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.
Post by iolani kótsyfas on Nov 21, 2017 12:15:04 GMT
curiosity killed the cat...
but satisfaction brought it back.
'it's huginn right now,' her familiar informs her as drops down from the rooftops and makes her way towards the office of the mail delivery service. 'sure,' she sends back, long since used to huginn/muninn switching on her at the drop of a hat. 'you gonna do your confuse-the-shit-out-of-them thing today?' the crow considers, then replies with the mental equivalent of a shrug, meaning probably not. maybe. depending on nir mood. eh, whatever. it's not it really makes a difference to iolani, some extra amusement aside.
letter delivering is one hell of a step down from her usual jobs, but she's not complaining ( yet ). she's here in sundial to relax, after all, set aside her poisons and bows to play at newcomer-tourist. besides, it's a chance to snoop in other people's business, and when has she ever let such a glorious opportunity like that pass? a playful smirk twisting her lips, she saunters up to the only other person hanging around the meeting point, a dark-haired man with tan skin and posture too perfect not to tease.
"hey there cutie, you ninos knight?" leaning against the wall by his side, an inch or two too close to be polite, iolani deliberately trails her eyes down and up his form, then meets his gaze, raising an eyebrow with an impish grin. huginn swoops down from above in a blur of sable and ink, claws outstretched as he aims to land on knight's head. a flash of pearly teeth. "i'm alana, your mission partner for today."
[attr="class","inkpost"]‘stop chasing pigeons. you’ll hurt their feelings,’ he tells miro silently, and the familiar only looks back up at him, tongue lolling, completely unrepentant and unapologetic.[break][break]
‘you get to make your fair share of bad decisions,’ miro counters playfully. ‘so do i.’[break][break]
ninos doesn’t have an answer for that, giving only a light-hearted shrug as a response. the painted wolf scampers off, not too far away, settling into a patch of long grass for pigeon-watching purposes; pale eyes peek out from between waving fronds, a mottled coat blending well with sun-dappled shadows. ninos himself opts for a more conspicuous waiting point -- he stands at the corner of a quiet intersection, a nameless figure against a red brick wall. not leaning on it, despite the comfort it might have offered, but standing with spine ramrod straight by virtue of old habit. by his side he carries a plain brown messenger bag, the contents of their mission. his hands hold a few letters, the papers spotted with the greys and blacks of names smudged into illegibility. [break][break]
he doesn’t register the presence of his mission partner until she is right there, a little too close for comfort, her gaze shameless, smile playful. there’s a flutter of feathers and something lands on his head. startled, his shoulders instinctively jump for his ears. ninos resists the urge to take a dozen steps away to have a conversation from a more comfortable distance, instead opting for a practiced grin and a chuckle almost sheepish.[break][break]
“ninos knight, at your service,” he quips, and nods towards her. “pleasure to meet you.”[break][break]
Post by iolani kótsyfas on Nov 26, 2017 16:16:14 GMT
curiosity killed the cat...
but satisfaction brought it back.
ninos knight actually allows huginn to land on his head, her familiar radiating smug satisfaction and digging in his claws to tangle them in the witch's dark hair. not so hard that it hurt hurts - ne's not going to be that mean. yet. iolani doesn't bother hiding her amusement at ninos' startled response - both she and her delightfully infuriating familiar shamelessly reveal in their mission buddy's uncomfortable body language cues before he hides them behind a practiced grin and a falsely casual laugh.
"pleasure to meet you too," she purrs, shifting a tad closer if only to try and provoke another response. she deliberately infuses her movements with an edge of smooth sensuality, silver-grey eyes wicked as they lock onto their target. her crow, marvellous menace as ne is, fluffs up nir feathers and shifts so that ninos knight looks almost as if he had a head of feathery black hair made from the shadows themselves. it's a good look on him.
"the menace in your hair is lord fluffy mctibbles the third," she introduces cheerfully, ever so casually ignoring the screech of outrage this elicits, and equally as casually ducks under huginn's attempt to mob her with nir claws outstretched. "my name is lord fluffy mctibbles the fifth, thank you very much," ne shrieks, wings flared in mock outrage as ne lands back on ninos' head, and gods sometimes she loves her familiar. hopefully, nothing is making sense to her pretty pretty mission partner right now.
"so, you got the letters?" iolani asks, taking her spot back against the wall by ninos' side, this time another inch or two closer than she had been previously.
[attr="class","inkpost"]there is a prick of pain, negligible really, but just enough to annoy ( of which he partly suspects to be the main intention ). her amusement only confirms his suspicions further, but there is little he can do about it apart from grin and simply take it in his stride -- so he does.[break][break]
ninos knight is many things: a dancer, a soldier, an educator, an actor. some of those exist in the past tense, but it doesn’t stray from the fact that his choices have taken him down a winding path, to say the least. it just so happens that this time, it leads him to a brazen stranger and a crow with no concept of personal space. the latter seems to be modelling a new hairdo, but if ninos has any protests, he doesn’t voice them.[break][break]
resignation settles; miro laughs silently at him. the wild dog bounds out of the tall grass, sending pigeons scattering in a flurry of grey feathers. he gives alana a cautious look, but otherwise settles quietly at ninos’ feet.[break][break]
“yep, got them right here,” comes a prompt answer as ninos tries to pretend as though his mission partner wasn’t slowly sidling closer with every opportunity. he offers her one of the letters he holds, and stares blankly at the remaining few. dark inks bleed into shapeless forms on pale parchment, and even the most legible of addresses are, at best, an educated guess. “you know, they really weren’t kidding when they said the letters got drenched.”[break][break]
a moment of silent consideration. ( the mission premise is tedious to begin with, and alana seems to delight in his discomfort, so he might as well get a kick out of it too. ) with a deadpan seriousness that belies the sudden playful light in his eyes, he says, “guess we’ll have to read them to see if there are any clues.”[break][break]
Post by iolani kótsyfas on May 28, 2018 7:55:44 GMT
curiosity killed the cat...
but satisfaction brought it back.
the jester does not respond to huginn/munnin's presence beyond an initial confusion that rapidly melts into resignation; both iolani and her familiar feel strangely cheated of a reaction. that said, the ability to just take things in stride is rather admirable - she wonders how far it extends. huginn resolves to test it out.
she sidles closer again, this time with the flimsy excuse of taking a look at the letters. knight ruins her fun by simply handing one to her, but hey, she'll get him eventually. the envelope itself is entirely unremarkable - plain parchment and dark ink, how utterly pedestrian. how utterly boring; except. except for the fact that water has diffused the ink into shapeless swirls of black and blue, the names and addresses all but unrecognisable. she glances over at her mission partner to see that the envelope in his hand has faired no better.
"well," she says. "this certainly makes things interesting."
there is another moment of silence, and then it is ninos that breaks it this time, with a suggestion that seems more like something she'd suggest rather than the other way around no less. iolani turns to him with a gleam in her storm-silver eyes and a slowly widening grin, delight evident in the curl of her crimson lips. "oh," she says. "now, i like the way you think."
still grinning, still with delight dancing in her eyes, she winks at him and slowly, every so deliberately, breaks open the first envelope.
[attr="class","inkpost"]it seems that ninos knight is not, as one might now assume, capable of minding his own business. he would like to think that he doesn’t do anything quite as tactless as barge into situations like some sort of unwelcome party crasher, but when presented a situation like this, well, how can he resist? it isn’t as if reading these letters is going to harm anyone. besides, he can’t figure out any other way to deliver these letters without actually reading them. sure, he could individually go to each and every doorstep and shuffle through the pile like a truly diligent mailboy, but that’s just so much effort.[break][break]
why put in the extra effort if you could do half the work but have twice the amount of fun?[break][break]
he pries open the first envelope he has in his hand, careful not to tear the paper, scanning the ( surprisingly ) lengthy letter for more decipherable text. it is written with stellar penmanship, each letter elegant and every word ending with a flourish, and really would have been quite nice if not marred occasionally by the bleeding of ink. what a pity.[break][break]
the real gem, however, lies in the final paragraph. an eyebrow quirked, ninos raises the letter, beginning in an exaggerated and affected tone, “'all in all, i wanted to let you know that if brittney EVER’ – oh wow, it’s literally all in caps, they’re not joking – ‘pulls a stunt like that again against my precious caitlyn, you WILL’ – oh, again? – ‘be banned from the cul-de-sac barbeque. of course, she can’t help what she learns from her mother.’”[break][break]
he takes a breath. wonders just how life is in these neighbourhoods. figures that he doesn’t really want to know. he just knows that brittney really screwed up this time, huh. ninos continues, coming to the end of the letter and choking back a laugh, trying desperately to keep up some semblance of a straight face. “'hugs and kisses, helen.’”[break][break]
“damn. helen really isn’t holding back, huh.” [break][break]
