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| [Graded]A Game of Cat and Mouse; Astria & Inara | |
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| Topic Started: May 30 2014, 10:00 AM (976 Views) | |
| Levy-Chan | Jul 23 2014, 06:09 AM Post #21 |
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You want Thingamabobs? I got 20.
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The lizard seemed to want to help them more and tell them more sensitive information regarding this malicious spirit and the pathway to get to him, but for whatever reason its tongue was tied. Unable to give them specifics, Astria paid careful attention to what it was able to tell them. Stay right. Well that was simple enough to follow. "Alright, leave it to us!" Astria spoke with confidence, though she couldn't really say why. The lizard wasn't perfectly clear about what exactly was up ahead, aside from it being dangerous and evil, but even so Astria couldn't help but have the impression she and Inara could vanquish it. Stranger things had happened after all, but in any case the only path left before them was across the chamber so they really had no choice, but to head onward. Leading the way forward, Astria laid her hand along the right wall of the tunnel. Keeping her steps as close to the right as possible, the summoner constantly surveyed the ground to see if anything obvious was there to indicate danger. There was some part of the woman that wondered if they could actually trust this random talking lizard that gave them an incredibly ominous warning before sending them out to vanquish this evil that may or may not actually be there, but Astria didn't pay much mind to it. The woman naturally thought the best of people... and animals probably fell in there at some point. The lizard hadn't attacked them or anything, and so the thought of betrayal or deceit hadn't even come across her mind. "Watch the ground and stay as close to the right wall as you can." Astria reminded Inara, turning her head to see how the other woman was doing. Their path branched a few different times, but each time Astria didn't even think about walking another path than the right-most one. If nothing else the more times she picked right with seemingly no consequences supported her later decisions to pick right. Around the fourth or fifth time, Astria was soundly confident in the lizard's warning and so she became momentarily confused when there ceased to be a path ahead of them. The mage stayed right and was confident that the only thing she needed to do was keep right and they would come to... whatever they were supposed to come to without a problem. However there was no mention of the path ever stopping like it did here. The tunnel they were walking in suddenly widened up greatly and made a sudden drop off into what seemed to be a bottomless chasm. An almost literal hole in the face of an underground wall, Astria looked onward and could see some sort of hole on the opposite wall... that was in the not so near distance. "I thought that staying right would stop this kind of thing from happening? Did we not go right at some point?" Astria asked openly, though she was talking to Inara. The woman couldn't remember any path in question that would have steered them down the wrong path. She was completely sure every time that the right path was indeed the right path. Mulling over what to do next, how to proceed, Astria started to walk back and forth along the edge. Not so close as to accidentally fall off, but she wanted to make sure that she could see everything in front of her. Upon pacing back and forth for a bit, Astria suddenly got a rather crazy idea. Seriously crazy, like if she wasn't as confident in her Saints as she was, then it wouldn't have even crossed her mind, kind of crazy. "Inara. Do you trust me?" Astria turned to the woman and asked a rather bold question. "I have this plan to get across, and it is a bit crazy- I know- but do you trust me with it? I'm completely sure it'll work despite being so strange." Astria's plan was out there, and frankly she didn't even know where the inspiration came from, but it was the best she could come up with given the circumstances. |
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| 梟 Inara Serra | Jul 29 2014, 09:22 PM Post #22 |
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Honesty without tact is cruelty.
