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.
I press the button and[break]it bursts into life[break]This time nothing will escape my sight
[two years ago]
She's humming as she scribbles down runes in jet-dark ink, a tune of some popular song she'd heard being played around town that had gotten stuck in her head. So, maybe she gets a few notes off key, and maybe she just repeated the chorus five times because she doesn't quite remember what comes next, but really, who cares? The sun's shining, the array's going well, no one's yelled at her or anything - it's a good day!
Of course, of course she'd jinx herself.
For a moment, her concentration wavers and her attention splits to focus on the wayward lyrics of the song playing on repeat in her head, so instead of writing down the next sequence of runes as per directed via her instructional scroll, she writes down the lyrics. Of her song. The ones she'd sung five times.
Now, this might not be a big deal had the array been activated as she'd normally do - in one big burst of mana once it's done. But today, today of all days Ling had decided to challenge herself by trying to channel mana into her script as she writes it. Risky for an amateur on a good day, the array'd have to be perfect to succeed. But as just noted, Ling had fucked up. Spectacularly.
With barely a moment of warning, the mana Ling had been channelling abruptly slips from her control, building up within the flawed array within seconds. She recognises the danger - of course she does, unfortunately this happens a little more often than Ling would like to admit - and she has only enough time to fling herself at the ground yelling a warning of "DUCK!" before the array completely destabilises and explodes.
Boom.
Heh. Her ears judder and the ground shakes and smoke and soot is flung all over her, but hey, she's alive! Well, really there was no doubt given the fact that this was a pretty simple array, and Ling is still a beginner runescripter with not that much mana at her disposal - the worst she really could have done was maybe gotten minor burns. Which she hadn't, this time. Even the table's still standing, albeit slightly warped!
Post by saoirse ó floinn on Jul 23, 2017 23:19:30 GMT
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"your tea, madam."[break][break]
rhodochrosite gleams with appreciation as a tender voice murmurs her gratitude. the tea set that is placed in front of her smells divine, the aroma of fragrant jasmine wafting from the spout of the tea pot. putting down her quill, she picks up the teapot and slowly pours herself a cup, smiling slightly at the gradual flow of scented liquid. a small decanter of milk is available for her use, as is a small bowl of sugar, but she does not go near them. she has never liked diluted tea. taking a small sip, she is pleased with her beverage, finding it immensely pleasant. it isn't a wonder that visiting the cafe is one of her favourite pastimes.[break][break]
picking up her quill, she resumes her writing, jotting down ideas for her next publishing. it has only been a year since the release of Canopus and the name Máire Callaghan is well on its way to becoming a household name. her true name, however, remains hidden within the masses and sitting here in the cafe, one can turn a blind eye to her, without realising they have bypassed a rising author. it's a comforting thought to know that her anonymity is intact and her daily life is unaffected by the fame she has accumulated. to an outsider, she might as well seem like a young woman attempting to achieve something great, by the looks of her ink-splattered note page, rather than one that has done so.[break][break]
it happens without warning and she is given a fright.[break][break]
a cacophonous boom of haywire mana explodes in the room, provoking startled screams, the shattering of porcelain and a rise in noise level. it wasn't a large explosion; a mere discharge of energy and sound. dust drifts around from the area of the blast, causing the nearest tables to evacuate. the cafe inhabitants are in a state of unrest as they mutter in agitation. Was it Leviathan? What had just happened? [break][break]
gathering her papers and things, she thought it would be best to leave, but curiosity kept her from doing so immediately. clearly someone had been trying something and they failed. events such as this happen often, but to do such a thing in an enclosed area? the author found it daring. piqued, instead of walking away, she approached the one table cloaked by smoke with no small amount of tentativeness and intrigue. [break][break]
she finds a girl, covered in soot and whatever remnants the explosion left her. she is young, much younger than saoirse herself. readjusting her grip on her paper pile, she tucks a strand of rose-tinted hair behind her ear and smiles. "my, you gave everyone quite a fright there. what were you trying to do?"
I press the button and[break]it bursts into life[break]This time nothing will escape my sight
There's soot on her face and in her hair and there's the acrid smell of charred paper lingering in the air around her, but the worst of the explosion has already passed. Ling hauls herself from underneath the table, clothes smoking slightly, and yells a sheepish, "sorry, experiment went wrong!" to the general occupants of the cafe. No doubt the people of her coven - and perhaps even some of the regulars of the cafe - are long since used to stuff going boom around her.
