitch black dark. Ruby felt herself flow into the dark night, as she began to go to sleep, the drumming downstairs as her lullaby. She sighed.
“You’re not human,” the voice chanted in her head, throbbing terribly.
“You’re not human.”
She shook herself, so that her locks of hair toppled down from their position on top the pillow.
Another past voice echoed into her mind. “You’re such a beautiful girl,” Her friend Olive had said.
I might be a girl, but I’m not human thought, and then sighed, a hollow, sad sigh.
Again she stared out the window, and then around the other girls who’s bodies were heaving as they got rest under warm blankets. Their faces were pale and lit by a silvery moonlight and they were snug looking even though outside it was probably freezing. That was only because Ruby was humming very faintly acting like their own personal heater, only because this place lacked one.
Distracted, Ruby stopped to hum, and almost immediately, a whiff of cold wind found it’s way into the room. She sighed, and started to hum again.
Then, she noticed the small light under the door. It was reddish, gleaming slightly, and it gave her a fuzzy feeling when she looked at it. Contrasted with the pale glow of the moon she felt a sudden feeling of calmness and universal peace. Delighted, she wiggled down on her bed to relax in this moment, but alas, universal peace is bound to end quite quickly, as to the fact that many things happen in the universe. The door opened, and in walked Athanath, now in a dark green outfit, shiny leather, of course. She beckoned to Ruby, who knew that there was no way to resist the girl.
“Good, good Ruby. You are just beginning to learn a way of obedience that will lead to many rewards.” She laid her hand on Ruby’s shoulder, which Ruby shrugged off defensively.
“Ungrateful snot,” murmured Athanath, but Ruby began to hum louder now, not a slight gurgle from her throat, a hum that could be heard, and teetered on her toes signing her meaning to use her power.
“Grateful enough, I suppose.” Athanath gave in.
Ruby nodded approvingly and quieted her hum again.
“all right,” she began, a whiff of heat blowing from her mouth, she had to concentrate to make it not do heat at the moment, and rather be helpless.
“Say Nodasa girl, and it’ll work well enough rather than telkeny.” She snorted.
” Nodasa ,” Ruby murmured under her breath.
“All right,” she started again, “If I’m not human, what am I?”
Athanath smiled at her, a mocking smile.
“It’s a matter of genetics, girl.” She began. “Your mother, who was like one of the others,” she said nodding to the slightly ajar door, “A human with special abilities, otherwise known as a Lihenja.
Ruby nodded, signing as a way to go on.
“Your father, however, was more of a spirit who roamed the earth. On a journey to the far land of Lukandra, they met, in the Temple of Lokanseer. Spirits were not allowed to marry, unless allowed by the Juvi god, but they did, without permission and your father was banished, thankfully not killed. The Spirits were not allowed to marry with a worthy blood or race because they are capable of nearly every power. The intermingling of their powers would probably lead to the ultimate accident. Thankfully, they had been good and did not marry at all, until your father, and even his case has gone along unknown until now.”
Athanath continued. “And Ruby, you are living up to your name. After recent tests, we have found that a unknown power we have named Subniyscion is actually a power capable of almost all in the universe. You are the only one to have it, the most rarest of cases. Yet, after another test, we have proved that it will not be easy to master.”
Athanath turned over her arm, laughing evilly.
“But when you master it, blood transfusions will certainly allow it to be mastered in everyone!”
Ruby’s eyes widened, startled.
She began to run.
“You can run girl, but they won’t last long,” she nodded to the open room.
Ruby inhaled, and then made up her mind.
Achmet started swearing as soon Ruby disappeared.
Akkaveesh remained calm. “Tone down on it Achmet. The only one who could of taken her is Athanath, and Ruby will be safe with her. And besides, she will like being told what’s going on by Athanath much better than a talking cat and spider.”
Achmet stopped cursing. “I suppose your right”, he grumbled.
Just then, the door burst open and Nigel stumbled in. He was breathing hard and looked worried.
“Adela and Leah are gone. Is Ruby-?”
“Of course she’s here”, Achmet interrupted sarcastically, “The bed wouldn’t be empty otherwise. Akkaveesh thinks Athanath has taken them.”
“If it is indeed Athanath, there’s nothing we can do but hold on to Lana and Veronica and wait till Kitsune and Ka’ala get here.”
Suddenly Achmet hummed a neutral, eerie note. It echoed around the room as the outlines of his body began to blur.
Akkaveesh reverted to mind speech. Stop him, Nigel!
Nigel leaped at Achmet, but it was too late. Achmet dissolved , and Nigel fell on the floor.
* * *
Achmet felt the pain begin, but he did not cry out. He it flow through him until he felt like every fiber of his being was being burned alive…………….
Leah had by now noticed that she and Adela were cornered by a giant spider, and it wasn’t very comforting. Leah had never liked spiders, which was rather unfortunate, because her room at her house – former house, she reminded herself with a smile – often had them crawling around the ceiling.
Adela, in the meantime, had also noticed this. She decided to take a look at the situation. She was pressed up against Leah’s back (And the bun was digging into her shoulder blade) in some weird misty place, and she could just distinguish a large, eight-legged creature, namely a spider, standing in front of them. Well, that seemed mostly like unavoidable doom. She sighed. She hadn’t been expecting dying as giant spider lunch.
Unless…
Adela had always had a soft spot for spiders. Maybe she could convince it to let them go. How was she going to tell Leah the plan without scaring it? She turned her head as far away from the spider as she could get, and whispered to Leah, “I think I have plan.” “Good,” Leah whispered back, “I’m not feeling to good. I don’t really like spiders.” “Just follow me.” Adela slowly walked towards the beast, while Leah shuffled along uncertainly behind her. “Ahem,” she addressed the monster. “Name’s Akaveesh. Hand me the ketchup bottle.” in mumbled. Adela blanched. “We don’t have any ketchup,” said Leah from behind her. The creature twitched. “Don’t let the camel eat me, Uncle Arachnid,” it moaned. Both girls threw each other glances. “I swear that I’m not an elephant,” it said. “Thanks for the mustard can, Eddie.” “I think it’s asleep,” said Leah. “Right,” said Adela. “Let’s get out of here.” Both of them quietly slipped out from behind the spider and cautiously continued through the mist.
I’ve spell-checked it and everything.
My word processor counts 9,138 words so far. Impressive!
Leah and Adela knew that if they were in a better mood, light and day would have brought oppurtunities, but for them, escaping from a dim room to have your mind awakened by the buzz of the city at the opening was not the most pleasant thing, especially when usually on a nice morning your nose would be greeted to pancakes or waffles or pastries and not the pungant smell of garbage and alleyways. Leah shook the thought out of her head. They were in the middle of a unidentified city, a soon-to-be-awake gigantic spider just below them, and two, no three, magical maniacs on their tales for some unknown reason. Their one goal had to be to get out of here and find a safe place rather than complain like a snotty pair of rich city-slickers. At a steady pace they found their way out of the city way, and into the main stream of business people off to work. Leah looked around for a place to eat, remembering that she had $50.00 in her pocket for use after the sleepover in her home town. As a headstart to Adela, she silently pulled to bill out and Adela nodded, understanding almost immediantly. She pointed to a small coffee shop sign that read,
Regma’s Coffee and Custard To Go or Stay
Leah nodded almost immediantly. Had there ever been a thing so delicous like Custard? Silently and stealthfully, but still managing to be casual, they slipped through the rushing crowd and away from the mainstream. They opened the door, and the gentle tinkle of the bell welcomed them. Kelsey Opac’s Night of the Angels played gently on the intercom. A pleasantly dressed, red haired woman was sitting at the back of the counter, looking very tired.
“Can I help you two?” Leah and Adela nodded.
“Erm…two Jasmine teas, and two muffins, I think…” Leah started.
“Make that one Jasmine and one Earl Grey, and two muffins.” Casualized Adela.
The lady nodded.
“Two rodkas, please.”
“Hmm?” Leah asked, confused.
“Rodkas. Are you knew to this town? Foreignors, immigrants, tourists?” The lady asked curiously.
Leah and Adela excahnged glances.
“Erm, yeah. We’re kinda new to this town.”
“Hrm.” The lady nodded.
“Well,” she began, “I suppose we’ll take pounds or dollars. Don’t tell me you don’t come from England or America…”
Adela shook her head and smiled, taking control of the situation.
“We come from England.”
Leah looked, at her confused.
“I’ll tell you later,†she said very quietly.
“Okay, how many rodkas are in a dollar?†Inquired Adela.
“One Rodka is one dollar, girl. I thought they taught the different kinds of money to people in England.â€
Leah made a pained look.
“Nope, they don’t.†Corrected Adela, not failing to keep her cool.
“Really?†The lady raised a eyebrow.
Behind them, a old man who was sipping some stinky hot stuff grumbled about something like low-class citizens of a ancient and elegant country.
“So, two dollars, then,†said the lady, slightly stumbling on the words.
Leah fumbled in her pocket and then pulled out the fifty. “Forty-eight rodkas change.â€
Adela gave her a look like she was ready to slap her.
“I’ll tell you later,†she grinned, glad to get Adela back.
Adela rolled her eyes.
The lady gracefully sprinted out of her chair, and started to get their order ready.
“Well,†smiled Adela. “A breakfast from a place we don’t even know about.†They found a seat right from behind the window, and sat down. Leah sighed with relief.
“Not bad for two dollars. Thought it would be downright expensive.â€
Adela smiled.
“Your treat, eh?â€
Leah glared at her.
“My money isn’t a bank.â€
Suddenly, she remembered. “The rodkas. She didn’t give us the Rodkas.â€
Adela rolled her eyes.
“This place may have different customs than-” she cut herself off.
“England.”
“Why are you doing that?” Whispered Leah.
“Why?! Why do think, Leah? If that spider guy wakes up and then checks all the stores for us, he’ll be asking for two Americans not to English people.”
Leah nodded.
“Order up! Earl Grey, Jasmine, and Two Muffins.” They trotted up to the desk, and there enough were forty-eight shiny maroon coins beside two differently colored steaming cups of tea and two poppy seed muffins.
“Enjoy,” smiled the lady.
Leah tried to smile the most formal smile she had ever conjured back.
“British, hmph.” She grumbled.
Leah and Adela took their seats again.
Adela took the first bite, and smiled.
“Not bad,” she said through a full mouth.
“Well eat and drink up quickly. I’m sure spiders aren’t heavy sleepers.”
Leah shoved the rodkas into her shorts and then explained why she had her money changed.
“So we can buy stuff with it, and, if someone wants to distinguish us from a different culture, they’ll think we’re residents.”
Adela nodded approvingly.
“Okay. Let’s go.Leave a tip.”
“Not tips.” Leah grumbled.
“It might help when a gigantic spider comes running for us.” Adela warned.
Leah rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
She placed a spare rodka on the desk which the lady quickly snatched up.
“You’re not like a charity worker, or something?”
Leah blushed, now knowing that people here probably didn’t give tips.
“Or are you Americans?”
“English give tips, too, lady.” Scolded Adela cooly.
The lady rolled her eyes and then shooed them out the door.
“Not the nicest place in the world, but at least it was cheap.” Said Adela after they were outside.
“That lady was a bit suspicous.”
Leah shrugged.
“Let’s find out where this city is, get a map, and try to leave.”
Adela nodded.
“Better out before that hairy thing on eight stilts comes for us.”
She then let out a generous burp.
The lady beside them curled her lip and scrunched her nose in disgust.
Adela rolled her eyes. “ Excuse me. ” She said in a pretty-pretty voice, and the lady blushed, emberassed.
Then Leah tugged on her sleeve.
“Look,” she said.
In front of them was a huge map reading,
“Welcome to Citbrag.”
A man in a orange and yellow cap was passing out a handout. When he came around to them, he handed them one, and said,
“From the department of mapmakers. They’re only a rodka.”
Behind her back, Leah slipped her a rodka and signed for her to speak instead, for her gift on making people less suspicous.
“Fine, we’ll take one just for charitable funds.”
She handed the rodka to the man and he tipped his hat, and released his grip from the map and into Adela’s hand.
The map turned out to be thicker and wierder than they had expected. The table of contents read every business, house, entrance, or exit in the city. Each page had a mini map that was virtulized showing where they were and little footsteps that signed how to get there, which replayed every so often.
Adela flipped through the exits of the city.
There were only three.
Exit one’s description was,
25 rodka fee. Leads to open desert.
