Gray
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 125
Registered: Jul 2, 2021 10:00:37 GMT -5
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Post by Gray on Apr 16, 2022 14:57:47 GMT -5
“It all turns to dust in the end,” Gray agreed. His boots clicked on the stone parapet that he had pushed himself up to, as he followed the woman in black. “Accomplishments. Breath. Civilizations.” He spoke in counterpoint to the wind, his voice lost when a gust howled too close. “Doubts. Embarrassments. Follies.”
The sharp winds seemed to affect the man more, despite his larger frame. His fingers scraped the gaps between stones as he knelt down, struggling to not be pushed off. His cloak whipped around him. “But it's never been about that, isn't it?” He asked, rising his voice to cross the distance and not an inch more. “Humans are blind; we can only see the world through the lens of the present. Sometimes, when we look too far, all we see is a reflection of the lens.”
When the worst of the gales abated, he would catch up, his steps long, his eyes fixed on the shoulder-blades of the spry figure in front of him. He felt the old need to dissect what lay under that raven-black hair. But the details confounded him.
He struggled to place her outfit. It was made of different fabrics, arranged in a way that seemed artful yet obviously foreign, highlighting parts of the body that no dressmaker would normally want to highlight, such as the shoulders. Strings tied cloth around her abdomen as if she was an actor playing in a popular rope-torture scene.
“I am the Official Torturer of the Archipelago, Assassin of the Azure Dynasty and Executioner for those important enough to waste my time.” The man spoke. “My name is Gray.” He looked around, as much by his own will as pulled by the need to negotiate with the wind an angle in which he could breathe. “Maybe I was curious. Maybe we are walking the same path.”
He looked at the graves to the side, at once painfully close and unfathomably immense.
“He didn't make it here, did he?”
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Belladonna Atropa
Established
Roleplay posts: 44
Appearance: Belladonna has Dark straight black hair that ends just passed her jaw, aside for a long braid. She has ivory skin, dark painted lips and heterochromia with her right eye being a medium grey and the left a deep blue.
There is no color on Belladonna's clothing. She tends to wear long corseted dresses that go from her neck down and leaves everything to the imagination while also not hiding away her charms. She also wears her black fur shawl in colder weather, but if the weather is particularly warm she might go without. Her shoes are calf-height sturdy low-heeled boots.
Equipment: Vials of poison
Small potions bottles
Spool of Red string
Dark red lip paint
Basket
Knife
wooden Staff
Herbology book
Tome of Curses and hexes
Skills and Abilities: Potions, poisons, medicine and drugs. Anything from curses to cures is where Belladonna's (Bella for the privileged few) expertise lies. With the right payment, no work is morally too low for her and no cause too great.
Chemistry: Allows her to isolate plant components and increase their potency on a rudimentary level, however consumes more resources and time to accomplish. Medicine of that caliber can also create highly corrosive or toxic fumes. Mistakes may cause fires or explosions of mundane of magical nature.
Arcane investigation: Bella is in tune with magic, but only senses it in form of intuition or "gut feeling", since her power and senses are muted on the isles. She is also knowledgeable in matters of the arcane and given enough time can decipher occult texts and inscriptions, at least based on her best guess of the meaning, depending how ancient it is and the context evidence is found in.
Ritual curses and Hexes:
All rituals require material and somatic components to work. Due to the influence of the Isles, all curses and hexes are channeled into an item that then needs to be placed on or around the target person. Typically they take form of letters tied with red string, wooden or straw idols or potions/food that need to be consumed by the target.
Arcane knowledge: What is a witch without knowledge on the basics and how to use them?
Biography: All she says is she doesn't remember where she came from, but some have doubts about that statement.
Registered: Apr 10, 2021 9:27:32 GMT -5
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Post by Belladonna Atropa on Apr 20, 2022 7:13:20 GMT -5
He didn't make it here, did he?
That question left an echo in this vast expanse, as suddenly the gales that were beating upon them suddenly halted into an eerie silence. The mist around them flowed and began to glitter like floating snow with the temperature suddenly dropping. Several heartbeats passed as the only sign that Bella herself hadn't become frozen was the condensed breath that formed from her mouth like a cloud.
Yet, despite the sudden change in their immediate environment, Bella replied with a practiced evenness. "How could he?" To someone less perceptive, it would be mistaken for apathy. She glanced over at the two graves, the covered grave now looking like it was filled with water while the other remained an endless void. Despite the precarious situation and height upon this long parapet, the witch crouched down as if to get a futile closer look at the graves in question with a certain fondness.
"Fate wishes to suffer my presence longer, I won't deny it. In return, I will claw back what it has taken from me, and I will carry on until it regrets allowing me." With that the Witch stood and finally look over at Gray proper. "I don't suppose you were sent here to try and make my life hard or something of the kind, you might find yourself sorely disappointed."
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Gray
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 125
Registered: Jul 2, 2021 10:00:37 GMT -5
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Post by Gray on May 1, 2022 15:29:05 GMT -5
He tasted iron on the roof of his mouth.
“Because you think yourself stronger than me, or because you could endure no greater suffering?” Gray asked. There was the shadow of a smile behind the man's mask of a face. “At least one of those things is wrong.” He stood to the side, watching the graves in this dreamlike wake. “Rest assured. I do not remember being ordered to harm you.” He spoke.
