The Portal Burn Card - Printable Version +- the Rift (http://riftrpg.net) +-- Forum: Archives (http://riftrpg.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=20) +--- Forum: Year 1174 (http://riftrpg.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=63) +---- Forum: Completed (http://riftrpg.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=64) +---- Thread: The Portal Burn Card (/showthread.php?tid=726) Pages:
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Burn Card - Otem - 12-10-2017
RE: Burn Card - Raein - 12-11-2017 I wished impossible things on blue stars that never came true There are few things in the world quite as beautiful as youth.
At first, the world is shining brightly. Every petal on every flower, every leaf upon every tree, every hair on every living creature - all of it shines with the wonderment of discovery. The sensation of newness pours loose from every crevice of the world, filling your mind and lifting your heart until it soars. Just as youth is full of discovery, though, it is also filled with sharp pain. You begin the world new, open and ready to discover what it has to offer, only to discover quite abruptly not everything is joyous and shining. You remember your first heartbreak in excruciating detail. You remember your first real injury so well you can still see the scars long after it's healed. You remember the first rush of disappointment when something - or someone - fails to meet your expectations. Each blow hardens your heart, slowly turning it to stone or encasing it with ice. Anything to drown out the pain that comes with living. Supposedly, there is a way to return your heart to the same naive beauty that youth has, but I do not know how. At least, not anymore. As my teal eyes fall upon the earthen maiden, they linger longingly on the plumage of her wings, noting briefly the avian companion sitting upon her shoulder beside them. I want to ask her to raise them high, as high as she can, and take flight, but not a sound escapes my lips. I stare at her half-grown, half-child image with a solemn expression instead, allowing the envy to flow through my veins freely. Ah, how wonderful it would be to return to a day when I was so young. The impossible is almost always what we desire the most in the world. I'm tired. My ears catch her voice, breathed into the air with a weariness defying her apparent youth. I wonder how the world has already managed to tear apart the heart of this young lady. Perhaps, I should count myself blessed for the years of sweet, ignorant bliss. "Are you going to give up, then?" I ask, a question often reserved for myself in times of difficulty. When I wanted nothing more than to shrug off the mantle I wore through life, I would stir forth some sort of stubborn resistance through the simple question. I doubt she will respond the same way. Yet, most young people are strangely similar and stubborn. Maybe, it is what she needed to hear. "Would that be easier?" RAEIN.
RE: Burn Card - Otem - 12-11-2017
RE: Burn Card - Raein - 12-11-2017 I wished impossible things on blue stars that never came true A voice.
It's sounds far too mature to belong to this girl, this half-grown woman before me. My ears flicker uncertainly, eyes warily scanning the area for the outline of another. Had I been so mesmerized by the fall toned girl and her plush wings, the thoughts of youth, and the apparent agony of her mind that I lacked my normal caution? But there is no one else here, at least in the immediate area. No explanation for the studious voice. Then I see it. A necklace, odd in shape, seems to joustle with a voice resonating from it. Now, I am already growing more accustomed to weird things since arriving here in the Rift, but this is just fucking creepy. Was the necklace possessed by some disembodied voice? Whose voice? The shock of it renders my ability to listen to the words null. I have to struggle to capture the syllables in the recesses of my mind before the shoot away, into the abyss of forgotten sounds and sights. The girl seems to have halted to listen to, and I almost feel as though the necklace had scolded us both as a mother might have foolish children. I smirk. It does that sometimes. As if that explained the strange phenomenon. I do not pry for more answers, though, and instead just watch as the young girl turns to face me. Her warm eyes might have sought familiarity in my figure but clearly found none. I already know that I have been torn from my world into another, so I seek no one familiar. Even if this place sat in the same universe as my home, would I even bother to look for my kin? Her gaze drops from my own, as her words trail off into silence. "Aye," I nod my head knowingly, for I also never could give up. I shouldered my pain, the grief and guilt of my father, and the loneliness boring a pit into my heart through the years until I could no longer feel the weight on my body. I never managed to let it go, though, so like a phantom, it followed me from place to place, and I ran like a scared child from it. "Would something await you, if you could return?" I ask, genuinely curious if she had something tangible in the past. Nothing positive awaited me back home, so I ceased wanting to return to my world. I dealt with this strange, broken universe because the monsters here were not half as awful as those awaiting me back home. "" RAEIN.
RE: Burn Card - Otem - 12-11-2017
RE: Burn Card - Raein - 12-11-2017 I wished impossible things on blue stars that never came true Honesty is a natural feature of youth, as well. Some may believe only fools speak the truth so freely, but I find her uncertainty charming. How long had it been since someone spoke with such genuine apprehension? So many spoke only to bolster themselves in your eyes, and even that was only to garner your strengths for their own use.