12 Rodka fee. Leads to open desert.
40 Rodka fee. Leads to Shortenbrad City.
Exit Two’s Description
2 Rodka fee. Leads to Pit of Devil.
1 Rodka Fee. Leads to Pit of Devil.
13 Rodka fee leads to Pit of Devil.
Exit Three’s Description
9 Rodka fee. Leads to Lusiance City.
2 Rodka Fee. Leads to Jumjad City.
1 Rodka Fee. Leads to Kumquat Orchard.
“Let’s go to the forty-rodka one. That’ll throw the spider off his tracks. Maybe we can slip through without paying.”
Then they heard a voice behind them. “Does that mean you need a illegitimate liscense?”
They turned around right into the face of Ruby.
Adela spun aorund and saw Ruby. “What – where -” “The point is, three of us are out, and two of us are in. You two and me, and well, back in the lab are Lana and Veronica -” “Who hate each other beyond recognition,” said Leah concisely, summing it up. The three stared at each other for a minute. “Right,” said Ruby. “Let’s get them out.”
Ruby spoke again. “You didn’t really think I’d leave you guys all by yourselves, did you?” she snorted. “you forgot to add the accent, ‘Brits’. That lady was telling everyone she saw about you two.” she had a determinededly cheerful look on her face, but the others could tell somthing was wrong. “it was absurdly easy to track you.”
“hold on…” said Adela. “where did you come from? that spider got you, and…”
Ruby pressed her lips tightly together. “turns out we have another false hope. More people trying to catch us. You know, I actually thought we might have been safe this time. That woman… well, she wanted to insert my DNA into other people. Talk about dangerous. Imagine people like me let loose all over.”
“What do you mean, Ruby?” asked Leah. “I didn’t know magic runs in DNA.”
Ruby sighed, all pretense of cheerfulness gone. “Mine does. Turns out my magic–well, it’s not from Celentra. My Da was a spirit.”
the others gaped at her. “no time to explain,” Ruby snapped. “we need to get out of here. And this time,” she said with a smile, “I’ll do the talking. We are now Australians, got it?” the others nodded, Leah still looked inclined to ask about Ruby’s rather odd heritage, but she said nothing. Adela suddenly shook herself. “we have to move, now! if that woman is telling everyone about us…” she shuddered. “let’s go. there’s a train station a few blocks away.” they started to hurry off. suddenly, Ruby smacked her forehead, and uttered a sudden curse. “oh, man! I left my symbol with Nigel! It will tell me if he calls me, but they might be able to track me with it! I need some new magic.” she stopped short. her brows constricting with concentration, she reached out with her mind… suddenly, she gasped sharply.
Adela instinctively reached out to her. “Ruby! are you all right?”
“fine,” gasped Ruby. “it’s just harder than I expected…” she tried again… and suddenly, she had it. she looked inside her mind, and suddenly, she was there. Ahh, there it was. A river. she drifted above it, admiring its many side paths and tributaries, searching for just the right one for what she wanted to do. She felt the urge to sing, but restrained herself. That was a weakness, which must be avoided. she found the one she was looking for, and swifly drifted down to touch it. just a touch… there was more power there than she had ever imagined! slowly, she scooped up some, no more than a palmful… she sent it.
___________________________________________
Nigel suddenly gasped. he plunged a hand inside his shirt, bringing up the silver chin that Ruby had given him, but there was no pentagram on it now. Just a shapeless metallic mass, melted silver.
___________________________________________
Ruby felt elated as, as if she saw it through another’s eyes, her pendant steam and melt. power, stronger than she had ever felt, surged through her. and that was just a dipperful, there was a thousand times more…a million times more. more power than she had ever imagined. she laughed soundlessly. if she wanted, she could make worlds! she flitted back across the miles, back to her body.
___________________________________________
“Adela! do somthing!” cried Leah, frantically shaking Ruby’s inert form. “I can’t!” returned Adela.”she’s in a trance. She has to come out of it herself!”
suddenly, Ruby coughed. Her eyes opened, and she shuddered, her frame relaxing. “Adela? Leah?” She sat up, rubbing her temples. “ouch, that hurt. Well, I need some practice… but no one is finding us now. Come on!” she started to run for the train station, the others hurrying along behind her.
I think it’s best if we leave out the city place. Makes the story too confusing. Akkaveesh is girl, by the way.
“So Athanath, you show your true side. It’s a cruel world when our greatest allies betray us.”
Athanath’s laughter stopped abruptly.
Ruby turned to see the cat, Achmet, she rembembered. He was crouched where Leah and Adella had been a few seconds ago. He was again roughly the size of a lion. Which was empty now.
Athanath snarled and shot a ball of blue light at Achmet. He hummed low, menacing not. The ball vanished as if it had been erased from the scene.
Suddenly, a voice echoed in Ruby’s head. Listen, girl if you want to get out of here alive. Echo my pitch and keep holding it. When the pain comes, whatever you do, don’t cry out.
Achmet hummed. That must have been him. Ruby thought.
She echoed the note and there voices blended. The result was and eerie, echoing monotone that Ruby couldn’t quiet place. Her whole body began to feel like it had gone to sleep. Then the pain started, small at first. Then it began to intensify untill Ruby felt like she was being crushed in a garbage compacter. She felt herself beginning to black out, but she continued humming the note, concentrating very hard on not screaming…………….
* * *
For the second time, Ruby woke up in a bed. In a stone walled room with a sandy carpet. Everything was there, not including Akkaveesh. The spider’s stool was empty, but Achmet still sat on the carpet looking dignified.
“Am I not human?” she said.
Achmet started, then replied. “No you aren’t, but that does not make you any more or less important then your friends.”
“Oh”, was all she could say.
They sat in silence for a few moments before Achmet went on. “You’re probably wondering what I am and where you are. I can answer that. I’m an afreet, a type of magical creature. Akkaveesh is an afreet too. You are in the last great stronghold of my people, which is about 20 meters below the Sahara desert.”
Oops cancel the last part. Didn’t read the comment before.
Achmet was alone in the room.
Darn it he thoughtShe must have sent herself somewhere else. There’s no telling where she is now.
Then he remebered the other girls had been a little too easy to send. Almost as if they had been-
Illusions. And Akkaveesh would have never yelled “Grab him Nigel!” Someone was playing with them, but he didn’t know who.
* * *
Akkaveesh woke up. She had just had the wierdest dream. Probably magic induced. She looked around. The landscape was strange, and there was no telling where those girls had got to. They most likely thought that herself, Achmet, and Nigel were trying to use them like everybody else. She didn’t blame them. If only she could explain. Her kind were desperate. They were fighting a losing battle. But Akkaveesh knew, sure as anything, that there was no forcing these girls. She would have to tell them here story, and then let them choose whether to help her or not.
cool.
The next part:
Stella silently materialized in front of Achmet. He looked up in suprise.
“What are you doing here?!” he yelped.
“Well, you know me, wouldn’t want to miss all the excitment”, she said batting her eyelashes.
“Sheesh, so it was you who created those illusions! But why?”
“Well I can’t have all of you guys messing up destiny, now can I? Plus, Zelda should be around here somewhere and you won’t want my dear sister finding out what you’ve been doing, now would you?”
Achmet sighed. “And I’ll bet you’ve already told her, haven’t you?”
“Yes she has,” said Zelda striding into the room.
Achmet groaned.” You two are going to be the end of me some day.” he said grumpily.
“Wow you sure get the messages fast, now don’t you?” Stella asked her sister in surprise.”Did you tell Issy?”
“What do you think?” siad Zelda impatiently. “I wonder where she is? She should be here…”
Zelda stopped as Issy walked into the room. As usual, her milky white hair and pastel purple eyes gleamed as she raced to embrace Stella, who’s equally milky white hair and cresent moon eyes gleamed with an unatural light. Achmet looked on as all the sisters gathered around Issy and greeted her, Stella lovingly and Zelda formally. Zelda wasn’t one for emotion he reflected.
“Hello, Achmet,” Issy greeted. Achmet stared. She was more beautiful than he remembered as she returned his gaze.
“uh… hi?” Achmet stamered.
” oh shut your mouth and we can get on to buissness,” snapped Zelda who had had enough of all that emotion.
“Oh… okay,” Achmet said turning his gaze upon Zelda.
“Good. Now I have bad news. The Powers will be returning very soon and we still need to get those girls ready for the challenge. Also I’ve heard rumers that the girl’s spirit dad is returning and he’s not so goody goody anymore!” Zelda announced to the suddenly quiet room.
“Is this true Issy?” Stella asked breaking the silence.
“Yes I’m afraid it is,” Issy replied. “Also I’ve heard that he’s in leage with our foe.”
“You mean the Powers?” gasped Stella and Achmet in unison.
“No.”
“Then… You mean…” Zelda stammered.
Achmet looked up in surprise. Zelda never stammered. Unless…
“No!!” Achmet cried. “You don’t mean ‘the force’. ”
The sisters looked at him sadly. ” Yes. The force that has no name is back.” Then they disapeared taking Achmet with them.
Character guide:
Stella- sister of Issy and Zelda, powers: invisibility, telepathy, telekenises, materialization, and other unknown powers that only she knows of. milky white hair, cresent moon eyes, and she’s unnaturally thin and tall (6 ft. 1″)
Zelda- sister of Stella and Issy. Powers: same as Stella’s along with a few others such as shape-shifting, control of the storms, and other unknown powers. Jet black hair, redish eyes, and unnaturally thin and tall like Stella (6ft 1″)
Issy- sister of Stella and Zelda. Powers: same as her sisters’ but much more powerful and a lot of unknown powers. Warning: DO NOT MAKE HER MAD. Her wrath is off the rictor scale, and when she’s mad she has no control over her body. She generally begins to float up in the air, her eyes turn a blinding purple, and… well I’ll get to that later. Milky white hair, pastel purple eyes, and unnaturally thin and tall, yet she’s an inch shorter than her sisters (6ft 0″)
Leah and Adela stared at the place where Achmet and Ruby had been. “Why does evertone keep goddamned disappearing?” she moaned, slapped herself in the forhead. This was not going well at all. So obviously, it was up to Leah, who exploded whenever she got the slightest but angry and Adela, who was to timid to really hurt anyone to get Ruby, Veronica, and Lana out of wherever they were, whilst Lana and Veronica probably wouldn’t participate because they hated each other. Oh boy. “Saving the world isn’t exactly a piece of cake,” groaned Leah through clenched teeth.
In the meantime, Veronica and Lana were alone in the same room. They had come to the solution of staring at opposite walls and not talking at all, but it wasn’t going to help much in the long run. They were going to have to participate with ine another. This hit both of them at the exact same time. They turned and looked at each other. “Well,” said Veronica, fighting to keep her temper under control at the mere sight of Lana, sneering in her usual way, “I suppose we’re going to have to work together to get out of here.” “Mmhmm,” said Lana, staring innocently back. “I suppose we do.” There was a silence. “Let’s get to it than,” said Veronica tensely. “Ok,” said Lana, still staring. “Ummmm…” Veronica said expectantly.
nice addition Phoebe!! now it’s my turn.
Stella, Zelda, Issy, and Achmet materialized just a little ways from where Leah and Adela were standing. The two girls didn’t see them as they stood up, brushed the dirt off their clothes or in Achmet’s case, fur, and started talking.
“Aren’t those the girls?” Stella asked.
“That’s them all right,” replied Zelda rolling up the long sleeves of her richly sewn shirt.
“Wait, this is where I started!! And what are you planning to do?” Achmet cried.
“Calm down Achmet, we aren’t going to strike them dead. We’re just going to introduce ourselves,” Issy said with a hint of amusement in her eye.
————————————————————————–
Adela started as four shadowy figures emerged from the night. One she reconized as Achmet. He doesn’t look so joyful, she reflected. What’s up with him? The others she didn’t reconize though she had a feeling that they knew her. As they moved closer she was certain that they knew her. Also she was picking up a sense that somehow she had met them before. As if in a long lost childhood.
Leah jumped up. “All right, you have some explaining to do Achmet,” she cried. “Where have you been?! I…” Leah stopped as Zelda cut her off.
“We aren’t here to argue, you little ungrateful snot,” Zelda snapped. Leah bared her teeth and growled.
“Yeah growl all you want but we have buissness with you and if you ever want to learn anything you’ve got to learn to listen to your elders,” Stella said with an undignified air about her.
“Huh, you don’t look at least over 12,” grumbled Leah.
“I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you very much. Try 1,001 on for size,” Zelda sniffed. “Actually Issy here just turned 1,000 yesterday.”
Adela turned to see the forth and smallest figure step into the light. Adela gasped. She had never seen anyone the likes of her. She was much more beautiful than her sisters, she thought. She didn’t know how she knew they were sisters but she just did.
“Thank you for the compliment, Adela is it?” said Issy looking the bewildered girl in the face. “Though I rarely think about my looks.”
