Completed The flame of a candle (Koran, Brandon, Savos)

A seminar about the history of candle making turns into a more exiting experience than it may sound like

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The Diamond of Kalea is located on Kalea's extreme west coast and called as such because its completely made of a crystalline substance called Skyglass. Home of the Alvina of the Stars, cultural mecca of knowledge seekers, and rife with Ethaefal, this remote city shimmers with its own unique light.

The flame of a candle (Koran, Brandon, Savos)

Postby Koran Frostfawn on November 1st, 2014, 3:30 pm

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Koran sat impatiently waiting for the lecture to end. He had a real problem with sitting still and being patient. He was paying very little attention at this point and could be considered as one who had 'given up' on the lecture now. He was far more interested in the people, though their interest in him was a little disconcerting to him. Savos asked him how he got here. Koran assumed he meant the lecture, for that he would readily share with the man. “I saw the carved candles in the window and decided I wanted one...or a few. The owner told me about this lecture and how a real master would be teaching it so I thought I could learn master carving techniques. Perhaps that was an unwise assumption.” He said a little bitterly from the situation at hand. “Then again it is a history of candle making not a carving lesson right?” He said acknowledging his own assumptions might have been horribly mistaken.

Koran knew very little about tattoo art as well, as the man had said he was. Koran was intrigued, art was such a big part of his life in Avanthal. There was always someone painting or sculpting or drawing around the city. He especially loved the ice sculptures that seemed to glow with life. He missed the artistic world Avanthal showed him. “What kind of art is a tattoo?” Koran said inquiring about the mans work in a genuinely interested tone. He barely even heard the lecturer as she mentioned the candles Koran had purchased chimes ago when he was still excited about this lecture.

The long winded woman mentioned the quality and intricate details of the candles. She mentioned she would discuss such artistry in candles 'eventually'. Well eventually couldn't come fast enough for Koran who could almost feel his life force drain as the chimes went by. Maybe that was just a bit too dramatic but still it felt weary to go on with this lecture. He watched as the dark clothed figure went to the long winded woman in participation of some sort of experiment. Maybe it was just the dark clothes or maybe it was the mannerisms and behavior of the man but he didn't trust the man. Maybe it was some sort of vibe he gave off. Koran shrugged, he didn't trust a lot of people and if the man didn't do anything warranting suspicion Koran wouldn't think anything of him. Though what he did think something of was he long winded womans little question experiment. One, he didn't see the point and two he didn't want to answer her questions but he also didn't want to be the only one who didn't do so. She finally landed on Koran after the red head and the dark clothed man answered respectively. “My weakness is impatience.” He said and did not elaborate in the slightest. “My workplace is the wilds and there are no flaws in nature. Everything tends to work together usually unless something interferes.” The last question was simple to answer, “I haven't been here long so I haven't the foggiest clue about the infrastructure of Lhavit.”

He felt the answers to the questions he provided wouldn't lend themselves much to the woman's experiment, whatever the objective was. He wondered about the experiment and what these questions had to do with candles. Koran thought the whole enlightenment reason was a weak one to ask about weaknesses and then tie it back to candles. The lecturer would definitely have to stretch that in order for it to make sense, Koran thought. He decided to concentrate on one of his candles, tracing a single line etching on the candle with his eyes and following it to another line and another line and another line in order to overcome the monotonous boredom.
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The flame of a candle (Koran, Brandon, Savos)

Postby Savos on November 3rd, 2014, 3:50 am

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Savos laughed when Koran admitted that he did not intend to listen to a long-winded speech about history, amused over the situation. The man had come in to learn about candle-making, and instead was taught not to let himself be talked into things by a stranger trying to sell his candles.

"A lesson's a lesson," Savos said, almost to himself as the speaker went into yet another facet of the candles' history.

Savos experienced a moment of regret as Koran asked him about tattooing, regret that came from the lack of example to show him. He felt like a rather lousy tattoo artist, flaunting his profession without having any markings of his own. He had never acquired any, which was due to a deep-seated belief that he did not deserve them. He had once been told, as a child, that tattoos were a symbol of great achievement among the Myrians, a reward for prowess in battle and victory. Savos had no such achievement he could readily acquire a tattoo for. So, instead, he did a shoddy job of attempting to explain it to Koran.

"It's like a drawing on your body, but it's permanent. It's done by inserting ink under the skin with a set of needles," It sounded rather gruesome when explained in words, and Savos had originally believed it was. But since his start at Lazuli Ink, he had learned to appreciate more and more the beauty of the art. The fact that he was technically repeatedly stabbing another human barely even came to mind, the flow of blood merely a part of the process and nowhere near dangerous for the subject unless they did not due a good job of treatment in the aftermath and let it get infected.

The speech continued, and Savos supposed he could make at least a minor effort to catch whatever it was that she said. She was going in depth about how to procure the original wax for the candles, animal fat that people would find uses for after hunting creatures such as seals. It was hard to not let one piece of information go from one ear and out the next, and Savos was feeling quite the challenge to keep up his current attention span when Ornea thankfully distracted him.

