Where Stars Fall
Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2022 9:22 pm
TIMESTAMP: 5th Sun's Zenith year 122
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06:27
On the early morning of Sun's Zenith's fifth day, Hector had awoken, gotten himself ready and sat waiting in the foyer of his home. He was supposed to go out into the wilds with one of his closest companions, Vergil, to gather some particularly rare plant specimens. The silence of the dim early morning was almost deafening to him, impatient as he was. The elf was also filled with a strange sense of dread he didn't understand. Sure, ever since he'd bonded with his Aidolon he'd become a little more paranoid, but this was…different.
Before his mind could really delve into this sickening dread, a sharp knock on the door ripped him out of his thoughts. Scrambling to his feet, the young man almost ran over to the door. Being alone with his thoughts right now was the last thing he wanted. Swinging the door open, the man on the other side was exactly who he expected: it was Vergil– he arrived donning armor of dark leather and a sharp steel polearm.
Hector greeted his mentor with a smile and an oddly large amount of relief on his face that would come across as completely unprompted.
With a quirk of his brow, Vergil asks, “Worried about something…?”
Realizing he wore his emotions so blatantly, “Oh-! Um…I don’t know. Something just feels…very off about today. I…don’t have anything that justifies this feeling, but I can’t shake it.”
Hector genuinely sounded disturbed by whatever this feeling was, voice fraught with worry woven with subtle threads of dread. As much as he tried, his attempts to hide these emotions from his voice weren’t very successful.
For a brief moment, golden eyes drifted off to the side as he thought about what the other had said.
“Strange…I suppose I’ll be on guard, but I’m sure it’s nothing. Don’t let yourself get too anxious about it, okay?” Vergil didn’t much believe that aught was amiss, but he didn’t want to come across as dismissive of something that very clearly dug under the skin of his friend.
Hector sighs. “I…thank you. I suppose that’s all I can really ask of you.” He does sound appreciative.
With that, the two set off to the foothills above the Knob.
….
10:58
At a relaxed pace, the two men passed back into the perimeter of the city, backpacks fat with their quarry. The city was abuzz with the chatter of people going about their daily lives and Hector had nearly forgotten about the dread he’d felt earlier in the morning, it really was just like any other day…and then, the elf stopped walking. A rumbling, a hum, the sound of something magic, flickering in the distance, behind closed doors…but before he could place it, Vergil turned to face him, lips parted to speak– then, the world shattered.
Lavender eyes widened with shock stared past his companion in the direction of the initial blast; he watched with abject terror as the sky cracked open and the earth reverberated beneath his feet. Buildings disintegrated in front of him and shrapnel blasted through the air: wood, metal, glass, all manner of debris sailed with force, crashing through everything, anything. Walls fell, structures collapsed, people were ripped to pieces– in seconds, utter chaos had erupted from somewhere down in the smokestack.
Then, a cloud of coruscating dust and ash took the place of the initial blast’s light, shimmering as it rose, climbing higher into the atmosphere as the crack in the sky ruptured. Tearing downwards, lightning in vibrant shades of blues, purples and greens flashed across a horizon now filled with a sickly coating of darkness. The heavens screamed but yielded to the force of the forming rift, and out of them flowed Dread Mists, something that Hector had always been thought to fear.
Both of their heads snapped in the direction of the Presidium as they watched the cannons deploy, whatever the city possessed of defenses now armed themselves. These machinations fired cannons into the fog, blasting on impact and releasing a chemical that began to dissipate some of the Mists. Vergil squinted, not knowing how effective this would end up being. Hector stared on in abject terror– he didn’t believe for a second that this would be adequate. Unfortunately, he was right.
From within the rift’s gaping maw flew what looked like a comet, beautiful as it shot through the sky above them– a white hot ball of fire searing the very air as it sailed. Crashing into the ground, the earth rumbled once more. Having grown light headed with anxiety and panic from the first shock, Hector fell to the ground as Vergil stood frozen in place despite everything around them falling apart at once. Damaged buildings groaned in pain, some managing to stay standing while others collapsed into yet more rubble and the chaotic beauty of the Mists rose higher into the sky, polluting everything.
All the while, the people of the city filled the air with their screams; it was a cacophony of noise blending together to form the city’s swan song. The two men remained almost enthralled by this insult to music as the world fell apart around them. For them, it felt like a millennium but was more accurately about thirty minutes. It was a miraculous thing that nothing had hit them, but when people started turning into monsters, the two of them were ripped back into their senses.
Vergil ran to Hector’s side, helping him stand back up, but with legs shaking like a newborn fawn, he had to rely on his mentor for balance.
“Vergil, I– w-we…we need to find shelter. A-as a Kindred mage…I…I’m…a lot more vulnerable to the Mists…” The elf’s voice shook as he stumbled through the sentence; his tone was a rapid, panicked cocktail of fear and dread.