She can read minds! thought Adela who was still too bewildered to say anything aloud.
“Yes I can indeed read minds, it’s called telepathy,” Issy said with a gleam of amusement in her eye.
“Okay, now that the formalities are over, on to… well… ,” Achmet wondered. ” What are we here for again?”
“Nothing in particular, we just wanted to meet the girls,” Issy said. She had the power and Leah knew not to mess with her.
“Now I suppose you’ll leave us here all by ourselves, right?” Leah said dryly.
“Who said you’ll be alone?” Stella asked in false shock. “Achmet’s here now isn’t he?”
The sisters began to fade, but before they had gone, Issy had leaned over and whispered,”Celentra would have been proud of you Adela.” in Adela’s ear. Then they were gone.
“Who were they?” Leah wondered.
” Those were the Seers, Leah, those were the Seers,” Achmet said in admiration.
um, Ruby didn’t vanish after all, so where’s Ruby? well, I’ll put her in now. She dosn’t trust ANYone.
Ruby smiled. once she might have questioned the honesty of the sisters, but not now. Yes, they had great power–perhaps even greater than hers–but they didn’t know that yet. Not even Achmet knew about her River. she would finally be able to protect her girls.
“Achmet,” she said, determined to gain this piece of knowlage now that her first priority, guarding her ‘pack’, was out of the way, “Achmet, where are my parents?”
Achmet started. “uuhhh…” he said, “I don’t think…”
a voice echoed inside his mind. that sister of your red-eyed girlfriend isn’t the only one with telepethy, you know. If you don’t tell me, I’ll get it from you. And it might not be that pleasent.
he looked over at Ruby, who was wearing a rather evil grin. She looked suddenly and inexplicably like a wolf. An alpha, facing a challenger for her pack saupremacy.He growled, his feline charecterinstics, kicking in, and was about to respond when he heard yet another voice.Issy’s. tell her, Achmet. She deserves to know. And don’t fight her, we need her.
unexpected. wow.
Issy materialized in the alley behind the room in which Veronica and Lana were in. Sighing she sent a message to Achmet telling him what to do. Achmet always gets into fights, she reflected. Then she walked through the wall to confront the girls on the other side.
_________________________________________________
Achmet stammered some nonsense words about how Ruby shouldn’t get upset or anything. Ruby was about to tell him to get a move on when she felt a sharp stab of pain accompanied by Zelda’s voice. “You ungrateful little snot! How dare you call me his girlfriend! Why I oughta…” Then came Stella’s voice. “You know Ruby, we aren’t trying to control you or anything. Why so protective? It’s not like we’re trying to eliminate you…” Then finally came Issy’s voice. Ruby shivered when their minds touched. Issy’s mind was so alien, Ruby reflected. “You know I can hear you, right?” echoed Issy’s voice around her head. “I’m 1,000 years old so what do you expect? Why don’t you believe us? Just look at some of my memories…
Suddenly a flood of memories entered Ruby’s head.
She was a young girl watching her parents get killed by an unnamable force. Her sisters crouched beside her comforting her…
She walked across the hallways to her new school. Svyical’s school of unexplained magic…
She threw a spear into a heart of a Power then looked at her hands and wondered how she had killed…
All around her were warriors, throwing spears and dodging attacks…
She looked into a mirror, and wondered how she could have changed in the past 998 years…
Then the memories receded. Issy’s voice was faint. “Do you believe us now, Ruby? Do you? Trust you heart…”
Ruby looked up into the eyes of Achmet who still was mumbling nonsense words.
“Ready?” Achmet asked nervously. “You might not like this…”
“Go on,” Ruby said determidly. “I want to know.”
“Well your dad is… well headed this way,” said Achmet uneasily.
“He is!!!! But then why are you looking so down?” Ruby wondered.
“Well… Here I’ll tell you once we get to my stronghold. You never know who might be listening…”
Ruby turned away from him. She obviously wasn’t getting anywhere with that cat. And oh, yeah, Zelda, she added as an afterthought, No offense ment. I was trying to get Achmet annoyed. I wouldn’t really have hurt him, you know.
there was a pause. then she heard Zelda’s voice. none permanently taken, fae. It was, I have to admit, a nice strategy.
this is awesome!! maybe i’ll write something on it…i’d better read it a couple more times though. there’s a lot of characters!
Leah was very vexed. Now it turned out that not only were they all mages, but Adela knew some person who liked to eat cilantro and was some weird seer, and Ruby’s parents were alive even though she lived in an Orphanage. Veronica was special, and Lana’s magic was out of control. And I’m right in the middle of it, she thought. Lucky me.
Leah was fairly confused though. Ruby obviously excelled at singing and therefor that’s where her power were, but Leah has some wierd fire stuff going on, and she was a dancer. Wait…
In her first ballet preformance as a twelve year old, last year, they did Vivaldi’s four seasons. Leah was an autumn leaf. In her eyes, Leah had seen it as more of fire. So she danced like it. And even though she was in the last row of dancers, people seemed to notice her. Leah hadn’t noticed until then, reviewing the memory, that when she actually did see the audience, they were looking at her. All she had seen was the whirl of excitment and thrill that was dancing. So maybe…
Leah’s thoughts trailed off. She carefully stepped into the shine turn, and did a few across the alleyway. ((Her ballet shoes were still on.)) Now, she instructed herself, think of fire, and keep dancing.
Adela watched Leah do the first turn. Adela had rather thought that Leah ws just some random ballet kid, taking it because her mother made her. But after the third, she saw that Leah was serious about her dancing. And than, well… something happened.
Leah was spinning faster now, and her hands were in traditional second position. Now she raised them upwards, and two enormous pillars of flame shot out of her palms. SHe finished in a pirouette and rose her hands above her, where the flames formed together in a crackling fire, than stopped.
Achmet and Adela stared at her. Leah stared back. “Did I do something?”
Suddenly the forest began to disssolve around them. Adella and Leah glanced around fearfully, but Ruby showed no signs of surprise. Achmet purred with relief. He didn’t want to send himself and all three of those girls to the stronghold.
When everything came back into focus, they were in a very different place. A sandy rug covered most of the floor, which was, like the walls and ceiling, made of stone of a similar light brown color. A fire crackled in a space in the wall they were facing. Around the room were an astonishing assortment of characters, all staring them, exept tor a red fox that was seated by the fire, eyes closed and a pleased expression on his face. Issy, Zelda, and Stella leaned against the far wall. Zelda was looking very smug. She probably sent us here. Achmet reasoned.
Near the sisters, Veronica and Lana sat on chairs, looking dazed. A silvery eagle with golden eyes was perched on a stone ledge behind them. Fathest away from the fire, a blue lizard that looked like a gecko lay on a stool, examining them with sea-green orbs. Nigel sat next to the lizard, looking uncomfortable. Just to the right of where Ruby was standing, an unfamiliar women sat on a stool. She looked like some sort of action movie star, well muscled with long black hair and violet pools for eyes. She was wearing a halter top and slacks, both black. A gun holstered at her hip completed the effect.
“Sit”, the women said gesturing at three empty chairs. Ruby and Leah sat, but Adella stood her ground.
“I’m not sitting until you tell me who and what you are, and why we’re here. All my life I’ve been asking questions that have never been answered!”
The fox gave a bark like laugh and opened his eyes, which were crimson. “What a question! Me, Netse, Ka’ala, Akkaveesh, and Achmet are afreets. We’re nature spirits; we can do things like this.”
He flicked his tail, and the fire leaped out of the fireplace and formed into a strange rune before returning.
Ruby interupted,”But isn’t Akkaveesh a-?”
The woman smiled and turned. On here back was the tattoo of a spiderweb.
The fox grinned, showing a mouth full of pointy teeth. “We can also take the form of human. However, complete change requires alot of energy, which is why we don’t do it very often.”
“But what about my dad. Why are you so worried about him?”
The fox looked expectantly at Achmet, who cleared his throte.
“Ahem. Well you see, Ruby your father was-is my older brother. You’re half afreet. And we think your father’s been corupted by the unown Force.”
sweet! I’ll have to get back here later. I got to go to the bus. I’ll be back! With a new addition!!
no, no, my turn! Ruby belongs to ME.
Ruby stared. For once, she didn’t know what to say. “M-me? nature spirit? is that why I can…” her voice trailed off.
“No,” corrected Akkavish. “You are HALF nature spirit. And yes, that makes you rather multi-purpose. I think you have learned to use your power without musical accompaniment, yes?”
all thought of concealment gone, Ruby nodded. “well,” said the eagle, with a voice like cracking ice, “I think you will find that is not all. Now, about your father. He has joined our enimies–the unknown Force. As yet, we are not sure what they plan, but they are the reason we have gathered your–for want of a better word–pack. Celentra is on our side. she created your friends for our purpose. Now, she is a star. She cannot come to Earth for long periods, but her arm is long, and she loves all of you. Yes, Ruby, even you, though you are not her daughter. I think your father has come to claim you, hoping, with your unusual and powerful mixture of efriti and mage powers, to overcome us. Now, it was lucky for us you met the rest of your friends, because you have accepted us as your allies. Unfortunately, we cannot train you, but we have an idea of what your efrit powers are. The efrit shape is herititary, and–well–we know what your fathers’ shape is. He is powerful, so powerful that only his blood–his shape–can ever hope to oppose him, but, for humans, an Efrit shape can be dangerously seductive. Your friend Lana has experienced this.”
“I’ll say,” muttered Lana. She looked exhausted. “Took a long time for me to learn to change back.”
“but…my shape…what is it?”
Achmet grinned. “well, I thought you’d be a wolf, but your father was–is–well, a gri’sha’ar.”
“a what?”
“a dragon.”
I’m back!!!!!
Ruby looked around the room stunned. A dragon! She’d never dreamed of that never less the thought that her father was evil… well, that was unbelievable.
Issy spoke up breaking the silence. “Ruby, you have to understand that your father might try to use you to complete his evil plans. This you must be aware of. He will talk to you, try to make you listen and believe him, but at all costs you must not listen! His voice is as smooth as water and he will try to be very persuasive, but you must concentrate if you want to live. The ‘force’ is the most dangerous evil thing in the universe. With your father at the head of the attack we will not be able to hold them back again.”
“So you’ve fought them before?” Ruby asked.
Zelda and Stella nodded. ” We barely were able to cast them into the abyss,” explained Stella. “Issy almost lost her life, but then one of the force’s agents made her mad… Well, you know what happens. That’s the reason we won the battle, actually.”
“Gosh, I’m sure you would have won anyways,” said Issy looking quite embarressed.
“No we wouldn’t have so don’t sit there and look all modest,” Zelda snapped.
Issy shrugged. Adela broke the silence.
“But why did Celentra bring us into existence?” she ventured. “According to what you say, Ruby probably can handle her father alone, so why us?”
“Adela, dear, her father isn’t going to be alone,” Stella chirped. “He’ll bring however many agents he can find with him.”
“Including the…”
“Yes, Ruby, including the Powers.”
By now, Leah had realised from lurking moodily in the back that the cilantro eater had made Ruby or something, and that her dad was a dragon.
Whoa, Leah’s brain told her. Let’s go through that again.
Ruby’s dad is a dragon.
Strange though, she thought, genetic science says that she should be all scaly. Unless somehow in dragons, the female gene is dominant. But of course, unless they inserted human genes into the fetus, she would have ended up with scales anyway, since a dragon and a human can’t mate… and even if they did, the male gene would be dominant… So Ruby was virtually impossible. Unless they mixed up the genes at an early age, and even then, some of her fathers genes would be in her. There was a way to tell. Maybe she inherited some of his dragonish habits… like breathing fire.
Leah cleared her throat. Stupid Ruby was still clinging to every word the Issy and cilantro-eaters said. She turned at looked irritably at Leah. “Yes?” “Would you mind trying to breath fire for me?” Leah asked, beaming.
Ruby stared at Leah dumbstruck. She had just found out she was a dragon and now Leah was asking her to breathe fire!
“Well since you’re the one with all the fire abilities why don’t you do it?” Ruby asked smiling sweetly.
“Fine I will,” Leah sniffed. She started to do a dance move before she was stopped by a newcomer.
“Hello, hello, hello… Why if it isn’t Issy! Oh and are these the girls?” the newcomer asked. Unlike Issy, Stella, and Zelda, The newcomer had beautiful, long, wavy, hazel-nut hair. Which explained her name.
“Oh Hazel! I didn’t know you were going to be here!” cried Stella and Issy in unison. Hazel smiled at everyone in the room at once, then settled down to buissness.
“So I’m glad that you’ve guarded this place well,” she said to Achmet and the other afreet. “It took me ages to find it!!!!!”