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Inara had followed Astria down every single path that led right without fail. It was slow going, since they were both being overly careful, but after a few tunnels, and a cavern or three that wasn't booby trapped in any way, Inara had finally begun to trust that the strange being had been telling them the truth. She had not know what a weight that was when she had first begun this journey underground, until she was free of the burden. her muscles loosened slightly, her walk became easier and her step lighter. She was nearly smiling as a matter of fact....Until they hit a wall. A literal wall. With only one small hole in it which seemed to lead out to a big heap of absolutely nothing. Her outward reaction was to raise a single brow and sigh. Inwardly, she was stomping her little feet and bubbling over with frustrated, ineffectual anger. "What do we do now?" Her voice came out calm and even quiet. She didn't know how she had managed not to shout it to the heavens like she wanted to. She took a deep breath instead, looking at Astria and then the hole in the wall like both were somewhat foreign to her. This new turn of events left her slightly tired. It was both mentally and physically exhausting to her at this point to stay in these caves for any length of time. But, being herself, she knew she must keep going if only to reach the sun again. She was beginning to wither, in her own mind, without the touch of it on her skin. Astria paced, Inara leaned heavily against the stone wall to one side of the hole, trying to think of a solution despite her obvious lack of will in that moment. When Astria decided she had a plan, Inara nearly fell over in her joy. The sound of slight hesitation, possibly even slight warning, in her friend's voice didn't even register. She wanted out of this damnable place. And if that meant trusting Astria with her life for the umptieth time since they had made the mistake of venturing down here, so be it. She would do so gladly. "Of course I trust you. What did you have in mind precisely? Or.. you don't even have to tell me, if you don't want to. You can show me." The girl might have looked slightly off kilter in that moment, perhaps even a bit unhinged. But she was tired enough, and angry enough, that all options were good to her in that moment. Any option really. However insane it might be. |
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| Levy-Chan | Jul 30 2014, 04:55 AM Post #23 |
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You want Thingamabobs? I got 20.
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Astria smiled at Inara's words. It was nice and oddly calming to know that Inara had such faith in her plan even though the details of it were rather sketchy... even to herself. "Alright, if I tried and explained this it would probably only discourage myself from doing it, so here we go!" Astria took out two of her coins and prepared herself for the rather dangerous plan. "I pay homage to the Saint of Strength, Saint Seturno!" Astria spoke her incantation for the man and with a flip of her coin and with a field of light the man came out! Shirtless and tall, he was a man whose physical form was rather entrancing. Arriving with a smirk on his face and his arms crossed. "Are you sure about this?" Seturno asked, though he wasn't really concerned. Seturno was more surprised that Astria thought of this kind of reckless plan on her own and so just had to double check, making sure the summoner wasn't having second thoughts. "Of course I'm sure! Can you make it?" Astria spoke up to him, not wanting her own summons to doubt her. "Can I make it?" Seturno scoffed a bit back to her. "... Can you?" "Of course I can!" Astria and her summon smiled at each other and Seturno looked out over the edge of the cliff. Judging the distance of it the best he could. He did a few trivial motions trying to gain perspective on it with his thumb and then did a few "warm-up" stretches to get himself ready. He walked over to Astria and Inara and proceeded to lift the two of them up onto his shoulders. "Alright girls, prepare for launch!" Seturno warned them and with his magic flowing throughout himself, Seturno increased his own strength before tossing both girls out towards the chasm! As they flew off, he made sure to tap them both his hands, sending out an empowered hit that was normally used to subdue an enemy, but here Seturno held back and so the force of the hit was carried with them- sending them flying further. Airborne and over a bottomless chasm, Astria quickly dismissed Seturno and did what she could to calm her nerves. "I pay homage to the Saint of the Skies, Saint Quetzal!" Astria threw out another coin and from that flash of light a winged beauty was above them, utilizing her wings to allow her to slowly descend and glide along side them. "The Tempest will bring about the winds of change." Que spoke softly, and with a motion of her hands the winds in the chasm sped up quite rapidly. Strong gales blew against them and sent them tumbling a bit threw the air, but with that tailwind they were able to land safely on the other side! Astria had landed on her back, and upon seeing her master and Inara land safely, Que dismissed herself. Breathing rather heavily, Astria couldn't really believe that the plan had worked out so well! "That was crazy. Sorry if that scared you, but at least it worked out!" Astria spoke, trying to sound reassuring and certainly not focusing on the "what if" of her plan not working. |
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| 梟 Inara Serra | Aug 3 2014, 11:18 PM Post #24 |
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Honesty without tact is cruelty.
