TEST DRIVE MEME

[fairyfoes]

TEST DRIVE MEME

Considering apping to EACHDRAIDH? Why not give the setting a test run here! OPTIONAL SCENARIOS 01. ARRIVING IN THE DRABWURLD. The Seelie and Unseelie courts welcome you with mirthful revelry and hearty food. After you have been briefed on your purpose here, you will find an endless feast and a night filled with entertainment to placate your concerns. Mingle with new arrivals, sneak down the castle halls and make sure your eyes are always on your glass; fairies and imps have no bias when it comes to tricks! 02. THE STATION. Looking for a little slice of home? The Station gives you all that and more. Take advantage of the wifi, have a cup of fairy-brewed coffee (the one they didn't spit in) or sit back and relax on the patio. You can even move your things into one of the available rooms! 03. WILDCARD. Your own scenario! Explore the Drabwurld or simply take advantage of your Locket!

Comments

[rekhyt]

Could be either! There's a good number here who are from worlds nothing like yours in the first place too.

[Oh, he'd never claim benevolence.]

[bythewaves]

Worlds like yours, Master Djinni?

[ Maglor eyes him warily still but his wounds are beginning to tell his hands hurt and he's so very tired - there's a barely perceptible tremor in the hand with the blade ]

And ought I fear them, or you?

[rekhyt]

Like mine and unlike. There is a whole cosmos out there to choose from, and the people in charge seem intent on the choosing!

[He smiles wickedly at the question.]

Oh, certainly. But then a healthy amount of fear in the proper situations can be quite useful in staying alive, don't you agree?

[bythewaves]

[ Maglor turns that over in his head consideringly - well, he isn't being lied to outright, nor is he being told that he is safe from harm. He is far past the point that any of his decisions have been good, but just this once he is so tired he will trust that he is not in undue danger now ]

It may be seen to be useful, aye - especially in circumstances of the unknown. [ the knife flicks back into its sheathe (the handle is marked with blood and Maglor cannot quite hide the flash of pain) and he drops his guard a little more ]

Are there so many worlds out there? I confess to finding it very strange indeed.

[rekhyt]

[It's not a bad decision, actually, at least this time - but even if it had been, a little knife wouldn't have been able to do much to stop Bartimaeus, not if he wanted him dead. How lucky that he didn't have any interest in killing him.]

We are at war - supposedly, anyway, though it's by far the calmest war I've ever been part of, even taking into account all the boring bits where you're just fortifying your walls. Then again, I haven't been around for as many of those. Certain of my masters preferred to keep their energy in reserve, and only summon me for the really bloody bits. But not our vaunted monarchs this time around, no sir. They haven't even bothered giving us any proper commands, as far as I know. If they have they hardly seem set on enforcing them.

[He notices the blood and the pain and makes a mental note of it, but it's not much use to comment on it now.]

More than I'd ever suspected, based on the variety around these parts. That's how the worlds are, though. Unexpected. Well, to a certain degree - after a point things stop getting quite so interesting. It was almost refreshing to get dragged here and find a few surprises again. Nothing on being at home, naturally, but a sight better than the usual servitude.

[bythewaves]

[ Maglor laughs a little, hollowly ]

Our patrons chose unwisely then, if they hope that a cursed son of Feanor will help them win their war - they should have taken another.

A long siege is not unfamiliar to me, alas, although it seems that it might drag as much for the lack of orders, by your telling. You speak of masters - by that you mean the King and Queen?

[rekhyt]

Oh, you don't need to worry about that. There are plenty of people who got dragged into this who are much more useless than you.

[He sounds surprisingly cheerful when saying this, and also quite matter-of-fact. He does not question Maglor's insistence that he's useless - he'd know best, after all. A good self-portrait of what you could and could not do was always a good thing to have.]

We weren't chosen for our combat prowess, but for some shard of a gem that we are supposed to bear. Apparently it materializes when we're dead, and we're supposed to collect them. All seems a bit rubbish to me, but there you have it.

That's the best I've been told or have seen, though admittedly nobody here seems terribly communicative.

[bythewaves]

[ Maglor blinks in surprise at the cheerful insult and then shrugs ]

I can fight, if need be. [ if the sword and the knife and the bow and the armor didn't give it away ] I simply would prefer not to. [ It could also be said that I bring ill fortune to anything I lay my hand to he doesn't say ]

I fear I was not listening when they may have mentioned that part.

[rekhyt]

After a fashion, maybe.

[His voice sounds lazy.]

If that's the best you can do, though, you'd be better served finding some nice, quiet corner to hide in when the fighting gets started for as long as possible. Certainly what I'm planning on doing - I don't particularly want to die, and risking myself when I don't have to makes that significantly more likely.

[He looks - a bit pointedly, it must be said - at the blades Maglor is wearing, and at the hands that could not hold them.]

Well, I'm pretty sure that's most of what's relevant, anyway.

