[Arena]
"I don't know about 'wacky' but I did meet your brother as well. Nadas if I'm not mistaken. I didn't even knew you had a family Ilpholin. How's he like?" Cessie asks.
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[Arena]
"I don't know about 'wacky' but I did meet your brother as well. Nadas if I'm not mistaken. I didn't even knew you had a family Ilpholin. How's he like?" Cessie asks.
[Arena]
"Of course I have a family!" Why wouldn't she?
"He's... very... not drow like at all. Very bookish. Would rather study... I dunno, anthropormophicology or whatever rather than advance his place. Too timid if you ask me, and a bit annoying. Reminds me of you a little. Always wears these massive robes." Nadas has his own little plot behind his character even too. Really should play him more often.
"But you can always find him in a library if you want to talk to him and find out for yourself."
[Arena]
"That does sound a lot like me." Cessie admits, hardly able to imagine a brother of Ilpholin being like that. "Do you have anyone else but him? He was the only one I saw in your dream besides your... father." It did explain a bit about her.
[Arena]
"Oh yes. Besides twin brother, I've got plenty of siblings. Can't say I know em all as well or anything.... D... Father got around quite a bit over the years. He runs Black Dragon Den even." She frowns. Not that she's seen him much at all. Maybe a few hours combined total.
"But Matron Danube was like a mother to us in her own way I suppose." By all rights it was Matron Danube taking Ilpholin in that allowed her to survive long enough to become strong enough to take care of herself and then some. Without her influence, Ilpholin most certainly would not have made it down there. Not that it makes her particularly loving or anything.
[Arena 2]
Skål (why did Kris make a character that needs a copy-and-paste just to write her name!?) nods, and begins a series of dance-like movements, that Ilpholin might get the impression have been learned by rote - precise, controlled and almost ritualistic, Skål moving smoothly through what looks like a practiced sequence of positions. At first, nothing happens. Nothing seems to happen for a long time. Ilpholin might start losing her patience a little. But then something odd might happen. She might be picturing a storm. Not just any storm: a blizzard. Billowing gusts of ice-cold wind, knife-sharp in their coldness, cleaving through the thickest coats and engulfing the hottest of flames, freezing the hearts of any man or woman unfortunate enough to be caught within. Swooping flurries of snow, frozen rains, hail pelting, relentless, merciless, trap them all in ice and snow. Blood freezes. Bones snap. Cells burst. Trap them all, bury them, freeze them, so that when spring comes their corpses will thaw, twisted frozen corpses revealed in the pale springtime sun, faces distorted caricatures of horror and pain, their final, agonized moments plain for all to see, and fear, and remember. Except no, that won't come, spring won't come, because this winter is forever, forever cold, forever frozen, and then the streams freeze, and the rivers freeze, and the lakes freeze, and the oceans freeze, on and on, the whole world a frozen wasteland, frozen and dead, people starving by the millions, the billions, and then no one starves, no one lives, just endless ice and frozen corpses, faces twisted in horror, frost in their hair, frost in their beards, cold eyes staring, staring - wait, is it snowing in the Arena!? :smalleek:
Storm summoned, Skål steps out of her dance, and steps into a different dance, a dance of death. She strikes like a snake, and one of the training dummies suddenly looks a lot worse for the wear with a three-foot long icicle spearing it through the chest. Another one gets icicles in the eyes, a third one in tatters as a balletic sweep of the arm sends hundreds of tiny snowflakes ripping through it like razor blades, a fourth simply torn in half by a raging wall of wind, each of the little girl's movements whipping up a flurry of snow and ice and wind, adding to the frenzy of the growing storm. Ilpholin might want to intervene while there's still an arena left - the girl's face is unrecognizable now, contorted into an inhuman facsimile of cold rage and fury. Self control seems to be an issue here.
[Arena 2]
Ilpholin knows nothing of that issue. Nope. >>
She does shiver and rub her arms. She isn't exactly warmly dressed. At all.
"O-o-okay.... I t-t-think I've seen enough, thank y-y-you." She says, her teeth chittering. It's cold in here all of a sudden!
[Arena 2]
Brought back to reality, Skål stops her frenzied assault, and without her movements to fuel it, the blizzard quickly subsides, though it does continue snowing.
"I got carried away. Sorry."
[Arena 2]
"Y-yes... well... we'll work on that. It leaves you v-vulnerable to get carried away." Ilpholin says with a sage nod.
"Is this your only f-fighting style? Does it always require an initial ritual buildup?" Ilpholin brings her teeth a bit under control at least.
