Atharen, A Fantasy Roleplay Forum

Posted: **Thu Sep 01, 2022 3:04 pm**

1st of Ash

Gods, the affliction was finally over. It was over! He felt strong, he had gotten a good night's rest, and he had a healthy appetite for breakfast. Healthy enough to push the cook into the pantry and give the old man the blowjob of his life in return for some poached eggs, toast and sausage. Sensing he was in good spirits, the cook had cheekily added some fresh strawberries to the mix. Vivian had, in his normal fashion, inhaled it. He went to care for Bara, combing down the mule, checking his feet and working with him a bit on a lunge line. He had missed feeling normal. He missed feeling like Vivian again. He wasn't sick, he was able to clean himself, and for the first time in the majority of a season he was able to wear his signature eye makeup without feeling like he was going to cry it off an hour later.

He got to enjoy the morning, but the day he dreaded. Emmett was going to come for him. The man was insistent on initiating him into Grave, even though Vivian already had Malformity. Gods, it terrified him. He leaned against Bara, burying his face against the mule's neck to smell his sweet, earthy odor. "I don't want to go through with this..." he whispered softly. The mule leaned into him, and craned his neck over to sympathetically lip at Vivian's hair. "Bara...the first time I barely survived. I still have nightmares about being trapped sometimes....what is this going to do to me?"

Vivian brushed the mule, chewing his lip nervously. He was stalling, he knew he was stalling. Bara looked better than he had all Searing, and the mule was beginning to shiver at his touch, signifying irritation with the large amount of attention.

Posted: **Thu Sep 01, 2022 8:38 pm**

TIME STAMP

Emmett entered the stable with an sinister grin on his face, hoping that the usual fodder would come to life today; he was working on a bundle of undead experiments for which his victims come from failed initiates or even the odd intruder in his house. Still, he couldnt help but be excited for the day he would be able to blend an Malformer's corpse with one of his creations. He smiled and knocked on the wood as he chuckled. His grin showed signs that he was going to do something diabolical, something sinister.

"Your awake..." He said with an particularly satisfied look as he lifts Vivian from the ground with Mentalism weave and begins to drag him behind him, spinning him with his finger once more to get the nerves going on his victim as Vivian would continuously spin around in midair, before taking him inside the manor house. Anya appeared to be annoyed with Emmett again as she stares at him coldly, gasping at the way he was treating Vivian.

"Oh dear, you never learn do you? You think you're just gonna get corpse after corpse for your experiments, what if this one will succeed."

"Second marks usually fail most..." He shrugged with a sigh as he arrogantly walked to his quarters, dragging Vivian along before slopping him on the bed, letting out a sinister laugh, before batting his eyelids "Oh dear, it was so nice seeing you, little one... But I'm afraid your time is up..." He teased as he prepares himself for the initiation "It's only a matter of time before you fail and pop you have mageblight... Any last words?" He asked, before tilting his head, shrugging with very little empathy.

He proceeded to take a fragment of his soul and completely binds it to a nightorch and proceeded to begin the initiation. Vivian would begin to lose his consciousness and appear in a world rife with darkness and decay, the last words that Vivian could hear were these: "Good luck.. Don't forget to follow the church bells, if you make it out alive..." He laughed sinisterly as it appeared to echo within the world that Vivian had entered.

All he was given was an Nightorch to help him. The sound of church bells could be heard in the distance, knowing that the Effigy is calling.

► Show Spoiler

Posted: **Thu Sep 01, 2022 9:07 pm**

"If I die, you have to run. Okay? Don't wait for me. Don't die. Run." Vivian whispered to the mule when he heard footsteps enter into the stables. He felt the Weave grip him, cold and cruel, and began to spin him. Vivian squeezed his eyes shut and fought down the urge to be sick; it seemed like a favorite tactic of Emmett's to be nasty to his victims. Vivian made a mental note to destroy the little bastard the minute he could. Making an enemy of a Master mage was a terrible idea. Making an enemy of a Master mage whose talents revolved around insects was an even worse idea. Maybe he would eat him alive, dragging him down the throat of the Consumer and letting him squeal and kick in an airless stomach. Or he'd insert eggs under his skin and let the maggots eat him alive. The thoughts contented him at least up until the man tossed him on the bed.

