Era 7 Episode 3

[Stormlightsong]

11 hours ago, TheFrugalWizard said:

Frisian pulls to a sharp halt. He glares at Asylum, who smiles back at him.

"Talamar, is she right?" he asks. the spren forms back into his human shape.

"I'm afraid so, Frisian. I had been planning to warn you once you'd landed, but..."

Frisian looks down at Asylum. "Fine. What deal do you want to make?" He cancels all of his upward lashings except for a one-quarter lashing to slow the fall.

“The game is simple.” Asylum said, changing to a more serious tone of voice they adopted explicitly for explaining rules. “We will play a best out of three. I’ll let you pick the first one because I doubt you go to carnivals often, so I’ll let you get used to how the games work.” Also, they thought to themself, making sure to betray nothing on their face, it allows me to gauge your ability. “I will choose the second game, and, if at that point a winner has not been decided, the crowd will choose the third.” If he is smart he can guarantee the first win, Then I will probably take the second. Putting it up to the crowd is a gamble, but that’s the only thing I’m good at. “As to what is and is not allowed: we are both allowed to use our respective abilities, but cannot break any explicit rules of the game. Finally, If you win, I will go with you to wherever your boss wants me without resistance, but, if you lose,” they jabbed a finger at the radiant’s chest. “you cannot personally go after me. Are these terms acceptable?” The final question was said as they reached the ground. It was intentionally loud enough for the crowd to hear. The eyes of the carnival goers stared through the radiant. Asylum barely held in a devilish grin.

@Lunamor

Edited April 22 by Stormlightsong

[Scars of Hathsin]

Arranis, Smokestack

Arranis watches what is happening in the crowd. Which surged around him, and he surged with it, pretending to get a better look. The stampeding had gotten better, when people had realised there would be a game being played. This should be interesting. Let's see if we can gleam anything from this. 

[TheFrugalWizard]

37 minutes ago, Stormlightsong said:

“The game is simple.” Asylum said, changing to a more serious tone of voice they adopted explicitly for explaining rules. “We will play a best out of three. I’ll let you pick the first one because I doubt you go to carnivals often, so I’ll let you get used to how the games work.” Also, they thought to themself, making sure to betray nothing on their face, it allows me to gauge your ability. “I will choose the second game, and, if at that point a winner has not been decided, the crowd will choose the third.” If he is smart he can guarantee the first win, Then I will probably take the second. Putting it up to the crowd is a gamble, but that’s the only thing I’m good at. “As to what is and is not allowed: we are both allowed to use our respective abilities, but cannot break any explicit rules of the game. Finally, If you win, I will go with you to wherever your boss wants me without resistance, but, if you lose,” they jabbed a finger at the radiant’s chest. “you cannot personally go after me. Are these terms acceptable?” The final question was said as they reached the ground. It was intentionally loud enough for the crowd to hear. The eyes of the carnival goers stared through the radiant. Asylum barely held in a devilish grin.

@Lunamor

Frisian knew what game they were playing. Or he hoped he did. All he had to do was keep a confident face... and use his secret weapon. 

Inside he was chafing. He hated to have to play these foolish games. They merely impeded his grand visions. But he had made an oath. He put on a confident face.

"Fine. If I get to choose, then I choose the ring toss."

He points to a game where a hundred glass bottles are lined up on a table, and the goal is to toss a ring onto one of the tops of the bottle. He strode over and bought ten tries.

"Ten throws each. Whoever gets more points wins." It wasn't a question. Then, Frisian tapped fortune. Not a ton, but enough to score a rather impressive score of 20. 

Quote

We'll say 0 is the minimum, and 30 is the maximum. I've seen these at fairs and stuff before, they're absurdly hard, so 20 is a very surprising score.

 

[Lunamor]

Eza internally groaned. Lum had already tried this strategy before. Challenging that police guy to a game had accomplished nothing. They were still fugitives whom the constabulary was searching for. There wasn’t anything that could prevent this glowing guy from breaking his word like the policeman had. There must be something iffy going on in Lum’s mind. It was like they were incapable of learning anything.

