Strife

Subject: Re: Strife Sat Jul 26, 2014 6:35 pm

Cooper yelped and rubbed his arm. Looking around nervously, he said, "Well, I was scared too, at first, but then I kinda... wasn't..." He trailed off. "Like, during training..."

Subject: Re: Strife Sat Jul 26, 2014 11:31 pm

Ruby sighed and looked down. "I guess I'll thank you for helping me unlock my magic."

Subject: Re: Strife Sun Jul 27, 2014 3:16 am

"Uh, no problem, I guess." Cooper smiled tentatively. "If you want to do, like, something with your magic, like make the air electric or zap a balloon, just let me know. I sort of know what trainers do. Sort of. Not really actually." He laughed lightly.

Subject: Re: Strife Sun Jul 27, 2014 4:34 am

Ruby chuckled softly and nodded. "Ok, I'm pretty tired right now."

Subject: Re: Strife Mon Jul 28, 2014 1:37 am

"Okaaay... so maybe we should go visit the Lightning Barracks, get you a nice little place, somewhere to sleep?" Cooper asked. He looked up at one of the two towers, sticking into the sky where the dark clouds tumbled and lightning flashed. "That would be in... that tower over there, I think."

Subject: Re: Strife Mon Jul 28, 2014 1:38 am

Ruby looked at the building nervously.

Subject: Re: Strife Mon Jul 28, 2014 11:52 pm

Cooper craned his neck back and strained to see the top of the tower through the swirling clouds and cracks of energy, but couldn't. "Well... guess that would be your new home, now...." He looked at the dirt beneath his feet and rubbed his neck. "Or we can go visit the Underground," he suggested, "where the Earthen, the Forgers, the Lurkers... and someothersthatIcan'tremember reside." Cooper grinned. "Better beware of the roots, though. Even the Gladekeepers' Element works well down there."

Subject: Re: Strife Tue Jul 29, 2014 12:25 am

Ruby looked up at the daunting structure fearfully and nodded, following Cooper. "Y-Yeah... let's do that." Raven nudged Ruby's hand. "You two go on ahead. I'll be back in a bit." He said before racing off, following Jay's scent.

Subject: Re: Strife Tue Jul 29, 2014 4:57 am

(Description of Medical Huts for Raven: Brush huts with people bustling around inside and out, with people everywhere lying on stretchers. A man is leaning over Jay, gently handling him while murmuring something under his breath.)

Cooper nodded to Raven, then smiled at Ruby. He kinda liked this girl, actually. She was nice.

Cooper led Ruby to a earthen mound with a tunnel dug into its side. One could see that the tube led downwards. "Here's the entrance to the Underground." He looked at Ruby. "Ready to go down?"

Subject: Re: Strife Tue Jul 29, 2014 4:16 pm

Ruby smiled at Cooper softly. "Sure, let's go." She followed him down.

Raven approached the man and waited beside him silently until he was done his muttering. "How is he?" He asked.

Subject: Re: Strife Tue Jul 29, 2014 6:01 pm

After leading Ruby down into the dark a short way, Cooper said, "Take my hand. This'll be a lot faster." Once he had a firm hold on Ruby's hand, the dirt shifted beneath them, then lurched forward, sending Cooper and Ruby sliding down the dark tunnel.

The man opened his pink eyes and was surprised to see a black panther standing by. "He has water in his lungs, and lots of it. I was sent here to help draw it out. This is very powerful magic, very powerful."

Subject: Re: Strife Tue Jul 29, 2014 6:02 pm

Ruby's eyes widened and she gasped, clenching Cooper's hand tightly as she closed her eyes while they slid down.

Raven nodded, ignoring the surprise in Jay's eyes. "Will he be ok?"

Subject: Re: Strife Wed Jul 30, 2014 8:03 pm

Cooper

The tunnel went down, down, down, and still down. Cooper sped the dirt up a notch. Then, at a turn, they came upon a circular room, lit with bioluminescent glow worms and bacteria on the ceiling, floor and walls, and lined with eleven doorways.

Cooper and Ruby slid to a gradual stop on the concrete floor. "Well," Cooper said, "welcome to the Underground meeting place."

At each doorway there was a representation of that Element. The Light doorway was the most conspicuous; light came through that door so bright you could barely see through it. At the Shadow doorway, the ground creeped a dark, shadowy mist that moved like molasses. Another good example was the Nature doorway. Roots gripped the walls of the Nature tunnel, which was blocked by a half-door with bioluminescent mushrooms clinging onto the sides and top.

Cooper grinned, and led Ruby to the entrance of the Earth tunnel, which was just a big bunny burrow sloping down into more dirt. The were sounds coming from that tunnel-- deep, slow sounds. "Let's go meet the Earthen grounds, shall we?" Cooper suggested to his companion.

The Arcanist nodded brusquely. "Of course he will! Now, my thoughts concern you." He put his hands on his waist. "I presume you are of the Nature force, allowed to speak the Common Tongue, and come to check on all the Medicare Centers?" It was not a statement, but a question.

Subject: Re: Strife Wed Jul 30, 2014 8:11 pm

(ok um... WHAT THE HECK!?)

Ruby nodded to him, looking around in awe, her eyes wide. "Ok..." She said as she followed him.

Raven dipped his head in respect. "I am here merely to check on the boy as a favor to my partner, a friend of his."

Subject: Re: Strife Wed Jul 30, 2014 8:39 pm

(I change my mind. That turquoise looks too watery, and Cooper is NOT a Swimmer. xD It's a fancypost. Sometime later I might add a picture.)

Cooper

Cooper started striding down the tunnel, a smile on his face. Suddenly, the tunnel ended in a small, round room.