Vivian blinked, attempting to get his equilibrium under control. He glared at Emmett, though the world was tilting. "Fuck you." he spat. He could feel the man assaulting him, pulling a piece of his soul from the ether. Vivian laid down slowly on the bed, his hand going to his lower abdomen. His own ether would protect his child, he was sure of it. As he descended into darkness, he thought of Alistair, and how much he would love for his mate to burst through the door and slice Emmett's head off.

Vivian woke to utter and complete darkness. There was a lantern in his hand. He blinked, rising to his feet and holding it aloft. It was a bright orb of orange light, protected by a cage of blackened iron and hanging from a long, cylindrical series of beads. He took a moment to look at them; each of them had a different insect stamped into the metal, carved in intricately beautiful patterns. The final bead holding the lantern was a great beetle, holding the hinge of the lantern in its jaws. What in the world? Vivian lifted it, looking around. He could barely see, but the land underneath him was marshy and unstable.

He could smell rotting vegetable matter that was going to make the going slick. Vivian wrapped the chain of the lantern around his wrist, holding the last five or six inches so it hung beneath his hand near his eyes to see. In the distance, bells tolled. Bells? Follow the bells. That was what Emmett had said. Follow the damn bells.

Vivian gritted his teeth, and began to walk. He had to go slowly. The ground was unstable, and pitched under his feet like the furrows of some old field. If he wasn't careful he would lose his footing. Thankfully, treading over rotten garbage wasn't exactly a new experience. He just had to use his lamp, and follow the noise...

Posted: **Fri Sep 02, 2022 7:33 am**

TIME STAMP

"Tá Croí Umbral Y'shendra ag fanacht." A voice in the darkness repeated as the church bells would continue to sound, yet so would Vivian's Vitescence. His body would appear more corpse-like as he makes his progress. The Nightorch was enough to provide a comforting glowing light through the endless darkness and decay. Yet, the journey through the corridor of souls would be an tricky one. It was as if Vivian was in Bel for a brief time, within Y'shendra's dark realm known as the Umber Wilds. The trees looked crooked and dead and the scenery was filled with dilapidated elven ruins, a memory of Y'shendra's greatness.

Vivian would come towards an bridge, surrounded by a river. The inevitable darkness made things harder, for if Vivian had taken a wrong move, he could end up in the river flowing to an unknown place perhaps causing the failure of his initiation if he does mistep. The sound of church bells was close, but yet so far that Vivian would need to find the bridge and cross it in the obscuring shade of death. The only source of light he had was an white glowing Nightorch. The signs of delirium would begin to symptomise as the vitescence was being drawn from him, seemingly placed back into the realm he was standing in.

After all, it was an realm of undeath, decay and souls. It was hungry, so hungry. It wanted to claim Vivian, and yet he must remain strong. Will he find the bridge?

► Show Spoiler

Posted: **Fri Sep 02, 2022 12:02 pm**

Vivian started to feel...odd. There was no real way to describe it other than he simply felt off with himself. He felt less energetic, less able to think clearly. In some way or another this place was draining him. The landscape wasn't the only problem; if he laid down and gave into the exhaustion seeping into his bones, he had a feeling he would never return. The light would flicker out, and he would just become part of the landscape. He had to keep moving. If not for him...he put a hand on his lower abdomen. He couldn't feel the strange womb, nor the new life within it, but he had to survive. What would Alistair say if he died here, now, in this hellish place? How could he condemn their child to a life dying slowly while its mother withered from mageblight?

Vivian straightened up, glared at the sound of the bells. "I'm coming for you!" he shouted at the sound. "You're not taking me that bloody easily, whatever nightmare you are! I am a servant of Azunath, of change and rot and transformation!"

