From quinn@fazigu.org Sat Mar 12 13:56:58 2005 Return-path: Envelope-to: quinn@fazigu.org Delivery-date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 13:56:58 -0500 Received: from yami.57thstreet.com ([216.110.12.54]) by work.fazigu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.44) id 1DABnF-0005k2-0n for quinn@fazigu.org; Sat, 12 Mar 2005 13:56:57 -0500 Received: from moo.ghostmoo.org (yami.57thstreet.com [216.110.12.54]) by yami.57thstreet.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with SMTP id j2CIwTSV019730 for ; Sat, 12 Mar 2005 18:58:29 GMT (envelope-from quinn@fazigu.org) Message-Id: <200503121858.j2CIwTSV019730@yami.57thstreet.com> Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 12:58:29 -0400 From: "Quinn@Ghostwheel" To: quinn@fazigu.org Subject: Ghostwheel Message(s) 233 - 242 from *storylines (#5236) X-Mail-Agent: Ghostwheel (moo.ghostmoo.org 6969) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.2 (2004-11-16) on work.fazigu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=ALL_NATURAL,AWL,BAYES_50 autolearn=no version=3.0.2 Status: RO Content-Length: 16808 Lines: 322 Message 233 from *storylines (#5236): Date: Wed Jan 19 21:44:32 2005 EST From: Scorch (#16959) To: *storylines (#5236) Subject: Sagittarian Scorch trudged through the wastelands, grumbling at the blowing sand and the sun that beat down on her head. She had been irritable for days, searching high and low for what to give a Fae for a wedding gift, much less The Fae she herself was betrothed to. To take her mind off things she strolled into the R/T bar for a few shots of Whiskey, and perhaps some good conversation. Sagittarian was what she found there. His tallk frame hunkered over his computer, lost in his studies. After a few minutes of conversation.. She had it. Her trusted friend had been growing and developing as a mage for some time. She'd seen him grow from a little wasteland scrub into a respectable, if somewhat crazy Mage. His mention of Scarification abilities had given her an idea. Sagittarian and Scorch ducked into the Cavern where she had lived for years before moving in with Owen at the farmhouse. Shadow and familiar surroundings bringing a smile to her lips. Aerin still passed out on the floor, no doubt from his latest binge, even brought a tear to her eye. Sagittarian paced the floor, speaking passionately about things for a time, asking for details and speaking of requirements and preparations. He pulled a sketchbook from somewhere, Showing options and possibilities... a whisper of a smile stretched across her lips as she chose and made alterations. "I'll need a few days to prepare for this." She nodded her head at his words. "You'll need a plain white gown...You must be completely natural. The eagle does not appreciate pretenses." A crazy grin spread across his features as he turned on his heel and ducked out of the cavern. From the tunnels outside of the Cavern she heard "I'll comm you when Im ready." She lay back on the bed staring up at the Vaulted depths of the cavern's ceiling. This would be a fine gift for a Fae. -------------------------- Message 234 from *storylines (#5236): Date: Wed Jan 19 21:58:38 2005 EST From: Bos_Mutus (#20718) To: *storylines (#5236) Subject: Later that minute... Bosimus Mutimus relaxed as he sat on the toilet in the Desert Rat bathroom. As he idly flipped through the pages of the N'Orleans Tattler a particular article yanked at his attention like an article yanking at someone's attention. 'Curly Haired Woman Seen with Peanut Butter Man' -- A curly haired woman was recently seen crossing a busy intersection while arm-in-arm with a man constructed entirely of peanut butter. Witnesses say that the peanut butter man had gum stuck in his hair. 'Fascinating' Bosimus Mutimus mused to himself, 'It seems that this woman has mastered the lost fae art of tantric peanut butter manipulation...' He rose from his seat at the toilet and walked back into the bar area. Then having remembered what he was previously doing, he returned to the bathroom and wiped. After returning to the bar a second time he remembered to go back into the bathroom and wash his hands. He put out his joint. 