Pieces of her soul, so close, he could almost touch them. It might be the last thing he ever felt. So guarded, she was, so habitually careful, even as her pain was plain around them to see. She might kill him for it, it occurred to Gray. He would have. It occurred to him how useful this dreamwalking skill would have been to him as a torturer, and how ironic that he had discovered it only once it was him under the knife.
And yet, even at the end of the line, he couldn't help but try to pull the strings left within his reach. For, he had always felt, if he could control people then it would all be, in some sense, all right. It would all be orderly and beautiful. It had grown increasingly indifferent to him whether he was breaking them down or building them up.
“Feel angry, if you will.” He continued. For reasons he could not remember, Gray guessed that his interlocutor would make a useful ally. “Your anger is a perfectly normal response to grief.” He turned, his eyes pinning the woman in black as a moth would be held by gently glass pins. How much was truly anger?, he wondered. Numbness would be a weakness, left unspoken. “There is only so much that anger can heal, however. What drives you forward when that fails?”
He took a step closer. The frost cracked under his soles, and dusted his cloak. It went through his half-translucent body like needles. With blue lips, he spoke; every word, carefully arranged to trigger a response from the dreamer.
“You wish for something. Tell me, what is it, that you truly wish?” He spoke in deep, mellow tones, like a warm drink on a winter night.
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Belladonna Atropa
Established
Roleplay posts: 44
Appearance: Belladonna has Dark straight black hair that ends just passed her jaw, aside for a long braid. She has ivory skin, dark painted lips and heterochromia with her right eye being a medium grey and the left a deep blue.
There is no color on Belladonna's clothing. She tends to wear long corseted dresses that go from her neck down and leaves everything to the imagination while also not hiding away her charms. She also wears her black fur shawl in colder weather, but if the weather is particularly warm she might go without. Her shoes are calf-height sturdy low-heeled boots.
Equipment: Vials of poison
Small potions bottles
Spool of Red string
Dark red lip paint
Basket
Knife
wooden Staff
Herbology book
Tome of Curses and hexes
Skills and Abilities: Potions, poisons, medicine and drugs. Anything from curses to cures is where Belladonna's (Bella for the privileged few) expertise lies. With the right payment, no work is morally too low for her and no cause too great.
Chemistry: Allows her to isolate plant components and increase their potency on a rudimentary level, however consumes more resources and time to accomplish. Medicine of that caliber can also create highly corrosive or toxic fumes. Mistakes may cause fires or explosions of mundane of magical nature.
Arcane investigation: Bella is in tune with magic, but only senses it in form of intuition or "gut feeling", since her power and senses are muted on the isles. She is also knowledgeable in matters of the arcane and given enough time can decipher occult texts and inscriptions, at least based on her best guess of the meaning, depending how ancient it is and the context evidence is found in.
Ritual curses and Hexes:
All rituals require material and somatic components to work. Due to the influence of the Isles, all curses and hexes are channeled into an item that then needs to be placed on or around the target person. Typically they take form of letters tied with red string, wooden or straw idols or potions/food that need to be consumed by the target.
Arcane knowledge: What is a witch without knowledge on the basics and how to use them?
Biography: All she says is she doesn't remember where she came from, but some have doubts about that statement.
Registered: Apr 10, 2021 9:27:32 GMT -5
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Post by Belladonna Atropa on May 3, 2022 7:33:28 GMT -5
Bella laughed as he assume it was any measure of her strength or a measure of her suffering, neither of which were true and yet, whatever was locked away in that side of her mind would remain there. For a moment She looked out at the never ending horizon as she was questioned, what would carry her forward when her anger ran out. He stepped towards her, a gesture that she stared him down like a hawk for. Yet, she cracked a full grin, something that most would have found eerie given the somber woman's nature.
A sudden roll of frosted mist obscured Bella from Gray's vision only for the mist to reveal her standing close, so close they were practically touching noses. Unlike the bone chilling cold around them, the dark woman surprisingly radiated heat like a red hot coal. It was a stinging, but delicious heat among the frost, and yet it gave the impression that he risked getting burned by playing with this fire. The snowflakes and frost that would go near her instantly evaporated once again into mist, showing that the source of chaotic weather in this dreamscape was from herself.
"If there's no anger left then spite will carry me, if I let that go then my dignity will, and once that's destroyed it will be my pride. If all these vanish from me, then I suppose I will finally have found some peace. That's all I've ever, ever really wanted, and yet people never know how to leave well enough alone. Then again neither do I.." Around them, the mist became... bright, and everything around became so white that it was like everything just suddenly erased. Yet, all that was white suddenly receded into Bella as everything fell to darkness. There was no more win, no more cold, no more brambles or graves, nor even the parapet they have been walking on. Just two minds entangled in a blank dream.
"For now, I will vent on the world, and then I'll one day cease once I'm done."
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Gray
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 125
Registered: Jul 2, 2021 10:00:37 GMT -5
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Post by Gray on May 4, 2022 17:05:51 GMT -5
Anything could happen in the Dreamworld.
Gray did not like that. It was not something within his control. To what extent injuries sustained here were maintained upon waking, he did not know – and it would not matter, if he was to be pulled to the place his mind did not bear imagining. Yet he craved the challenge, so when the woman appeared in front of him, he smiled back, and approached just the slightest touch.
He listened, as the world faded around him. Her dark eyes were the last thing to go.
