Silvermoon
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Mythstar
Posts: 412
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Kasey Lilacina
OOC Username: spibe
Arena Points: 43
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Post by Silvermoon on Jan 24, 2024 4:27:26 GMT 9
Silvermoon watched the beast writhe, struck by the fairy wind. It collapsed, quickly tied down to the deck. Silvermoon felt strange, then, heart pounding too quickly. A moment of respite before everything got tense again. “Saint-” They started, inturrupted by orioncayge running past, into the creature’s mouth.
And then Nero spoke up, words quick, fumbling. Silvermoon just nodded, untangling the words quickly. They… spoke the same language, after all. Anxiety. They pulled up their UI, dismissing the soft ponyta in favor of someone more sturdy.
“Kintsugi-” Silvermoon said, tying the rope tightly around his chest. The Type: Null whuffed, settling himself securely on the deck.
<I understand. I'll stay here, and watch the wishes, and the young one. Be safe, Silvermoon.> He said, quietly proud, tossing his head towards Nero- Before fixing Saint with an intense look. <Saint- Please make sure they stay safe.>
Silvermoon nodded, giving the creature another hug, before turning to take Saint ’s hand. “Ready?”
-
They leapt, and fell. And kept falling, losing track of Saint somewhere in the fall. It was terrible and pitch, something dark and oppressive and hopeless. It made Kasey feel small, lonesome, young. It felt like walking back home after school. Like staying in their room instead of bonding with their parent.
It felt worse than Kasey had ever felt in a long time.
They squeezed their eyes shut, trying to breathe. I- I-
I wish I wasn’t here.
Light glimmered, cutting through the oppressive blackness- Kasey looked down, towards their chest, only to see a small, glittering star-
A wish. The wish blinked up at them, cooing softly. Silvermoon tightened their arms around them. The wish lit up the Wishbeast’s maw, but only a little.
Silvermoon looked- now, they could see little specks of light, far down in the distance. Other wishes… but they all seemed so small, not quite able to pierce well.
So what could they do?
Silvermoon closed their eyes. They needed a good, strong wish. One they knew they’d made, so, so many times before.
I wish someone cared about me.
Light thrummed from within the Wishbeast, a multitude of past-wishes glowing, looking up at Silvermoon.
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Saint
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Weekend Warrior
Round 2
Posts: 386
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Angelo Alvarez
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 10
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Post by Saint on Jan 24, 2024 18:14:02 GMT 9
To Saint’s surprise, the knots unwound like silk in his hands, the topsails falling, the rest unfurling as if automatically. They stretched over the dim space, luminescent from the lights bouncing off the wishes and the deck, before catching the winds and propelling the entire vessel forwards. Saint yelped, grabbing onto the topsail yard, his Mantyke grabbing the back of his collar to keep him from falling. He caught sight of a breathtaking view. It really was such a beautiful ship.
He made a slow descent back down, barely have a second to find his footing on the deck before he’s bombarded with boisterous cheering and painful sailor-strong pats on the back. He sank into his collar, cheeks burning at the outpour of kindness. “Thank—thank you,” was all he could muster saying before the counterattack was under way. He returned his Mantyke and dispersed with the crew.
Harpoons were aimed. Set. Rumbling from dark waters. Wishes flying, hiding, like birds fleeing from an oncoming disaster. A blinding flash came from a familiar girl in pink at the back of the ship, drawing the beast from the mire, and the onslaught came in quick-fire beats: an initial slam of fairy power, and then every harpoon unloaded, nets thrown and sealing The Wishtaker in place.
The Captain called out the next objective: To enter the belly of the beast.
“Seriously, Captain?!” Saint resisted the urge to bash his skull on the mainmast. He should have known. What was he expecting? For them to have some kind of—whale-sized fishing pole? A man can dream.
Before he could protest, he heard Silvermoon call his name, followed by the rapid steps of the first volunteer, orioncayge. The newcomer he’d seen earlier, Nero, turned to him and Silvermoon, evidently shaken from the familiar stammer of his words.
