ORIGIN - [QUEST] The eternal winds of desperate hope

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A light shone in the tunnel leading into the room of howling winds, glinting off the carved faces and armor that were scattered about. In the absolute darkness that had become Origin caves even this small pinprick shone as bright as a small sun. Its source was a small necklace of leather wire and crystal worn by a large and rugged-looking red wolf.

It had been a few days since his encounter with the bringer of light and darkness, that angry sprite who cast the caves into shadow in a fit of selfish desire. In almost every waking hour since Xireidi had wandered aimlessly, hoping for a quick solution to the problem. With the glowing crystal given to him by Kyorai long ago held in mouth he had glanced through every room he knew of, meeting other gembound along the way. He had told them of their plight, of the treachery, of the solution proposed by their captor. In a few he had even planted the seeds of mutiny, the thought that by working together they might overthrow the sprite, but not without a great loss of life. Each room he explored, each gembound he met, he gave the simple request- "Meet me in Monoceros if the lights have not returned within five days. We will search as a group from one side to the other. Surely by working together in an orderly manner we can accomplish much."

This glowing accessory around his neck had been a recent addition. While in Orion on his way to their meeting spot he had stumbled across his sparring partner, who was in the process of organizing the items in one of the ruined buildings. The gryphon had taken his luminescent crystal and fashioned it into a crude necklace so that he would still be able to speak while walking in what little light he had. Sadly, the gryphon would not be joining them, opting instead to finish the task they had set out for themselves. It had been a small disappointment, but he had agreed to fight by the wolf's side should the situation come to such a conclusion.

Xireidi turned upwind as he entered the impossibly large room, waiting a few minutes to find any points of light visible in the distance. Of course, there were a couple discarded baubled stones at various locations around the cavern, but none that he could see that appeared to be moving. That didn't mean they weren't being carried though, he just had to give the rallying call.

Xireidi took in a deep breath, nervousness sinking into his gut. This was their one shot at a peaceful return of the light. With great force he exhaled, sending a distinctive howl into the winds and calling upon any who he had met and any who might have just happened to be in the area.

It was time to begin.

"The words I speak"
The thoughts I hold
And the self I keep hidden away
tags: @Azar @Albeon @Rinaotei @Kin-Kin @AnyoneElseWhoWantsToJoinLastMinute
notes: Posting order, due to number of players, is not strict. Do try to keep relative order though if possible and give people change to speak between rounds.

Kin-Kin's glow turned her into a walking beacon as she padded into Monoceros for the first time in many cycles, remembering with amusement the cycles of her youth spent pitting herself against the natural wrath of this room. As she padded onwards, their cloak tugging at the gem on her chest and fur rippling in gilded sheets like a ripe wheatfield, Kin-Kin turned their nose upwards at the sound of a howl- an echoing call which echoed throughout the room and rose above the answering cries of the wind.

The red wolf paused, ears twitching in the wind, her cloak flapping. A few long moments passed, and then she let out an answering call, a lonely wail ringing like a bell from deep in her chest. It continued, her head leaned back and singing, and her ears lowered flat against her head, until she knew that anyone who could have heard would have. Then her jaws closed, her cry fading into echoes.

And then she continued, trotting onwards until she found the path left by the other wolf by scent. Head lowered, she padded onwards until she found them; the pup who she'd once sent on their way to begin their life journey, and a smirk crept onto their muzzle. Her soft glow caused the shadows around them to lengthen, creating shapes and monsters out of the smallest pebble. Her blade clinked gently in its sheath, the translucent blue crystal refracting rainbows all around her.

"Hey, kid," she drawled coolly, settling back on her haunches opposite them, with her tail whisking around her haunch. Her golden fur rippled in the slightest breeze. "How's life treatin' ya?"

" speech "

@Xireidi

Azar
It's a new world
It's a new start
And it's alive with the beating of a young heart
[Image: fESoGD0.gif]

Azar sat in the meeting place, his eyes speaking of uncertainty and anxiety as he stood there with that fleeting sense of pride. This was definitely the right place, and the air was full of exotic and interesting smells. Azar's tail wagged as he whimpered, barely able to contain his out of control excitement. He was helping someone! That was all he'd ever wanted to get out of this, really. He wanted someone to be proud to say that they had been aided successfully by Azar the fox. He grinned as he thought this, stood a little firmer and raised his head a little higher. He searched hopefully for the leader of this whole operation, to no avail.

