Introduction[]
A long-lined spread of apple trees on a upward-tilted path: it is Autumn and a select few individuals go from tree to tree, plucking the best of the fruit. The weather is somewhat heated, but not quite irritating. It isn't quite evening, but a late afternoon, the sky slowly becoming an orange tint.
As your character(s) walks through, or perhaps even flies over, they seem to be the only one to notice a sudden slight of air below, just next to a row of trees without people walking through them. It was a flicker of light, and standing... then collapsing, was some kind of woman.
She wore a strange hood of multiple colors and designed, her skin black with what seemed to be scales. She had no nose or ears, but her structure appeared to match with the proportions of any regular Mobian. Her eyes were snake-like slits, widening and cringing repeatedly, flashes of red, dark blue, pink, and especially white darting about at the new location.
Her body was deteriorating, burning away clothes and all like some kind of evaporating sand,but as she began to vanish, she could be seen holding something. It was some kind of... body, small, much smaller than her, with the same black scale-like appearance, though without hands or feet unless that's you would call the nubs it showed.
The woman attempted to speak it seemed, but all that came out was a painful gargle of strange sounds. Then... she collapsed. All that was left was a pile of sand, and a black-scaled figure atop the remains of the woman.
Characters[]
- ??? (Trisell Chronos)
- Rusty the Porcupine (40DagreezKelvin)
- Aynoa the Porcupine (40DagreezKelvin)
- Esmerelda the Emberman (40DagreezKelvin)
Begin[]
Rusty raised a hand to his eyes, in an attempt to block out the piercing sunlight. He, his sister Aynoa, and their "half-sister" Esmerelda were gathering apples from the Lycato tribe's apple farm. In the mild heat, Rusty had long shed his sleeves to try and remedy some of the heat from his already pyrokinetic body. "Remind me again why we're stealing someone else's apples, Aynoa."
His sister turned, lavender eyes flickering in mild annoyance. "We are not 'stealing' anyone's apples, Rusty. We're gathering them for the people of the Lycato tribe as a 'thank you' for helping us out on so many of our past adventures. Also, it's the least we can do considering the fact that you raced your uni-bike around their sacred garden last week."
"Yeah but you gotta admit," Rusty laughed and munched another apple. "Those "whatever" trees made some pretty sweet half pipes. It was better than any stunt course you could find in Electri City."
Aynoa snatched the apple away, and took a bite of it herself, "Gaia trees. Only the most sacred flora in the Lycato territory. Now stop running your mouth and focus on not grabbing any rotten apples." Esmerelda was levitating nearby, examining something under one of the trees. "Can someone inform me of the depiction of a 'rotten apple'?"
Rusty dropped from his tree with an armful of apples, "Well, they're black, gross, and kinda scaly looking. So if it looks like something you don't want in your stomach, its probably rotten." Esmerelda studied the contents under the tree again, indicating a dark object, "This one must be long rotten then." Curious, Aynoa walked over to see what it was, immediately jumping back, revolted by the sight. "Ezzy that’s not an apple, that’s someone's kid!"
Peeking again, Ezzy wrinkled her nose, "No wonder the mom just left it here." Rusty shook his head, "Wait, time out...you saw her? What did she look like?" Esmerelda thought for a moment, "Before she melted into a pile of ash, she looked like a rotten apple. After the melting, she looked like a very, bad apple."
"So you sat here and just watched that happen without telling us?" Aynoa asked, still trying to settle her stomach. Esmerelda just shrugged, "I'm a 2,000 year old fire demon spirit, I've seen a lot in my day. Mommy's that melt away are just another part of life."
(Will be back in 15 mins after dinner, let me know what you think)
(It's fine thus far though the woman appearing and vanishing would be in front of at least one of them so they would have seen that part. Is all good though.)
The small figure didn't seem to move, though small sparks of energy came from them on occasion. "It smells powerful," Esmerelda noted. Though I cannot identify what kind of energy it is emitting."