She leaned over to him and expressed her own boredom, and Savos could not help but smile. The girl's impatience reflected his own, and he would have admitted that he would much rather take her to one of the more happening places of Lhavit if the lecturer had not suddenly spoken up and stolen their attention again.

A silly experiment in enlightenment. Savos, personally, was a whole hearted believer of enlightenment. He believed in exploration of the mind, encouraged by his favored deity, Leth, to discover new facets of himself and the world every day. He was convinced, however, that enlightenment did not come in the form of making arbitrary statements about oneself at a random seminar in a room filled with impatient strangers.

He did enjoy the answers of the people around him though. He could gather from Ornea's answers that she was a highly practical person, thinking first and foremost about the machinations of her workplace and their physical attributes. She had a pragmatic nature, Savos could tell.

Brandon was evasive as ever, though Savos was surprised that he would make such a direct attack on Zintila's presence. Though Savos could not particularly disagree with the man, he could hear a few whispers and hushed reprimands from the crowd. The people of Lhavit were highly defensive of the demi-goddess, and Brandon had some guts to say that, at the center of attention no less.

Koran's answers were direct and slightly rushed. He was unwilling to divulge any personal information just as much as Savos did, seemed more fed up with the lecture's digressions than anyone as he had come here expecting more.

His interest in the others made it so that he was half surprised when it was his turn to speak. He hadn't quite formulated whatever he planned to say, but he was sure that he wasn't about to take any of it very seriously.

"My greatest weakness is in my reservation to divulge it," He said, knowing that wherever his friend Nima was, he would laugh at such an offhand answer.

"The weakness of my workplace is it's obscurity." He had to acknowledge that, even in Lhavit, tattoo art was rare, and Koran was not the first person he met who expressed ignorance on the matter. Savos paused before answering the last question.

"Lhavit's weakness is in its beauty," he said after a moment, deciding to give a somewhat more thoughtful answer. "It holds a charm that makes one forget how fickle the world we live in is. Mizahar has a way of catching people off-guard." A flickering memory of the city of Denval collapsing into nothingness floated through his mind as he said so.
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The flame of a candle (Koran, Brandon, Savos)

Postby Ornea on November 5th, 2014, 9:36 pm

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Iskiraya Mifune thanked the audience for their answers and made a short summary of the total.

“So. This experiment may seem a little bit enigmatic to you. But don’t worry, enlightenment will soon come to you. Just like the flame of a candle it will spread light in the darkness of ignorance. That’s the reason for giving a seminar like this, about the history of candles and candlemaking.”

She made a small pause but it was really short and didn’t leave room for anybody to interrupt her. Then she continued to speak, moving her hands dramatically in order to emphasize her many words. While she spoke on in her unbearably milling way, she pulled out more of the globe shaped blue candles and started walking around in the room and put one on each table.

“This experiment is advanced so it requires more than one candle” she said in passing by. “The main candle is being held by our volunteer, so keep an eye on that one everybody, but the other candles are needed too in order to create a complete experience. Anyway ...”

“Well. First we have the sum of the weakness of this audience. Impatience, oversensitivity to magic, eating too much and becoming fat, fear of divulging weaknesses and even inability to understand the difference between weaknesses and strengths. And at their work they are thinking of money, getting to be lazy, crashing factory transportations, hunting things and being obscure. This can seem bad, really bad indeed. But although it’s true you said all this, it’s not really the whole truth about this audience; you could say it’s illusion.”

While she spoke she picked a long wooden stick, took fire from the already lit candle Brandon was holding and started at next walk around the room, lighting all the candles. She continued to speak without caring about the now quite loud comments from the audience, not all of them friendly.

“In order to see behind the veil of illusion we need light. Candles! And this is where the answers to last of the three questions come in. The sum of it is that Lhavit's beauty holds a charm that makes some people forget what a fickle world we live in. So those who are ignorant about the city’s infrastructure can easily be caught off-guard, when the water pumps have been sabotaged and the water is poisoned. And sorry, but if they thought they could rely on Zintila to keep them safe, they will be dreadfully disappointed. Lightning will strike ! “

By now the lecturer had lit all the experiment candles and the last one was the light near the shop owner where she stood at the counter. She stopped there and stood beside him. For extra effect and also in order to drown out the increasing agitation in the room, she had raised her voice dramatically while she did the last amazing summary. But now she resumed her normal lecturing tone voice and threw out a question to the audicence.

“So! Now to the next step in this exercise. Could this summary be true ? Or is it only pure illusion?” This time she didn’t bother with asking the shop owner and just pointed at Ornea at once. “What do you say, you there with the red hair, who came up with the idea about destroying the water pumps?”