“I try,” smiled Achmet. “Oh and Leah, if you or Ruby use your powers in here you’ll burn the whole place down, and then we wouldn’t have any restistance if Ruby’s father tries to take over the world.”
“OH,” Leah said embarressed. “Sorry.”
“And I wouldn’t call some people cilantro eaters because you could make someone really mad,” said Hazel smiling over at Leah.
Leah felt like going to hide in shame. “But what about…”
“Genetics?” Issy spoke up. “Down here, genetics and kinetics are out the window.”
“Oh,” Leah realized that Ruby probably was one of the most mixed up beings in the world. Therefore…
“Well here’s the news…” Hazel said.
i can’t resist picking up where I left off.
“The force, the great spirit, and the Powers will be here in a matter of about a week which gives you girls time to practice your powers withall the afreets here,” Hazel recited. “The 6 girls should try to master their powers before they get here. Now I think all the afreets have something to teach do they not? Good. Now let the teaching begin!”
Hazel raised her arms and vanished.
“Wait, did she say 6 people…” Veronica started.
A crack sounded about the room as a girl literrally dropped out of the sky.
————————————————————————-
Archie stared at the chains on her hands and the ropes binding her to the chair wondering for the millionth time why she had decided to play with the weather and make it snow in her gym class. The principal had walked in and caught her at it right after everyone had run into the hallway. They had sent her to the police station and now she was in an ambulance headed for the scientific research lab to be studied like a guinea pig. Suddenly the chair was gone and she was falling straight down. Archie’s last thought before she went unconcious was, “I must be going mad…”
————————————————————————
Archie slowly got up to find her self on a sandy colored mat in the middle of some room with girls her age looking down at her. Scrambling to her feet she looked around to find the girls were not the only ones in the room. Several animal things were also along the sides of the room accompanied be three girls that didn’t look at least over 12, yet Archie could sense that those eyes had seen a lot more things than she would ever see.
“Where… where…” Archie faltered as she looked around again.
“You, my dear, are in one of the last safe places for the afreet,” one of the girls along the wall said (Stella).
“Huh…” Archie asked bewilderedly.
“You have powers, don’t you?” inquired Issy.
“Yes, but… ”
“Good. Now Zelda would you care to explain…”
“Yes of course Issy, I would love to. Now here’s what’s going on…”
character guide:
Hazel: Issy’s, Stella’s, and Zelda’s best friend. Powers: All the same as Stella’s and Zelda. turning 1002 in a month. Hazel nut hair, forest green eyes, and is part woodland spirit.
Archie: One of Celentra’s “creations” and is to become best friends with Veronica and Lana helping to mend the dislike between them. Powers- control over the weather and materialization. other powers (if any) are unknown. She has a little bit of weather spirit in her, jet black hair, gray cloudy eyes, and is 13 and 1/2.
Athanath- faerie/elf type spirit. Ruler of Aebvoraena. One of the last living Makers. Not evil exactly, just mysterious and slow to trust.
Athanath stroked the scars on the moon-pale skin of her arm. Memories of the Makings, so long ago. For what seemed like the millionth time, she wondered if putting the blood of the Makers into the people to give them magical powers had been a good idea. After all, if it wasn’t for that, the Powers would never have come to be. Their shared blood had enabled the Powers to destroy the Makers slowly from within. As one of the last, she had a duty to bring the girls to her.
The prophecies of the Powers clanged in Athanath’s head, harsh and grating, just like everything else about them.
The Makers are falling. They will fall into ruin, and Aebvoraena will sink into chaos, fall with its creators. The tide, once started, may never be stopped by any spirit, or by any means save magical.
That, of course, meant that humans with magic were needed to thwart the Powers. If only they weren’t so young…
The afreet will help. Dutiful servant of the Powers that he is, he will bring them to Us. He will think that he is acting of his own will, but he is nothing but a puppet in Our hands. His daughter, not human, will still have a role to play in Our fall, but, of course, she is of little consequence. The wheel is not hindered by a speck of dirt in its cogs. And We are the wheel.
Curse that gri’sha’ar afreet! She’d warned him that his powers would make him an easy target for the Powers and that he must be careful never to join with the Force. Of course, he hadn’t listened, and he was marching with te Powers to find his daughter and bring her to them.
Where was the girl, anyway? Athanath pulled the scrying crystal from inside her robe and murmured the words for activation.
The girls, all six of them, were sitting in a room with the afreets. Athanath groaned. The stupid spirits didn’t have a clue what they were doing. They’d never seen the Powers in their full majesty and fear. They didn’t realise what the Powers could do, given the chance to destroy those who were supposed to vanquish them. And the silly girls were just drinking in every word the afreets spoke.
If Athanath wanted Aebvoraena to be saved once and for all, she had to set those afreets straight.
stupid italics.
only the prophecies are supposed to be italicisied. Sure;y you can figure out what those are.
***
Archie glanced around, confused. All sorts of strange beings were staring backe at her. Then, to make matters utterly worse, another one appeared. Flew in was perhaps a better term, but Archie was so muddled at the moment that it hardly mattered.
***
“Athanath,” snarled Achmet. “We don’t need you here. The girls are going to learn their magic. With us.” He crossed his furry cat arms defiantly.
Athanath snorted. “And I suppose they are going to learn their magic without aid of any knowlege of the laws of Aebvoraena or the Prophecies? Did you know, Ruby, that gri’sha’ar have a fatal weakness, one that presumably you share? Adela, that coming into sevenfold your full powers and using them like you always have is going to get you killed soon? Did any of you afreets know that?”
Athanath could see from the shocked expressions on everyone’s faces that they hadn’t.
“Ruby. Gri’sha’ar are almost completely armoured, yes?”
“Well, yes,” said Ruby. “But in books their stomachs–”
“Exactly.” said Athanath. “Gri’sha’ar, even those that don’t look it, like you, bounce magic off their thick catings of scales. However, if a bolt of death magic hits you in your stomach, no matter how much magical armour you are wearing to combat your weakness, it will kill you.”
Ruby and the afreets looked horrified. Adela wore a calculating expression in her eyes.
“Does this mean,” she asked, “That we can defeat Ruby’s father in the same way? Send a bolt of magic to his stomach?”
Clever girl. “Yes. Unfortunately, he will be expecting such an attack. I guess that one of the Powers will cast a strong magic-repulsion spell on him. I can do the same for Ruby, but none of you afreets can, even if you knew about the secret of the gri’sha’ar.”
Athanath ignored the suddenly subdued afreets and pulled magic from the very fibre of the world. She wove it into a belt, turning the strands of raw power around and around in her hands until they formed a cord that nothing could sever. Gently, she smoothed it out until it would cover all of Ruby’s vulnerable spots and wrapped it around the girl’s waist.
Ruby giggled as if it tickled, but looked infingietly more relieved
RRF,
I think I’ve fixed your errant italics. Also added double-returns between paragraphs (they help).
How many stories do we have in progress here? It all seems very complicated.
Leah was angry now. “Genetics are out the window,” that horrible cilantro eater had said. Well, if genetics can be out the window, she thought, so can I. Seems I’m too snarky for any of them to handle but myself. I’ll leave Ruby to her random trusting of cilantro eaters, and I’ll go maybe help Lana and Veronica. They didn’t like me much either, though. Perhaps, I’m just better off by myself.
And with that, Leah jumped out the second window of the day. No one noticed aside from a flame in the fireplace, which had noticed her immediately. It was interested. And so when Leah jumped out the window, it broke away from it’s friends and it, to, leaped out the window. No one noticed it leave either.
Leah scrambled along the alley, carefully peering around the corners so that she wasn’t captured by some mad sedative-carrying loon in a lab coat again. Finally, she found a nice place between two trash cans, where she sat down to think.
Just than, something appeared in the alleyway. It appeared to be carrying a flashlight, which flickered oddly. Like fire, she thought. Than, the little flame zoomed up to the trash cans, looking about.
Leah stifled a shriek and grabbed it.
The flame, minding it’s own business, was suddenly swept up by two hands.
Leah opened her hands, and saw the flame staring up at her. It stared back. “Hello,” she said. “Where are you from. from the fire, it replied. Leah frowned. “Why did you leave?” I liked you, it responded sheepishly. “I hope you realise this means I’ll have to bring you back to a nice fireplace,” she told it sternly. It lowered it’s head. Sorry, it said. Can I stay with you for just a little while more? Please? “Fine,” said Leah. “But as soon as I find another fire to get you back with your family, You’re going to have to stay there. In the meantime, sit up here.” She placed it on her shoulder. “And stay out of trouble.” It nodded and bounced around happily on her shoulder.
Where did Veronica go?
The day dimmed, as the first trace of the moon appeared, full and shining.
The full moon, she remembered. The Day of the Drenidis.
she sighed. Drenidis, a word she hadn’t heard very long. It was a fancy word of saying Werewolf.
She stumbled along the large corridor thinking to herself. Her father had been a Drenidis, that’s how she had inherited his powers. He had been a spawn of one at least. And so had her mum been. But it was never said that a offspring of two Drenidis would be a werewolf herself. Veronica knew that she was never accepted however, because she had the mannerism of one.
“Veronica,” whistled a voice.
“Veronica.”
A swaying form appeared in the doorway. It looked suspicously like a spider….
“We’ve go to team up.” It said.
________________________________________-
Faraway in the lab, Juo and Tiskinite were put under arrest. Tiskinite squinted at the flames for a moment, and winced. Then shook her head.
“What are you doing?” Hissed Juo.
“Saving our lives, you fool.”
_______________________________________
Around a burning fire, many people danced around a small, frail elderly man.
“Oh, Leah. Ancestors, fire, fire people.” He chanted.
“Fire! Fire!” The people cried.
“Shut up, you fools.”
Their dances immediantly ceased, and they crouched around their master.
“What says you?” said a woman.
“I said be quiet.” He whispered timidly.
Far away in the distance, a blurry sillouhette of a young, yet fair girl could be seen.
“Welcome her, you fool!” He cried.
The woman nodded.
Slowly, she coaxed Leah into coming towards them.
“Leah,” he breathed harshly. “Do you remember where you were when you and Adela were in the city? Do you remember Devil’s Pit? End this choas for you and your people and decend to it’s level. Tis all I will say.” He sighed.
“One time prophecy,” explained the woman.
The man slowly dissolved.
“Tis my turn,” she said warily, and sat in the chair.
Leah knew this was just plain bizarre.
“Go,” said the woman. “You will go to Devil’s Pit.” Then she too vanished.
“Some are duds,” said a man.
Leah was freaked out. This was too bizarre.
She ran away, but the little flame stopped. “Fire, Leah.” Leah looked back.
“Not now, little flame. I have a feeling about you.”
“For some reason, Leah, I do to.” It said.
___________________________________________
Leah had just recovered from the wierdest experience of her life, yet somehow she felt compelled to go. How many rodkas did she have? Five. Ruby had the rest. That meant that exit two for the one rodka fee was her best bet. But how to find it?
More characters!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n_n
Kitsune- Fire afreet who looks like a red fox with a pale yellow underside. His powers include the abilities to create and control fire, and he can never get burned. His human form is a red-haired boy with a tatoo of a foxe’s tail on his right leg. He is 1,264 years old.
Neste-Ice Afreet. Looks like a silver eagle with golden eyes. Her power’s include the abilities to call on snow, sleet, and hail, and general manuplation of cold weather. Her human form is women with silver blond hair and a tatooe of eagle’s wings on her back. She is 2,612.
Ka’ala-Water Afreet. Looks like a giant blue gecko. He can shapeshift and manuplate water. His human form is a black haired polineisian boy with tattoes of gecko feet on his hands. He is 1,937.
All afreets have telepathy. Akkaveesh is 4,871. Achmet is 499/
Achmet glaced balefully at Akkaveesh. Leave it to her to look unsurprised at what Athanath had told them. Nobody could ever tell what Akkaveesh was thinking. She was the oldest one in the room besides Athanath, and 4000 plus years on the earth had taught her to conceal her feelings. Unlike him. He was the youngest and least powerful Afreet in the room, just under 500. All the others treated him like a child. Well, he did happen to know about a gri’sha’ar’s week spot. Apepihotep was his brother.
Veronica had given up staring Lana into submission, and was now looking around for the best way to get out. She found it on the upper corner of the left wall. It was a vent, obviously leading out to the street. Standing on the tips of her toes on her cot, she could just peer out.
Leah strode quickly along the alley, glancing around nervously. She couldn’t help but feel like something was following her. Multiple things, in fact. Did this city have gangs? She wondered anxiously, than spun around sharply, nearly flinging the flame off her shoulder, as she heard a noise, than, seconds later jumped about a foot at the sound of a distinct footstep. There was something out there. She quickly ducked around the nearest alley, and peered around the corner.
