Shadows of the October Moon - Stories

[Lost Valkyrie]

((This thread is created for the convenience of anyone who wants to do a story post and feels too apprehensive to create a whole thread for themselves, yet also doesn't want to clutter up the main thread for claiming points. All story posts are welcome here, even ones that connect together. If you want to create a story thread for yourself, you are still welcome to do so! But if you want to post a story, and you're not sure where, you are welcome here. <3))

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Trinity Siempre is an adventurer of decent renown. Upon moving to the Gloaming District, she had to start rebuilding her clientele, but her role in the fracas nicknamed "Wolfamania" got her name out there. An apparent human standing up to protect Twilight Isle among the likes of the Avatar of Gluttony, a demigoddess descended from Olympus, and many other supernatural Rhy'Dinians of fame? And her services are for hire? Her clientele was rebuilt and then some after that.

She can afford to take a day or two off to take care of her new home, Twilight Isle, after all the stuff that has been happening to it, but a good samaritan actually went out of their way to hire her to spend time helping the Celestial Druids. So we join our lost valkyrie in journeying back from the Dead Scar after having gathered some petrified wood. It's not visible on her; she is keeping it in some mythical, magical item space that she accesses anytime she reaches behind her back all magician-like.

She has decided to trek through the mountain range between the Tower of Fire and the Tower of Air, so that she can gather elemental boundary moss. She reaches behind her back to pull out a photograph of the moss for this area. It looks like it grows in formations that resemble lightning bolts. That makes sense; some schools of elemental thought regard lightning as being a combination of fire and air. The photograph goes back whence it came, and she looks around for the moss.

She's not finding any... maybe she needs to go higher. If the moss looks like lightning, maybe it is formed by lightning. So she needs to find the highest point... there! A nearby peak. The normally difficult terrain is of little difficulty for her agility and dexterity, and she hops from crag to spire like it's nothing, ascending toward the peak. Once she gets there, she easily finds what she's looking for: moss grown in a lightning formation, bearing a soft purple glow as it teems with both fire and air mana. Score!

She reaches behind her back and pulls out a jar and some tools for gathering the moss. She squats down to get started, but the incline and the terrain make for some pretty poor footing. Sure would be a shame if something were to try and interrupt her.

Nothing comes to interrupt her, and she manages to gather up a good deal of moss into the jar. She holds it up above her head triumphantly. Hooray!

Then some vulture swoops in and knocks it out of her hand.

"Oh, crap!!" The jar hits the ground and starts rolling. It's fortunately sturdy enough not to break, but it's getting further and further away from her by the moment, and she's going to lose sight of it soon. Not to mention the vulture... she looks over at it, and when she focuses on it, she can feel dark energy radiating from it. It's been influenced by the Dark Hunter, and is likely there explicitly to cause her trouble. This isn't the first fauna she has encountered and cleansed today; she's ready for more.

Trinity looks down at the escaping jar of moss and decides to give chase toward it first, knowing the vulture will follow her. She begins a rapid descent, hopping down crags and spires, and sliding down the incline. Her shoes are sturdier than they look! The vulture tries to swoop in toward the valkyrie, but she ducks underneath. She catches up to the jar of moss, snatches it up, and puts it behind her back. She then pulls out her Spectrum Smasher, a gift from Julia Winters that she has been using extensively. The other hand would normally be on shield duty, but instead, she reaches behind her back to pull out an absorption prism. The vulture comes in again, and Trinity raises the mace-wand to catch its talons when it tries to strike. She flings the bird away, and it comes in to attempt another strike. This time, she positions the mace-wand with its prismatic glass head facing outward, letting the vulture bonk itself on it. The impact releases particles of light energy.

She pulls back the mace-wand and puts the prism into the lingering energy, which activates its enchantment. It begins to pull the Dark Hunter's influence out of the vulture and into itself. The vulture screeches in objection, and moves to fly away, but the valkyrie pantomimes a whip crack with the wand-mace, releasing a thin tendril of pale blue light that strikes at the vulture's mind to momentarily stun it. Long enough for the prism to finish its job, pulling out all of the malignant influence.

The vulture comes out of its daze just after the prism completes its task, and then flies away. Trinity breathes a sigh of relief, and then looks at the prism, which has become clouded with thick darkness. She sticks it behind her back, and it disappears to who-knows-where. It looks like this day of adventuring on the isle has been very fruitful: she has cleansed some of the local fauna, and gathered several materials for the Celestial Druids' spell.

The Venturing Valkyrie makes her way home after a job well done.

[Ellie Luisante]

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seraphicAzure began pestering sillyFlower at ??:??

SA: Hey there. Got a quest for you.
SF: you don't say? whatcha got for me? 🙂
SA: Feel like visiting Twilight Isle? You don't have to duel.
SF: what's going on at the isle? 😯
SA: Stop by HQ and I'll brief you.
SF: okay, see you soon! 😊

seraphicAzure ceased pestering sillyFlower at ??:??

For a couple of days now, there's been rumblings of a long retired duelist with Disney princess vibes visiting the Isle during off-hours to help cleanse the wildlife. Rumors of fluttering, voluminous skirt fabric caught in sight periphery as she dances and twirls through the Isle's various areas, leaving happy wildlife in her wake.

The rumors are true, of course. You know this because you're that retired duelist.

