07.14f: The Golden Path

The goings on of courts
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Joshua
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07.14f: The Golden Path

Post by Joshua »

As Dworkin and his new charge trump in...

As stated previously, Ht'Gon's pattern is in a large well-lit cavern. The center is circled by a gleaming, yet simple, marble amphitheater. Polished, white stone that reflects the natural ceiling with it's mirrored sheen. In a moment, the direct light from the noon-sun reaches the first outcropping of marble*.

Light flows around the marble, reflecting among the rows of seating and continuing to gain strength and brightness until the center flares with golden brilliance. A single yellow line etches itself into the center floor, tracing long circles and forming a complex pattern that reaches to the center. The line seems to rob the rest of the setup of light, every bit of glare seemingly absorbed by the pattern.

Dworkin gestures to the starting line, a whole representation of the one you walked. "Walk. Fill in the gaps." He will say simply.
_________________
*: The entrance to the cavern is constructed in such a way only direct noon sun reaches the amphitheater.
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Re: 07.14f: The Golden Path

Post by BringMeThatHorizon »

Let it never be said that Jaeger needed to be told something twice when it was important. The beast's footing was unsure, he was biting back against the bitter squall of madness surging inside him. But purpose and the light of the theater made the journey somehow bearable when otherwise it would have been an insurmountable task. He began still on all fours against the momentum of the raw pattern, unable to take more than one heavy step at a time. Fill the gaps, strange dwarf said. He knew what that meant somehow. The gaps in that pattern earlier had stolen something from him. A bitter irony, stealing wit, guile, and intellect from a thief like him. One more step, he told himself in thoughts that grew slowly less and less fragmented with each passing moment in the gilded light.

Don't you dare stop. Whatever this is, don't you dare stop. One paw, the next, one more after that, and then again.

What begins on four legs at dawn and two in the mid-day?

A thought crossed his mind. A riddle, one he'd heard some smart ass try to pawn off on him. He could remember it now, if only the first part. There was more to it, obviously, but he knew the point of the riddle. If he could remember the answer, maybe it would help.

What begins on four legs at dawn and two in the mid-day?

Him, for one. He had traversed roughly a fourth of the length and his pace was steadying, speeding up even. He had control of his body again. Some of his mind was clearing, too. So, what was it? What started on four legs and ended up eventually on two? His species could, he recalled. The youngest started like beasts, running around on all fours as they learned to master their forms. Eventually they walked on two, like something else. Like the things his own imitated, but what was he? Like-

"Man." He spoke in a terribly gruff voice, steadying himself on two feet as he neared the halfway mark.. Two legs at mid-day, like man- who stands above the beasts, whom the gods so chose to give his own kind the power to assume forms not entirely unlike. He was moving quicker now, the distance was a familiar feeling- clearer now than before in the cavern. Was the previous one broken, somehow? Or had it been incomplete in some way? Was this what it was supposed to feel like? Strange reminiscence, the feeling of things he'd abandoned coming back into his heart and mind? Fuck, he was getting more philosophical about this than he cared to. All he needed to do was cross the finish line into whatever mess he'd landed himself and claim his mind and body back. It was going to be hard like this, he figured, covered in fur and-

Blood? Yep. That was blood and a lot of guts on his armor and fur. The second he could shift back he was absolutely going to bathe and get this shit off of him. The white-furred male let out an exceptionally tired sigh. There wasn't much longer to go- in just a few minutes (if units of time that small could even begin to explain anything in this insane place) he'd be halfway. In silence, amidst the golden glow and strange pressure of the path, he traversed the distance. The trip was vastly more pleasant than the one only a short (again, how does one even quantify time among all this nonsense?) time ago.
Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid.
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Re: 07.14f: The Golden Path

Post by Wyvern »

Alys (and presumably Harrune and Lyra and any other Amberites present) followed Morgana to the Pattern room for Harrune's planned walk - just in time to watch Dworkin trump in and pre-empt the affair.

Alys' only comment, looking at the bloodspattered kitsune with a raised eyebrow, is: "Cute."*

_____
* Edit: For the record, there may be some amount of sarcasm in Alys' statement. Definitely not 100% sarcasm though.
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Re: 07.14f: The Golden Path

Post by ShadowOfPreservation »

Lyra raises an eyebrow as well; not at the kitsune and the pattern walk in progress but rather at Alys' comment. Cute is not a description she'd attribute to an armored fox person covered in gore. Her gaze is filled with compassion at the obvious struggle before her but holds back her inclination to act as she's well aware of the danger and necessity of this event. The unexpected scene has at least served the purpose of breaking her out of her introspection following her defeat in combat, and she instead prepares to assist once the walk is complete.
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Re: 07.14f: The Golden Path

Post by misfit »

Harrune watches the newcomer make his way on the Pattern. He drifts over to Dworkin, intent on asking a question or two...or more. Before he can speak Dworkin will simply bow aside with a "Best to walk now and not delay."

