Solo A Shadow Across the Sun

But you're human tonight.

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A lawless town of anarchists, built on the ruins of an ancient mining city. [Lore]

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A Shadow Across the Sun

Postby Asterope on February 25th, 2019, 2:50 pm

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86th of winter, 519 AV
Just a few bells after midnight

Aster was tired. Tired, and lonely. She was tired of Sunberth, she was tired of being a slave. She missed the Stormgrass pavilion. She missed Alvadas. She missed Navi. She missed Syna.

She curled in on herself, tucked on the cot Alard had deigned to give her, beneath the thin ratty blanket. Silent tears ran down her face. Her hand hurt from where he had rebranded her, and her neck felt sore from the constant weight of the collar around it.

Syna. Perhaps the one she missed the most, at the core of herself. Where was her goddess? What had she done to deserve this? Aster had hoped for something better when she left Ravok, and perhaps she had more freedom than she'd had when she was being experimented on, chained in the strange research place...but it wasn't actually better. Not really.

Syna, she mouthed the words, but didn't dare whisper them out loud. Despite his snoring, Alard was an exceptionally light sleeper, and did not like being woken up without an extremely valid reason.

Please help me. I don't know what to do. I'm lost. I'm scared. I'm alone. All I have done since I lost you is try my best to make my place here, to find my purpose. To help others. Surely that's why you sent me here. Why are you letting this happen? What am I supposed to do?

Asterope held her breath, waiting, listening in vain. She didn't truly expect an answer...but she had been hoping beyond hope for one.

Still, only silence greeted her, interrupted only by Alard's snoring and her own low exhale of breath. Had Syna abandoned her? Her tears turned to those of frustration, and she reached up to angrily wipe them away.

Anger at Syna for leaving her alone, anger at herself for doubting her goddess, anger at Alard and those who had put her into the situation she found herself in. Outside, an owl hooted into the night, the sound mournful.

She thought back to her time in Ravok, chained in the research institute. She had been so much angrier then. Full of hatred. It had made her feel like a stranger inside of her own body. The time it took to travel to Sunberth, being allowed to experience fresh air and sunlight again, had calmed her down somewhat. Given her a fresh spark of hope.

But in the dirty, chaotic streets of Sunberth, she was beginning to lose it again. She felt small, and lost, and helpless. Aster stared up at the ceiling in the dark as the owl outside hooted again. She wondered if, when her time in her mortal (or semi-mortal) body was done once again, she would return to Syna. Or was she doomed to never return to the divine domain of her goddess? Would she go to another deity? Be returned to the mortal plane in a different body? Or perhaps just rest eternally?

The thoughts were dark and uncomfortable, and while not entirely unfamiliar, Asterope wanted nothing to do with them. A shadow whispered in her mind, insidious in its casualness of pointing out there was one way to find out sooner rather than later.

Aster rolled over onto her stomach, folding her arms over her head as if she could block out her own thoughts. Despair gnawed at the edges of her stomach, making the voice that much more tempting to listen to, but she refused. She hadn't come this far just to give up, not yet.

With tears still drying on her face, she drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
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The sun will rise, and we will try again
User avatar
Asterope
A light that never goes out
 
Posts: 651
Words: 661387
Joined roleplay: August 16th, 2017, 11:11 pm
Location: The Outpost (Sunberth)
Race: Ethaefal
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 5
Featured Thread (1) Mizahar Grader (1)
Overlored (1) Alvadas Seasonal Challenge (1)
Power Fork (1)

A Shadow Across the Sun

Postby Asterope on March 31st, 2020, 6:09 pm

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Her sleep was fitful and restless. Her dark thoughts chased her into unconsciousness, haunting her dreams. She tossed and turned, a thin sheen of sweat coating her body as she whimpered quietly into the dark room.

She was standing alone at the edge of a cliff. Around her, golden clouds drifted by; the sky was a warm burnt orange tinged with gleaming yellow and pink, and it was warm all around her. But then the cliff was crumbling, and she was falling, and she was screaming, and suddenly she was plunging into water.

