Open Following the Rainbow

[Jilitse]

Timestamp: Early Winter 512 AV
Location: In Front of Matilda's Jewels

Read me. :

Please check this post before jumping in.

It was early morning and Jilitse had just parted with Terla after a small chat about Ionu's Stars. It seemed that a lot of Alvads were really into catching the colorful orbs, almost like it was a festival celebration. Even early into the season, a number of houses and buildings have already put up their decor, simple strings of light curtained roofs and windows. Most were plain and dim, but nonetheless pretty. Occasionally, one would see bright, colorful, and festive lights, the mark of a few days worth of harvesting the beads.

Snow fell gently today, layering the city with thin sheets of ice. The sun's existence hinted in the horizon, though hidden behind clouds. Dressed in a simple green dress, the Nuit sashayed eeriely, a cart in tow. The manner by which she pulled her things was unnatural, there was a deliberate cautiousness that was too awkward to miss. It was getting really cold now and her blue cloak did little to shield her from the chill.

Jilitse had done a little shopping, judging by the satchel that lay in the cart. It was restocking day for Mekaniks and Golams. Terla specifically pointed Jil to Matilda's today. Ionu's stars have found their way into Alvadas' jewelry. No better place to see what could be made out of the glowing orbs. She made a side trip to Matilda's for a few trinkets, when it came to fine wire and malleable metal for small tools gadgeteering wasn't too far off with jewelry making. As Terla had taught her, things made from Ionu's stars fetched a higher price. Even the dull ones tend to reach twice, thrice their normal selling value.

After a short chat with Matilda, Jilitse bought a number of bracelets, more for the sake of friendly connection with a fellow shop owner than the want or need for the items. She left the shop bearing a mysterious smile. The Nuit mage was going to devote the rest of her day catching herself some of those stars. She could make glowing wires, she could make gems. It was going to be easy, the trees were everywhere, the orbs flying all around town. It was going to be a boring and repetitive task and it's right up her alley.

And so she pulled her cart, taking sliding dainty steps. The road twisted so that it looked like the path curved side wards and then went on into a vertical loop for a good stretch. Everyone was leery, though there were those magnetized by the glowing lights of Ionu's stars in the far off distance. There were plenty to behold, all sorts of colors and brightness. But was it worth the risk to walk into the topsy-turvy road?

The Nuit paused and took in the scene in front of her. Snow was falling upwards, but down was up and up was down, at least in her point of view. She took comfort in seeing a few citizens enjoy their being upside down. With a quick glance to the people willing to flip themselves, she sauntered forward with the intent to get a jar of two of star stuff.

Ledger: 50 plain copper bracelets for 50 sm.

[Kuvarakh]

Kuvarakh was glad that Wanda had agreed with him. Not that it isn't always better to have your boss agree with you, but it meant that she too was intrigued at the thought of what could be done with these new beads. Running the only alchemy shop in town, Alchemmia Alchae, she and Kuvarakh had numerous ideas about how to employ the colorful orbs in alchemical applications. And now, he had gotten permission to gather up as many of the agile little motes of color as he could. What a way to spend a morning! He could see that many people were simply taking them as they were, in their original condition, and stringing them as highlights to the lines of their homes or sewing them into their clothes. Some had discovered ways to use the mutability of these things to form small blocks of clay for sculpting or weavers getting them spun into thread and yarn for colorful clothing and accessories. Kuvarah and Wanda had something else in mind, but there was no telling how many of these little things it would take, or, for that matter, IF it would take. Playful and random as ever, Inou had apparently decided to add an additional twist to the scenery. Literally over and above the snow and star orbs, Kuvarakh came upon an entire stretch of a neighborhood turned upside down, the cobblestone street slithering up sideways to invert itself overhead, the snow rising, rather than falling. People were not defying the new take on "gravity", such as it was. Their feet were still staying against the road, their hats remaining on their heads, scarves hanging up along with their hair and hems. He came upon a woman gazing uncertainly at the road. She had her back to him and all he could see was the green dress and blue cloak. Had she not begun to step forward, he might have seen that she, too, was a Nuit. Always ready to initiate conversation, he spoke up, "I could tie a rope to you, in case you fall into the sky, if you'd like."

[Kassius Selacs]

Walking down the streets of Alvadas was an adventure on par with any Kass had ever gone on. Not that he'd gone on any adventures, but still. Somehow, though, he doubted any adventure ever undertaken was this... silly. The street was stretched out before him, snow dusted the streets, and Alvadians were, as usual, eying the streets carefully.

