Embedded Files
History
History
[Your eyes open, as you wake up again, back home, in your bed. The sun is shining -- another bright morning. The night's dreams fade quickly, gone before they can be remembered; but it's a new day, you've got things to do, time to wake up.
Dawn has already left, and the Old Woman shines bright in the sky.]
King's Year 198, Fall
[It’s a bright, warm morning, unseasonably so this late in the year. It seems the Old Woman is feeling kind and you still don’t need any heavier clothing. Outside of where you were sleeping, you can hear the beginnings of a normal day stirring. Preparation for the harvest and winter festivals are well under way for your area.
You’ve slept in.]
King's Year 198, Early Fall
"The Oracle of the order of Ophiuchus has conveyed a message he has received from the Gods. The Queen works upon her loom, and a new tapestry forms there.
What it shows is unknown to me; however, the Gods Themselves show concern and argue over it.
Whatever this message means, the intent is clear. We are upon the edge of a very dangerous time, one even They are uncertain of.
It is why I must speak with each of the nations."
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A Myth - The beginning (link)
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King's Year 199, Early Summer
[Since the mysterious traveler visited each country and rule, the months have passed slowly. While the world held its breath... little seemed to happen immediately. The spring was pleasantly warmer than usual, days passed with few visible events. Though, there were little things for those who cared to watch past the initial clamor, such as the strange behavior of beasts and monsters... or the slightly erratic patterns of the moons... The tides also became difficult to predict and the waters dangerous.
Until the night after the festival of the Trickster and the Waiting Maiden.. as if a great joke upon the sky itself. The midnight sky lit like the blazing of full day, a false dawn searing up into unimaginable light on both horizons and then … merely faded.
When the Old Woman rose again... The sky was red, the moons were missing in their path entirely... and she herself was wreathed in a dress of orange fire.]
Fallout
- Vulpecula and Hydra (Early Summer) - Death of a dragon
- Lepus and Monoceros (Summer) - Mass rabbit invasion; Monoceran alcohol turning into vinegar
- Pavo, Cepheus, Delphinus (Early Summer) - Floods
- Cepheus (Summer) - Disaster at Core Haven
- Corvus and Lynx (Early Summer) - Volcano and firebirds
- Orion (Summer) - Beastmen invasion
- Cygnus, Pyxis, Canis (Early Summer) - Collapsed mines; heat; and rain
- Canis - A disturbance in the desert - Death of a minor water goddess - Lady Iiuvia
- Lacerta (Midsummer) - Death of the Great Tree
- Ophiuchus's Orders - Gather all nations at the base of the Great Mountain for shelter.
King's Year 199, Early Autumn
At the base of the Great Mountain
King's Year 199, Late Fall
Construction of the Sacred City
King's Year 199, Mid Winter
- Aftermath. Disaster averted, or has it.
King's Year 199, Mid Winter to Late Winter
The End of AU
The End of AU
In Dove's thread: [The threads below you tremble for a moment. You hear the roar of a wolfaboo and the tapping skitter of a spider.]
Text within the words:
"You Insolent Whelps"
"You Are Nothing"
Visions Woven In String
Visions Woven In String
Who: Claude
What: A piece of the mural
Vision:
[You hold the emaciated old man by the scruff of his uniform tunic. He tries to hide his chisel from you, but you don’t even have to see them to know what he was doing. It’s the only thing he ever does. Like some loony squidrat, he was always found taking bits of dorm walls and hording them in some strange little cave.
"Just a few pieces! Your dorm wont be hurt by it! A few chips!" He whined, piteously.
"Why? Seriously! What could you even do with them?"
"I’m making it secret. They can’t hear or see. HE can’t." He grinned, glancing around. "No one remembers the Truth. But they will when I’m done."
You sigh and put him down. He really never was the same after those years in the Pillar.]
Who: Uruki
What: A simple earth shrine
Vision:
[As you approach smooth lump of rocks adorned with ribbons and sprigs of plants you are gripped with a twisting anxious feeling in your stomach.