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Inara watched the exchange between summoner and summon initially. She was still confused as to precisely what the plan was, but she didn't feel the need to ask for clarification. She was sure if she did, it would be the end of her wanting to do it. She was more than a little surprised when the summon lifted her onto his shoulder, and she couldn't help letting out a small yelp of surprise. Her mind raced along, showing her this man possibly jumping across the wide chasm which had them at a stalemate. It was another sort of surprise all together when he threw them out over the seemingly bottomless pit. For a moment Inara was suspended over pure air, nothing between her and her own utter (and messy) demise. She wanted to scream, but it seemed her heart had taken up residence in her throat and she couldn't get any sound out around it. The question in her mind now was simply,"Why didn't I ask her what the plan was?!" It was then that Astria decided to call on her other summon, and both she and Inara were borne safely to the other side of the gaping hole of doom. When Inara touched the ground she sort of .. well collapsed. Her emotions were such that she was momentarily overwhelmed. It took her a moment or two with her head resting on drawn up knees for the black spots dancing before her eyes to dissipate. She looked at Astria carefully. "Remind me..." She said quietly, and with obvious queasiness in her voice, "to ask next time." It was said with a smile though. After all, the plan had worked. Inara simply hadn't been prepared for the level of crazy that Astria had reached in that moment of desperation. After a few moments she stood."Do we still keep right or..?" The question became moot soon enough. There was only one entrance at the back of the cavern, and since Inara was most definitely not going backwards, they seemed to have no choice but to move forward. Whatever new traps and ill luck awaited them down the way, she would have to take her time and see. For the moment, the near death experience and the momentary free-fall had left her simply glad to still be breathing and all in once piece. Of course the universe had a way of throwing random curve balls at people when it came to things like this. She was happy to be alive, and with a single tunnel to follow instead of a myriad of branching pathways. And just ahead of them, through the gloom of the current tunnel, Inara could see light. It was glowing and shining, and not like the other strange lights they had encountered down here at all. She was nearly certain it was the sun, and judging by the color it was at its highest point in the sky. Not only was there actual life-giving sunlight, there were stairs. Stairs which went up for once instead of down. She could have given a whoop of joy and run headlong into the first patch of light, but some inner instinct told her this was too good to be true. It was then that she noted how the stones on the stairs seemed to be raised only in the places the light touched. "Perhaps we should go slowly." She said to her companion, though everything in her was crying out for her to throw caution aside. She took a deep breath and moved forward again. It seemed there were about 15 steps, and on each step rested at least two large puddles of lovely yellow sunlight. Unfortunately, on some of the stairs, which were in actuality about waist high, and would require some climbing, it was next to impossible to get over without touching one of the strange raised stones. She took a deep breath and looked at Astria. "Well, it can't be any crazier than anything we've already done. Shall we?" ooc
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| Levy-Chan | Aug 9 2014, 03:48 AM Post #25 |
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You want Thingamabobs? I got 20.
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Astria chuckled at Inara's response. The woman wondered a bit how Inara thought of her? Did she appear to be reckless type? Ranth would have certainly checked to make sure Astria was really herself. That thought made the summoner chuckled a bit. She knew that anyone with a level head on their shoulders would have tried to do something else, and frankly Astria was one of those people, but it was nice to do something reckless every now and again. Standing up carefully, Astria looked around and for a moment looked behind herself to see the chasm that they had just crossed. It still gave the woman light chills thinking about how they more or less just flew across the opening, but it was also oddly exhilarating. "Yeap, lets move on." Astria walked on through the only path before them. A wide tunnel continuing straight into this underground craziness. At least thus far they hadn't been put into any real death places, more so just dangerous coincidences. That mysterious liquid, the underground beast, and the chasm weren't really traps, but they were certainly dangerous obstacles in their path. Perhaps luck just wasn't on their side today? Well, if the talking lizard was any kind of sign, then no. Luck was certainly not on their side. Coming upon a literal light at the end of the tunnel, Astria was wondering if it was true sunlight. It hadn't felt like they were traveling upwards or anything similar. The mage was a bit suspicious about the sudden light, completely strange to have any already given that