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.
Mission link Marie was pretty excited, as was apparent in her expression: a blank face that could easily have been mistaken for a look of utmost contempt. She was sitting on a bench a in front of the shop they were supposed to rob buy from. Who would have thought her first mission would be a shopping trip. Apparently, one other witch was going to do the job with her, which only made her even more excited. She was idly stringing some light into figures while waiting for this other witch-- assuming she hadn't already gotten inside. The shop had only just opened and there weren't many people inside apart from the staff. Reine was chasing his tail in excitement with each figure the strings of light changed into.
"Ah wonder what kinda witch they cozyin' me up wit," she mumbled to herself. Her inner smile was beaming as restlessness manifested in her hands as she formed the string of light into a star. Reine took this opportunity to shove his snout in the middle of the knots.
"Why ya lil bastard, I canny believe ya've done this." It drew looks of concern from a few passers-by who flashed looks of concern for the large dog. The tone of voice and the way this dark-skinned witch seemed to be addressing this plucky, happy canine made her look like she was threatening to cut this dog's snout with these glowing ropes. The young lass paid them no mind as she loosened the ropes to give Reine some good-boy pats. If he were any bigger, the spastic wagging of his tail could cause hurricanes.
Post by august carter on Mar 13, 2019 12:03:10 GMT
“A rather straightforward request, don’t you think?” August asked in a chipper voice as she made her way towards the store circled on the map. She had passed by the shop before many times, but had never been inside. August had seen a lot of different places on the outside, but unless they had a cake to be delivered there, she had no reason to really go in. Nicki Bunaj hopped alongside his witch with the same disinteresting gaze in his eyes that he usually always had. Yes, the request was pretty straightforward, but nothing involving August really ever ended up being as straightforward as it seemed. He wasn’t sure if she liked complicating things on purpose or if that was just the kind of energy from the universe she drew upon.
August quickly spotted the other witch standing by the entrance. It wasn’t a hard inference to make given that all the other people walking about appeared to be in a hurry to get to whatever destination they had in mind. Only one person was standing still, and looking rather aloof at that.
“HI!” August semi-yelled as she grinned from ear to ear. This was a new face, a new face that looked as if she could use some cheering up. “Please,” Nic begged, “volume.” Her overenthusiastic greeting had drawn the gaze of a few passenger-bys who slowed down to glance in their direction before continuing on their way. “Are you here for the jester’s den mission? To buy the shirts here?” August added in at the exact same volume as she had used before. Nic sighed softly, but did not protest further. He knew by now when it was a losing battle.
August turned to look at the store, putting her hand on the door in order to open it. “Might as well get to it, yeah?” she asked. The phrase was spoken like a question, but it really wasn’t one. They were going. August was insistent. With a quick push, she opened the door and was greeted with aisles of…….soup?
Even though Reine was enjoying himself, his attention immediately turned to a new scent that entered his peripheral range. His head darted towards a girl and her fancy-looking bunny. The girl yelled out to them in greeting. Reine returned the greeting with happy barks of his own which were just as loud, startling several people and making them quicken their pace to put a little bit more distance from the wolf that was just as tall as the young witch sitting on the bench and just a head and a tail longer than the two-person bench she was sitting on.
Marie raised her hand as high as she could and waved it only a few degrees in one direction. "Oy, lass. 'ow are ya?" she said with only the subtlest hint of joy that would be hidden to people who weren't looking for it. She dispelled her magical string and stood up to follow the girl into the store. Reine followed along though his eyes were glued to this fancy rabbit. He was calm for once, but not because he was at peace. He was eating up every detail of (presumably) this other witch's familiar.
Thinking it would be good to get introductions out of the way, Marie offered her hand for a shake.
"Nice to meet'cha. Am Marie and this is ma lil pupper, Reine. I think he wants ter be friends yer cute dapper lil bunny lad."
The fact that they potentially were in the wrong store hadn't quite sunk in to Marie's consciousness yet. She was much more interested in this dazzling character in front of her and, as a witch who worked with light, you could say she knew a thing or two about bright things.. Though she did notice the bunny, she figured Reine had that part covered and then they could just swap later.
Post by august carter on Mar 13, 2019 17:47:33 GMT
August liked the wolf. He had an energetic vibe and she was a fan. The girl though, quite the opposite. They reminded her a lot of herself and her own familiar. The two of them were quite opposite of one another, but they worked (relatively) well as a team. August took Marie’s hand with gutso and shook it with enthusiasm. “My name is August, and this here is Nicki Bunaj” she said as she pointed to Nic with her other hand. “Nic,” he corrected her almost immediately, a tradition he was quite used to at this point.
