- Location
- va
[X] Your eyes
Upon This Sword of Fire (CKII Quest)
- Thread starter Crilltic
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
Random Event: Mysterious Observer IV
- Location
- Massholistan
Random Event: Mysterious Observer IV
The agony spreads up your arm, moving through your body, before eventually settling behind your eyes. It feels like your head is being trapped in vice, while being burned from the inside out. Your teeth grind down harder than before, and you taste blood in your mouth as you clutch the sides of your head. Despite it all, you don't scream out from the pain, even as your vision swims in front of your and fades in and out. The pain reaches a new height, you can feel your resolve crumbling as your vision becomes tinged with red, until something snaps.
Your vision twists and expands, the world around unfolds into an explosion of colors. Your vision fragments in front of you into spiraling fractal patterns. A wave of nausea overtakes you and you can feel the sharp acrid taste of bile in your mouth, you see yourself vomit from dozens of different angles at once, and then it's wiped away as you see yourself plunge the key into your hand from hundreds more. You try and close your eyes, to block it out, but from behind your eyelids you still see as the fragmented images to blur inside one another and expand it all at the same time. Even shut your eyes are wide open.
You can feel the edges of your consciousness fraying under the onslaught, the strands of your thoughts start to unravel. But you do not bend under the assault, the iron bars of your mind strain but do not break. A splitting headache once again rips through you as you force the visions into a smaller and smaller. With effort you smash the fractal mosaic surrounding you, grasping at the one segment you find familiar and focusing on that.
Suddenly you're back behind your own eyes, you blink repeatedly to see Asya as she frantically shakes your shoulder. You groan and wipe the last remnants of your bile from your mouth. The details of her face stand out starkly to you, in far more detail than you remember. Your vision shifts and focuses oddly as you try and uncross your eyes, but once again it settles into something approaching normalcy. You cough and give her a weak smile, "What h-happened?"
"You were a colossal idiot, that is what happened. Whatever that was, your eyes caught on fire, then you vomited and collapsed twitching. Now, your eyes are glowing." She holds her hand out, and you take so she can pull you up, but the sudden shift in viewpoint threatens to unfold your vision again, and you almost collapse as you push it down. Asya catches you as your knees give out, looping your arm around her neck and pulling you up again.
"T-thank you." You manage to choke out as you find your feet, and she leads you away from the pool of vomit on the ground.
"Don't mention it. No really, don't mention it, you got vomit all over my boots." She smiles as she says this, but you can see the faint lines of worrying crinkle besides her eyes, and the slight drops of sweat hanging on her brow.
You giggle as you look around, your vision still shifts oddly, but it is beginning to settle down. A faint headache still pounds as you look around, your vision is different, even things just in the corner of your eye are as focused as if you were staring at them from inches away. "W-...where are we going?"
Asya sighs, "We are going to your chambers, because you need to lie down, and also change."
You spare a glance down to see the front of your dress is covered in flecks of bile, as well as your hand, which is currently covered in streaks of blood, the golden key still stuck inside your skin. Tenderly you raise your arm up and grasp at it with the arm around Asya's neck.
"Hey! What are you-" Asya tries to stop you, but it comes free as soon as you fingers touch it. It's surface not marred by any blood, and what's more the small puncture wound in your hands fades away, turning back into the brand. "Give me that!" Asya tries to take the key from you, but you hold it out of her reach.
"Re-*cough* r-relax. It's fine."
Asya continues trying to snatch the key out of your hand, "It is not fine. That key poisoned you, or something."
"No, no, n-not poison. I-I...I saw everything."
"You are not reassuring me Lona"
You let out a weak huff, "I promise I won't use it on myself Asya." You're not even sure if you could take using it on yourself again. The last time obviously took a lot out of you, and you can already barely remember what happened.
Asya just looks at you dubiously, "You are sure you are fine?"
You nod decisively, "Yes, or at least, I w-will once I get some sle-wait a minute." You catch a faint inscription spiraling along the neck of the key.
"How did I not notice that before..." you mumble.
"Notice what?"
You wiggle the key, "The inscription on here."