She supposed that if you could cheat at life, you didn’t need to worry about failure. That was really rusting annoying. And stupid. Everything about this was stupid. Lum was being stupid, their plan was stupid, and Eza being there in the first place was stupid.

She wandered closer to the ring toss. Lum was leaving their fate to a series of children’s games. Eza held up her koloss plushie and realized that she was matching the perturbed expression on its face. With some effort, she reverted back to a look of wide-eyed curiosity.

@Stormlightsong

@TheFrugalWizard

[Stormlightsong]

On 4/21/2024 at 9:16 PM, TheFrugalWizard said:

Frisian knew what game they were playing. Or he hoped he did. All he had to do was keep a confident face... and use his secret weapon. 

Inside he was chafing. He hated to have to play these foolish games. They merely impeded his grand visions. But he had made an oath. He put on a confident face.

"Fine. If I get to choose, then I choose the ring toss."

He points to a game where a hundred glass bottles are lined up on a table, and the goal is to toss a ring onto one of the tops of the bottle. He strode over and bought ten tries.

"Ten throws each. Whoever gets more points wins." It wasn't a question. Then, Frisian tapped fortune. Not a ton, but enough to score a rather impressive score of 20. 

 

Asylum gaped at the radiant. A few snickers came from the crowd. The radiant wasn’t bad, they were quite good, but there was a reason Asylum had held the ring toss record for 5 years.

Asylum grabbed two rings and threw them at the same time. After five double throws, the score was calculated. A perfect 30. “Better luck next time.” They said with a grin.

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For the record I had already established that Asylum is good at the ring toss when I introduced the setting.

Quote

”And the newest ring toss record goes to Asylum Smedry!” Lucky said through a microphone as the crowd roared. “Thank you, thank you.” Asylum said with a grin. “You are all so kind.” The KHMD Carnival was the only yearly festivals Asylum thought was worth keeping. Competitions of skill, practice, but most importantly luck were played by all, and as long as Asylum kept up their annual display, the owners gave them a cut of the money.

“I choose the high hitter.” Asylum announced. Walked over to the large vertical poll. The Koloss Head Munching Day high hitter was quite unique. Instead of the normal bell at the top, this high hitter had a comically large Koloss head. It also allowed more range of scoring because of the Koloss head’s varying volume based on the force put in.

“Hammer please.” Asylum said, holding out a hand toward Lucky. The forger perked up with glee and grabbed a large wooden hammer. Thank you Lucy. Asylum thought as they started to spin the hammer for added momentum. Once it was going fast enough they took a step forward, and as the hammer fell down they pushed a small hidden button on the handle. Suddenly the inside of the hammer head changed from hard wood to lead. The weight in the pole shot up and hit the Koloss head. The yell that came out could be heard by most people in the carnival. The crowd roared twice as loud. Quickly Asylum pressed the hidden button again and handed the hammer to the radiant. “Let’s see you try.”

@Lunamor @Scars of Hathsin

[TheFrugalWizard]

38 minutes ago, Stormlightsong said:

Asylum gaped at the radiant. A few snickers came from the crowd. The radiant wasn’t bad, they were quite good, but there was a reason Asylum had held the ring toss record for 5 years.

Asylum grabbed two rings and threw them at the same time. After five double throws, the score was calculated. A perfect 30. “Better luck next time.” They said with a grin.

“I choose the high hitter.” Asylum announced. Walked over to the large vertical poll. The Koloss Head Munching Day high hitter was quite unique. Instead of the normal bell at the top, this high hitter had a comically large Koloss head. It also allowed more range of scoring because of the Koloss head’s varying volume based on the force put in.

“Hammer please.” Asylum said, holding out a hand toward Lucky. The forger perked up with glee and grabbed a large wooden hammer. Thank you Lucy. Asylum thought as they started to spin the hammer for added momentum. Once it was going fast enough they took a step forward, and as the hammer fell down they pushed a small hidden button on the handle. Suddenly the inside of the hammer head changed from hard wood to lead. The weight in the pole shot up and hit the Koloss head. The yell that came out could be heard by most people in the carnival. The crowd roared twice as loud. Quickly Asylum pressed the hidden button again and handed the hammer to the radiant. “Let’s see you try.”

