+- Vivarium (https://vivariumrpg.com)
+-- Forum: Vivarium (https://vivariumrpg.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Forum: Smoldering Wastes (https://vivariumrpg.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=28)
+--- Thread: BWP 'Cause you can remember only when you're alone. (/showthread.php?tid=10804)
'Cause you can remember only when you're alone. - Kwetau - 3/18/2026
Screw this! A snake told him his world was gone, or that he was unable to go back to it. That couldn't be true—he wouldn't let it be true! He must have taken a wrong turn, that's all. Maybe when Kwetau was investigating some possible plants for collection? Yeah, that's sensible. One of those might have drugged him up! He could've been out of his mind for a while; all he had to do was retrace his steps and find his way back to the traveler's path.
None of this stuff looked right, regardless. He headed north from the place he'd met the snake. Then, when the scent of water became prevalent, he followed that. After a day or so of roaming east, the sound of flowing water caught in his ears. That must have been the Wallows! Invigorated, Kwetau began to rush along. The Wallows were an important place within the Forgelands of his birth; there would be many people camped there, bathing or drinking or whatever else, and he knew he could find a messenger there to take word back to his master—!
On and on he went, charging along the bank when he found the edge of the water. He hurried, all but tripping over himself, until the sound of the falls became so deafening that he couldn't even feel his heart thundering in his chest. The Wallows never looked like this. It had always been a swath of wetland in the middle of the dry, not this descending staircase of water on water on water. As Kwetau stared down at the scene before him, complete with rising mist and the roar of the water, he had to conclude that he had been wrong.
No. No. I just have to keep going!He told himself. As he plunged down a ledge, then around a bend and further still along the rim of the falls, he went to duck around an overhang of stone and crouched there, despondent. The dog kicked a stone and listened to it clatter, falling away in to the wilderness beyond, where it might have been picked up by the water and drawn away. Then, another, and another—until he was too frustrated and too damp to bother moving.
Out of sheer desperation he begins to carve symbols in to the wall beside himself: shapes that meant nothing except in the Forgelands, cut with claw or the sideways swipe of his tooth, followed by the spitting of mud from his tongue. Shapes and sigils meant for travelers; although the earth here was soft, and chunks fell out as he worked.
RE: 'Cause you can remember only when you're alone. - Yue. - 3/19/2026
༻❁༺
The Empress did what she did not often do – she stole away from her palace, and left the kingdom of Tianlong entirely.
The Dreams were what had compelled her to do so.
Yue was no stranger to dreams – they plagued her with their truths, their glimpses into the future. It was the only time the woman ever achieved deep clarity of her goals, and how she might achieve them. Her entire life had been built around her dreams. They drove her. They gave her purpose.
That was why the begging voice frightened her so. She mustn't allow her dynasty to fall – not again. Not when everything she had ever known had been slashed from her, and she had just begun to rebuild.
Yue asked no one to attend her. The learnings she found here, she wished to keep for herself alone. She must speak to Shenlei after she had more information, and this could not be trusted to anyone but herself.
The ivory empress fled south under the cover of night, and by the end of the next day, had reached what lay in her very backyard – waters crashing, falling, a dizzying array of crystals.
A creature unlike herself was slashing at a wall. Her eyes widened, shocked at how violent it felt. Markings, but they meant nothing. Was this the man who had spoken to her, so desperate?
She could not summon words – this entire situation was so foreign to her. So, with hackles raised for reasons unknown, the orchid released a velveteen bark, and waited to see if she could break him from his stupor by sound alone.
༻❁༺
RE: 'Cause you can remember only when you're alone. - narrator - 3/19/2026
Rune Discovery : 「 Success! 」
What a strange thing to see - those overlapping colors, the strange shapes that splattered and formed in the spots. It was enough to cause interest, and for the moment the sound of the falls is drowned out by a thrumming pulse. Mythris' Heartbeat, perhaps. It sounds strangely like the buzzing of a swarm of locusts with the thundering roar of a stampede of wildebeests combined. It sounded like the very essence of being wild.
The chunks of earth that tumbled down and then sank to the very depths exposed something else.