Several figures, all dressed in long black robes, swept out of the darkness. “Where is she?” said one roughly. “Nasty little thing,” snarled the largest one. “This is our part of the city. She’s a Redblood spy, I swear it.” “Either way, we have to get her.”
An odd noise met Veronica’s ears as she peered out of the vent. Two voices, talking about a “her” and something about red blood. She went higher on her feet, and winced. Going on pointe was the sort of thing you needed Leah for. Now she could just glimpse a few figures in black robes muttering to each other. Lana, despite herself, looked up curiously. “What are you doing?” “There’s someone out there,” whispered Veronica in return. Lana scooted her cot over to Veronica’s side and stood on her toes to see out. There they were, the people in black.
Leah heard them conversing, and turned her attention to her plan of action. They obviously had no idea she was magic, so she could use that to her advantage. And the flame, she thought, which was nervously bouncing up and down on her shoulder. Very well. It’s now or never. She asombled out from behind the wall, thinking of fire. It came immediately. Raising her hands above her head, she summoned a burst of fire and quickly tossed it at the first one’s robes. Idiots. The material was incredibly flammable, and it instantly combusted. The other few, with immediate action, surrounded her and began circling inwards. Right, she thought to herself. Let’s try something like a force field. SHe inhaled, and gathered all the fire currently inside her up into her core, while they came ever closer. One two three. Leah let go, and an enormous hallowed sphere of fire shot outwards, sweeping her attackers off their feet and flinging them through the air. SHe opened her eyes. Safe.
Veronica and Lana saw the whole thing from the vent. “Leah!” yelled Veronica, pounding on the vent. Leah turned. Veronica and Lana were looking at her. With a quick movement, she tore the vent off and pulled them through onto the street, hiding the flame behind her back. For some reason, she didn’t want them to see it. “There are two warring gangs in this city,” she told them, “The Redbloods and the ones in the back robes. Stay away from both. Ruby is that way, (she pointed) and I don;t know where Adela is. Close your eyes and count to twenty.” “What?” said Lana, bewildered. “Just do it!” Leah snapped back. They did. Leah scrambled through a complicated maze of alleys, loosing them. She was going to do this Devils’ Pit thing herself. And she had just found a clue.
A nearby sign said “Exit One.”
Ruby paced around the room, fingering her “belt” of magic. It felt somewhat like her River, but even more powerful; she shivered despite the desert warmth of her room, which Akkavish had dumped her in after her first lesson.
She sighed, her hands still on her belt. She was on her own now. It was impossible to protect her pack without endangering them further, what with a huge angry dragon being after her. Speaking of which, wasn’t she supposed to be one too? Reaching for her River, she attempted to shape herself into her idea of a dragon, but was caught with a sharp pain when she tried. Wincing, she took her hands off her belt. She tried again the magic at which she had become familiar with, attempting to summon a vision of her friends, wherever they were now. This time, the pain wa sstronger, lancing through her. Frightened, Ruby opened her mouth, but all that came was a croak. The belt! it was holder her back somehow! She tried to wrench it off but it wouldn’t loose. Ruby gave up and lay down, flat on her back, on the sandstone floor. There was no bed; there was no furniture at all, only a small wooden door that led to the hall.
Athanath was behind this, she knew it. She cursed herself ten times over for trusting those Efrit and thier plans! How could she be any help to anyone if she couldn’t do magic?
She reached out with her mind, unthinkingly, instictively. Celentra! she cried mentally. You said you loved me! As you do, help me!
A moment passed before she got an answer, as if her voice had to cross a long distance. Finally, it came. Patience, child. You are an Efrit. Do you think they have abandoned you? An Efrit must learn to use thier own power before learning to use that of humans.
but how? shouted Ruby into her mind. How can I learn if they won’t teach?
There was no answer. Instead, the wooden door creaked open, and Akkavish, Achmet, and the other Efrit, now in thier human forms, filed in, accompanied by the three sisters, and Athanath. Ruby faced them boldly. Athanath’s lips curved into a smile. “We can hear telepathy unless it is guarded, Ruby.”
Ruby, all former helplessness forgotten, raised an eyebrow. “So are you going to take this off?” she gestured at the belt.
“Oh, honestly,” said Achmet in exasperation, “when are you going to be convinced that not everyone in the world wants to kill you? Well, I know everyone basically has all your life, but we don’t. Want to kill you, that is,” he concluded lamely.
Akkavish said, “we came because you said you wanted us to teach you. We are going to teach you. Come on.” They all filed out of the room. With some hesitation, Ruby followed.
_________________________________________
“are you sure this won’t hurt?”
The fox Afrit, Kitsune, raised his eyes to the cieling. “It it was, I’d have told you the first seven hundred times. Sure, it will twinge, but not so much. Your power should come back into affect once we finish, and I don’t want a dragon trampling my lab.” Kitsune, now in his youthful human form, gestured around at the fragile glass insturments surrounding them. Ruby eyed the numerous sharp implements amoung them, then sighed. “Okay, I guess.”
Achmet chuckled. “For one who seems so brave, you have a remarkably low courage level in the fave of pins, Ruby.” She glared at him.
“Stop bickering, everyone,” said Akkavish. “Ruby, come here.”
With some trepidition, Ruby came, and was helped onto a table of brown sandstone by the spider woman. “Take off you shirt and lie flat on your stomach, please,” she said. Ruby twisted around in shock. “That isn’t decent!” she exclaimed.
The eagle, Neste, gave her a reprimanding glare. “No one will see anything. Athanath is the only one who will; she will be preforming the ceremony. You will appear fogged to averyone else.”
“If it helps,” pointed out Achmet helpfully, “Even if you weren’t fogged out no one would want to look because you arn’t exactly what you’d call pretty, Ruby–” He was silenced by a kick from Issy. Ruby spared him one scornful glance before red smoke rose up around her. She removed her shirt and lay down on the table. Above her, she sensed Athanath, who was chanting some forign gibberish. Slowly, the woman dipped her sharp, miniscule knife in a dye pot and began to trace designs with it on Ruby’s bare back. It did hurt, but Ruby did her best to ignore it, thinking of her friends. It was fitting, really, she thought, as Athanath re-dipped her blade, that she was no longer able to protect them. After all, they had thier own power, just as effective as Ruby’s, if more focused. They wouldn’t have let her protect them anyway…
“ouch!”
Athanath suddenly dragged Ruby up by the arm. She forced some sort of garment over her neck, that covered her front and halfway down her arms, but left her back bare. Ruby felt hot blood and dye mingle as she changed position. The fog coaleced; suddenly there was no more pain.
Akkavish helped her off the table. The rest of the Efrit applauded. “Very nice, Ruby, it suits you,” sid Ka’ala. “But then, it always does.”
Ruby hummed a note experimentally, resorting to the less powerful aspect of her magic to test it. Her hair suddenly turned silver, then changed back to it’s normal brownish-red colour. She twisted around, looked at her back. Traced there, in red and gold, was a dragon. She turned back and grinned at everyone, even Achmet. Then she slapped her forehead. “oh, man, how am I going to explain this to the matron back at school?”
Akkavish smiled, a very friendly one considering her patron form. “Efrit don’t go to school. They stay with thier kind.”
sorry that was so bad, I was rushed.
Ruby doesn’t know that Leah’s gone yet, either.
Adela sat outside the room where Ruby was being tattooed by Athanath. She could hear occasional murmurs in some foreign language. It was all very boring.
That is, until the door fell down. Adela was experimenting with burning protective runes on it. Obviously, they hadn’t worked.
“Hello, young spirit,” said someone standing in the smoking doorframe.
He doesn’t know I’m human, thought Adela. I can use this.
“I am Apepihotep. You will surrender and bring to me the Maker Athanath. I know it’s here.”
Adela groaned with disgust. Apparently Apepihotep was one of those stupid villains who thought he was going to win immediately. In books, the good guys always beat that kind of villain. Of course, this wasn’t a book. It was real life. And something about Apepihotep’s voice was terrifying.
His voice had something of Ruby in it, but much lower and more dangerous, less human. Could this be Ruby’s father? IT seemed to fit.
“Who are you?” asked Adela.
A clawed foot stepped into the bright room out of the dark outside. Had it been dark before? Adela couldn’t remember. Time passed so strangely in this place.
“I am Apepihotep, the highest of all afreets.”
Ruby’s father was an afreet. Athanath had said he had great power, which he abused.
“Tell me, little spirit, have you ever seen one of the vanishing gri’sha’ar?” He advanced menacingly, and now Adela could see his entire body, his scaly hide, his leathery wings, his horns. And worst of all, his human face.
“YES!” she cried. “I have!” With that, she threw magic out in a huge wave, willing it to take whatever shape it wished to destroy the horrible gri’sha’ar. Dancing magical green fire formed into the shape of a snake, then shifted. Apepihotep threw out power as afreets did, pushing it out and then pulling back, dodging Adela’s creation.
Something filled the air, a presence, as it were. It created a sense of dread and fear. Adela wanted nothing more than to run back to Ruby and Athanath and the afreets, but she held on to her magic, sending it, now in the form of knives, to hit Apepihotep.
“She is too powerful for you, my friend,” said a different voice. There was something mocking in its tone, especially on the word friend.
“She’s still young!” protested Apepihotep. “I can take her! Go get Athanath, if she’s so important. Or are you too afraid of the power of a Maker?”
“No need,” said Athanath. “To find me, that is. There is plenty of need for fear. Plenty of need.”
She paused, then tossed something at Apepihotep. “That should stall him for a bit while I perform some necessary surgery on you, Adela. You see, there are certain side effects to growing into full power when you did. Have you noticed pain in your back?”
Suddenly, Adela was almost bowled over by a sudden shooting ache by her shoulder blades. She nodded.
“This will be quick,” promised Athanath. Adela hated when doctors said that, like when they were planning to give you a shot. Adela was terrified of shots.
The Maker pulled a tiny knife carved with ritual designs from her belt. Moving quickly, she carved what felt like runes through Adela’s t-shirt into her back. It hurt, but Adela gritted her teeth and took it. Finally, the knife made two long slits, and a wonderful cool sensation covered Adela’s back. There was no more pain, and when Adela twisted her head around to see what had happened, the cuts had already faded to white scars she could barely see through her ripped shirt. Of course, there was a little something else to notice.
She had wings. Athanath smiled at the shocked expression on Adela’s face. “They can be used as channels for power. Unfortunately, I can’t teach you how to do it now. Apepihotep will soon be back awake, and I have my own battle to fight.”
Ruby ran in, a strange sort of top on her torso that left the dragon tattoo on her back bare. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Apepihotep starting to move.
“Father?” she whispered.
“My daughter.”
“You abandoned me! You left me! You were too scared to tterach me about my powers yourself! You had to make Athanath and Achmet and Akkaveesh and… and…” Ruby’s rage was barely contained. “You have no right to call yourself my father! I hate you!”
Ruby flew at her father, and her body morphed slowly. She grew bigger, and claws formed from her fingernails. Huge wings and ridges grew out of her back. Adela could tell it was Ruby only because the creature had Ruby’s face and she could still see the tattoo.
The two gri’sha’ar battled furiously, using magic and claws alternately. Above, Athanath was fighting a raging darkness that Adela was certain was one of the Powers. The afreets, led by Akkaveesh, dashed into the room and locked in battle with enemy afreets that swarmed in. That left Adela alone, just trying to stay out of everybody’s way like she had her whole life.
Then a lesser Power than the one Athanath fought flew in front of her, and she forgot everything else. Adela poured all her fury into a magical creation. She rose up into the air on new wings and threw herself at the Power, magic turning into talons that slashed at the swirling darkness.
New blackness was forming every time she cut through the old, but once or twice Adela thought she saw something inside.
That’s it! she thought. Athanath said the Powers had a secret that no one knew, that would lead to their defeat. Behind the dark, they’re only human ! I have to tell Athanath. But I’m not telepathic. How can I make sure that the Powers don’t hear we know their weakness?
She had it. It was in the wings. A beam of energy shot from Adela’s wings to Athanath’s, carrying the message. From Athanath’s grim smirk, Adela could tell it had worked.
She concentrated everything she had on cutting away the darkness, her magic changing from a wall to a scythe to a pair of fabric scissors.
Finally, the black was gone, and Adela could see an old, withered man who had no life in him left except for in his glowing yellow-green eyes that fought to spew out more black. She shot magical green fire into the holes until no more darkness emanated from them. With a sighing noise, the man crumbled to dust. He was gone.
He was gone, but there were many more to fight.
that was really good, but maybe we should save the fight with Ruby’s father for later?
