I think it was mostly the bandwagon, the "my child." line, or some combination thereof that caused the young age. Personally, either wouldve worked, but I've already been drawing the full design out for the past hour...
so....
Y'know.
Little tidbit I'll throw in here, my profile avatar is the woman from the second half of the intro.
So then, without further ado, but with a delay on a list of voters because Im on my phone, here are the Final Results. Votes will be added appropriatly untill noon.
Yes, and unfortunately, my urge to procrastinate against downloading a program overwhelms my urge for convenience. Don't worry, Ill be using it in the future. This post will be replaced by a character sheet shortly, and the next chapter will follow.
You reach up, using all of your will to stretch your hand upwards, barely passing by the Raven's light. You hold your hand there for what seems to be an eternity, and as the raven descends upon it, its light enveloping you as your hand remains held high, the raven simply sits there, perched upon your tilted hand, and its sharp talons don't truly register to you, even as your hand begins to bleed. The light of the others grow fainter, you realize; they're leaving. Or perhaps it is the light from the raven, already enveloping your entire body, which is causing the others to fade?
The raven stares at you, with orange eyes bloodshot by green veins.
You stare back.
-0-0-0-
You awaken, coughing slightly, mumbling under your breath as you reach towards where instincts state your covers should be ; you pull, and then turn over, only to fall off of a rock with a loud *THRUMP* onto your face.
Gasping as you fully awaken before turning over to lie on your back, pushing your body forward, to look around. With a vague shock, you realize you had been lying upon a large rock, jutting out of the ground at a titled angle. You don't recognize where you are, because as far as you can see there is nothing but pine trees and an occasional oak, vaguely obscured by mist in the afternoon suns glare, with a single cliff face against the rising terrain to your left. You're certain that there are no such forests within hundreds of miles of your home. What had you been doing last night to cause…?
Your thoughts are cleared when you realize something. Everything hurts. You're in pain, and your insides are burning. Moving into a kneeling position and clutching your stomach, you cough again, before vomiting and… Oh god, was that blood? You cough again, and more blood follows, coloring the rock you had been sleeping on red and yellow.
You can't stop coughing now; blood is flying freely, and you've fallen onto your sides. Finally, it slows, and you swear that amongst the ever-growing pool of blood you see blue embers, slowly dying as they burn out on top of the blood. You groan as you finally stop, lightheaded and off-balance.
Staggering to your feet, you wipe your mouth free of blood on your sleeve. The pain was fading now, whatever injury you had obtained somehow healing itself. Looking down at your sleeve as you continue wiping away the blood, you can't but think that you don't recall wearing a red dress last night. That only makes your situation worse; you need to figure out exactly what the hell happened to you. The last thing you remembered was… was…
"Well, shit." You deadpan, panic setting in. You don't remember…. Well… anything. You panic internally, trying to find anything to latch onto. There's nothing but instincts, vague shadows of preferences and habits. Are you even… you anymore? You don't know, but you don't let yourself be bothered by it for long. You know, no matter what, that you're the type of person who would refuse to dwell on such negative things for long, not let them beat her. Gazing over at the pool of blood you had just coughed up, you shuffle away from it before sitting down, concluding you need to think. Find something focus on, to keep whatever identity you might have, or to remember what had happened to you the previous night. Above all else, you know that whatever had happened to you had happened last night.
"Beatrice." You murmur after a moment. Yes, that was your name. You smile and nod, standing up once more as you brush some dirt off of your clothing. Wait, what the hell were you wearing? You hadn't had the time to examine yourself since your rather abrupt revival nearly half an hour ago now, if you were to judge by the suns position in the sky.
You had no idea where the hell you had gotten your clothing, but you liked it. Your top was mainly red, with a black, feathery design along its top layer, my modest breasts barely peeking out from its top. You pause there; you felt a bit of anger the moment you thought of your breasts' size. Huh. You hoped you weren't THAT petty a person. Going back to examining your clothing, noting the orange lining on your shoulders and spiraling patterns leading up to your chest only to end where the feathery pattern began, you grin. The clothes felt comforting, simple.