'I must contact Corey Haim and parsnip,' he said to Bart, assuming that the transexual bartender from Shadowbrook actually cared, 'If what I think is true, then we can harness this woman's tantric peanut butter abilities and rule the Outer Wastes!' He tucked the newspaper under his arm and stumbled into the open air. A rush of cool sea air made him realize that he was actually just sitting in the Fnord and was parked on the Helipad in Woods Hole. With a grimace, he looked back at the mess he had made on the cargo seats and dropped the bioscanner manual he had been readin. -------------------------- Message 235 from *storylines (#5236): Date: Wed Jan 19 22:52:32 2005 EST From: Alux (#37197) To: *storylines (#5236) Subject: Epilogue Alux waited as the turbines spun to a stop before stepping through the hatch of the trusty transit... he knew at once something was horribly wrong. Looking around at the carnage he shook his head and exited the transit without a word. He knew he had to stop lacing Yak's weed before things went any further... -------------------------- Message 236 from *storylines (#5236): Date: Thu Jan 20 22:07:14 2005 EST From: Sagittarian (#37142) To: *storylines (#5236) Subject: Preparations. Sagittarian sat staring at the screen of his rather unique computer, mulling over the words of the ritual for the twelfth time now. A calloused hand resting against his cheeek, Sagittarian thought to himself, "Am I ready for this?" Of course he was. The rite had been prepared according to the texts. The proper fasting and purification of himself had been completed. The aflame was purified by fire. The steel of the blade was new, never having known flesh or blood, while the hilt was one that was binded from impure energies. His own energies. Yes. He was prepared. Hopefully the eagle was in a willing mood to grant favors. Sagittarian stood from the desk stretching. He removed his leather wear. His Punisher Vest and other things strewn carlessly on the floor of the Darkreach library. After a soothing bath in purified water(cold as ice he thought) he donned his cotton robes and grabbed his computer. It, along with his supplies were all wrapped gently in a cotton bundle and placed in his robes. Sagittarian walked out of Darkreach and out into the desert. The heat bothered him none, only his purpose lingered in his mind. Some old line of text coming to mind...."Just Believe..." -------------------------- Message 237 from *storylines (#5236): Date: Sun Jan 23 18:28:45 2005 EST From: Lyr'tyzluthe (#16541) To: *storylines (#5236) and *DragonRiders (#5915) Subject: Flying They had flown together many times, in their times together as chosen LifeMates. They had flown to hunt. Flown to explore. Flown to take their Riders or their Riders families and children safely from one place to another. Flown for the sheer joy of flying. And they had flown for other reasons, as well, but never, he knew, like this. For this reason. It was the sheerest, easiest joy he could think of. He made his good humor a match for her temper and he saw why she was his, he hers... why they were for each other. Layers and layers of joy that he could be with her, that he could lift the cloud of grief from the heart of his Worthy, that this could bring them together and heal them, their families, Ylaerin in so many ways. Time and again they flew, until the garnet, his Myr'leth'saraath, his LifeMate landed one evening, gave him a gentle nuzzle. Assured him that in the turning of three moons, it would happen. Soon enough, he would be spending his days in the hatchery, waiting with her. Soon enough, he would have a new kind of joy, one he had not had the chance to experience for himself. Soon. Soon, there would be dragon eggs, and then hatchlings. And, once again, new life. -------------------------- Message 238 from *storylines (#5236): Date: Tue Jan 25 10:09:57 2005 EST From: Remembrance (#13681) To: *storylines (#5236) Subject: Maps! Finding the framed maps had been a pleasant surprise. No one had ever seen a map that actually showed places now, not ones from the past. She remembered seeing the old maps, the really old, faded ones in ancient books. She had even seen one years ago at the city hall in her home town. Those maps looked so different. For one thing, the continent had changed. Alot! Coastlines had changed, whole areas had disappeared, mountain ranges and rivers and lakes were gone. It was luck that she found these maps in the transport complex. They had been covered by rubble, filth and debris back in a dark corner, but it was well worth digging them out. She had taken them home, cleaned them