Upon hearing those words, an additional layer of urgency was loaded onto everything else that burdened Vergil’s mind. Before he responded, he quickly looked around the two of them, searching for something, somewhere, anywhere for them to potentially go…and then, there, in the distance shone a beautiful, prismatic dome over what appeared to be a tavern.
“There– Hector, that Tavern! I…it…somebody has to be there to power whatever that is, right? We can go there-...let’s, ah…let’s move-” Though he was utterly panicked and absolutely not prepared for anything like this, the older vampyre did his very best to appear as calm as possible for the elf’s sake.
While he fumbled through this sentence, he pointed in the direction of the shimmering bubble. The tavern wasn’t that far away, right? Couldn’t be more than maybe another twenty minute’s walk, but the decimated walkways would scale that to something closer to thirty, maybe more. Which, provided nothing got worse, should be manageable for the two of them. Should be.
….
11:47
For about fifteen minutes, the two had traveled through the rubble, stepping over splintered buildings and obliterated bodies. It was almost as if the light created by the Tavern’s defenses attracted the attention of the horrible, mutated beasts that now wandered the streets– the two had to take a lot of care in order to avoid their attention. Fighting anything wasn’t either of their forte and anything that would slow them down would be putting them at huge risk of becoming one of these beasts themselves, so they did their best to stay out of sight, slinking through dark corridors and under rubble.
At one point, the two of them attempted to cut through an alley only to realize that the other end was completely blocked off by two buildings collapsing onto one another. It was, unfortunately, a dead end. Oh well, not a big deal– all they’d have to do is backtrack just a little bit. Time wasted, sure, but only a minute or so at worst.
As the two neared the alley’s mid point, a hulking beast of swollen, pustulant flesh rounded a corner and lumbered over to the entrance of their path. It wasn’t facing them at the moment, merely wandering by, but the two of them didn’t notice it quite fast enough to prevent it from noticing them. As soon as Vergil saw it, he stopped dead in his tracks and stretched his arm out to his side, blocking Hector from continuing.
“Wait–...!”
No sooner had the words left Vergil’s lips did Hector trip on metal wreckage and fall. His landing lacked any semblance of grace and the resultant sound of his weight hitting the rubble wasn’t subtle– metal cracked against stone with a piercing, sharp grind. Languidly, the beast turned to face them. It stared at them. They stared at it.
On the early morning of Sun's Zenith's fifth day, Hector had awoken, gotten himself ready and sat waiting in the foyer of his home. He was supposed to go out into the wilds with one of his closest companions, Vergil, to gather some particularly rare plant specimens. The silence of the dim early morning was almost deafening to him, impatient as he was. The elf was also filled with a strange sense of dread he didn't understand. Sure, ever since he'd bonded with his Aidolon he'd become a little more paranoid, but this was…different.
Before his mind could really delve into this sickening dread, a sharp knock on the door ripped him out of his thoughts. Scrambling to his feet, the young man almost ran over to the door. Being alone with his thoughts right now was the last thing he wanted. Swinging the door open, the man on the other side was exactly who he expected: it was Vergil– he arrived donning armor of dark leather and a sharp steel polearm.
Hector greeted his mentor with a smile and an oddly large amount of relief on his face that would come across as completely unprompted.
With a quirk of his brow, Vergil asks, “Worried about something…?”
Realizing he wore his emotions so blatantly, “Oh-! Um…I don’t know. Something just feels…very off about today. I…don’t have anything that justifies this feeling, but I can’t shake it.”
Hector genuinely sounded disturbed by whatever this feeling was, voice fraught with worry woven with subtle threads of dread. As much as he tried, his attempts to hide these emotions from his voice weren’t very successful.
For a brief moment, golden eyes drifted off to the side as he thought about what the other had said.
“Strange…I suppose I’ll be on guard, but I’m sure it’s nothing. Don’t let yourself get too anxious about it, okay?” Vergil didn’t much believe that aught was amiss, but he didn’t want to come across as dismissive of something that very clearly dug under the skin of his friend.
Hector sighs. “I…thank you. I suppose that’s all I can really ask of you.” He does sound appreciative.
With that, the two set off to the foothills above the Knob.
….
10:58
At a relaxed pace, the two men passed back into the perimeter of the city, backpacks fat with their quarry. The city was abuzz with the chatter of people going about their daily lives and Hector had nearly forgotten about the dread he’d felt earlier in the morning, it really was just like any other day…and then, the elf stopped walking. A rumbling, a hum, the sound of something magic, flickering in the distance, behind closed doors…but before he could place it, Vergil turned to face him, lips parted to speak– then, the world shattered.