Upside down. The street, the entire city, in fact, seemed to curve around in defiance of gravity, logic, and common sense. So, just another day in the city of the batshyke insane, Kass thought wryly. People on both sides of the street seemed slightly nervous about walking upside down. Whichever way that was.

Stepping right up to where the street turned, he looked up. Above him hung a rather stiff looking pair. The man said something about tying a rope to secure the woman, and Kass snickered. "For all you know, the sky could be, let's say, over there" he remarked, pointing not up or down, but along the street. "We could all be flies on a wall and not know it. Who knows with this city."

Turning, he ran at the street, and leapt. He felt gravity redirect, and launched himself off what was now the floor, and twisted to land on his feet, his starting point now above his head. "Let us hope Ionu doesn't feel like weaving the entire city like thread into a rope. Who knows what chaos would ensure?"

The prospect was not entirely displeasing.

[Licearsvansan]

Faster, thin legs beat hard against cobblestone roads, Faster!, cold air snaked its way out a heaving chest Just a little more! Tendons stretched, muscles pulled, and a heart beat for all that it was worth. Svan must have been chasing it for a quarter of a bell by now, a small glowing red ball of light no bigger than a child's fist. The light weaved its way from tree to tree staying just out of reach in all but one occasion. That occasion was earlier in the day when it had smacked straight into Svan's face. The star hadn't hurt him physically in the slightest, but the insult of having allowed an Ionus star so close to his grasp without catching it wounded his pride more-so than he wished to admit. To reclaim his dignity Svan had run down more streets than he could count, and as consequence he had met with more than a fair share of brick, and cobblestone walls. However, it would be worth it soon enough. The star he was chasing was red bolt of light shooting down the street brighter than any he had chased before. Unfortunately, this meant it was also faster. When he first started chasing it, he had enough energy to catch up with it several times, only to have it swerve another direction causing him to try and adjust the direction of his sprint on the icy streets. A feat that often resulted in Svan's being reminded how hard those brick walls can be.

Now however, the cold air was biting at his throat, making each breath labored and painful. The blazing pain in his legs as his they tore against the road was only mercifully numbed by the cold winter air. The very same air that was literally beginning to freeze the cold-blooded dhani as he ran after his prize. Holding the rim of his cloak hood tightly to shield his face, and pulling the cloak closed with his other hand he thanked his goddess and himself that he had taken to dressing so heavily these days.

Eyes locked on the star, Svan watched as it drifted away from a tree and into the side of a small building. Perfect! Svan thought to himself, delighted at the irony of catching the star because it had hit itself against a wall. Svan quickly scanned the ground looking for any patches of ice that would trip him, or anything he could use to scale the building. He caught sight of a group of large boxes seemingly stacked hastily against a short nearby building. Slowing his run, he looked side to side to see how many would see his rather frowned upon use of others property. He found, much to his joy, that the street was eerily clear of any people. Without giving it a second thought, Svan dashed towards the boxes and scaled then with as much speed as his exhausted body could bare. Clawing his way onto the nearest roof he sprawled out and let out a victory sigh. A few short relaxed breaths were all it took to remind him of all the pain he had endured to catch the star.

"THE STAR!" he shouted in a raspy voice. He turned his head to the spot where the star had gotten caught to find that it had freed itself, and was now heading beyond the building. A moment of horror shot renewed strength to his body, and Svan pulled himself to his feet. The ball of light was only feet away now and almost within his grasp. He sprinted across the rooftop feet slamming against the stone. The star was only inches from his fingers now. Chasing it he jumped to a roof slightly below to find that it had cobblestone shingles. The shingles loosened and fell the moment he stepped on them. The suddenness of it made him fall to his knees and hands as he slid down the roof. Looking up he noticed that he was sliding in the direction of the star, and doing the best that he could, he braced himself against the sliding shingles. As he reached the edge of the roof he shoved away any regard for personal safety, and he pushed himself with all the force he had left out into the air towards the star. A hungry hand reached out to take the star. Eager to end the long chase he had endure, but as did he so, Svan began to realize a fear he never knew he had.

Falling up.

Now mind you, this wasn't because he had never believed he would be afraid of such a thing, but rather he had never taken the time of day to consider such a thing possible. It wasn't any normal fear like one of spiders or the dark. It was one of those rare strange fears that few are aware they even have. In most cases a person would go there entire life without learning such a thing could scare them, but Svan? He wasn't so fortunate. For a few brief moments of his life the fear of drifting off into the endless sky, never to return, was the reality he faced. And while he would later tell other of the moment his world literally turned upside down, he would take special care to leave out the part where he let out a short dry scream a few notes higher than he knew his voice could go.