A stubborn one, wasn't she? He didn't fully understand her, but it would not matter. He could pretend well enough. Words, he remembered, weren't the main thing to look for. Emotions were what he had to absorb. It was a lesson he had taken great pains to learn. Isolation, he felt. Grief. She was wounded, he thought; that was good. People were at their most malleable then. And he hadn't even had to do the hurting himself.
There was a bitter air around the darkness that shaped his consciousness. A tendril of that dark reached out behind the other dreamer, a cold shimmer beyond a space that was not quite their ear. 'Oh?' he whispered. 'What do we have here...?' Something bright and fuzzy. He stole it with a flourish. Then, suddenly, the ball of light leaped up. It traced what in this world without space could be generously described as an arc, before falling – or leaping – back in Gray's reach. As it did so, another light orb coagulated nearby. This one had a fizzy crackling-paper feeling, rather than the luminous sheen of the first. It soon joined its predecessor in its dance.
Gray was juggling. He was juggling with ideas.
Sunrays filtering through coloured glass. Endless, silent stone corridors connected by bridges thousands of feet up. Sharp pain, shards. The rustle of washi paper creatures, unfolding themselves into nothingness to reveal individually wrapped wagashi sweets. Each sensation came in snippets, gone almost immediately unless one struggled to follow it. Occasionally the balls of light collided, either repelling or going through each other as ideas were born anew. The sensation of pressing your face against the cold window to the sea. A blanket made of starlight. A lullaby of words unheard. A betrayal. A treasure.
“Tell me about it,” he spoke, his tone leaving it up to her whether expressing empathy, or a genuine desire to listen. Leaving it up to her whether to mind his words, or allow herself to be distracted by the light show. Between them, an increasing number of orbs wove into increasingly complicated patterns. Some of those shapes would not have been physically possible outside a mathematician's notebook.
Five, six, seven ideas at a time. He struggled to appear to be struggling, in a world that revealed his inner self so openly (for most people would instinctively be drawn in when faced with artful things on the point of breaking down). He wondered if this was manageable to him because he had practice in breaking down his mind to pieces. There were near-misses of the orbs, and elaborate rescues.
He found solace in the order, as he pondered over the best way to build rapport with the mysterious woman.
“Poke,” he whispered, part of him reaching out between the swirls of light to tap what in mind-space was not exactly her nose, but was perhaps close enough.
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Belladonna Atropa
Established
Roleplay posts: 44
Appearance: Belladonna has Dark straight black hair that ends just passed her jaw, aside for a long braid. She has ivory skin, dark painted lips and heterochromia with her right eye being a medium grey and the left a deep blue.
There is no color on Belladonna's clothing. She tends to wear long corseted dresses that go from her neck down and leaves everything to the imagination while also not hiding away her charms. She also wears her black fur shawl in colder weather, but if the weather is particularly warm she might go without. Her shoes are calf-height sturdy low-heeled boots.
Equipment: Vials of poison
Small potions bottles
Spool of Red string
Dark red lip paint
Basket
Knife
wooden Staff
Herbology book
Tome of Curses and hexes
Skills and Abilities: Potions, poisons, medicine and drugs. Anything from curses to cures is where Belladonna's (Bella for the privileged few) expertise lies. With the right payment, no work is morally too low for her and no cause too great.
Chemistry: Allows her to isolate plant components and increase their potency on a rudimentary level, however consumes more resources and time to accomplish. Medicine of that caliber can also create highly corrosive or toxic fumes. Mistakes may cause fires or explosions of mundane of magical nature.
Arcane investigation: Bella is in tune with magic, but only senses it in form of intuition or "gut feeling", since her power and senses are muted on the isles. She is also knowledgeable in matters of the arcane and given enough time can decipher occult texts and inscriptions, at least based on her best guess of the meaning, depending how ancient it is and the context evidence is found in.
Ritual curses and Hexes:
All rituals require material and somatic components to work. Due to the influence of the Isles, all curses and hexes are channeled into an item that then needs to be placed on or around the target person. Typically they take form of letters tied with red string, wooden or straw idols or potions/food that need to be consumed by the target.
Arcane knowledge: What is a witch without knowledge on the basics and how to use them?
Biography: All she says is she doesn't remember where she came from, but some have doubts about that statement.
Registered: Apr 10, 2021 9:27:32 GMT -5
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Post by Belladonna Atropa on May 17, 2022 6:06:37 GMT -5
Belladonna watched, studied the man like a predator watching in wait as they studied a potential prey, despite knowing this man was likely beyond her physical skills to handle. But this wasn't a physical space. In a place like this, shows of strength were meaningless. What truly mattered were the thoughts strung together within the cerebrum. The witch was finding a cold solace within the now vast empty expanse they stood in, yet, a shimmer of light being plucked by her guest caught her attention.
Her expression went from observant, curious, and slowly shifted to an indifferent eyeroll as he deigned it more appropriate to perform his party trick. She inhaled deeply and turned away from him with her arms crossed as she chose to instead get lost in her thoughts in a less flashy, far more private manner. His attempts to sympathize fell short and where she stood, dark bramble once again began to sprout at her feet, revealing the prickly nature of her thoughts.