Since leaving my seclusion, I had become rather adept at reading the intentions and hearts of others; however, it is no magical power or sight. I am just observant. This girl, this half-grown goddess of auburn and gold tones, is clearly lost in her painful ride through youth, and now I know why. I just can't imagine an entire world just disappearing. So, she is one of the Helovians that Roscorro had mistaken me for. I remember his brief description of what occurred - the Rift had devoured her world. I said it then that this world must be terribly violent and awful, but I cannot imagine what her own eyes had witnessed, what her ears heard, what sort of madness ensued when the fabric of the earth was torn asunder by the ravenous roots of this one. At least now I understood what had caused her heart to rupture. The previously studious voice in her necklace sounds more like an unpleasant shrew now, and it shocks me out of my silent musings. My eyes are wide, revealing that it was quite the shock to my system, but the girl's eyes are closed, as if she is swallowing some sort of anger before it can escape into the air toward that nagging necklace. I nod, accepting her forced humor and explanation, watching as she starts to awkwardly pick up our conversation where it had been interrupted. She seems nervous, but I am clueless as to why. I had been fully grown before being thrust into society, so while I am fairly adept at reading others, I fail to understand things remotely related to romance. Women were just other beings to me, with no special purpose. I missed out entirely on the dreamy illusions of love in my youth. Now, in adulthood, I simply deny the existence of such a gentle feeling. "You should not wish the impossible, then," I say, my voice austere, perhaps even coming off as cold. My expression does little to weigh in any other direction, since my face always tends to look morose at best. However, my advice stems from my own experiences with the world. It is not meant to make her feel foolish or sound harsh. I simply learned the lesson long ago. Hope only leads to disappointment when you squander it on the impossible. "Your world is gone, but you can still make this one your home." "" RAEIN.
RE: Burn Card - Otem - 12-12-2017
RE: Burn Card - Raein - 12-13-2017 I wished impossible things on blue stars that never came true Seeing is believing, I guess.
I understand the feeling of wanting to confront reality with your eyes, so I offer a solemn nod in response to her hurried justification. I am not here to judge her, belittle her, or make her feel the fool. I am truthfully uncertain why I am even here, having this conversation. I know why I lingered at first around this young maiden, melancholy and alone in the woods, but now, I can no longer justify my presence - much less my unsolicited advice. I guess there comes a time in life when we must accept certain flaws about ourselves. Apparently, my flaw is that I have a tendency to lecture youths about life in the middle of forests, whether or not they wanted me to. So you live here then? I pause at the question, for I am really not certain if my existence in the Rift thus far can be considered living. "As much as you, I suppose," my answer is honest, much the same as her own have been. I think we are past the point of where I need to play with pleasantries and falsehoods. The shuffle upon the girl's shoulders shakes my attention for a moment to the ruffling owl, apparently displeased with standing in one place for too long. I wonder about the creature, for back home we had no such companionship with the fauna native to the forests. Having an owl as a pet is hardly the strangest thing I have encountered thus far, though, so my gaze returns to the girl's face as she speaks. She is seeking answers I am not sure I can provide. For all my lecturing, I am still new to the area and know very little to offer in the way of our shared home. So, I take a deep breath, considering how to best deliver the rather disappointing news that the land felt largely empty to the lost child before me. "The natives do not seem particularly welcoming or helpful," I say, thinking back to the detached nature of Watcher, who I met not far from where we stood now. "Much of the land seems to be vacant, and rarely do you meet with anyone else. No one seems to have any particular authority over anyone else." "I have a lot of experience being alone, though. Personally, I much prefer the peace not having a herd or several to fight with over power," I take a pause to look her over. "If you seek a herd, why not gather others together and carve out your own?" "Not sure what stopped you Helovians from sticking together and doing just that. You must be a rather dimwitted lot." "" RAEIN.
RE: Burn Card - Otem - 12-13-2017
RE: Burn Card - Raein - 12-13-2017 I wished impossible things on blue stars that never came true His magic was activated by blood.
Magic. I resist the urge to laugh at something which sounded so ridiculous. Magic was a fairytale sung to children in order to send them to bed, to fill their heads with hope and wonder. Never before had I witnessed something such as magic, at least not to my knowledge. I think back to K'yarie's swirling, dancing coat. Maybe the young girl wasn't crazy and such a thing existed. It would tie together her possessed necklace in a neat little package, for sure. Besides, we had no reason to lie to each other. I decide to believe the impossible, which is unusual, if you know the slightest thing about me. The next bit of the puzzle I hardly have time to consider, because the small chirp of a laugh dances across her lips before she falls silent. I guess she realized I am serious. She claims to be too young, yet here she stands, alone in a haunted forest with nothing but an owl and a stranger for company. However, the bauble within her mane agrees with her, a snide insult floating into the air and falling into the space between us, clearly shaking her confidence. I wonder who would have so much influence over the young girl, but I think I already know. Her mother. It explains the similarity in their voices and the failed attempts of the adolescent to copy the studious tone. Ah, parents could really be a pain in the ass. I watch as she shuffles her wing to try to stuff the necklace further into her mane. Her explanation begins, as to why no herds exist, as if it really explained to me. Kisamoa, I think back to the shadowy figure in Solanis and inwardly cringe. He didn't really say what to do. I smile, though it is hardly an expression of joy, but simply affirmation of my former thought. Helovians sound like a hopeless bunch of morons. Oh, well. So is most everyone I've met. "So, your people did not form herds because some disfigured vagabond never told them to?" I look at her with something resembling amusement in my eyes. I nod, to myself, before clearing my throat and looking out over the forest; neon lights and a million eyes dance in the distance. They are still rather unnerving. "The beauty in having your world destroyed is that you have a chance to start over, to do with your new life and home whatever you wish," I say, sorely needing to take my own advice. If anyone holds too tightly onto the past, it is myself. I disappeared into someone else's position, someone else's life for years. Ah, but how difficult it is to view yourself from an objective stance. "You may be young and stupid, but if you have the motivation, you can gather the crumbling pieces of your Helovia and make a home. What are your other options?" I ask, looking back at her with firm, teal eyes. "Wait for someone to give you permission to live how you want? Wait for someone else to take initiative? Continue living like you have?" "Find others you can rely on, if you need help, but someone has to take the first step. Better you than no one." RAEIN.
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