The rune suddenly had space, and then! -- it tumbled down, knocking off the edge of the wall and the uncomfortable sound as it 'PLUNKED' into the water. It sounded nothing like the rocks had. The rune was thankfully still visible, the roar of the falls restored now that the rune was released. You can still claim it - if you brave the deeper waters and are willing to take the risk.
Perhaps when you are done, you can draw your story for those who may come next. Perhaps even for the pale beauty who calls out now. Perhaps she has keen eyes; perhaps she had witnessed the rune. Hopefully, she wasn't so distracted by your expressive art attempts.
What a strange thing to see - those overlapping colors, the strange shapes that splattered and formed in the spots. It was enough to cause interest, and for the moment the sound of the falls is drowned out by a thrumming pulse. Mythris' Heartbeat, perhaps. It sounds strangely like the buzzing of a swarm of locusts with the thundering roar of a stampede of wildebeests combined. It sounded like the very essence of being wild.
The chunks of earth that tumbled down and then sank to the very depths exposed something else.
The rune suddenly had space, and then! -- it tumbled down, knocking off the edge of the wall and the uncomfortable sound as it 'PLUNKED' into the water. It sounded nothing like the rocks had. The rune was thankfully still visible, the roar of the falls restored now that the rune was released. You can still claim it - if you brave the deeper waters and are willing to take the risk.
Perhaps when you are done, you can draw your story for those who may come next. Perhaps even for the pale beauty who calls out now. Perhaps she has keen eyes; perhaps she had witnessed the rune. Hopefully, she wasn't so distracted by your expressive art attempts.
RE: 'Cause you can remember only when you're alone. - Kwetau - 3/19/2026
If it wasn't clear yet, Kwe'tau was in utter denial about his status as a lost boy in a new world. He continued to carve away at the dirt until shapes emerged, intent on putting down some kind of message for any passers-by that might recognize it; this pidgin language of sigils, known to most who lived in the Forgelands, would surely be of great value here.
As parts of the earth cut free and fell away, he came to the realization that the wall here was too soft. The water had eroded much, and there was no use in him trying to do anything! As parts crumbled, he caught sight of something strange—an ember, he thought at first. It was a stone set with a sigil of its own, the kind he had never seen before. It sprang loose as if alive, then tumbled in to the water!
Oh!He lunged for it, but no, it was just out of his grasp—and sat bobbing there, and sinking moments later. Then, there was a bark.
Kwe'tau looked sharply towards that sound. It was lighter, sharper than the rumble of the falls. He looked utterly manic; eyes wide, ears big and round and forward.
I need that rock!He all but screeched, and then dove for the stone in the water.
RE: 'Cause you can remember only when you're alone. - Yue. - 3/20/2026
༻❁༺
The spotted soul was manic. Scratching at the wall, crazed, potentially rabid – the Empress grimaced, unable to accept the display she was watching. It was vulgar in a way that made her uncomfortable, and there was very little, save the desecration of innocents, that made Yue uncomfortable.
He looked at her, desperation leaking from every orifice. The Empress stepped forward, planting her feet into the ground like flagstaffs, momentarily forgetting that she was alone and speaking as though she had an army behind her. “Be calm I say! Stow your hand!” and, just as she said that, she watched the blue thing plunk into the water.
It was only a moment from when it appeared to when it disappeared, but they both had seen it. He only turned to look at her, eyes unfazed, uttering that he needed it. But how could he need it, when it was she who needed it?! “No, NO–” she shouted, her composure unraveling in an instant.
The Empress lunged forward, only to see the spotted desert creature plunge into the depths. If he found the thing, then it was his. The dreams, the voice that entered her head at night, they all told her that she could not let that happen. The Empress had only a moment to think, but made her split-second decision in half the time.
“Oh, gods…” was all she said, before steeling her resolve, bunching her muscles, and diving into the churning waters. She stretched out her body and forced her eyes open, hoping to locate a gleam, and hoping equally as much that the other soul had not already set itself upon it.
༻❁༺
RE: 'Cause you can remember only when you're alone. - Kwetau - 3/30/2026
Before he knew it the water was all around him. He smacked the surface and was beneath it, gulping the cold and spitting it out, while a column of air escaped and frothed the surface. The flow of the water was so violent against him—but he saw the shining of the stone and moved, as if possessed, through the depths. A scramble nearer the bottom—prior to being pushed one way or another by the current—and in a desperate bid, Kwetau's eyes shut and he grappled with it, maw to stone, before being dragged towards the surface.