[Image: N008Q9U.gif]

"Speech."
"Thoughts."

@Xireidi

Rina was weaving through the air to reach the orchestrated destination of the meeting, a component of the cave that she surprisingly has yet to check. She was sailing her wings in a relaxed manner, as much as she wants to pick up the pace and make haste it won't be a perspicacious idea with this darkness as going too fast may cause her to do a mortifying outcome of crashing face first into a wall. While this dark doesn't seem much of a bother, for Rina when the mutant finally realised the last time the caves went into tenebrosity was in fact not a dream. She preposterously trusted someone too quickly and sanctioned them to infect her with something that made her uncharacteristically feral and bellicose and almost killed something; thankfully she lost that battle, and she believes that it didn't die from her attack. Due to that incident that took place, this tenebrosity is discomforting for her even if she is vigilant that she's, in reality, this time. While this new form she has that seems connected to the result of that incident is salutary, especially as Rina loves the liberation of flying, she never wanted to hurt anyone she just doesn't have it in her to be violent with the intent to kill. She only fights to the ones who in her eyes deserve it and is completely necessary, even then while she's not an honourable fighter in the slightest pretty pragmatic in fact killing is still out of the option for Rina. And so just in case something homogeneous may transpire to another victim, she hopes to return the lights as soon as possible so another can't get deceived like she was.

With those cerebrations drifting away, Rinaotei pounded her taut wings as she tore off towards Monoceros to join the others who withal wish to bring the light back and have an orchestration on how to do it.

The storms hit at her face instantly, whipping at her coat fiercely, making her white fur look akin to a powerful flurrying blizzard or perhaps more homogeneous to passing bright clouds in the night of her ebony pelt. She doesn't endeavour to fight it, but she does haul her wings into the wind's direction accordingly, tightening the muscles in her wings entirely to letting them be a close-hauled state and enables the wind to carry her whole form making the infrequent bend that the wind sanctions her to have. For one who formerly was never an aviator, one wouldn't think.

Seeing the beacon of light, homogeneous to a smoke signal she made way towards it surmising that's where the meeting is. Her ears perked at the sound of a calling howl from another canid that just about substantiates that's where she has to go. Rinaotei alerts them to her arrival, she threw her head back and let out her howl, relinquishing it with all her might, so it isn't drowned out by the wind. To her surprise, the cry sounded different, lieu of a melancholy howl it was a mishmash of a fierce roar and a singing howl it was very contrasting to her honey sounding voice. She gradually lets it die out as she can conclusively see the other figures of Gembounds around the bright light and instantly believed she sees a familiar face.

Rina arced from the air and with graceful poise landed on the border of the meeting grounds, not wanting to place herself right in the middle of it and magnetise an inordinate amount of attention to herself. She ambulates over to the group at a leisurely pace with her membrane wings now folded at her sides and bows her head at all of them for a few seconds.

"Hello, all. I presume this is the meeting?" Rinaotei purred softly as one part of her is concerned that her howl-roar may have possibly sounded hostile from how unorthodox it was from a real howl. Gradually she goes to lie down when she is now a part of the group needing to take a break from that feat in the air. At first glance, it may seem like to she just went into a slumber, but from the light, one can see a glint of one of her azure eyes still open just half-lidded. Please don't worry she's listening.

_____________

words| 725
tagged| @Xireidi
ooc| ---
muse| 7/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

Once again the lights were out, and they didn't last long, so Albeon feels less inclined to trust the words of that sprite if her solution only endured in such a short while, the residents of the caves needed a more permanent solution to keeping the lights on. It almost seemed like a wasted usage of the old Gems that were apparently used to power the Generator again the factor that was the solution made Albeon already feel a bit iffy about the original plan. Albeon, however, had no idea that the said sprite was the reason why things were dark still from their temper tantrum but he may find out soon enough as he intends to ask the other Gembound who'll also be in this meeting why it's dark again. Need to find the source of the problem, after all, to even make a plan that will work, when he does learn that she's the cause of it this time may cause him to lose every bit of trust he has in the sprite.

