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Post by Sylvester Hands on Apr 6, 2005 21:40:27 GMT
* The dragon, moved, one can only assume, by some mystical instinctive sense of justice aroused by Hands's extensive criminal history, has deposited the malodourous man in a somewhat ruined courthouse. It is not ruined enough to allow much light in the entrance hall, which has no windows, but it's warmer and quieter (or, rather, even quieter) than outside and Hands has no desire to come out until he's confident that the dragon has gone, so he explores as best he can.
He comes eventually to what even he can perceive to have been the main courtroom, which has a number of windows and allows him to see much better. He looks out and cannot see the dragon from this direction but, not wanting to take risks and not knowing where on Earth (or, rather, off it) he should go if he does leave, he decides to give it bit longer just in case.
After a while, he notices that he is not alone in the room. Whether they were invisible or absent beforehand, ghostly figures have appeared around him, mostly clustered in a group some distance away from him. They are all in various shapes and engaged in different conversations, at least until, almost simultaneously, they spot Hands and fix their gazes on him, but, in testimony to inter-universal consistency of setting, some are wearing black gowns, some others red ones, and both groups wear wigs of differing lengths, and those with the longest wigs carry gavels. *
[OOC: Midnight and/or Coriolis are welcome to control these judicial ghosts, be they lawyers, judges, jurors, witnesses...or you can leave them to me. I'll give you a little while.]
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Post by Midnight on Apr 9, 2005 9:24:16 GMT
*The black raven appeared out of no where, diving down from the sky to the tiger. Her throat would ache if she was in her human form but though she feels emotions like humans the physical ways of expressing them in animal were impossible. *
*More or less everything in sight was destroyed, Watchers homes were but mere piles of stones now. Clothes were strewn around, personal items covered in dirt and specks of blood were seen. The barracks had caved in on itself on one side, the roof slanted and one wall again just another pile of rocks.*
*Gone was what she remembered, the homes that would glow in the early evening as the sunset,, gone was the windows that allowed the light shine of a night, giving the weary, tired Watcher hope that home was nearby. Gone was the sound of the younger Watcher's playing games in the centre of town, causing as much mischeif as possible to the merchants. Their happy yells and squeals of laughter nothing more than a mere whisper on the wind from time gone by.*
*The old smells of food cooking on fires and clothes being dyed and the smell of bread being baked was no more all that was left was the stale smell of ash and burnt wood. Despite the time gone by the smell stull hung in the air as now one had been left alive to clean up the debris left behind all the destruction.*
*Coming into land and with very little grace the raven landed beside the Tiger. Quickly changing form the young woman emerged from the blue glow that had briefly surrounded her. Her eyes wide and glazed through tears held in check. Her mind wheeled for now her home laid at her feet in nothing but chaos. No one was there to greet them home as there had been on the many occasions that their tutors had taken them off to learn lessons of importance.*
*Now they stood alone in their home world, the place that brought so many good memories now brought many bad for now they could see what had been done to their race...Nearly wiped out in one night now only two remained...The last of the Watchers....*
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Post by Coriolis on Apr 26, 2005 19:27:32 GMT
*(Meanwhile, back in the ruined Courthouse...)*
*At some unheard command, the entire court raises to it's feet as a small door opens in the back wall and , what one must assume to be, the Judge walks into the room. However, 'walk' may not be the most appropriate of terms to use. Through some quirky twist of fate, the ghostly Watchers who make up the clerical staff have retained their Animagus forms. Sly is the only apparent Human in the building.*
*He is flanked either side by a pair of Silver back Gorillas, the Jury comprises multiple species ranging from small Lynxes to a bright-eyed White Wolf with one particular Juror being a rubber-limbed Orangutan that couldn't look more bored if it had tried. Standing in between where the yet-to-arrive Solicitors will be placed is a large and ungainly Secretary bird who could only be the Clerk of the Court. The best of all however, I have left for last. Though the traditional Judges White Wig and Glasses, which give it an air of extreme intelligence, are to be expected... The boomerang tail and marsupial resting place of the Judges lawbooks are not....*
*All Sly can do for now is wait for the Kangaroo's Court to commence its proceedings.......*
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Post by Midnight on May 21, 2005 18:08:09 GMT
*Slowly stepping forward, her steps small and tentative she looked worried that if she stepped too hard she may break something fragile. The ground sunk very little under her feet. The wind picked up slightly causing her hair to lift up and her clothes to tremble in the breeze. She headed for the only place she had hope that would still be standing or at least in a reasonable condition unlike the rest of the Monastery that once was.*
*As she walked she remembered those stories her Mother used to tell her before bed time. How in the end it was always a happy ending where the Princess got freed and married the prince or where the evil monster was slayed and a town saved. When she was young and naive and looked at the world with innocent hopeful eyes she hoped that was how the world was. The Watchers were taught that the world was a harsh, heartless place where there was no knight in shining armour to save the damsel and no unexpected hero ready to slay the deadly monster.*
*She briefly looked back at the tiger.*
*They only had what they were born with and what they were taught, they had each other and their friends...*
*Midnight mutters*
Where ever they are...