His mottled body was thrust free of the water as violently as he had entered it—practically spat out upon some shallows, scraping his chest and cheeks against similarly throttled gravel deposits. He was delirious, and did not think to lift himself free of the water immediately. There was no sign of the stone.
For a long moment there was only the thrashing of a second body behind him, as the pale stranger had entered the water too, and as she searched and scoured for the object—it looked as if the dog had earnestly drowned in his madness; then a groan began in the pit of his belly, and with a wretched belch, his mouth sprang open in the manner of a bear-trap: and thus, out tumbled the stone, shining as before.
A piece of a canine came with it, but that was a decent price to pay.
Kwetau practically vomited water as he wheezed to life, and lifted his head, then his torso, on trembling limbs. The stone had settled ahead of him, where it nested now on a weakened ledge.
RE: 'Cause you can remember only when you're alone. - Yue. - 4/7/2026
༻❁༺
Yue was not a swimmer. Instead, she usually waded – in bathtubs, in the palace pools – but swimming was never a task that had crossed her radar. She knew how to do it, of course, but such distant knowledge was little help in the chaos that resulted.
Two creatures, whirling and searching amongst themselves, searching in the waters. Yue held her eyes wide to see but could not for all the bubbles and the thrashing; her long limbs reached out, becoming more frantic in their motions by the moment, until they found purchase upon a slimy surface and she flung herself onto the mud with the force of a dying thing that did not want to die just yet.
The two just lay there, she panting fiercely and he hacking up a lung. The Orchid lay her head against the earth, unable to recall exactly what it was that made her leap into the water in the first place. It had been stupid, but to remain indisposed around someone in the midst of psychosis was stupider.
He was already upon his feet, so Yue clamored onto hers, shivering and blinking and ready to take control of the situation – until she saw it. The rune, the glowing stone! Very quickly, the Empress remembered all that she had just seen. The breath was taken from her once more.
“Careful now,” she hedged, her voice serious. She made no moves to get closer, though she felt incredibly possessive over this object. It felt like it was a necessity that she bring it home, to bring good fortune upon Tianlong, but at the moment she could not. Not without an army behind her.
But the rune, it sat on a ledge. It could fall in the water once more if either of them made the slightest step. So, she would not incite his own movement by quelling any movement of her own.
The lilac irises of her eyes slipped behind her lids as she uttered a small prayer in Mandarin.
Oh great heavenly Dragon, steady and guide me,she wished aloud, hoping to be imbued with the courage of one who created worlds.
This was a time to forge.
Her eyes peeled open, and looked at the Rune, then at him. “What is it?” she asked, as he was the only other possible source of information she could find about this, at the moment. If she were going to protect her dynasty from Mythris’s internal war, then the crazy guy would have to do.
༻❁༺
RE: 'Cause you can remember only when you're alone. - Kwetau - 4/7/2026
It wasn't a great feeling to nearly drown, but it wasn't much better now that he could breathe and all; his lungs hurt tremendously, and his head was spinning, and he could feel the grip of death receding as his body fought to stay cognizant of the moment. He saw the stone—it sat there shining dimly, as if to invite any attempt at all to fetch it—but the dog was distracted by the ailments of his stupid dive in to the water.
He coughed a few more times. There was dirt and blood in his mouth, which wasn't pleasant either. The sound of rushing water left his ears and was replaced by sounds he did not recognize—and Kwetau remained oblivious to the prayer being said by the stranger, except that it was noise, and slowly it transitioned to common, earning a queasy look from his painted face.
The stranger was very pretty. If he'd been less frenetic about his situation, and a lot less damp from his failure to swim, maybe he'd have made a pass at her. More than likely, he would have. The stranger's attention was not on him, though—rude. She looked to be fixated on... The rock. Why? It was just a rock. Kwetau coughed again, but it turned in to a hiccup.
She looked as ruined as he felt.
Jus' a rock,he murmured, licking his lips and tasting metal. Oh, yeah. His tooth.
I foun' it. 'S mine.And, quaking, he managed up to his feet and swayed there, his tail tucked but dripping at his hocks.