Urthdigger
Storymaster
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Posts: 214
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Post by Urthdigger on Nov 3, 2007 15:08:19 GMT -5
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Urthdigger
Storymaster
Comments are appreciated
Posts: 214
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Post by Urthdigger on Nov 3, 2007 15:09:39 GMT -5
Vlad Mason, Tanis Zane, and Eve Summers were all dead. Rick Taylor was left scarred by the incident as well. Fortunately for all involved, the Retroverse tends to give non-gifted second chances.
One month later...
Rick arrived at the clearing he used for a classroom early for once, watching the students file in. He was particularly glad to see that Eve was alright. "Morning Eve, glad to see you're well again.". He couldn't quite remember what she had, but he knew it was something serious. He had gotten the feeling he wouldn't see her again. Eve nodded "Oh yes Rick, thanks for asking. Doctor says I'm right as rain." She paused for a second. It was only natural to give him a friendly hug, but she was a little scared to. Nightmares she couldn't quite place a finger on had given her reasons to be afraid of arakuns... but her admiration for her teacher won out in the end and she gave him a friendly hug. Rick patted her on the back and took up his place in the center of the clearing as the last of the children filed in "It's good to see you all today. Now, last week we covered the circle of life. Who can tell me what role a Carnosaur plays?"
Over in Edon, a human guard named Aya took a shortcut down an alley on her day off. As much as she liked being powerful and proving her strength, today she felt like dressing up and had on a long dress instead of her uniform. The arakun hiding up on one of the windowsills appeared to take a liking to her and dropped down behind her, cupping his paw over her mouth and drawing a knife from his belt "Hi there, toots, name's Vlad, but you can call me whatever the heck you wa-oof!" Aya grabbed the arm with knife and hurled the little 'kun against the wall of the alley. After smacking against the wall he landed on his head, sufficiently knocked out.
"Hey Aya, who's your friend?" asked Ed, an arakun member of the guard as Aya dragged her suspect into the station. "Attempted rape and assault. Said his name was Vlad, but I think I'm gonna call him Dumbass. Can we get a cell for him please?" Ed nodded and hopped down from his stool, grabbing a set of keys for the cell doors and obliging her request.
Just a typical day in Edon, everything was back to normal for the time being at least.
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Urthdigger
Storymaster
Comments are appreciated
Posts: 214
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Post by Urthdigger on Nov 6, 2007 6:40:28 GMT -5
Later that night Ivan Clause, captain of the Edon guard, was having a difficult time sleeping. The cause was his new upstairs neighbor, who had found a nice friend in town. Apparently they were having a very nice time. He slammed his head under the pillow, but that didn't solve matters. He pondered going up there and yelling at them, but he'd already tried that the previous night. Instead he stumbled over to his desk, lit a candle, and put his quill to the paper. "I HATE ARAKUNS" he penned in large capital letters. He'd heard it helps to write down your problems when you're stressed, a problem he'd been having all too much lately, but he still felt angry... and now that he looked at the paper, a tad guilty. "I suppose I don't HATE them..." he penned beneath as an afterthought "I just really dislike them right now. They have little respect for authority, manners, or other aspects of courtesy, and every Phoenix they just get worse. There's a few that are tolerable. Ed's ok when he's not being a smartass, and of course nobody in town can say anything bad about Rick. It's mainly their nice qualities that makes me hate them actually. Any other season and the people in the cells tend to belong there, but when their hormones run wild the cells are overstuffed from crimes caused by impulsiveness, impatience... basically people that don't belong to be locked up. It's even worse when the cells get too crowded and I have to use the stocks. It's not right to do something so demeaning to someone who'd be a model citizen any other time of the year, if a bit uncouth..." He stopped writing for a bit to think some more. Now that he was thinking a bit more rationally he had calmed down a little. In the time it'd taken him, things had since quieted down as well. He didn't think that was how this SUPPOSED to work, but the fact of the matter was it did. Blowing out his candle, he closed the journal and went back to bed.
