Solo Liar.

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Considered one of the most mysterious cities in Mizahar, Alvadas is called The City of Illusions. It is the home of Ionu and the notorious Inverted. This city sits on one of the main crossroads through The Region of Kalea.

Liar.

Postby Madeira Dusk on September 26th, 2017, 2:13 am


75thth of Fall, 517


Madeira approached the Emerald Pool like she expected it to leap up and bite her. The small pond looked like an island of lush sanctuary in the chaotic city; like a gods thumbprint pressed into the city of chaos. A perfect circle of vibrant green shrubbery and tall, knotted trees bowed over an endless, sparkling waterfall. The babble of the mysteriously running water and the whisper of the leaves were all that could be heard.
 
It was all a lie, of course. This was not a place of peace at all, but rather the site of the world’s strangest suicide. There was not a child in Alvadas who did not know the story of Verlyna, who played with forbidden magic and choked on her own hubris. Of course, the details of the story changed with each telling. Some said her powers lasted after death, and her ghost was still caught in the water, screaming for escape. Some said she didn't die at all, but rather lives forever looking into her own reflection from the bottom of the pool. And one story, told only in the dark, was the story of the Verlyna who emerged from her curse only at night. Who pulled her own undying corpse from the muck at the bottom of the pool and prowled the streets, looking for unwary children she could enchant, so they could join her forever in her watery home.
 
And, naturally, that was the story that ran in circles through the young Spiritist's mind as she knelt on the ring of mossy stone that surrounded the glittering pond. All childish, blubbering nonsense, she assured herself for the millionth time. The only true part of any of those stories was that the woman Verlyna was a hypnotist of a caliber no one had seen before or since. Then one day, she drowned herself after trying to hypnotize her own reflection. And no matter the story, everyone agreed that the pool still held onto some of the Hypnotists dangerous power.
 
Madeira rolled up her the sleeves of her white blouse and tied back her lank blonde hair. Her face was set with the kind of stiff determination that belied just how nervous she really was. But really, what choice did she have? The library carried no books on any sort of magic or it's application. Just long-winded cautionary fables by long dead purists. Yet here is Alvadas was the one place were magic existed unfettered by city law. And damn it all, Madeira Craven had to see it for herself.
 
With a deep breath, hands white-knuckled around her stone seat, Madeira leaned over the water to stare deep into it's depths.
Last edited by Madeira Dusk on September 29th, 2017, 7:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Liar.

Postby Madeira Dusk on September 26th, 2017, 2:14 am


The water was both startlingly green and unnaturally clear. Madeira leaned over as far as she dared, but she still couldn't see the bottom. Yet something rippled down there. An incandescence that shimmered on the other side of her reflection. Something that sat on the edge of her recollection, like she should know what it was. She stared into her own eyes, focused and blue, and watched that shimmering something dance behind them.

"What are you doing?"

A curious voice floated up from behind her, and the Spiritist gave a shriek like a little girl. Emma Chamelle had drifted up silently to the pond. Madeira cursed herself for not paying attention to her surroundings.

"Emma! Don't scare me like that!"

The little human ghost looked down at the kneeling Spiritist with big brown eyes and picked nervously at the skirt of her nightdress. Her bottom lip trembled and Madeira sighed.

"It's okay, sweetheart. I know you didn't mean to. I'm looking at my reflection."

The ghost knelt beside her, and the static, tingling cold of the ghostly presence ran up Madeira's arm. Emma looked over the pond and looked back to her like she might be crazy.

"How come?"

"Because I want to learn more about magic."

She watched with amusement as Emma's little mouth frowned with confusion, pulling down the scabs at the corners.

"Like Spiritism? That kind of magic?"

"No, this is different. You learn Spiritism from books and teachers, this kind of magic lives in your head."

"If it lives in your head, how do you learn it?"

Now it was Madeira's turn to frown.

"I don't know yet."

"My Papa said magic was a poison the gods gave us, so that the the stupid and power hungry could be culled." The ghost parroted innocently, as she made faces to herself in the mirror-smooth waters.