*Lost in the ocean of her mind trying to find some shore to land on and rest her mental state but finding none she brings herself back to the here and now, helped by the sound of soil crunching underneath her feet. Looking down she saw she was on soil torched by fire and blackened to the darkest shade of black their was. For a moment Midnight saw a flash of that night flash through her head..she was running..she was scared and she ached badly she was bleeding and the night sky was filled with orange as fires burnt and swept over her home..over Arios...and all she did was run...like the child she was she ran and tried to keep herself alive rather than any of the others...and she feared if another situation like that came again would she run again or stand and fight.....*
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Post by Coriolis on May 27, 2005 20:20:45 GMT
*The White Tigers thoughts were simpler but no brighter than 'Midnights'...*
'There's nothing left..... There is simply nothing left....'
*Coriolis had always been taught that HE was the slayer of mythical dragons, HE was the warrior who's sole purpose was the saving of Damsels and maids. The steadily worsening realisation was that HE...... was nothing...*
*The Watcher had skills, no-one could doubt that, but He was simply a man who did what he could to survive. The 'Dragon' had slain him...*
*But maybe not all was lost... A single building appeared to have survived the maelstrom of fire and death and it was sited down the remains of ONE particular alley that he had walked a thousand times before, both in person and in Spirit...*
Rhiannon!
There!
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Post by Midnight on May 27, 2005 20:43:38 GMT
*It took Midnight several minutes for the words to register her mind flitted from one thing to another like a bumble bee amongst a bush of flowers. Looking up from the destroyed ground she looked where Coriolis indicated. A very lonely looking house still remained, it's wall blackened but not destroyed, the people who had came to wreck their world wanted everything gone...only one place remained but that was because of a woman long now deads life ...protecting her house from fire had salavaged one place that meant the most to Midnight.*
*Running to the house her feet avoiding the debris as she ran, her heart beat faster and though she was happy to see it...she hated the act that her Mother would not have the door open and have the smell of bread cooking along with some stew..or that she would never see Mater Kaylo sat at a table waiting for her to give her some lecture or giving her a telling off for missing class...again.*
*She missed everything there was..that she had...all had gone bar this one house...a small pebble left of what was once a wall called Arios...now all they had left was her house...but none of the people that made it home.*
*Running to the blackened door she tried to open it, but the handle wouldn't budge.lloking in through a window she saw the place was wrecked..tables turned over, drawers thrown around the room..*
There has to be a way in..there has to be...
*Looking up to one of the higher windows she saw it smashed...seconds later a raven takes off from the ground and makes a pit stop on the hallway floor, crashing with a tud due to cutting her wing on the remnants of the window.. With a defient squak the raven shakes her head and takes a couple of minutes just staring round the hallway seen such a long time ago....*
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Post by Coriolis on Jun 10, 2005 0:58:12 GMT
*Although Coriolis could easily emulate the animagus feats of his Step-Sister, old habits die hard.. A heavy scraping can be heard as the Cat 'Shackles' his way up the wall. The sound is then followed by a loud 'Thump' as the entire building creaks and groans in pain. Survived the destruction of the citadel it had but unscathed it was not.*
*Through some deeply preserved memory, Coriolis didn't begin to feverishly search through the wreckage as Rhiannon. He had always been a 'Guest' at her home and it simply wasn't the done thing to trawl through a ladies belonings, regardless of the crazy circumstances they were in. Instead, he walks downstairs from the upper room that he had entered and surveyed the damage that had been caused.*
*The house had been subject to an extremely brutal but highly methodical 'search'. Every drawer and cupboard in the place had been pulled out and tipped directly on to the floor. Whoever had done this had definatley been searching for something but it could have been one of a hundred different things. The pendants that He and Midnight wore, maybe even Himself and Rhiannon. It had been a wise, even if heart-rending, choice to make for the cover of the forests that night...*
*Then he noticed something familiar, a painting on the hallway wall. It depicted the same Dragon motif as the Golden seal which had brought them home, the colours as bright and irridescent as he had always remembered them. Returning to human form, He carefully unhooked the painting from the wall and held it in his own 2 hands. The picture leaving behind a square shaped void in the dirt and decay of a decades laying...*
This something we cannot leave behind. All we behold is all we have left.