[Arena 2]
"There are three winds that can be summoned. The Frostwind, the Drywind and the Thunderwind. I only know the very basics of the Frostwind, and that requires the Dance. The Dance creates the strongest storms, but is slow. The master Stormbringers could create storms with any sort of movement, like sword fighting or punching, and didn't need to summon a full storm to use their abilities - my mother could create a wind with a single strike, or icicles with one sweep of her arm."
Skål explains.
[Arena]
Owned Black dragons den? Maybe the dream was mistaken about Ilpholin's father then. Or was it her mother? This was a bit confusing.
"Do you have any contact with your family at all? As far as I saw in your dream, you had a rather complex relationship to one another." She pauses for a moment, turning to look at Ilpholin again. "Are you comfortable with me asking some more private questions Ilpholin?"
[Arena 2]
"Ah. Well... we can train you in many forms of fighting, but none of us here will be able to teach you Stormfighting. I can, at least, show you how to better protect yourself while you are building up the Dance. Throwing icicles with a sweep is just something you'll have to train yourself. But we'll do what we can to help." Like set rigorous training sessions and early AM wake-up calls!
[Arena]
"Rarely. The Matron hasn't contacted me in some time, Nadas ran away to GLoG last I heard, and Raril... just isn't around. Off gallomanting with that Zee of his I guess."
Yeah, Cessie mentioned the wrong parent. Oops. :smalltongue:
But to be fair, it is confusing. About as confusing as 'who's the mother' in Julie's situation.
She... frowns. "No, not really, but go ahead. Turnabout will be fair play though." Fair warning and all that.
[Arena]
"Okay." Cessie nods, hoping she know what she was getting herself into. After making sure there is no one else there she looks at Ilpholin and asks. "Are you and Darcy in a relationship? I noticed you paid less attention to KR lately." Ah geez, lesbian relationship wasn't really her thing but her cursed curiosity just couldn't shut up about it.
[Arena]
Oh. That's... a lot less personal than she expected.
"Hmm... oh. I, umm... don't think so? I mean, she's a great friend and I certainly wouldn't mind if she was interested but I'm not sure she is at this time. I mean, I'm mostly over KR and everything." Mostly. She's actually grown more fond of Wenomir over KR by now, though she still dreams of KR/Wenomir/Ilpholin fun when she has the rare night alone to herself.
"I'm... not really good at relationships like you are."
[Arena]
Ilpholin though she was good at relationships? Huh.
"Uh, thank you Ilpholin. I'm not sure I would say I'm that good at relationships but if that dream learned me anything, and this might sound silly, is that we are more alike then we might think." Cessie replies.
"For example we, uh, well, I'm about as comfortable as talking about it as you but nymphs weren't all that accept in your society either were they?"
[Arena]
"Course you are. You've had two good ones from my understanding." She refers to Aegnor and Harnel, but doesn't up and say Aegnor's name, cause it might be sensitive.
"No. Nymphs aren't accepted in our society. Not that it particularly matters, since I'm a drow and all. Why?"
>>
I don't particularly recall, but did Cessie ever tell Ilpholin that she was part nymph?
[Arena]
Cessie blinks, didn't she know or was she in denial? The second option seemed far more likely which made this much harder.
Maybe she shouldn't go there, maybe if she asked it as a question rather then as a statement? No that wouldn't work either. Ilpholin would just storm off and everything she had done here had been useless. :smallfrown:
"...no particular reason. I was just wondering since they weren't in mine and I let that fact stop me from trying new things. I was afraid to lose control over myself due my heritage. Nymph's are supposed to be careless you know? I was afraid of that and never let myself relax." She continues and then smiles slightly. "And that's something we both have in common right? We both like to be in control."
[Arena]
Now that's not guaranteed or anything.
"I've always heard nymphs have a crazy active libido and make friends with animals easily. Dunno about careless. Maybe carefree. They just don't recognize the importance of advancing in society I guess. I dunno." Ilpholin is no expert on the subject after all. >>
"But doesn't everyone want to be in control?" :smallconfused:
Perhaps everyone does in their own way, but not to the extent that Ilpholin and Cessie prefer. But the concept of wanting otherwise is foreign to her.
[Arena]
Cessie fears that. She and Ilpholin have a rather complex relationship and she don't want to cause conflict now that they are talking once again.
"Ah, yes. That's what I meant, carefree. And by wanting control I mean never let emotions take over. Never relax or you might let the emotions control you instead of the other way around. Most people let their emotions control them from time to time but I don't think you do. Not very often at least." The mage explains.
