Searching shadows (RP between Juno and Havoc)
Thank you @junoscrybeofshadows
The night was incredibly still, the wind blew with barely a sound. Crickets chirp quietly in the cool night the warmth of the spring sun gone once again as the moon loomed high in the sky. Pale blue light bathes the world in it's glow sending those who walk during the day to bed, as the nocturnal awaken. The monsters that lurk in the dark come out rearing their heads to the sky as they prowl through the shadows. The shadows themselves meanwhile bend and curl leaning in the direction opposite of the natural order, following a quiet figure that treads across the land; draped in a deep blue cloak that shields their face from view.
In their hand was a smalls set of bells made of a strange dark colored metal, tied together through purple ribbon that was bound to an old branch they clutch onto only to shake it every so often with a flick of their wrist. When the bells ring, a shadowy creature comes forth greeting the cloaked figure like a protector, master, or a friend. Bowing their heads as they are soon collected and turned into cards, or slip into the stranger's shadow. Those not made of shadows cannot hear the ringing bells but can see them glittering in the dark just like the figure's glowing yellow eye that lights up as she cross paths with a person on one of the bridges..it was not often that she saw some awake at this hour. which makes the figure raise a brow. She keeps her distance but in turn she cannot help but call out to them from beyond her cloak
"It's not often I see someone beyond my shadows, or the dead awake at this hour...Let alone run into some during my scrybe duties..Might I inquire what has brought you here and at such an hour as this?"
The person startles and quickly turns toward the voice, but they relax once they sense no weapons or ill intent. "I sensed a storm coming, I hope that I can catch one of these strikes before it flits away, they are quite useful. Name's Havoc by the way, and you?"
"Storm? I do not recall there being any rain clouds in the sky...Perhaps Eira is having a fit..It is rare for her to get so upset an ice storm could occur but it is possible.." The shadow mutters thoughtful. Reaching up to the hood of her cloak she pulls the fabric back to reveal her mostly featureless face. The only thing that stands out in the moonlight is her one lone eye that glows with a faint golden glow as she politely bows her head in acknowledgement. The bells on the stick she carries in her other hand jingle cause of the motion but because it was so soft it almost couldn't be heard over the sound of her voice.
"A pleasure to meet you Havoc, I am Juno, the Scrybe of shadows. And I must say I am a bit surprised to see someone out here at this hour...most of the others tend to stay within their own realms during the night, save for Grimora, Freyja and I. It is rather surprising."
Havoc gives a deep dramatic bow. "Well, a storm doesn't just mean rain, it could be dry lightning or snow as you've said or quite possibly simply a large amount of wind, those all count as storms. But even then they can come on quite suddenly. I don't rely on clouds to tell me what's going to happen, it's more so an intuition."
"And as for why I'm out late, it's easier to see lightning and fires in the dark than it is when it's light as they will shine brightly. I can see why Grimora would love being out here, though the other one, Freyja? That is a name that I haven't heard before."
"Ah I see, then I suppose it is safe to assume that you have quite a sound intuition then." Turning her attention briefly away from Havoc in order to look down at her feet she notices the shadowy equivalent of a fox nuzzling against the mass of shadows that would be her leg. 'Smiling' she nods her head to the little creature, bending down just enough to look at it. Jingling the bells on the branch she held causes the creature to yip and bow its own head politely
Leaning down she plucks a glass pen from her sleeve and lightly touches the tip of it against the shadow's head, and over the course of a few seconds the shadowy fox fade away as the clear grooves of the glass pen darken in color as Juno rises to her feet
"Hm Oh, Freyja is my daughter. The little one normally likes to join me for my scrybe duties, but I'm afraid she tuckered herself out running around the forest today. So she is at home resting."
"Your daughter? Well, I love meeting new people, but they will have to wait as there is someone right in front of me that I don't know any fun trivia about. So, what would you say is your favorite card that you've created? Either one that you simply like or is the most interesting or simply powerful or anything like that, what is your favorite of your own cards?" As he says this, he keeps flicking his eyes back towards where he was looking previously, seemingly keeping watch for lightning.
"Mhm, she has been training quite hard to become a scrybe. She's a bright young girl, she defiantly takes after Grimora in that regard." Stifling a small chuckle the faint outlines of a smile briefly appear on her face.
When asked about her favorite card she tilts her head slightly to the side and hums quietly in thought. She has made a number of cards throughout her life time, general cards, specialty cards for her bosses and herself, she adored each of them dearly. It was almost hard for her to come up with an answer.