"Whatever it is, its not our problem," Rusty snorted. "It is on Lycato turf, let them deal with it." Aynoa sighed, "That's heartless, Rusty." Rusty was about to retort that it not heartless, but intelligent, when he noticed Esmerelda pick it up. "Ezzy! Bad! Put it down! It could be dangerous!"
Esmerelda gave him a poker face, "If it is more dangerous than me, than it deserves a medal."
The small child was limp, soft but almost sand-like in feeling. Something warm was felt inside. The child slowly tightened up at being lifted, holding the two small arms out weakly at Esmerelda. She smiled at it, not her usual coy grin, or snarky smirk, but a genuine smile. "It loves me," she said to no one in particular. "I am keeping it, I shall name him Lucifer."
"Wait, isn't that the name of....never mind, either way you're not keeping it." Rusty yelled at the spot where Ezzy had been mere moments ago. She had already levitated out of the field and out of earshot, with Aynoa tailing behind. Rusty, sighed, and stopped to make a makeshift grave for the leftover ashes before following his sisters' retreating figures.
The infant creature recoiled from the elevation, small bits of black sand falling down from the body. A white shade began to slowly form over them. Esmerelda noticed its sudden change in appearance and slowly descended to the ground to figure out what was wrong
With the others, the remaining ash-like sand bits crackled underneath the earth, some of the energy hitting a nearby apple, mutating it upward to a slightly larger size, though it did not appear to become alive or deadly. Where the woman had appeared, however, some small bit of wind was beginning to stir up.
The child continued to change to this white shade, then back to black, then white again. It was like breaths for a good minute before ending on white. Two small lights began to form around the front of the head, little red glowing slits. Esmerelda slowly rocked the infant, still perplexed on the origin of it mysterious energy. Rusty and Aynoa caught up a moment later, noticing the strange mutated apple nearby.
"Ezzy, I know you like raising weird beings of dark energy, but unless you want to change some radioactive diapers and look like that apple over there," she motioned towards the mutated fruit, "I suggest we figure out what it is and what to do with it. Fast."
"Leaving it on the Royal Family's doorstep is still up for grabs," commented Rusty, earning him a telepathic shove from Esmerelda.
Slowly the child's head moved up, the slits growing wider into glowing pupilless eyes, the red tint turning to a more blue color, looking slowly about at everyone.
"Well, you got the 'demon child' part right Esmerelda. Have you tried using your telepathy to look into its mind? Maybe it knows something about its mom or where it belongs that it cant tell us." Esmerelda nods, and focuses her pupil-less green eyes on those of the infant. She looked deep into its consciousness to search for something, anything, that held information about its mother or strange abilities.
The structure of the child's body caused a sort of ripple effect to the probing, a repeating, multiplying, throb of scenes, all the same going over and over as if on hundreds of thousands of screens.
Mostly it seemed to just be a calm, somewhat frightened emotion, but flashes of conversation between strange groups of people appeared, like a court almost, with the only other memory being the child's arrival with the mother. Ezzy shook her head, "I can't see anything, at least not anything that will help us." She looked at Rusty, telepathically begging him to let her keep the baby. Rusty sighed, "Only reason I'm letting you do this is because I kinda want to see how much destruction it can cause under your 'supervision'. Just know, you are held responsible for whatever it does."
Esmerelda nodded, wrapping the baby in her trench coat and tying it around her waist. Aynoa clapped her hands together, "Well, now that that's settled, we should probably get these apples to the Lycato's." Rusty heaved his basket over his head, "Yea because they totally need more ale than they already have. Bunch of hippie drunks is what they are."
Esmerelda left her two "siblings" to deal with the apples, heading home to find a place for the infant to sleep that night. She flew in through the attic window of the Porcupine's house and tucked the baby away in her old chest of a bed.