"That's nice sweetie. Go sit over there and be very quiet, ok?"

"'Kay."
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Liar.

Postby Madeira Dusk on September 28th, 2017, 11:06 pm


Once the little ghost was settled, having been given Terag's little black marble to play with in the shade of a large birch tree, Madeira turned back to her reflection.

That incandescence was still there. And being both too scared to touch the water, and too curious to leave, Madeira stayed as she was; leaning over the water, staring into her own eyes.

Time passed. Syna crawled across the clearing and shadows changed direction as they fled her. Yet Madeira knelt there, still as stone. Her thoughts had begun to trickle away as the chimes past, as if a spigot had been tapped into her mind. She watched her own eyes with a kind of consuming concentration that did not lend itself to deeper thoughts.

And slowly, as if it were a shy creature emboldened by her silence, the unfathomable incandenscence deepened, and took shape. Behind her own wide blue eyes a dark hall began to appear, with tall pillars that reached high into blackness and a table set with a feast fit for kings. People began to appear, billowing from the ground like columns of smoke. Some she recognized. Her family were there, resplendent and noble, and, to her confusion, emaciated. They ate with fingers dripping in grease and sweet juices, and looked to the head of the table with smiles of gratitude on their faces. Ssanya was there, taller than she had ever been. Wicked and gleaming she picked the seeds from a pomegranate with the point of a bone dagger. Jomi and Emma drifted between the rows, their forms solid and real and powerful, smiles lighting their untroubled faces.

Terag made a small totem from reimancy in his hand to the delight of Asterope. Ambrosia raised a glass brimming with ruby red wine to Azuridae, who shimmered beautifully in her true form. Velindor, Cabochon, Dexius, Aislyn, Hurik, more and more people drifted past. Everyone she had ever met was there, and they were all beautiful and grateful and happy. They looked to the head of the table with faces alight in adoration.

Behind her eyes the scene travelled farther down the tables, and Madeira saw something that put awe in her heart.

She, Madeira, was there. Sitting in a high chair as if it were a throne. She had a ring on every finger, and diamonds glittered at her throat. There were no shadows under her eyes, no sinew showing in her wrists. She was healthy and strong and beautiful, smiling benignly as the people at the feast praised her. On a cushion at her feet Allister sat in comfort, looking up at her as though in worship. There was no glint of metal in his smile, no press of bone beneath his shirt. She passed the palm of her hand lovingly over his cheek, and discovered a thin gold collar settled neatly against his throat.

Looking out over the crowd, she saw more glittering gold collars. There was one around every neck.

The illusion Madeira spoke then. Her voice came clear and strong through a mouth painted pretty and red.

"I will take good care of you."
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Liar.

Postby Madeira Dusk on September 28th, 2017, 11:21 pm


"Take care of who? Maddy, what's wrong?"

Something snapped in Madeira's mind as the cold, ghostly hand descended through her shoulder. The illusion fled from her, sucked deep into bottomless pool, leaving Madeira far behind. Suddenly back in full control she realized she was bent so far she was nearly touching the water. Her blown eyes were all she could see now, yet she swore that the feast was still being played out in the dark hall of her iris.

Madeira jerked back from the water, hands waving in front of her as if to banish a cloud of mites. Emma took several steps back, looking confused and frightened. She bit her lips, and tears sprang up around her brown eyes.

"Maddy, what's wrong?" she asked again, as Madeira pushed her fingers through her fraying hair and her body sucked in giddy, near hysterical breaths.

Madeira was an Avalad. She knew how to coexist with illusions, how to keep her footing as the strange and bizarre was thrown at her. But there was something about what she just experienced... It did not change her perception, she was very aware that it was just an illusion. But it set a fire in her bones. She wanted it to be real so bad she almost didn't care.

Emma began to cry in earnest now. Big tears tracked silently down her cheeks, catching in the sores on her face. Madeira didn't know what she looked like, but she could feel the hard smile on her lips and the gum hardening in her unblinking eyes. With effort she corralled her expresion, softening it into something gentle.

