Fable - Ask The Last Day

A roleplay which may be open to join but you must ask the creator first
"I don't know. You tell me," Zael said, his teeth raking across his bottom lip telling the tale of him knowing damn well who it was. He threw another combination of punches at his phantom opponent.

"Wish it had been Ein though, that sexual mammoth of a man. We could've had a contest. Both our ass cheeks exposed together, geysers of flame shootin up. Great visual, huh? You're welcome."

Ralene
 
  • Smug
Reactions: Samantha Black
"Three. My favorite number. You know just how to get a smile outta me," Zael said, the accompanying smile peeking out from around his raised fists. Now if he could just get an actual smile out of her then everything would be nice and cozy, matching that sunset over the Academy walls just fine.

"What's your guess on tomorrow, Ral? I already said written test, so that's taken." Then he abruptly looked over to Kristen and called to her, "Hey, Kris! Can you teach me that fancy handwritin in two hours?"

Kristen only gave him a brief perfunctory glance, and then refocused on Delaney.

Zael laughed to himself. Mused facetiously, "Just tryin to be prepared for this harrowing graduation the 'Pub is gonna throw at us."

Ralene
 
"I suppose that you...haven't changed your mind much, since last we spoke of these matters."

Delaney smiled sadly and reached to take her friend's hand. The first person she had loved, the first person who saw her.

"Gaage doesn't like to bring up the future but when he does, I can tell he doesn't want me to leave," she said quietly. It wasn't like they were hiding their relationship but they weren't flaunting it either.

Delaney took a deep, slow breath before speaking again. "It is harder to keep the darkness from getting restless so I do not think I have much of a choice at all..."
 
  • Cry
Reactions: Kristen Pirian
"I refuse to believe that," Kristen said, her voice matching Delaney's own in quiet solemnity. And here a small, supportive squeeze of her hand.

"That night in the dormitory with Bull, you helped me. You choose to do that. There is goodness in you that can triumph over your tormentors. It is merely that you must believe yourself worthy of that very goodness which you so clearly possess."

Delaney Lennox
 
A written test, huh. She didn't think that appropriate, but who the fuck knew. None of the Proctors had exactly been forthcoming about what to expect. It was almost as if they were still trying to decide themselves.

"If Proctor Matos has any say in it, we'll probably each have to do an assessment of our own self worth to determine our ranking..."
 
  • Popcorn
Reactions: Zael Castomir
Delaney just took her friends hand and squeezed it. She had been better there. The darkness hadn’t clawed its way to the forefront of her life by resurrecting her. She controlled it then. It was different now.

“That was before I died, Kristen, and the darkness just gets more control with every injury it heals. It knows it’s taking control. I was too kind…”

She had racked her brain with how to take control back without losing her magic all together but nothing had come to her.

Unless…

“Hey, Ral, you work with runes, right?” Delaney called out to the other Initiate.

Ralene Kristen Pirian
 
  • Wonder
Reactions: Kristen Pirian
Zael blew out a big puff of air when Ralene mentioned Proctor Matos, his eyebrows close to tagging the tips of his hair.

"Proctor Matos. Kress, they couldn't've picked a worse guy for the job. He's gonna get eaten alive sooner or—"

Delaney called out. Zael, in the meantime during the exchange, switched forms and practiced a few push kicks and side kicks.

Ralene
 
That was before I died, Kristen...

One small moment, one small misstep, and that was all it had taken back there in Sentinel's Home. It was not the blade nor spell of a foe that had done it, but merely a perilous accident whose chief lesson was the stark reminder of every Dreadlord's mortality. A frightening reveal it was when Delaney told her then what had happened, and its accompanying dismay had only grown in the intervening time, for here it was again.

Kristen perked up, though, when Delaney abruptly called out to Ralene. What...could she be thinking? And was it too early to dare to hope?

Delaney Lennox
 
“I dabble…”

For some reason, Delaney thought that was an understatement but she didn't know Ral's magic really.

She scooted around on her butt to face Ral with a mischievous grin on her face.

"Do you think that you could do one that controls an entity of magic? Gives the control back to the user?"
 
  • Wonder
  • Sip
Reactions: Zael Castomir and Kristen Pirian
Whatever mixed feelings Ralene did or did not have on Proctor Matos remained unaired. The curious nature of Delaney's ask was enough to give Ral pause in her work. Could she have waited for a worse time to ask for such a thing?

She shook her head at the present notion of impossibility, "If you had asked me months ago, maybe. I need time to research, experiment, and test before I put anything permanent on skin."

Years. A decade or longer had collectively gone into the extensive ink and scarification on her own skin - many pieces of which took correction and alteration to make work when she'd been too hasty reaching for results.
 
  • Sip
Reactions: Zael Castomir
"That makes sense," Delaney said simply. She had nothing else to say. There was no other way to gain control back. She would leave as soon as graduation was done.

There was a hmph as Delaney lay down on the ground and looked up at the sky.

They won't miss you. It is useless to think you can best us. You are ours now...

She closed her eyes and tried to think of something nice and good but nothing came to mind.
 