Cooper turned to face Ruby, his tan eyes glinting, a big smile on his face. He waved his hand, and the tunnel filled up. "Here is where we start. And it's not just you and me, either. It's all of us."

Roots began constricting the room; ice began solidifying the ceiling; the ground below became a sheet of hard glass; shadowy mist began sliding across the floor toward Ruby. Then Ruby would've felt suddenly drained, because arcane energy was drawing much of her energy out of her.

"Too late I guess," Cooper said, his smile fading. "Too late. Avery has said you are to be our prisoner." He pursed his lips. "And me along with you; I tried to defend you, but he wouldn't let you be. Said you were a distraction for Jay, and that it was time to erase Jay's memory. Agnes heard this, and burned herself to ashes. I heard this, and tried to protect you. Now we're both in jail."

Cooper sat down onto the glass floor. He felt very, very tired. Pink light shot out of him and Ruby and into the surrounding walls. The roots stopped growing, and all was still.

"Hm." Then the man looked all around. A pink beam of light went into each person in the room, and they all became dull-eyed and slow. "Listen, whoever you are: Jay is not allowed to see anybody from his past. Avery has ordered it. He says the past is a distraction for Jay, and that Jay needs to start anew. Since you aren't directly connected to Jay, I'm allowed to tell you to leave. Or I will have to kill you. I can't kill Ruby, though. She is directly connected to Jay, and she can only be killed if she kills herself. You, however, are a different matter altogether. So. Leave. I don't want to kill you, but I can transport you elsewhere, to a place where you want to go, wherever that is. I am an Arcanist."

Subject: Re: Strife Wed Jul 30, 2014 8:49 pm

Ruby's eyes widened in horror and she dropped to the floor from lack of energy. "N-No... what the... how can that be...?" She asked, looking at Cooper desperately. "How could you lead us to jail?"

Raven's eyes widened and then narrowed as he growled angrily, pouncing on the man and pinning him to the ground, growling in his face. "Where's Ruby!?"

Subject: Re: Strife Thu Jul 31, 2014 4:31 am

Cooper bowed his head. "I had to. If I hadn't we would have been killed."

The man's eyes hardened, then he dissolved into pink mist.
Then a voice said, "Sorry, Raven." It was Avery, floating in midair. He reached out his hand, and a lightning flash shot to Raven, meaning to electrocute him.

Subject: Re: Strife Thu Jul 31, 2014 11:43 am

Ruby looked at him, her eyes showing how betrayed and destroyed she felt and she looked down and began to cry.

Raven smirked a little as he deflected the lightning. "Don't you know that when a wizard gets her powers, so does her familiar?" He pounced at Avery, swiping out a paw to give him a deep scratch across his chest.

Subject: Re: Strife Fri Aug 01, 2014 1:07 am

Cooper noticed that Ruby was crying softly, and sat down beside her, putting an arm around her. "It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay. I promise I'll protect you, I promise."

Avery allowed himself to be scratched by Raven, but miraculously, the deep cuts immediately healed. He grinned. "Remember, I am an all-Elemental." Then a wide crack opened in the earth beneath Raven.

Subject: Re: Strife Fri Aug 01, 2014 1:42 am

Ruby cried harder. "Why? Why do things like this... keep happening...?"

Raven roared in rage as he fell through the earth.

Subject: Re: Strife Fri Aug 01, 2014 3:22 pm

Cooper sighed. "Jay didn't tell you? When you accept a magician's life, you accept a more dangerous life. You can't be a normal human being anymore. You have to be a sort of trickster, whether good or bad, and act on the will of other people as well as benefit yourself in some way."

Suddenly, one wall fell down to reveal another room, barred from the room Cooper and Ruby were in by heavy metal rods. A black panther (Raven) fell to the floor, and rift in the earth now above him closed up.

Subject: Re: Strife Fri Aug 01, 2014 3:28 pm

Ruby shook her head. "I didn't ask for this life. I didn't accept the magician's life when my family was taken from me." She cried and looked up as she heard a yowl of pain come from the new room. "RAVEN!" She ran over to him and reached through the bars to him. "Raven. Oh my god are you ok?"

Raven slowly stood up, testing his legs before shaking the dust from his fur. "Yeah... I'm fine..."

Subject: Re: Strife Fri Aug 01, 2014 3:38 pm

Cooper raised his brow. "Did you? You said you wanted to become a witch, and accepted the bond and love of a familiar. Then you came here, accepted your Element, and recieved your powers that would have otherwise been silent. I'd say that would be twice accepting the life of a magician. You're now stuck in a situation where Elements as well as other Powers clash. You can't go back to your old ignorant life now. Your last chance is long past. The dangerous life of a magician is your life now, and you're stuck in it. No choice but to accept it." He looked away. "I was forced to receive my Element. I had no choice but to stride forward, and now I may lose it with my life." He looked at Raven through the bars. "Raven, how strong are you feeling?"

Subject: Re: Strife Fri Aug 01, 2014 3:42 pm

Ruby didn't look at him and Raven narrowed his eyes at him, growling out his answer. "I feel fine you sneaky, lying scum bag."

Subject: Re: Strife Sun Aug 03, 2014 6:19 am

Cooper completely ignored Raven's emotions, and replied, "Good. You're still strong." He weakly tried to stand up, but fell over and crumbled to his knees. "And the magic has taken my energy, I'm weak. I suppose you can kill me now." He tried to sit up and keep his head over the shadowy, ground-hugging mist, but failed and his head went under. If nobody did anything to help him, the magic around him would absorb the last of Cooper's energy and eventually kill him.

The bars separating Raven and Ruby and Cooper disappeared. It was Raven's turn.