Of course, you noted that simplicity ended immediately after the orange belt you wore. Connected to your upper dress, and the outermost layer of what you wore on your bottom. It was similar to the upper layer of your robes, black and feathery in appearance, but smooth and silky when you ran your fingers across the material.; yet somehow ragged near its edges, which reached down. However, that was only the outermost layer, barely stretching around the middle segment, and coming nowhere near your sides; and on that note, you couldn't help but think that the middle layer seemed oddly stylized and impractical.
Primarily red with golden outlines, with a far deeper red color on their insides, what I had dubbed as the middle layer was… weird, at best. Also a part of your top, they each started from the back of legs, curving out sharply and stiffly; even odder, the section on your right seemed to curve down slightly further than the one on the left.
And finally, that left the black boots and the bundle of robes, tightly clung and wrapped around your waist, not a single gap left in it save for the long black pants you wore, made of the same material as the pants which seemed to extend to your boots. You nod to yourself once more, hoping it won't become a regular occurrence, and decided to set off towards the cliff face you had noticed earlier to see if you could find civilization and to escape the wolves that had surrounded you as I had examined myself.
Wait…what?
Realization set in as the three gray wolves, silent up until this point, began to growl.
…Whatis with my luck today?
One of the wolves leaped forward, and you reached for a weapon, anything to defend yourself, only to grimly realize there was nothing the moment the wolves' claws collide with the sides of your chest, tearing a wide gash in your stomach and clothing. You gasp in pain as blood flies freely, the others closing in for the kill, as blue flames stutter and start flowing as freely as your blood, a minor inferno of sorts seemingly starting and fading down without harming you.
They don't stall for more than a hesitant second, already on top of you, one of them quite literally as it had pounced on you, its foul breath and saliva dripping onto your face…
And then, it simply isn't. You blink slightly, before realizing that you are now under the equally confused wolf. You make a faint sound of surprise, only hearing a warbled "Caw!" before realizing what had happened. Looking down at your now black-feathered chest, possessing three much smaller gashes that glowed with a faint blue light, you waste no time, immediately hopping and flapping, instinct overriding thought for the moment as you gained momentum and flew.
It was apparent what had happened
You had turned into a Raven.
You had no idea how, but you were perfectly fine with this for now. You laugh, the best equivalent you can at the moment, as you soar above the tree's now, enjoying this experience immensely. Instinct still guides you, and before long, you find an air current, carrying you higher and higher as you being to circle around.
Far off in the distance, you see a town, smoke from chimney stacks rising above the pines, and the cliff face formerly to your lefts seems as though it is a much more appealing and easily reached option than it had been beforehand. Thinking, you realize you didn't even have a true plan before. From here, you can see everything; you seem to be near the slope of some kind of mountain, with a river flowing about a half mile east of where you had awakened.
Your stomach rumbles, and the urge to hunt or find carrion begins to overwhelm you.
No. you mentally berate yourself. Take back Control. We need to straighten our priorities. But that was the question. What do you do? You can't speak anymore, you're hungry, you're thirsty, and you just spent the better part of an hour bleeding out and going from one near-death experience to the next, when you weren't just standing around and thinking, and that was excluding what the hell had just happened to you.
Your wings miss a beat, and the three slashes in your chest flare up in pain. You were suddenly aware of exactly how tired you were, and how bad a shape you were in.
But that only raises the question once more. What should you do?
Select two, and vote in order of priority for short term goals.
[X] Examine the town
[X] Figure out what the hell just happened to you, and if possible, change back
[X] Give in to the Raven's instincts for now, and find food
[X] No really, figure out what the fuck just happened and figure out what those blue flames were
[X] Go to the cliff face and rest until you're in a better condition
[X] Attempt to figure out who you are, and what you were doing in the middle of the woods
So then, my writings a bit... everywhere this chapter, and I'll need to revise it. It kinda of splits between first and second person from Beatrice's view the entire time, and I'm not entirely certain it makes for a good viewing experience. Sometimes she's refered to as "I" "Me" and "My",but sometimes I simply use you. It will be settled and fixed by the next chapter.