For some good hours the infant was silent, but at some point a small, slightly raspy and almost static-like voice, came from inside. No actual words were spoken just yet, simply some groans, or something along those lines. The child was sitting up, their glowing eyes looking about at the surroundings. Ezzy stared back with glowing green eyes, she didn't want to believe this child was dangerous, but it all seemed too familiar. She thought back to her days as a spirit, and putting up a silly playful front to cover all her destructive tendencies. She saw herself in Lucifer, and she the image was not pretty at all. She places a hand on the child's head and smiled, "Sorry kiddo, you've got a long way to go before you're as bad as Mommy."
(Should we close the chapter here, or was there another plot point you wanted to reach first?)
A flash of yellow came from the eyes of the child, their head tilting as if confused by the words. They were silent regardless, still and still looking about.
(Well, we could skip to a few days later when the child matures a bit more if you'd like to.)
(Thats fine, we can get a couple more edits done before i have to go to bed, got classes tomorrow)
Esmerelda raced through the sky, her adopted child clutching at her purple hair. She raised a hand to touch his cheek, a simple gesture of comfort as well as an excuse to check his memories. Seeing the same image she's seen countless times already, she removed her hand and sighed. She leveled out above a field of apple trees, the same one she had met the child a few days prior. Psychokinetic energy pulsating, she dropped to the ground to look for clues. She was hoping to find some answers where she first saw the old woman. A quick search of the field was her best guess right now.
The strange burst of wind that remained before had vanished at this point. The child looked on at where the mother had been buried, reaching out toward it for a moment. Then, the child began to say something... "I-..is- -si- sis..."
(That's fine. I do too. X{D)
Esmerelda hoisted the child up to her face, "You were trying to communicate with me! What are you trying to tell me? Sister? Scissors? ISIS?" Her emerald eyes sparkled in frustration over her helplessness in her current situation.
Instinctively their eyes turned to a white shade, even more pale than their skin. Their head coward... no... his head. The child's body had matured just a bit. The arms were slightly longer, as well as the legs. The waist and chest changed as well. No mouth nor ears nor fingers nor any other distinguishing features had appeared yet, but the form was in fact male.
She put the child down, the sudden increase in weight taking its toll on her back. Besides, he should be able to walk now. Ezzy placed his hand on her coat tails, and began studying the grave Rusty made the other day. Remnants of the energy lingered in the dirt, and it boggled her mind that she still couldn't identify it. Perhaps it just was some kind she never encountered before, which meant she had to find someone who did. Someone who specialized in energy readings. But who?
(Alright, im heading to bed now. probs be on same time tomorrow, its been fun :D)
The child now at his current height appeared to be around the age of seven or eight physically. He just stared at the dirt, then reached out at the affected apple from before.
(Likewise)
"What have you got there little buddy?" Esmerelda took the apple from the child's hand, and studied it. "What secrets are you holding you edible monster?"
The slightly mutated apple glowed slightly as it left his hand. "... Monster... monster?" He looked to her.
Esmerelda laughed softly, "Yes, baby. Monster. Just like you and me." She palmed the fruit from one hand to another. "This is the answer, I know it is. Its here, I'm just missing something..."
"..." He reached at the apple.
Esmerelda let him take it from her hands, watching him intently. "What is it, Luce? What's got you so interested?"
A mouth appeared, teeth growing out as he took in the bite, red glowing juice flowing about him, staining around his mouth in a pattern. The apple began to shrivel.
Esmerelda leaped backwards and threw her hands into a defensive position, dark, purple energy emitting from her fingertips. "Lucifer? What's happening? What are you doing?"
He cowered at the stance. I..." The markings moved around his body, causing him to glow in turn. His nub-like hands grew fingers as well as toes for his feet. He crouched to the ground, his head shaking as he winced. Ezzy lowered her hands, but did not extinguish the telekinetic energy in her hands. "This just keeps getting weirder and weirder. I want to figure this out buddy, but all of this is beyond me.'"
It took a moment as the markings eventually faded. "... It means... devil..." He spoke. "I... wh-why am I... devil?"
