You wake up after an eon-long slumber. The last bits of memories slowly fade away from your minds. The only thought that lingers: you won, but the price for the victory was enormous.
You slowly adapt to the senses of your wielder.Something is happening. You hear creaking voices, struggling to pronounce words; you feel strange tickling; and you sense your carrier talking back without trouble and answering that feeling without using voice. Metal clashes against carapace, someone falls to the ground and stands up again, soil is pierced repeatedly on the run.Even the language you are using to think feels unfamiliar to some parts of you.
>>6467402>Try and see what's around
you're usually supposed to put something to indicate people gotta vote
>>6467418>Try and see what's aroundYou concentrate on your sensations. You’re in a clearing in a forest. In the middle of it stands a long ago burnt wooden hut, before which two wounded antmen fight each other while trying to speak aloud. The third, snake-like figure slithers around the ruined house in expanding circles, probing the ground with some kind of a sword. Your sense of self loosely follows that creature.— Llleaaa-vvee...— Qu-eeenn ww-ont rrisk letttt-inng ellf ll-livve— I-iii’-mm nn-ooottt…— Wwe di-ie, bbut ttake you witthshs us, Quennn wi-i-l revviv-e— Iii bb-bbbe-e—— You and the Queen hire me specifically to not let you zealots die! — The strange creature shouts at the ants from over its shoulder with annoyance. — I’ve almost finished, endure a bit more, and we will go searching into the hut itself. And then I will get my answers, elf.The fight looks weird: the two twitch unnaturally, try to open themselves for the blows, then in an instant are attempting to block the incoming attack or to dodge. They continue the talk, but you could swear the roles reverse from time to time.>>6467471>you're usually supposed to put something to indicate people gotta voteI want to run the quest where people act more like a somewhat in-universe character(s): if you don't know what's happening or what to do, just start asking questions, trying to do stuff, paying extra attention to what info you have already. Basically write anything you are thinking of, it will work as a suggestion. Hell, you could ever argue with each other if you want to, it will make sense in the setting
>>6467493>Look down at ourself, try and see who we areVery good art OP
>>6467525>Look down at ourself, try and see who we areYou change the perspective and still don’t really understand who or what you are. It feels like you’re being carried by this creature, though. Furthermore, you find out you can’t take a look from a further distance.>Very good art OPthanksa tip: try talking
>>6467783>Yell at the top of our lungs
>>6467920>Yell at the top of our lungs— AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!— ⰱⰾⱔⱅⱐ! — Your scream doesn’t make a sound, but the creature starts in surprise, instantly reaches for something under its cloak, and starts to look around. The strange tingling sensation from before appears again, gets answered in a similar manner, and then this goes back and forth for some time. You notice some patterns in it: most likely you will be able to understand how that works after concentrating on it. — Are you the Nazar’s orb?! — The creature finally speaks. — I swear to God, after we finish here, I will go to his house and shout into that limp’s bedroom window the same way. That is he who should pay people for taking the crap he crafts! Do you even understand words? Say something or at least scream three times.i'll simplify the drawing style later on most likely: making these pictures takes too much time
>>6468291>Scream three times
>>6468291>But also, concentrate on the patterns
>>6468439>Scream three times— Well, damn. At least you’re sapient. After we deal with this place, I’ll try to teach you ants’ speech if you can’t talk properly.>>6468774>But also, concentrate on the patternsYou do that. You quickly find out these signals consist of 6 distinct “sounds”: four short and long (high- and low-pitched), as well as two additional long ones — rising and falling. For some reason this… alphabet?.. feels familiar to you. You vaguely remember that every pair of these sounds makes a letter, and some of those you happen to know. Half of the words are unintelligible right now, but it’s better than nothing: now you can tell there are at least two groups of shooters watching the hut from the forest while taking such positions they won’t be on each other’s line of fire. You’re sure they are allies of the ants and the creature. Also, you could talk in that way, but it would be way harder than in a normal manner.While you were busy with this, the creature slithered another half-lap around the hut and found its sword stuck deeper than usual into the soil under a tree. It signals the antmen to keep something on them, and the sounds of their fight become louder.
The creature morphs its right hand right into a slim twig-like appendage before shoving it into the ground. Then it coils around the place and, after some struggle, pulls out a small chest. The chest is so ancient the metal parts are rusted through in some places, while the wooden ones crumble under a firm touch. It’s a miracle it was unearthed in one piece.
It turns its hand back into a normal shape to grip the chest more comfortably. After examining the item for a couple of seconds, it just breaks the bottom out and takes out a sealed clay pot in a way better condition than the chest itself. Inside the pot there is an old piece of paper with a handful of crystal-like shards.From their silent conversations, you find out that no one has any idea about what’s written here. They don’t sound surprised though: this is some kind of a usual occurrence, so they are pretty sure it has nothing to do with the hut. The creature signals readiness: it’s heading inside.
