this is Salem, a land filled with magic and maladies. It is a place where witches and their elemental familiars gather, a home to legend and
lore that predates time itself. Yet of all the wicked and wonderful stories the past can tell us of, the most magical are the ones yet to happen.
This is Salem - this is the start of your very own journey. Welcome to starfall
Starfall is an animaga witch roleplay set in mostly modern times. Members play as witches in a world plagued by monsters, where the only safe spots are walled cities. Starfall strives to be a character-driven roleplay with expansive lore and a highly interactive plotline. We want to allow members to
create and look back on a magical journey, and mold the site and its plot as their characters grow.
his shoulders ache from the rucksack slung over his back, and his fingers stain in berry blood, painted by the tree bark pressed into his palms. here in the forest ( among pregnant bushes and lively soil; the forest in which the trees do not break; the forest that does not remind him of a house of jade ) he feels less man and more boy, icarus before the burning— atlas, before the brunt of earth was thrust upon his spine. [break][break] “i’m headed over the water— there are elderberries further up this stream, past the rocks,” he calls behind him, to his cousin ( he reminds himself ) sister, turning his hip to face her on his side. “you can join me, if you’d like to brave it, of course.” [break][break] zhihao is hoping she catches the turn of his lip as he breaks away from her and along the river; that she follows the tiger’s tail through the canopy highlights and embracing trees; that the glass of mirrors can lose its reflection; ( zhihao is hoping his challenge is just as much invitation; that this forest does not have to mean the same thing as their homes ).
there is a sunburnt youth; she feels like a girl again, sun-gold on her skin and leaves in her hair. there is a sunburnt youth with scraped knees and dirt beneath her fingernails, bare feet sinking into mud and her lungs swelling with sweet, clear air, drunk on the heady taste of freedom. this is the sunburnt youth, the one she missed, the one she could have had, the one she has been chasing to the end of the horizon.[break][break]
meifon laughs purely because she can, and kicks off her shoes; she throws them off the rocks ( later going back to retrieve them, because she does need them, even if she thinks she doesn't ) and jumps to her feet. zhihao's challenge sparks competitively like lightning in her eyes, he knows she will not back down. "you're on, brother!" she calls, flashing a smile like the devil, the leading edge of a storm. "bet'cha i'll get there before you!"[break][break]
in a move born from pure impulsiveness ( and the fact that she doesn't think zhihao would have thought of ), she skips the land altogether and splashes straight into the river, mud squelching between her toes and her pants instantly soaked up to her knees. but the water is refreshingly cool, and the morning air is warm; she is a meifon lin who does not have to care about the state of her clothes, so she waves at zhihao and turns and sprints.
here between trees is everlasting memory— remnants of children broken away from glass cases, display pedestals insisting ownership; here in the scattered light of the forest, shattered youth patches itself together with slick mud and brittle leaves. [break][break] here, he watches a sister run, and as he bounds after her, finds footing among the earth, sings with its lively tune, he cannot help but notice how both have lept from silhouette; how both have slung shadow from their shoulders and found their names tucked away in the folds of their hearts. [break][break] and now the wind hits his hair, and the vines along the floor lead him beside the river— beside, now, his partner— and with every hit of his feet to the earth, his chest rumbles, ( like leaping tiger, chasing antelope, rippling through underbrush, unafraid and unhindered ), his eyes spark. there is a rush, and tiger melds with warrior, and zhihao rises and falls back to the ground, and the earth ruptures toward the water, disrupts rhythm ( the forest’s song ), and he is running again, laughing and cheerful, light falling on his face. [break][break] “i’ll take on those odds, dear sister,” he calls, and rushes, and in his wake now the tiger’s tail is real and trailing between emerald.
there is a rumble beneath her feet, the waking of a forest god from his eternal slumber. there is a rumble, there is a shift, a surge of magic like the taste of static and copper on her tongue; the earth ruptures to the beat of her brother-cousin-partner's heartdrum and attempts to snare her in.[break][break]
oh but she is not a prey-creature to be so easily entrapped, not anymore. she is a creature of the feywild with lightning bones and fingers trailing wind, she has magic coiling beneath her skin, too - electric rush crackles along her veins, and look! there is a lei-feng crown with his storm-forged scales, tucked into her hair as a glimmer of lapis-dark gems. meifon lin laughs, wild and bright; she leaps up over the ruptures in a showy backflip simply because she can, and the winds gather beneath her heels to cushion her landing. "you'll need to try harder than that!"[break][break]
a flash darts between her familiar's scales, skeleton standing in stark relief for a brief split-second; then there is a ripple of air, wind currents curving into the shape of a dragon and launching themselves at zhihao. if he has opened the floodgates of magic, then let there be war. she runs like there is freedom on the horizon and happiness swelling at her breast.
the earth cracks and breaks, and stutters for hardly a moment, before meifon is vaulting the air ( flying, he thinks, as dragons are meant to do ) and coaxing wind into serpent — a snake with teeth and tongue and flight, a dragon, as she is meant to be — hurtling in his direction. he almost stumbles, but the forest catches him: the forest, which reminds him of his nature, curls seeds into his hands, plants azaleas in the crook of his elbows. [break][break] you are the spirit of the trees, it says. you see the ends of our growth. [break][break] and nüwa breaks hold, out into this jungle, all runic stripes and divine fur and crowning headdress, and the earth lifts— here, she makes blockade, an army of stones lifted from the riverbank and stacked between the tree trunks, immovable and stubborn ( just as its master ) in the wake of the eastern beast. [break][break] in its absence, zhihao moves them away and back to the river, skipping along the water and seeking battle. [break][break] the leaves bristle as the west runs; in his eyes reflection, he sees their storm brewing. [break][break] “seems the same could be said for you,” he taunts, and breaks for the clearing, the forest whispering, fervent, upon his neck.
the wind dragon chases after its target with thunderclouds gleaming in its eyes - but the forest protects its children, and zhihao has ivy and solidagos growing in his bones where meifon has her lightning. a tiger arrives from the west, a helm of sun-gold and battlearmour stripes rippling between her fur; the earth sings as her paws hit the ground, the trees stand straight-backed and proud. she orders the forest floor to rearrange itself and it gladly does, building a fortress wall unto itself prepared for the wind-beast from the east.[break][break]
what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? what happens when the earth and sky collide? they do not know yet, for meifon and zhihao lin are merely at the beginnings of their stories, a winding path beneath their feet leading to an unknowable future. this is the prologue, the very first steps; the stone-forged barrier crumbles beneath the dragon's claws, but the winds tying the dragon together peter out upon the destruction of the western wall. [break][break]
but the wall is not important in the grand scheme of things, and neither is the wind-dragon; they are quickly forgotten for the race strung between their respective humans. meifon pushes her muscles to strain for the sky, neck in neck with her brother-cousin for the competition-crown. the forest-grounds echo with the thundering of their feet; the clearing ahead is visible between the leaves. [break][break]
home stretch, the final leg; meifon hollers back "say that again after i've beaten you!" and throws herself forwards.
[break][break]