“A lifeline… good idea!” He took another length of rope from nearby, tying a knot around the base of the closest mast. Silvermoon had evidently chosen Kintsugi as the weight for theirs—good enough. Type: Null were far from fragile creatures. It should hold. “Let me tie it for you,” Saint mumbled, accepting the other end and tying it securely around Silvermoon.
He continued speaking to Nero as he worked, focused, trying to prevent his fingers from trembling. “I wouldn’t usually—recommend jumping into the mouth of a leviathan… but this game rewards people who are willing to take crazy risks.” People who will defy the odds. Defy gods. And if people like him and Silvermoon could go through all that then…
“If there’s any place to practice doing something scary, it’s here.” He smiled at Nero, before tightening the last knot. He tied the rope he’d secured on the mast around himself.
Kintsugi made his promises, and it reassured Saint to know he would watch over anyone left on deck. He also knew that if anything were to go wrong, Kintsugi would be strong enough to pull Silvermoon out.
Saint- Please make sure they stay safe.
“I will.” His lifeline was complete. He felt Silvermoon’s hand take his own, and he squeezed it. “Can’t believe I’m doing this again…” He sighed. “Alright, I’m ready.”
And down, down, they went.
It was a long fall. Despite his best efforts, Saint’s eyes shut immediately, clenched tight like the grip he had on Silvermoon’s hand—and it still slipped from his grasp.
He slammed into something deep below. It knocked the wind out of his lungs, but miraculously didn’t break anything. Something was falling on him. Many things—vaguely pokey, but not sharp. Saint shot up in a panic, screaming.
“AAAAAHHH—huh?” he blinked, and something blinked back.
Many, many, little somethings, already aglow.
He found himself sitting on a pile of them, all bunched together in an enclosed space. “Uh... thank you,” he said, shifting uncomfortably—wary of sitting or stepping on cute creatures but unable to find a single spot in the room that was clear.
“Where…?” He looked around. It was hard to see any walls, let alone ceilings, in such a dark space. “Silvermoon? Orion? Anyone?”
All he got in reply were the echoes of his own voice.
How far in had he fallen? Saint frowned, picking up one of the blinking wishes in his hands. It was warm. It giggled, apparently ticklish. “Whale anatomy… Stomach? Intestine, if it’s this small… maybe…”
But there was no time to curse his lack of whale facts. He needed to get out. Return this pile of missing wishes. Find his friends.
“I wonder if you’re mine,” he pondered aloud. “I only made one wish to the well, you know. To be safe.” He pet it gently. “And—I guess I am.”
He could stay here forever, in the cold dark, in this soft pile of forgotten wishes. Nothing would change. Nothing bad would ever happen to him, and nothing good either.
He had been here for years.
“Maybe it’s a lot to ask for, but if you could grant just another wish…” He held it up, pressed his forehead to the warmth, thought of his promise to Kintsugi—the faces of Silvermoon, his friends, his family. He whispered: “I wish we could go home.”
The wish in his hands grew more vibrant. The wishes underneath him and around rose higher and higher, one by one, in a multitude of colors that bathed the suffocating space in a disco of bright lights.
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Nero
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Lone Wolf
Player Character
Posts: 253
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Jack Montague
OOC Username: Vay
Arena Points: 68
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Post by Nero on Jan 25, 2024 4:43:52 GMT 9
“I wouldn’t usually—recommend jumping into the mouth of a leviathan… but this game rewards people who are willing to take crazy risks.”
At Saint's surprise advice, Nero found himself hesitating. In the rush of excitement, he'd managed to convince himself that staying where he was and simply giving out a bit of advice was enough of a contribution for him to make. The other players had jumped on his suggestion of a safety line after all, and hopefully now that Saint and Silvermoon had one, they'd be able to pull orioncayge back up with them too when they came out. He felt as though he'd solved a problem, and had been content enough that that meant he'd done his part for this particular quest.
But... Saint was right. What sort of video game considered it 'mission complete' to just stand near the danger and only offer suggestions rather than actually joining in? It's not like his help with the nets made up for it either - Orion had done half of that so take Nero out of the equation and they'd be in exactly the same spot right now without him. He'd been useless, a pointless addition, a hindrance to the team, and now he wasn't even going to be present to see if he could help with the next bit?