Ornea watched all this, observing everything as well as she could. She listened to every word, despite how odd it all seemed to her. When she finally was pointed at and given the question, she stared at Iskiraya in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding us” she managed. It was a lame answer, she knew that, but it was all that came to her mind. “You’ve got to be kidding.” The lecturer promptly called this answer “one vote for illusion”. Just like with the questions of the first step she went on to asking the other people in the audience what they thought.

The globe shaped candles around the location didn’t seem to spread particularly much enlightenment over anything, Ornea thought. They seemed to be yet another example of antique candles, to judge from the all the smoke they emitted; in particular the candle that had been lit first, and which Brandon was still holding.

That candle was of such a “historical quality” that it actually looked like Brandon, the table beside him and everything on it was slowly being shrouded in a mystic fog of smoke. Ornea tried to watch the hourglass and find out how much time there seemed to be left of this madness. She hoped desperately that time would speed up. Wasn’t there a deity for that; Tanroa? Where were the gods when you needed them?
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The flame of a candle (Koran, Brandon, Savos)

Postby Brandon Blackwing on November 6th, 2014, 3:32 pm

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Everyone answered the lecturers strange questions, and everyone was expecting something special to happen for some reason, but alas, nothing unusual was experienced. Apart from growing annoyance to the whole session and the woman that held it as a whole. For one, Brandon was really surprised by the fact that someone who should be proficient in the art of talking and keeping things interesting had actually managed to turn her audience into her enemy. No one wanted to stay, not even the ones that had been excited to learn about candles and their history. The bat-like hearing ability Brandon possessed made things that should have been out of earshot audible and crystal clear. In this room, there was not one person who could say a thing without the bat having listened in.

As such he did not fail to detect the murmurs of complaints and whispered queries that arose when Mifune spoke of enlightenment and the enigmatic nature of her experiment. A short break cut of her string of words, though it was too short for anyone to even let out a sigh of relief as the woman immediately picked up where she left off and continued her speech. It was then that she started pacing around, placing a blue orb on every table, a bunch of candles that were almost identical to the one Brandon was holding. Speaking of which, it smelled rather strange, much like the primitive candles they'd been shown earlier, but different somehow. The Kelvic couldn't put his finger on it, but this weren't ordinary candles.

For a tick, the bat believed they'd be doing another silly experiment for the sake of so called enlightenment, but fortunately that was not the case. Not just yet, it was coming though, but first Isiraya had to list up the answers given and seemed to do it only to thick off her audience even more. Impatience, laziness.. and inability to discern weaknesses from strengths. Brandon's calm exterior showed tiny cracks for a moment, as he narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth briefly. Say what? Don't twist my words just because you are unable to comprehend what I was saying, wench! This whole seminar was getting on his nerves, and had actually been annoying him for as long as he had been attending. A sharp glance was cast on the hourglass, and back to the lecturer. It was about time he'd turn time in their favor, but he'd have to wait until Mifune was distracted for a moment. Tsk.

“The only illusion here is you,” the bat muttered to himself in reply to Iskiraya's comment, “Don't you go getting all philosophical now.” Gods damn this shyke! Why was he even still here? He could just walk away if he wanted, it was actually pretty likely that the rest would follow if he did. Only one of them had to show the guts to be the first. It wouldn't be Bran though, as his habit of staying inconspicuous rendered him unwilling to lead the way. He was more the type of man that wandered in the back of the group, overlooked by most and seen by few, just the way he liked it.

Miss Mifune ignored whatever was thrown at her and just continued her verbal assault on the audience's nerves, now having started to speak like the leader of some sort of cult. That wasn't even a half-assed comparison, she really did seem to be getting ecstatic as her voice grew louder and louder until it boomed through the room and her words rolled off her tongue faster and faster, more and more excited. All the while she was busy lighting the other candles she'd placed on the tables, pacing around and giving Brandon the opportunity he had been looking for. Let us give Tanroa a hand, he thought as he released one hand's hold of the candle, twisted his torso and reached out to the hourglass. Fingers wrapped around it, flipped it effortlessly and placed it back up-side down. Once that had been done his body was already moving back into its original position swiftly, falling back into his role of girandole as if nothing had happened.

Sixty percent of sand had been reduced to forty, effectively cutting down the remaining time the audience had to spend in the room, though it still was too long. Couldn't be helped, the door was right there, surely someone would take the initiative and stride out? And if not, well, they could praise themselves lucky not having to spend the whole duration of the seminar in the shop. Not that he believed many had noticed his actions, a few at most, the rest was glaring at the lecturer and despairing. Though, those few that had caught a glimpse of the bat's motions couldn't have missed the smoothness and elegance of his actions, which had only taken less than a tick and had contained no wasted motions. If they could believe their eyes of course, for it had taken just a moment and afterwards the bat had been standing in the exact same position as he had before. Maybe that too was an illusion?