up and now they looked pretty good. She decided to take a few around, hang them up. She was sick and tired of people asking where places were. Not little places like a bar or dojo, but old places like New Genesis City, places like Woods Hole. Yes, leaving a few around was a good idea. Stop people from whining. -------------------------- Message 239 from *storylines (#5236): Date: Thu Jan 27 21:46:22 2005 EST From: Rhianna (#37042) To: *storylines (#5236) Rhianna walked the Jizo Beach, feeling the wind and spray against her face. She felt full-up, as if there was too much to see, to feel, to think. It wasn't enough that she spent so much time thinking about Trae, even when she tried to turn her thoughts away. It wasn't enough to try to reconcile her past with her now and to move forward. No... the goddess had seen fit to grace her with still more. Still more nights of tangled dreaming and lost sleep. Her nights had been full of the sound of wind and wings. Not dragon wings, because that would've made too much sense. She dreamed of birds. Of feathers. Of high squalling winds throwing her off course, threatening to break her against the rocks. Sometimes, she dreamt of a woman she did not know, a fierce, lean woman that she had never seen. Sometimes, she dreamt that there was some great sleeping /thing/ lurking beneath her. Waiting to rise up and smash her, to bring everything down around her. She thought back to the dreams of dying sparrows, and how those had, in retrospect, been portents she should have heard. Warnings about Gary and the harm he meant to do her. That he did do to her. She rubbed her wrist, and sat lightly down in the sand, out of reach of the waves. She pulled the tattered strip of sash off to eye the wound there. The wound that she made and remade night after night with the digging she did in her sleep, itching at the phantom wound where Gary's knife had bit into her, where he began to pull the skin back. It burned a little, even now, and she fought back the urge to scratch it again. It looked a bit better today. Perhaps thanks to the salve, or perhaps she was just picking at it less now that her mind was engaged elsewhere -- with thoughts of a laughing boy, of bright blue eyes. Still, it was red and angry. Weepy looking. Raw. She still felt that way, some mornings. Weepy. Raw. Angry. She sighed, looked out over the ocean, and closed her eyes, trying to center her thoughts. To ask the meaning of the dreams. She thought of wings and wind and tried to hear an answer. All she heard was the ocean. And so she did the only thing she could do. She waited. -------------------------- Message 240 from *storylines (#5236): Date: Mon Jan 31 14:01:50 2005 EST From: Rhianna (#37042) To: *storylines (#5236) Rhianna sat across the kitchen table from her mother, much like they used to do when she was younger, before she had felt the need to force so much distance between them. They'd been talking all morning over tea and eggs, easy and more relaxed together than they had been in years. Rhianna felt good, her mother seemed to feel well, and everything seemed somehow better and brighter than it had in months. "So," Ylaerin was saying, "You dreamed this sparrowhawk and now here he is?" Rhianna turned to stroke the small hawk's feathers. She had found Geir this morning much as she'd left him the night before, sitting on an outcrop of rock in the garden. "Yes, well, Luthe brought me up and Yjezra had him. I had only to look at him to realize that I... knew him." It was still strange to her, disconcerting to feel the sparrowhawk's little 'thoughts' flitting across her mind. She had woken many times last night, which was nothing unusual, but once or twice she'd bolted up, out of a dream of flying, of diving, of hunting, only to have the dizzying realization that it wasn't quite a dream. Her mother watched her, smiling, hesitating a moment before asking, "So... when do you go back to sleeping in that little room on Jizo?" Rhianna shrugged. The question made her tense, in spite of everything. It made her think of how hard she'd worked at being on her own. It made her wonder if to return to the Mount, to go back to her own room, to share a bed with someone more than once in a great while was a kind of defeat. A backsliding. These worries made other worries tumble into her mind, and so she shook them off before they had a chance to take hold, "When it