they were underground. Upon getting closer to the end of the tunnel, the cavern that opened before them was indeed covered in light. It was so bright and so radiant, Astria felt a bit surprised that it was the same sun she was used to seeing everyday. Being underground would do that though, without the sun it was hard to keep track of any kind of time down here. Not only that, but there were stairs that climbed upwards- seeming to suggest that it was a way out! Astria was actually quite glad about that, seeing that this could be a possible escape for the two girls. The bandits were pretty far behind them, and they wouldn't have any clue about this set of stairs being here. Not to mention that given the amount of walking they were doing, quite a bit of ground was covered, meaning that they were likely pretty far away from the shantytown of bandits. Taking Inara's words seriously, Astria calmed herself and tried to see any possible traps. Based off the many dangerous obstacles prior to this room, it certainly would be silly of them to just expect this sun lighten room with stairs to be normal. Looking carefully, Astria saw that the sunlight on the stone steps were raised higher than those without any sunlight. Climbing the stairs with her eyes, it would seem that the higher they went the taller the stairs became. It wasn't immediately obvious since it was gradual, but if you looked at the top steps as compared to some of the earlier steps, it's clear they grew. Though, Astria could see that, the trap wasn't obvious. She didn't see any hidden axes nor anything to suggest these steps would turn into a slide sending them to some sort of spike pit. It just seemed off, and the woman didn't know why. Breathing deeply to prepare herself, Astria started to take the first step. Tense and expecting the worst, she was surprised when nothing happened. "Well, they usually say the first step is a dozy, but it seems safe enough to me." Astria joked, trying to calm her nerves. She's been in tougher situations than this, but it was suspense of what was to come that had her rather worked up. Continuing up the steps with Inara, it quickly became evident that the steps were growing. Having to switch her steps from simply walking to taking large steps. Around the fourth step, Astria was starting to notice the pleasant warmth coming from the sunlight on the steps. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she was wondering what they would do to get past the rest of the steps higher up. There was the chance that they could use each other like stepping stools, but that was a rather slow process, but they had the time at least. Well, that's what Astria would have liked to think. Stepping onto the steps with sunlight triggered the trap lurking for the two women. From behind them, at the start of the steps, glyphs began to glow and activate. Instantly a large wall of raging flames appeared behind the woman. The heat alone enough to cause Astria to sweat, the wall started to make its way towards the woman. A panicked look came into Astria's eyes as she wished now more than anything to have a water-based summon. "Okay, we need to move." Astria spoke quickly, trying to climb up the next step already. The wall of flames was behind them and to try and speed the process up, Astria leaned over to offer Inara a hand. The fifth step was their down fall though. It was to tall to try and climb up on their own, and yet they didn't really have the time to stop and be footstools for each other. If only they had someone that could reach up high... Astria's hand darted inside her bag and pulled out her coin as soon as the thought occurred to her. "I pay homage to the Saint of Valor, Saint Kuzo!" The familiar incantation called out the tribal bird man of speed for Astria. Something of a tall, dark, and energetic, Kuzo was taller than the steps before them and faster than both of them. "Alright lets go!!" Kuzo spoke, eagerness in his voice which was surprising given the flaming wall of death on their backsides. Granting himself a buff to his speed, Kuzo started to climb up in a blink of an eye and was ready to pull the two girls up. For the next few steps, so long as the girls were ready, he would pull them up. The last couple of steps were the biggest challenge since they were so high, but Kuzo was prepared. Ready to use his dashing technique, he would dash up to the next step with one of the girls before going back of the other. Dashing back and forth as well as having Kuzo there to speed the process up, granted them a bit of time from the wall. Which was lucky since the last step was too big and Kuzo was out of dashes. "Pretty not great, but we can get over it!" Kuzo spoke with his optimism shining brightly. Hands cupped and down on one knee, he was ready to hoist one of the girls up and if they just jumped a little of his hand, they could reach the ledge. "I'll go first." Astria suggested, knowing that she was probably stronger than Inara. Hoisted up to the last step, Astia quickly turned around and leaned over with her hand extended. Kuzo was back in position, ready to give Inara a boost upwards to grab Astria's hand. On the last leg, but they were almost out of the flaming danger. |
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| 梟 Inara Serra | Aug 9 2014, 10:36 PM Post #26 |
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Honesty without tact is cruelty.