Asya squints at the key, "What inscription? I cannot see anything."
"You can't see that?" She shakes her head, and you sigh. This is already getting tiring, but you arrive at your chambers. Asya helps you out of the ruined dress and then all strength flees from your limbs as you near the bed. Consciousness soon leaves you collapse onto the blankets, the golden key still grasped in your hands.
Your dreams are fractured and nonsensical, and you remember none of them, but you awake to the early morning light. You blink, the constant focus of your vision remains, but now it feels more natural. You can feel something more lurking beneath the surface, but it is dampened now, no longer does it threaten to overwhelming you if you lower your guard. You yawn, and stretch, the strength that deserted you last night returns to your limbs.
You see Asya stir in her chair off to the side of the room, stretching as well. "So you finally woke up. How do you feel?"
You yawn again, "Much better. See? I told you I was fine."
She scoffs, "Well, excuse me for worrying about you after you collapsed twitching and vomiting."
You stop in the middle of a stretch, "Thank you." you say quietly. "For worrying, I don't think I could have gotten through last night without you."
She smiles at you, "You are welcome Illona. Just do not scare me like that again." With that she rises "I do hope you will join me for breakfast, and that we can put this business with the key behind us. Perhaps some questions are better left unanswered."
You nod, "Just let me get dressed first." She leaves the room, and as you hear the door shut you pull your hand out from under the blankets and hold the key up to the light. As soon as you awoke and felt it in your hands you knew. You don't know how you know, but deep down in your heart of hearts you know it to be true. There is a match for this key, and you know exactly where it is.
[ ] Be Responsible: Tell Asya, she'll probably try and stop you, but maybe you can convince her to come along with you.
[ ] Mystery Awaits!: It's not far to where the key's match is, and you have a strong feeling it is not supposed to be dangerous. Just go by yourself, no one else has to know. You'll probably even be back for breakfast.
[ ] New Blood: You don't want to go in alone, better to find someone else though. Asya will likely be too hard to convince. Random other adviser will accompany you. Though Asya will likely be annoyed with you.
[ ] Be Really Responsible: Asya's right, this is too dangerous.
Gain Trait - [The Sight]: The key unlocked something in your eyes, your vision is much sharper than you remember it being, and everything you see is constantly in focus. It took some getting used to, and you feel like this is just the tip of what it can do, but right now you're not ready to try anything else. +2 Intrigue, +1 Learning. 1/6th of Learning added to combat skill. Increase chance to spot that which is hidden.
A/N: Well, you guys definitely picked the trippiest of the three options. Just for reference, they all had potential drawbacks and maluses associated with them. Of course Illona being Illona, she managed to crit the background roll and therefore avoided all but the most immediate
Also, the next update is the second to last part, so hopefully Turn 6 will begin tomorrow, if I can bang out the next three updates quickly enough today. We'll see how realistic that ends up being though.
The agony spreads up your arm, moving through your body, before eventually settling behind your eyes. It feels like your head is being trapped in vice, while being burned from the inside out. Your teeth grind down harder than before, and you taste blood in your mouth as you clutch the sides of your head. Despite it all, you don't scream out from the pain, even as your vision swims in front of your and fades in and out. The pain reaches a new height, you can feel your resolve crumbling as your vision becomes tinged with red, until something snaps.
Your vision twists and expands, the world around unfolds into an explosion of colors. Your vision fragments in front of you into spiraling fractal patterns. A wave of nausea overtakes you and you can feel the sharp acrid taste of bile in your mouth, you see yourself vomit from dozens of different angles at once, and then it's wiped away as you see yourself plunge the key into your hand from hundreds more. You try and close your eyes, to block it out, but from behind your eyelids you still see as the fragmented images to blur inside one another and expand it all at the same time. Even shut your eyes are wide open.
You can feel the edges of your consciousness fraying under the onslaught, the strands of your thoughts start to unravel. But you do not bend under the assault, the iron bars of your mind strain but do not break. A splitting headache once again rips through you as you force the visions into a smaller and smaller. With effort you smash the fractal mosaic surrounding you, grasping at the one segment you find familiar and focusing on that.