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Urthdigger
Storymaster
Comments are appreciated
Posts: 214
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Post by Urthdigger on Nov 9, 2007 5:09:58 GMT -5
Ivan came into the station a little later than usual the next morning, clearly showing his lack of sleep. "Sheesh captain, you look like hell." chittered Ed teasingly "Thanks, I feel like hell." snarled back the captain "Damn 'kuns moved into the room above mine, kept me up all night..." "Saaaay, you wouldn't happen to live in room 211 of the apartments at Force and Protection would ya?" said Ed, a sly grin crossing his muzzle. Ivan visibly twitched "THAT WAS YOU!?" Ed took on a look of pure innocence "Oh no, not at all. I have no plans on moving into the city, got a nice little place outside. Just checking to see if your address in the book is correct." Ed snickered to himself as he enjoyed yet another victory with his little jokes. Ivan was not amused in the slightest "Shouldn't you be out patrolling the streets?" "I'm on my break man, cut me some slack. Aya and Pierce are out beating the street, dunno where Chris and Leon are, but they're probably working." Ed's partner, Fred Wisey, was sitting down nearby enjoying a small puzzle he'd picked up in the marketplace, waving his ratty tail at the captain. "Let's see... 1 here, 3 here, 5 over here... no that's... wait, aha, there we go... and done." The muridan set down the grid and his quill and turned to face Ed "Maybe it is about time we get back out there, it's not like we've really have to work hard today." Ed shrugged "Eh, captain's here, he can hit the streets. We're doing a valuable service by waiting here in case anyone comes to the station for help." Fred chuckled to himself "Oh really, since when do people actually come in to ask for help?" he switched to a surprisingly good facsimile of a woman's voice "Oh help, heeelp! Some rapscallion has made off with my fruit basket! It was about 5 blocks that way, surely he couldn't have gone far! ...ludicrous." A knock came from the front door. "I'm coming..." said Ivan. "That's what your mom said last night." Ed chittered. Ivan stopped in his tracks, came back, and smacked Ed across the back of his head before storming off to the door "Not in the mood!" he yelled back at the arakun. He opened the door to find a well dressed human in spectacles. "Greetings, Finnegan is the name. I'm sorry to bother you, but I just didn't know where else to turn. I was travelling through the forest when I saw somemthing that chilled me to the core... all the trees were dead. I'm worried that something sinister is going on there. It didn't look like parasites or drought, there's a clear cut circle where everything's dead, clearly unnatural. I fear it may be the aftermath of a cultist ritual or something, please, you have to look into it." Ivan looked back at the two guards lounging about the station to see what they thought about it. "Well... as you said Ed, it is a slow day." squeaked Fred.
The well dressed man led the three guardsmen out the east gate of the city, climbing down the thick ladder to the ground floor rather than taking the path along the interwoven upper branches. "It's not that far from here, maybe half a mile." "You better not be pulling a prank." mentioned Ivan "You'll spend some time in the cell for that. Just a day, we're not cruel... but I can't say the same for some of our friskier inmates." Ed and Fred snickered to themselves about that, but didn't say anything else for the rest of the trip. 10 minutes later, they saw what Finnegan had been talking about. The plants weren't just brown from death, they'd shriveled and turned black. Ed cried out in alarm as he saw what was happening to the forest. "Surely your men have some resources they can use to find out what's going on right?" pleaded Finnegan Ivan rubbed his chin in thought and took his notebook out of his pocket. Flipping through a few pages, he found a note that hadn't been scribbled out yet. "Rick Taylor has a debt to pay.". He couldn't quite recall why he had written it down, all he could remember was that Rick made a mistake, and owed him a favor as payback. "Yeah. We've got just the guy."