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Inara followed behind Astria as they began the ascent of the steps. She was tired, sure, but the advent of sunlight and the thought of escape had given new strength to her limbs. There was a bounce in her step, even as caution made her careful. She was just as surprised as Astria when the first steps didn't immediately rain terror down on them. She wasn't much for traps. She had never had to deal with many of them, not really. In all of her travels, she had only ever experienced the sudden hazards that nature and occasionally a mage who was careless had left behind. Or creatures. She was plenty used to magical creatures. It was as they ascended the fifth step that something happened which managed to surprise her. It seemed that the light filled stones were indeed a trigger to a trap. The sheet of flame that rose behind them was taller than any human being she had ever met. She was momentarily at a loss. It was just lucky that Astria had kept her own wits about her. She said they needed to move, and Inara followed her again. The problem was, she was short, even for a woman. She knew that she would end up slowing Astria down, which wouldn't do at all. She took a deep breath and moved as fast as she could, trying to keep up with her friend. It didn't take long, however for Astria to call on one of her summons. And he was more than a match for the challenge they faced. He pulled them up several steps, until they were before the final two. They were taller than the others, and it would take more than just him pulling for them to be able to get up. She took a deep breath, waiting as Astria took a running leap, and situated herself on the ledge above. Kuzo was still waiting for Inara, and Astria had one slender hand extended, waiting on her. The flames were too close for comfort at this point, but Inara took a good run anyway. She launched herself to the best of her ability at Astria's outstretched hand, only barely forming a decent grasp on it before she was swiftly pulled up. The summon was next, and once again they performed the perilous jump toward safety with Astria going first to help the smaller woman up. The flames moved ever forward. Inara took her running leap, grabbing onto Astria's hand and then! With a small cry the woman fell back, her palm to slick from her sweat to grasp the other woman's hand properly. Luckily Kuzo caught her, and set her down. He instructed her to ignore the flames and try again. She wiped her palms on her dress and took another running leap...This time she caught Astria's hand and it held. They both helped Kuzo up. They moved away from the ledge quickly, but the heat from the sheet of flame still managed to singe Inara's dress slightly, as well as her braid. She turned almost immediately to the summon once the heat from the flame had died away and hugged him. "Thank you so much. It was so close. We couldn't have done it without your help." She turned to Astria. "And you. I thought all was lost. Thank you so much for your quick thinking." They were now in a larger cavern than any they had previously entered. Sunlight still filtered in from large holes in the roof, but there were shadows everywhere. It took Inara a moment to realize that there was also water. A dark pool that glittered dully in the filtered light. She touched one small part of it with her toe, finding it lukewarm at best, but far closer to cold. Just on the other side of this was a door. A real door, though it was surrounded in stalagmites and stalactites which seemed to encase the area like pillars. A single smooth stone stood in front of it, and Inara took her time looking everything over. It seemed that their only way to cross was through the water, but she didn't trust it. Nothing had been simple for them thus far, and she was becoming less and less certain of her ability to judge properly what might be safe. |
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| Levy-Chan | Aug 13 2014, 02:53 AM Post #27 |
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You want Thingamabobs? I got 20.
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Astria thanked Kuzo with a mighty hug. The saint blushed as two woman pampered him with thanks and because he was so modest about his abilities true desire to help them, he felt rather blushed due to the compliments. That said, he was always happy to have two lovely ladies thank him. With the dangers of the flaming wall behind them, literally, the two girls, and now Kuzo again, were left to proceed further into the caverns underground. Sunlight still came through, so that at least meant they were somewhere where it was sunny. Though the holes were smaller than the room before, there were still enough of them to give decent lighting in the space. Astria had to wonder just how far underground they were to still be allowed some sunlight. True, the thieves had no idea about this section of the tunnels, but still it made Astria question exactly where they were exactly. Ahead of them was a dark pool of water that glittered rather faintly in what light there was. From their last brush with mysterious water, Astria was incredibly wary of being led straight to another pool of water. The last droplets had left Inara temporarily blind, though it could have been worse for all they knew. Unlike like last time though, this pool was actually in the way. The tunnel they were in only had one way to go and that was forward. Across the pool was an actual door surrounded by rock. The gap was certainly too far to jump across and while Astria supposed she have utilized Seturno again as a makeshift catapult, she had to give some time between summonings and so that wasn't possible any time soon. They didn't exactly have a lot of time either, what with the