It was the sudden sensation, something akin to a finger making contact with the bridge of her nose instead of the tip, but the gesture was understood as a wide eyed, expression accompanied the stare she suddenly gave the torturer. Instinctively, she rubbed the spot he'd "touched". "I didn't take Torturers for the childish type. Then again nothing is impossible in what used to be this vast world." The statement had a tone of exasperation. "What is it that you are here for? What is it that you want from me? Most would advise you to stay away from The Poison Witch, the Lady with a Poisonous Heart, She who does the Devil's work, the Remorseless One...If you're not here to punish or collect, then what is it that you seek?"
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Gray
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 125
Registered: Jul 2, 2021 10:00:37 GMT -5
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Post by Gray on Jun 2, 2022 15:50:53 GMT -5
Gray observed.
There is always a opening. No matter how reluctant the interlocutor, there is always a method attuned to them that will get a person to crack. To get one to spill their deepest selves inside out.
Sometimes the person who cracks is yourself.
'Are you a person, I wonder.'
The words left him almost before he knew it.
“I am looking for someone to talk to.”
The Dreamscape was dangerous. It could reveal more of yourself than you wished.
“In my old world, I had...Connections.” Gray went on, the earlier effusion gone. “I had the library I had build throughout my life.” It's like his words were hollow spaces merely outlining the silence. His tone had hardly changed, with the slightest sarcastic edge. “In this world, I suffer from the ancient scourge of being surrounded by incompetents. It is driving me insane.”
His tone made it difficult to tell how much of it was true. And yet, you could almost hear in it a silent howl.
It wasn't the truth, of course. Not in the sense she'd asked. But truth is of secondary importance when getting into people's minds. 'I have no idea', 'who are you again' and 'beyond this dream, there is something that makes my mind blank out' are irrelevant. What matters is control.
In low spirits, the Poison Witch was, and evidently used to people staying away. But Gray knew that very few men and women could live fully on their own terms. Humans were weak, in flesh and soul. Of course, with people like him – and this woman, she suspected, was a bit like him – with people who are sharks, you don't offer to help. You offer a bleeding wound, and brace for the bite.
Hook, line, and-
“Poison, you said? I have a deep abiding interest in poison.” Gray said.
The intensity in him would catch most people off guard. It did so to him. He paused, until he could push it down to his usual cool.
“I am not going to hire you. Not now. That would be...Inconsiderate.” The man said.
Inconsiderate to himself, most of all. Gray did not trust himself to negotiate while asleep. But also, artisans of certain specialized goods might put a high importance on good customer behaviour. They could afford to.
Gray struggled to hide his displeasure as he voiced the following words.
“I simply wanted to talk. Pitiful, yes.”
For a lie is always stronger when you weave truth into it. With enough strings, you can control a person. And with enough skill, anyone could be used.
Even yourself.
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Belladonna Atropa
Established
Roleplay posts: 44
Appearance: Belladonna has Dark straight black hair that ends just passed her jaw, aside for a long braid. She has ivory skin, dark painted lips and heterochromia with her right eye being a medium grey and the left a deep blue.
There is no color on Belladonna's clothing. She tends to wear long corseted dresses that go from her neck down and leaves everything to the imagination while also not hiding away her charms. She also wears her black fur shawl in colder weather, but if the weather is particularly warm she might go without. Her shoes are calf-height sturdy low-heeled boots.
Equipment: Vials of poison
Small potions bottles
Spool of Red string
Dark red lip paint
Basket
Knife
wooden Staff
Herbology book
Tome of Curses and hexes
Skills and Abilities: Potions, poisons, medicine and drugs. Anything from curses to cures is where Belladonna's (Bella for the privileged few) expertise lies. With the right payment, no work is morally too low for her and no cause too great.
Chemistry: Allows her to isolate plant components and increase their potency on a rudimentary level, however consumes more resources and time to accomplish. Medicine of that caliber can also create highly corrosive or toxic fumes. Mistakes may cause fires or explosions of mundane of magical nature.
Arcane investigation: Bella is in tune with magic, but only senses it in form of intuition or "gut feeling", since her power and senses are muted on the isles. She is also knowledgeable in matters of the arcane and given enough time can decipher occult texts and inscriptions, at least based on her best guess of the meaning, depending how ancient it is and the context evidence is found in.
Ritual curses and Hexes:
All rituals require material and somatic components to work. Due to the influence of the Isles, all curses and hexes are channeled into an item that then needs to be placed on or around the target person. Typically they take form of letters tied with red string, wooden or straw idols or potions/food that need to be consumed by the target.
Arcane knowledge: What is a witch without knowledge on the basics and how to use them?
Biography: All she says is she doesn't remember where she came from, but some have doubts about that statement.
Registered: Apr 10, 2021 9:27:32 GMT -5
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Post by Belladonna Atropa on Dec 26, 2022 13:15:35 GMT -5
Belladonna laughed.
It was rare for the witch to smiale, even rarer still was for her to laugh without bitterness staining her voice. Not this time. It was a long clear laugh, almost like incredulity at the absurdity Gray presented.
Just want to talk.
"You have interesting tastes in conversation partners." She remarked before turning her face away from him. It was just enough for her to side eye him during his lament. It was a familiar sentiment, she had shared it before, lamented it herself before prqctically word for word.
Her eyes narrowed and suddenly there was some kind of shift behind her, and the sentiment of a heavy piercing gaze that moved independently from herself.
"A customer with manners? How rare." She muttered but hunched over.
The next second was a blur. Bella was launched forward towards Gray, her arms crossed and bracing for an impact as now she sought to press his back against a wall that did not exist.