He's bounding over to the meeting place instead of taking flight, while he's sure that he could handle the wind there's the risk of his long scarf will get snagged by the wind. If his scarf does, it may either cause him to go bowling through the air from his scarf dragging him around the vortex, that or the fabric may slacken around his neck from the churning winds and end up getting displaced. While both possible outcomes show how occasionally impractical this scarf is at times, he refuses to deprive himself of it by getting rid of it for it has far too much value to him. This trinket of his is one of the small few things of his past that were one of the few good things from it and stuck around with Albeon through thick and thin even if it wasn't sentient. The silky object in question was slung to hang off his back trailing listlessly behind him, or at least he hopes it is; it's too damn dark even to see the scarf.

He arrives at the meeting that thankfully has light in it which he went to from hearing a howl from there. Getting a full view of the others, he notices everyone else is a canine, which he has some mixed feelings about as while he knows not all canines are in general are complete utter assholes. The raven is not sure maybe Albeon's worried that some of the canines that he encountered that were bastards are here too. Although looking more better in the light, two of them he did recognise, well one he knows for sure as Albeon acknowledges that wolf that tried to challenge his Magicka prowess thinking it's inferior to hers that aside he doesn't hate her. If anything in comparison to his other incidents, she's not as near as terrible he just hopes she doesn't start getting off topic to taunt him about things. Another he saw was the one he was uncertain whether he did know or not. Is that Rinaotei? Looks like her, but holy crap she looks different if so, looking a bit like a dragon while still looking like a canine. The rest he doesn't know. Hopefully, they'll be decent to have as a team though with this situation.

"So, does anyone know how the lights went out again so soon?" Straight to the point, Albeon as he needs to know right now what the cause is, it just seems suspicious how they're out again. Frankly, the fact that they are out once again and the Gembounds need to bring them back once again after having them back not too long ago is just so damn ridiculous. Just holy crap they all shouldn't have to put up with this if this is a sign it’s going to become a regular thing!

Tags: @Xireidi
Side Notes: N/A

"Hey Yours Truly Albeon Speaking."

And that's a good thing...
It means there's hope and potential in one's Future.

Xireidi waited patiently as teammates slowly began to filter in. It wasn't an especially large group by any means, but it was certainly better than trying this alone!

First to arrive was a very old acquaintance of his, one who had been there from the very beginning. Kin-Kin, the master of magic, harboring a spirit of appearance, and slave to their own hubris. It had been many cycles since they'd met, and in that time he'd grown from a newly emerged pup looking upon a giant glowing wolf to a monstrous specimen of their own species looking at a slight downward angle at them. How bizarre it always felt! "Good to see you here, old friend." he replied to their greetings, "Darkness looks like it's going to interfere a bit with my training and sparring, but aside from that I'm doing well."

Second on the scene was a much smaller figure, a young fox. He'd been hesitant to mention the meeting to them when they had briefly met during one of his earlier searches, but he knew the group could use all the help they could get! "Over here." he hailed in the youth's direction, not wanting to accidentally let them get lost and have two creatures to search for among the winds.

The third member of their little band descended from the air, a strange draconic wolf that went by the name Rinaotei. "This is where we're starting out from, we're just waiting for one more gembound."

Who appeared right away as luck would have it, though strangely not from the air as he would have expected from their only avian member. There might be others at some point, but these were the ones who had shown definite interest when he had posed the plan. Rather than answer their question right away the large red wolf turned to the group as a whole and began to speak.

"Thank you for being here, everyone." he began, attempting to keep a fairly formal tone. If he had gathered this set of volunteers he had to at least pretend like he had more than just a vague clue as to what was going on or how to accomplish their task. "As many of you know, this is not the first time our home has been cast into darkness. Some, I understand, even took part in trying to reverse the darkness the first time. Unfortunately the fairy of light, who had been thought to have been our savior, has shown her true colors by sabotaging the very generator that had been broken before. She is holding our light and lives hostage until we meet her demand- that we bring to her what has only been described as a 'real' batcat."

