a stone of ruin, from burn to chill
It began with a tremble deep below the dark waves.
The whales took themselves to distant coasts at the first moaning ache of the ocean bed. Sharks feasted on the schools of fish swimming in frantic patterns where the currents met their fins with unusual violence. The sea descended into anarchy at the first shift of the coral reef. Order became disorder, predators and prey shifted their values. All anything in the ocean wanted to do was survive.
The shores were the next to tremble. Waves crashed into the sand with abandon. Each granule of sand shifted like fine sugar, too thick to float away like flour. Dune grasses quivered in a wind that wasn’t born from any direction but under. Crabs scurried towards the mountains and sand swallows made their nests in desert limestone and mountain peaks. Seagulls swept down upon the courts, roosting like bats in any dark and high corner in which they could fit.
All the bones of Novus shivered and the wilds grew cold with dread.
Soon there was no hiding the way all the joints of the world ached, or the way the sky started to look darker in a line across the southern horizon. It hardly took anytime at all for everyone to know the volcano was overflowing with electric heat and acid. Horses started to gather on the southern shore, sure that the island was further out to sea than it seemed. They were sure nothing could harm them when there was sand beneath their hooves and sun on their backs.
Pillars of smoke started to rise from the distant island. Embers started to dance on the wind like locusts from the underland, red as fire and as wild on the winds as a million starving hawks. The island groaned and it sounded, to the horses on the shore, like the earth was waking up. Teeth of rock were cracking wide and blood of salt was flowing. That distant island was becoming, although no one could say what it was becoming.
No one could even remember when that distant island rose from the sea like a leviathan of the black waters. Each horse told the one beside it a different story, and each horse beside a horse told another horse a different one.
“I saw it rise as I sailed the Terminus.” A bay stallion told a purple mare. His wings shifted like flies at his side. She thought that flies would know the truth of that island in a way horses never would.
“There was a storm a month ago. I think the sea swallowed it and made that distant peak with the energy left behind from lightning.” A unicorn looked at foal and its mother. The unicorn smiled but it was a sad smile. It was sad in the way that fear is always a little full of sorrow even when it’s terrible.
“That is no island. The peak is a monster. It has come for us all to leech all the hate and violence from our blood like a plague leeches out weakness.” No one wanted to look at the old mare who told that story. No one wanted to know that it was their own black hearts that rose that distant volcano from the bottom of the sea to be an altar for their sins.
In the end though all the stories didn’t matter, because the volcano was erupting. The earth was weeping out her sorrows in the most violent way. It didn’t matter because soon the horizon rose like a black wave to swallow up the setting sun.
And if the stars came, there was no one on the shore who could have told night from day.
The whales took themselves to distant coasts at the first moaning ache of the ocean bed. Sharks feasted on the schools of fish swimming in frantic patterns where the currents met their fins with unusual violence. The sea descended into anarchy at the first shift of the coral reef. Order became disorder, predators and prey shifted their values. All anything in the ocean wanted to do was survive.
The shores were the next to tremble. Waves crashed into the sand with abandon. Each granule of sand shifted like fine sugar, too thick to float away like flour. Dune grasses quivered in a wind that wasn’t born from any direction but under. Crabs scurried towards the mountains and sand swallows made their nests in desert limestone and mountain peaks. Seagulls swept down upon the courts, roosting like bats in any dark and high corner in which they could fit.
All the bones of Novus shivered and the wilds grew cold with dread.
Soon there was no hiding the way all the joints of the world ached, or the way the sky started to look darker in a line across the southern horizon. It hardly took anytime at all for everyone to know the volcano was overflowing with electric heat and acid. Horses started to gather on the southern shore, sure that the island was further out to sea than it seemed. They were sure nothing could harm them when there was sand beneath their hooves and sun on their backs.
Pillars of smoke started to rise from the distant island. Embers started to dance on the wind like locusts from the underland, red as fire and as wild on the winds as a million starving hawks. The island groaned and it sounded, to the horses on the shore, like the earth was waking up. Teeth of rock were cracking wide and blood of salt was flowing. That distant island was becoming, although no one could say what it was becoming.