What happens next feels like you got hit in the head by a hammer. The very moment the creature starts moving to the hut, it stops dead. Your mind gets painfully overwhelmed, and you black out. After some time, you wake up to the scene of the creature holding a burnt, worn-out locket in its hand while hunched over a skeleton. The antmen are also there in the hut, one of them tries to say something, but it comes out indistinct. The creature lets out a curse and tells someone to talk through it. You get overwhelmed once more, and this time it’s enough for you to lose your consciousness completely.
Fuck this, time for a timeskip. It was clearly a bad idea to start a quest from a not really interactive part of the story as an introduction. Should’ve put this into flashbacks instead. I still want to conduct a quest where (you) write suggestions yourself (like in Ruby, Prequel, or, god forbid, Homestuck) instead of just picking from a set of variants, but expecting you to speak from 1st person was definitely a mistakeBefore I continue, I need to know what you’d prefer to be:A. A distinct character (basically what I was expecting you to be). Look up The Orb of Infinite Psyche for an exampleB. Main characters’ inner monologue(s)C. Your ideaAlso, you get a second MC, and it’s a she
>>6469997>A distinct character (basically what I was expecting you to be). Look up The Orb of Infinite Psyche for an exampleThis board is slow and in fac this quest has been going at a semi decent speed all things considered. You shouldn't expect dozens of voters from the start
>>6469997>B. Main characters’ inner monologue(s)
I’m back, finally. 1 for A, 2 for B. Now you’re >Main characters’ inner monologue(s)>This board is slow and in fac this quest has been going at a semi decent speed all things considered.I get it, but I wasn’t expecting it to be _that_ slow
Now you’re Faye.You’ve just woken up. You’re in the attic above the servants’ quarters at the lord's mansion. It used to be, at least: you have two mutually exclusive memories about the day before yesterday, and you’re pretty sure it’s actually two different days between which some time has passed. You remember the fire engulfing half of the town, but now it looks completely fine. Quite bigger, even. So, it probably was a couple of months or maybe a year. You still haven’t seen anyone from the noble family. You’re worried.You’ve found a housemaid’s dress there and carefully ripped off the white parts, so now you have a nice plain dress. You still have Lekar’s cloak on you; it’s pretty cozy and has a lot of pockets. It’s a bit heavy, though: half of the pockets have stuff inside. You would’ve liked to keep it, but now, when you’ve found clothes, you’re expected to give it back.Your locket, which appears to be literally you, is still somewhere on the first floor. What will you do?
>>6472587>Search for your locket and inspect it
>>6472587Open the window and peer outside. Try not to open it too hard as to not break the spider's web.
>>6472946>Open the window and peer outside. Try not to open it too hard as to not break the spider's web.You just open the other half of the window, without the web. You don’t see anything because of fog. It’s not surprising, though: this place can be pretty foggy in the mornings. The sun is up already, so it will get clear in an hour, two at worst.>>6472596>Search for your locket and inspect itYou go down the stairs to the second floor and see your locket right on a table next to a costrel and a pouch. You are glad you don’t need to go to the first floor. These items lie together aside from the books, so probably Lekar has left them for you, but you aren’t sure. Your locket seems completely new, apart from for the scratched rose, sabre and a wish for good luck. You look inside, and it’s completely empty. You got it from your gramps, who in his turn got it gifted by one of his army comrades for his engagement. The comrade also put inside a goofy drawing of your grandpa with grandma together and inscribed it with “Go get you two drawn properly." Gramps decided to keep it, though, but it got burnt together with you and hasn't been restored with the rest of the locket. You really miss it.You still can’t really get your head around what happened yesterday night. There exists some dangerous cult that worships, uh, elves? The hut you lived in somehow was found not so long ago, and it has some strange enough properties to make the townsfolk search for information before going to it. They found out that you lived here, then freaked out because “Feye”, your local name, somehow also could mean “elf”. You by sheer miracle managed to talk them into not killing you, only to find out later you were killed already some time ago. Now your body is this locket. You could interact with the world outside in some radius, but only by possessing people. You could swear Lekar changed his mind about your place after seeing the locket, but you have literally no idea why. You definitely don’t know him, and you’re sure no one from your family could’ve met him anywhere. If any of them had ever seen this… thing, you are pretty sure they would’ve remembered him for life.It hasn’t stopped there. You haven’t had many options: they could’ve either taken you with them, trapped in the locket, or left you to continue lying there, still trapped. And alone. And then Lekar came up with an idea. As a result, you’ve ended up with the completely “healed” locket, the body you puppeteer around that looks almost exactly like yours, and a day's worth of memories you would like to forget. If he had decided to make you a stomach earlier, you would’ve surely thrown up in the process.You could inspect the house some more, but you’d really like to sit down at least for a couple of minutes.
You sit down and map the place you’re currently at in your head.
You also recall the town layout. It has definitely changed in your, uh, absence, but you don't know how much.>What's next?
>>6474673Sit down and look at Leker, by all means all this talk of his apparent feats make it almost seem funny that you'd end up being the staked one rather than him.Afterwards investigate a bit at your puppet body for any birthmarks, maybe the body you have is a perfect copy made by Lekar, which, would be a bit more terrifying about him.