@Lunamor @Scars of Hathsin

Feeling rather humiliated by his failure at the ring toss, Frisian tried to be invisible behind Asylum as they made their way over to the next game. As they swung, he could have sworn that he saw some kind of red light glinting off the hammer. Strange...

"Fine," he grumbled as they offered him the hammer. He wasn't sure how he'd beat them. He supposed he could just--oh, yes. Oh, yes! He grinned as he stepped up to the machine. Then he lashed the hammer. 

At first, he lashed it both dirctions. One, two, three, four. The hammer was in danger of breaking from the stress of being pulled two directions at once, but it seemed to be holding together nicley. Five, six...

He released both the hammer and the upwards lashings on it. At seven times the speed of gravity, the mallet smashed onto the cushion. The weight not only hit the koloss head, but demolished it. Splinters flew everywhere - and not just from the koloss head. The hammer had been completley destroyed, leaving behind nothing but splinters. The crown went wild. Cheers, yells, and screams burst from the crowd as they practically rioted. Frisian smiled. then he noticed something.

Frisian picked up the lead weight and glared at Asylum. He called for the curator of the game, who was indeed shoving his way through the crowd. Frisian had been afraid he'd get yelled at but the man looked delighted. He shook Frisian's hand aggresivley.

"Why, I've never seen anything like it!" he commented. "What a display! What a display!"

"Do you normally have lead weights in your mallets?" Frisian asked as he showed the man the lead weight.

"No, I don't think we do... Wait..."

Frisian whirled around to grab Asylum's collar and haul her into the air, to eye level with him. They smiled. Frisian sighed, realizing he couldn't blame them. They hadn't done anything much worse than Frisian had. He set them down. 

"I win this round. Let's move on to the last game."

Quote

I understand the crowd is supposed to choose the final game. Anyone willing to roleplay the crowd?

 

Edited April 25 by TheFrugalWizard
Pronouns + minor edits

[Koloss17]

18 minutes ago, TheFrugalWizard said:

I understand the crowd is supposed to choose the final game. Anyone willing to roleplay the crowd?

Quote

Interestingly enough, we already have two crowd members! 
 

@Lunamor and @Scars of Hathsin, what game shall be played next?

 

[Lunamor]

3 minutes ago, Koloss17 said:

 

Quote

Maybe dart throwing/balloon popping? I’m not sure if the Alleycity has balloons or not, though.

 

[Scars of Hathsin]

(Shooting game)? (Paintball or some other way of shooting so it is skilled, not luck based )

[TheFrugalWizard]

2 hours ago, Scars of Hathsin said:

(Shooting game)? (Paintball or some other way of shooting so it is skilled, not luck based )

Well technically its fortune. It would make me more likely to hit. read up about it on the forums

[Scars of Hathsin]

Arranis, Smokestack, KHMD

Arranis watches as the events both take place. "They are both cheating, why are they going at each other" he yells, and some people around him agree, voicing his sentiment. Lead Weight Forgery, and Lashings, they are both going all out. He looks at the demolished Kollos head. "I think that was a bit overdone as well" he mutters. 

He calls out, "Skill Game, Skill Game" into the crowd, wanting a game that they could not cheat in, as he slowly edges forward towards Asylum.

Edited April 26 by Scars of Hathsin

[Stormlightsong]

41 minutes ago, Scars of Hathsin said:

Arranis, Smokestack, KHMD

Arranis watches as the events both take place. "They are both cheating, why are they going at each other" he yells, and some people around him agree, voicing his sentiment. Lead Weight Forgery, and Lashings, they are both going all out. He looks at the demolished Kollos head. "I think that was a bit overdone as well" he mutters. 

He calls out, "Skill Game, Skill Game" into the crowd, wanting a game that they could not cheat in, as he slowly edges forward towards Asylum.