Suddenly you're back behind your own eyes, you blink repeatedly to see Asya as she frantically shakes your shoulder. You groan and wipe the last remnants of your bile from your mouth. The details of her face stand out starkly to you, in far more detail than you remember. Your vision shifts and focuses oddly as you try and uncross your eyes, but once again it settles into something approaching normalcy. You cough and give her a weak smile, "What h-happened?"
"You were a colossal idiot, that is what happened. Whatever that was, your eyes caught on fire, then you vomited and collapsed twitching. Now, your eyes are glowing." She holds her hand out, and you take so she can pull you up, but the sudden shift in viewpoint threatens to unfold your vision again, and you almost collapse as you push it down. Asya catches you as your knees give out, looping your arm around her neck and pulling you up again.
"T-thank you." You manage to choke out as you find your feet, and she leads you away from the pool of vomit on the ground.
"Don't mention it. No really, don't mention it, you got vomit all over my boots." She smiles as she says this, but you can see the faint lines of worrying crinkle besides her eyes, and the slight drops of sweat hanging on her brow.
You giggle as you look around, your vision still shifts oddly, but it is beginning to settle down. A faint headache still pounds as you look around, your vision is different, even things just in the corner of your eye are as focused as if you were staring at them from inches away. "W-...where are we going?"
Asya sighs, "We are going to your chambers, because you need to lie down, and also change."
You spare a glance down to see the front of your dress is covered in flecks of bile, as well as your hand, which is currently covered in streaks of blood, the golden key still stuck inside your skin. Tenderly you raise your arm up and grasp at it with the arm around Asya's neck.
"Hey! What are you-" Asya tries to stop you, but it comes free as soon as you fingers touch it. It's surface not marred by any blood, and what's more the small puncture wound in your hands fades away, turning back into the brand. "Give me that!" Asya tries to take the key from you, but you hold it out of her reach.
"Re-*cough* r-relax. It's fine."
Asya continues trying to snatch the key out of your hand, "It is not fine. That key poisoned you, or something."
"No, no, n-not poison. I-I...I saw everything."
"You are not reassuring me Lona"
You let out a weak huff, "I promise I won't use it on myself Asya." You're not even sure if you could take using it on yourself again. The last time obviously took a lot out of you, and you can already barely remember what happened.
Asya just looks at you dubiously, "You are sure you are fine?"
You nod decisively, "Yes, or at least, I w-will once I get some sle-wait a minute." You catch a faint inscription spiraling along the neck of the key.
"How did I not notice that before..." you mumble.
"Notice what?"
You wiggle the key, "The inscription on here."
Asya squints at the key, "What inscription? I cannot see anything."
"You can't see that?" She shakes her head, and you sigh. This is already getting tiring, but you arrive at your chambers. Asya helps you out of the ruined dress and then all strength flees from your limbs as you near the bed. Consciousness soon leaves you collapse onto the blankets, the golden key still grasped in your hands.
Your dreams are fractured and nonsensical, and you remember none of them, but you awake to the early morning light. You blink, the constant focus of your vision remains, but now it feels more natural. You can feel something more lurking beneath the surface, but it is dampened now, no longer does it threaten to overwhelming you if you lower your guard. You yawn, and stretch, the strength that deserted you last night returns to your limbs.
You see Asya stir in her chair off to the side of the room, stretching as well. "So you finally woke up. How do you feel?"
You yawn again, "Much better. See? I told you I was fine."
She scoffs, "Well, excuse me for worrying about you after you collapsed twitching and vomiting."
You stop in the middle of a stretch, "Thank you." you say quietly. "For worrying, I don't think I could have gotten through last night without you."
She smiles at you, "You are welcome Illona. Just do not scare me like that again." With that she rises "I do hope you will join me for breakfast, and that we can put this business with the key behind us. Perhaps some questions are better left unanswered."
You nod, "Just let me get dressed first." She leaves the room, and as you hear the door shut you pull your hand out from under the blankets and hold the key up to the light. As soon as you awoke and felt it in your hands you knew. You don't know how you know, but deep down in your heart of hearts you know it to be true. There is a match for this key, and you know exactly where it is.