Settling back onto her overturned chair, Ling leans forward curiously to check if any of her stuff has survived. She's extremely relieved to find the instructional scroll is still intact, albeit a little singed, and while her stack of papers and brushes can't be used again, at least they're easily replaced. Of course, the array she'd been working on is disintegrated, but that's also expected.
All in all, not too bad.
A voice startles her from her musings and Ling looks up to see not one of her exasperated coven members (surprisingly) but a pink-haired woman with a pile of papers in her hands and a wry sort of smile. "My, you gave everyone quite a fright there. What were you trying to do?" she asks.
Ling rakes a hand through her fringe, and when all that does is smear the soot in deeper, she starts fiddling with the ends of her braid as she smiles, embarrassed, at the witch. "I, uh, I may have messed up an array." She glances around at the blast radius ruefully. "Pretty badly."
Post by saoirse ó floinn on Jul 26, 2017 1:26:17 GMT
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"I, uh, I may have messed up an array."[break][break]
rose-tinted eyes glimmer at the mention of an array. this child was the same as herself. smile widening a fraction, her cheeks flush a little in excitement as she takes a slow step forward towards the younger girl. her fingers clench tighter around her notes as she speaks, tone no louder than it was before, but there is no denying the thrill underlying the tranquil, "you are a runescripter, as well?" as she waits for an answer, her gaze roves over the warped table surface, taking in the scroll and the singed bits and pieces of whatever was previously there. how fascinating...[break][break]
as unrealistic as it sounded, the author is rather mundane and does not use magic often in her everyday life. while she is aware of her water element (as marchosias tells her time and again) and knows her affinity is runescripting, she has hardly done anything with them, attempting only occasionally water boiling and the only array she knew; storage. while she can see its benefits, she has never left the house for a long amount of time and hence, she has never needed to use it. though as she thought about now, perhaps she might soon, when the influence of leviathan will eventually engulf her. [break][break]
she murmurs to the girl, curious as to what she hopes to achieve, "do you use your runes often? in this manner?" should every failed array end in explosion, she is just a little more hesitant at trying one. there are one too many important pieces of paper strewn about her house to be caught in any fire. pressing her lips together, she stares at the scroll with no small amount of inquisitiveness, wondering if she could amass a collection of her own runescripting scrolls. perhaps, she might. [break][break]
I press the button and[break]it bursts into life[break]This time nothing will escape my sight
"As well?"
It takes a moment for the implication of those two words - two tiny, little words - to sink in, but when it does Ling latches onto them with all the excitement of a child given access to a candy store. Her eyes light up and she abandons all thought of the smouldering table to focus entirely on the pink-haired witch, leaning forwards and probably stomping all over the unspoken societal rules governing personal space. "You're a runescripter too?!"
She maybe flails a bit in elation - but not really because don't talk about it ok - meeting a fellow runescripter outside of Lux University is so rare that Ling can count the occurrences on one hand. She decides, then and there, that she'll try everything she can to be friends with the other witch. Runescripters gotta stick together and all, right?
"Haha, yeah, I spend a lot of my time studying runes and runescripting theory. It's just so- so fun! and interesting!" She waves her hands around as if trying to emphasise her words, almost whacking herself in the process. "Uh, well, normally this array doesn't explode, I just... made a mistake today. But, uh, yeah, sometimes my arrays might explode... if the circumstances are right... or wrong..." she admits, tugging on her braid and giving the pink-haired woman a sheepish smile. "But! It's usually when I'm experimenting or something, and I usually take a lot more precautions than this."