Shocked by the fact that he could now speak, it took her a moment be Esmerelda understood his question. "Oh, your name...well, you're being raised by a demon girl, I thought it was fitting."
"... Is that bad?"
"He's just started talking and I already have to answer life questions," Ezzy said to herself. Then she said aloud, "Some people might say its bad, but thats because our powers our scary and sometimes we do mean things. But we're not bad people."
Perhaps had he been older and actually looked into the information himself, he would know the entire story of the title 'demon' the history of what one is tied to, but he was not. He was practically a newborn, a newborn with a matured intelligence, but a newborn none the less.
The child looked to where the sand had been buried. "There was one here?"
Esmerelda looked at the grave and said nothing. It would be heartless to tell this child that his mother was dead and buried at that spot, heartless even for her. "Yes, one was here. But not anymore."
"There are more coming...?"
"I don't know...I don't even know who we are. But what I do know, is that I am going to find out, and for that, I'll need your help."
"What do I do?"
"You, have to try and remember your powers and how to use them."
"I have powers?" His eyes turned to a yellow tint for a moment. "When?"
"Since you turned that apple radioactive." Esmerelda gestured to the fruit in his hand.
"I-" He looked at the shrivled apple. "What's radiotictid?"
"Well, all mutated and glowing and..." Sighing, Ezzy patted him on the head, "Don't worry about that, just focus on how you did it."
"We- uuuh..." He held the apple tightly, tensing with his eyes glowing a bit redder. A small popping sound came from his hand but nothing seemed to be happening at the moment.
"You'll figure it out some time or another." Esmerelda said, a hint to disappointment in her voice. "Keep it up until then."
"What do I do to the apple?" He looked closely at it.
Esmerelda shrugged. "Keep it I guess, maybe it'll help later on in the future."
"Okay," He held it close to his chest. "Where do we go now?"
"Well, whenever I'm thinking really hard about something and I need a break, I go to this old junkyard and practice my telekinesis. We can go and practice our powers together, and maybe, you'll figure something out there."
(Apologies, was watching the stream read a roleplay I was part of X{D)
He didn't say anything at this, but simply raised his arm up at her, opening and closing his hands as if to be asking if he could be picked up.
Esmerelda laughed, and lifted the small, yet hefty boy into her arms. Using her telekinesis to levitate themselves in the air made the weight and the trip a little easier to bear. They reached the junkyard after about 15 minutes, and Esmerelda set Lucifer on the ground outside the gate. Winking at him, and tapping the end of her nose, the heavy, rusty lock fell off as if the metal gate was expecting them. Taking his hand, Esmerelda led the child inside, and seated him on top of an old stack of tires. She indicated another stack of tires off to their left, about six of them, as well as a few oil drums to their right. "Wanna see a cool trick?"
He nodded repeatedly.
Esmerelda lifted her hands and the oil drums began to revolve around her like miniature moons spinning around the sun. "Telekinesis is a very interesting power, it requires intense focus of the mind and balance of the body. If your mind is cloudy, or your body is weak, your power will fail you. When I first discovered my powers, my mind was very developed, but my body was not in sync."
She flicked her wrist, and the tires levitated towards her. A few more flicks of the hand, and the tires began to revolve around the oil drums. It was a mystical performance: Esmerelda was the sun, the oil drums were planets, and the tires were moons rotating around the planets. "It took years to perfect my abilities, but practice..." she dropped her hands and the tires fell neatly stacked into the oil drums, "...makes perfect."
Half of what she said went immediately over his head but the small child had a basic understanding consisting of "Brain magic makes things move" and promptly clapped with a smile at the demonstration.
Ezzy shook her head, smiling, "Perhaps that is a lesson for another day." She fished an apple from her pocket and gave it to him.
He bit down on the apple, but when attempting to swallow, the contents just burned up in his mouth.
"What am I going to do with you child?"
Confused by this, and the state of the apple, he reached a hand into his mouth. His fingers began to burn away so he pulled out, but then they began to reappear. He didn't scream or wince at the injury,but instead opened his mouth further, pointing it at the ground as he tried to move the strange heat outward, some burning bits of his sand-like structure moving out, burning away at the floor.