Nic eyed Reine with suspicion. He was a suspicious bun in general, but especially so of overly friendly beings. While it could be true that it was a dog’s nature to be friendly, but it was also the nature of a prey animal not to be overly trusting. “A pleasure,” Nic said to the wolf with a slight nod to his head. An acknowledgement for now. He’d continue his observations.
“Interesting,” Nic commented as he hopped into the store after August. Maybe the welcoming department was just soup and the clothes were in the back? Although the décor appeared to be much more soup orientated given the floating plastic vegetables and pop art of soup cans on the walls. “Are you sure we are at the right place?” he asked hesitantly as he turned behind him to try to see whether or not the store had an signage to indicate its name.
“Of course it is,” August replied with a huff as she lowered the map down to Nic’s level, “See? The sign on the door said Mae’s. And the map has this place labelled as Mae’s. And the building next door is a pizzeria just like on this map.” She was honestly a little offended that Nic didn’t think she could read maps. She knew this city like the back of her hand given how many deliveries she’d had to make for her parent’s bakery. Turning to Marie, August showed her the paper too. “You got a map as well, right? Is this same place circled on yours?” she asked with a huff.
"Ah. Tha's adorable. A cute name for a cute burd. And, nice ter meet'cha, Nicki," said Marie as she knelt down to offer her hand for a shake. Noticing the rabbit's caution towards Reine, Marie added: "Don' mind, Reine's face. He had never met a talkin' bunny before, and he migh' look scary but a promise he's harmless. Cannae even hurt a cow, this'un."
As if trying to look cute and say "I promise I'm a good boy," Reine bowed low and whimpered so that there eyes would be eye-level. Aww, ye cheeky lil bugger, thought Marie as she had never seen this much interest in Reine's eyes before-- which was saying a lot since Reine was usually very excited about everything.
With introductions out of the way, it was business time. Marie tried to recap in her head the details of the mission: To buy a shirt in this store. She was surprised that she managed to remember all that. As she turned to scan the store for any type of shirt that seemed to be what the mission asked for, it finally dawned on her what August was seemingly confused about.
"Aye, A get'cha. This has ter be the right place, though."
Marie fumbled around in her pockets for the map they gave. After a few minutes longer than it should have taken to fish something out of one's pocket, Marie produced a small square of paper no bigger than her palm. A few more minutes later, and she had unfolded the square into a map of the area where the quest should be, only to confirm August's suspicions that they were indeedy-do in the right place.
"A dinnae ken. The map says it's here but am a wee bit lost on this shirt we're s'pposed to be gettin'. Let's ask somebody."
Post by august carter on Mar 19, 2019 11:42:16 GMT
“Nic,” he corrected Marie almost immediately. He was going to start early if he wanted people to ignore August’s ridiculous name choice for him. The wolf was okay for now, Nic decided. However, he was still going to keep his distance as he always did. The sheer size difference had just been imitating in the beginning. Worse comes to worse, Nic trusted his witch to do her best in protecting him. Even if the protecting would have to be from bear hugs and slobber kisses rather than an actual aggressive fight.
August and Nic both waited for Marie to fish the paper out of her pocket in absolute silence. The drawing would either confirm or deny August’s ridiculous claim that they’d find shirts in this soup store. With an appalled gasp, Nic shook his head. “Jester’s Den, I sometimes marvel at how they manage to still be operating given their oversights,” the arctic hare sighed. He really did try to urge August to join coven with a much more, honourable reputation. But the pink-haired girl couldn’t be bothered to do anything that didn’t promise her an adventure. She’d have to realize at some point though, that not all adventures had good outcomes.
“Yes! Lets go ask someone! It’ll make things go sooooo much faster,” August agreed with a furious head nod. If an employee could point them to where they needed to go, the mission would be done in no time. She wondered if it was considered cheating, but the instructions they were given were pretty vague about how they obtained the shirts as long as it was from this specific store.
Grabbing Marie’s hand as August had no concept of personal space, the pink-haired with dragged her mission partner along as she tried to find an employee. Luckily, the two just had to turn one corner before a shelf stocker appeared in front of them. He didn’t notice the four of them as he was humming his own tune, lost in little world stocking a shelf of tomato soup cans. “Lovely,” Nic commented, “he’d be able to tell us if there was anything here besides soup.” August wasted no time at all before tapping on the boy’s shoulder. “Hello! I was wondering where we could find some shirts on sale here?” she asked.