The wolf sighed, relaxing his stance as he addressed the others "The feral bat-cat creature I brought days ago was apparently not satisfactory. I can only assume the one we are looking for will be more akin to us than a raging lesser gembound. Based on the power she displayed in obliterating the wrong batcat I think it would be wisest to try to meet her demands at face value to prevent a loss of life." and if they couldn't meet those demands... Xireidi internally shuttered at the thought of how many friends he'd probably lose.

Xireidi nodded at their youngest member "The darkness is not necessarily deadly, but it does bring great difficulty to our lives. We want to find this batcat if at all possible but be cautious that you don't put yourself in mortal danger by doing so."

"The plan of attack I put together is to start here in Monoceros, then go through Orion and Canis, loop back around and up to Fornax, and then finally if we still have no luck do a deep search of Pisces and Eridanus. Hopefully we'll find them before having to navigate the fog of Cetus, but the cave is large and there are no guarantees. If you find one that you are pretty sure is the right batcat try to let the rest of the group know, but if you are unable to for any reason try to get them to our captor who sits at the generator in Polaris. Even if we get separated we'll know the ransom has been met if the lights come back on."

"The words I speak"
The thoughts I hold
And the self I keep hidden away
tags: @Kin-Kin @Azar @Rinaotei @Albeon @AnyoneElseWhoWantsToJoinLastMinute
notes: None

He chooses to initially ignore that his question was left unanswered, as it may be possible no one knows, and that's cool no right to complain he doesn't know of it either all he can assume that it has to do with the Generator again. That and the canine leading the whole thing might be getting to get to that soon, formalities and all that jazz first though. The mention of the 'first time', made him nod solemnly at the leading canine as the corvid indeed was a part of when that happened and the attempt to fix it. In that regard, Albeon is glad that it seems all the other Gembound joining aren't going to be as, disturbing as his last assigned team was in this whole light repair.

And then his answer came, and sure enough, it was the Generator again, but the mention that it was that faerie that's the one behind it this time stunned Albeon a bit. Were they all played for idiots by her this whole time then? Was she the reason it went out the first time? It may be possible, especially since her original plan to repair the Generator just bugged Albeon a bit, there was something off about it to him. Nonetheless, all the previous trust that Albeon had for this faerie is just about gone, so much who's even to say she'll also fill her end of the bargain if the real batcat appears before her? Despite being stunned about this potential betrayal, Albeon is a little taken aback that this 'batcat' still hasn't been found yet.

OK, so there's more than one batcat, and the majority are an attack-on-sight sort huh? Lovely, so risk approaching one to see if it's the real deal and if not, risk getting sliced and diced by the feral one in this darkness, is that how it's going to be? It seems like the experience will not be a decent one then all things considered. All the questions that were in his head earlier were left not asked for they were almost more like rhetorical questions then. These inquiries he's thinking aren't going to help at all; he came here to help just like the rest here are, or he hopes so anyway they don't need to hear his mood killing negativity and ruin the morale.

Still, there is one question he could ask that could help with things and won't kill the morale in case all fails in this hunt, a potentially risky one depending on the answer so it'll be better if he does it alone but if he loses his life so be it. Still, there's always the chance they'll find batcat first, but first, before he plans anything he'll ask the leading canine this question how?

"Sorry for another question, but how did she turn the lights off?" He was vague for if she had some unusual power on the Generator that'll require her help completely to turn back on then, Albeon would have to decide against making his secret plan. While he may engage her in combat, he has no plans to murder anyone if he can help it. He does wonder what brought her to show these true colours now did something else happen besides presenting her the wrong batcat and slaughtering it? The only thing makes sense since Albeon as earlier thought is surprised that batcat is still out there, so maybe she lost her patience after having hopes up of batcat found only not to be the case?

Still shutting the lights out again in some fit is entirely selfish of them and puts so many at risk, so Albeon is not siding with her no matter the reasons. So he'll join in this search.

Tags: @Xireidi @Azar @Kin-Kin
Side Notes: N/A

"Hey Yours Truly Albeon Speaking."

And that's a good thing...
It means there's hope and potential in one's Future.

With the conclusion of his speech Xireidi looked over the small group, trying to keep a positive face but unable to help but feel they might be in over their heads. The raven, Albeon he believed they had called themselves last they met, spoke up first. They had met the light fae before, had been part of the initial team to bring the lights back. It was no wonder they wanted as much information as possible.