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Urthdigger
Storymaster
Comments are appreciated
Posts: 214
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Post by Urthdigger on Nov 19, 2007 4:35:13 GMT -5
Rick had slept in late this day, cuddled up next to his wife Anne. He gave her a light kiss on the base of her neck and got up to make breakfast. He enjoyed his days off, as it meant more time to spend doing the things he loved. Preparing food was one such thing. First things first, he left the house for just a bit to go down to the bank of the river and fish. A simple enough task, he took a shiny lure and dipped it into the water with one paw, and held the other above the river. Soon enough a small fish wandered over to investigate and Rick's paw slammed into the water, his claws catching on the fish to prevent it's escape. He brought it up and quickly bit it across the spine to kill it, stopping it's annoying thrashing and putting it out of it's misery. He took the fish back up to his house to prepare it, descaling and gutting it first then chopping half of it up into small pieces and rolling them up in rice before drizzling sauce over them. A very simple sushi, but he didn't feel like being too fancy today. He cut the remaining half into two pieces, squeezed lemon juice over them, and ground just a bit of pepper over them. Just one thing left to do. "Hey Anne, breakfast is ready." said Rick cheerfully "Mmm.... just let me slip in a bit more hon..." replied Anne, burying her head into her pillow. "Aww, and after all the work I put into this? Come on, we can take a nap later anyway." She took off the covers and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, then got out of bed and gave Rick a warm hug "Aww, if you insist." Rick nuzzled her neck and gave her a kiss "I do." They both sat down next to each other at the table, feeding each other small pieces of sushi between the occasional kiss. "I know I probably don't say this often enough, but I love you Rick." Said Anne sweetly. "I love-" said Rick, getting interrupted by a knock at the door. "I wonder who that is." He got up from his seat and got the door. Ivan, Ed, Fred, and Finnegan were there waiting. "Hi, what's up?" asked Rick "We were wondering if you could help us with something." asked Ivan "But it's my day off!" whined Rick "Is it urgent?" "Well... no, I don't suppose it's quite urgent..." said Ivan "Thank you." Rick said, and promptly closed the door. "what was it?" asked Anne as he came back to the table. "Nothing important." said Rick with a smile.
A few minutes later, Rick had finished his breakfast and waved goodbye to his wife. He figured he might as well see what what the guards needed, and stepped out to head over to Edon. His trip was shorter than he expected as all four of them were still waiting at his front door. "Erm... sorry, I didn't expect you guys to wait for me..." said Rick apologetically. "It's a slow day, don't worry about it." explained Fred. "We were wondering if you could take a look at a part of the forest for us." said Ivan Rick nodded "Well, I didn't have much planned for today. I suppose it can't hurt." "Excellent!" exclaimed Finnegan "Well, right this way then..."
Finnegan led them again to the desecrated section of the forest. Rick's reaction was much the same as Ed's, who was now standing to the side with a grim look on his face. "Jeeze, what's with you two?" asked Fred "This whole place is just... dead. We can feel it." said Ed, his usual cheerful demeanor now grim. "Not urgent? NOT URGENT!?" Exclaimed Rick "This is an ecological disaster! Granted I suppose it doesn't seem to be spreading too fast... but still!" Rick got to work collecting a few samples of bark and grass, rubbing them between his fingers to check their texture and cutting them and peering at the insides. "It's cultists, I know it. They're spreading their infernal works closer and closer to the city, it's only a matter of time before they start mass abductions..." said Finnegan in a paranoid tone. "It's not cultists." said Rick, oddly calm "Most by-products of cultist ceremonies are disease, or the damage caused by the demons they summon. These plants don't appear to be diseased or damaged. Just dead. Furthermore, that wouldn't cause the sort of reaction your arakun friend and I have to this area. This is some strong negative energy, draining all the natural life out of the area. I'm sure if you stayed here, you'd find yourself feeling the effects as well. This is necromancy. Though, exactly what happened here is beyond my grasp. We should get a druid and a priest or two as soon as we can. I'll stay here to take a closer look at things... sweet Sikkar this is bad..."