Luckily the world had not simply grown tired of him and cast him out into space. Instead, as he looked up towards the road he was ascending to, he realized two things. One, that he was not ascending, but falling to the ground above. And two, the reason no one was in the previous road was because they were all busy staring at the upside down city. The buildings he had scaled and his own blind focus on the star was the only reason he himself had missed the obvious anomaly. Svan cursed at his own ignorance, and did all he could to adjust his body to the fall. As he hit the ground it made a resounding thud. Gathering his wits he realized that while heavily bruised, and scraped, he wasn't broken. Honestly the fall had been shorter than expected, partly due to having jumped from the height of a small building, and in the end the greatest injury he sustained was in having jammed his left arm trying to brace himself. Somewhat dazed from the recent turn of events Svan counted himself lucky to be alive, and dizzily looked up to see the reversed street. The very first thing he saw was a blond haired.....man a few good paces in front of him. Svan, staring the man in the eyes, raised up his right hand. Firmly in his grasp lay the bright red star. Slowly a pained but confident smile crept across his face, "I caught it."

OOCJust in case you are wondering why I put Svan through so much pain, its for numerous reasons, but mainly because he currently has no acrobatic or running skill to help him properly preform the things he tries...il try to keep posts a lil shorter next time.

[Sinoa]

When sinoa had woken up from his new bed he was prepared to do work all day as a street performer. After he finished his daily meal of clay he walked out the door to see the amazing sceptical before him and he quickly forgot his plan. He looked at all the colourful glowing decoration hanging from the houses, and was almost hypnotized by their beauty. the fluffy specs that were falling from the sky where also a strange and wonderful sight for Sinoa. Sinoa had only been two months old when the last winter had happened and he spent the entire time in his pyve with his family.
He walked a bit out of his house and noticed the ice along the brick street, something about winter he actually did remember. His pyve being located at the bottom of an abandoned well he was aware what happened to water when it froze. Ice was one of the reason his current form had 6 legs, because it was harder to slip the more legs you had. He was still careful not to slip and held out his arms and fork like antenna while trying to refrain from moving to fast which was hard because of the excitement he was feeling.
Sinoa travelled the city looking at all the many ways people decorated their houses with the strange glowing orbs while avoiding being stepped on by the crowds of people.
Sinoa realized he should at least practice his flute while admiring the decorations and started playing his happy song. The happy tune drew the attention of a glowing orb that seemed to dance over top of sinoas head while he played. sinoa was far two occupied with sudden reverse of gravity that caused the snow to fall in reverse. This didn't seem too odd to sinoa and even thought it was the natural way of things only until he noticed that peoples scarves and hair were floating did he think something was a miss.
He noticed Kuvarakh at the end of the street talking to a human women so he made his way in the direction of his friend, the glowing orb decided to tag along.

[Jilitse]

Jilitse turned her head to meet the voice who offered help and met with Kuvarakh's eyes. "Thank you for the offer, but I must decline. It would not be good for my person." She smiled thinly. "I would rather float mid-air than take a fall. I am Nuit." She said, extending a hand, "Jilitse, am pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Have you been..." Jilitse wanted to ask the other Nuit if he was out collecting orbs, but a DhaniKassius made a comment about the winding road and her question was interrupted. He was audacious to insert himself yet was impolite enough to run away. Not that Jilitse minded, for with the Dhani's actions she was assured that the road was normal. So what if Alvadas had mobius loops for roads? This was the city of illusions and normalcy had a totally different definition.

"The road looks safe enough," Jilitse pointed Kassius to Kuvarakh, "Other than puzzling our senses, everything seems to be normal. There are plenty of those stars gathered over there. Rewards for the brave, perhaps?" She looked straight down the road and tilted her head before giving her cart a worried glance. She angled herself and prepared her pull cart for the horizon's pivot, steadying her foothold. "I am going to test out a device I made for catching stars. This makes it conve--"

A humanjust a random person dashed beside her, bumping her frame and causing her to lose her balance. She wobbled and nearly fell, but secured herself with her cart's grasp and the conveniently near Kuvarakh. "My deepest apologies." She threw a hurt look towards the random stranger who was now slowing down, shoulder slumping as he walked away dejected. He disappeared into one of the street corners, perhaps chasing another star? Svan had caught his target. The Dhani was doing it the old school way, giving the stars a chase. That was her second Dhani today. Had the great djed storm rooted them out of their nests? Yet, if Alvadas had more than one Nuit, why not more than one Dhani?

"It looks like some people are getting a little bit excitable over these stars. Understandably so." She rubbed her arm, lightly, just to reassure herself everything was okay. The Nuit adjusted her cloak and commented, "There are plenty for everyone - at least that's what Terla, another star catcher, told me. Were you also collecting them by any chance?"