pressing evil spirit lurking further in the cave. "Water again... why does it seem like there's always water in our way?" Astria wondered aloud, certainly starting to get sick of seeing water. Without a shadow of a doubt there was something malevolent with the murky pool in front of them. Whether it was housing flesh eating piranhas, or if it was actually acid disguised as water, or if it was some sort of secret paralysis liquid, or something else entirely, Astria couldn't be sure, but it was certainly something wrong with it. Jumping was impossible and trying to swim through the water was certainly out of the question. Aside from the door and the large pool of water however, there was something that caught Astria's eye. The lone smooth stone in front of the door. It looked oddly polished given its location and something about it was just eye catching. Thinking it to be something related to the door, Astria wondered how she could at least get to that stone. Keen to what Astria was thinking about, Kuzo read his summoner like an open book and started to make his way over to the stone. His legs still pulsing with their magical enchantment, Kuzo took a running start and with a quick maneuver he leaped towards the wall and instantly pushed off that to land himself on the other side. Astria was a bit amazed by his show of gymnastic ability, but the summon- on the other side- was jumping up and down to congratulate; not to be concended, but rather impressed by how "super awesome cool" that stunt was- in his own words. Kuzo took hold of the polished stone that was on the other side and though he looked at it suspiciously, he held it up for his summoner to see- waving it about in the air to make sure the two girls saw it. "Careful Kuzo, be sure not to do anything that might-" Astria's sentence was cut off by a sudden rumbling noise that echoed throughout the cavern. Astria started to swell up with panic as her preciously mild concerns for the stone being connected to some sort of trap grew into gargantuan concerns. The source of the rumblings seemed to be behind them, Astria turned to see the tunnel they were in to be shaking wildly. Losing her balance, Astria fell to one of her knees before she could do anything- Kuzo already being knocked on his back by the sudden shift. The summoner wasn't sure if some sort of serious earthquake was rocking their underground tunnels, or if the stone had activated some trap similar to the flaming wall of only a few moments ago. Either way, pebbles and debris started to fall down around them- though it rapidly became larger rocks and even boulders near the start of their tunnel. Astria, though the situation was hurriedly becoming more and more dangerous only had one real though... please don't be cold. With the world around them shaking, Astria noticed that the water was oddly still. Sure it splashed and made ripples when something fell into it, but the water itself didn't really move otherwise. Crazy and not well throughout? Certainly. But there wasn't a great deal of things to do aside from let rocks rain on them, at least the water hinted at some sort of way out. The door seemed like an enticing passageway out, but without any way across and with the rocks rapidly falling in front of it, it was starting to look further and further away. "I don't think we have a choice but to dive in." Astria said- her voice shaky from the vibrations. In a sort of half-dive half-roll, Astria ended up in the water. A less than graceful splash, but at least it wasn't cold. Lukewarm was good enough for the woman at that point, at least she could focus in that kind of temperature. Underwater, Astria was fully focused on finding some sort of passage the water was coming from and take that path. However, the plan never works that simply. The summoner didn't have more than a moment of calm- still- water before she was ripped downstream by a fierce current. Something she hadn't felt sine the start of this journey, but even that river paled in comparison to this one. The strength of the current nearly knocking the breath out of her lungs. Her eyes tightly shut in surprise, it wasn't until moment later when her head bobbed above the surface of the water that she opened them. Well, it only felt like moments, but in reality the landscape around her had completely changed. In some sort of bizarre trans-dimensional world, Astria was still swiftly being carried by a fierce river, only now it was in the sky? The woman looked around and though the water was still running as if it was contained in the tunnel like before, it was now boarder-less and in the sky. The sky, or at least what Astria thought to be 'up' was now a vivid mixture of pastel colors where as 'down' was the exact same, but perhaps a smidgen darken in overall lightness. This serene landscape caught the summoner entirely off guard and in a stunned state of surprise, Astria rode the current right into a waterfall! Cascading water, and now the woman, were falling 'downwards' into a seemingly endless ocean... made up of that waterfall? As impossible as it was to consider that the rather thin cavern river could be spread out to make a vast deep ocean, Astria fell into it. The only consolation the woman had, aside from Inara being with her, was that in whatever process created this landscape also altered the simple debris that fell into the pool with them into a solid platform. It floated on top of the water and though it was- at best- a raft, Astria eagerly climbed on top of it in hopes to at least get out of the water and... maybe dry? If this bizarre area had something like a sun? |
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| 梟 Inara Serra | Aug 16 2014, 12:42 AM Post #28 |
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Honesty without tact is cruelty.