  • Sip
Reactions: Zael Castomir
Zael just shrugged after the exchange between Ralene and Delaney.

He aired his own commentary whilst throwing a series of question mark kicks. "We'll have plenty of time after graduation. Guard life is gonna be cake compared to the old Academy. I heard one of the year-boys once say that the most persistant enemy is boredom." He snorted, grinned, and shook and his head. "Fuck, I hope that's not true though."

He was, of course, ultimately unaware of Delaney's true choice. That she had no intention of going military.

Ralene Delaney Lennox
 
Kristen pulled a long face when the outlook didn't appear to be so promising—at least not in the immediate case. She looked down at her artificial hand, flexed her porcelain fingers. Was there not even hope through some other means?

Still, even if there was, graduation surely loomed closer.

A solemn gaze down to Delaney as she lay there just outside the ring. Beside her Kristen sat.

"It is...difficult to think that, after tomorrow, this will be goodbye."

Just like Amelia before she went abroad. Just like that, all over again.

Delaney Lennox
 
"Speak for yourself, Zee," Ral remarked as she fixed into place the last of the new attachment straps and tested the strength of the stitch with a firm yank, "I have mission orders out through the next year from Holstag."

She'd already been briefed on some of them, too. They were odds and ends - tailings of things that older and more venerable Dreadlords couldn't be bothered to task with. She didn't mind - all of them took her somewhere new, and a few would take her back to some old stomping grounds from Academy missions like Maraan. It would be good to travel again and put some distance between herself and this place.

"But if you're drowning in boredom with the Guard, I could put in a request for a sidekick..."
 
  • Popcorn
Reactions: Zael Castomir
"Just your pretty mouth," Ral replied as she held up the final piece and looked it over. A snip here and there for the tail ends of threads and it was just about ready to put the final pieces on. But first she had to find Henk and make sure the fit was right. She began to pack away her things into a leather satchel and stood, drawing the strap over her shoulder.

As for all this sadness and frowning about goodbyes? Well, frankly, Ral didn't particularly care and wasn't especially good with the whole touchy-feely sort of ...stuff. She gave the others a glance and nodded a two-fingered salute to them before taking her leave.
 
  • Yay
Reactions: Zael Castomir
A moment passed, and then a wooden practice sword bonked Kristen on the head. She gave a small grunt of surprise and displeasure, rubbing her head, as the sword clattered to the ground. Looking up revealed that Zael was still in the center of the ring.

Smiling devilishly, he said, "Don't look at me. She did it."

He pointed to Sieglilly, who had just come onto the scene where Ralene had departed from. She was, however, aware enough to know what happened. Her face pinched and to Zael she said, "You!" and took a little swipe at his shins with the tip of her boot. He faked a broken leg for a moment, then laughed it off.

"Come on over, Kristen," Zael said, holding aloft his own practice sword. "Last day to learn from the best and all."

With a fleeting look down to Delaney, Kristen resolved, practice sword in hand, to get to her feet and join Zael and Sieglilly inside the ring.
 
"Shame you never really got to meet Sieg," Zael said.

Kristen glanced to the armless girl. "We've spoken once or twice."

Sieg gave an easy shrug. "Yeah. A couple times."

"Nah, I meant like goin on a mission together," Zael said, assuming a guard stance as Kristen assumed one of her own. A bit facetiously, he added, "Everyone knows you don't really bond here at the Academy until you're both soaked in the blood and muck."

"We've been there," Sieg said, smiling.

"That we have, Little Lilly."

Kristen went in for a thrust-feint and slash. Something that wasn't too hard to block and parry but...Zael's sword, for just a split second, wouldn't budge. Kristen's sword wacked him a good one on his ear, his defensive movements coming too late.

Momentary confusion, and then Zael looked to Sieg, realizing that TK had frozen his sword for that crucial second. He grinned. "You!"

Sieg giggled and said, "Don't look at me. She did it."

Kristen shared a mischievous look with Sieg and right there, right when they both giggled together, Zael figured that they would make great friends.
 
Last edited:
"Don't forget to get your beauty sleep tonight, Sieg," Zael said. "You too, Kristen, you still got a lot of Academy life ahead of you."

Kristen touched swords with Zael, and each assumed a guard stance after. "I am halfway done, presumably. Four years is hardly the decade you and Sieglilly have spent here, but..."

"Times change, yeah." Zael, with a blur of speed that left Kristen bewildered, scored a stab right past her guard and into her chest. "You better kick my ass when we meet again, Kristen. I want to see you win one. See how far you've come."

Sieg waggled her eyebrows impishly, "I could always help ag—"

"Noooooope, Sieg, no double-teaming..." Zael sucked his tongue against his teeth and added, "...as much as I love threesomes."

Both Sieg and Kristen took aggressive steps toward him.

"Hey, hey, hey," Zael said, bright red cheeks heralds of his joyful humor, "I'm just sayin—look, Sieg—I'm just sayin our baby bird here needs to fly."