Leah was quite nervous right about now. After seeing the Exit 1 sin, she had been walking in the opposoite direction to find Exit 2, but thus far there were no signs. Not to mention, she had just felt a searing pain in her back twice in a row. hey weren’t normal back pains, either – Leah had had the eerie feeling that the places where it had hurt was in some sort of shape. It wasn’t very comforting. She hurried along.
A moment later, she froze. Up ahead was a sign that said Exit 2. Smiling, she ran forward and skidded to a halt in front of it, than walked cautiously under it. And at that moment, everything changed.
Lana and Veronica had decided that their top proirity right now was find Ruby. Leah had pointed out where to go before running off, and they were now trotting towards the place where she had Ruby was going through quite an ordeal.
Than, quite suddenly, both of them, at the exact same time, yelped and slammed their hands into their lower backs. “What the?…” gasped Veronica. “What was that?” “I don’t know,” said Lana, trying to sound nonchalant, but Veroica heard a distinct worried note to it. Than bothoff them yelled again, as pain once again shot through their backs. “That is just to wierd,” said Veronica. “Let’s go find Ruby. Now they were practically running.
Suddenly Issy, Stella, Zelda,Hazel, and Archie all appeared quite suddenly in the center of the room. Adela looked at Archie and immeadiatly noticed a change in her. Archie’s eyes were set in determination and there was a sense of power around her. Obviously Issy and her friends had taught her what she had to know. As soon as they arrived they set off quickly in different directions towards the Powers that had appeared in the room. Adela watched in wonder as Issy’s eyes and hands sparkled purple. At first Adela thought that Issy’s power wasn’t working but then she realized items in the room were glowing red, purple, hazel, and silver as they zoomed towards the powers. Meanwhile, Archie was fading rapidly as she materialized out of the room. A few moments later she returned along with Veronica, and Lana at her side.
—————————————————-
Oops! time for bed. finish it for me!!!!
Suddenly there was darkness. Endless, unrelenting darkness. When it cleared, the girls, the Efriti, Nigel, and Athanath were left alone in the room. The powers and Apepihotep had vanished, and the only evidence they had been there were a burn marks on the walls and furniture strewn all over. Ruby had returned to normal, and lay unconcious on the rug. Adella turned around and saw Achmet/Alfred, seething and shouting something uninteligible in another language.
“He does have quiet a colorful vocabulary, doesn’t he?” Kitsune said cheerfully. Adella noticed exept for Achmet and Akkaveesh, the Efriti had changed back into their animal forms.
“We need-to move-the stronghold”, Neste panted, and Adella felt vaguely like she was moving for a few seconds.
“Here, you look like you need help”, sayed Akkaveesh, laying her hands on Adella’s back. She felt her wings dissolve, and when she turned around, she saw a picture of a small, black bird.
Akkaveesh raised her eyebrows. “Hmmmmmmm. A merlin, I think. Quite appropriate.”
Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light and a bang, and a man materialized in the room. His blond hair covered one of his silver eyes, and he was bleeding from several cuts in his arms and a large gash in his side.
He grinned. “Sorry I’m late. Did I miss anything?”
everyone, this is CHAOTIC! Maybe we should start again from when they escape from the lab, and make them ALL Efrit, because everyone is using everyone else’s powers and it is CRAZY! Also, where did Nigel go?
Actually, I think it’s time to get rid of some minor characters.
I never did get Akkaveesh and her purpouse…. But I don’t think we should start over. We have to have the charachters get together somewhere, and they have to not seperate again.
That’s why it’s too choatic. We don’t have them together. We have to switch more than Lord of the Rings. And let’s try to have only a few charachters…(ChinTsu…I mean U.)
Too many makes no sense at all.
We need to be more organized.
I know this is kinda schooly, but this is what we need
Charachters Allowed
Leah
Adela
Ruby
Veronica
Celentra
Lana
Nigel
Akkaveesh+her brother
Juo
Tiskinite
Ruby’s Father
Nancy
Stacy
(this list is huge!)
Settings
Cablanca City
Juo and Tisknite’s Lab
the Emoko Forest
The girl’s town
Celentra’s House
Plot
The girls are trying to use their powers for good, but things are becoming rough.
Please try not to violiate these. The rules of a good writer is not to go crazy even when it might seem fun.
We are trying to make a real story, like Phoenix is trying to say, and I know a good publisher once we have it put together…:-)
So, no more charachters, please. That’s what’s scrambling it up.
P.S.
I don’t really see a clear plot…what is it?
If you want trasnfer the list to word and print it out. Try to be as careful as possible so that we don’t ruin Phoenix’s good idea…
I hate these stupid italics.
Phoenix (111) (such a cool number),
I like writing fight scenes. There will be another one. A bigger one. You think *that* was the whole Force? I just love writing battle scenes.
So, we’re cutting Leah’s subplot?
Adela. One L. CHINTSU!
Am I being too evil? Sorry. And what about where that battle just was? I think that’s Athanath’s HQ. We kinda need that in the story.
Sorry for being evil. I can’t help it. *bows & scrapes* :angry:
I think Issy, Zelda, Stella, and Hazel should be in it too!!!!!!!!!! maybe Archie… no wait! yes Archie!! She has control over the weather!!!! That’s too cool!!!!!!!!! to cool to be left out! other than that I don’t care… And that should be a minor battle, and a bigger battle should come later!!!!!!!!!
This is not working. If we’re cutting Leah’s subplot, that means she’s just going to sit in the back and be not as important as everyone else. That’s why I sent her off on her own. If that’s how you want it to be – all the others going off one their extravagant subplots while Leah sits in the back stupidly, fine. And last time, Lana and Veronica didn’t get anywhere.
Leah will not sit in the background stupidly!!!!!!!!! Eventually she should meet up with Archie or someone but she will have a few chapters all to herself!!!!! So there!
you know, I haven’t been writing this for a long time, but.. 5 main characters. Five. It’s an awful lot.
I promise I will kill off one of the Efriti and send the others to fight somewhere else until later.
Uran(oo-ran)-Light efrit. Takes to form of a golden cobra. His powers are: telepathy, telekenises, mind reading, and the ability to blind his enemies(temporaraly) with flashes of light.
Adlla sat on the bed of her new room. The efriti had given her it after explaining that now that she was “marked”. That meant she needed only minor instruction, not a mentor, which is why Akkaveesh and Achmet had left. She glanced at the ebony door, where in a circle a merlin with spread wings was carved over an open palm. The merlin was her animal familier, Akkaveesh had explained, and the open palm symbolized her power to hurt and heal.
Ruby had been given her own room too, which Lana and Veronica didn’t seem to resent, since they were too busy getting angry at each other. Archie was still confused about what was happening. Issy, Stella, Zelda, and Hazel had left with Achmet and Akkaveesh to gather and plan with some other Efriti in Europe. Leah had gone away, and Kitsune had suggested that she might learn better on the road. The entire stronghold had been moved 20 meters below the sahara desert, where no one was likely to find them, Uran, the cobra efrit, had explained.
He had encouraged her to read some of the books. They would help explain most of her questions. Sighing she picked up a new book that she swore had not been there before. If was intitled A Guide to the Users of Magic of Earth and Aebvoraena. Scanning the list of “Half Efrit and Other Magic Users” she was surprised to see her name and the names of the other girls. Quickly, she turned to page 141…….
* * *
Veronica consentrated hard, and the cabnet glowed gold and lifted a few inches into the air before crashing to the floor. Veronica yelled in frustration.
Uran, the cobra efrit, sighed and shook his head.
“Your too angry, Veronica. Anger clouds your mind and dampens your powers. You must empty yourself of emotion. Explore ever nick and cranny of the cabnet, and then lift it.”
STOP! halt! atzor! cease!
let’s organize this. WE ARE STARTING AGAIN FROM THE BEGINING!
now. ALL the girls are Efrit. The lab thing at the beginning NEVER HAPPENS. Each writer may control ONE main charecter, who do not come into contact with one another, and make up thier powers. If you want, your charecter may have a mentor (i.e., Akkavish, Celentra, etc.) or may be a lone ranger. We take turns writing in OUR charecters point of view, and no power-or god playing. this means that, you can’t make your charecter the center of events, and you can’t control another charecter. If you meet someone else’s charecter, you have to wait for the controller’s point of view to see what they do. Trust me, I’m and expert on theis, I play Dungeons & Dragons.-
Now. I will (of course) take Ruby. I will write a plan for her, and we will form a plot TOGETHER.
Ruby Laan–
powers:She can control the flow of energy (i.e. heat, electricity, cold) but not create it. This means that she can take, for example, the heat from an undersea volcano and melt a metal bar with it. She cannot create her own heat. She can use her life force for energy, but that will kill her. This is how she fights, by leeching your energy. Eventually, she will find her Efrit shape of either (I havn’t decided yet) a dragon or some sort of poisonous snake.
backround: raised in an orphanage, she has not been badly treated but has not been treated with love or welcome.
Personality: she tends to act tough and fierce, but she really isn’t. she can be impatient and obstinate. she never listens to ANYONE. she hates to see blood. She can be ruthless when nessesary, but not always. If you gain her trust and respect, she will be unswervingly loyal to you. very determined; what sshe wants done, gets done.
apperance: longish reddish-brown hair, black eyes that are so dark you can’t tell the pupil from the iris. she has very tough browned callused skin from hard work. slim, but has MUSCLE.
other: her symbol is the pentagram (five-pointed star in a circle), and she owns a necklace in that shape, inherited from her mother. BOTH parents were Efriti.
Now everyone else do the same for thier charecters.
oh yeah, she is thirteen-and-a-half.
That’s it I’m leaving!!!!!!!!! This is getting too out of hand! If I am ever to come back to this thread you shall have cleaned it up!! We should start a new story on a new thread!!!!! This one is too long a confusing!!!!!!! We all should at least control one main character and 4 minor characters!!!!!! Good-Bye!!!!!!!!!!
minor charecters should be controlled by all. And yes, we need a new thread for this! please, Mr. Administrator?
I admit to being guilty of overfondness of my own character. We do need a new thread for this. LIMITED number of main characters. REAL PLOT. STANDARDISED SPELLINGS OF CHARACTER AND PLACE NAMES.
My character in the new Round Robin ‘Riting II thread shall be:
Name:Emily Olafsson
Age: Thirteen
Sex: Female (duh)
Powers: Afreet/Efrit. Has no power on her own, but augments or diminishes powers of others when she chooses to. This is difficult to control, and she often has problems controlling her magic.
Background: She has three sisters who aren’t very important yet named Alyssa, Kailey, and Molly. Her father is dead. Her mother is a struggling writer and chain-smoker. She hasn’t had a horrible life. She has a few friends and is in a band named Passenger-Seat Drivers. (If anyone can come up with a better name, let me know.) Will normally change into an orangutan.
Personality: Nice, but very private. Not terribly outgoing because she doesn’t want her uncontrolled power to hurt her friends. She’s a very good bassist, and the “predictable” one in her family. Finds it hard to find fault with anybody. Can be ruthless and bloodthristy, and it scares her.
Appearance: Blonde hair that has been dyed with streaks of red. Very pale blue eyes. She looks young for her age. People often think she’s ten. Her ears have been pierced many times. Slim with callused fingers from playing so much music. Pale skin. In general she looks very Scandinavian.
Other: She has an eye tattoed in brown on her left arm. It almost looks like it was burned into the skin.
And for Adela (in the story we’re going to fix this into):
Name: Adela McCarson
Age: Thirteen
Sex: Female
Powers: Afreet/Efrit. Healer with additional powers because her birthday’s on Halloween and the full moon. She can attack with healing magic, literally, filling people up with it until they’re so fit that they violate magical laws. She also “heals” air into new forms with magical fire. Her fire does not burn; it looks like fire but is more like light with substance. Changes into a combination of birds of prey, the dominant ones being kestrel and merlin.
Background: Regularly beaten up by her twin Andrew, who has sme powers but isn’t important yet. Her parents, both afreets/efrits/efriti, have been called to Aebvoraena to serve, so she is taken care of by an old deer-afreet/efrit who was severely injured in magical power during the last War against the Powers. She has friends and is generally happy with her life.
Personality: Easygoing and helpful. She doesn’t trust many people that well, but whan she does, she’s a good friend and very forgiving. She’s not uptight about a lot of stuff. She never studies for anything, but she’s smart and good at figuring things out and jumping to conclusions.
Appearance: Brown hair with green eyes that vary in intensity depending on how she’s using her magic and the light. She’s not anorexic, but doesn’t eat much and has a fast metabolism, so she’s very skinny. She is one of those rare girls that WANTS to put on weight, but can’t seem to. Like to draw mysterious runes on her hand with Sharpie.