Lavender eyes widened with shock stared past his companion in the direction of the initial blast; he watched with abject terror as the sky cracked open and the earth reverberated beneath his feet. Buildings disintegrated in front of him and shrapnel blasted through the air: wood, metal, glass, all manner of debris sailed with force, crashing through everything, anything. Walls fell, structures collapsed, people were ripped to pieces– in seconds, utter chaos had erupted from somewhere down in the smokestack.
Then, a cloud of coruscating dust and ash took the place of the initial blast’s light, shimmering as it rose, climbing higher into the atmosphere as the crack in the sky ruptured. Tearing downwards, lightning in vibrant shades of blues, purples and greens flashed across a horizon now filled with a sickly coating of darkness. The heavens screamed but yielded to the force of the forming rift, and out of them flowed Dread Mists, something that Hector had always been thought to fear.
Both of their heads snapped in the direction of the Presidium as they watched the cannons deploy, whatever the city possessed of defenses now armed themselves. These machinations fired cannons into the fog, blasting on impact and releasing a chemical that began to dissipate some of the Mists. Vergil squinted, not knowing how effective this would end up being. Hector stared on in abject terror– he didn’t believe for a second that this would be adequate. Unfortunately, he was right.
From within the rift’s gaping maw flew what looked like a comet, beautiful as it shot through the sky above them– a white hot ball of fire searing the very air as it sailed. Crashing into the ground, the earth rumbled once more. Having grown light headed with anxiety and panic from the first shock, Hector fell to the ground as Vergil stood frozen in place despite everything around them falling apart at once. Damaged buildings groaned in pain, some managing to stay standing while others collapsed into yet more rubble and the chaotic beauty of the Mists rose higher into the sky, polluting everything.
All the while, the people of the city filled the air with their screams; it was a cacophony of noise blending together to form the city’s swan song. The two men remained almost enthralled by this insult to music as the world fell apart around them. For them, it felt like a millennium but was more accurately about thirty minutes. It was a miraculous thing that nothing had hit them, but when people started turning into monsters, the two of them were ripped back into their senses.
Vergil ran to Hector’s side, helping him stand back up, but with legs shaking like a newborn fawn, he had to rely on his mentor for balance.
“Vergil, I– w-we…we need to find shelter. A-as a Kindred mage…I…I’m…a lot more vulnerable to the Mists…” The elf’s voice shook as he stumbled through the sentence; his tone was a rapid, panicked cocktail of fear and dread.
Upon hearing those words, an additional layer of urgency was loaded onto everything else that burdened Vergil’s mind. Before he responded, he quickly looked around the two of them, searching for something, somewhere, anywhere for them to potentially go…and then, there, in the distance shone a beautiful, prismatic dome over what appeared to be a tavern.
“There– Hector, that Tavern! I…it…somebody has to be there to power whatever that is, right? We can go there-...let’s, ah…let’s move-” Though he was utterly panicked and absolutely not prepared for anything like this, the older vampyre did his very best to appear as calm as possible for the elf’s sake.
While he fumbled through this sentence, he pointed in the direction of the shimmering bubble. The tavern wasn’t that far away, right? Couldn’t be more than maybe another twenty minute’s walk, but the decimated walkways would scale that to something closer to thirty, maybe more. Which, provided nothing got worse, should be manageable for the two of them. Should be.
….
11:47
For about fifteen minutes, the two had traveled through the rubble, stepping over splintered buildings and obliterated bodies. It was almost as if the light created by the Tavern’s defenses attracted the attention of the horrible, mutated beasts that now wandered the streets– the two had to take a lot of care in order to avoid their attention. Fighting anything wasn’t either of their forte and anything that would slow them down would be putting them at huge risk of becoming one of these beasts themselves, so they did their best to stay out of sight, slinking through dark corridors and under rubble.
At one point, the two of them attempted to cut through an alley only to realize that the other end was completely blocked off by two buildings collapsing onto one another. It was, unfortunately, a dead end. Oh well, not a big deal– all they’d have to do is backtrack just a little bit. Time wasted, sure, but only a minute or so at worst.
As the two neared the alley’s mid point, a hulking beast of swollen, pustulant flesh rounded a corner and lumbered over to the entrance of their path. It wasn’t facing them at the moment, merely wandering by, but the two of them didn’t notice it quite fast enough to prevent it from noticing them. As soon as Vergil saw it, he stopped dead in his tracks and stretched his arm out to his side, blocking Hector from continuing.
“Wait–...!”
No sooner had the words left Vergil’s lips did Hector trip on metal wreckage and fall. His landing lacked any semblance of grace and the resultant sound of his weight hitting the rubble wasn’t subtle– metal cracked against stone with a piercing, sharp grind. Languidly, the beast turned to face them. It stared at them. They stared at it.
____
'Thoughts'
"Common Tongue/Speech"
"Mythrasi Tongue/Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Common Tongue/Speech"
"Mythrasi Tongue/Speech"