![[ CLOSED♥ ] NOVUS rpg](https://novus-rpg.net/images/logo.png "[ CLOSED♥ ] NOVUS rpg"){kind=logo}
+- [ CLOSED♥ ] NOVUS rpg (https://novus-rpg.net)
+-- Forum: Realms (https://novus-rpg.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=5)
+--- Forum: Delumine (https://novus-rpg.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=7)
+---- Forum: Archives (https://novus-rpg.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=92)
+---- Thread: [P] be my lantern [race] (/showthread.php?tid=5745)
be my lantern [race] - Elliana - 11-01-2020
The night is as calm and alive and fierce as ever.
Do not race the fire, her mother had told her. She watches them all gather around the flames. She has not seen her mother since she let her go into the forest with the other children to collect pieces to throw into the fires. That feels like ages ago. It was before the forest, before the man, before the embers.
Do not race the fire, her mother had told her. And so she does not race, she walks with a quiet grace that can only be a gift from her mother, but the way she seems to roll herself through the shadows, so unafraid, so bold, that is from the father she has met but does not know. She calls him Dall for his eyes covered in bandages. She will paint him she thinks, when the morning comes and she wakes from her bed. She will paint the eyes underneath it before covering it with bandages. She will paint the moon on his shoulder and think nothing of her own marking from Caligo.
Do not race the fire, her mother had told her. She moves to where they all line up, the fires set ablaze in a path as if just made for her and her alone, and suddenly her world grows small. The smoke comes and it covers her eyes and she pretends that this is what it is like to be that man with the bandages on his eyes, over his eyes. She thinks she can beat the smoke, she move past it and see once more, and maybe one day he can too, out run his own smoke made of bandages and blindness.
Do not race the fire, her mother had told her.
But she said nothing of racing the smoke.
Elliana
@Official Dawn Account
RE: be my lantern [race] - Official Dawn Account - 11-01-2020
And through it all the song keeps weaving, in lilting tones that rise and fall with the flames. It’s captivating — and as you stare into the flames a thousand colors begin to leap within them. Reds and golds, violets and greens, blues and silvers, all of them twist together like plaits of a many-stranded braid. The air is thick with the smoke and incense curling around you, drawing you in deeper and deeper. As the tempo speeds up, you see a figure parting the smoke like waves.
The horse that stands in front of those who have lined up to start the race is the color of soot, with eyes that burn as brightly as the fires. Strange runes are painted (or are they scarred?) down their sides, shimmering as the light falls upon them. The stranger does not smile, nor speak — they only stare at you with their fiery eyes. There is nothing gentle about the look they give you, or about the way they seem to look through you instead of at you.
With a curt nod of his head, the music abruptly stops. The bonfires shiver in golden tones on either side, and the line of horses readies themselves.
A single cry marks the start of the race.
Every horse leaps forward as one through the smoke, and you with them.
The beginning of the race is a flat stretch, with each struggling to gain the lead. A row of fires lights the way, but perhaps the way they close in around you and block your path is cause for alarm. Or maybe you are one of those vying for first position, and do not notice the way the smoke grows thicker, and darker, and heavier, like something more than wood is burning, going into the first turn.
And yet directly ahead of you a new fire waits, like a hedge of flames waiting to be jumped. The fires reach hungrily for the air, for you, and something — perhaps it is instinct, or fear — tells you it will not be so simple. On either side of the fire is a path leading around, a slender space big enough for one to pass through at a time. Against the brightness of the fires, the darkness of the path on the right makes it impossible to see what lies in wait.
But to the left, there is a spark glowing red and hot.
To continue the race, you must reply to this thread with your character's choice. There is no word limit, and you can be as creative with the prompt as you'd like! The first obstacle features a fiery hedge that your character must decide to jump through or run around. The race splits here, and their decision here will influence the rest of the event for them.
Choices: run through the fire, take the right path, or take the left path.
@
RE: be my lantern [race] - Elliana - 11-02-2020
Days from now, her mother will catch her walking precariously close to the ledges of their cliff side home. Elena will stop her and pull her back asking why did she keep walking and just what she was thinking. Elli will tell her she was pretending she was blind, like the man she meant. (Elli remember later that he was not a man, but. Monk, but something told her not to tell her mother of this realization.) He will say she wondered what it must be like not to see. So she shut her eyes and she—
She feels exhilarated amongst all the race participants, all these others who are here to run and sprint. She is no empath, but Elliana does not need to be to know those who are lined up are not like her, they are here to win, to cross the finish line before all the others.
