It's A Hollow Place (OPEN to two)

[AeolianMode]

Costa del Sol blazed with rumors.

 

"Somebody tore down the poster."

 

"I head them say he's back."

 

"But he died five years ago."

 

"He was at the festival. Stalking Lily."

 

"She's a disturbed child. She was seeing things. Probably a fellow who looked like him."

 

"But the poster."

 

"That thing was years old."

 

"And so are the transgressions. Just leave it."

 

"You don't understand. If he's still alive... he's got something coming to him."

 

 

Somewhere up the shore and far away, a man walked alone. His robes, several sizes too big for him, billowed in the wind. 

 

Stormclouds rolled with the waves. Rain applauded the sand and water. Soon, he stopped, looking out at the roiling waves with a detached, amused look on his face.

 

"Selfish." He scoffed at the sea, then smiled. "Not sure what I can do about that, Eduard. Everyone's selfish." He worked his hands into his pockets, bowed his head, and kept walking. "I can't do a thing. Not a thing."

 

Wineport wasn't far. But it was farther, if you walked. Perhaps days, at this pace.

 

It wasn't like he had anywhere else to be.

[Star Lin]

A laugh, and the sound of chart wheels on dirt can be heard.  "Really, Papa, it's been quiet," a female voice can be heard in the distance.  "Next time, get one of the boys to do the run up to Wineport."  As the cart comes into view, a female Seawolf can be seen driving the chart.  Her hand is at her ear, tilting as she listen to something on the other end.  "I can handle myself but once I'm back, I have to head for Ul'dah."  She smile.  "Ah, I'll be careful.  Yes, I love ya too."

 

She settle back in the seat, direction the two Chocobos on up the path.  It took a moment to spot the figure moving along the road.  Far to thin for her liking and she had extra.  "Hey, you..." Kestlona call, making the chocobos pick up the pace.  Once she caught up, she slow the chart down.  "Ya, need a lift?"

[AeolianMode]

Khyran stopped at the sound of rolling wheels upon the road not far from shore. He squinted at the sight of the chocobo-drawn cart, against the rain and sand blowing in his face. 

 

"Perhaps," he answered as he examined the Seawolf, his expression detached and cool. "Where are you going?"

[Star Lin]

Kestlona offer up a smile to the cool and detached expression that she was given.  "Ah, just some supplies to Wineport.  Mostly fresh fish and some crystals to help 'em with wine making."  She points toward the back of the cart, where ice shards were pack around fish, and also several crates of produces.  "Papa ask me to deliver them to Wineport on the way back to Lisma."

 

She move over to allow him to climb into the front next to her, unless he wanted to sit with the food stuff in the back.  "Brought some extra food while in Costa so help yaself is ya hungry."  She gave him a smile.  "Look like ya could use a few good meals on ya."

 

"Names Kestlona Guhtgeiswyn," she says.  "Nice ta meet ya."

[AeolianMode]

"Wineport," he echoed, then nodded once. With considerable effort, he climbed up into the back of the cart and settled himself down on a crate. Idly, he rifled through his side satchel and took out a loose coinpurse. He pinched out a couple gil and held it out to her.

 

"Not going to eat your cargo," he said, "but this should suffice for transportation, aye?"

 

He didn't give a name.

[Star Lin]

Kestlona reach out, closing his fingers back over the coins.  "Nah, ya keep it.  Not take good Gil when it looks like they need it more."  She pulls her hand back and turns her eyes back to the road.  She rummage under the seat, pulling out a small box, and setting it next to her.  "This is what ah brought, ifna you don't mind dry fish and oranges."

 

In the back of the cart, he would find an Ul'dahian private jacket thrown into the back.  He would be able to see a patch on the shoulder, a falcon in flight, red as sunset...or blood.  A notebook can also be seen just under the jacket.  "So whata brings ya to this part of La Noscea?" she ask, making conversation.

[I'nhalki]

Heavy jungle rain seems to pummel her eyes as she stumbles through the undergrowth of the forest. Nearly three suns come and gone without food or a wash, the scrawny miqo'te stumbles over a tree's root into the mud. 

 

"Grnnh..." she growls, lifting herself up with two arms that seem little more than bone and a thin, stringy layer of shaking muscle. Gritting her teeth, she spits out mud and wipes her eyes with the back of a callused hand. Her face is riddled with small knife scars, most notably one across her right cheek that follows across the bridge of her nose.

 

She leans against the tree, rain pounding against her with a weight that seems heavier than a buffalo to her, in her current state. Dirt and grime trickles down from her short-cropped hair, dirtying her face again. She seems to be trying with the last of her strength to hold back tears from joining the rain.

 

For a moment, the rain seems to grow louder, and louder, and... like wheels rolling fast over a stony path. Her ears fly straight up. 

 

A road!