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Inara looked at Astria, her own worries apparent on her face. She knew full well that she was just as mistrustful of this water as her friend. How many times had they gone through this already? Inara took a deep breath. She was so tired, and she just wanted this particular adventure to have a happy above ground ending. She watched as Kuzo did his small leap and bound, just as sure as Astria was that the ridiculously still water before them was some sort of trap. It took her a few minutes to realize that Kuzo had moved something. When she did, it was when the rocks and boulders around them began to shake loose. She didn't want to dive into the water, not at all, but she saw little choice in the matter. She took a deep breath and managed to jump in just a second after Astria's head went under the water. The current here was swift; fast enough to scare her and she considered herself a good swimmer. She was happy she had remembered to take a large breath before diving in. She had no interest in drowning in this water. At least it wasn't icy, and hadn't taken her breath immediately. When she did emerge though she was surprised to see they looked like they were floating on cotton candy basically. All the pastels around them, and the loss of sense of direction made it look literally as though they were floating in nothing but strange and lovely clouds. The only problem with that theory being, Inara knew her hair was wet, and her clothing. She knew that a moment before breathing would have killed her. So there still had to be water around them right? She picked up her own hand and plopped it back down. It was indeed water. She could see the ripples it made when she touched it. Now the question was, why did it look like this? Well, that should have been the question. But the real question seemed to be why had they not noticed the waterfall before it was too late?! Now they were free falling through space (and pretty pastel colored water) to what Inara sincerely hoped was more, deep, not rocky water. She let out a little yelp as she fell, but there seemed to be little either of them could do to control it, or to stop it. She could at least tell that there was a bank on the sides of the waterfall, but she was too scared to look directly down. She was rewarded for falling with a deep pool, and in that pool something resembling a raft. She climbed aboard it when Astria did, and it seemed there was nothing more to be done for a moment. Until..."Oh look." Inara said as her heart rate finally began to slow. "Its an oar, I think. Do you think we're meant to go on?" There was certainly no going back. Even if they had wanted to, it was an impossibility. Unless one of them sprouted wings which seemed highly unlikely. |
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| Levy-Chan | Aug 23 2014, 01:44 AM Post #29 |
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You want Thingamabobs? I got 20.
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If Astria had been asked whether or not she expected to go on a trans-dimensional journey by simply exploring caves, the answer would have been an assured "no" and yet here they were. Currently Astria and her companion Inara were left stranded at sea(?) and while that in itself was already concerning, it was doubly so now since only moments ago they had been in the middle of a rocky cavern. The make-shift raft that was before them at least was nice enough to come with an oar, and with that they had been paddling onwards. It felt silly to continue going forward, no sure fire plan in mind and certainly no idea of what to expect in front of them, let alone below them. Some time passed and before long the waterfall that had dumped the two ladies into this ocean was out of sight. Astria wasn't sure if it was because it simply disappeared or if they had actually made some distance. It was so hard to tell anything this far out. The pastel colored waters barely moved and seemed to span endlessly in every direction. No matter how hard they paddled forward, there was just more water to greet them. It was almost heartbreaking to be so stranded with no sign of progress being made. Astria stopped paddling with the oar, taking a breath and laying down on the raft, face up. If not for her up-beat and optimistic spirit she was pretty sure she would have cried. It felt like a pretty hopeless situation, even if they had been forced into the caves, at least they knew were they were... more or less. This place of so foreign, so strange, that it made Astria feel incredibly unsettled. After staring up at the sky for a few moments, Astria closed her eyes and took a long breath. She needed a moment to think, a moment to clear her mind and focus on something other than the hopeless nothingness in every direction. She had to remain focused, not only for herself, but for Inara. Astria got her wrapped up into this and even besides that, she was the one who caused this bizarre situation they were in. This couldn't be a hopeless situation, this just wasn't. It was a new place she hadn't seen before, it was a different environment, and it only looked like it was hopeless, but it wasn't. Surely, there was a way to get passed this. It was just another obstacle in their way, another trial to overcome. Of course! Astria opened her eyes and quickly sat up. That's exactly what this was, this vast ocean and strangely colored environment. This was another trial for them. Somehow the magical talking lizard was much more reasonable, and it had explained to them that there were obstacles in their way. This just had to be one of them! True it was perhaps a bit more complicated looking than the previous one, but it was likely simple. Thinking back on it, the first gate with the lizard was simple, just find the hidden door- though the lizard did end up just giving them the answer. There was a fire trap, but that was simple as well! They only had to walk up the steps. True, the steps were giant and they literally had a fire under