Post by saoirse ó floinn on Jul 27, 2017 23:07:17 GMT
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[attr="class","jartoxpost"] she finds the young runescripter's enthusiasm to be contagious, for a tint of pink blossoms on her cheek as she smiles in return. normally she would have been put off by such intensity, but their blatant connection of magics tapers away any rejection and she finds herself eager to make conversation. she blinks rapidly at the sudden decrease in space between them and she is startled briefly by their close proximity, stepping away a little. still smiling, she nods. "indeed!"[break][break]
the girl's experience with her affinity was truly higher than her own, gathering that the study of runes itself may as well be her life's work. the author watches with mild sympathy at the sheepishness displayed at the most recent experiment explosion. she chuckles lightly in hopes of bringing empathy, while setting down her pile of paper and quills. "failure is still progress, sometimes the greatest things come from accidents. i'm impressed you've already done so much."[break][break]
comparing to herself, of course. [break][break]
perhaps there's a little chagrin in her heart that she hadn't afforded much time for her own affinity, but her books, her career had been her priority. as much as instincts, as Marchosias had her occasionally reaching for a quill to create her own array, she had ignored it for the typing of her stories. but now, her novels had been published and there isn't an essay on the way, maybe, just maybe she could start. now it is her turn to be sheepish as she blushes softly, "i've never had the chance to practise runescripting; i've only ever read about it. i wouldn't know the start of how to create a proper array."[break][break]
her lashes flicker as she stares up at the girl, eyes imploring. this could be the start of something new. [break][break] ooc: hello to u as i shitpost away
I press the button and[break]it bursts into life[break]This time nothing will escape my sight
The pink-haired woman takes a step back, and Ling realises with chagrined sheepishness that she'd maybe gotten a little too close. Drawing back a little, she smiles apologetically at the other, hoping that she hasn't scared the other witch away or anything. She's self-aware enough to know that she can be a bit... much at times.
The other runescripter (which, hey, she's still elated about) stays, much to Ling's delight. The pink haired woman sets down her pile of quills and papers on the table (the poor table groans and creaks at the added weight, but stays steady) and regards Ling with a small quirk of her lips. "Failure is still progress," she says. "Sometimes the greatest things come from accidents. I'm impressed you've already done so much."
Ling beams at the compliment, a familiar flush starting its creep across her cheeks. "Thank you!" she exclaims. "But- uh, hopefully the failures and accidents are less explosive in the future," she jokes with self-depreciating humour. She's not really hopeful such a thing will actually happen because explosions just seem to happen around her, but hey, the other witch doesn't need to know that.
She's a little surprised when the pink-haired woman confesses to not knowing how to start creating an array - she's older than Ling by at least a few years, and Ling can't imagine not exploring her affinity, not when the complexities and mysteries and beauty of runes and arrays are all but a siren call to her blood - but everyone's different and she's not one to judge. Ling, after all, might be fairly knowledgeable about runescripting, but her general spells and her familiar magic truly suffer from lack of attention. "Hey, that's okay," she says. "We can learn together, if you'd like? I've got a lot of instructional scrolls and materials and stuff we can share, and I'm pretty okay at the basic stuff. What do you think?"
Post by saoirse ó floinn on Jul 29, 2017 12:37:45 GMT
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[attr="class","jartoxpost"] her hands spring into motion at the girl's offer to help her, pushing aside used pieces of paper and pulling out a clean one, quill clasped in her hand. "please." she's ready to fill in the missing gaps of her identity. not only is she an author, she's also a witch; it's time for her to fully recognise that. although she knows what arrays are and how significant they are to runescripting, she has little clue as to how to actually utilise them. from just simple assumption, she can tell that she'll definitely learn how to do this today.[break][break]
"saoirse."[break][break]
without warning, marchosias suddenly materialises upon her shoulder, surprisingly lacking a scowl on his face or even the notion of a hiss ready to force its way out of his throat. he speaks to the girl loosely, "saoirse has her hands on a storage array. teach her how to use it." closing her eyes, she brings a hand to her face and lets out the softest of sighs. she's abashed at how blase and rude he is, and coughs embarrassingly. "be polite; she's going out of her way to do this." she manages a timid smile before batting at marchosias to shoo him away. he nips at her fingers before dissipating his form. [break][break]
alone again, she's at a loss for words for the first time. mumbling, she says, "uh, i, sorry about him. he's never liked it when i talk to other people." without looking up from her paper, she quickly scribbles a title on the page, 'runescripting basics'. she doesn't say anything else, but she stares curiously at the arrays the other girl already has on some of her things, hardly understanding what they meant. 'well, that's what i'm here for.' [break][break]
ooc: ugh this is a true shitpost i'm ashamed[break]
I press the button and[break]it bursts into life[break]This time nothing will escape my sight
Her eyes light up like fireworks against the backdrop of night when the pink-haired witch accepts her offer. Ling quickly springs up to help her clear out the table for a place to sit, to work; she shoves aside the charred remains of her failed array's collateral damage, rifles through the papers that have survived for a clean sheet, and deposits the also-intact scrolls onto the ground next to her chair.