>>6474763+1
>>6474763>>6475337>Sit down and look at Leker, by all means all this talk of his apparent feats make it almost seem funny that you'd end up being the staked one rather than him.You look at Lekar. You weren’t the staked “one”: the people that killed you were going after the Nondicam family and everyone close enough to them. You just happened to be a friend of the lord’s son — Alberon. And you’re pretty sure Lekar and antmen had appeared here after your death.>Afterwards investigate a bit at your puppet body for any birthmarks, maybe the body you have is a perfect copy made by Lekar, which, would be a bit more terrifying about him.You already know it’s not a perfect copy. After he made sure all organs were working properly, you both spent a couple hours in front of a mirror: you were describing your supposed appearance, and he was trying to make his creation match your description. Also, antmen asked him for a telltale sign to distinguish you from other of your kind if necessary, so now your tail has a tassel.You decide to open a pouch on the table. There are dried smoked meat and rusks inside. Nice.>_____
>>6475579Eat the meat
>>6475579Creepy. Let's chill out and eat the meat for now like >>6476014 suggested. After a bit put the cloak back on Lekar and try waking him up to see if he can clue us in on what's next for us. If he's terribly sleepy we could put a note, would have to his reaction first though.
>>6476264Add to also spy a look at what book he was reading while asleep before waking him up. Could be something to bring up later.
>>6476014>Eat the meat>>6476264>Creepy. Let's chill out and eat the meat for now like >>6476014 suggested. After a bit put the cloak back on Lekar and try waking him up to see if he can clue us in on what's next for us. If he's terribly sleepy we could put a note, would have to his reaction first though.>>6476267>Add to also spy a look at what book he was reading while asleep before waking him up. Could be something to bring up later.You eat the meat and decide to also try a rusk. Your kind doesn’t really digest most of the plant foods, but small amounts are usually fine. Costrel has half-decent wine inside. Both meat and rusk are as dry as a rock, so despite washing them down with wine, you end up with a slightly sore jaw. On the other hand, your stomach finally stops aching: what you were afraid of being a Lekar’s error turned out to be just a regular hunger.Done with the breakfast, you get up and walk to Lekar’s table. You shoot a quick glance at the book he lies asleep on, expecting to see yet another anatomical tractate, but notice it’s something different. You would’ve liked to take a closer look, but his tail lies in a way, so you have to peer at it from some distance. The book is old and massive. The text on parchment pages is written in Venaiyan and, judging by the style, is from one of the churches of One God. Your fur slowly stands on end. Rethinking your intention about waking Lekar up, you continue to look at the page. Suddenly, you notice another, slightly faded text under the first one, in Ellan. You aren’t literate in Venaiyan, despite being from the Empire, but you can’t say the same about Ellan: young lord dragged you along with him almost everywhere, his classes included. You weren’t really against it, though. It’s some kind of a dialect, so you have trouble reading, but from what you understand, it’s either a natural atlas or a traveler’s memoirs. And somehow, there’s also a third text, heavily faded and barely noticeable from your distance, that looks somewhat similar to the language you saw in the old iera’s books in your home village.For some reason, your attention is drawn to the page number. It reads "6 0" — with an unusual space between the digits.
After some thinking, you decide to wake Lekar up. The only explicitly bad things you've noticed about him so far are his monstrous appearance on par with weird alcoholism. And, remembering the lord’s stories, followers of malicious churches usually tend to pay extra attention to their looks for some reason. You take off not-your cloak, carefully place it over his shoulders, then gently push him awake. He lifts his head from the table slightly and looks at you in confusion. “Uhm, m-morning?” you say uncertainly. He continues looking at you, head turned at a slight angle: two eyes and thick round glasses tilted along them. The third — the lower one — is blindly directed straight ahead somewhere towards the window. After an uncomfortably long pause he waves his hand weakly at your side, then tries to take a decanter from the table. The decanter tips over. It becomes obvious: there’s almost nothing left inside.Lekar reaches under his cloak but stops mid-motion. “The top one” — you advise him — "It has a lot of stuff in the pockets. I haven’t touched anything”. He starts rummaging through them. After a brief moment he takes out… a pistol? All that time you had a pistol on you? He opens something on its side, pours black powder right onto the floor, carefully lowers one of the protruding things down, and puts the weapon to his right, all in complete silence. And all that time you had it, it was ready to fire. You feel like you’re about to faint.His next attempt to fish something out of the pockets finally ends up in success: you see him holding a costrel. He uncorks it and, in a moment, pours all its content into his now visible mouth. The smell of strong booze fills the room. After drinking, he sits still for another long minute. Suddenly, he turns to you, looks you up and down, and asks:— Why are you barefoot?The creature, which just downed a whole pint of something strong, now looks at you without a trace of previous confusion and speaks completely straight. You mutter something about all shoes you found in the attic being made for human legs. Everything feels more and more surreal with each passing moment.>Now (you) could choose who to follow and change it at will. Write-ins are available for both Feye and Lekar, but don’t forget to specify who you’re addressing.>What to do now?I’m swamped with work rn, so updates will not be too often. It’ll be this way until january