*He removes the painting from its damaged frame, rolls it up inside the remains of a silk curtain that used to cover one of the windows and stows the art into his kit.*
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Post by Midnight on Jun 10, 2005 10:36:10 GMT
*Midnight changed into her human form, blood trickling down her arm from the cut she received as a bird. She didn't even notice the blood slowly slide down her arm leaving a red trail on it's journey..she didn't notice it drip, drip to the floor when it reached her hand and then fingers and gravity then took it's place and the small tear like drops fell to the floor leaving a trail from the hall way into her bedroom.*
*The walls had dulled with age, her room a mess nothing was left unopened and anything that held what was classed as little value was destroyed. Her clothes varying from forest garb to that of long fine dresses used only on the occasions of a celebration such as marriage or the birth of a new Watcher laid torn into half and scattered round her room. Her desk was empty off drawers. The paper work on it was scattered round the desk and had started to yellow with age.. Her handwriting covered the pieces of paper her writing varied from elegant to scruffy depending on what mood she was in at the time she had wrote it.*
*Midnight was quite surprised anything of written working had been left behind...but that gave her some hope..Maybe Hakonatu wasn't too smart to realize the importance of some of her works...or maybe he was and he had copied everything and left it here if ever she did return to her home.*
*She shuddered at the thought of him going through her things, the things that had been gifts from loved one, things that had taken her time to get sometimes meaning her working hard. A box sat on the windowsill a small one Nor bigger than her palm. It's top was a painting of a lake not to far from here. The sun was setting and forest was painted along the edges of the lid, a eagle flew through the sky with grace she picked it up and held if for a couple of minutes before putting it back down.*
*That life was no longer hers, this was her home but she was no longer part of it..when she had ran, when Tom had taken her to Wolfenden she had been taken from her home and thrown into a world that didn't care. Though her heart longed to stay here she knew she couldn't for no one lived here now and all she had was Coriolis and with a smile she knew they would kill each other within a week with only each other for company.**
*Picking up some of her work she found a large heavy book thrown to the floor and kicked under the desk..whether by accident or not she didn't know but she picked it up and placed the papers within it.*
*It wasn't a lot and was no where near how high standard she wished they were but this was all her and Coriolis had left of a almost dead race.. They had to start anew and keep some of their teachings.*
*Midnight didn't look to hard at the book..if she had she may have blushed with the shame of realizing that this was the book she had "borrowed" so long ago.*
*Now she headed to wards what was the hardest room for her to probably face...Her Mothers.*
*Midnight slowly opened the door leaving a blood stained hand print on the handle and she went in closing the door behind her...*
* Quite a way away a low humming noise was heard and then stopped and a shadow moved...and then despite it being summer it began to snow...not that anyone noticed...yet...*
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Post by Sylvester Hands on Jul 6, 2005 13:54:35 GMT
Back in the courtroom a ghostly bell begins to sound as if from far away. "Silence in court, and all attention lend to Mr. Justice Bruce!" bellows the bird. The voices of the crowd of therianthropic ghosts die away with the tenth stroke of the bell, leaving the requested silence, all now having taken up their positions with Hands left in the middle. The judge makes to speak, looking extremely serious.
"G'day, mate," he begins, addressing Hands. "What's your name?"
"M-my name S-Sylvester 'Ands. Y-you know, 'ands, like feet but at the other end of your body."
"Silence in court! This is a trial, mate, not a biology lesson. Now, we can only 'ave appeared 'ere because someone 'oo's committed some crime against the race or nation of Watchers or any individual thereof has come in. We've got to find out what it was and give you a chance to defend yourself. Do you swear to tell the truth, the 'ole truth and nothing but the truth?"
"Er, no," replies Hands. "Sorry, yes," he adds, seeing the kangaroo's expression.