 

With a burst of strength, she sprints toward the sound, unthinking. She runs, feeling the muddy ground through her worn-out caligae. She leaps through a thick line of vegetation to stumble to a halt on a narrow road bordering the sea. The carriage she had heard jostles along ahead of her, ten yalms away. She can see two figures riding along, drawn by two chocobo.

 

In a half-starved frenzy, she reaches for her tomahawk and jerks her arm back, aiming for one of the rear wheels. The sweet scent of fresh fish fills her nose as she hurls the makeshift weapon at the cart with desperation. Her other hand moves to ready a knife strung to her belt.

[Star Lin]

The wheel broke the moment the tomahawk hit it, throwing the cart at an angle, one of the produce crates getting thrown out, and causing the chocobos to start shrieking.  Kestlona caught hold of the pole that held up the covering over the seat before turning toward the stranger in the back of the cart.  "Ya alright?" she ask, her eyes shifting over the hyur to make sure he hadn't been injury.

 

She jumps from the seat, moving to see what had cause the wheel to break, and spotting the tomahawk embedded into the broken wheel.  She curse under her breath, "Ita was going so well..." she mutter, eyes scaning the road behind her through the rain.  Behind them, a miqo'te, in about or worst shape then the hyur in the back of the cart.  Her mind began to work, was the hyur in with the miqo'te, or just an odd bit of luck.  No, he would have try to subdue her if that was the case.  "If ah tell ya to run...then go..." she whisper to the hyur.

 

Kestlona held up her hands, moving to place herself between the miqo'te, and the cart.  The miqo'te would be able to see the pugilist's weapons at her hips.  "Nowa ah don't have much ina way of gil," Kest said, keeping her eyes on the other female, "but ya welcome to it, ifna ya go on ya way."

[AeolianMode]

Khy withdrew his handful of Gil. When the cart-master turned around again, he spied the jacket... Then stuffed the Gil within a pocket on said jacket, ignoring the journal therein.

 

"Not going to eat your rations, either." He said in a low voice. "I'm from here. Was just taking a trip back home. Now I'm leaving."

 

The rain-soaked stranger didn't seem to have a clue what was going on until it was happening. The miqo'te was suddenly there, a cart wheel suddenly damaged, chocobos squawking and cargo flying.

 

He, too, made a jarring collision with the ground. His thin body smashed into the wood and he gave a quiet groan. The cart master was telling him to run. He scoffed. He was tired of running.

 

He pushed himself upright and faced the desperate, starved girl. "That's enough of that," he said. "If you want something, you'll take it from me. Leave this merchant be. You will regret it if you lay one hand on her. You don't know what I can do to you if you don't heed me."

 

Expressionless. He spoke in a dangerously calm tone. Given his physique , it was not likely he could do much in the way of harm... But something about the way he said it presented an idea of finality.

[I'nhalki]

Nhalki's eyes dart between the roegadyn, the hyur and the fallen crate. Her left hand curls around a throwing knife. Her eyes halt on the roegadyn's pugilist arms.

 

No wounds. I don't think I can take both of them... 

 

The hyur stands and confronts her with unusual calm. She scans him for a weapon as he speaks. She barely hears him through her frenzy, aside from his final threat. In her state, she takes it as a threat, gold eyes opening wide in anger.

 

Let's see what you can do.

 

Swiftly, but roughly rather than gracefully, she hurls two knives toward him. She leans forward, and sprints toward him, body close to the ground, and another knife primed to slash upward in the direction of his throat.

[AeolianMode]

He doesn't try to dodge. He would let the knives hit, both in his arms. He wouldn't move or make a sound. When she's upon him he would make a grab for her weapon, to clasp the blade in a gloved hand. The other hand would launch towards her head. If he succeeds, he will have her forehead in a vice grip...

All this, assuming his Roegadyn companion wouldn't think faster... 

 

((Forum rp is tough for high tension. Hope I'm doing ok. 

If he grabs her head and gets away with it, something weird will probably happen to her which I would definitely need to explain, but I'll just inch this ahead a few split seconds and see what you guys wanna do about it ))

[Star Lin]

Kestlona only has a second to call out a warning to the hyur before the throwing knives find new homes in the man's arms.  "Twelve!" she curse.  She moves, jamming her weapons on her hands.  "Ya fool," she said, "ya trying ta kill yaself."

 

Even as the hyur reaches for the knife, she's launching a fist into her side, while trying to keep an eye on him.

 

(I'm find with what you might have plan.  Sorry if this is rush, posting at work.)

[I'nhalki]

((Hey! I'm alright with anything short of instant death. Go ahead and run with it! Sorry for the delay—I was driving for the last hour or so.))

 

The miqo'te attempts to rip her blade arm from the hyur's grasp when she feels the searing crunch of a pugilist's knuckles against her ribcage. 