... Did it matter? Would anyone begrudge him chickening out of his first ever big quest? Everyone here had been playing far longer than him and they'd all seemed pretty sympathetic so far. Would they even judge him for wanting to sit this out?
“If there’s any place to practice doing something scary, it’s here.”
Chewing on his lower lip as he watched Saint disappear into the beast's mouth after the other two, he glanced around towards Ruby, the last of the players still here. "I could... um..." What? Hold her stuff? What could he possibly say to justify waiting behind when there were a dozen crew members around them and the Captain himself, all fully capable of keeping things on track up here? He flinched as his teeth bit too deep and he could taste the metallic tongue of blood on the inside of his mouth. Not here though, because this was a game and his avatar wasn't affected by something like that... and there was the kicker. There was the sudden flash of light, more of a lightning crash than a light bulb, aggressive and forceful as it pushed his arms into action tying the rope still in his hands around his waste before the enlightened words could even make it out of his mouth.
"Oh for fuck's sake it's a fucking game you fucking loser." The words were mumbled and aimed at himself, but his own frustration burned so loudly that they were audible to others regardless. He didn't care though as he marched towards the beast's mouth before he could change his mind again.
Despite what Laguna had taught him in the tutorial, he found he wasn't yet comfortable enough with jumping to launch himself from the ship's deck in that way. Walking he was perfectly fine with, and he'd gotten the hang of climbing and even running now, but jumping felt... strange. It required so much strength, so much force to push yourself fully off the ground like that, and while he knew he could do that, he was still struggling to change that into actual action. But that was fine. He didn't need to jump. He could just walk right into the darkness until there was no more ground beneath him...
And walk right into the abyss he did.
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Ruby
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Player Character
Posts: 155
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Dr. Ruby Walker Ph.D.
OOC Username: Magnere
Arena Points: 60
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Post by Ruby on Jan 25, 2024 13:54:24 GMT 9
The massive beast was trapped against the ship, tied in a net and stabbed with harpoons. They had done it! The plan had worked flawlessly! Ruby had cheered out in excitement, dashing back towards the rest of the crew with her Mr. Mime shortly behind her.
She watched as everyone took action, orioncayge leaping in without seemingly any hesitation. Same with Silvermoon and Saint . Some of them tied ropes, others just leapt straight down into the belly of the beast. Ruby herself paused for a second, wondering the best course of action. Diving in seemed like the logical progression of the quest, but she couldn't deny the thought was intimidating for sure.
Up until now, she had avoided ever trying to intentionally draw aggression, or leaping into danger.
What changed?
She didn't have an answer for that, but maybe the time for self discovery wasn't in the middle of the quest. The young woman was just building her courage to take the furthest leap she has made since starting, when the last player on board spoke to her.
Immediately, Ruby's eyes locked over at him. He could what? Her trained eyes scanned over his expression, and found a familiar feeling staring back at her. Anxiety wasn't hard to recognize, nor was the self-insult that swiftly followed as he began to finally move. It was in that moment, Ruby immediately made up her mind.
"And I'll go with you!" She spoke to Nero , not even bothering to tie a rope around herself. She'd be fine. Worst came to worst, her Pokémon could open a portal to the Dream World, and she'd escape that way. "Nobody goes at this alone! We're all together. No sibling of mine jumps into the belly of the beast alone."
"Mr. Crime?" Ruby would twist around to look at her Mr. Mime, who was still standing there all smugly. His hands were suddenly behind his back, as if he had almost been caught messing with something he shouldn't be. All the ropes still looked tied tightly... But she still narrowed her eyes at him. He simply shrugged in response, remaining silent. Suspicious. She didn't trust him at all, but she still had to rely on him.
With a sigh, she spoke quickly. "Stop whatever you were doing, I need you more than ever. Step into the jaw, make your walls. Protect. Keep it from closing, keep the path open for us to return."