"Ok, that is weird" She gently closed his mouth with her fingers, "Let us not do that anymore. Have you got anything else I should know about?"
"I dmph nmmm," He tried to inform with his mouth closed.
Esmerelda put her fingers to her head, and slowly massaged her temple. "I am never getting pregnant. *Sigh* You can open your mouth, Luce."
He opened his mouth. "I don't know what else you should know about. Was I not s'posed to do that?"
"No its fine, I'm glad I know you can do that...so I can avoid it if it gets out of hand." She absentmindedly juggles a few of the tires with her psychokinesis.
"So... I can't do brain things?" He asked, looking at the tires.
"I don't think so, but maybe you just haven't learned to yet. Once your powers start developing, we can figure out how to work with them, make them stronger."
"Do we just do powers?" He sat down.
"No, silly. We don't just 'do' powers. Our powers are special to us, they make us who we are. What powers we have, or if we have powers at all, depends on where we came from. Do you remember Uncle Rusty and Auntie Aynoa? They weren't born with powers and they have still come a long way. Then you have those with really, REALLY special powers, like Heather's Chi and magic or my good friend Jay's power over the wind. You know, we should go visit Jay! I have not seen him in a while and maybe he can help in some way. I doubt it because he is an idiot, but there is no harm in asking."
He tried keeping up, generally understanding that they were going somewhere, so he stood up with a nod.
This trip was a bit longer, but the scenery was amazing. Soaring through the air, Lucifer could see so much! The grim mountains marking the Wvelven wolf territory, the abundant woods of the Lycato tribe, and the massive red oak trees that almost scraped the clouds. Esmerelda floated down to one in particular, that had been hollowed out. The doorway was lined with feathers and the inside had odd items and trinkets strewn about. Ezzy raised a hand to knock on the door, when no sooner, a blue blur shot out. Jay tumbled out the door and landed at their feet in a very ungraceful manner. Arrows were sticking out of his hat, and a repeated "twang" noise could be heard inside. "Do I even want to know?" Esmerelda asked.
Jay stood up and brushed himself off. "I was shooting a few practice arrows, when I accidentally let go of the bow instead. Who's the short stuff?" He pointed a feather at Lucifer.
"This is Lucifer, I found him on the outskirts of the Lycato territory. Go on say hello, Luce." She nudges him forward.
At this point the small grey child was mid-way through reaching at the arrow, but paused at this, quickly saying "Hellooo."
"I know that you have come across many books in your travels Jay, on magic and such, maybe you have something that can help us out?"
Jay tapped his beak. "Oh I got lots of books, books out the wazoo. Cook books, notebooks, instruction books, spell books, and every Harry Potter book in existence. Finding one that'll help you is like looking for a tail feather in a haystack, but you're welcome to look."
"What kind are you?" The child asked.
"Uh, the feather-y kind? Jay shrugged.
Ok im heading to bed, i'll hop back in on saturday probably
"Those?" He poked at Jay's feathers with his hands, another growing out from his shoulder at the arrow.
"Yea want one?" He plucked a feather from his wing and held it out, the sunlight catching on its sharp metallic edge. Esmerelda snatched it away, "Feather or not, why would you give a child a blade? Bird-brain. Come on Lucifer, help me look around."
The child stepped back and began browsing. "What are we looking for?"
"I don't know, look for pictures that remind you of your special powers I guess. Lemme know when you find something."
"Um-" He frantically rushed about, trying to locate any specific objects like a paperweight or a book or symbol. Anything really."
Esmerelda quickly sorted through many books and artifacts with her psychokinesis, tossing them around the house as quickly as possible. She was searching through the pages, but mostly looking for any remnants of energy similar to that of the young child.
If there were a book on long-known, or possibly ancient energies, she might find something there. The child himself became a bit fascinated with the image of a gemstone.