"No, kitten, it's ok. I'm ok." She soothed her poor ghost with words. "I didn't mean to scare you. I'm ok."

"I was ca-calling", the girl blubbered into her hands. "I was calling and you wouldn't wake up! I di-didn't know what to do!"

Did she? Madeira didn't remember anything like that. Like a wave the realization that she had almost died crashed over her. What would of happened if Emma didn't get her attention in time? Would she have followed that illusion to the bottom of the pool? Though even as these rational thoughts screamed in horror, a small, dented part of her soul wished to still be at that feast.

She had to go back. She had to. Not for the feast, though part of her still yearned for that beautiful dream. She was so close to something. It had to be some sort of battle of wills. If she could keep the dream from sucking her in she might discover it.

"But you did such a good job, sweetie. Do you think you could do it again?"

This seemed to be the wrong thing to say, as a smell of overripe oranges filled the clearing as Emma made her anger known.

"No! Don't do it again! I won't help if you do it again! I'll leave right now!"

"No, you won't." Madeira held up a finger against the whipping storm of the child's angry soulmist "You will do as you are told. I need you to stay and wake me up if I look like I'm about to fall in."

Small hands curled into fists that beat against the sides of her dress. Scared tears poured from her eyes and her face was red and twisted in anger.

"Emma." Madeira said clearly, summoning all the authority she could out of her breathless body. "I need you to stay. Do I have to go to Raj and tell him that you won't listen?"

Summoning the thought of Emma's equally dead, beheaded bondmate seemed too cool the girl down. She sniffled, her lips stuck out in an angry pout, her eyes still glistening with tears, and shook her head.

"Good. Now, will you stay and wake me up if I need you?"

The girl said nothing.

"Emma." Madeira's voice dropped in pitch.

There was a pause before the girl nodded once, reluctantly. It wasn't much, but it was an affirmation, and that's all Madeira could hope for.

"Thank you. I need you to be really quiet again, just like before. Can you do that for me?"

One more nod. The girl seemed to have lost her spark as they spoke. Her soulmist settled and the smell of oranges evaporated, her expression was scared and resigned. And that's the image burned into Madeira's eyes as she leaned back over the pool; Emma standing barefoot in the grass, her form flickering and her face hopeless.
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Madeira Dusk
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Liar.

Postby Madeira Dusk on September 29th, 2017, 7:32 pm


Once again looking back at her reflection, Madeira tried to occupy that space in her mind she was when the dream started. With effort she ignored her spinning thoughts until, one by one, they began to disapear. Twilight had snuck slowly into the clearing before Madeira was completely empty. She stared vacanty at herself, toeing the line between lucid and dreaming. The illusion called sweetly to her, tempting her with the proud voices of her friends and the intoxicating scent of power. She let it dance in the side of her vision but refused to give it her attention

After bells of this delicate balancing act, and immposible thought occured to her.

What if she Lied to herself?

The Lie was a Spiritism technique where a Spiritist could use soulmist to appear as different people in the eyes of ghosts. But not only did she not have soulmist, she was not dead. The technique could not work for her from either side. Yet something in her empty mind told her to try.

She brought Jomi's image to mind. His wide, snarky mouth and cruel black eyes swam up and settled in her consciousness. His long black hair, made weightless in death, flickered around him. Like with the Lie, she concentrated hard on his face, and pushed the image out before her.

Her own wide, blue-eyed reflection did not change. But she didn't give up.

She reached deep inside herself, from the same place soulmist came from, and tried to bring it forward. Without the dough needed to produce soulmist, nothing happened. But something stirred in it place, something she recognized from seasons ago.

A Dhani once taught her about djed, and how to pull it from herself and have it react to the bones of those long dead. She shifted her focus, groping for this secret power from before. It came from the same place that soulmist did, but deeper. It was deeper in her soul.

She dragged this power forward, let it seep in to her face and pool behind her eyes. Once again she projected Jomi's face in front of herself, imagining his sarcastic, beetle black eyes.

Frusteration.