It was deep, deep, deep, and dark, so dark; freezing cold enveloped her. She fought the current, clawing at the water, searching for the surface. But before she could find it, something wrapped around her ankle. Aster kicked hard, looking down; slimy chains dripping with seaweed had wound around her ankle, digging into her flesh. Even as she watched, trying in vain to kick free, another chain flashed up out of the darkness, catching her other ankle, and then she was being dragged down, down, down.

It was dark. She couldn't see. She couldn't breathe. She was alone. She was going to die, alone, in the cold and the dark, and nobody would even hear her screaming.


Aster shot upright in the dark, a muffled scream catching in her throat, choking before it quite made it out. She was panting, breathing hard, one hand clutching at her chest where she could feel her heart hammering against her ribcage. She was practically dripping with sweat. Across the room, Alard's snoring stuttered, paused; he mumbled something in his sleep, and then resumed snoring, and Aster let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

She was trembling. She scrubbed at her face hard with one hand, inhaling deeply and slowly, forcing herself to calm down. It was just a dream, she told herself, but she could still feel the chill of the dark water and the slimy, biting grip of the chains around her ankles.

As quietly as she could, Aster slipped off the cot and stood up, holding the thin, ragged blanket around her shoulders. With the sweat on her skin now cooling, she was starting to feel a deep chill. Padding over to the window, Aster pressed her forehead against the cool glass, shivering slightly. She closed her eyes, feeling the cool moonlight wash over her. It wasn't comforting to her in the way warm sunlight was, but it was better than darkness.

The owl hooted outside again. Aster cracked one eye open, peering out; in a nearby tree branch, she caught the gleam of pale feathers in the moonlight, and the glint of dark eyes reflecting moonlight as a barn owl swiveled its head, seeming to stare at her with its wide, round eyes. Its face was startlingly pale, almost glowing in the moonlight.

Aster blinked her eyes open fully, looking back at the owl. It tilted its head to the side, hooting again, and then in a ruffling of feathers, spread out its wings before dropping from the branch, then soaring up and into the night sky. Aster watched it go until she could no longer see the shadow of its silhouette.

What she wouldn't give to be able to spread a pair of wings of her own and simply fly away from this place.
Image

The sun will rise, and we will try again
User avatar
Asterope
A light that never goes out
 
Posts: 651
Words: 661387
Joined roleplay: August 16th, 2017, 11:11 pm
Location: The Outpost (Sunberth)
Race: Ethaefal
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 5
Featured Thread (1) Mizahar Grader (1)
Overlored (1) Alvadas Seasonal Challenge (1)
Power Fork (1)

A Shadow Across the Sun

Postby Asterope on April 13th, 2021, 4:59 pm

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Here are your bright, shiny grades...
Enjoy!


Asterope

Skills

☀Endurance +1
☀Observation +1


Lores

☀Aster: Misses Syna more than anything else
☀Syna: Prayer for help and guidance
☀Identity crisis: Dealing with unfamiliar feelings of anger and hatred
☀Aster: Feels abandoned
☀Endurance: Dealing with emotional pain
☀Aster: Has nightmares about falling
☀Moonlight: Not as comforting as the sun, but better than darkness


Comments

Another tiny solo, found what I could!


Thank you for your patience! As always, please don't forget to delete or edit your grading request in the queue. Otherwise, if you have any questions or concerns about your grades, then just PM me and let me know!
Image

The sun will rise, and we will try again
User avatar
Asterope
A light that never goes out
 
Posts: 651
Words: 661387
Joined roleplay: August 16th, 2017, 11:11 pm
Location: The Outpost (Sunberth)
Race: Ethaefal
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 5
Featured Thread (1) Mizahar Grader (1)
Overlored (1) Alvadas Seasonal Challenge (1)
Power Fork (1)


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