"Liar." She uttered with strain as the force of her will and accusation lashed against his plea. The clash would only last a moment before before she'd back off, her breathing suddenly more erratic and less composed.
"No one simply wants to talk. Not to me. You're looking for something, something I may or may not be able to give you, but you want something." There it was. As much of a shield as a crack, it was revealing itself in an attempt to hide deeper in.
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Gray
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 125
Registered: Jul 2, 2021 10:00:37 GMT -5
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Post by Gray on Jan 6, 2023 17:46:18 GMT -5
The man smelled of old books.
When Bella barrelled into him, his cloak gave in in places. As if underneath it was mostly void. A bruise for a heart – the barely-guessed shape of a gear – the glint of sharp things – and, coming out of the cloak like dust, the smell of books, with a metallic tinge of blood and opium on his breath. Weightlessly, Gray floated together with Bella. The fingers of his right hand rose to brush her temples, just as his idea of himself swirled back into human shape.
When she let go, he nudged himself back upright with one of his heels.
“Exactly as you say.” The man spoke. “I want to talk.” His eyes were like stained glass, seen edgewise. “But don't make me repeat myself.”
Easy, Gray. A gentler touch would do.
He stared, with his unblinking, uneasy gaze.
“How badly must you have been hurt,” he spoke, with a tone that merged gentleness with professional courtesy, “to believe that not even I would talk to you.”
He knelt to the side, and focused on a patch of misty nothingness on the ground. From it, between his cupped fingers, sprouted something green. It had a feeling of reality, of life, that when compared to the rest of the dream hinted at the man's unusual powers of observation. As the seedling uncertainly lifted tiny jagged leaved above its first, round ones, one could guess it for a nettle.
“The shell that you built. How beautifully it's protected you.” Gray whispered. “Yet to never leave it would be a pity, for it would allow the world to win.”
Gray turned back to the woman.
“You should not trust me, of course.” His eyes glinted. “I would not trust myself with a cup of water if I was on fire. But I am here, and that may prove convenient.”
He stretched out his hand. Behind him and the nettle, a few cobblestones were sprouting onto an unfamiliar road. There was the warmth of a sun-ray, and bits of rice paper rustled in the distance.
“For you to use me just as I am using you.”
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Belladonna Atropa
Established
Roleplay posts: 44
Appearance: Belladonna has Dark straight black hair that ends just passed her jaw, aside for a long braid. She has ivory skin, dark painted lips and heterochromia with her right eye being a medium grey and the left a deep blue.
There is no color on Belladonna's clothing. She tends to wear long corseted dresses that go from her neck down and leaves everything to the imagination while also not hiding away her charms. She also wears her black fur shawl in colder weather, but if the weather is particularly warm she might go without. Her shoes are calf-height sturdy low-heeled boots.
Equipment: Vials of poison
Small potions bottles
Spool of Red string
Dark red lip paint
Basket
Knife
wooden Staff
Herbology book
Tome of Curses and hexes
Skills and Abilities: Potions, poisons, medicine and drugs. Anything from curses to cures is where Belladonna's (Bella for the privileged few) expertise lies. With the right payment, no work is morally too low for her and no cause too great.
Chemistry: Allows her to isolate plant components and increase their potency on a rudimentary level, however consumes more resources and time to accomplish. Medicine of that caliber can also create highly corrosive or toxic fumes. Mistakes may cause fires or explosions of mundane of magical nature.
Arcane investigation: Bella is in tune with magic, but only senses it in form of intuition or "gut feeling", since her power and senses are muted on the isles. She is also knowledgeable in matters of the arcane and given enough time can decipher occult texts and inscriptions, at least based on her best guess of the meaning, depending how ancient it is and the context evidence is found in.
Ritual curses and Hexes:
All rituals require material and somatic components to work. Due to the influence of the Isles, all curses and hexes are channeled into an item that then needs to be placed on or around the target person. Typically they take form of letters tied with red string, wooden or straw idols or potions/food that need to be consumed by the target.
Arcane knowledge: What is a witch without knowledge on the basics and how to use them?
Biography: All she says is she doesn't remember where she came from, but some have doubts about that statement.
Registered: Apr 10, 2021 9:27:32 GMT -5
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Post by Belladonna Atropa on Jan 22, 2023 10:36:26 GMT -5
don't make me repeat myself. The coldness in that sentence alone invoked some sort of reaction in the woman in front of him as almost in that same instance the dreamscape conjured she echo of a woman's voice saying those exact same words along with Gray, except the inflection was harsher, more sinister. Behind the somber woman, the void shifted into the likeness of a figure, and a rope of shadow that struck down on Bella only to dissipate right back into the nothing again. The woman didn't react to the lashes for as long as they endured, a sight that thankfully melded back into the nothingness it came from.
The sudden sprout caught her attention. Still prickly, but fresh, new, colorful. Gray conjured a path, a sunny day filled with warmth. This was likely a memory of his, she acknowledged. She felt like what he proposed was absurd.
And yet, as calcified as her heart was, he was offering a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Bella took some time to consider it. There was no reason to trust him, he himself admitted so. It was that sense of familiarity of holdinging someone close, yet with a knife against their back that had her sigh in the end.