"That's better, mate. Now, what was it you done?"
"Er, nothing, your Justicenessness," replies the defendant. A small glass ball in front of the judge turns yellow.
"See that, mate? That'll 'appen every time you break your oath. What was it you done?"
Hands hardly knows where to begin.
"Er, I kidnapped a couple of shape-changin' types," he replies. "A bloke 'oo turns into a big black-and-white cat and a gel 'oo turns into a big black one. And, er, after that I tried to rob 'em and, er, we some'ow ended up 'ere."
"What, you mean all this happened in some other world, mate?"
"Yep." The ball clears.
"That's better. So, the charges are as you've stated. Of course, there may be mitigating circumstances, mate, so 'ow d'you plead: guilty or not guilty?"
"What are mitten-gated circle-pants?"
"Reasons why it's all right that you done it," says the judge wearily, after a pause.
Hands considers this for a moment. Even for someone as desperate (for a drink, among other things) as himself, the answer is obvious.
"Guilty," he says.
"Well done, mate. Now, what are the names of your victims?"
"Well, I 'eard the bloke call the gel Rhiannon, and she called 'im Janis."
"Look them up for us, mate," says the kangaroo to the bird. The latter reaches under his desk and produces an enormous volume whose cover identifies it as the Biographical Dictionary of Watchers of the Contemporary and Recent Generations (final edition) and begins to examine it.
"Janirola, Janirvren, Janis, here we are: 'Janis: see "Coriolis[/i]".'" The bird turns back a large number of pages (not the easiest of tasks with a beak) and announces, "Corioluz, Coriolutiri, Coriolonovemminabopagajeronomistonbyrchelamoffinnney - blimey, I don't half remember him - 'Coriolis: True Watcher, skiiled in armed and unarmed combat and to a moderate degree in magic, turns into a white tiger, one of the very few survivors[/i] of the Alzan genocide, another -' not 'the other', that's reassuring - 'is his apprentice, Rhiannon[/b]' - a cross-refernce. 'Also goes by the name of Janis,' etc. etc." He turns the pages one again, to nearer the end of the volume, and looks up another reference: "'Rhiannon: apprentice to Coriolis[/i], though his superior by a little in magic and certain other crafts, including shape-shifting, and his peer in combat of all kind, usually turns into a panther, frustrated by her inferior status.' That's all that need concern us, I think, m'lud"
"Thanks, mate," replies the kangaroo. "Our ghostly state," he explains to Hands, "gives us a wonderful insight into everything' goin' on that involves other members of our race. Of course, it means we can't do much, including leaving this courthouse, but one thing we can do is curse you so that you'll end up very upset if you don't carry out your sentence, which is to be this Rhiannon's prey in her ritual hunt, which, if successful, will grant her the right to ascend to the status of True Watcher - you're obviously an extremely dangerous criminal, so it'll be a bit of a task for her, I'm sure."
Hands is much too frightened to be amused by the irony of that ignorant remark.
"You will convey this writ to her," says the judge, as one appears in the air before Hands, who catches it as it floats to the ground. "It instructs her not to harm you, because the next bit of your sentence is to bring the two of 'em to us, and to any other ghosts there might be in the area, for advice. Court is adjourned. Now bugger off, mate."
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Post by Coriolis on Jul 8, 2005 22:04:50 GMT
(OOC:- As the plot-tennis continues with a gentle volley from the northern end)
*A few minutes have passed and silence is the only thing that can be heard from upstairs. Worried that something may have happened to her, Coriolis returns back up the stairs to check that Midnight is still okay. As he does so, the building once again begins to creak and groan under the strain of a thousand wounds. Staying within its four walls would be an error of judgement.*
*He reaches the upper floor of the house and almost instantly freezes in dismay. Small but highly visible trails of blood can be seen along the carpet going from room to room. The fact that there is a dainty red hand-print on one of the door handles doesn't help to calm his nerves....*
[Calling out] Rhiannon! You all right?!?
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Post by Midnight on Jul 10, 2005 10:09:57 GMT
*Midnight jumps at the sound of Coriolis's voice and almost drops the large box in her hands.*
Yes. I'm fine.
*She gently places the box on the over turned bad and opens the brdroom door. Opening it wide she see's Coriolis and indicates him to come im with a nod of her head.*
It feels strange going though Mothers things...they didn't leave much of value behind...and what they did they destroyed.