A woman approaching, wearing the soft greens of Lacerta. She knees at the shrine and places a single flower at the top. As her fingers brush the surface of the slick looking stone, she pauses.
The pause of confusion quickly melts into panic as she tries to pull away. The pads of her fingers are stuck to the surface.
She braces her other hand at the base of the shrine to pull back violently, tears streaming down her face and panicked, hiccuping sobs accompanying her breaths.]
Extra things heard:
"We are creatures defined by the perception of others. By nature or obligation, we fulfill those expectations."
Who: Yayoi
What: Memory tube
Vision:
[When you pick up the telescope and peer through it, you see the sky vanishing and people in a wide variety of diverse, strange clothes with no rhyme or reason, color or consistency to them gathered together.
There are murmurs as the blue air above vanishes, leaving only rock...
You hear only the King’s voice. "I DO wish I didn’t have to do this." Jovial and perhaps a little mocking. "But well, this IS why we can’t have nice things."
"Thou art a Blank."
And for a single terrifying second, you feel everything you are drain away from you like water.]
Who: Apple (Raenef)
What: a round teething toy for a baby, powder blue
Vision:
[A woman bows her head to you, her expression troubled. She wrings her hands nervously, and is looking anywhere but at your face.
"Could... you perhaps make a sacrifice...? Her voice is quiet, trembling with the weight of her words. "Matron... This whole year, more than half of all the children are born without breath or beat of heart... The Gods..."]
Who: Scowl (Dera)
What: Bloody Hammer (ignored) --> Trying to cut through the string with a knife
Vision:
[You feel like you are being dragged across the floor, into it. You scream and thrash, drowning in dirt. You feel teeth on your feet, biting into your skin. You feel your fingernails begin to tear...
... You blink. You’re standing right where you were just a moment ago?]
Who: Syaoran
What: A narrow opening in the strings, through which solid land can be seen
Vision:
[The threads here give way to a barren patch of ground, only barely sprinkled with grasses. The eldest of Lynx used to tell you nostalgically of how this whole area used to be covered with grasses. To the distant east, the ground is still fertile... but you can’t help but wonder what happened... ]
Who: Dove (Kagura)
What: a book with torn out pages
Vision:
[When you pick up the tattered text, you see the last great library of Sabra. First the most precious and delicate books get placed away for safekeeping. Then the illuminated manuscripts, ancient mythological texts, even the newer histories written during the Sacred City’s construction and the time of the Old Woman’s wrath. The truth becomes hidden away and obscured by paperwork, the written language forgotten and corrupted.
Dust lingers. Bindings disintegrate. And no one tends the stacks anymore, not even the descendants of Cepheus. The texts are still available, theoretically -- if you can navigate the increasingly labyrinthine amounts of paperwork required.
“It will be safer in storage,” says the last attending librarian. “We have to focus on the present.”]
Who: Jace
What: a room filled with rolling, green mist
Vision:
[You don’t know how long you’ve been wandering. You feel no hunger or fatigue. For the longest time you felt nothing at all... You hated it then. It never felt right... like you were supposed to be somewhere else and couldn’t get there.
It’s different now, beginning at your toes and working up. No matter how you move or don’t, no matter how much you struggle... it feels like it’s trying to devour you. To eat you. You hear its jibbering and screams, you feel it’s hunger and madness.
You want any way.. any way at all to be anywhere else.]
Extra things heard:
Trust me, babe. This’ll be GREAT. I can’t wait to see their faces.
[The voice is terribly familiar.]
Who: Raven (Ikki)
What: disturbed strings and a hammer
Vision:
[It’s everywhere. You know that now. How could you all have been so stupid? So naive? You thought if you just stayed out of North Block like they said you’d be fine. Stupid. Stupid.
Everyone else, they got obsessed, fascinated. They thought that the truth would set them free~
Idiots.