"Other persons let their emotions take over, they don't want to be in control. They just want to relax and have fun I guess as being in control takes effort and if there is anything people hate it's effort." She continues. "Just look at Sakura, Adir or Catherine, they don't care about being in control for example."
[Arena]
Ilpholin opens her mouth a bit. Then closes it again, mulling in thought.
"Yeah... I suppose you're right." Ilpholin admits, a little jealous. Though her emotions get the better of her somewhat frequently, she never embraces it like Sakura would.
"I don't know how they do it."
[Arena]
"I'm not sure they have much to let go of in the first place." Cessie says with a giggle. "Have you ever tried to let go completely once? You know, just how to feel it's like? I, uh, do it at times." Mostly when she's in the bed with someone she loves or when she's really pissed.
"It's honestly a bit of relief if you can let some smoke out." Or steam if they had that where Cessie's from.
[Arena]
"I try. About once or twice a night I guess." Ilpholin admits. But she's never truly let go and she knows it, even behind the curtain. Too much risk. Always have to be on guard for an attack, even then, especially from the person you're with.
No. Wait.
"Yeah. I did it once after all."
The impromptu lust-hate that occurred with Kel, she let go completely, both on the attack and defense. It was weird.
[Arena]
"How was it like?" Cessie asks curiously. "Would you like to do it again?" Seemed like Ilpholin was an even greater control freak then herself.
[Arena]
Mostly just that hasn't met anyone she trusts like Cessie does. :smalltongue:
"It was... incredibly intense. Maybe the best experience I have ever had." Ilpholin admits. She's unsure if she'd do it again, but then she did try to repeat it once already.
[Arena]
"But you feel there isn't anyone you can open up yourself to like that again?" The mage inquires, not really sure how Ilpholin likes to let her into the drows personal life. Better be careful.
[Arena]
"Hey look. The first time was a mistake, ok? The guy is nothing but an egotistical, idiotic brute who thinks just because he's all muscles and power and stuff that he matters or whatever." Ilpholin crosses her arms in front of her. Stupid Kel. Hmph!
"You're lucky. You and Sakura... you live in a world where that stuff's encouraged. My world. It's use em, lose em, and keep moving on cause they're a distraction otherwise. Even I'll admit that KR kept me from working on what I've been needing to work on." None of them would really accept her for who she really is anyways.
She idly examines her nails a bit. "But it's no matter. Speaking of which, Wenomir is sending me on a secret mission. I'll probably be gone for a while."
[Arena]
Right, secret. Probably shouldn't be asked about that. "What kind of mission?" ...unless your extremely curious about everything of course. :smallsigh:
"And Ilpholin, I know will have a very hard time understanding you since we both lived very different lives, but... if there is anything I'm here for you okay? I only want your best."
[Outside Watchtower]
After an probably rather uneventful journey Astrana and Cynthia reaches Watchtower sometimes after Ilpholin were sent to AMEN. "We'll if that farmer were right, this probably is it, you should probably wait outside while I go in. They might have demon wards and such."
[Arena]
"One of those ones that's probably best if the less people know the better. Still, you can ask Wenomir for the details and if he decides you should know, that's fine. But I don't think I should say." Ilpholin informs her. She can still find out, but she'll have to make the inquiry to the man at the top.
"I... yeah. Thank you. I'm... really sorry about, you know... Aegnor. I don't think I can understand what that's like. Oh. But congratulations on the kids I guess. If you wanted them. You do want them right?" :smallconfused:
Ilpholin's not sure. She doesn't really like kids much at all. Or she thinks she doesn't anyways.
[Outside Watchtower]
"Awww, but I wanna come inside." Cynthia gives her most adorable pout. "Please." How can Astrana resist that cute little face? It could melt even... Wenomir's heart. Yes you read right.
:smalltongue:
[Outside Watchtower]
Astrana grunts, "If there are wards against your kind, you can't enter. Do you understand?" She asks while walking towards the gate. "I don't even know if I'm let inside. Half-demon and all." She peers at Cynthia. "Though if you're to be believed I might as well be a full demon. We look too alike, can't you change your form a bit please?"
[Arena]
"Otherwise I wouldn't it let go this far. Control remember?" Cessie says with a smile. "But... I'm glad to hear you say that Ilpholin." She looks almost sad despite the fact she's smiling. "Whatever other people might say, you have a lot of good inside you."
[Outside Watchtower]
"But I caaan't. My skin has to be red, I have to have horns, and my eyes have to stay the same." Cynthia pouts again. She already went over this! "Come on. It'll be okay."