*The floor creaks under her footing and Midnight notes soon the time will come again for them to leave her house before it crashes around them.*
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Hakonatu
New Settler
A link to the past, or a threat to the future?
Posts: 54
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Post by Hakonatu on Jul 10, 2005 10:40:41 GMT
[ooc: continued from hostile take over] [in dungarth] Hakonatu is busy again, he stands by the side of one of the six tables with mancles attatched gazing intently at its occupant without taking his eyes away he reaches to a small tray on wheels by his side and picks up in his gaunlet like fist a large thick saw like instrument smiling slightly he places it against the occupants hip and presses down alittle the occompnying scream is offset with a strange buzzing noise..hakonatu stops the screams dies to a sob but the buzzing continues, standing up right his face a mask of far off concentration he replaces the saw on the tray and looks about for a moment..enligtment and rage pass his face a fraction of a second after each other and without looking he brings his giant fists down hard onto the table..finding no reassurance in the sharp crack of bone and screams of agony from the tables occupant he paces back to his desk wides various bits of red slime of his hands onto a rag and once the screams have faded with the occupants life closes his eyes and sees....... [in rhiannons house] Corolis and Rhiannon stood in a room talking, in his mind hakonatu rages but watches back in knightmare castle a grin slowly forms on his face as he rembers what he left in the house all those many many years ago..downstairs something changes [outside the house] the shadows near the house begin to legenth though it gets no darker and they seems to fade in and out of sight like a pulse..slowly the shadows change become more solid looking little by little appearing on their feet the shadow creatures cruel claws nearly touching the crisp white snow pace lithly towards the house..
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Post by Sylvester Hands on Jul 10, 2005 14:04:19 GMT
[OOC: I'd better proceed, as it seems it won't be long before something happens.]
* Hands has now arrived at the house, thankfully ahead of said shadows. Like Midnight he finds himself unable to open the door; unlike Midnight he has no respect for the architecture. He draws his sword and takes an almighty swing at the area near the lock; the blade goes all the way through enabling him to slice around it to open it (fortunately the wood is somewhat rotten and the two Watchers were far enough inside and above to make nothing of the faint sound of a single hack at the door).
The lock cut off from the rest of the door, he enters as quietly as he can and explores until he hears their voices. He finds the door to the room they evidently occupy, slips the writ under it so that they cannot fail to find it when they go to leave and legs it into the woods, hoping that if Midnight managed to find him she would obey the kangaroo's decree.
He goes first to the place where they first arrived to see if there's any discernible way back to Wolfenden. Finding neither this nor, thankfully, the dragon, he enters the denser woodland, doing his best to get as far as possible from the house. *
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Post by Midnight on Jul 10, 2005 19:23:35 GMT
*As Coriolis and Midnighttlaked they both heard a rather faint noise as something scraped against wood. Looking around she spied the pice of paper on the floor. Picking it up she slowly read the letter, then re-read it.*
Coriolis if all the Watchers are umm dead how come this has been sent to me? By Aiden the man that used to change into a kangaroo...It seems in light of Sly's crimes..he's meant to be my prey in the Ritual Hunt....
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Post by Coriolis on Jul 11, 2005 23:30:27 GMT
What?!?
*The bemused Watcher strides into the room with a purpose and snatches the parchment out of her hand.*
For the collective attention of Watchers:-
Coriolis - Watcher of the Endless Realms Rhiannon AKA 'Midnight'- Watcher of the coming Days
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The vagabond known as Sylvester Petunia Hands has been judged of Larceny (numerous counts), Mugging (attempted), loitering with intent, littering with indiscretion(numerous counts), attempted murder (claims of self defense rejected), Kidnapping (3 known counts, others unsubstantiated) and has been found wanting.
His Sentence is as follows:-
To be loosed into the woods around Arios Citadel and hunted down by Rhiannon, Daughter of Diana the Dragon Rider (Both Watchers of the Coming Days) as a test of her skills and training. However, The Bugger must not be killed. Simply returned to the God's Pillar in front of our Council Chambers. The completion of this task will be considered proof of her skills as a Watcher and mark the end of her apprentiship...
*Near the bottom of this supposed legal document is a small hand-scrawled note:-
Now hurry up ye damn Sheila and get this guy. I've been stuck in this Court for 2 generations now and me beers getting warm!
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