Meanwhile, the dramatic speech had ended at its climax, epic and threatening, with the mysterious warning that lightening would strike. While that might just have been a figure of speech, the bat couldn't help but feel a shiver run down his spine. A bad feeling arose, his instinct was telling him that this wasn't a good situation to be in, that it would be a good idea to leave or at least be on guard. While the bat in all his stubbornness didn't pay the first of advices any heed, he did nod internally when he decided on the second. It was always a good idea to keep an eye open for trouble, he had been saved by his animal senses too many times before to ignore it. Whether he would be called paranoid or not, it was always good to be extra attentive. Telltale signs were always out there, only waiting to be recognized and processed.

Ornea wasn't so fond of the illusion theory, it seemed, though her remark only served to add one point in favor of said theory, for reasons unknown. Except maybe to annoy everyone even more. The candles didn't help either, wafting that strange scent everywhere and oozing smoke all over the place, cloaking the whole of the shop in some sort of artificial darkness, as if someone had poured ink in a glass of water. I am not falling for that trick! the bat shouted internally, suspecting the smoke to be the cause of his brain sounding the alarms. It probably was packed with some sort of toxin, the kind that made people pass out or hallucinate or so. That was not happening! Releasing one hand from the candle once more, the bat tugged his scarf up, covering his nose and mouth effectively before letting his hand rejoin the other one. Now there was one thing less to worry about, though the fact that he had probably been inhaling the fumes for a chime or five already was rather... disturbing. Well, at least the candle hadn't been producing that much smoke when he first started holding it, so if he was lucky he'd be safe from passing out or having hallucinations. Or both.

OOCFor one or other reason Bran believes you guys will all be dragged in some sort of ritual or so. After having been brainwashed with candle-smoke. :smirk: Good luck guys.:thumbsup:

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The flame of a candle (Koran, Brandon, Savos)

Postby Koran Frostfawn on November 20th, 2014, 5:30 am

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A lesson is a lesson, a true enough statement. Koran supposed that no knowledge gained was useless knowledge...however he also thought that some knowledge gained was definitely not as useful as others, and to him this knowledge probably wouldn't be the most useful thing he would learn by a long shot. Koran listened to the explanation of what tatooing was with utter horror on his face. He cringed at the almost torturous images that appeared in his mind. He had only one mark on his body that could be considered tattoo like and he didn't have to have a needle stabbed into him to get it. It was his gnosis mark of a single snowflake given to him by Morwen on the right side of his neck.

“Well...that sounds...terrifying.” He said honestly to Savos still a little unsettled by the brief yet slightly unsettling description. Nothing about the permanency or the needle held any appeal to him. “Does it hurt?” Koran asked against his better judgement wanting to know more but on the same hand not wanting to know anything more on the subject for fear of more gruesome details of the unknown craft.

It was Savos' turn to answer the woman's tedious, at least in Koran's opinion, questions. His first answer Koran felt wasn't really an answer at all but more of a way to work around the answer in a way as to not answer it. Not that there was anything wrong with that, Koran employed the practice with his own, but what struck Koran as intriguing was that Savos did it exceedingly more artful than Koran did, for this Koran admired the man's ability well it be true skill or merely an accident though the latter seemed very unlikely. The other two answers held nothing special to Koran's ears so he didn't pay them any real attention other than what was required to listen and understand.

The woman prattled on about yet another experiment. Hopefully the second would not be as tedious as the first. Koran was not hopeful for anything more exciting however. As the woman prattled he noticed she was speculating on his and the others answers, reading in to brief and uninspired statements. He watched the candle he was directed to watch and saw the smoke, not bothering to think much on the abundant amounts it was spewing except that it would be a good excuse to leave if it filled the room and made it hard to breathe. He let that lovely thought settle in his mind for a bit.

The red haired woman seemed as annoyed as he was at this point as did the dark-skinned male. Meanwhile the shady character seemed to be having an episode or something. The shady man had pulled a scarf around his face for some unknown reason, perhaps the smoke did not agree with him. Whatever the reason, he looked silly compared to the other unassuming and normal behaviors around the room from merely covering their mouth with their hand to just ignoring the damned smoke. Koran ignored the smoke and resumed his look of sheer boredom that was only broken up by the banter of the others around him honestly. He mulled over the thought of leaving and making up an excuse of being adverse to the smoke or just telling the speaker where she and her dull experiments can shove it.
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The flame of a candle (Koran, Brandon, Savos)

Postby Savos on November 30th, 2014, 5:51 am

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OOCSo sorry for the late reply, guys!

Savos grinned devilishly as Koran expressed how horrifying his description of tattooing was. It was the face of one who was exposed to any description of the Myrian race and its customs, as it was so foreign to most peoples that they were more likely to reject it than anything. Savos would usually see that sort of reaction as a grim reminder that he was not as human as he looked, but today it was simply funny.

“It does hurt, though it's much more tolerable than it looks,” he said, laughing under his breath. He suddenly felt an urge to get a tattoo himself so he could speak with experience rather than general knowledge. For perhaps the first time, this urge was not accompanied with the silent guilt that he did not need or deserve one.