The only truth was how completely and utterly fucked you all really were. Oh, sure, the great and merciful Judges granted a wish every once in a while. But how many more were taken by that thing. And it was everywhere, god help you it was everywhere. Thinking about it only drew its attention! Knowing it was there made it stronger, that had to be it. They said that Cygnus girl dreamed of it for days before the bottom of her bedroom just-
And where were they now, huh? Where were the Judges now that whole teams at a time were disappearing? Made it a little hard to get your wish and get out when there weren’t any more games, didn’t it?
And everyone else, everyone else was gone. It gobbled up everything.
But not you.
You were going to be different.
It couldn’t see in here just yet, and when you’re done here- Ha!- when you’re done here you’re never going to think about that fucking thing ever again. You’re going to get him out of your head. You know the way.
But first, that god damn picture. The one that got them all thinking—that got them hoping. That piece of shit has got to go.]
Who: Allen
What: -
Vision:
[For a moment, you are utterly alone. Just you amongst an infinite amount of strings. You blink, and you are back with Aeris again....]
Extra things heard:
"It’s all right, child of this earth, you need not be afraid."
Who: River (Yamamoto)
What: a dilapidated wooden dock.
Vision:
[The man sighs, rubbing at the stubble on his chin, and glances sideways at you. You both stand on a beached dock, easily now 20 feet from the water.
"The lake... she IS shrinking. Can’t tell f’r t’likes of me what t’Waterbearer’s thinkin’."]
Who: Poppy (Toboe)
What: a javelin
Vision:
[You are one amidst thousands. The excited yell from your throat blends in with all the others... You circle the players in the field of the Arena. The first game of the week, Soldier Ball, was an easy win for Pyxis, and no question at all which God it was to honor.
Mostly for fun and entertainment, there WERE rumors that crops grew better for the winners.]
Extra things heard/seen:
[It feels like you stepped in a puddle and the water is rising up to your knees.
... All you see is string.]
Who: Gray (Chika)
What: a form half buried in the ground
Vision:
[The torchlight illuminates the rock of the South Block as you walk.
… The people who are left, you can count on one hand. Teams didn’t matter anymore. Not really. There wasn’t two people of the same color anymore to give a damn. There were no Games, like the Judges just said fuck it too.
He said he heard they were puttin’ people up in the North Block, but he can’t get there any more than you can, so he’s a lying sack of lizard shit.
… Maybe it was worth seeing if there was still a way north.
All there was here are empty, open dorms, and people half sunk into the ground.
In the end, you just keep walking, and step over his body, petrified, twisted, more than half devoured by the floor. It’ll be smooth tomorrow, like he wasn’t even there right now. … Serves him right. Lying sack of lizard shit.]
Who: Zero
What: a mask on the ground, surrounded by string. Through one of the eye holes, a flower is growing.
Vision:
[You overhear a conversation between familiar voices:
“I sympathize with you, of course. I lost a wife myself.”
“Don’t count your daughters before they’ve died, Dad.” The chuckle is unpleasant, to say the least. “Don’t you want to hear my ~*~plan~*~? It was supposed to be my year, after all, but I didn’t complain. Trickster ZERO. I was even thinking I might count backwards this time around. Trickster’s Year negative one, Trickster’s Year negative two..."
A sigh. “I never said I wasn’t listening. How do you expect to preserve her?”
“Easy-queasy!” Giggle, giggle. “We’ll ask them to play a Game.”]
Who: Red (Rabi)
Extra things seen:
[For a moment, you think you see the pattern of a face in the strings right in front of you.
It smiles while you watch.]
Who: Link
What: an opening in the strings, through which the arena doors can be seen
Vision:
[As Link cracks open the Arena doors, all of the threads begin to vibrate, making a sound like laughter.
Everyone in them, around them... See the doors open in front of them. Some below them. Some out of the corner of their eyes.
Your vision blurs.]
Trickster's First Game
Trickster's First Game
Back in the Present
Back in the Present
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