Other: She is mentored by Athanath (see below.) Can partially shift into her bird form, having only the wings. From Athanath’s treatment so that her wings could break free, Adela has very white scars on her back in the forms of runes and spirals, and a bird of prey in black when the wings haven’t erupted.,
Name: Athanath
Age: Ageless. Older than anything except other Makers. Since the creation of Aebvoraena, she’s lived about fifteen thousan years, give or take a milennium/
Sex: Normally appears as female.
Background: Way too much to go into, and she wouldn’t tell me anyway. She’s a Maker, of which she is the only extremely powerful one left. There are about twenty other, lesser Makers.
Personality: Very mysterious. Tends to call a lot of people “child” because to her they are. Would speak in something like italics if I didn’t hate the italics on here and use them too much.
Appearance: Long silvery tangled hair. Eyes like black pits. All pupil, no iris or whit evident. They’re there, you just can’t see ’em. Wings, not birdlike like Adela’s (see above), more faerie-ish. They are translucen and basically pearly white with symbols rotating slowly on them.
Other: Rules Aebvoraena in absence of any other Makers with equal power. Wants it to be save forever from the Powers and their Force. (see below)
And some definitions:
Powers: (always capitalised, if lowercase just means magic) Evil beings who use evil magic to keep themselves in a state of semi-life. All their power is stored in their yellow-green or red eyes, and the rest of their bodies are just shells of who they used to be. They were once humans with magic. When they turned evil, the Makers vowed never to let a human use magic again. They are usually shrouded in darkness that rages and devours tohings to add to the potency of their magic.
Force: All the evil servants of the Powers. This includes Ruby’s father Apepihotep.
Makers: Creators of Aebvoraena. Very mysterious. Come in different degrees of power.
Aebvoraena: Magical realm whose inhabitants are magical beings such as afreets/efrits/efriti. (We need standardised spellings.) Aebvoraenans can travel to and from Earth at will, though few choose to do so, but Earthlings can only be brought into Aebvoraena by a resident.
I QUIT!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD-BYE!!!!!!!! DO NOT USE MY CHARACTERS IN YOUR NEW STORY!!!!!!!!! Fine you can use Archie… BUT IF YOU USE ISSY, STELLA, ZELDA, AND HAZEL YOUR DEAD!!!!!!!!!!
See, that’s what happens when you try to control other people’s characters. Bye, Kricket. You were a great addition to the writing team. :-(.
[b]Leah[/b]
Age: 13, flaunts it in Lana’s face constantly
Gender: Female
Background: Leah’s Mom and Dad don’t like her much, and heaven knows why. All of Leah’s sisters ended up tall and thin, with flowing, straight blonde hair. The entire family takes ballet, and Anastasia just got a leading part as Clara in the Nutcracker. Leah had been chosen to audition for one of the lesser roles, but both were at the same time, and both the parents wanted to see Anastasia, so Leah couldn’t go.
Personality: Snarky, angry, and reculsive upon occasion.
Appearance: She pretty much hates everyone, including you, and is short, scrawny, and pale, with dark hair.
Other: She has a pet flame.
Anastasia: Leah’s spoiled sister, thus far the only one of many introduced.
Anastasia: Leah’s spoiled sister, thus far the only one of many introduced.
Kriket, we wern’t planning on it. we are not plageristic here!
So now we have Ruby, Emily, and Adela for main charecters, and Athanath for a “guardian” charecter (not main, but fairly important.) Is that enough?
MR. ADMINISTRATOR, WE NEED ANOTHER THREAD FOR THIS! PLEASE!
ok, plot (if anyone has objections/ideas, print them) :
I. backround: There are four Makers, each presiding over a magical Aspect: Athanath over Wisdom, Gri over Knowlage, Olaige over Will, and Eilan over Force. These are the four skills needed to work magic, and each corrisponds with a kind of being living in Aebvoaena before it was destroyed for the first time. It was destroyed at first by Eilan, who rebelled against the others; he didn’t want ethics and magic to be mixed. The other makers decided they would firmly merge all the powers together so all the Aspects would work in harmony, so creating the Efriti. However, Eilan wouldn’t lend his Force to them, so the Efriti have varying degrees of power. Eilan created humans, who have varying degrees of the other three Aspects but always have Force. For this reason, humans are powerful but only a few have magic or, indeed, any ethics at all. Now, the three Makers rebuilt Aebvoaena, placing the few magical humans (who, of course, had ethics as well, having all four Aspects) in it with the Efriti. All was hunky dory for a while, but Eilan convinced the magical humans the Efriti lorded it over them and he would put thier power to better use. So they all went over to Eilan and destroyed the city again, in the process mortally wounding Gri and Olaige. Athanath, having Wisdom, had hid while the others fought, seeing it was a lost battle. She managed to save a few Efriti as well. After the battle, she convinced the Efriti and the dying makers to create yet another being, a mixture of Efrit and Human, that would have both power and Ethics, but that Eilon wouldn’t know about. So three Efriti married three humans (unless we add another charecter, of course ;)) and had three half-Efriti children (also if we add another the last one has to be a boy.). Unfortunately, while being transported to a safe haven the spaceship carrying the four (three?) children was lost and the children were lost on Earth. Later, Ruby’s father joined the Force, and told of the existance of the children who could bring about the Force’s downfall. Both sides have been searching for the children, trying to get them on thier side, but untill now they have been unsucsessfull…
The GAPA is feeling disoriented. Why do we need another Round-Robin-‘Riting thread, what shall we call it, and how shall we describe it?
um… round robin thread with an actual plot and rules?
and Leah, Lana and Veronica…
I don’t want to do this, but I really have no time argue online over who has the main character or not. I have a life and things to do.
woah phoebe you have a life? where did you get it? was it terribly expensive? cuz i should probably go get one one of these days…
So, do you want to start over from scratch with RRR 2? If so, I’ll start a new thread and close this one off to further comments. I recommend that you agree on some rules and choose an editor or moderator with authority to keep things on track. What do you think?
Thanks for the input, Ebeth. Seriously, though, that really helped lighten up the situation.
On the next one, let’s start entirely fresh, new characers and everything.
ok…fine. we can vote on the plot and whatnot:
theme:
__ sci-fi
__fantasy
__realistic fiction
__historical fiction
__mixture of sci-fi and fantasy (ex.–a plague has been triggered by overpopulation, killing off all humans and other primates. it has a curious effect on the canis lupis, causing them to grow bigger, stronger, and more intelligent. they are now the dominant species, but have learned from humans’ mistakes and are content to let nature grow… Also, they have the limited ability to morph into an imitation of homo sapiens at will (were/dire wolves).
mood:
__darker
__more lighthearted
__mixture
should we have orders for who writes when?
__yes, always orginized
__no, you write whenever the heck you feel like it
__write when you deem it nessesary, or if you REALLY want to say something
plot development:
__make it up as we go along (like this messed-up thingie; I reccomend not)
__organize it all beforehand
__make basic plot beforehand, but freedom to move around.
guys, I nominate myself for moderator for the new thread. we should vote on this. all in favor say aye, or nay, or nominate yourselves or someone else…
also, any plot ideas are welcome.
I thik Phoenix would be a good moderator. I vote for her. As for theme, I go for more realistic, but I’m kind of open (Just so you know: if the plot starts involving powers and gets all magicky like this one did, I won’t post on it. If you want to do it, fine, but I won’t be involved.). The mood should definetly be a mixture. I don’t think it should be too light hearted, because then it could get silly, but it should not be dark!!!! We shouldn’t have an order for who writes when, because then if someone wasn’t getting online, or if they decided to drop the stroy, the rest of us would be stuck. We should have a basic plot, but we do need freedom, or it’s not really round robin writing, it’s just filling in the blanks, which is no fun. As for the plot, I have no ideas, but I would like it to be pretty realistic, like something we all might have experienced. If you want to disregard my suggestions, fine, but there they are!!!!!!!!
MontgomoryGurl, thanks for voting for me! *snappy campain theme goes here*
I know you can’t do fantasy fiction, but we’ll have to wait on everyone else’s vote. are you prohibited from all fantastical things (i.e. talking trees, etc.) or just from classical magic? what about extrasensory-perception (E.S.P.)?
we are all young teen or preeteen girls, and we all are very creative, as evidenced by the fact that boring people just don’t read Muse. we tend to lean towards fantasy, so I don’t think anything purely realistic fiction will cut it. I suppose, however, if everyone else votes toward that, we could try it…
Oh, I don’t have a problem with fantasy, I actually love it, but I don’t do magic. It’s one thing to have a different world where strange things happen, but I just like to stay away from the really magicky stuff. I don’t mind some of it, like in LoTR, but I don’t do high concentrations.
I didn’t mean necessarily totally realistic, just maybe set more in our world. When I write stories they always turn into character studies, with everything told from the point of view of one character, and it kind of centers around the everyday-mundane. We could make it about a high school or soemthing, where something kind of off the wall happens, but the people still react like we would.
I also think that we should scratch the “my charater, your character” thing. I don’t think we should switch back and forth, with people writing from different veiwpoints. I think it should all be told from the perspective of one main character, taht everyone controls, who watches everything going on around her. Everyone would just post what happens to her next. It would probably work, if we all agreed not to leave her in some really hard situation that will be almost impossible to write her out of. The main problem with this story was that people would leave a character passed out in an alley, and the next person wouldn’t want to deal with it, so they would just make a new charater. Plus everyone had a different idea of what they wanted to do, and they would do it with “their” charater, while someone else was doing something totally different with theirs, so if we can all agree to just work with the story we have, and not try to make it do exactly what we wanted it to, it might be just fine to let everyone have complete control over all the characters when they post. We would just have to make up some ground rules, like that you can’t leavethe main character in a really bad lurch, you can’t switch to a different perspective, and your posts can not introduce and resolve totally new ideas just for your enjoyment. Of course, maybe it wouldn’t work at all, I don’t know!!!
P.S. I’m fine with fantasy, or sci-fi, or whatever the popular vote is. I just dont’ want to do something really magicky, like this one turned out. A little bit is oaky, and I like fantasy, but I don’t like total saturation.
I always end up doing this, where I don’t say everything in the first post and I have to do another one.
I don’t really have a problem with another world with different rules, like I once read a book where there were certain languages that had power, but I would be happier if we didn’t give the main characters magical powers different from the rest of the world. I also don’t want for the powers to be like a god for the characters. But, like I said, I actually love fantasy, just not magic. It’s really hard to explain, because there’s such a fine line between enough and too much, and I don’t kow how to really put it into words. Main thing though, NO WITCHCRAFT!!!! I might make some concessions, but I won’t do it if the characters start calling on spirits and gods to give them there powers. I think it would be a plenty interesting story if our characters just used there own personal strength to fight whatever comes against them in the story. You guys don’t have to worry about me, if you really want to then do a magicky story, but once it gets past my tolerance level I will leave. I’m seriously oaky with you doing whatever you want to!!!
The over-organization of everything is killing me.
I think we should stop organizing. Just come up with a plot, and let us all take over, with some ground rules. I still think we should all have complete control over the story when we write, otherwise it’s just like an RPG, because we can only control one character. We should just come up with a plot, make up one main character whose point of veiw the story is seen from and some important characters who willnever have the story told from their perspective, and let all the Musers just start writing, as long as they stay within the written plot, don’t add major characters after, say, the 20th post, unless everyone agrees to it, stick to one perspective and try to keep subplots to a minimum, don’t start getting pig-headed and write really long posts that introduce completely new plot lines just so you can show off your writing skills, and don’t put the main people in impossible to write out of situations. If everyone sticks to these rules, we probably won’t even need the plot written out before hand, because the main problem with this story was that everyone told a different part of it from a different perspective, added characters when they didn’t know what to do,and wanted to tell the story they wanted to tell. It might work, this time.
I vote for Phoenix!
Don’t worry, all that spirit and god stuff would take too long to say. Besides, efriti(singular:efrit) are evolutionists.
Akkaveesh Nefret-
Age: 4,871
Gender:Female
Powers:An Efrit, her animal looks like a spider. She can dissolve her body into a cloud of black, literally a physical for of darkness. She can change size while in her animal form. Also she can become invisible at night, make lights go out, and send people to sleep with a look.(She can kill people too, but she never does it unless she’s really angry.) She is most powerful at the new moon.
Quote:”Darkness is not evil. We know nothing of darkness, and it is our mortal nature is to fear what we do not know.”
Personality: Calm and collected. She thinks before she speaks and is very good at hiding what she is thinking. The covers the fact that she is very sad inside, because she has lost so much.