"Nice to meet you Saoirse," she says, stumbling a little over the unfamiliar name. "I"m Ling."
A blink, and there's suddenly a furry creature on Saoirse's shoulder, round-faced and fluffy and too cute to be legal. "Oh, hi!" Ling says in surprise. She's about to ask what kind of species he is - yes yes, she's always been a bit bad at personal boundaries - but she's beaten to it by the familiar himself. "Saoirse has her hands on a storage array. Teach her how to use it," he says abruptly; and really, who can blame Ling for just blinking at him in bemusement in response?
"Uh, o...kay?" she says, too taken aback to formulate a good response. Her brain doesn't come back online until Saoirse's familiar has dematerialised and she's left staring at an empty space where a furry critter had stood. Man, she's really got to work on her reaction times. "Hey nah, it's fine." Ling waves off the pink-haired witch's apology, beginning to recover her cheerful disposition. "I'd be happy to help! I can't say I know all that much about storage arrays - beyond basic theory that is, but I can always learn!"
She rearranges herself into a more comfortable position in her chair, grabbing a pen and readying her paper. "So do you have the scroll with you?" she asks, then interrupts herself. "No wait, first, how much do you know about runescripting as a whole? Like, intent verses specificity, passive versus active, activation methods, what are runes - that sort of thing?"
Post by saoirse ó floinn on Sept 25, 2017 10:00:08 GMT
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[attr="class","jartoxpost"] Saoirse blinks for a second before shuffling through her papers, hoping that she might have picked up the scroll after having spontaneously scooped up a bunch of her things in her rush out of the house. Dumping her things onto the cafe table, she rifles through it with a palm, pushing the scribbled-on pages away and finding that tell-tale symbol for her array. A-ha. She slides it out from underneath several layers and lays it delicately on top of her mess, smoothing out the parchment. Under her breath, she mutters, "I don't know if my lack of organisation is a good thing or a bad thing."
[break][break]She just manages to catch Ling's query about her knowledge on rune scripting and her mind blanks. Pressing her lips together and puffing her cheeks out slightly, she swallows her pride and says, "Nope...", popping the 'p' and tapping her fingers on the pile of paper. "I can't say I know much at all. Except for the fact that these arrays do things when you put mana into them? Whatever 'putting mana into things' means as a general action." Her fingers wiggle slightly for effect as she waves her hands over the array, demonstrating her idea of 'putting mana into something'.
[break][break]It's a bit embarrassing to admit her utter lack of knowledge on her own affinity, despite being an educated individual overall. Perhaps it's mainly due to her own inexperience with magic on a whole and how she's a mundane human overall in her lifestyle. However diffident she may feel, she definitely isn't going to let this learning opportunity slip away from her.
[break][break]Pushing the array towards Ling, she smiles softly, "Feel free to use it if it helps explaining the basics."
I press the button and[break]it bursts into life[break]This time nothing will escape my sight
"Nope...", Saoirse says, "I can't say I know much at all," and gives a very general, layman's description of runescripting. Ling can't deny being surprised - the few runescripters she's met were all super into it and definitely experienced with and enthused by their affinity - but then again, the few runescripters she's met have all picked it up as a secondary, studying it at Lux. Not exactly comparable, really; Ling and Saoirse are actually kinda outliers with pursuing their natural-born affinity runescripting affinities.
"No problems," she tells the pink-haired witch, smiling at her encouragingly. "Basics are a heck of a good place to start!" She carefully sets aside the storage array scroll Saoirse slides her way for now - actual array stuff can come later. So... from the start.
"So, you know how every affinity is basically just a different method of channeling or using mana, right? Well, runescripting is the art of manipulating mana through a written script to create all sorts of effects. It's kinda like enchanting - only the spells are written out, and it's a lot more versatile. We runescripters actually have a saying: 'if it was be written, it can be done'. There are obviously limitations like mana and time and stuff like that, but it the saying is pretty much true!"