He gritted his teeth, and kept moving. Eventually, he came to a riverbank. He could see the water sliding by, and the bank looked unstable. He wasn't foolish enough to get anywhere near that bank, especially with how much mud seemed to be appearing around it. Bridge. He needed a bridge. He held up the lamp. Right, so logically the bridge would be closer to the sound, not further away from it. The sound being downstream. Vivian began slowly following the river downstream, toward the sound of tolling bells. It was harder and harder as he went. He could feel himself...crumbling, for lack of a better word. His knees started to ache. His back stooped. His eyes started to fail him, and his ears were worse.

He had a hand out toward the river, not just for balance, but to hit any bridge that appeared out of the darkness. He couldn't really see anything, even with his eyes adjusted to the darkness and the lamp lighting the way. It was nearly half an hour before his hand struck slick, half-rotten wood. He grasped it, and turned to look at it. A bridge. It had to be. He hovered a foot out, tapping carefully before he put his weight on it. Alright, it was old, and holding his leg out like this made his hips shiver threateningly, but it was intact.

Vivian stepped onto the bridge, clinging to the railing with one hand and holding the lantern aloft with the other. "This would be so much easier if I weren't an old grimy fuck!" he shouted at the bells. Gods his voice! His voice had gone from clear as a bell to crackling and withered. Oh gods. He wasn't going to yell at it any longer, if only to keep that terrifying sound under control. "I hope I'm still hot.." he muttered, shuffling his feet along the bridge. He wasn't going to take good legs for granted anymore.

Posted: **Sat Sep 03, 2022 11:59 am**

TIME STAMP

The bridge was easy to cross once Vivian had stepped foot on it, for there were no holes in it, it just was very difficult to navigate because the whole realm was surrounded by perpetual darkness. By the time Vivian had made it across the bridge, he will come to a field surrounded by white glowing orbs, flying like fireflies. They would travel around in flocks, moving away from the sound of church bells as it appeared that they are frightened of the Effigy's presence. These white glowing orbs are the souls of the living. They are either animals or humanoids, they are the essence of a man's vitality, almost as if they are vitescence in the purest form, freshly reaped from the last rites of an human or living thing. They whisper and hover before flying over to Vivian, flying around him to detect his presence as they enter into the body of Vivian once again, restoring an source of his vitescence.

Vivian will feel a burst of energy and his skin temporarily restored to it's former youthful vitality, but it isnt to long before it starts to slowly wrinkle and decay in this dark realm. The humming sound was getting closer but yet there was another obstacle that Vivian must face.

Stairs.

Crumbling Stairs.

The Effigy of Y'shendra was on top of an ruined castle, meaning that Vivian will have to survive the trial of walking up several flights of stairs to get to the highest point. Vivian would be able to see the effigy of a woman with a golden heart beating from her chest, appearing to be holding a child in her arms, the thing that Vivian must touch to complete the initiation.

He would also see that Y'shendra's once motherly demeanour was darkened by her corruption as she was in horrific content, gouging the heart of this pure infant. The sinister pleasure on her face said it all, for she had contorted and decayed her previous domains ever since her corruption many years ago. It was a sign that this woman has become an purveyor of undeath, rather than life and thus this new magic was made to heal through the moral complications of using the dead souls of those who once lived.

► Show Spoiler

Posted: **Sat Sep 03, 2022 12:40 pm**

As Vivian shuffled across the bridge, he saw little objects on the opposing shore. He frowned at them. What exactly were those? Other lanterns? Were there others making this horrific little journey? He wobbled exiting the bridge, grabbing the last bit of railing that was available to him as he headed into the field. They were lights. Little white lights that bobbed and weaved toward him in the air. For a second he watched them warily, not wanting to move through them but not daring to stop. He had to keep moving. He had a feeling that if his knees stopped they would lock up on him.