“Well now, I said we were allowed to use the abilities at our disposal as long as we don’t break the explicit rules of the game.” Asylum said, attempting to calm the crowd. They scanned their eyes over the crowd, looking for familiar faces, ally’s, when their eyes landed on a girl holding a Koloss plushie. I know you might be mad at me but please just this one time Eza.

“You there.” Asylum said. “The girl hiding her face with her plushy” they gave a small wink towards Eza in a desperate get the hint, “What do you think we should play?”

@Lunamor @TheFrugalWizard

Edited April 26 by Stormlightsong

[Lunamor]

4 minutes ago, Stormlightsong said:

“Well now, I said we were allowed to use the abilities at our disposal as long as we don’t break the explicit rules of the game.” Asylum said, attempting to calm the crowd. They scanned their eyes over the crowd, looking for familiar faces, ally’s, when their eyes landed on a girl holding a Koloss plushie. I know you might be mad at me but please just this one time Eza.

“You there.” Asylum said. “The girl hiding her face with her plushy” they gave a small wink towards Eza in a desperate get the hint, “What do you think we should play?”

@Lunamor @TheFrugalWizard

Rust. Lum had seen her. What’s more, they’d called her out in front of a massive crowd of people. This was precisely why she’d decided to leave. Taking the hint, she held the plushie up so that it was obscuring her face. The toy didn’t block her expression completely, as it looked roughly about as angry as Eza did.

”Oh, gee…”

She raised her voice’s pitch by a few octaves. Combined with her small stature, this made her convincingly pass as a younger child.

”I think darts are really cool! It’s super fun to pop balloons with them.”

She giggled excitedly to further sell the illusion. Eza also burned iron, taking note of the blue lines leading to the decorative buttons on the glowing guy’s shirt.

[TheFrugalWizard]

10 hours ago, Lunamor said:

Rust. Lum had seen her. What’s more, they’d called her out in front of a massive crowd of people. This was precisely why she’d decided to leave. Taking the hint, she held the plushie up so that it was obscuring her face. The toy didn’t block her expression completely, as it looked roughly about as angry as Eza did.

”Oh, gee…”

She raised her voice’s pitch by a few octaves. Combined with her small stature, this made her convincingly pass as a younger child.

”I think darts are really cool! It’s super fun to pop balloons with them.”

She giggled excitedly to further sell the illusion. Eza also burned iron, taking note of the blue lines leading to the decorative buttons on the glowing guy’s shirt.

"Let the crowd choose, eh? I wasn't aware that one person made up the entire crowd." He walked over to the baloon popping game, the Asylum and the crowd in tow. Ten bright blue balloons with red dots to represent eyes were lined up, split into two lanes. There was a railing ten feet away from the balloons for throwing the darts. Each had five darts on the railing.

"You first," he motioned to Asylum. "First to miss a balloon loses."

[RoyalBeeMage]

Eleos, somewhere, northmost Edgedancer shelter

Eleos closed his eyes before taking a deep breath. he was about to enter one of the homeless shelters run by the Edgedancers. taking a step inside Eleos sees that most if not all the volunteers are Edgedancers. as expected. there are a few commoners and a few members of different orders. like myself. Eleos thought to himself. he walked towards the office at the back and knocked. after a few moments he opened the door to see a high ideal edgedancer reading over some forms. "reporting for duty sir!"

@Koloss17

[Koloss17]

Chloris, The Mistwarrens.

Chloris had wandered. Again. You seem to find a new way of escaping a job every time you get hired, Minthe said. She was right. This time, she had managed to tear up the shop’s insides through a freak reaction with midnight essence and an angry customer. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt, but the shop was ruined. She just felt…disconnected lately. 
 

As she walked, Chloris quickly realized she had reached the end of this part of the warrens. She was promptly met with a shelter for those that couldn’t afford housing, or were otherwise dispossessed. A strike of recognition hit her. Edgedancers were the ones helping these people. She should be helping these people.