[ ] Be Responsible: Tell Asya, she'll probably try and stop you, but maybe you can convince her to come along with you.
[ ] Mystery Awaits!: It's not far to where the key's match is, and you have a strong feeling it is not supposed to be dangerous. Just go by yourself, no one else has to know. You'll probably even be back for breakfast.
[ ] New Blood: You don't want to go in alone, better to find someone else though. Asya will likely be too hard to convince. Random other adviser will accompany you. Though Asya will likely be annoyed with you.
[ ] Be Really Responsible: Asya's right, this is too dangerous.
Gain Trait - [The Sight]: The key unlocked something in your eyes, your vision is much sharper than you remember it being, and everything you see is constantly in focus. It took some getting used to, and you feel like this is just the tip of what it can do, but right now you're not ready to try anything else. +2 Intrigue, +1 Learning. 1/6th of Learning added to combat skill. Increase chance to spot that which is hidden.
A/N: Well, you guys definitely picked the trippiest of the three options. Just for reference, they all had potential drawbacks and maluses associated with them. Of course Illona being Illona, she managed to crit the background roll and therefore avoided all but the most immediate
Also, the next update is the second to last part, so hopefully Turn 6 will begin tomorrow, if I can bang out the next three updates quickly enough today. We'll see how realistic that ends up being though.
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- Location
- The Usual Room
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[x] Be Responsible: Tell Asya, she'll probably try and stop you, but maybe you can convince her to come along with you.
- Location
- va
[X] Be Responsible: Tell Asya, she'll probably try and stop you, but maybe you can convince her to come along with you.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Now I definitely wish I knew what 'chest' unlocked.
- Location
- Massholistan
Well, you could always try sticking the key in your other hand. I'm sure nothing will go wrong (note: lots of things will go wrong )
[x] Be Responsible: Tell Asya, she'll probably try and stop you, but maybe you can convince her to come along with you.
Sharingan go~
- Location
- The Usual Room
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wait, can we stick the key wherever we want?
- Location
- Massholistan
I don't actually know what the Sharingan's power is besides "bullshit" Yes, this makes my avatar rather ironic, I have accepted that.
No, however, by the end of the event chain I'll give you some hints that should hopefully give you a rough idea of what the other two options did.
Well yes, just like you can stick a normal key anywhere you want. Whether it will unlock anything is another matter entirely.
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
Asya had the right idea originally, y'know.
I regret nothing. Another Combat adder = yes. And yes, Sharingan go.
At a basic level, perfect memory of everything seen while it's active, slow time for high speed combat thinking and reactions, combat precog, enhanced ability to cast illusions. And then super special bullshit powers at the top tier that are dependent on the wielder.
---
[X] Be Responsible: Tell Asya, she'll probably try and stop you, but maybe you can convince her to come along with you.
Look, Asya took care of Illona and was worried for her. Let's not be jerks and ruin that.
...literally what we needed. Wow.
LinkOnScepter
The One who Strangles Concepts to death
- Location
- Interwebs
[X] Be Responsible: Tell Asya, she'll probably try and stop you, but maybe you can convince her to come along with you.
Will we start being able to make meteors fall from the sky?
Will we start being able to make meteors fall from the sky?
- Location
- Massholistan
Oh okay. That's good to know. As to how similar it is, I wouldn't use it for shorthand. There's a bit of passing similarity I guess, but it's more likely to mislead you.
I am not going to answer that for fear of the dice making me cry again.
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[X] Be Responsible: Tell Asya, she'll probably try and stop you, but maybe you can convince her to come along with you.
[X] Be Responsible: Tell Asya, she'll probably try and stop you, but maybe you can convince her to come along with you.
- Location
- United States
[X] Be Responsible: Tell Asya, she'll probably try and stop you, but maybe you can convince her to come along with you.
- Location
- Canada
[X] Mystery Awaits!: It's not far to where the key's match is, and you have a strong feeling it is not supposed to be dangerous. Just go by yourself, no one else has to know. You'll probably even be back for breakfast.
Silly question, but are our eyes permanently glowing?
Silly question, but are our eyes permanently glowing?