That and despite their size they were decently older than the wolf, and much more adept at magic. The fox aside, Xireidi now realized, he was probably the youngest one here. Was he still playing hero like he had as a youth? This was no imaginary horror of shadow and flame but it was still a terrifying force they had found themselves up against.

Casting aside self-doubt for the moment the wolf spoke in reply to Albeon's question. "It was a gem, a topaz specifically. She had it stored with a pile of items gathered and relocated it forcibly into the inner-workings of the generator. I imagine we could wedge it out if we got close enough but with her stationed right there she would probably jam it right back up again."

"The words I speak"
The thoughts I hold
And the self I keep hidden away
tags: @Albeon @Kin-Kin @Azar
notes: None

Kin-Kin's tail whisked at the ground, her ears cocked and listening, eyes focused. For once, she waited until the situation was fully explained before she finally stood, stretching each of her stiff limbs in turn. That was a long explanation- but this felt like it could be a lot of fun! It had been a long time -too long- Since Kin-Kin had been involved in anything like this. It sounded dangerous and wild, but most importantly, it sounded like fun. Kin-Kin grinned wildly.

"Sounds like just my kinda job," the she-wolf said, stretching each leg out in turn as though in preparation for something grand- which, really, it was. Finally, she backed away, listening impatiently to the plan of action before offering a single nod. "Alright. Sounds like a pretty solid plan. Let's do this!" Her gaze flickered around each of the assembled Gembounds for a moment as though beckoning them to follow, and then the red wolf turned her back and padded away, her bright glow soon lost to the rocks and the darkness.

-Exit Kin-Kin-

" speech "

Albeon decided more against mentioning whether Nemean is going to make good on having the lights return if Batcat comes to her. Even though the leader is trying to be in good spirits, he could feel some sense of doubt of being able to handle such a huge thing or maybe it's just Albeon feeling this uncertainty on whether solving this by getting Batcat will satisfy that faerie. After all, there are some exceptions to this supposed doubt such as say Kin-Kin and perhaps Rinaotei too; hard to say he almost thought at first when he arrived that she was taking a nap, but he soon saw she was, in fact, awake; still she doesn't seem phased too much. He doesn't want to be too cynical he just wished there could be more than one way to achieve making the lights return which is another reason why he wants to know how Nemean did it.

The factor that his Magick was far better than the average Gembound made Albeon confident he could potentially do more than search if it comes down to it. Even if it was trying to play hero, in his eyes it's not that at all, to him it's redemption for killing another Gembound; it was just only one Gembound yes, but the guilt is relentless nonetheless, which just shows he hasn't got it in him to kill. However, with that desire to redeem means that Albeon is willing to take the reckless choices as long as another Gembound who isn't an enemy like Nemean is, don't get harmed in the long run.

That's all she did? Shove a Gem into the Generator's wheel? Huh, his mind was expecting something else that made him worry he couldn't do anything but cooperate with Nemean but perhaps he could sneakily try to remove it himself. He has the Magick necessary after all although he will have to plan on how to stop her from jamming it up again; he could just sneakily keep on removing whatever she jams it with until she gives up on this idiocy or could somehow lead her away from the Generator maybe. But how? And what if his sneaking fails and he faces that damn faerie's wrath instead?

Albeon was taken out of his thoughts when Kin-Kin was ready to do this; she seems confident in this plan, well there is a chance that the Batcat search will work. Maybe worry about this stuff more if Nemean does decide not to turn them back on even if the 'real' Batcat is given to her he already has a solid idea of sorts of what he could do if things don't turn out as planned with Batcat. Still, if Nemean does or doesn’t turn the lights back on when Batcat is gifted to her, Albeon will have to try and hold his tongue and not say anything to her as he can’t guarantee he won’t say some choice words to that faerie.

He goes to follow Kin-Kin, his scarf blowing around vividly from this strong wind again that it whacked him in the face a few times as he goes to leave himself for the Batcat search.

-Exit Albeon-

Tags:
Side Notes: N/A

"Hey Yours Truly Albeon Speaking."

And that's a good thing...
It means there's hope and potential in one's Future.

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