Human Form: A tan skinned women with black hair and dark indigo-violet eyes. She has a slight Arabian accent.
I will ask permission from Phoenix to write about Akkaveesh starting when she is 6. It will go through the story of her life, starting in 2,872 B.C.E.
I’m thinking of writing an explanation for magic, having something to do with string theory…
Fantasy shall rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BWAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!
oops hehe
I still think we shoul just pick one character to center the story around and write it from her view point, and let everyone have completet control over the entire story when they write. If we only let people move one main character, then we might as well be doing an RPG. Those are just my thoughts. I guess I’m fine with magical powers, if they have a “logical” explaination, like it’s just something in the air of that world that you can harness. I don’t want to seem like a kill-joy, and if ya’l want to do some magical stuff, don’t mind me!!! I always hate it when a whole group of people don’t do stuff they want to do just because of one person.
If it’s a problem of control, I can create individual threads for one-person projects. They wouldn’t be round-robin, but they would give people a chance to post their writing for others to comment on. Then the ones who were really ready for the unpredictability of the round-robin format could continue on RRR 2. Just a thought…
no, round-robin is more fun. well, if we have only a few charecters, we have to all agree on personality and what happens in the plot. MontgomoryGurl, we don’t want to do anything on this sight you (or your parents) would find objectionable. and even though I can read about magic and Paganism and stuff, I’d also prefer if it was not, well, religion-magic, like clerics. how about everyone submits a plot and thier own set of rules, and we vote on the ones we like best?
Well, I don’t have to read it, so it’s not like people would be forcing me to go along with something against my religious beliefs or anything, but I appreciate people considering me!!!
I would submit a plot, but plots are not my strong point. I actually don’t have a strong point when it comes to writing, but if I did have one it would be character development and creating moods. I never make up plots, not even when I write. I just sort of start with a random sentence and a name for a charater, and then I just start writing, and see where it goes. It’s pretty fun, but after about five sentences I generally have a pretty clear idea of what will happen in a story. Oh!!! I just remebered a plot I once wrote, but I never did the story. It’s pretty detailed, so you can make it more abstract if you want to.
Story opens with a girl (about age 14) whose mother has recently died. After her mother’s unexpected passing, she grew apart from her father, who she used to be very close to. She sort of blames hom for the death, because of how she died (you can figure that part out). As time goes on she tries to avoid her father more and more, dreading the sight of him coming home, and she knows that he is avoinding her, too. Eventually she climbs a mountain near her home so she can be alone and think (forgot to put that she lives in a scenic Rocky Mountain valley in Colorado). On the other side, she comes to a village, although that side of the mountain is supposed to be uninhabited. She goes down, and stys there for a ong time, meets people who all seem to mysteriously know all about her, yet she is unafraid. She is adopted into the village and stays for years, during which time she is taught many lessons about life and forgiveness, and after a really long time she works up the courage to go back to her father and forgive him, even though she loves he village and the people in it. I was thinking that maybe she starts to love it less and less as she resists going back to her dad, and eventually someone tells her that the village has served its purpose for her and now she must leave. She goes home, and finds her dad worried sick about her, and she learns that she has only been gone one night, though she stayed in the village seemingly for years. A while later she goes back to the other side of the mountain, and there is no trace of the village, except for a necklace that one of the people she was really good friends with gave to her. I don’t know how to end it, or what part to focus on, but you guys can figure that out.
that’s good! not really my style, as I personnaly like everything to be explained, but still, it is really nice! anyone else have any ideas?
Oh, and rules:
1. The story is only told from the girl’s perspective, thoughitis not told first hand. No switching to other people, and telling what they see. If you want to, they can tell the girl about stuff that they did, but you can’t tell the story from their view point.
2. No putting stuff in just to show off how good of a writer you are. you can’t introduce a plot line and resolve it, all in one post, and you can’t complicate the story with completel irrelevant sub-plots. Relevant sub-plots are one thing, but irrelevant one are another.
3. Always leave your post open ended, with the character in a different place then when you started, unless that would take too long. It would probably be best if your posts had “cliff-hanger” endings, like leave the charater in the middle of something, but not endings that are really hard to work with, which leads me to the next rule…
4. Never put characters in impossible to get out of situations. In the last story, people left charaters passed out in an alley, and then the next person to came along didn’t know what to do, so they would just create a new character and a different point of view, which complicated the everything. Oh, and in case you haven’t picked up on it yet….
5. Whoever is posting has complete control over the story at that point. They can move all the characters, have any character say something, and introduce relevant sub-plots, and add new charaters, if they want to. None of this “your character my character” stuff, they’re all everyone’s character’s. And finally…
6. If you dont’ have anything to say, don’t post. If you don’t understand what is going on, ask to have it explained to you, but don’t post in ignorance. Don’t post random things becasue you don’t know what to do, adn don’t write absolute drivel because you’re bored and want to write.
I think these rules would make the story a lot easier to understand. Oh, and one more thing: This isn’t really a rule, but it would make the story easier if you give the characters names that are more “everyday”. I had a lot af trouble keeping all the “exotic” names straight in the last story, and it would have been easier if the names had been simpler. If you have never met someone who has the name you want to introduce, or if it isn’t a fairly common name, you probably shouldn’t use it. Like I said, not really a rule, just a suggestion.
You could come up with some drivel about people who died going on to help the living, and that’s what the village was, a place that they made to help needy people and when the person wasn’t needy anymore they moved on, or is that still not explained enough? I’ve always gravitated towatd kind of open endings to stories, the unexplained and unknown has a real allure for me, but I can understand why you wouldn’t like it. It just fits my personality type, I guess
no, no, that’s not what I mean. ok: I am somewhat theatrical. I admit it. your plot is too, well, low key for my personal taste. It sounds like somthing I would love to READ, but not the sort of thing I would WRITE. speaking of things like that, have you read Ray Bradbury’s “Mars”? It is SO cool, and I love to read it, but it isn’t the sort of thing I write. Kapisch?
I was just realizing that it might be kind of boring for round robin, so I was thinking that maybe the people in the village have a cloud hanging over them because there is some great evil threatening the people. They want to kignore it, because they are a peaceful group who have lived in harmony for hundreds of years with no death or bad stuff, but they eventually have to fight it. At first the main character is frightened for the safety of her friends and herself, but she eventually finds an inner strength (I know this is sounding sort of stereotypical, but bear with me) and she fights in the bravely in the battle. One very good friend of her’s, among others, is killed. The people of the village are very sad, and there is a period of mourning, but they all move on. Main character feels very bitter, however, and has trouble moving on. She has to come to terms with the loss and forgive someone whom she blames for the loss(Anyone, but maybe someone who was in the battle) and therein she learns life lessons and stuff. When she does come to terms with the loss, she has to leave, doesn’t want to, etc.
Is that still too low-key? It might be, for round robin, and it might be too long. If it is, I’ll probably write it out for myself. I’m fine with us not doing that. Myabe we should vote seperately on plot and rules, so if we like someones rules, but another persons plot we can pick both.
I understand what you mean, Phoenix, and I’m really not offended. As you can see from the last post, I thought it was kind of boring, too. If you really don’t like it, tell me so I won’t waste my time writing up a horrible story!!! It won’t offend me if someone tells me that uh, well you’re just a horrible writer, because I don’t have to be good at everything. I really want to know if you don’t like it, so please tell me without fear, everyone!!!
I like MG’s rules. I think that we should have two or three chairwomen/men who just write but can pull people in when things get out of hand. That way they could check out each other’s stuff and be slightly more democratic in the critiquing process. (No offence, Phoenix) I think we should do something fantasy, but maybe set in the past? I’m cool with MG’s plot too, if everyone else likes it. We should definitely have a bit of humour and a bit of serious peril, but no leaving people passed out in alleys. My dream RR2 scenario: Viking fantasy with a loosely stuctured plot, one or two main characters, and a limit on supporting characters. Possibly there could be several RRRevisited threads, each with only a few people who set up their plot and character limit and how many people they let in. Slightly undemocratic, but not freakishly organised and not hectic like this one. I vote for myself for one presiding officer of RR2 or RR3, because while I do go crazy sometimes, reading too much fanfiction has given me the ability to tell other people when they are, and I’m good at spelling (if you notice I spell weird, it’s because I like to use British spelling), and I’m not a control freak (or I don’t think I am). Phoenix for administrator person too. I’d also like to nominate MontgomeryGurl (if that’s okay with you) for office because she’s always online and she’s already got a plot going. More suggestions welcome!
My plot idea (historical accuracy to be added by someone who knows this stuff):
A teenage girl lives in Viking territory (probably Greenland) at the turn of the first millenium. She sneaks onto Leif Eriksson’s ship as he travels to a mysterious new world. After being caught, the crew, who can’t very well throw her overboard, put her to work scrubbing the deck and cooking for them. When the ship lands in Newfoundland, Our Heroine gets lost in the struggle to set up camp in new and hostile territory. She meets up with a Skraeling hunting party (or so she thinks) and is taken to their village. There she discovers that somehow she speaks perfect Skraeling, and is soon caught up in an ancient struggle to save her new friends while discovering her own powers. Then follows the epic battle, in which Our Heroine does NOT save everyone in sight but tries her best not to get killed. Then an ending, which I’m notoriously bad at.
Note: My Skraelings are an isolated faerie and/or efrit/Inuit mixed-blood tribe.
Sounds good randomfreak. I began the Martian Chronicles but never finished. I’ve read “The Golden Apples of the Sun” a collection of short stories by Bradbury. Some of them are really SCARY. *shivers*
:I
Anyone have another plot suggestion? If nobody does, I think we should pick editors for the two plots we’ve got so far and start up the threads. For my plot, I vote that me and one or two other people should run it, and that there is a limit of other authors to start. If more people express interest, the executives should decide whether to expand the limit. If you’re interested in co-chairing for my plot, have ideas to make it better, or want to write for it, post and tell me so. Right now I’m thinking one other chairperson and ten other writers.
A begging request to Los Administradores: Please don’t post the RRF’s RRR thread until we have another editor and three authors. Thankies!
I LOVE your plot, Rohan! awesome!
The plot is nice, but I like more room to improvise.
Limit of authors? One or two?
Oh, god. Does that mean I’m fired for being snarky? It’s up to you, Your Majesties. *Stomps away angrily.*
Fired for being snarky? Never. I love snarkiness. Snarkiness is fun. And the limit of authors isn’t going to be one or two, but ten to start off. My idea for the limit of CHAIRPEOPLE is two. Note that it is my idea. I’m open to suggestions. I don’t want the chairs to be able to fire people, just tell them when they’re going nuts with the extravagant subplots, like a lot of us did here (No, I am not completely innocent, nor am I trying to be.) I just think someone with a slight amount more authority is needed. Did I say someone? I meant someones. Checks and balances, after all. That way, one person can’t bite authors’ heads off just because they were a little snarky.
To Los Administradores: Perhaps we need another RRR thread for people who liked the way this one was just fine, with no organisation. I have to agree it’s fun, just totally out of control at the moment.
To Phoenix: Do I sense that maybe you wouldn’t mind helping me to chair on the new thread :-), or am I just being hopelessly optimistic:(? Either way, I hope you’ll write for it, at least.
Pfft.
I kind of liked how it was going, because although things were a little out – of – sync for a while, they were starting to pull back together. However, I’ll let you do your thing. I’ll submit a plot idea.
Right. So, this is a kind of rough plotline with plenty of room to improvise and make up plot points and all that fun stuff.
There’s an assortment of children in this area, based off England in the 1200s, but we can have magic and all that fun stuff. Life is pretty regular. Embroidery for some, milking cows for others, and in some cases even digging through sewers. A group of inconspicuous trader ships come to town one day. They seem normal, until the head one suddenly dies, followed by much of the crew. After they leave, an abnomal amount of people start dying. And than more, and more, and more. It’s the start of a plague, and our MCs have it get out of it alive, by grouping together. Good stuff, eh?
well, once I had a dream where there was some world disaster and someone (I think it was Pheebs) contacted us all online and told us how to escape… and we all grouped together and whatnot, and it was cool, but that was before all the not-so-new-anymore-newbies. I think we had to escape into space somehow. that, modified heavily, could make a good plot…
Not a plot, Phoenix–a prophecy! Haven’t you guessed what MuseBlog is all about?
Mysteriously,
GAPA
And on that ominous note, I hereby close this chapter of the Noble RRR Experiment. For the next stage, you have a choice:
Round-Robin ‘Riting, with Rules: a more structured space with MuseBloggers in charge of keeping the plot on track; or
Round-Robin ‘Riting, Free-Form: creative anarchy like what you’ve experienced here, but with a fresh start.
Take your pick, and have fun!
–Robert