"Hmm...My favorite...that's quite difficult to say. I suppose if I only had to pick one...I'd have to say it would be the Poison thistle card."
Upon saying it's name the card spawns into her hand, it's shining lettering glittering in the moon light as she holds it out to Havoc
"I made this one for one my my bosses, The card has only 2 health and no attack but the sigil I made for it makes it quite intresting. I call the sigil Poison thorns: when card is attacked it will poison its any card that attacks it. Poison will weaken the attacker and take away 1 point of damage for every attack dealt to a poison thistle. It makes players have to think about where they set their cards for although it not be able to attack it will certainly do some damage if they are not careful."
"Grimora?" Havoc quirks up a smile, "Death and shadows do go hand in hand after all."
He takes the card to inspect it.
"A card that's more an obstacle rather than a threat, I love the idea. I have something similar but in a very different way." As he says this he hands the card back and pulls out one of his own. "This is an 'Unstable mountain top', 0/1, and you must be careful around it, for once it's disturbed, it and all adjacent tiles are replaced by rubble, which is a 0/2 that can't be used for blood."
"The undead love of my life, She would have been here with me if not for her own Scrybe duties and looking after Freyja"
Taking back her card she tucks it safely into her sleeve along side her inscryption tool before taking a look at the card that Havoc has to show her.
"Aaah, so it creates clutter on the board rendering spaces unuseable. In away the rubble sort of acts like the gold bolder cards that Leshy has only with less health. My, my, that's rather intresting. What gave you the idea to create a card such as this?"
"Would you believe me if I told you that I was a sane individual and saw it happen from a safe distance? All jokes aside I mostly get my inspiration for cards when I'm running for my life. And the neat part for the rubble is while it fills up either the four in a t-section or the whole 3x2 space, I know I want it to do one of those but I don't know which would be better, I have a group of cards that are tornadoes, twisters, and hurricanes that act similarly to Leshi's Bull except if they move over obstacles the obstacle will take a point of damage, so you have ways of clearing the board from your own rubble. Though alternatively you could go the fire based route as there is a large group of cards that deal damage indiscriminantly, while the rubble may be good for blocking, the mischievous fire spirit doesn't care who it attacks as it'll deal one damage to both participants, this could mean that you could take out a terrifying creature with one toughness at the cost of a damage to yourself or you can just try to rack up some havoc, which is the cost for the fire based spells, like the raging inferno, it is only a one one with five way attack and a sigil that boosts its attack power and health whenever it destroys a card, it attacks directly to the left and right of it, on your side of the board so if you don't have any creatures there it'll deal damage to you, and then it'll deal damage as if it had the normal triple strike." At the end, Havoc covers his mouth and apologizes for rambling. "Sorry, I just get very excited about interesting mechanics."
"Yes, I would believe that," The shadow coolly explains. Juno understood that inspiration for cards came from everywhere. Everyone seeks inspiration from something wither it's a creature, or something they witnessed. And she understood how scrybes can become quite excited when talking about their cards, she's seen it happen with the others and always found it intriguing.
Thus she allows him to ramble for however long he liked listening intently before finally letting out a small chuckle
"Haha, do not worry, believe me I understand. One can get quite exited when talking about something they are interested in. The others tend to do it all the time, so there is no need to apologize."
"Well, as interesting as some of the strategies you can create by focusing on a single cost type, I find the cards that span between different scribes to be quite intriguing and a way to see the scribes interact without actually having to be there, do you have any cards that synergize with a different scribes cost, or perhaps someone else has made a card for the shadows?" As he's saying this he brings his arms up to rest his head on his hands and give a coy smirk.
For a moment just a brief moment a faint look of sorrow flashes across Juno's face as her golden eye switches to a ocean blueish color for just a moment before it was blinked away. Sighing she shakes her head from side to side, as she idly crosses her hands over her waist.
"No, I'm afraid that I do not," she softly mutters her gaze shifting towards the sky as she leans slightly against the bridge's railing. "The others have tired to convince me to try but I don't entirely feel like I deserve that right to use another scrybe's costs for my cards...And even if I were to change my mind on that notion I do not think that any other scrybes costs would work with my deck. Shadows don't always mix with everything you know."
She sighs once again, her gaze settled on the water below the bridge before she suddenly tenses. Realizing she may have potentially brought the mood down she quickly shifts attitudes taking on a more upbeat tone as she dryly chuckles.