"Fine. if it helps us both keep some sanity on this gods forsaken island then this arrangement might prove useful..." her piercing gaze stared directly at Gray as she approached him once more, but this time lacking the agression from previously. "But make no mistake. I intend to see this world burn regardless. I will help it right along. I care not if you agree or disagree, I care only that you don't get tangled up in my feet. It won't stop me, merely delay me." She added as she passed him as walked along the scenic path he conjured up.
"I suppose I could try to ask you why, but I'm going to assume you don't have much rhyme or reason. I'm sure you could have found someone just as intelligent but..." She struggled to think of the term and little Moths flew away from under her hair. "Warmer. There were plenty available at the Seminar."
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Gray
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 125
Registered: Jul 2, 2021 10:00:37 GMT -5
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Post by Gray on Feb 3, 2023 15:07:54 GMT -5
Warm stone underfoot. In the air, the smell of dust, sea, fish. Seagulls cried. People milled about, besides the occasional palanquin, throwing Bella curious glances. They wore robe-like garments, of a similar cut to Gray's. Their chatter rang foreign. The road was perhaps about six arm-spans wide, and enclosed on either side by buildings made of white paper and dark wood. Strange scented fruits and various symbols suggested shopfronts, eateries, ateliers. Above the wide eaves, one side, one could see a green mountain.
“As long as you do not get in my way.” The assassin spoke.
There was something like a wave as people's attention scattered away the moment they registered Gray. Bella could hear the sound of his steps, unhurried, behind her.
“Would someone like that understand?” The man continued, to her question. “No matter. We need to work on your self-esteem.”
“Shirakawa.” He tilted his head. “On the left. They make very good inks. Enki. Pharmacy. Decent with bulk herbs, wouldn't know a distiller if I hit them over the head with it. Iroha-” He chatted about his old city in a way that would never have been possible in reality.
It still lingered, above the heads of the crowd. His silence.
Some houses were missing. Not vacant, not destroyed, not translucent, just missing, as if the eye turned onto itself when trying to gaze in those spaces. A shop-assistant clumsily bowed to a patron, saying that she couldn't remember whether they used to have a first floor. Some parts of the city were made of paper. Not like the windows, stretched on wooden frames, but finely folded paper mimicking its surroundings. A tree spread its branches in the sun, half of them paper-white. Sometimes the papercraft was at the edge of the hollow spaces, like a scar. Or an infection. A stray dog of paper barked rustlingly at Bella, and then ran distracted by a stray sausage.
Gray had not forgotten that the woman's promised destruction of all he held dear. Yet how fair was it to judge someone on their dreams? As fair as judging one by the shape they broke in under torture, he assumed. When had that stopped him? 'Distrust, but verify.' And then, there was something more. Gray watched Bella.
She reminded him of the way he reached too easily for his poisons these days.
“That's the roof of which someone threw a cat at me, once.” Gray pointed. There was only the roof left. The house was gone. “I think they thought it rabid. Did you ever have a pet?”
He took in the streets that he would never again walk, taking joy from the pain of it.
“I do not think I ever wanted to destroy this place,” the assassin mused. “Individual people, yes. But not as a whole. It seemed prone enough to collapsing that kicking it along would have felt unsatisfying.”
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Belladonna Atropa
Established
Roleplay posts: 44
Appearance: Belladonna has Dark straight black hair that ends just passed her jaw, aside for a long braid. She has ivory skin, dark painted lips and heterochromia with her right eye being a medium grey and the left a deep blue.
There is no color on Belladonna's clothing. She tends to wear long corseted dresses that go from her neck down and leaves everything to the imagination while also not hiding away her charms. She also wears her black fur shawl in colder weather, but if the weather is particularly warm she might go without. Her shoes are calf-height sturdy low-heeled boots.
Equipment: Vials of poison
Small potions bottles
Spool of Red string
Dark red lip paint
Basket
Knife
wooden Staff
Herbology book
Tome of Curses and hexes
Skills and Abilities: Potions, poisons, medicine and drugs. Anything from curses to cures is where Belladonna's (Bella for the privileged few) expertise lies. With the right payment, no work is morally too low for her and no cause too great.
Chemistry: Allows her to isolate plant components and increase their potency on a rudimentary level, however consumes more resources and time to accomplish. Medicine of that caliber can also create highly corrosive or toxic fumes. Mistakes may cause fires or explosions of mundane of magical nature.
Arcane investigation: Bella is in tune with magic, but only senses it in form of intuition or "gut feeling", since her power and senses are muted on the isles. She is also knowledgeable in matters of the arcane and given enough time can decipher occult texts and inscriptions, at least based on her best guess of the meaning, depending how ancient it is and the context evidence is found in.
Ritual curses and Hexes:
All rituals require material and somatic components to work. Due to the influence of the Isles, all curses and hexes are channeled into an item that then needs to be placed on or around the target person. Typically they take form of letters tied with red string, wooden or straw idols or potions/food that need to be consumed by the target.
Arcane knowledge: What is a witch without knowledge on the basics and how to use them?
Biography: All she says is she doesn't remember where she came from, but some have doubts about that statement.
Registered: Apr 10, 2021 9:27:32 GMT -5
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Post by Belladonna Atropa on Feb 18, 2023 14:26:02 GMT -5
The level of detail in their new environment was so life-like that it was as if they were walking in a memory. Gray guided Bella from behind, something she allowed for the time being. Despite having no point of reference, the understanding Gray searched for reached her own mind's eye, making the necessary associations like note scribblings. Bella listened without interrupting him, but her eyes following along being the only indication she was actively listening. Otherwise she maintained an expression that rested at "Bitter".