[bythewaves]

[ Just for an instant, that gets a flash of his old fire - the blaze in his eyes that makes him look, briefly, like what he is - a Kinslayer, dangerous and unpredictable. Then it fades and Maglor flushes, because this stranger speaks truth ]

Tis true I am not at my best, presently. [ Maglor acknowledges - both hands ache, the left moreso than the right (the right is burnt so deep that the nerves themselves are damaged - it hurts, but dully, he can barely feel it) - the burns are fresh, still, only days old, and he has not bothered to tend them. A terrible thought occurs to him ]

If the crystals are to be gathered - do our patrons then wish for us to slay those with them?

[rekhyt]

I saw. Looks nasty, whatever it is.

[He doesn't ask beyond that, because really, the cause seems irrelevant.]

That seems to be the idea of it. Now me, I'm just planning on doing what I can to not die, which doesn't include extra curricular fighting.

[bythewaves]

[ Something almost visibly breaks in him at that last statement, and all the life goes out of his eyes. The laugh is closer to a sob ]

So! And this is to be the punishment for my sins! To fight in a war for the acquisition of jewels! O Fate thou art cruel indeed it seems. Better that Maglor should have died, than to find myself here.

[rekhyt]

You're welcome to fall on your sword or something if you really feel that way.

[Bartimaeus now sounds bored.]

If not I'd suggest you stop being dramatic before someone takes you up on your offer.

[bythewaves]

And the shard? What happens to them when we die? If they are to be of use, mine might be better served in the hands of another.

[rekhyt]

[He studies his nails casually.]

Those, as far as I know, we're supposed to collect and turn in. They're being used to build something, apparently. Or at least that seems to be the idea of it.

Fair warning, I'm not entirely sure how long any of this would last. They don't seem too keen on death here. Sometimes it seems to be more permanent than others. Not enough that I'm willing to risk it - besides which, it hardly seems like it would be pleasant - but if that's your kick.

Might be fun, even, for someone like you. Look at it this way - if you want to kill yourself and you do come back, you'll get to do it all over again. Double the opportunities. Or triple, who knows. Maybe even more.

[bythewaves]

So. Not even death is to be my escape. A fitting punishment indeed.

[ Maglor sighs and then seems to make up his mind ]

You spoke of hiding earlier. Are there places where this might be done? Ways in which one might escape?

[rekhyt]

Not quite sure if it's intended to be a punishment, but if you're set on making yourself miserable I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for it. Life is always good at providing that sort of thing.

And if by 'escape' you mean 'get home' then there's nothing I can do for you. Or anyone, at least that I've found. I suppose it's possible that there's someone out there who's figured it out and scarpered, but if they did they don't seem to have left the formula. Might be just as well, in some cases.

As for hiding.

[He smiles again, wide and wicked and as though Maglor is a little slow, spreading his arms.]

Take your pick. I don't have any particular boltholes, there's usually not time to get to them anyway, but I always figure that some direction away from the fighting is the way to run, if it's what you're interested in doing.

[bythewaves]

Life... or our own selves, maybe.

[ Maglor grimaces a bit - going home would be... well. If he thinks on it seriously, there is no going home, is there? Not for a kinslayer. What would he have done, if he returned now? Here is as good as any, but he wants no part in this war ]

Have you a chance to explore widely then? There are always places that will take those who wish to vanish.

[rekhyt]

Well, honestly, isn't that what life usually is?

[He may have a point there.]

I've explored some. The problem, as you shall find, is that there's rather a lot here. Besides, it's not much use just hiding away forever - if nothing else, I've found it pays to be a bit more flexible than that.

[bythewaves]

[ A whole wide world. Despite himself, a part of Maglor wakes up in interest. Lands he has never seen, lakes he has never drunk from. He looks up and out into the forests around them and wonders. ]

There is no home for me to return to whence I came. Yet, if I am to be trapped here, I would rather it be on my own terms, than our patrons. Forever may be a long time to hide, but I find it more pleasing than the thought of remaining here to fight another war.

[rekhyt]

Yeah? Seems to be a fair amount of that around here too. Personally, I have a home I'd be perfectly content to return to, but I doubt I'd be allowed to stay in it even then.

[bythewaves]

You spoke of something like that earlier. [ Maglor tips his head consideringly ] The masters you spoke of - they are not here, then, but in your home world?

[rekhyt]

Not strictly speaking my home, but I certainly do a lot of visiting. They can't seem to get anything done without their slaves, and certainly aren't keen on trying.

Mind you, the situation doesn't seem vastly different here, except a greater lack of organization.

[bythewaves]

Slaves? [ Maglor frowns a little ] That sounds ... unpleasant, Master Djinni.

As to that... You have the right of it, I suppose. I do not plan on making it easy for them, however. [ if there is a whole world he can hide in... well, he was planning on vanishing at home, anyway ]

[rekhyt]

You don't need to tell me twice, I've been the one who's had the worst of it all these years. And precious little time off-duty, too.

I should hope I do, I've seen enough of the same, through the years.