"Well unless you are my daughter of course. Freyja's card are made of the lost ones meaning she can use both shadows and bones for her cards once she gets more accustomed to making and using them haha!"
Latching onto this small distraction, Havoc inquires "The lost ones, that's not a concept I have much idea of or really any context to. Most scribes have something that's more innately known or at the very least understood; beasts, the dead, magic, technology, disasters, or even shadows, they all have an intrinsic quality of understanding, 'The Lost ones' do not have this quality."
"That is understandable, The lost ones are just a name we came up for the beings she inscrybes. They are sort of a mix between a shadow and a spirit And are relatively new to this world."
Glancing around herself Juno hums as she spots something in the difference. It looked the shadow of a dear. Only instead of it being made of a solid dark shadow it it was more of a purple hue. It's upper body was solid, but as one looked down one would notice that it's legs were getting more and more transparent until it's hooves were not visible. Small wisp of purple flutter off its body with every frantic move that it makes it looks afraid, lost even like it doesn't know where it is. And it is something that Juno points out.
"You see Havoc, when a person or creature passes they become a spirit, or a ghost and inherit skeletal features much like Grimora's ghouls. They know that their souls have passed on. Shadows are only found on the living as it is sort of their other half that mimics the actions of their owner...it is rare that they have full sentience less they were born a shadow, from the dark of the world such as myself. However there are cases where a soul not wanting to die may latch onto their shadow. Taking it's form in a desperate attempt to stay alive, like that deer over there-"
She states before gesturing to the creature
"But when they take form they aren't alive nor are they dead. They can't interact with physical objects and yet they can still feel everything around them such as the wind or the cold. And this makes they scared, and frantic unsure of who or what they are..They become lost, never knowing that they are not alive anymore but not dead either. Thus why we call the The Lost ones. Freyja is the one that comforts them, she consoles them and helps them find a place where they belong by turning them to cards. Or simply by being their friend, and from what i can tell is the only one that the lost ones aren't afraid of."
"..Um..Does this make sense? Sorry I realize it must be quite a lot of info to take in. My apologies."
"Yes, it does, thank you. Despite never hearing of them before, it's good to know that there is someone that's looking out for them. And you don't have to worry about telling me too much information at once, infodump is my native language." He says with a dry chuckle.
Havoc leans against the railing of the bridge "What would you say separates your rare cards from your normal cards, everyone has something that sets them apart. And just so that it's a true exchange of information, my rare cards are based off of the most powerful storms and disasters in stories, the terrifying Mount Vesuvius of Pompeii, the great biblical flood, or perhaps the most legendary, Sharknado."
"Hmm? Well for my cards I suppose my rare cards are different simply because you can only get them from my bosses, and each one is based off their specific elemental ability."
She states with a faint shrug
"For example my first boss Bernard has a rare card called "Stone Wall," it is a special card he uses during his fight that has a sigil I made up for it called "Surviving strong" the card originally starts with 2 health but after each time it's killed it gains 1 health until it's total maxs out at 5. The card was specifically made to suit his stone manipulation abilities. All my rare cards are based off those elemental abilities, the same goes for both Alder's and Eira's rare cards as well."
Havoc tilts his head and quirks an eyebrow. "And now, while I mean no offense questioning you on your own cards, I am a little confused as to how those count as shadows? Unless the bosses themselves are shadows and thus, instead of making them cards and giving them sigil based off of their power, they get a card that has their power. Am I getting this right?"
"Do not worry I understand your confusion. You see so long as an object can cast a shadow I can use that shadow to make a card. Even if is things such as plants or even buildings. Though shadows such as that don't normally have any attack power. So the shadow doesn't have to be made by a living object for me to use it for my cards."
She began to explain, gesturing to the shadow the bridge railing was casting from the moonlight before she summons forth the card she had made mention of before.
"My bosses are shadow beings such as myself but they also acquired a small bit of magic that lets them manipulate elements to their will like stone, plant life and ice. Think of it..sort of how Magnificus's students can each use a magic based of a certain Mox. For Bernard, Alder and Eira rare cards are just reflections of those powers. The objects used for their depictions are just reflections of the element they can control.
"So in order to capture Bernard's stone welding abilities I took the shadow cast by a wall made of stone and forged it to be the image that represents his strength to stand tall even when hurt. It's symbolization, if that makes any sense. Does that sort of help?"