And she is Elliana—and she will let them, because she knows how there are such more important things. When those that whisper come to her, they never speak of their races. And this is how Elliana knows.
The smoke grows and she smells a summer evening in Denocte that she had never been witness to and has heard no stories about if only because her mother can never tell them to her.
She watches the fire grow and change and Elli finally understands the phrase she once heard ‘moth to a flame,’ and she thinks the moth not foolish, but brave and wild and adventurous. (Maybe she is a moth too, she feels like one here and now.)
Someone comes in front of her with eyes of fire, and Elli thinks he too must be a moth, a moth that got too close to the flames, and she cannot blame him for such a thing.
Music.
Silence.
A scream.
It is one she has heard before, in the night, in the shadows. So busy is Elli with the scream in her head that when everyone leaps forward, she stays ground before she too strikes off with a shake of her young head. She runs with the rest of them, dazzled by the spectacle. The smoke grows thicker and so too does the shadows—but she is the daughter of one so she does to shy away, but embraces them.
That is before a wall of flames find her. Do not race the fire, her mother had told her, and she veers to the right, into a space just large enough for a little girl who is not blind, but imagines what it must be like, to fit through.
Elliana
@Official Dawn Account
RE: be my lantern [race] - Official Dawn Account - 11-02-2020
And oh! perhaps the rumors were right about the fires and their blessings, because as you run past the flames you are plunged into a darkness so deep, and so profound, it begins to feel as if you’re running through the night sky itself.
But in this night sky, all the fallen stars are frozen poppies that lie beneath you.
You can feel them stirring beneath your hooves as you run, lifting their drowsy heads and blinking the sleep from their tired eyes. And slowly, so slowly, they begin to glow like bits of fire trapped in the shape of a flower. Soon the field of darkness is turned into a field of flame-flowers, that press in hungrily around your ankles. Their petals sear your skin as you fly past them, each one hotter than the last, prompting you to run faster, faster, faster through their midst —
And then the tear of teeth against your leg shock through any thoughts you may have had.
With the first drop of blood falling on them like rain, the rest of the poppies roar like so many beasts coming awake from a hunger-coma. Before you know it the very ground upon which you run is rolling and trembling like so many snakes writhing beneath your hooves. And poppy after lifts itself up on a long and trembling stalk to lay their teeth against you again and again and again.
Their teeth are not long, and the cuts (if they make any) are not deep — but there is no shortage of poppies ready to devour you whole.
But with all of them now glowing like hunger given form, perhaps you can see now that they do not go on forever. They form a pathway along which you run, and to either side the darkness hemming you in fades gently back into light. As more and more poppies rise up against you, the temptation to cut across grows greater.
Or perhaps you do not even see this second option, and only double your speed as you rush towards the end of the race.
To continue the race, you must reply to this thread with your character's choice. There is no word limit, and you can be as creative with the prompt as you'd like! You reach a field of poppies that are unlike any other. Their fiery glow matches their growing hunger for blood as they nip at your heels. If it's too painful, you might be able to get around them or endure the pain a little longer to reach the other side.
Choices: cut across to the other side, or continue straight through
@
RE: be my lantern [race] - Elliana - 11-03-2020
The smell of vanilla and sandalwood perhaps would mean more to her mother than it does to her. Elli is not old enough to be reminiscent, and is so the case with the young. She is far too busy in the here and now, and thinking of adventures ahead. She skids by the flames as they reach out to grab her as if they were angry with her escape. Her lungs tighten inside her chest for a moment, her heart coils, but as she dives into the darkness, all she can feel is relief.
Then she is no longer running on shadows, but on stars. No, not stars—flowers. Blue eyes dar downwards to where her her feet come to rest and rise as she continues to skip across the ground, the heat of the fire is nearly forgotten in the brightness of this new adventure. This is when she feels them stirring beneath her feet and she slows to a trot, unsure of what sort of magic this is. (She has had so many dreams where the dead’s voices reach out of the darkness to grab her and she wonders if they are coming true.)
The fire returns, inside the forms of flowers. Elliana thinks of her mother and wonders if this is what she dreams about. A field of both flowers and fires. She wonders if this is why sometimes she wakes up with tears in her blue eyes.
And they grab her, they try to burn her, Elli lets out a startled scream before pressed onwards, trying to outrun whatever flames flitter against her skin. She runs now, moving fast, she this this must be how the fire walkers feel when they step across flames.