In the close distance, the spider-insect like Pycon named Sinoa was walking towards them. Jilitse pointed at the orb, "Look at that one. It seems to be tailing some sort of creature. But it's not close enough to know for certain." She cocked her head forward and squinted. The light of the star obscured its silhouette. Jilitse could make out a few legs and could discern its clay-like nature. "Is that a Pycon?"

[Kuvarakh]

Kuvarakh took the proffered hand with an elegant bow, "And I, yours, on this lovely day. My name is Kuvarakh." He was not that surprised to see another Nuit in Alvadas. He was aware of a few others, but it surprised him that he had not detected it. Usually, they seemed to occupy the two extremes of cleanliness among mortal populations: either being meticulously spotless with a trace of antiseptic smell, or ghoulishly putrescent, usually in anticipation of swapping to a new body and not caring about their current state of rot. When she stumbled against him, he noted the slight waft of rubbing alcohol. The door opened from the nearby shop, Matilda's, and he realized THAT was where the hint of perfume originated. "My deepest apologies" she offered, clearly put out by the clumsy bump that had caused her collision. "Not at all, my dear lady. I am rather expecting a sound jostling this afternoon, It does not appear that I am alone in the pursuit of these little glitterbugs. You were going to mention a device? For catching the stars I assume? Well, I guess then, we will be competing, to some extent, for I AM, in fact, also gathering them. Your use of the word "device" smacks of engineering. Whereas I am using a djed-crafted wonder of alchemy." he said with an exaggerated flourish. He winked and pulled out a simple sheet of canvas, approximately a square yard's worth, which immediately billowed as with a stout wind behind it, held only by twine tied at the corners. Kuvarah held the twine as one would hold the reins of a protesting horse. He leaned in conspiratorially, "Actually, this is a leftover from a job we did for some sea traders' group last season. 'Permanently Wind-Filled Sails'. I've just reapplied its properties for a new function. Sort of a combination Kite...Net. Should work for pulling in these little fellows." He heard Jiltse mention a Pycon and he turned to follow her gaze."And speaking of 'little fellows', Here comes my friend, Sinoa. he aided me against a ghostly possession a few weeks ago." He noted with wonder the orb following him and called out with a grin, "That's not fair, Sinoa, that flute is only supposed to work on ghosts!"

[Sinoa]

Being completely unaware of the glowing orb floating over top of him the comment Kuvarakh called out puzzled and Sinoa. He knew he heard Kuvarakh mention ghosts in his comment and it made sinoa uneasy. He quickly scurried over to the two to ask what kuvarakh meant, the orb still following him despite the lack of flute playing.
"Hello kuvarakh! did you call out something about ghosts? there aren't ghosts around here are there?" Sinoa said with worry in his voice.
His antenna twitched nervously to indicate what his child like face did not.
He suddenly realized he was ignoring the women whom Kuvarakh was having a conversation with. not wanting to be rude he faced her and said "oh sorry um, my name is Sinoa I don't mean to interrupt your conversation but if ghosts are around we should go inside where its safe."
He nervously looked around him to see if any ghosts were around then he looked up. He finally saw the glowing orb and sinoa reacted with a sudden shriek of terror.
"AAAAH! its a ghost! its come to posses me!" sinoa cried as he ran behind Kuvarakh and the women. The Orb trailed behind him in pursuit.

[Serensskyra]

It was cold outside, actually no. Cold was a nice way of putting it.To Kyra it was glacial. She shivered under her layers of clothes, she was in her shirt, her philterer's robe and her cloak. Yet still she was cold. She rubbed her hands together, trying to get her sluggish blood moving. Her body was not pleased with this temperature, it wanted warm deserts. The hot sun on her scales. She had to remind herself the benefits of this place, the unique herbs the interesting scenery, when it wasn't covered in this hideous ice and snow, and of course the fact that Ionu tended to frequent his own city. She had an odd curiosity with the God/dess of illusions. Weaving fiction no one could tell was anything but reality? Amazing. The possibilities.

But her thoughts had wandered from her task. She was out here looking for Stars. Little glowing globs of color that flitted away from you when you tried to grab onto one. She had caught only one so far, it was rather dim and sluggish. It was a light yellow color that she didn't mind looking at, and would like so much better if it was brighter. But she had gotten it easy enough, it had been floating lazily near her house when she had gone out, bundled and ready to catch herself some of this pretty floating lights. And she would get some, even if she froze to death in the process, those darn things were pretty and she wanted them! She was a girl, and so she liked and appreciated pretty things.