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Urthdigger
Storymaster
Comments are appreciated
Posts: 214
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Post by Urthdigger on Dec 4, 2007 19:52:11 GMT -5
Soon enough the clearing packed with druids and templars who had nothing better to do. Theories abounded, from ancient gods being revived, to secret necromantic rituals in the dead of the night, to punks with black paint and nothing better to do. Most could agree that the dark presence was coming from underground. Ivan and Fred got start digging up the center of the clearing, looking for anything suspicious. They didn't have to go far. About four feet down, their shovels hit a large stone which they found to be covered in runes after it was unearthed. "Here, let me dispose of that" offered Finnegan "It's only right, since I found it. I'll take it down to Welstar for the lord of light to see, surely they'll know what to do with it." Ivan hesitantly handed the stone slab over to the frail human, who bowed and took off into the forest. "Ok, show's over here folks, thank you for your help and get back to your boring everyday lives." he said as he ushered everyone away from the area. Ed and Rick were the last to leave. Even with the tablet gone, something just didn't feel right...
Back in Edon, Leon and Chris were sharing a couple drinks at the Rampaging Rex. "I bet you I can catch 5 of the buggers before noon tomorrow!" bragged Chris. "Hey now, keep in mind it only counts if they were caught doing something. I don't want ya cheating on the bet now." reminded Leon. They were interrupted by a catfolk collapsing against the outside of the door, mewling in a ghastly manner and raking the door trying to open it. "Looks like someone's had a few drinks." said Leon with a smirk. "Speaking of which, we should really go before the captain has our heads. The pair walked out the door, the catfolk having wandered away now, and shared a drinking song as they walked down the street. The roads were pretty quiet for the time of night aside from the two of them, save for the occasional drunk shambling around aimlessly, moaning raspily for whatever reason. They split up at the intersection and went their separate ways. If both had stayed around for just a little while longer, they would have seen one of the drunks lurch forward and savagely bite a passerby, pinning him to the ground and ripping his throat out.
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Urthdigger
Storymaster
Comments are appreciated
Posts: 214
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Post by Urthdigger on Feb 21, 2008 6:19:47 GMT -5
The next morning Ed Wood came into Edon bright and early. The tax collectors seemed to be taking a break, which was fine by him, meant he didn't have to pay just for living outside of the city. The city streets were quiet in the early morning, so Ed was unaccosted on his trip to Fred's place. His muridan partner opened the door after quite a few knocks, barely qualified as decent as he had obviously just gotten up. "Aren't you supposed to go to work soon?" asked Ed Fred shrugged "I was gonna be ready..." "Yeah yeah." replied Ed "Anyway, I'm going down to the shop, you want anything?"
Cord's general store wasn't far away, but as soon as he entered Ed was a little bothered that Cord himself was nowhere to be found. Probably in the back room he supposed. Lost in thought, the arakun almost slipped. Someone had left a busted container of tomato sauce on the floor. "Hey Cord, cleanup needed, someone could kill themselves here." he yelled out to nowhere in particular. He picked a few candied treats out of the bin, and after a somewhat brief battle between his racial tendencies and his duty as a keeper of the peace, took some change out of his pocket and slapped it on the counter.
Back at Fred's place, Ed tossed a gummy rat to the muridan, helping himself to a candied cokroach. "You're sick you know that?" said Fred, looking at the gummy rat in disgust. Ed shrugged "You mostly taste the honey on these things, and insects really aren't that bad." "That's not what I... oh forget it." said Fred, chomping the head off of the rat. "Anyway, let's get going."
The pair arrived at the guard station, only to find the doors firmly locked. Nobody could be seen through the windows, and a few knocks on the door yielded no response. "Maybe they decided to stop at the pub?" asked Ed quizically. It wasn't very likely, but it was a shot. Besides, it was as good an excuse to go grab a drink as any. The pub was only a short walk away, and Ed pushed the door open to have a lookaround. A thunderstick slug whizzed overhead as shots were fired at the door. Ed ducked to the ground, quivering from surprise "Don't shoot, don't shoot!" he yelled out. Fred ran over in time to see Ivan pick the arakun up and usher them both inside "I know that's not the best way to say it, but I'm glad to see you two." "What the hell was that all about!" yelled out Ed Ivan looked at the two of them "The city's infested with zombies, didn't you notice?" Both of them shook their heads. "You lucky bastards... we couldn't even reach the station, we were forced to hole up here." "Well, the way's clear from what we saw" chimed in Fred "Let's grab some weapons, blow away some corpses, then come back here when it's all blown over."
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