Kristen, contented, assumed her guard stance once more. "I shall accept the challenge then. When we are both conferred of the Dreadlord title, we will spar again."
 
  • Stressed
Reactions: Samantha Black
"You're damn right, Kristen," Zael said. "We should invite some of our classmates to watch. Make a reunion of it."

The receptive look at the idea suggested she liked it, but some small reservation colored her response. "That might be something of a tall—"

"Sieg, wanna go?"

"I'd go."

"You're invited." Then, right on the tail of a cheeky elbow to her shoulder and a wink. "I know you like to watch."

Sieg flushed red and headbutted Zael's arm—her attack of choice whenever TK just didn't have the visceral feeling she wanted. "Shut up!" Zael's grin eventually brought out Sieg's own.

Kristen looked at them both like she missed something. Well, she did, never having gone on a mission with Sieg before and never having been peeped at whilst bathing in a stream.

"Well, I was just passing through," Sieg said. "I'm going to the dorms."

"Hey! Sieg, before you go, what's your guess for tomorrow?"

She gave it a few seconds' worth of thought, then smirked and said, "Finger painting."

Kristen tossed her head back and burst out laughing at the ready silliness of the thought, but as soon as her eyes came back down and found Sieglilly's armless form, she immediately ignited red with embarrassment and covered her mouth with a hand.

Sieg's smirk just warmed into a genuine smile. "It's okay, Kristen. You can laugh. There's a reason I don't..." she nodded her head toward the very hand, the porcelain and adamantine artificial, that covered Kristen's mouth, "...have replacements. This is who I am."

"Yeah," Zael said. "Fuck Proctor Malaneaux."
 
  • Cry
Reactions: Samantha Black
Even now, even here, standing on the precipice of finally leaving the Academy and Him behind, of finally escaping with her mother and the rest of her family to anywhere but Vel Anir...Sieglilly couldn't bring herself to say it. She couldn't muster the strength to put into words the hatred she felt for Him, her tormentor.

Because her fear was stronger than her hatred.

Her mother only had one finger left.

And He told her what He would do to Mom once He ran out of fingers to chop off.

Sieglilly kept all of this suppressed. She made no comment on what Zael had said. Instead, with a wan smile, she spoke with a quiet confidence, "I'm going to graduate tomorrow. I have to."

Zael nodded, his demeanor solemn, tone soft and supportive, as they broke for a moment from the fun and casualness prior. "I know."

Invisible arms, pressures formed of gentle telekinesis, gave Zael a hug that no one could see and only he could feel. A friendly parting smile she gave toward Kristen as well.

And then she left.
 
  • Cry
Reactions: Samantha Black
Both Zael and Kristen dueled quietly after. Kristen, for her part, understanding that Zael and Sieg had one of the rare friendships at Academy and that tomorrow would be a major step in both of their lives, and thus she gave Zael a silent moment to himself. Let him as well enjoy and lose himself in what he liked to do best. Fight.

A round went by.

He spoke at last, that easy smile having returned. "Heh, Kristen, what are you gonna do with yourself once we're all gone?"

She perked an eyebrow. "What do you mean, precisely?"

"Who's gonna be the oldest and wisest Initiate. You are. Ta da! How do you like that shit?"

Kristen pondered it. "I am...not quite sure if that is entirely accurate."

"The oldest part? Or the wisest part?"

"Ha ha."

Zael grinned. "You're seventeen years old now. I mean, look, even if one of those lower-years has a few months on you or whatever the case, fact is, you've been in the deep end of the lake. Swimmin with the big fish. See what I'm sayin? You're big sis now." Zael barked out a laugh, then swept his hand up and down toward her full stature. "Damn, hard to say you're not, right?"

Kristen's lips pinched, and she felt a flush of embarrassment over her height. "My..." she groaned softly, "...that will count for little, if anything. My relative lack of experi—"

"No fuck that." Zael spun his practice sword around in a flourish, ending with it pointing Kristen's way. "You're big sis now. You gotta let em know. Tell em they'll find a Kristen-sized boot up their ass if they doubt you. And that's a biiiiig boot."

Kristen just couldn't help it. She had to look down. Back to Zael with a look inevitably offended.

"My...my feet are not as gargantuan as you suggest!"
 
Goddamn it, Kristen was one of a kind. Zael only had the one mission in Vel Yuna with her (and Gaage and Delaney and Alistair), and even that turned into a hell of a party, her antics a hoot. She had something every other Initiate lacked. Something ground down to dust in everyone from the old way.

Yeah, Zael wasn't excluding himself from that lovely bunch either.

Regardless.

"Guess there's only one way to find out." And then Zael looked past her and shouted, "Hey, Delaney! Come over here! We need you to take off Kristen's shoe and lick her whole foot quick like. For scholarly purposes."

If this were a real swordfight, Kristen's immediate dropping of her guard stance would have been disastrous. All that blushing somehow made that practice sword real heavy all of sudden, eh. She said, "What!? No! We said nothing of the sort!"

Zael shouted further, "And spend some extra time on the toes! Kristen said she'll appreciate it!"

Delaney Lennox
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom