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 saskia burovski on Jul 1, 2018 10:24:39 GMT
on days like these, the library opens up as a place for magical experimentation, for witches to test their newfound knowledge. saskia is kneeling by a table in the corner of the library’s function room, with luci sitting patiently beside her. sunlight filters through tall glass windows and refracts off crimson hair and the sloping glass of an upturned hourglass before her.
light dances afire in her eyes, intent and focused. the sand trickles down, bit by bit, emptying out the top half steadily. but that is not what she is looking at: she is looking at the glass itself, occasionally shifting ever so slightly and getting a glimpse of her reflection, distorted by the curve of the glass. sometimes, the edge of her reflection blurs with the shape of luci, and then she is someone else with sharp teeth and sharp eyes and power at her fingertips. the illusion always fades, though, and she is but a girl once more.
saskia burovski, novice augmentor but feeling no stronger save for a new and shiny rank, sits before an hourglass and wills it to break.
she leans forward tentatively to tap it with her finger, already expecting failure. for a moment, nothing happens; then the glass crumbles beneath her fingers into a fine shimmering powder, scattering with the sand. she blinks. then a grin spreads across her face, victorious and elated and-
“oh no, i have to clean that up,” she whispers to luci. the bear only huffs in response, a mixture of exasperation and fondness. saskia straightens up immediately, still unable to wipe the grin from her face, doing a cursory examination of the room to see if anyone actually saw that. there is only one other person, a girl with dark hair and an interesting assortment of… what were those, anyway? hold on, that's a familiar face. what was her name again?
attempting ( and failing ) to be discreet, saskia is more or less staring at ling in open curiosity.
For someone who has an active and healthy social life, is not currently attending any school, takes regular missions, and lives at the Jester's Den, sometimes Ling certainly acts like she fully lives in the library. Which... isn't actually that far from the truth, in all honesty. Especially now, when she's surrounded by several piles of books stacked taller than herself and too many papers and brushes and ink scattered about. Her hair is getting rather frazzled and she hasn't slept in two days ( shoutout to caffeine for being the Ultimate Enabler! ) but who cares when she's on the verge of a breakthrough!
The breakthrough isn't coming though, and she's just left staring at a page of equations and runes and coffee stains with the blank look of someone who knows the answer is looking them in the face but can't work it out. It's a very frustrating place to be. Her brain feels like static and gravity feels a little wonky; maybe, maybe she should take a nap and come back to this later, some latent remnants of rationality whispers. But, but! She's so close, she knows it!
Still nothing.
Fuck.
Just as she's debating the merits of downing another cup of coffee, she gets that weird itchy feeling of someone watching that no one knows how to describe but is 100% valid she swears. Ling looks up to a girl with sunfire hair and a crown of light, eyes green as the new leaves of spring and features wrought of ivory. By her side is a bear that has starlight captured within her fur. In the half-lucid state of her mind, they look like a pair of goddesses descended from the skies, or taken straight out of some fairytale description.
They also look kind of familiar, but Ling's brain is currently not up to the effort of trying to locate memory and names.
So of course, Ling waves at them cheerfully and greets them with the unfiltered high of someone who has stayed up long enough to no longer remember what tired ( or being human ) means. "Hey there! We've met before, right? I'm Ling, and I just want to say that you both look like legit angels right now."
Post by saskia burovski on Jul 2, 2018 6:36:58 GMT
ever oblivious, she is somewhat surprised when ling actually takes note. for a moment, they make eye contact or something like that, and saskia has absolutely no idea what is going on. should she wave? say hi? what do you do when someone catches you staring? do you just look back down and pretend it never happened? maybe she should do that.
but instead, ling waves and introduces herself with a concerning about of cheer, and saskia finds herself also lifting her hand in a friendly, albeit somewhat uncertain, wave. now she's also concerned, because ling's hair is an absolute mess and the dark circles under her eyes apparent, even though her eyes themselves are terribly bright.
she hesitates for a moment, wondering if she ought to continue the conversation from across the room or scoot closer. curiosity wins out in the end, and saskia moves over with luci in tow, looking slightly abashed by the compliment. it was a compliment, right?
"thanks, i guess?" she laughs, sliding into the chair opposite ling. "i think we've met, yeah! at the uh-" she pauses, waves her hand vaguely, frowns slightly, "-thing."
a quick topic change is in order. no use dwelling on whatever that was! "so!" she chirps, leaning forward to peer at the runes, of which make absolutely zero sense to her except that they are probably very interesting. "what're you up to?"
The girl and her familiar wave back and actually move across the room to sit next to her, to Ling's absolute delight. She beams at them; a stray thought passes through her head that maybe she should tone down the maniac cheer? But hahaha why would she do that, the day is bright and so is she. Not to mention, she doesn't think she really can slow down the energy bubbling under her skin, thank you caffeine.
Though, the girl's words actually bring about a small pause. "Thing?" she parrots blankly, wracking her brain for the 'thing' where they'd met each other ( good to know they have met before though, otherwise her greeting might have turned a little awkward ). Her brain certainly makes a valiant effort, but in the end it subsides back into her skull with a quiver and sigh, and Ling gives it up as something that's just maybe a little beyond her right now. Maybe it'll come to her after some sleep. Which she won't be getting anytime soon. Ha.
Huh. Maybe she should apologise to the still-nameless girl about what Ling is vaguely aware is weird behaviour, even for her.
But then she asks about Ling's work, and hey this is a subject she can ramble about for hours. Now who's incoherent, huh! "It's runework!" she chirps, then realises that she probably should be more specific. "I was researching this super weird artifact for a mission and there were these really interesting runes that stored and converted energy, so now I'm trying to write my own array based on the theory, but the original fractals aren't working for the new configuration and I'm trying to figure out if swapping the god runes for modified natural runes would be better and-"
Valkea manifests in a swirl of white fur and tail, landing elegantly on the ground with all the grace and poise that Ling will never have. He whacks her gently, cutting off her increasingly rambly diatribe before turning to the other witch-familiar pair. "I'm sorry about Ling," he says drily. "She hasn't slept for about two and a half days, I promise she isn't this much of a mess normally."
Post by saskia burovski on Jul 2, 2018 7:51:29 GMT
runework, huh. she understands those words seperately. put together, and ling is met with a fairly puzzled, albeit enthusiastic stare. she may not know what ling is talking about, but it sure sounds cool! admittedly, saskia has never been the most learned about other affinities. she knows of illusion and summoning only by extension, and only because of kasimir. even her own, of which she understands is the same as her coven leader's, remains much of a mystery to her. perhaps she ought to find a mentor. not dmitri, though, he's kind of mean.
ling rambles on, and frankly, saskia is very curious. she tries her best to follow what ling is saying, but then what she assumes is technical jargon comes in -- what's this about fractals and god runes and natural runes? -- and, try as she might, saskia is lost. still, ling has her hooked now. the augmentor squints harder at the books and papers scattered across the table, the darkened edges of coffee stains, and looks back up at the girl with undisguised admiration and amazement.
just then, a fox that must be the girl's familiar slips into view, graceful and elegant. he offers an explanation and an apology, which saskia waves away with a grin. "no, no, it's okay! this all sounds really interesting and really difficult! for what it's worth, i think you're doing an amazing job!"
You know that feeling of being aware that you're rambling, that you're going on and on about a subject that probably no one is interested in or knows anything about, and that you're using way too much jargon than is polite, and you're probably being annoying as heck, but you can't stop yourself? Ling, in a nutshell. It's always a little difficult to contain her manic highs when caffine has replaced the blood in her veins and runetheory the neurons in her brain.
So the pink-haired girl with her acceptance and her acknowledgement and the proclamation that her beloved affinity is interesting and amazing? A literal goddess descended unto earth, thank you very much.
( yeah, maybe she's a touch dramatic as well, just a bit. but you try devouring legends and fantasies, and have both the magic at your fingertips and the imagination to eye those novels just a tad too seriously, and not start narrating each encounter like some sort of excerpt from a story )
She lights up at the compliment, sunlight and stars dazzling beneath her skin; "you think so?" she beams. "You're so nice!"
And because she has, like, no verbal filter right now, she proceeds to blurt out, "also you both look amazing. Like faeries. Or angels. Have I mentioned that? I think I've mentioned that, sorry. But it bears repeating, y'know?"
Entirely not what she intended to say. But hey, a truth is a truth, and she can totally roll with it. Ling's a firm believer in delivering compliments to everyone, even strangers, because most people really don't get enough of them. And Valkea's long since given up his witch sticking to anything so plebian as social norms when she's got a belief stuck in her brain - besides, sitting back and watching the chaos is really quite amusing, you really should try it.
She smiles sheepishly, runs a hand through her fringe ( probably making it even messier in the process ) and clasps her hands under her chin. "And, uh, before this gets too awkward, could I get your names again? I kinda... can't remember much right now. Can't even remember my own," she jokes, and she keeps grinning but ugh, wow, that still kinda hurts. She definitely didn't mean to make herself sad. She's in the presence of a hopefully-to-be-new-friend, she refuses to be sad.
Post by saskia burovski on Aug 27, 2018 6:39:33 GMT
the other girl smiles, and saskia thinks: whatever ling is talking about, she would be honoured to listen, if it made ling so damned happy for her to do so. there is something incredible about the way people light up when talking about their interests, saskia thinks, her own grin only growing brighter in a reflection of the runescripter’s.
she is about to say something ( not sure what ) but the compliments throw her off guard ever so slightly; she laughs instead, light and bashful with the slightest of pinks dusting her cheeks. “thank you,” she manages, even though it’s the second time she’s heard this from ling and she really should learn to take a compliment. luci offers her own ursine equivalent, a chuckle rumbling deep in her chest. saskia gathers herself, somehow, a glint playful in her eyes as she points out, “ha! it bears repeating, i see what you did there.” a pun really wasn’t necessary, saskia. but you had to do it, didn’t you.
saskia rests her elbows on the uncluttered edge of the table ( one of the few pockets of empty space among all the absolutely fascinating mess ), a mildly concerned look beginning to appear as she notes ling’s exuberant, seemingly permanent smile. she’s a big fan of smiling, for sure, but that looks like it might hurt. oof.
“it’s alright! i’m saskia,” she says, without skipping a beat, “and this is luci.”
Ling tries to offer up the obligatory groan at the ( unintended, sadly ) pun, but she's too busy bursting into giggles over it instead. She doesn't blame herself too much though - much can be forgiven when one is running on, like, no sleep, which is basically her life motto. "I d-didn't mean it. That- that was t-terrible," she manages to get out through her laughter, clapping her hands over her mouth the muffle further giggles, but it's not too effective. Everything is far more funny at whatever-o'clock it is and when you're running high on coffee.
She promptly decides that yup, nope, even discounting everything else, this is definitely someone she wants to be friends with.
The names don't ring that much of a bell, weirdly enough, but Ling's got enough social competence not the mention that. She fixes them in her mind instead, determined not to forget next time ( because there definitely will be a next time, just you wait and see ), and leans back in her chair, clasping her hands together. "Alright! Saskia, and Luci. gotcha."
"So," she says, mischievous-bright with curiosity like sunlight in her eyes. "What brings you two to the library today?"