The lecture continued, and the speaker began to bounce off the answers she had been given by the audience. Savos took great offense that she would take his words and twist them up to fill her own needs and beliefs. It felt almost as though she had violated some kind of etiquette that claimed people could not simply repeat what had been previously said, and to another purpose no less.

With a frown forming on his face, he decided this speaker was more worth paying attention to than he had previously thought. Watching her meticulously as she walked around the room with that arrogant smile of hers, Savos tried to decipher what she could possibly be getting at.

She was a well-spoken, charismatic woman. The further they went along in this seminar, Savos couldn't help but think that all of it was her intention. The initial attraction, droning on to bore her audience, then offending it almost immediately afterwards, it seemed much too calculated. He knew that he wasn't the only one who had been bothered as people around him were whispering and expressing their sudden distaste toward the lady, which made him set aside his own misgivings and observe the others' instead.

Ornea seemed to be one of these people, and caught by surprise, she responded somewhat poorly to the woman's questions. Savos felt bad for her, knowing that he would react just as dumbfoundedly had he been put on the spot like that. And he had only a moment to think up his own answer, for the woman almost immediately pointed to him and asked for an answer.

“Summaries... aren't particularly good at describing reality. They leave too much out,” Savos said, thinking aloud as he went along. A moment of hesitation passed.

“Illusion.”
Words can only ever be illusion, anyway, he thought to himself.

Watching the speaker's every movement with as much analytic thought he could muster in the distracting room, he failed to notice the fog of the main candle creep up on him. He was not much surprised by its presence, as some incenses were known to produce smoke, but he had admittedly never seen one so thick being produced. It rolled in like the vaporous clouds would form in the peaks, and just as fast too. He let his thoughts trail away for a moment as he admired the way the gas strolled through the room, paying little attention to any solid obstacles as it went along.

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The flame of a candle (Koran, Brandon, Savos)

Postby Ornea on November 30th, 2014, 9:48 am

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Iskiraya had made sure the globe shaped candles were the only lights in the shop. The atmosphere was mysterious and some people had started to think of cults and rituals and whatever. The whole situation was oddly mesmerizing and more than one in the audience felt confused by the turn of events and somewhat befuddled by the smoke. It wouldn’t have surprised people if Iskiraya had started to chant and hold a sermon...the seminar had already become more than weird.

But all of a sudden and without any previous notice everything changed.

“Oh no!” Iskiraya interrupted herself and started screaming about the smoke. “Put it out!” she screamed at Brandon, and her voice had taken on a tone of panic. “Put that candle out ! Now! Before it’s too late!” She started to rush around like in panic, and extinguish the flames of the candles around the room. Just like it used to be with candles, the smoke increased when they stopped burning. Some people in the audience were drawn into the panic and helped out, contributing to the rapidly thickening fog of smoke in the shop. Iskiraya rushed by Brandon in the process and in case he was slow to do as she had said she would extinguish the candle he was holding and it would start to emit an overwhelming and amazing amount of smoke.

A moment of confusion and chaos ensured as people got to their feet. Coughing violently, Ornea left her chair and tried to head to where she thought the door of the shop was. Unfortunately the rest of the audience seemed to have the same plan and her attempt to just get the petch out and leave failed as she bumped into other people in the dark. Soon enough she had lost her direction and just tried to stay on her feet. There were obviously a few people in the shop who kept their wits about them, and tried to calm things down, but the majority just wanted to get out and stumbled around blindly.

A clinking sound could suddenly be heard.

It was followed by the beginnings of a shout, by a male voice. “Hey! What the...”
The shout was interrupted there, by a “thud” sound, a “crash” sound and the sound of small things falling on the floor. It seemed like a shelf had tipped over.

Ornea turned in the direction of these sounds, feeling alarmed, but it was impossible to see anything. And it was also hard to hear clearly, as people around her had started to shout out questions and other reactions.

Somebody who had been groping around from something to grab and hold on to in order to not fall on the floor grabbed her, but Ornea was already taking a step back trying to get out from the worst commotion. She felt the unknown person stumble forward and hit the floor in front of her, bump into her knees and nearly make her lose her balance too. Luckily she bumped into a wall and was able to steady herself.

There had been many bad things now. The extreme boredom of the lecture. The disgusting smell of the primitive candles. The odd, incomprehensible experiments. The questions, the offensive and twisted summaries, and the feeling of having been cheated big time. All her answers seemed to have been turned into an evil and malevolent shyke by Iskiraya Mifune. And at the end the lecturer had even had the nerve to imply that Ornea agreed with something she hardly even knew what it was; some diffuse statements about illusion. It had made the Inarta feel annoyed, well, it had actually made her start to feel more than annoyed, and if the lecture hadn’t ended there she might have lashed out against the lecturer and started a heated argument.

