Zephrun’s Imperium Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 Thought withdrew into herself. "I wouldn't want that." 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xinoehp512 Posted March 7, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 (edited) Tom looked at her, curious. "Why not?" Then he laughed, a little sadly. "I suppose I know the answer to that, don't I?" Quote Guess what? Thousandth post!!! Edited March 9, 2019 by xinoehp512 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephrun’s Imperium Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 His eyes drew her in and they were etched with sincerity. Thought opened her mouth, words hanging right in front of her, calling, begging to be said... She closed her mouth, looking away. "I hate myself," she muttered quietly. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gancho Libre Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 Quote THAT'S NOT NICE!!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephrun’s Imperium Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 Quote Thought has been through a lot and I'm guesing Tom will make her explain herself so hold your horses, Gancho. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beantheboy12 Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 Quote *upvotes Gancho anyway* 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gancho Libre Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 Quote Thanks bean. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xinoehp512 Posted March 7, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 Quote Out of curiosity, what are you talking about? Because there's a decent chance Tom would know. Is it just the fact that you can't die that bothers her? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephrun’s Imperium Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 Quote Well, I'm thinking that she probably had little self-worth in the past anyway. She's a dreamer though. Unfortunately, losing her Shard, or rather why she lost her Shard, has taken a great toll on her self-esteem. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xinoehp512 Posted March 8, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2019 Quote Ohhh, I see. I misunderstood what she meant. Tom looked down and sighed. "I know." He scratched at a spot on the table. "It... it didn't use to be this way. When we first started out - the six of us - we were so confident." He looked back up. "Especially you," he said softly. "You... you were our leader. The person we all looked up to." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephrun’s Imperium Posted March 8, 2019 Report Share Posted March 8, 2019 Thought took a shallow breath. "And now I'm nothing." 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beantheboy12 Posted March 8, 2019 Report Share Posted March 8, 2019 AJ felt really intimidated. He tried to think of something of significance to say. “You’re not nothing,” he said. He felt stupid after. These guys were shardsish! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephrun’s Imperium Posted March 8, 2019 Report Share Posted March 8, 2019 Thought turned to AJ. "Oh really? You don't know what I was. I danced in the sky, I ran with creeks, and I sang with the wind. And then, because of you, I lost it all. It's gone." She shut her mouth, realizing AJ's expression and the words coming out of her own mouth. Flooding in to fill her anger came that sinking feeling from when she had first understood what she had lost. The pressure closed in on her chest, making it hard to breathe. "I'm sorry," she said, shutting down again. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xinoehp512 Posted March 8, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2019 Tom opened his mouth, trying to say something encouraging. You aren't nothing. You have worth to me. But he couldn't. He closed his mouth again. He closed his eyes and took a low, deep breath. Control, he thought. Control. He opened his eyes and released his breath. Better. There was a pause. "Should we get on with the story?" he asked softly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephrun’s Imperium Posted March 8, 2019 Report Share Posted March 8, 2019 Quote Let AJ say something first. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beantheboy12 Posted March 8, 2019 Report Share Posted March 8, 2019 AJ nodded and shut up anyway. He couldn’t really participate in this. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephrun’s Imperium Posted March 8, 2019 Report Share Posted March 8, 2019 "Please continue," Thought said to Tom. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xinoehp512 Posted March 8, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2019 Tom took another deep breath and went on. "There were six of us, then; me, you, Aurora, Nialliv, Samika, and Ralvon. We were all sorts of people - performers, scientists, policemen, you name it. But we all shared a fascination with the legend of the Tombstone Key. "As I said earlier, it was said to have the power to "lock" the soul, preventing it from dying; and then, later to "unlock" it when you were ready to pass Beyond. We were all drawn to it, although I don't know if any of us actually thought at first that it was real. But then..." He trailed off. "Then Niall discovered something. A clue- a hint, really- in an ancient book. He told his friend, who told his friend, who told me. I didn't think too much of the clue, at first; it seemed too unclear to me. It convinced him, though, and he spent the next year or so looking for more clues. "From time to time, I would hear about him and some others who had believed him supposedly finding more clues from my friends, who knew I was interested in this particular topic. It certainly hadn't been the first time I had been informed of an expedition that had gone out on some treasure hunt for this mystical artifact. But I had been skeptical of all of them, and Niall was no exception; while I believed his clues were sound, I doubted that they led anywhere but to another ancient ruin from some lost civilization that had long ago been sacked by raiders for all the valuables it possessed. I wondered idly once or twice if it was true, as I did with all the others, but I never truly believed he would actually find this mysterious key. "Until he found the map. "The map was clear and unambiguous. It gave a precise location for the vault, as well as directions on how to get there. It contained information that fit with everything that I had learned about it so far. And it wasn't fake; I did every test I could think of, and they all came out with the same result. He was telling the truth. "That was when I joined the team." He paused, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a bottle of water. He uncapped it and took a drink. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephrun’s Imperium Posted March 8, 2019 Report Share Posted March 8, 2019 Thought was captivated by the story. It was like standing in a tunnel and hearing her own voice echo from the other end, just barely reaching her ears. This story was about someone from another life. But she knew it somehow. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xinoehp512 Posted March 8, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2019 Tom put his water down and went on with the story. "You had joined Niall by that point, as well as Aurora and Ralvon. You'd taken leadership of the team by then, too." He smiled, lost in the memory. "You were what had held the team together when all the others would have given up. I think you believed in it even more than Niall did. "Samika joined right after me, by your persuasion, and we headed out following the map you'd discovered. It was hard- very hard- but we triumphed. Every time. "Eventually, after a year of traveling, we got to the vault where the map had said the key rested. There we faced our hardest challenges yet. But the trials we had already faced had made us strong. We had a couple close shaves, but we all made it through alive and even relatively unhurt. And eventually, at the very center of the vault, we found it. The Tombstone Key. "We used it right away, of course. It seemed to work; at least, it did what all the texts we had found said it did. But we didn't feel any different, and we certainly weren't healing from our wounds. We began planning our next moves once we got out of the temple; how to get back to our laboratory back home to see for ourselves how exactly this strange artifact worked. "But alas; in our arrogance, we had planned too soon. The text had implied there was a way out of the vault once the key was retrieved, but it had never actually described what this supposed way was. And, unfortunately for us, the vault was airtight from the inside. Unable to find a way out, we all suffocated and died." He took another sip of his water. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephrun’s Imperium Posted March 8, 2019 Report Share Posted March 8, 2019 Thought listened intently. She was genuinely curious. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I think I am here. Posted March 8, 2019 Report Share Posted March 8, 2019 Csilen looked up and sat down. “We failed,” he said to no one. All of the constabulary under his command had fallen, taking out the bread creatures with them. Csilen was the only one left. He began to tap a little of Connection, remaining sitting. He laid on his side. “I failed, I failed, I failed...” 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xinoehp512 Posted March 9, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2019 (edited) Tom continued."It might have been the end of us. Indeed, in the hours leading up to my death, I was sure that it would be the end. The key hadn't done anything to us, I assumed; it had been fake all along, or was missing some essential component."Luckily for me, I was wrong. The key had locked down our souls, like the legends had said it would; none of us passed into the Beyond, as we would have otherwise. But floating around as a Cognitive shadow is hardly a desirable fate, and the designers of the Key had taken this into account. A strange mechanism allowed for those who lost their physical form after being Keyed to 'reset' the soul, in a limited sense, and be reborn into the world."And so it was with us. We lost our memories, of course, so for the next twelve years we lived whatever life we had been born into. We had been scattered around the globe; with one notable exception, none of us even knew each other."Our memories were still there, however, and waiting to return to us. On occasion, they would infiltrate our minds while we slept, leaving us dreams that seemed even more vivid than reality. I myself awoke many times feeling the sense that there was something that I had forgotten, something that was important. But I was never able to recall what it was."As we got older and older, the dreams began to come more and more often. They began to strike during the day, too, albeit in shorter moments. But I remembered these no better than the dreams, and they left me no more than a sensation of loss every time one faded from my memory again.“But they kept coming. And they got longer. On occasion, I would be writing something down when one struck me; when that happened, I could write down a word or two before the memory completely disappeared from my mind.“I was naturally very curious as to what these strange episodes meant. Even so, I think it would have probably taken me another year or two before I decided to actually take the next step and figure out what these visions meant if it hadn’t been for my sister Liliana. She figured out on her own that there was something strange going on, and once she had discovered what it was, she made it her personal mission to find out what significance they had.“It wasn’t long after we had begun putting effort into studying this when you found us. By this point, you’d managed to get your memories back fully, along with those of Aurora, Nialliv and Samika. You helped me, too – and Ralvon, when we finally found him. The group had finally gotten back together.”He took another drink of his water. It was thirsty work, telling a tale. Quote Sorry for taking so long to get this up. ---- Back at the docks, living breadmunks began to drag away the bodies of those who had fallen to the constables. One of them scurried over to Csilen and begun to nuzzle his cheek. Edited March 9, 2019 by xinoehp512 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I think I am here. Posted March 9, 2019 Report Share Posted March 9, 2019 2 hours ago, xinoehp512 said: Back at the docks, living breadmunks began to drag away the bodies of those who had fallen to the constables. One of them scurried over to Csilen and begun to nuzzle his cheek. Csilen opened his eyes, and looked to the bread creature. It was nuzzling his cheek. He put a hand out and stroked it. “I’ve gone ahead and destroyed an entire unit of Elendel’s constabulary like the failure I am,” he whispered to it. “I’ve killed my leading officer, it probably won’t be long before they figure out I did it, and if they don’t, I’ll still be put down for threatening civilian lives, murder, blackmail, and a host of other things.” Connection didn’t just make him more happy, it made him more emotional. As he tapped, his eyes tested a bit. “And I still didn’t catch those fugitives. I’ve failed.” He looked to the breadmunk he stroked, its big eyes. And he took out his pistol, but he didn’t point it at the creature, he pointed it at his own head. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do now. Just hope it all goes away, I suppose.” 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephrun’s Imperium Posted March 9, 2019 Report Share Posted March 9, 2019 Quote You're fine! Thought had leaned forward, putting her hands on the table. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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