She pauses to take a breath, having gestured excitedly throughout her entire explanation, and tries to organise the next chunk of information into something resembling coherency. "Most of the time, runescripting spells are written out in arrays," and here she points to the storage array scroll as an example. "The runes might look like they're the most important thing - and they are, they're really really important - but you can't neglect the other factors as well. Every array is designed on a geometric base matrix that corresponds with and enhances the runic effects, and each array has arithmetic principals underlying them both with the design of the geometry, and with the placement of the runes. So basically, you've got to factor in and work out a lot of maths as well as the linguistic stuff with the runes." She pauses, tone drifting towards something more musing. "There's actually been some speculation that there's a cosmological aspect to the geometric base, which would be really interesting, but it hasn't been confirmed yet..."
Ling shakes her head, bringing herself back to the present. "But yeah, runescripting is heavily centred on maths, geometry, physics, and linguistics, not just on runes. But! A lot of the more researchy stuff should be easier for us since we're born with the affinity - from what I've observed, we have more of an instinct or intuition on the placement of stuff. Though, there's still a lot of research necessary..." The last part is mumbled almost to herself as Ling glances at the soot-stained space around her with a slightly pained expression.
"So... yeah... am I making sense so far? Do you have any questions?" She bites her lip and looks up at Saoirse hopefully, twisting the end of her braid between her fingers.
Post by saoirse ó floinn on Nov 25, 2017 7:22:51 GMT
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[attr="class","jartoxpost"] There is attention and intent within Saoirse's gaze as she focuses on everything Ling says, the words filtering in her mind with ease. Treating the talk like a lecture, she absorbs the information quickly, deciphering their meaning swiftly and filing it away as her 'runescripting knowledge'. The basics were indeed the basics. They sound clear enough; she'll do a little more of her own research when she returns to Lux. Nodding in understanding, she doesn't speak, allowing for Ling to continue with her explanation.
[break][break]There's an internal wince when she hears that the affinity is based 'on maths, geometry, physics, and linguistics.' It brings a small grimace on her face at the mention of mathematics, purely out of the fact that it was one of her weaker subjects during school. She wasn't bad, per se, but she wasn't fantastic. Her degree might not include much science, but at least she has some knowledge retained. It would seem that she has to pull out her old textbooks out again. Or go to the library to relearn some things.
[break][break]She is relieved to hear that she might have some innate ability to sense what she is capable of achieving with her arrays. Letting out a stream of air, she smiles a little to herself. Threading her fingers together, she nods at Ling's question, "I'm following... What basic arrays are there that most runescriptors use if they're only just beginning?" It's an incredibly simple question that she feels might be answered in a book, but perhaps she would get a better interpretation from someone who has actually experimented and gone through the fundamentals. [break][break] ooc: so shit omfgadl;khgra
I press the button and[break]it bursts into life[break]This time nothing will escape my sight
She notices a slight grimace cross Saoirse's face when she talks of maths, geometry, physics, and linguistics and follows it to the logical conclusion that those subjects aren't exactly her favourites. It's not something Ling has ever really struggled with - she has a pretty invested interest in basically all things academic ( okay, so that's not quite the truth, but really, she just likes to learn ), and even more so for all things runescripting - but if it's anything like her struggles with that long, dry, and boring law text she'd once picked up and tried to finish because of stubborn pride, she gets it.
"If it helps," Ling says, fiddling with her braid, "you could do quite a bit with standardised arrays - basically the arrays that have been already crafted and researched by others, and modified into a form that most people can use. Runescripting also has a strong basis in intent, so you can substitute some of the more complicated stuff for a strong, focused intent when you're activating the array. Of course," she says with a mildly sheepish shrug, "arrays work best if you've got both intent and specificity, and the more complicated or powerful you want the effect to be, the better it is to have a specified, specialised array- not that either of us have to worry about that for a while."
Returning Saoirse's smile, Ling lights up at her question and reaches for the storage array scroll she'd put aside earlier. "Most runescripters start with understanding and using the standard arrays!" she explains cheerfully, and flicks through the scroll pages until she finds the standardised storage array diagram. It's a complicated thing with three circles and seven points, but the runes themselves aren't too complex, which is all that matters, really, with a standardised array. "Like this one," and she points to it.
"Basically, for a standardised array, all the research and maths and geometry has been done for you, so all you gotta do is understand how each rune links together, then copy out the array. Once you understand the runes, you can also modify them to suit your needs. 'Course, you can build on them and change the circles, matrices, and points too, but that part does involve maths and research." She makes a mildly apologetic face.