"Yes, it very much does, thank you." Havoc say with a little bow of the head. "Now for a question that is quite unorthodox. How did you find out you could / what made you want to, inscribe cards?"
"...In truth, I don't entirely recall it sort of just came naturally," Thinking back on it, it was almost hard for Juno to think back that far, not because the memories were bad or anything of the sort, but rather it had been so long since the first time she made a card, that she couldn't quite recall the memory.
"I knew that it was my duty as a scrybe I knew that the moment the others and I came to this world..The shadows simply came to me one day, wanting to come to my aid in battles and the rest is a blur at best. I fear my memories of those long years are foggy as I haven't really thought about it. What about you? did you discover you could make cards?"
"Believe it or not, I am somewhat new to this. I've only been a scribe for a few months. It started when I wanted to be a field researcher to figure out how to mitigate the damage caused by storms, Rock slides, earthquakes stuff like that. And I had a tape recorder on me to put down on my thoughts as I don't write very quickly." At this he brings out a small handheld tape recorder with a blank cassette in it.
"After the first half dozen reports, I started giving them much more detailed descriptions of; what they've done, how much damage they caused, how hard it is to clean them up, and that is when, when I pulled out the cassette, it was a card. If I remember correctly, it was a wildfire. In my report I talked about how even before it started, the wild life fled from the area. And that is why it's sigil has it so that when it enters the board, the creature opposed to it automatically flees to the right or left so that it's not caught in the fire." With this he pulls out the wildfire card as well.
"Oh so you are a newly appointed scrybe?" That was a little surprising to Juno. Based of how well versed Havoc was with his cards, she had suspected that he had been a scrybe for more than just a few months. And the shock showed on her face ever so briefly as she hums out in thought
"I see, well you have kept your findings a lot better documented than I use to. And that is something that I believe will help out in the long run. Still that is all rather fascinating"
Havoc smiles at the praise. "Oh, thank you, but I do have trouble sometimes with balancing these cards. And I'll be honest, I don't even know what cost type I want to use, I currently have two cost types, calm and havoc, I know I want calm to be generated up slowly but is then used for stuff like rain, landslides, earthquakes, and tornadoes, the things that build up slowly. And then in contrast havoc is built up by dealing damage, have it be that whenever a tooth is put onto the scale either from specifically one of your own creatures or from any creatures I'm not entirely sure, but then you use the havoc to summon these large creatures of flames and lightning and the things that just ramp out of control too quickly, and the idea that you would be able to build a deck around either waiting it out, filling the board with the rubble to build up calm while protecting yourself, or using the flame spirits to build up a large amount of Havoc quickly, I'm not entirely sure" As he's saying this it slowly ramps up into semi anxious rambling until he finally catches himself and quickly looks at Juno. "Does that make sense?"
"Oh trust me balancing cards is never easy. Everyone has one or two cards that are extremely over powered. But worry not I understand."
Though a smile doesn't appear on her face one could hear the amusement joy and intrigue in her voice as she speaks..Or at least until her gaze soon settles on the horizen, where small glimpses of sunlight coule be seen barely begining to peek out across the sky.
"Oh dear..It appears that we are running out of time. Morning will be here soon and I need to make sure I'm inside before the sun is fully up." She mutters with a sigh. "However it was a pleasure talking to you Havoc, Perhaps we can talk some more some day."
With a slight nod of his head, "Indeed, it was lovely talking and getting to know you. If I may ask, where might I be able to find you for future reference? If you ever looking for me I'm in a pretty solid bunker that's pretty much opposite Leshi's cabin, so it's actually not too far from here." As he gestures in the direction of his home, there is a rumble of thunder coming from where Havoc was staring before this whole conversation started. "Well, guess that's my cue to leave." He straightens up from leaning against the railing of the bridge and stands directly opposite of Juno.
"Go to the bridge between Grimora's and Leshy's island. Beside the Mycologisit's home is a bridge that can take you to my island. Or head to Grimora's crypt as I am often times spending my free time there" Pulling her hood back over her head, The scrybe of shadows bows to Havoc before turning and head off in the direction of Grimora's island only to stop briefly in order to turn to him.
"Farewell Havoc, may we meet again some day"
"Indeed," He says with a deep bow and a crackle of lightning in the distance. "and with that, I'll be off" As he says this, he vaults over the railing of the bridge, and with a kick, turns into lightning and shoots off towards the storm.
Juno then fades away into the shadows of the bridge's archway, and back into the dark just as the sun's light finally filled the sky.
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