But she hadn’t had the opportunity to do it. And now this. The onslaught of smoke. The sudden darkness. The shouts, the general confusion and the commotion. The impression of something dangerous and unknown taking place. And most of all, the enraging feeling of having been deceived, misled and tricked.

Her anger and her need to take some kind of action made her do something she had sworn to not do ever again. She used magic to create light. Leaning against the wall and not caring about the person who was now using her knees as support for crawling up from the floor she turned her attention inwards to her own awareness, found the djed deep inside, pulled at it with her will and moved it to the palm of her hand, where it seeped out in form of res, which she ignited and made burn.

A flame of magic fire burst from her hand and for the few ticks it lasted, the Inarta stood there like a candle lighting up the scene in the shop.

The flash of light came just in time to let the spectators get a short glimpse of what was happening, though the smoke made it hard to see exact details. The shop owner lay on the floor and Iskiraya Mifune was at the door, already pushing it open and jumping out. Just for a moment they could see her face. It was her face, it was Iskiraya, but ... maybe it was the fogs of smoke that made it look kind of “floating”, like a surreal mirror image on the surface of rippling dark water. They didn’t get time to see more. Without a word Iskiraya disappeared out into the night and the door fell shut behind her with a bang. And then the nausea of beginning overgiving struck Ornea. She put of the magic flame and it went dark in the shop again.

But the short moment of light had enabled the shop owners daughter to grab flint and steel. She would soon light a candle and rush to her fathers side; the man was now recovering from the temporary knock out and as the daughter and other people helped him sit up he whispered : “The daily cash ! She stole our daily cash! “He coughed, and coughed again. “I apologize for everything” he managed. “What have I exposed you all too ... you must allow me to follow my plan despite what happened...you will all get a fragrance candle as a gift, and I hope this will make you remember our shop as a good place despite it all ... my daughter will take care of this. ”

Some people had opened the door and found the street outside as empty as they had expected; Iskiraya Mifune had obviously made a very well-planned exit and disappeared in the night.

The ones who’d had enough and just wanted to leave would now get their fragrant candles and walk away. As Ornea still suffered from the nausea of the nearly instant overgiving, she would stay a bit longer and be one of the last people to get her gift. She sat down on a chair again and watched while people received their fragrance candles. Her thoughts were tumultuous. Now when they first of the weaknesses people had revealed had already been exploited, Ornea just couldn’t not wonder if there was more trouble to come.

OOC:) As agreed, it's time to start to wrap up ... so please write your final posts in this thread for your PCs.
...
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The flame of a candle (Koran, Brandon, Savos)

Postby Brandon Blackwing on November 30th, 2014, 12:15 pm

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Brandon could not help but grin underneath his scarf as the other members of the audience –some of them anyway- gave him quizzical stares or even mocking smiles. ‘What in Zintila’s name are you doing?’ they seemed to say, shaking their heads side to side. Let them laugh, Brandon smiled, having calmed down, comforted by the safety of his scarf. I’ll be the one laughing when you collapse because of this poisonous smoke. Another grin, and he stared at the hourglass, noticing the minute amount of time that had passed since last time. Still a lot of chimes that had to be endured…

And that was when things started to become interesting. All of a sudden, the lecturer Iskiraya started screaming in panic, the high pitch of her yells hurting the bat’s ears. Something was wrong with the candles? Well, duh, that amount of smoke was not normal, of course there was something wrong with the candles. However, it was quite unexpected that Iskiraya was the one pointing it out, going all dramatic again spouting lines as ‘before it’s too late’ and the like. Brandon did not d as he was told immediately though, wondering why exactly Mifune was panicking; it couldn’t be that those candles really were poisonous, now could it? No way, that was just impossible. Why would you still light them then? As a master candle maker, which Mifune was supposed to be, one certainly had to be able to tell which candle was which.

Even if the candles had been switched by one or other wicked mind, there was no way that they would be exact replicas of the original’s. Thus… this was intentional? But why? The bat had no idea, but something was fishy here. That moment, Isiraya Mifune reached the Kelvic’s location and extinguished the wick by pressing the flame between three of her fingers. Immediately, a cloud of smoke formed, the amount of smoke pouring out increasing tenfold. Rather surprised at the smoke which puffed into his face, Brandon dropped the orb and instinctively took a step back, slamming into the closet behind him. People were in panic, Mifune was nowhere to be seen, but at the edge of all the chaos and coughing, Brandon stood as calm as ever.

It wasn’t that he was not surprised or taken aback by the spectacle before his eyes, but rather that he had prepared himself for it. The bat had expected Mifune to make everyone drowsy with the smoke of the candles, and then perform some sort of ritual or so. As such he had pulled his scarf up, preventing the smoke from entering his lungs. When Iskiraya had started screaming about the candles being dangerous, Brandon had thought something along the lines of I knew it, good thing I was prepared. The rest had started scrambling to their feet, coughing and panicking. The audience threw their stools on the floor as they quickly rose from their seats and rushed to the door, desperate to get out of this dangerous smoke.