A flash ahead of her. Was that what she thought it was? Hanging from a tree white from ice, dancing among the icicles that hung like small spear tips from the trees hardened branches was a light. It was green! She grinned and began walking towards it. Of course the Star would know she wanted it. They always seemed to. It paused for a moment, as if looking at her. And then it was off, down the road. Flitting this way and that, Kyra let out a hiss. She set off after it anyways, her muscles not enjoying this exercise, protested after the first few steps, but she wanted that light curse it all!

She stumbled and caught herself right before she fell, the star flying from her sight. But the light was temporarily taken from her thoughts. Something a tiny bit more important had come up. The world had turned itself upside down. She looked around, her hair hanging away from her face, towards the sky that was the ground now or was the ceiling. Or was the floor the ceiling?Her head hurt thinking about it and the long green and black locks rippled as she shook her head in confusion. She quickly closed all her pockets, to be sure everything important and breakable stayed in it's place, although nothing but her hair seemed to want to go towards the sky.

She had seen this trick one or two times in her time here. So she took her steps with confidence. Until her ears detected something behind her, the road hadn't been occupied when it had shifted it's gravity, she had fallen straight into a prank. But now people were cautiously getting onto it. Three of which were only a few feet behind her. Not entirely sure why she stopped, that's what she told herself in all honesty she was tired and cold and wanted to just curl up and sleep, but stopping was an okay compromise.

One was a pretty woman, if a bit sickly looking, with black hair and cold eyes. She walked as graceful as any dancer. Next to her was a man, human in all appearances with a small goatee. He was discussing tying the woman with a rope to ensure she didn't fall into the sky. Another joined them, and this one was far more pleasant to look at. Not that either of the two were hard on the eyes, but the new visitor was someone you couldn't help but want to look at. Very comely, or handsome. Depending on the gender. Comely was probably a safe bet as far as compliments went. Or maybe beautiful, even if it was a male. The timbre of the voice though made one believe the gender to be male.

Kyra began walking towards the three when out of the sky, or floor? Came a body. It landed with a harsh sounding thud, no cracks thankfully though. Kyra's hands twitched, reaching towards vials hidden in her pockets that would hold pain killers, sedatives, sleep inducers. Things to help, plants that stopped internal bleeding. Kyra always had a random set of plants and potions on her at all times, sometimes because she forgot to empty all the pockets but usually in case of things like this. She walked over to the man, her body sinuous in it's movements. A crossover form her snake self that flowed like water over all terrain. She looked down, up? At the boy she nudged him delicately with a foot.

"It's not a ssmart idea to go falling off buildings, even for a Star." She informed him, slight amusement coloring her voice when he didn't cry immediately from pain, instead proclaiming to have caught a star.

Diverted as she was by falling strangers and handsome beings she still picked up words from the woman's conversation, most important were those of Nuit, Star Catching Device, and Pycon. All three perked her interest. She had only spoken a handful of words to the Nuit race, having a hard time finding one. For someone who wasn't used to running a star catching device sounded very preferable to chasing these dratted things all around the city. And well she always found Pycon's cute.

She took a step towards the woman and raised her voice to be heard. Her voice wasn't as high nor as nice as the woman's, slightly more keyed to that of an alto it had a husky sound to it. And it tended to accent her words with more s's than necessary.

"Did you ssay Nuit, madame?" she asked, figuring that she could bring up Star Catching in a moment. She took a few more steps towards the woman, her eyes betraying the smallest spark of curiosity but their depths had hidden things for many years, it wasn't as obvious as it would be in a snakelings untrained visage.

OOCSorry about the length, I suppose I got carried away.

[Kassius Selacs]

Every chime Kass remained in this city, he grew more and more convinced that there was nothing that could every shock or startle him ever again. Leaning against the wall/floor, he looked up, blinked, and stepped to the side as a body crashed down near him. Luckily, the city seemed to delight in proving him wrong. He couldn’t help but grin as the dazed man revealed a bright star in his grasp. “Well done” he remarked dryly. “Might I suggest less painful methods for catching stars? Or at least bending and rolling.”

There was quite a group growing, Kass realized, looking around. A woman was nudging the fallen man, and there seemed to be a quickly approaching.....

Was that a clay figure? Walking? What in Ionu’s name was that all about? This was growing to be quite an interesting crowd. They seemed a little preoccupied at the moment, but Kass would find a way to get all his questions answered. Somehow.

Turning back to the man fallen on the ground, Kass held out his hand to help him up. “There are better ways of falling than face first” he teased lightly.

oocCounterintuitive as this may seem, I’m on break, which means that between my asian parents and insane calculus teacher, I won’t really have much time to write long/decent posts. Sorry.