EDIT: No seriously, I have no idea what the hell I was thinking when I wrote this.
In other news, here are the Dice Rolls.
Wolf Pack – Numbers Roll; 4 Modifier; None
Roll 1-4; 3 wolves
Roll 5-10; 4 wolves
Roll 11-15; 5 wolves
Roll 16-20; 6 Wolves
Awakening Time –Delay Roll; 3 Modifier; None
Odd Number – Awaken late
Even Number – Awaken early
Transformation timeRoll:3Modifier:None
8,3,6,12 – Massive damage and wound
2,5 ,9,11– Minor damage and wound
4,7,,10 – Sets in fast enough to avoid damage
Name - Beatrice Age- Young, and unremembered. She guesses she is 23. Height – 5'9 Additional Information - ???!!!ERROR!!!ERROR???!!!
Abilities
Metamorphosis - Through a unique method, Beatrice is able to turn into the appropriate animal, acquiring all physical traits associated with them, losing the ability to speak, and an unique ability for each.
This means she may turn into a Raven, glowing with a murderous red light. Its ability is Bloodshed, allowing it to track bleeding entities, and see sights of recent battle, death, or bloodshed. Passively increases stats the more bloodshed there has been in an area.
(Un)Noble Appearance- Closely related to metamorphosis; Beatrice's clothes and appearance will always attempt, often successfully, to repair themselves and keep themselves looking as best they can. Unfortunately, that means that she can't remove them. Period. Have fun Beatrice!
On a secondary note, her condition while a Raven is always going to affect her look when she shifts back to a human, and vice versa.
Unnatural Flames - Fatal wounds seem to become merely dangerous, your skin harder, your reflexes enhanced at the best and worst of times, your eyes glowing with an unnatural blue flame, as do your wounds as they heal far quicker both outside of battle and within. Its exact nature, effects, and origins beyond what you've observed are unknown
Marksmanship Mastery-Through years of training, muscle memory, and instinct, you are an excellent marksman; you may create your own bows, arrows, and shoot with the utmost precision. Anything vital to your craft, you know how to do...even if you're not aware of it.]
Raven's Tongue - The Raven is a Trickster, A manipulator, a master of turning conversations to her favor or extracting exactly what she wants and more from you; Grants you a +2 modifier on Interrogation, Conversation ,and all related rolls.
Stat Changes [Achievement Unlocked! The dice hate you, period. The story's plot absolutely loves you, though! -1 Luck, +1 Intellect]
[Achivement Unlocked! Marksmanship Mastery Passive Effects - You have trained for years with your weapon of choice; your muscles of grown as your skill has, as has your endurance. +2 Strength, +1 Endurance.]
[Achievement Unlocked! Raven's Tongue - The Raven is a Trickster, A manipulator, a master of turning conversations to her favor or extracting exactly what she wants and more from you; Grants you a +2 modifier on Interogation, Conversation ,and all related rolls.]
[X] Figure out what the hell just happened to you, and if possible, change back [X] Go back to the cliff face and rest until you're in better condition
[X] Give in to the Raven's instincts for now, and find food
[X] No really, figure out what the fuck just happened and figure out what those blue flames were
So then, I'm fixing the chapter now, and when that's done I'm going to try and figure out whats preventing me from uploading the image of Beatrice. Itll be in an actually readable state from now on, and up until an 'Arc' ends and Beatrice's personality develops enough, we'll be sticking to a second person "You","Your." storytelling method like most quest rather than a first person view, unless using the first person dissociates the character enough from you that some part of the story is lost because of the transition. In addition, everything screwy that I could find is now in the appropriate tense
Im still finding things to edit in this chapter... Im considersbly pissed at myself for posting something with that low a quality. The next post WONT look like it was written by me when half asleep and while distracted.
Which Im not saying I was.
EDIT: So, examining past conversations, my own speech ,and my banner - which I had to change with a bit of embarrassment - that It appears people were under the impression this thread would be updating today,or something similar. It is not - the space battles thread is.