No one could even remember when that distant island rose from the sea like a leviathan of the black waters. Each horse told the one beside it a different story, and each horse beside a horse told another horse a different one.
“I saw it rise as I sailed the Terminus.” A bay stallion told a purple mare. His wings shifted like flies at his side. She thought that flies would know the truth of that island in a way horses never would.
“There was a storm a month ago. I think the sea swallowed it and made that distant peak with the energy left behind from lightning.” A unicorn looked at foal and its mother. The unicorn smiled but it was a sad smile. It was sad in the way that fear is always a little full of sorrow even when it’s terrible.
“That is no island. The peak is a monster. It has come for us all to leech all the hate and violence from our blood like a plague leeches out weakness.” No one wanted to look at the old mare who told that story. No one wanted to know that it was their own black hearts that rose that distant volcano from the bottom of the sea to be an altar for their sins.
In the end though all the stories didn’t matter, because the volcano was erupting. The earth was weeping out her sorrows in the most violent way. It didn’t matter because soon the horizon rose like a black wave to swallow up the setting sun.
And if the stars came, there was no one on the shore who could have told night from day.
How to Participate!
There is an island far out to sea that is just visible along the horizon. Upon that island is a volcano that has started to erupt. Smoke is rising up into the sky. Soon daytime over the sea looks like a black and moonless night. The ocean waves are crashing against the shore and each one is larger than the last. The sand is shaking finely and an army of crabs is marching across the shore to higher ground.
Horses are already gathering and they are all wondering if disaster is striking Novus once more. Surely, most of them think, the island is too far out to sea to bring chaos to courts. But deep in their hearts they know that their world is changing once more.
A NOTE: The island is too dangerous to travel too. Even with wings-- the sky is full of ash, smoke and fire. Trying to venture to the actual island itself is almost certain death. This event takes place strictly on the shorelines of Novus.
Each character may reply to this post only one time. Rolls will be done and a staff edit will be posted at the end of each reply with Random Event results. You are more than welcome, and encouraged, to branch off into individual threads to interact with other characters. You may respond to the characters before you or your reply could be set at a different moment in time (this is totally up to you). This event will last for several days IC time.
If you reply to this thread, it gives you +1 post in an SWP.
All replies after May 17th, 2019 will not be considered for a RE roll.
Possible rolls and their rewards are as follows.
1 : 10 signos
2: 20 signos
3: 40 signos
4: 80 signos
5: 100 signos
6: 120 signos
There is an island far out to sea that is just visible along the horizon. Upon that island is a volcano that has started to erupt. Smoke is rising up into the sky. Soon daytime over the sea looks like a black and moonless night. The ocean waves are crashing against the shore and each one is larger than the last. The sand is shaking finely and an army of crabs is marching across the shore to higher ground.
Horses are already gathering and they are all wondering if disaster is striking Novus once more. Surely, most of them think, the island is too far out to sea to bring chaos to courts. But deep in their hearts they know that their world is changing once more.
A NOTE: The island is too dangerous to travel too. Even with wings-- the sky is full of ash, smoke and fire. Trying to venture to the actual island itself is almost certain death. This event takes place strictly on the shorelines of Novus.
Each character may reply to this post only one time. Rolls will be done and a staff edit will be posted at the end of each reply with Random Event results. You are more than welcome, and encouraged, to branch off into individual threads to interact with other characters. You may respond to the characters before you or your reply could be set at a different moment in time (this is totally up to you). This event will last for several days IC time.
If you reply to this thread, it gives you +1 post in an SWP.
All replies after May 17th, 2019 will not be considered for a RE roll.
Possible rolls and their rewards are as follows.
1 : 10 signos
2: 20 signos
3: 40 signos
4: 80 signos
5: 100 signos
6: 120 signos
Please be advised, tagging the Random Event account does not guarantee a response!