Your name is Elina Luisante, but most folks call you Ellie. You've been retired from dueling for a little over two years now, but the time it's been since you've last been on Twilight Isle is much harder to quantify; you never stopped attending Sheridan Driscol's mansion parties, and you always come through here to visit Rhy'Din thanks to the Twilight Market's portal to your hometown, New Prism. Your best friend lives in Rhy'Din, and one of your lovers runs a delightful cafe there as well.

You are a dancer, baker, seamstress, and adventurer. You dance through life with a sunshine disposition, ready to help with a problem or create joy at a moment's notice. Regarding the latter occupation, you work for the Seraphim Knights, led by another former duelist with much more renown than you.

In the two-plus years since you retired from dueling, you have endured some difficult trials and tribulations, to put it lightly, and you have grown considerably more powerful. You are wielding a closed Yellow Umbrella almost like it's a weapon as your vibrant turquoise eyes look around behind gold-rimmed glasses for any malfested wildlife.

(Do you see anything, Anais?)

> Yeah, actually. Glowing eyes in the trees at 10 o'clock.

The voice in your head giving you suggestions belongs to an alternate timeline version of yourself who goes by your middle name, Anais.

You look over in the directon indicated, and catch sight of the glowing eyes. You smile and start heading in that direction, hearing a growl as you approach. (Oh, this is a big boi.)

> Probably good you found it before anyone else did, then.

(Agreed. What's the move?)

> Pic-a-nic basket!

(Lovely idea!) You grin and then do a single quick spin. The motion sends your long, abundant skirt lightly flaring and flying, and when you come out of the rotation, you're holding a closed basket emanating delicious fragrances. "Want some food, big guy?"

An egg bear comes out from the trees and roars. He then starts to lumber toward you.

Magically-sensitive beings nearby might have noticed at this point that there is a faint aura of chaotic mirth coming from you. "Ooh, that's a yes! But I need you to say please!"

He stops in front of you and roars right in your face, blowing the pancake-colored hair of your fluffy bob cut backwards and forcing you to shut your eyes with a sour expression. When you open your eyes, your expression is chiding and matronly. "Hey! That's not please!"

You then bonk the bear over the head with your umbrella! He boggles in bewilderment at this development, and cartoon-like stars swirl around over his head. He shakes his head and then suddenly takes a swipe at you! The swipe finds purchase and sends you rolling backwards a bit, ending with you sitting on the ground blinking a few times. It seems like nobody took any real damage from this exchange, but it did look awfully silly.

You jump up onto your feet, puff up your cheeks, and steam blows from your ears. "Whyyy, I oughtaaaa~!"

> Engage Trickster Mode at 25%.

That's just what you were thinking. The mirthful aura emanating from you intensifies as you dial up the activation of a chaotic power called Trickster Mode, from 10%--where you keep it most of the time--to 25%. If activated at full bore, you become an inconsiderate candy-blasted asshole, but with partial activation, you can use cartoon powers!

Accordingly, you drop the umbrella and the basket, and start stomping towards the bear. He somehow understands that he has absolutely stepped in it! And once you reach him, a cartoon fight cloud erupts to life, complete with "pow!", "biff!", "bam!" onomatopeia bubbles and various limbs poking out of it here and there.

The cloud suddenly disperses, and the bear is sitting on the ground, dazed and confused, but otherwise still entirely unharmed. You slap your hands together to dust them off with a gentle, satisfied expression. "I told you to say please, silly." You smooch the bear's cheek and then start patting his head.

> Sylph of Heart: Purify.

In your tribulations, you inherited a role and its associated powers from yet another version of yourself, one who participated in the creation of a universe. That role is known as the Sylph of Heart, a combination of a class and aspect. Most relevant is the Heart Aspect, which concerns souls and identities, especially splintered or multiple identities. This is more relevant to your state of being than most could possibly know. The Sylph Class is a healing class. So your role could be reworded as Healer of Souls.

And with this poor bear, that's exactly what you start doing. Your physical contact with him allows you to reach into his soul. You can feel this depressing, deathly pall hanging over it, clinging to it, weighing it down. As you pat the bear's head, you simply remove the pall from his soul. You then reach out and give the bear a big hug! As you do, you begin to squeeeeeze the sadness and darkness out of his soul, like wringing out a sponge. You give him affectionate nuzzles with your cheek for good measure.

The bear cannot entirely comprehend what is happening to him and why, but he realizes that he just lost a fight to you without getting hurt at all, and now he's feeling much, much better. So he reaches out and gives you a hug as well!

"Awww! I'm glad that you're feeling better, big guy."

"Rowr?" He makes a little growl and motions to the basket.

"Of course, sweetie. It's all yours; thank you for saying please!" You hand the basket over to him. He opens it up and begins to chow down on the goodies!

Meanwhile, you pull out one of those prisms that absorbs the Dark Hunter's influence; a convenient receptacle for all the darkness you just squeezed out of that bear's soul, and it looks nicely saturated. You toss it from one hand to another, and then spread your voluminous skirt wide in a curtsy toward the fourth wall, as if celebrating your accomplishment.

> Another job well done, Ellie. :D

(Thank you! But it's only a part of the work we have to do to protect this Isle and everyone here! Hopefully the rest of the work will be much more enjoyable.)

You reach through the waistband of your skirt to grab your cell phone from the butt pocket of your dance shorts, and dial someone up as you start to head back toward the portal to New Prism.

"Bonjour, chèrie. What's the status of Operation Shindig Revival?"