 

She violently attempts to wriggle out from between them when the heel of a palm suddenly blocks her vision and her forehead is secured in a vice grip. 

 

Her free hand reaches up to wildly scratch and grab for the man's long hair but she visibly struggles for air and strength after the firm blow to her side.

[AeolianMode]

Blood rolls down Khy's injured arm, limp at his side. The other is raised, firmly latched upon the Miqo'te girl's head. His fingers press deeply into her scalp. Even as the pugilist slams the assailant, Khy's grip is held fast. Not once did the man make a sound, any hint of emotion on his face. There's just nothing.

 

"Don't hurt her, ma'am." He urges to the Roegadyn. "...Let me handle this."

 

He looks down at the Miqo'te girl's face.

 

"You're sleepy." He murmurs, his voice dull and dreamlike. "Your mind is going blank."

 

Should the mind-mage's strange magic work... the Miqo'te will find a strange buzzing in her head, a warmth spreading from one end of her scalp to the other, seeping into her skull.  She will find her mind, perhaps against her will, clearing itself... as if she were falling asleep.

 

"Now... where is your will to fight?" A voice would permeate through her thoughts, if the mage was successful in getting this far. He was looking for something. An intruder in her head. "I don't think you need that, now... do you?"

 

He was looking for a memory. Where did she learn how to fight? Where did she learn the means to wield a blade against strangers? If he could just find that memory, and take it out of her head... then she wouldn't be a threat at all...

 

Would she?

[I'nhalki]

((Definitely going to incorporate this memory loss as soon as I can into my RP in-game. What a great concept!))

 

Nhalki's blind rage sparks fiercely as an unfamiliar sensation creeps across her scalp. She shudders, and suddenly can't discern whether her left arm has ceased its frustrated clawing due to exhaustion or something else. Her tail's fur stands on end when she hears the hyur's voice echo as her own thoughts would.

 

"You're sleepy."

 

"Your mind is going blank."

 

"Now... where is your will to fight?"

 

"I don't think you need that, now... do you?"

 

What remains of her consciousness clings angrily to lucidity. It struggles against this foreign voice as if it were an unwelcome thought or nightmare. Beyond her thoughts, her emaciated form sinks toward the road. She can just barely smell the heavy rain that continues to soak the road, the muddy chocobos and the richly fragrant fish.

 

The concrete images tied to these scents abruptly mingle with an overwhelmingly vivid memory...

 

"This be how ye pick one out, Ki."

 

The spirited voice of a teenaged girl. The scene shows dusk setting over a trail that winds through green and golden fields and shallow valleys. The vantage barely can see over the tall grass and directly in the field of vision two tiny, dirty hands grip an already-bloodied tomahawk. 

 

Eyes turn to look up at a tall, beautiful Sea Wolf girl crouched a fulm away: wavy, black hair swept behind an ear and silver eyes focused across the plain to the road below. The girl presses a full-sized bhuj against the grass below, hiding it from view as she kneels down to whisper.

 

"The Crows'll always travel in pairs, ye see. See the archer? Aye. If ye can crack 'is skull 'afore the other gets a chance to charge us, the battle's good as won. Aim fer it, just like ye would one o' them toad's great big eyeballs. Just like I showed ye."

 

A warm smile accompanies these instructions as the roegadyn lass looks directly to the tomahawk's holder. With a reassuring nod and grin, the girl grips the handle of her bhuj and motions for the viewer to attack the pair of pirates that seem to be patrolling the road below their position. What ensues is the bloody, ungainly slaughter of the pirates and the ensuing feast of stolen rations.

 

An incredible sense of affection permeates this memory, for a moment. It then begins to slip away, detail by detail. Somewhere in the depths of I'nhalki's consciousness there is an urgent, dire sense of panic. The minutest of minute wisps of aether vainly pushes back against whatever magic the hyur employs.

[Sig]

((*Eats popcorn and lurks* -- this is some good forum RP, <3.))

[AeolianMode]

((Gonna wait for Lin to post, don't wanna get too far ahead without them! Sorry if this kind of zeroed in on two characters- should be plenty to deal with once Khy breaks contact.

 

Also <3 Sig))

[Star Lin]

Kestlona is about to pull back and is stop by the hyur words.  "What are ya doing?" she question.  She stands back watching the pair.  It is only after what he is doing wipes the anger from her mind.  With a quick move she catch the female.

 

"She's nothing but bones," she whispers.  Kestlona's face soften even as she looks unsure of what was being done by the hyur.

[I'nhalki]

((Yes, sorry that became such a massive wall of description, Lin! I'm assuming you two will have plenty of RP fodder once Ki is effectively neutralized. 