She noted the strange paculiarity of the abundance of paper that seemed to be used to construction. Either this was simply some kind of approximation of the real thing or this place was somehow not privy to harsh storms and breath stealingly cold winters. Meanwhile she had ensured sufficient insulation within her dwelling. Her personal judgement of the architecture aside, Bella was sometimes more interested in the empty spaces, though she never gave it more than a passing glance. Each empty space the sorceress passed by seemed to stick like tree sap and trail after her like a thread.
The only change in demeanor was the dog bark that startled her enough to take an abrupt step back into the assassin trailing behind her. She didn't apologize to the sudden intrusion in his personal space, instead she corrected the distance between them when the dog left. There was a slight shudder of recollection as she looked up to where Gray pointed. A roof with no house. She gave the torturer a side eye as he asked her about a pet. A strange question none had bothered to ask.
"... I never had a pet of my own, but.. My fiance had a fondness of birds. He reared an owl. She was a jealous hen for a long time until she finally got used to me." She answered after a pause.
"You'd be surprised. No matter how you destroy, topple, burn or flood, there will always be someone trying to build it back over and over again, only to see it crumble another time. Is that really a mercy?" she tilted her head back and sighed as she stared up. "You have more pity for them. I suppose I can admit its admirable if not foolish."
Now she fully turned to her conversation partner.
"Have you ever desired to return to this place?"
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Gray
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 125
Registered: Jul 2, 2021 10:00:37 GMT -5
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Post by Gray on Feb 27, 2023 15:25:21 GMT -5
“Freedom and loyalty. I can appreciate the combination.”
Even when he had had to destroy either, or both.
He spread his arms to the sky. “I used to keep working birds,” he said. He supposed he was used to following people, but was glad that the woman hadn't gone much further ahead of him. The one time he had ended up holding an entire city inside of his mind had nearly killed him.
So beautifully hopeless, this woman was. Would he feel as uninhibited if he drank her poison? After all, survival...
“It is no mercy.” Gray agreed. “It is a chain. Then again, people like their chains.” There was a pause. “Belief in a higher power. Connection to other people. Our own desire for mastery in a task of our choice.” He looked down at his hand, clenched it, and slowly pressed it to his chest. “Desire for our stories to make sense.” His eyes turned to a passer-by in a plain ochre robe carrying a stick hanging with paper, that he had avoided almost without thinking just as the other did the same. “Some priests say that they are all but illusion. Bindings to keep us from enlightenment. “Then again...” Something akin to a smile shone briefly on his face. “I was, by definition, outside the reach of the gods.”
His shadow wrinkled at the edges, shaping words. 'Impure'. 'Despoil'. 'Blood'.
They walked on. She had such a finely shaped neck, Gray thought.
Then she asked her question, and the world flickered for an instant. Gray showed no reaction but, in doing so, focus had been drawn away from the dream. A merchant dropped his purse; a horse stumbled; a tax collector spoke the wrong percentage and was berated for it.
“You think I should simply shirk my responsibilities?” The assassin asked. His eyes had a sharpness that many would avoid further questioning.
Then he shook his head. Slowly. Closed his eyes. As if trying to shake off a bad habit. When you can never lie, phrasing answers as questions becomes second nature. Implication. Obfuscation. Dissociation. Then, he actually thought.
“I am free, dreamer.” He finally spoke. “How terrible does absolute freedom feel.”
His fingers cut the air.
“Let us turn here,” he said. “The place I wanted to share is just beyond the gates of the Pleasure Quarter.”
There was indeed a gate to the side, wide open, one story high and garishly painted. There was a barely-there scent that Gray followed past it, and a barely-guessed joy that did not show on his face, but lit up the red lanterns as he passed them by.
“I would come here every week or so.” He explained.
He stepped conspiratorially close to his companion. His gaze fixed on something beyond the prostitutes in their plain day-clothes and the servants darting by and the rare courtesan, glimmering like a jewel on her swaying walk. He was looking at a food stall, among others on the side of the street. It was not the most colourful, its wares roughly shaped and plain, and some had been replaced by nothingness, but the scent of an oven drifted irresistibly from the building behind it. Gray whispered.
“Say, have you ever had...bread?”
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Belladonna Atropa
Established
Roleplay posts: 44
Appearance: Belladonna has Dark straight black hair that ends just passed her jaw, aside for a long braid. She has ivory skin, dark painted lips and heterochromia with her right eye being a medium grey and the left a deep blue.
There is no color on Belladonna's clothing. She tends to wear long corseted dresses that go from her neck down and leaves everything to the imagination while also not hiding away her charms. She also wears her black fur shawl in colder weather, but if the weather is particularly warm she might go without. Her shoes are calf-height sturdy low-heeled boots.
Equipment: Vials of poison
Small potions bottles
Spool of Red string
Dark red lip paint
Basket
Knife
wooden Staff
Herbology book
Tome of Curses and hexes
Skills and Abilities: Potions, poisons, medicine and drugs. Anything from curses to cures is where Belladonna's (Bella for the privileged few) expertise lies. With the right payment, no work is morally too low for her and no cause too great.