"But shouldn't I wait until...no, I didn't bother in Rebma, did I? And I can't see where that made a difference there. You're right, there is nothing to be gained by waiting. I would ask you wish me luck, but I doubt that you consider this a thing of luck."

Without further ado, Harrune steps out onto the Pattern. He feels the now-familiar drag on his steps. Belatedly he realizes that the fatigue from his fight with Lyra may indeed have been a good reason to wait. Well, too late to worry about that now. Dworkin seemed to think it would be alright, so Harrune will have to trust his judgement.

As he walks, the line begins to blur. The edges lose their sharp focus. It comes...fuzzy. As he continues, the path blurs more and more. At length Harrune sees that it is not one path, but four superimposed upon each other. One is of golden yellow light leading towards a sun-filled amphitheater. One is silver white and leads to a moonlight castle in the air. One is a deep blue and leads to a grotto beneath the waves. The last is the red of fire and it leads to a chamber beneath a great castle.

The four separate, each wrapping around one of Harrune's limbs. Each begins to pull him in its own direction. He is pulled taut by the four, the force growing stronger, threatening to tear him asunder.

"Didn't we already do this?" he asked through gritted teeth. "No, I suppose not. That was only two. Very well, time to finish it."

Harrune gathers his strength and with a mighty effort pulls the four so that they slam into each other. He bends and twists them back together until they form a single path forward again. "There, I think that will settle that." He continues down the path towards the center...
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Joshua
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Re: 07.14f: The Golden Path

Post by Joshua »

(OOC: A few minor notes.
  • The veil challenges are hallucinations and not visible from the outside. These include the normal physical reactions that appear to occur. For example, Harrune does not physically grapple with imaginary pattern lines.
  • Jaeger has none of his own blood on him*. He's physically uninjured.
  • Those walking the pattern appear as... well... they're not ghosts, per se. A ghost fades from view because they aren't solid. A pattern walker fades from view as he gets closer to the center because the light that reaches him isn't as real as they are. I'm going with the general aspect that you can see them until they get to the center.
  • It is currently unknown what surrounds the pattern when you walk, or why it becomes a void and the room vanishes. You cannot walk between the lines of a pattern, once you get completely inside** the room fades as if you were walking the pattern and you fall into the blackness.
  • NPC's statements are not always true. NPCs lie, especially hostile NPCs.
)

Mid-way through the walk, a cat-man appears***, floating between the lines. He's 6' 8" and 350 lbs of muscle with white fur and the circular markings of a snow-leopard. He sneers and rests a dire-spear over his shoulders. As a reminder, it's HUGE and made from a sick warped brass-like metal that's hooked and barbed. He's visible to Harrune, visible but physically behind Jaeger, and a ghostly figure to everyone else.

"What a pity. I had hoped my husband would be next to walk. And here I am, arriving late for a show." His voice is soft, reaching mostly Harrune.

Dworkin appears rather concerned. Especially for Dworkin. If Jaeger looks back, Dworkin will whisper in a strange voice that manages to reach halfway across the pattern. "Only go forward, or you WILL die."
________________
*: For those anticipating something from the books...
**: I'm assuming no one has tried to find the exact point of no return. Mostly because if you get the guess wrong, you die.
***: Maybe a REALLY ugly Goromor? Also, there's no way this is a veil.
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Re: 07.14f: The Golden Path

Post by Wyvern »

Alys stays near the entrance, absent-mindedly flipping through her Trump deck* while Watching the walks... until the apparition (henceforth dubbed 'void-cat') appears. That prompts a worried look at Dworkin... but apparently whatever she Sees there doesn't impel her into action. At least... not yet; she's definitely on edge.

_____
* She's curious if Jaeger has a card yet.
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Re: 07.14f: The Golden Path

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If Jaeger had a bit more sense to him he might have scoffed at the obviousness of the commentary. "If you stop, you're gunna die" was probably the most inferable observation about this situation he could have gotten given the general magical weirdness going on. But he was silent at the unseen individual's comments and instead redoubled his efforts to finish the walk. As if on queue, another bizzare riddle seemed to burn through his brain and beg his attention to something else missing from his mind.

A tod at rest midst forest's light,
Scent catch'd his nose from distant prey.
Ears twitch'd to catch the sound,
And up he rose for the hunt.

But stiff'd in fright did he,
As he scent'd yonder hound,
And quickly fled he to his den
Deeper into the ground.


This time, the question was more personal. He heard it not in a familiar voice as before but, to his surprise, in his own.

'What am I?'

The male plodded along through the next quarter, another veil passing between him and the final goal. Jaeger scoffed at the obviousness of this riddle, but caught sight of his paws as he walked and nearly caught himself stopping. For a second he was infinitely glad it was literally just stated that if he doesn't keep moving he would die. He still had to wonder, though, is that what he was? He knew there was something unusual about being covered in fur, and he was awfully clever.