seems he can fly a little more strongly, I think I'll take him back down with me. He's gone off on short hops - hunting trips, really - but he still seems so tired." Ylaerin nodded, and Rhi could feel her watching, examining. To her mother's credit, she did not ask her about Trae - Rhi had no idea this morning what she might say, if she was asked. She found herself both thrilled and giddy, and yet full of anxiety. As they finished their tea, sitting in relative quiet, Ylaerin said, at last, "He's a good boy, Annie. But you're thinking too much." With that, Ylaerin rose from the table, leaned over to kiss her daughter on the forehead, and left the kitchen. Rhianna turned to the sparrowhawk, and sighed. "Tell me something I didn't know," she said. Drawing a quiet kek-kek from the bird, and a laugh from herself. -------------------------- Message 241 from *storylines (#5236): Date: Sun Feb 6 23:45:39 2005 EST From: Alux (#37197) To: *storylines (#5236) Subject: Ignis Sanctum Alux wandered off to study on his own, the books and such just weren't helping him right then. He flicked a few droplets of fire idly and they hit the ground in front of him, as the smoke cleared he noticed something he'd missed before: The burn patterns. He remembered in sparring the unique way his opponents flesh would scald and singe at the contact of fire and it occurred to him "Fire's nature is in how it consumes..."He slaved for three days using only his magic and manual labor to construct the addition on Shandryl's tower, not sleeping or eating and drinking only barely enough to fend off collapse. The three days ended and Alux slumped within the cool stone quarters. Shandryl entered before he could fall asleep. As she lead the ritual Alux felt a pressence almost immediately He thought first of all the philosphy on the magical nature of fire, then the movement of heat, but it was all blurred... until his thoughts returned to the burn patterns and the sizzling of flesh. In that instance a sphere of fire swelled in the center of the granite chamber. He saw the hulking shape of a creature three times the size of any human he'd ever seen, its flesh a blinding gold, its eyes a smoldering red. He knew it was Ifrit, demon king of fire, that was now before him and amidst his awe he knew he needed to make his request lest the demon grow impatient. His lungs couldn't bring up any air though. He focused on his request and he felt the demon's eyes pierce his thoughts. It gave an almost inperceptable nod and the roaring of flames overtook the room. Alux could see nothing, not Shandryl nor the demon, only flames everywhere he looked. He didn't feel alarmed despite sensation of being oked alive, he felt no pain, and nothing about it seemed to scare him as he stood there.The fire burned more fiercely and then it was gone along with Ifrit. He and Shandryl were alone in the smoke. He blinked away the after image as Shandryl cleared the smoke and surveyed the room. The granite now had finely detailed glyphs burned into its surface, everywhere he looked he saw them. Each one radiated with power, the orange glow of fire was still present though no visible source accounted for it and the room was sweltering to the point of dizziness but Alux felt only satisfaction. -------------------------- Message 242 from *storylines (#5236): Date: Wed Feb 9 18:54:14 2005 EST From: Roscoe (#37209) To: *storylines (#5236) Subject: Bait Roscoe lowered his airship as he circled the rubble of the old city, looking for any signs of change. He spotted the place several months ago, keeping his eye on it from time to time. It seemed ripe for the pickings, ready for the next step of investigation. No signs of life. No changes in the ruins. Probablility high that no one else had retrieved the treasures here. He circled tighter around a flat cleared area, bringing The Seeker in for a landing. Yes. This would do. Now... to find out if there were people close by... no signs of organized groups so far. Slave labor at the old sites was dwindling. They would need fresh muscle to begin another project. Then, there was always the possibility of finding enough civilization for trading. A button pressed, the static of comm, "Seeker to Base. Phase II in place." He unlatched the harness and stretched as he stood, "First a good stiff drink." He moved towards the small galley, "Now it gets interesting." --------------------------