Chemistry: Allows her to isolate plant components and increase their potency on a rudimentary level, however consumes more resources and time to accomplish. Medicine of that caliber can also create highly corrosive or toxic fumes. Mistakes may cause fires or explosions of mundane of magical nature.
Arcane investigation: Bella is in tune with magic, but only senses it in form of intuition or "gut feeling", since her power and senses are muted on the isles. She is also knowledgeable in matters of the arcane and given enough time can decipher occult texts and inscriptions, at least based on her best guess of the meaning, depending how ancient it is and the context evidence is found in.
Ritual curses and Hexes:
All rituals require material and somatic components to work. Due to the influence of the Isles, all curses and hexes are channeled into an item that then needs to be placed on or around the target person. Typically they take form of letters tied with red string, wooden or straw idols or potions/food that need to be consumed by the target.
Arcane knowledge: What is a witch without knowledge on the basics and how to use them?
Biography: All she says is she doesn't remember where she came from, but some have doubts about that statement.
Registered: Apr 10, 2021 9:27:32 GMT -5
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Post by Belladonna Atropa on Mar 7, 2023 9:32:45 GMT -5
"Honestly, the gods don't deserve your reverence anyway. To be beyond their reach may be a blessing in disguise." Bella glanced over her shoulder briefly at the assassin at her back. For a moment their shadows linked as it shaped vitriol at Gray. Yet as quickly as it happened, they parted ways once more.
When Gray posed his answer, the woman had for a moment turned to look at him. Not with fear, nor shock nor resentment, but a neutral masked gaze as she processed his answer. "Freedom is more of a burden than people believe." she agreed.
He gestured the path they should take forward, and she couldn't help but look ahead. She side-eyed the man as he specified they were looking for the Pleasure Quarter. She had done her fair share of business in brothels or underground rings, but she hadn't taken Gray for someone who'd venture here willingly. Her eyes were distracted by the lanterns that seemed to burn even brighter as they passed by.
That was until Gray had suddenly inserted herself in her space, which, for a moment had her lean back until she realized he was actually pointing towards something. What he pointed to was probably the most recognizable thing to the woman. She was about to speak up to inquire when he'd already cut to the chase.
Bread. This is what this was about.
The mask she had worn just then cracked for a moment. She had to turn her face the opposite direction from Gray, holding a hand up as a universal gesture to wait. Her shoulders shuddered once as she made the sound like someone who was trying their damnest not to laugh. Thankfully she managed to get a hold on herself and by the time she turned back around she had returned to a respectfully neutral expression, but there was a levity behind her eyes.
"Why, in fact, I've had many kinds of bread. I had never considered that somewhere, bread is more of a delicacy. Where I am from we have a saying; "To break bread together". It means to be good friends."
The more than familiar scent of baking wheat and yeast had Bella approach the stall, wondering if the baker would actually sell her a loaf in spite of her not even owning currency. She looked over at her companion expectantly, knowing this was within the parameters of his mind.
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Gray
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 125
Registered: Jul 2, 2021 10:00:37 GMT -5
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Post by Gray on Mar 20, 2023 16:14:37 GMT -5
Some believed that he enjoyed others' pain.
That was true, of course, though not in the way that they meant it. Gray enjoyed making people react, in the same way one might enjoy practicing a foreign language. That smile, that was a good smile. So he smiled back, because that was expected.
Control. That was what it was all about. Core, cord, control- wasn't it? He supposed he had learned once that wildflowers have their beauty, different yet not inferior to the milimetrically broken and ordered bonsai he so cherished. He did not remember how to craft bonsai. He wasn't yet sure how to feel about it.
So he nodded. Nodded, and accompanied the dreamer closer to the stall.
“To eat rice from the same pot,” Gray commented. “Here, that is to share experiences. Adversity. I travelled abroad,” he said, and a shadow under his chin curled into words: 'escaped'. “I caught some foreign tastes.” He kid.
There was more to it. Twirling in the scent of bread, there were memories. Memories from far away, long before. An attic with sloped ceilings. Dust motes, like now. The crackling of a loaf just out of the oven almost seemed to shape words. 'Honey, we have a book-mouse~' A joke that it had taken him years to get. 'Better give it some food so it does not eat our library.' Shadows. Safety. His own name-
'Control.' Gray clenched his hand.
The bread-seller had pulled up her wide sleeves with fashionable ribbons, revealing the muscular arms of someone who'd been kneading dough since before sunrise. She smiled, and guided Bella through her wares. Yet there was a shadow behind her eyes, just as Gray stood shadow behind Bella. It was not fear – not exactly. Gray was too much of a fixture.
She wrapped Bella's choice in the beautiful patterned paper that the oiran's kimonos were delivered in, and handed it to Bella. There was the sense that his was something she only did for special clients. She looked away. Such a strange woman, she must've thought. Walking around with the executioner.
It was not fear. It was pity. Pity on Bella.
“I never paid. Could not. They would not let me.” Gray whispered, as an explanation, taking a few steps away. “It used to bother me so much when I was younger.” He shook his head. “It is the old way of this place. Death serves a function. But one does not take what it offers until there is no choice left.”
He had changed so much about this island, yet in this regard he had been shaped by its tradition in turn. Did it truly matter, when he was the only thing left of it?
Another step.
Perhaps new shapes would be made. Regardless of what he wanted; regardless of the fact that he did not know his own shape any longer.
“Shall we break bread?”
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