their butts while they did it, but at its core it was just to get up the steps. This had to be like the others. There had to be something simple for them to do here. "Inara, this has to be another test or trial or something. There has to be a way to move on past this. We just need to look past the crazy colors and focus. There are only two options for us right now. We can continue to paddle forward. Since we've already tried going forward for a while now and it hasn't gotten us anywhere, I think the only other thing for us to do is... go down. We could try diving downwards!" Astria gave her idea to Inara, it was the only other course of action she could think of. Paddling forward just didn't seem to do them anything, but perhaps if they tried going beyond the surface they would find something else. The water around them, despite being various colors of pastel, weren't cloudy in the slightest. Leaning over the edge, Astria tried to see if there was anything on the floor. The water was deep, but not to the point where it was covered in darkness. Astria guesstimated the distance to not be impossible far for them, though she wasn't sure if there was anything else below the waters as well. Looking around, it was rocky, full of what she assumed to be coral and other sea-flora. If there was some way to proceed under the water, it ought to stand out, at least somewhat. The stone by the door caught her attention, the sunlight before that was clear, and before even that the lizard was an obvious sight to see. Trying her hardest to see some sign to get them in the right direction, something that would indicate a way forward, Astria noticed some particular sea-flowers. The formed a sort of frame in the ground below, almost impossibly on purpose, and in fact upon looking more closely the area inside the frame of flora was discolored compared to the sand around the outside of it. That had to be it, that was likely the gate they were to pass through. "Inara, you see those flowers under the water? I think we need to get inside that space. I have a feeling its where we're supposed to go, or at least it stands out enough to give me that feeling. Do you think you can swim that far?" The last time Astria and her had been in the water the strong current did most of the work for them, so before diving onwards recklessly, Astria figured she better make sure Inara could swim in her outfit. |
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| 梟 Inara Serra | Aug 24 2014, 01:47 AM Post #30 |
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Honesty without tact is cruelty.
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Inara took a deep breath, noting the pattern the Astria pointed out to her quite succinctly. She took a few moments, worried that if she hesitated too long it would disappear. Astria hadn't led them astray so far, so she assumed the summoner was like as not right. "I can swim just fine. That doesn't look too far anyway. And I can hold my breath for a fair amount of time." Inara took in the amazing amounts of nothingness which seemed to surround them on all sides. Yes. It was as good a plan as any. And it wasn't as if they had a different one. Her mind ran through all the possibilites, all the liklihoods. The worse one she could come up with was it not being an actual way to anywhere else and them loosing the raft that had thus far carried them safely. Yes, she was still tired. Yes, she wanted out of this place. Was she desperate enough to risk drowning to acheive it? Apparently. She was already standing up on the side of the raft. She had tucked her long skirts into the belt around her waist and secured her weapons, making sure that neither would drag her anywhere she didn't want to go, though the weight would help her reach the area they were aiming for. She certainly didn't want them keeping her there if she decided that she needed to swim up though. She looked at Astria. "I am ready. I think this time I will go first." She smiled at the summoner, glad of her company. If she had had to undertake such a journey alone, she would've already been in deep trouble a long time ago. Or stalled at a point of no return. She took a deep breath and jumped, feet first, into the still pastel waters. She managed to swim down fairly quickly as she initially anticipated. She took the time to put her hand into the strange discolored sand before actually attempting to swim into it. She could feel something on the other side, though she couldn't be sure of exactly what it was at first. She found herself pushing into the sand, her eyes shut and her breath held tight in her chest though she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep that up. She strained through it, wiggling until she could no longer feel herself stuck between one place and another. She opened her eyes, seeing again sunlight, though this time there was a definite up. She swam that way, breaking the surface in only a matter of minutes. She took a few gulps of air, happy to have a free supply of it for her lungs once more. It took her a moment to get her bearings, but when she did, she gave a shout of surprise and possibly a little bit of frustration. It was the cavern from before, the one they had been in before the waterfall and the pale water. She could see where parts of the cave had fallen in, efficiently blocking the way back to the firey stairs. She closed her eyes tight and counted to ten. Opening them again she saw that nothing had changed. She turn in the water. Behind her stood the door that they had seen before. The only difference was that now it was slowly opening. She pulled herself up out of the water and onto the doorstep (for that was what it was for all intents and purposes). She waited for Astria as well, though she kept an eye fixed on the water, in case the summoner had trouble coming through to this side. She put her back to the door, not really wanting to see what lay behind it without her friend there with her. |
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8:42 AM Jul 11