Her body turned ink black. No! Don’t you remember? Did you forget why you walked away? Why you broke your oaths? You weren’t enough. You couldn’t protect them. You were not made for that life.

It will only lead to more people getting hurt.

Chloris fell to the floor. She couldn’t do it. She wasn’t enough. She had failed them. She will fail others.

Ripples of midnight black spikes shot out around her body, with the spikes erratically jutting out, oscillating and shifting across her skin.

I have failed you.

 

@RoyalBeeMage

Edited April 28 by Koloss17

[RoyalBeeMage]

3 hours ago, Koloss17 said:

Chloris, The Mistwarrens.

Chloris had wandered. Again. You seem to find a new way of escaping a job every time you get hired, Minthe said. She was right. This time, she had managed to tear up the shop’s insides through a freak reaction with midnight essence and an angry customer. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt, but the shop was ruined. She just felt…disconnected lately. 
 

As she walked, Chloris quickly realized she had reached the end of this part of the warrens. She was promptly met with a shelter for those that couldn’t afford housing, or were otherwise dispossessed. A strike of recognition hit her. Edgedancers were the ones helping these people. She should be helping these people.

Her body turned ink black. No! Don’t you remember? Did you forget why you walked away? Why you broke your oaths? You weren’t enough. You couldn’t protect them. You were not made for that life.

It will only lead to more people getting hurt.

Chloris fell to the floor. She couldn’t do it. She wasn’t enough. She had failed them. She will fail others.

Ripples of midnight black spikes shot out around her body, with the spikes erratically jutting out, oscillating and shifting across her skin.

I have failed you.

 

@RoyalBeeMage

after what felt like hours eleos took a step outside to catch his breath when he saw ripples of what looked like black tar seeping out of a person in front of him. he recognised the tar as midnight essence. that was not possible. it couldn't be here. shouldn't be here.

"are you ok? is the midnight essence under your control? I'm going to have to ask that you rein it back in or take it elsewhere before I have you escorted away from this place. this is under edgedancer jurisdiction."

@Koloss17

[Stormlightsong]

On 4/26/2024 at 8:17 AM, TheFrugalWizard said:

"Let the crowd choose, eh? I wasn't aware that one person made up the entire crowd." He walked over to the baloon popping game, the Asylum and the crowd in tow. Ten bright blue balloons with red dots to represent eyes were lined up, split into two lanes. There was a railing ten feet away from the balloons for throwing the darts. Each had five darts on the railing.

"You first," he motioned to Asylum. "First to miss a balloon loses."

Asylum, Smokestack, The Koloss Head Munching Day Carnival.

Asylum loved the carnival. The cheers, the games, and the pure chaos. Asylum looked at the game in front of them. Darts, Asylum didn’t play darts much, not because they were bad at it, they just never got around to it. Maybe today’s the day that I- oh yeah the radiant. they thought, remembering the last few minutes.
 

“Darts!” They said, trying to remember what the radiant just said. “How about I go first.” Asylum picked up the first dart and threw it, popping a balloon. “Sorry, this is just getting kind of boring. Do you think we could just reschedule this to another time? I have a lot to do.” They did not.
 

Quote

Just to clarify. Asylum has ADHD. If you couldn’t guess.

@Lunamor @Scars of Hathsin

Edited Tuesday at 11:18 AM by Stormlightsong

[TheFrugalWizard]

1 hour ago, Stormlightsong said:

Asylum, Smokestack, The Koloss Head Munching Day Carnival.

Asylum loved the carnival. The cheers, the games, and the pure chaos. Asylum looked at the game in front of them. Darts, Asylum didn’t play darts much, not because they were bad at it, they just never got around to it. Maybe today’s the day that I- oh yeah the radiant. they thought, remembering the last few minutes.
 

“Darts!” They said, trying to remember what the radiant just said. “How about I go first.” Asylum picked up the first dart and threw it, popping a balloon. “Sorry, this is just getting kind of boring. Do you think we could just reschedule this to another time? I have a lot to do.” They did not.
 