((feel free to control said boy NPC)) Marie Marion
August grabbed her hand and whisked them away to the land of inquiry. Marie, totally caught off-guard, plainly said "woah, lass. Ma heart's not ready." She could have been screaming on the inside but as usual, the outside failed to reflect the truth. Meanwhile, Reine, in quick reflexes, grabbed Nic with his jaws and tossed him onto his back then ran towards their masters.
In no time flat, August had already found an employee of the store. Marie wasn't expecting to be running and had to catch her breath for a little bit. She steadied herself with a hand on her chest and looked at the male worker who had been humming to himself before they popped out of nowhere to ask him something
"Uh..." he muttered, confused why the two girls were looking for shirts. He noticed Marie behind August, breathing a little heavily and glaring at him. As if to add to the sight, a large shimmering wolf ran up beside her. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of the employee's head as the bright, energetic girl who had just asked him a question was followed by what seemed to be trouble.
"Uuuuhh....." he muttered again. What would anyone do in this situation? He felt that he couldn't refuse if a large eye-patched wolf was looking at him excitedly. There was a knife in its sheathe strapped to the thing, too. Deciding that he would take the coward's way out and put someone else on the spot, he finally managed:
"I... I'll go ask... my... manager..."
The employee slowly backed way without letting himself lose track of that wolf in the case it suddenly jumped at him. In a minute, he was gone and into what seemed to be the staff room. Marie added "A feel like the lad is new to this "customer service" thing, ain' he?"
Post by august carter on Mar 28, 2019 14:57:14 GMT
“Ah, come on now. Your heart always has to be at the ready. Otherwise, how will you jump on adventure the second it presents itself?” August chimed in. Surprises were often the start to a new chapter; something to throw one off the path they had already thought they knew ahead of them. Making things exciting, the fun stuff!
Nic was less than pleased by Reine’s actions. He squeaked out a high-pitched rabbit noise in protest as he was being thrown into the air. Luckily, his monocle managed to somehow stay on his face as he was airborne. A fortunate event as he had no desire to go looking around the store for it later after the four of them were done with their little mission. “Hey now,” he snapped as he held onto the wolf’s coat for dear life. He wasn’t used to moving at this speed and it was knocking the wind right out of him.
August’s gaze tracked the store employee’s movements with intent and curiosity. He seemed nervous, but she was unsure why. She had just asked a simple question after all, and as a store employee, wasn’t it his job to know what was and was not sold at their store. Even if he didn’t know the specifics, simply pointing them in the direction or aisle would have been enough. They had four pairs of eyes to actually search the shirts out in the end.
“Yeeeeah,” August agreed as she turned her body to face the door, “why don’t we go over and check? You know, if it takes him a bit longer to come back out?” It hadn’t even been that long, but August wasn’t the most patient witch in the world. She was prepared to go in there, tagging along to talk to the manager herself. But the employee had backed away with caution and no one else around her had moved. August didn’t want to be the only one to follow the guy, especially not when Nic was fuming mad. He didn’t express this verbally, but his hair was turning the shade it usually did when he was experiencing intense emotions.
Laughing to herself, August grabbed Marie’s wrist again and tugged her towards the door. “Let’s go wait. Or maybe we can even hear them through the door if we put our ears real close,” she suggested. It was a childish thing to do given that what they would be listening to wouldn’t even be a secret, but then they’d be able to find out as fast as possible. “Don’t even think about doing that again,” Nic huffed at the timer wolf as he began hopped alongside his witch.
With no room for breathers, Marie was whisked away again and this time she let out a monotonous little "Eep." How could she ready herself for every occasion without a moment's rest? she thought to herself. As she got dragged along, she added:
"This doesn't seem like a good idea."
Although, it wasn't as if she was totally opposed. As soon as they entered the shop, it was pretty obvious that there were no shirts to be found. Just soup. Not even a shirt with soup on it-- whether it was pictures of soup or soup stains. Suffice to say she was a little curious what went down behind the scenes if that gave them any indication as to where these mythical shirts were.
At the doorway, there was a tiny window that people could see through so Marie decided to have a peek. The young store employee was talking to a very large man in both height and width-- which was about all that she could make out from that small window. The young Light witch couldn't help but utter a hushed "woah."
She tugged at the sleeve of August's shirt.
"Come look at this fella," she said to August, pointing with her lips at the big man preoccupied with his confused staff's report.
"I am in awe at the size of this lad. What an absolute unit."