Meanwhile, said smoke had veiled everything, obscuring the whole room and reducing the visibility. With his acute hearing, the bat just stood and listened, forming a map in his mind. Just like echolocation, only without echolocation. In fact, he was just trying to get an idea what was going on around him. He had a vague idea where everyone was located, forming a human plug, a barrier where no-one could easily pass through. People fell, candles clattered on the floor and screams of pain were allowed to escape. One person had fallen, the others did not see where and tripped over the poor fellow, dragging others along with them. It was chaos, utter chaos. Confusion and pain reigned, sowing panic and reaping the fruits of it. Come to think of it, the bat did not hear Iskiraya Mifune’s voice anymore, so she wasn’t caught in the crowd?

The kelvic frowned, suspicious of her. She’d seemed so panicky about the candles, had caused this disaster and now she was calm? That was not possible, no one could regain their cool so fast, no one. Thus there was but one explanation; she had been calm all along, had put up an act and fooled everyone. In the midst of the cacophony and commotion, the thief heard a noise that he had heard many times before; the noise of coins cluttering and slamming into each other, accompanied by flighty footsteps. No doubt about it, this had to be Mifune!

Brandon was impressed. This grand scheme, it was set up so well, it had been planned out a while ago no doubt, and executed perfectly. The idea of blocking the sight was just brilliant, that alone was enough to strike fear in the hearts of humans, who relied on that sense way too much, they were too dependent on it. However, smoke being smoke, it also blocked smell, thus rendering Brandon’s fine nose useless. Not that it mattered much. So this is how a conman works eh? Tricks and deceit… A thought bubbled up, a silent rage Brandon had felt only once before, when he had been conned for the first time. Damn this! I will not tolerate being tricked again! May Yshul damn you, Isiraya Mifune! Fingers wrapped around the hilt of two daggers, pulling them out of the sheathes hidden under his cloak.

A barely noticeable difference in light appeared when the door was opened and someone proceeded to slip out. A bright flame illuminated the room for a brief instant, granting everyone a glimpse of what was happening. Most people were a tangled knot of limbs and were laying on the floor. The bat did not hesitate and launched his weapons at the figure that had caused this and was near the door. One after the other was flung, burying their blades in the door with constructive hits. Then, darkness enveloped them all again. Five thuds resounded –the sixth dagger remained in the bat’s hand- every weapon having it the door, but to no avail as it was slammed shut.

Legs getting into motion, the angry thief dashed for the door, using his memory of the location of the people to try and avoid them, aided by the flaring light from a candle. He jumped over the audience, using someone who was crawling on hands and knees as a stepping stone, landed by the door and pulled it open fiercely, heading into the street. However, there was no one there. No-one he could see anyway. Sniffing the air, the bat found a trail of Iskiraya’s fragrance, though it vanished all of a sudden, leaving him without a clue where she had fled to. A string of Yshul-inspired curses were flung to the sky, as the bat stomped the ground and returned to the shop, pulling his weapons from the wood and sheathing them again. “She got away,” the thief reported the obvious reluctantly, annoyed he had let her escape. And that’s why you should plan your escape, his mind commented dryly.

Despite his failure, Brandon was thanked for his effort by the shop owner’s daughter and offered a candle, which the bat refused to accept, though as the girl insisted he took it anyway, deciding it to be a memento of why careful planning was important when doing a job. The exit Mifune had made was one of the most beautiful ones he’d witnessed, leaving chaos and disaster in her wake. A snort as he turned away from Bright Lights and strolled down the street, soon disappearing in the night like Mifune had.
c


Credit goes to Ollic
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The flame of a candle (Koran, Brandon, Savos)

Postby Khara on January 17th, 2015, 6:31 pm

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Ornea :
XP:
  • Observation: + 5
  • Socialization + 2
  • Reimancy +1
Lore:
  • Iskiraya Mifune: Master Candlemaker from Alvadas
  • Iskiraya Mifune: Completly Perfect
  • Applying Wind Reach's castes to people in Lhavit
  • Brandon from Kalinor; Not a crafter.
  • Koran: Carver
  • Savos: Dark Skinned Artist
  • Light of the Past: Made from leftover animal fat
  • Primitive Candles: Smell horrible!
  • Maybe going to the seminar wasn't such a good idea
  • Umelus Brasa greatest self weakness: Eats too much
  • Umelus Brasa greatest workplace weakness: Daily cash intake
  • Umelus Brasa greatest Lhavit weakness: Lightning in storms
  • Self greatest self weakness: Magic allergy
  • Self greatest workplace weakness: The automated transportations at Lucis and Lucis
  • Self greatest Lhavit weakness: The water pumps at Lucis
  • Brandon greatest self weakness: is his greatest strength!
  • Brandon greatest Lhavit weakness: Relies too much on Zintila
  • Koran greatest self weakness: Impatience
  • Koran greatest workplace weakness: The wilds
  • Savos greatest self weakness: His reservation to divulge it
  • Savos greatest workplace weakness: Obscurity
  • Savos greatest Lhavit weakness: It's beauty
  • Are summaries just illusions?
  • Smoking candles: Cause a lot of panic
  • Iskiraya Mifune: Thief!
Penalties:
  • Minor case of Overgiving (Metallic taste in the mouth, tremors, quickened pulse) - Will go away in a few bells
  • Minor burns on hand - Will heal in about 3 to 6 days, less if treated by a healer.
Purchases: 24 Candles: -24jk