He was also awfully sarcastic and a bit of a gruff ass, now that he thought about it. No sooner had he asked himself why than he remembered the reason. Right, shit family, refuge from a tribe probably eventually likely to have him killed, spent a few years as a thief on the run, surrounded by other thieves and monster hunters. All perfectly good reasons to be a bit of a smartass. In the middle of this period of self-reflection he realized he still hadn't answered the riddle. The answer was a fox, obviously. But that wasn't the question being asked. He was asking himself, in an awfully headache-inducing turn of events, what he was.

There was a bit of a quandry to that, wasn't there? He was many things. Somehow both a fox and a man, a thief (he realized immediately it was probably best not to say that out loud), a monster hunter, a swordsman for hire, and...he didn't have white hair all the time. That last thought stuck out a bit, as he remembered that there was something else to him. Another few steps amidst the gilded light and all that remained was a third of the path.

Was he always covered in fur? He doubted that for some reason. Something else was coming to mind more and more clearly with each step. He wasn't a fox, but he also wasn't human. But he was a bit of both. There was a word for that, and a word for who he was that was separate from that word. He could see himself standing upon a battlefield of monster corpses with a group of other figures, veiled by the haze of his memories. A family that he ran from slightly more clear a few moments previous. Each step was like marching in stone boots, but the distance was drawing to a close.

A kitsune. He recalled at once, and more than that- he had a name and a job title. But Kitsune were shapeshifters, able to go back and forth between a human and an animal form. That answered that question. His name, however, wasn't at all what he thought it would have been. He realized why a few moments later. It was an alias. He abandoned his family name when he ran from his home.

He was Jaeger Reisszahn, the twin-blade hunter. He was a rogue and a thief for hire. He had blue hair and red eyes, but white fur. And he did not, at all, enjoy being around humans on most days. He reached the center and was all at once immersed in a sea of golden light. Where the previous experience had been like drowning, this was more floating, swimming even. At once, his form experienced a pronounced shifting. Fur melted away, bones shifted and reshaped, his entire body rapidly transformed from a vicious animal to something very human and very unhuman all at once. Just as swiftly as he had reached the center and filled the gaps, he vanished into thin air from the spot.

It was at this exact moment that Alys, whom had the misfortune of firing off sarcasm at one of the most sarcastic beastkin this side of the multiverse would have noticed the sound of something rustling. Just a few steps behind her, a very disheveled but otherwise perfectly humanoid male had a long, eastern-styled pipe in one hand, a pinch of tobacco stuffed into the chamber already and a matchstick in the other hand. The male opened his mouth to reveal a set of very human teeth and, without missing a beat, scratched the matchstick against one of his teeth to light it. He lit the pipe and took a long, slow drag. Streams of smoke languidly escaped his nose as he breathed out, and the male opened a pair of deep red eyes to look at the woman in front of him. He grined, almost out of reflex.

"Well, now. What kinda mischief have I managed myself into this time?" He asked the room at large, but kept his eyes on Alys, expecting another round of sarcasm. Looking forward to it, even.
Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid.
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Re: 07.14f: The Golden Path

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Alys spins, scimitar suddenly in hand - starting the motion pretty much the instant Jaeger appears. From his point of view, there's a moment where her movements seem about normal for a skilled warrior - preparing to launch an attack against a potential threat, aborting that attack when she sees the target is not immediately hostile... and then he'll realize that the entire sequence took just a fraction of a second and that, had she followed through, no swordsman he knows would have had time to react before being gutted. Except, apparently, himself.*

She doesn't put the sword away, though, turning to (try to) keep a wary eye on all three of Jaeger, Dworkin, and void-cat.

"The short answer is: Yes. The more immediate answer..." She looks in the direction of the void-cat, "I suspect we may have a slight philosophical disagreement between different definitions of 'reality'?** Dworkin," Alys gestures at the dwarf, "could explain that better. I do not expect he will, mind you, but he could."

_____
* For the record, Alys is operating under a bit of a handicap here, in that she's splitting her focus, maintaining some sort of Power... that would have been clearly visible when Jaeger was in the center of the Pattern, and is still detectable (albeit with much less precision) now that he's standing there. For any further details on what said Power looked like from the Pattern's center, you will need to pester the GM; I don't actually know.
** This is said in the same tone of voice as someone might deliver the line, "We seem to have a bit of a race condition between Armageddon and Ragnorok..."
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Re: 07.14f: The Golden Path

Post by ShadowOfPreservation »

The appearance of an unknown on/above/between the pattern while two others are still in the middle of walking it jolts Lyra to attention. Something about his appearance seems familiar, if not from a personal encounter with the feline. As yet another person seemingly appears out of nowhere behind Alys, Lyra's protective instincts provoke her to step close to the edge of the pattern. "I know its become a bit common to simply appear out of nowhere around here, but this is an important and dangerous ceremony and if the new arrivals are here to simply watch, I'd ask that they do so from outside the perimeter of the pattern and save the vague comments until Harrune and Dworkin's guest have safely completed their walks." Her glare is primarily focused on the ghost-cat though she makes it clear she's addressing the pipe-smoking arrival as well.
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