@Lunamor @Scars of Hathsin

Frisian growled under his breath. Storming kid. But he saw an opportunity. The kid was clearly running out of patience. If he could draw it out, perhaps they'd mess up.

"I don't think so," he said. "You promised to play, so we're going to play. "

He walked slowly over to the row of darts and started picking them up, one by one. He pretended to weight them in his hand, testing for aerodynamics. In reality, he was just killing time. He then closley examined all of the darts before calling for the manager.

"These darts are a little weighted!" he said to the same man he'd shook the hand of earlier. "They will fly a little to the left." A few groans rose up from the crowd. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Asylum looking frustrated and very distracted.

As the flustered manager bustled away to get more darts, Frisian walked over to Asylum. He loomed over them, his face a mere foot away from them.

"Listen, you made the same oath I did," he said. "And if you try and break it, I will come for you, and I will bring you in. Understand?"

Edited Tuesday at 12:17 PM by TheFrugalWizard
pronouns sorry! I'm not used to using different pronouns

[Koloss17]

On 4/28/2024 at 9:15 PM, RoyalBeeMage said:

after what felt like hours eleos took a step outside to catch his breath when he saw ripples of what looked like black tar seeping out of a person in front of him. he recognised the tar as midnight essence. that was not possible. it couldn't be here. shouldn't be here.

"are you ok? is the midnight essence under your control? I'm going to have to ask that you rein it back in or take it elsewhere before I have you escorted away from this place. this is under edgedancer jurisdiction."

@Koloss17

Edgedancer.

 

the word reverberated through her. She used to be an Edgedancer….what had happened to that poor girl? Get a hold of yourself! Get. Up!
 

“Don’t say that word in front of me. Please.” Chloris’ voice was barely a whisper, and the voices in her head were so loud. Her midnight essence didn’t die down, the ripples still emanating from her.

[RoyalBeeMage]

"ok? i am still going to have to ask to to take control of your midnight essence. if you are not in control we can help you here. trust me. its happened more than a few times that someone comes in with uncontrollable midnight essence."

elos eyes the essence as he walks into the tent after gesturing for the newcomer to follow.

[Stormlightsong]

On 4/30/2024 at 7:42 AM, TheFrugalWizard said:

Frisian growled under his breath. Storming kid. But he saw an opportunity. The kid was clearly running out of patience. If he could draw it out, perhaps they'd mess up.

"I don't think so," he said. "You promised to play, so we're going to play. "

He walked slowly over to the row of darts and started picking them up, one by one. He pretended to weight them in his hand, testing for aerodynamics. In reality, he was just killing time. He then closley examined all of the darts before calling for the manager.

"These darts are a little weighted!" he said to the same man he'd shook the hand of earlier. "They will fly a little to the left." A few groans rose up from the crowd. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Asylum looking frustrated and very distracted.

As the flustered manager bustled away to get more darts, Frisian walked over to Asylum. He loomed over them, his face a mere foot away from them.

"Listen, you made the same oath I did," he said. "And if you try and break it, I will come for you, and I will bring you in. Understand?"

I see how it is, Asylum said as they started to overplay their boredom. “Come on already. Can we get this over with!” Many people had noticed Asylum’s inattention and impulsiveness and tried to take advantage of it. But if Asylum could focus on one thing it was the game. 
 

Ever since Asylum arrived in the Alleyverse they learned to read the game. Seeing through the poker faces. Bluffing against the best. There was a reason they had been banned from every casino in the city. They’d learned how to find people's weaknesses before those people could. Let’s see yours. “Y’now while we’re waiting we might as well get to know each other. Maybe gossip about our bosses. I can tell you mine is a psycho, but who pays the bills for you, huh? I probably owe them debt or something, that’s why people usually come after me, but I dare say I’ve never seen a radiant come collecting dues for a gambling ring, so tell me,” They lead against a wooden support and grinned as wide as they could. “Who would pay an untrained snob to do what better people have failed to do for far too long?”

@Lunamor @Scars of Hathsin