Loot: +1 Small Scented Candle

Comments: Really entertaining thread! Loved the ending. I found it hard to trust Iskiraya from the get go so it was nice to see that pan out.
Quick reminder - Reimancers aren't immune to their elements. Be careful when transmuting your res that it isn't still in your hand!

Brandon Blackwing :
XP:
  • Intelligence +1
  • Planning +1
  • Subterfuge +1
  • Stealth +1
  • Deduction +1
  • Weapon: Dagger +1
  • Acrobatics +1
Lore:
  • Bright Lights: Unpleasant Candleshop
  • Ornea: Inarta Metalsmith from Wind Reach
  • Light of the Past: Made from leftover animal fat
  • Iskiraya Mifune: Oozes wrongness
  • Koran: Carver
  • Savos: Dark Skinned Artist
  • Umelus Brasa greatest self weakness: Eats too much
  • Umelus Brasa greatest workplace weakness: Daily cash intake
  • Umelus Brasa greatest Lhavit weakness: Lightning in storms
  • Ornea greatest self weakness: Magic allergy
  • Ornea greatest workplace weakness: The automated transportations at Lucis and Lucis
  • Ornea greatest Lhavit weakness: The water pumps at Lucis
  • Self greatest self weakness: is your greatest strength
  • Self greatest Lhavit weakness: Relies too much on Zintila
  • Koran greatest self weakness: Impatience
  • Koran greatest workplace weakness: The wilds
  • Savos greatest self weakness: His reservation to divulge it
  • Savos greatest workplace weakness: Obscurity
  • Savos greatest Lhavit weakness: It's beauty
  • Having your words twisted
  • Are summaries just illusions?
  • Using a scarf to help block out smoke
  • Smoking candles: Cause a lot of panic
  • Staying calm in a chaotic situation
  • Larceny: Using smoke candles to block others' vision
  • Iskiraya Mifune: Thief!
  • Conned again!
  • Larceny: Always plan your escape
Loot: +1 Small Scented Candle

Comments: I was really tempted to give you XP in Torture for asking questions while the primitive candles were lit. :lol: Should be fun to see if Brandon makes use of what he learned from Iskiraya's exploits in the future. Just don't go lobbing smoking candles around Wind Reach, ok? ;)

Koran Frostfawn :
XP:
  • Observation +4
  • Socialization +3
Lore:
  • Too many mixed smells is sickening
  • Feeling homesick
  • Bright Lights shopkeeper makes beautiful carved candles
  • Ornea: Inarta Metalsmith from Wind Reach
  • Brandon from Kalinor
  • Light of the Past: Made from leftover animal fat
  • Primitive Candles: Smell horrible!
  • Savos: Tattoo artist
  • Tattooing: Permanent drawings on the skin made from inserting ink with needles
  • Tattooing: Terrifying!
  • Tattooing: Hurts
  • Umelus Brasa greatest self weakness: Eats too much
  • Umelus Brasa greatest workplace weakness: Daily cash intake
  • Umelus Brasa greatest Lhavit weakness: Lightning in storms
  • Ornea greatest self weakness: Magic allergy
  • Ornea greatest workplace weakness: The automated transportations at Lucis and Lucis
  • Ornea greatest Lhavit weakness: The water pumps at Lucis
  • Brandon greatest self weakness: is his greatest strength!
  • Brandon greatest Lhavit weakness: Relies too much on Zintila
  • Self greatest self weakness: Impatience
  • Self greatest workplace weakness: The wilds
  • Savos greatest self weakness: His reservation to divulge it
  • Savos greatest workplace weakness: Obscurity
  • Savos greatest Lhavit weakness: It's beauty
  • A lesson is a lesson
  • Are summaries just illusions?
  • Smoking candles: Cause a lot of panic
  • Iskiraya Mifune: Thief!
Purchases: 2 Large Complex Carved Candles: -20ki

Loot: +1 Small Scented Candle

Comments: Not a ton of XP to give, hopefully the lores make up for it!

Savos Medeiros: Please update your ledger with Fall expenses and shoot me a PM and I'll update this with your grade right away! :)
Please don't hesitate to PM me if you have any questions/comments regarding your grade. I'll be more than happy to take a second look if you think I've missed something!
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Also, please don't forget to edit your post as 'graded' in the request thread.
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Khara
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