She knows she is bleeding, Elli does not have to look to see the blood, she can feel it, read flashes across her vision as she feels them press around her. She thinks of Aeneas, his wings, and she wants to fly away. She hopes for a half of a heart beat that he would appear to carry her away. They build a wall in front of her and all she sees is fire. So she takes a giant leap and dashes across to the other side.
Elliana
@Official Dawn Account
RE: be my lantern [race] - Official Dawn Account - 11-03-2020
Perhaps now you think the flames appear malevolent, laughing and licking their teeth as the first drop of blood — your blood — sizzles in the flames.
Or maybe you see the whisper racing along ahead of you still, the promise of the finish line, of victory, of relief. Maybe you see now that you are alone, and you wonder if they have fallen to the flowers or disappeared within the flames. If you pause to pity them, it is only to remind yourself that you were made for more than this.
And so you continue through the midst of them, bold and powerful as a wildfire —
oh!
The way before you is clear when you finally make your way free of the poppies, pairs of bonfires lighting each step you take. The colorful lights of the finish line is just ahead of you, the distance closing with every stride. With every step, you are just a little bit closer
And with every step, you are just a little bit slower.
The poppy poison travels quickly, weighing down your limbs as though they have been filled with lead. And perhaps you can feel the toll they take on your mind, the way visions flicker in the corners of your eyes and voices that are not there surround you. Perhaps you can feel the way your heart stutters, and burns, and starts to panic. Perhaps you have stopped thinking entirely, and feel only the way the world begins to grow dim.
To conclude the race, you must post a closer. There is no word limit, and you can be as creative with the prompt as you'd like! A bold decision, to run through the middle of the hungry poppies -- and perhaps your character is beginning to regret their choice now, as the poison settles into their veins. The effects of this poison are up to you -- they can slow your character down, cause hallucinations, or otherwise distort the world around them!
You are free to write your character crossing the finish line in this post, or you can simply write them reacting to the poison. Once all the race threads are completed, a dice will be rolled to determine the winner and the results will be posted in each race thread.
Thank you for your participation, and good luck! We hope you enjoyed the event!
@
RE: be my lantern [race] - Elliana - 11-15-2020
They move and dance, she should be frightened, but she cannot be when there is magic exploding and writhing at her very feet. She is like fire, growing and running brazen in a field. Wild fire, deadly and dangerous. She has never thought of herself as such things before.
And then she is away from the danger and once more she is Elliana and her mouth is full of laughter, and a smile grows on her face. And the race is set before her, and she runs, she runs, she runs. The fires grow hotter, larger, she thinks, it does not quite burn her skin, but she wonders if this is what an ember feels like, buried beneath ashes, but still burning bright.
Lights erupt before her eyes, different from the flames, they are not so hot and challenging, but warm and welcoming. Those young legs rush forward, a leap erupts from her small body, as if in celebration, maybe not for winning, but for the sheer delight to be alive, as alive as fire and flames.
And suddenly, she feels the weight of her body and her eyes grow heavy, lids beginning to close. And suddenly she is flying. Flying high above the race, above it all. She thinks of Aeneas, looks over her shoulder with blue eyes, expecting to find him there, but there is nothing, only smoke.
Her mother finds her, after the race is over, sitting amongst the bonfires, her eyes closed. “I don’t wanna land, I don’t wanna land, I don’t wanna land,” she repeats over and over.
And in her mind, in her dream, in her vision, she floats up and up and up.
Elliana
@Official Dawn Account
RE: be my lantern [race] - Official Dawn Account - 12-09-2020
Many of the horses around you are beginning to crackle apart, one by one, like logs splitting in the flames. And perhaps only now do you realize that it was not the other race participants running beside you — it was the fire. The smoke washes over you in waves of cinnamon and frankincense, it wraps around you like a shield. Perhaps, just perhaps, you begin to understand the whispers of protection that had swam through the crowds all night.
These visions will stay with you for some time to come. You might dream of the things you saw in the flames, or maybe it will come to you during times of quiet reflection. An aura will seem to settle over you like a halo, like there was magic after all in the flames that is slow to wear off. All around you can see the way the flames flash on their own like they’re trying to tell you something, reaching out like they cannot bear to be apart.
And you —
you are not the first to cross the finish line, but all the meadow, all the fires, all the dancing flames seem to sing your praises when still you stand a victor of the fire race.
Aspara has won the race, and it is up to you to decide how your character finishes/whether the effects from any of these REs stays with them! This is just a final RE to tie up the last of the races. ♡ Again thank you so much for your participation, and we hope you enjoyed this event!
Replying to this prompt is optional.
@