The Mr. Mime suddenly saluted with a downright malicious grin at the idea of causing some dental destruction. As soon as Ruby leaped down into the darkness, The Pokemon's hands outstretched, forming it's invisible barriers that spread around it like a forcefield. It just danced around, mocking the massive beast for its utter misfortune and suffering.
Even sliding down into the darkness, thoughts continued to pop into her head. Wishes, dreams, hopes, goals. Sometimes there were Wishes that could only become reality by sheer luck, fate bending to do what it can. But this seemed like the other kind of Wish.
The kind where to make the Wish come true, they needed to make it happen themselves.
Despite all her anxieties, the fear of the darkness and what may lay beyond, there was one thought stronger than all the others. She wished for fun, and she was having fun. An excited laugh immediately echoed from her, a smile impossibly wide that was only illuminated by the light of her next wish that formed right beside her.
"I wish I had decided to seek out fun sooner."
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The Captain
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Weekend Warrior
Round 2
Posts: 151
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Remy Andersen
OOC Username: Stells
Arena Points: 60
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Post by The Captain on Jan 26, 2024 12:11:52 GMT 9
What is a wish? Hope. A desire. A distant dream. Shallow or deep, fervent or fickle, old or new, simple or defiant of all known laws of this universe; it’s in our nature to make wishes, and throughout our lives, as we grow up as much as when we grow old, countless of them bloom out of simple thoughts — nurture by our faith in both ourselves and the will of the cosmos. I wish. I wish. I wish…I wish someone cared about me.
I wish I wasn’t here.
I wish we could go home. I wish we’ll be safe.In the mere act of believing that something can be true, there is a power unlike anything in the entirety of this universe. The power of change.
You chose to step into the abyss in hopes of restoring order to this hopeless place. You took a leap of faith, believing that in the darkness you’d find the precious wishes that had been stolen. You acted, doing everything in your power to bring back what no one should ever lose in the first place. To your actions, to your hopes, and to your faith, the universe listened, and from the depths, what was forgotten awakened… A myriad of colours explodes into view. Hundreds. Thousands. Millions of lights sparkling all around you. Wishes, real and alive. They’re all here: everything the beast had taken, every hope and every dream that had been devoured and thought to be lost forever. You found them. You woke them. You made it. For you all, the wishes gather; they swarm like fireflies in the dark, sharing in the collective will of a hive. They lift you up as if you were weightless, beneath you becoming as if a mass that shimmers and glows as if by sheer willpower; one that caries you up higher and higher. Up through the terrible body of the gargantuan beast, up in this darkness, up in cold waters as thick as ink, and up to a sky that’s starless. Up and up and up. Up so high that the cord holding some of you snaps.I wish I had decided to seek out fun sooner.
Among giggles and giddy murmuring, the wish-beings grab hold of each and every one of you. A shirt. A jacket. A hand. A boot. They pick you up and with surprising gentleness drop you off safely on the surface of the ship that awaits you. The crew is there, The Captain is there too, and all of them look up, for the dark skies of The Old Water Well’s depths are now filled with bright lights that dance and play with new-found vitality. “Ha! Look at that! You did this.” The Captain tells you all, and he smiles when he says so. “You brought back hope! Nice work, y'all.”Wishing is a simple act, an act that most people often perform without even realising that they’re doing so, but there is no such thing as a meaningless wish, for in the mere act of wishing there is proof that hope exists… And yet, where there’s hope, there’s those who greedily wish to take all of that for themselves too. While the Wish Beast may have been defeated and forced to retreat to the depths with an empty belly, who’s to say when it might return? Wish me luck
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C0D13
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Bug Maniac
Administrator
Posts: 2,018
Trainer Class:
Player Name: C0D13
OOC Username: Ladybug
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Post by C0D13 on Feb 6, 2024 11:31:53 GMT 9
SCENARIO COMPLETE!Participants may choose (1) [tangent=WISHIE BEASTIE: This pocket-sized version of the Wish Beast is the perfect pet for one of your Pokemon. Once a turn, when its partner makes a sincere wish, the Wish Beastie will grant the Pokemon a +5 to its next action.] POKE-PET: WISHIE BEASTIE[/tangent] or TM: SWIFTClaim your item in General Mod Requests!
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