It wasn't an image that bounced back from her reflection, or even a thought. A feeling fired back at her, sloppy and unsourced.

Jomi's image vanished from her mind and her concentration evaporated. She wasn't one hundred percent sure what had happened, but something happened. She sat back on her heels and took a deep breath, then lent forward to try again.

It was easier this time to find her djed. She pulled it forward and let it sit behind her eyes. This time it was her cousin Godric she projected forward as if with a Lie. His charming smile and clear blue eyes swam in her concentration. The intent fed from the djed in her eyes and bounced back from the water.

Mistrust.

The uncomfortable feeling rippled into her mind, fragile and strangely detached. She could not locate where that feeling came from, as there was no thought to spawn it.

Was this... was this hypnotism?
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Madeira Dusk
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Liar.

Postby Madeira Dusk on September 29th, 2017, 7:34 pm


A rush of discovery powered through the young Spiritist. Recklessly she dug deeper for this mysterious power and dragged it forward into her eyes. This time she did not bring a face to mind, and let go of the concept of a Lie. She found a raw emotion and let it project from her eyes on her own djed.

Happy.

It was working. Oh gods, it was working! This magic was hers, she could use it!

Suddenly her tense, giddy reflection rippled and distorted below her. A drop of red spread out from the center of her face. Reaching out like tendrils of ink it ran over her lips and through the whites of her eyes.

"Maddy?" Emma's voice cut through her epiphany, spiked with alarm.

Madeira raised her sleeve to her nose, and blood bloomed across the white cotton. Frusterated at having been interrupted by her own body, she stoppered the nosebleed with the cuff of her blouse and waved absently to the ghost.

"It's ok, sweetie. Stay there."

But Emma didn't listen. She blinked to Madeira's side and fidgeted nervously.

"Can we go home now? It's been long enough. I want to go home."

Was this what they called overgiving? Her uncle Frode liked to parrot the dangers of overgiving to anyone who stood still long enough. But not being a practitioner of personal magic herself, she toned him out like everyone else. Now she wished she could remember what he had said, as a hum began to develop in her suddenly heavy head.

"Maddy? Are you okay? Lets go home."

She needed to try one more time. Just one more time.

She looked up at her little ghost. She had lived with the Emma for several seasons now. Her and Raj, of course. The girl was fragile and not mentally well, but she was sweet and gentle. Over time Madeira had developed a role to the girl like that of an older sister, or a mother.

Still kneeling, she turned to face the child. Emma was looking into her eyes, anxiously waiting for an answer and picking nervously at her dress. Madeira brought the djed forward again, and this time let it settle in her throat and infuse into her words.

"Calm down, kitten."

immediately a pain cleaved through her head like a lightning strike. In ticks the humming had turned into a full blown migraine. Madeira had to blink hard to clear her vision, and when she looked back at Emma she found the girl standing patiently. Her hands were still and neatly clasped in front of her.

Madeira smiled even as blood poured from her nose and pain lanced through her skull.

"Okay, lets go home."
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Madeira Dusk
long may she reign
 
Posts: 1774
Words: 1599220
Joined roleplay: October 11th, 2016, 7:45 pm
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Character sheet
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Medals: 11
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Liar.

Postby Madeira Dusk on October 26th, 2017, 11:56 pm

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Madeira Craven

Skills
  • Observation: 2xp
  • Socialization: 1xp
  • Meditation: 2xp
  • Persuasion: 2xp
  • Investigation: 1xp
  • Spiritism: 1xp
  • Hypnotism: 2xp
  • Intimidation: 1xp

Lores
  • Lore of overgiving
  • Local Legend: Verlyna the Hypnotist
  • Location: Emerald Pond

Awards & Retribution


Notes
User avatar
Madeira Dusk
long may she reign
 
Posts: 1774
Words: 1599220
Joined roleplay: October 11th, 2016, 7:45 pm
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 11
Featured Contributor (1) Featured Thread (3)
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
Donor (1) One Thousand Posts! (1)
One Million Words! (1) Lhavit Seasonal Challenge (1)
2018 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)


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