Every time the bells tolled, the little lights fled from it, as though afraid. Vivian couldn't afford to be afraid. He saw them draw closer, and closer. "If you mean to harm me, I swear to the gods-" he growled at them, sounding very much like the old men he'd seen swearing at children on Searing days from alley mouths. Instead, as they touched him, he felt better. His back straightened a bit. His knees ached less. His wattles vanished and his hair came back to full bloom. The hand clenching the lantern was young again, and not knobbed over with arthritis. "...thank you." he told the field of lights. He didn't know how or why they had done what they had, but he felt odd not expressing gratitude.

Vivian saw the stairs, and his heart sank. He had strength now, but for how long? He already felt it sapping. He gritted his teeth, and began walking. The first flight wasn't a problem, but the third he slowed, and the fourth was agony. He was back to where he begun, his knees knocking terribly and his back groaning in pain every time he lifted his feet. He had to watch where he stepped, as he slipped once or twice on crumbling edges of the stairs. He stepped toward the wall, where the stairs were strongest, and in the middle of the step each time. That would keep his footing.

As Vivian ascended the last of the stairs, he was old. Damned old. He was bent, his knees shook, his back radiated pain. Teeth he'd gritted had fallen out of his head on the walk, and were either scattered down the stairs or he'd accidentally swallowed them out of surprise. He saw her. Saw the child in her arms. His old heart surged, and he hefted the lantern even with his shoulders screaming at him.

"You get...away...from that baby...you...fucking bitch." he snarled, and touched the child as though to take it from her arms and protect it.

Posted: **Sat Sep 03, 2022 1:33 pm**

TIME STAMP

The Effigy was calling and provoking to him in a sinister voice, it spoke in Eldhan "M'Eisilteach, tabhair duit féin mé mar dhuine de mo pháistí a lom mo mharc, is mise an Croí Umbral, an té a chomhlíonfaidh mo thairngreacht féin, chun an saol a atheagrú ar Atharen i stát gan bhás" It spoke out in the strange and ancient language only heard by the nobles of Vendigad.

► Show Spoiler

Posted: **Sat Sep 03, 2022 2:09 pm**

Vivian glared back at the Effigy. "You'll never touch any child of mine." He growled, lifted the lantern, and the light washed over them both, drowning out Vivian's angry roar.

He shot up in bed, a ragged breath pulling into his lungs. He blinked, and lifted his hand. He wasn't old. He wasn't dying, and his bones didn't hurt. He was fine. He was back to being twenty again, but he wasn't about to forget how he felt as he aged. Gods, he was going to need someone to look after him. As he stared at his right hand, he saw a shadowy image of the beautiful blackened chain that he had held in the Initiation, slowly disappearing. He got the feeling he could call it back whenever he pleased. He breathed in deeply, blinking and adjusting back to his own body.

The baby.

He put his hand to his belly, and sighed in relief. The baby was fine. The womb was protective, pushing against his intrusion, but Vivian didn't mind. The mutation was protective, and he would rather have that than let that horrible effigy touch his child. He looked up, and blinked. The Veir and his wife were screaming at one another. Vivian stared, and then his eyes narrowed angrily. He sat up properly. He had never been so gods be damned angry in his life. He may have been exhausted, and still felt the tinge of age clinging to his bones, but this man could have killed his child. His precious one. The son of a Gilded and a Master Malformist. He didn't particularly care what was being said at this point.

The servants wouldn't say a thing. They had been well trained not to interfere with the business of their masters, and would simply be around to clean up when they were finished. It was not their place to judge and their silence was well-bought. They wouldn't interfere, and Vivian knew it.

He swung, aiming to connect with the back of Emmett's skull. "You could have killed me!" he roared furiously. "Do you have any idea what I carry? Do you have any idea who or what I am?! How dare you throw me into that hell against my will!"

Posted: **Sat Sep 03, 2022 2:57 pm**

Vivian

Lores
In light of unfortunate events, this thread is voided due to circumstances of mageblight.

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A

Points: 8 points
8 points for Salen

Comments: Shame....

Atharen, A Fantasy Roleplay Forum

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