 

Also, Aeo, don't know quite how you've constructed the function of Khy's ability, but if there is some opportunity for a memory-bleed kind of effect where I'nhalki could glimpse some of Khy's own memories maybe we could use that as a springboard to bring in his side of the story in Costa del Sol.

 

I consider Ki almost completely aether-ignorant/null, so that might be out of the realm of chance, however.

 

Again, really nice premise for a forum RP. It would be really hard to do the psychological/memory elements in-game, at least with how panicky/time-aware I feel when RPing in-game! This is great so far!))

[AeolianMode]

((Sure, that's definitely plausible. Khy isn't his usual self lately, so I'm sure his work could get sloppy. Also you guys are all lovely <3))

 

The poor Miqo'te girl would feel an intense pain in her scalp, and those memories of the day she fought the pirates at the urging of her beautiful friend would be slipping away with it. 

 

But... something else happens, as that memory disappears.

 

A different memory slips in. Flashes. Fragments.

 

An arm full of lilies. 

 

A voice, that says, "DAMN YOU TO THE SEVEN HELLS, KHYRAN!"

 

And then a crowd of people, all shouting at once, "MURDERER!"

 

A storm.

 

A shipwreck.

 

The sensation of drowning.

 

 

Khyran breaks contact. In the real world, his hand comes away from the Miqo'te's head, his hand clenched around a round,  gleaming crystal. Materia.

 

His breaths are heavy and ragged. He falls backwards onto the wagon.

[Star Lin]

Kestlona eyes widen at what she was seeing.  "What in the seven hells?" she said.  She could feel her jaw drop as the stranger pulls his hand away from the female miqo'te's head.  If she didn't know better she would swear that the crystal he was hold in his hand was some form of materia.  Then the hyur was falling backwards into the wagon.  Scooping the girl up into her arms the seawolf stood up and reach for her private jacket, wrapping the jacket around her, and settling her next to the wagon beside the hyur, after she remove the coins from her jacket.

 

Kestlona move over to the hyur, placing her fingers against his neck, and giving a sharp look to the other.  "Ya better be still alive?"  She also slip the Gil back into the pouch.  "Ya a stubborn one.  Told ya thata ya did't need to pay me."

 

With a sigh, she turn her attention to the bursted wheel.  "Can't call Papa.  He'd be asking all kind of questions."  She wasn't sure if the hyur was awake or not.  "Maybe can rig up something to get us ta Wineport."  She rummage through the back of the cart, trying to find something to fix the wheel.  She also pull out a couple of oranges and some of the fish.  She set up the cook stove and set some fire shards into it, so she could feed the pair while she try to fix the wheel.

[I'nhalki]

((Going to ponder some of the finer implications of having a chunk of memories converted, hehe. For tonight I'll make a small post and follow up with a bigger one on my lunch break tomorrow! Feel free to fill in the time I'nhalki is unconscious or skip ahead to where I've had her wake up.))

 

I'nhalki collapses along with the mage, a screeching pain in her head now accompanying the mounting ache of her ribs. Her thoughts are jumbled but sharply drawn. Unfamiliar images surge through her mind, but she recognizes the horrible feeling of water filling up her lungs. 

 

Then, suddenly, the barrage stops. She faintly feels her body on the wet ground, but the rain has slowed to calm patter. Warmth surrounds her as she drifts in to the deep sleep of utter exhaustion. 

 

Her makeshift tomahawk can still be seen wedged in to the road-strewn wheel. It seems to be fairly sturdy for a weapon obviously crafted by an amateur. The axe head is tied to a piece of strong driftwood with what looks like a very strong variety of beast sinew. It appears sufficiently sturdy to hitch together something even as large as a cart wheel.

 

Bells later, her eyes creak open to gentle sunlight overhead. The rain has, at least temporarily, abated. She looks out from under a massive overcoat that has mysteriously wrapped its way around her. She then sniffs the air.

 

No thoughts enter her beleaguered mind save one:

 

Fish!

[Star Lin]

Kestlona didn't touch the wheel just yet, looking over at the hyur wearily.  She slowly approached the wagon and the hyur.  "I need to check your wound," she said, keeping her guard up as she search for a first aid kit and the couple of potions.  "What I wouldn't give to be a healer right now."

 

Not sure if the hyur was conscious or not.  "Going have to take those out."  She came around to drop down beside the hyur.  She has in her hand a healing potion and in the other is a box with bandages.

[AeolianMode]

Khyran seemed to be teetering on the cusp of consciousness, the materia still clutched in his hand like it, and only it, existed. Sweat beaded his brow. He didn't seem aware of anything that was going on around him, much less the pressuring state of his impromptu traveling companion.

 

It was some time after the food was prepared did the man seem to regain some level of clarity. Recalling where he was, he lurched upright, his arm limp at his side. If the Roe was trying to help him now, she would find his sudden lurching movements difficult to work around. 

 

"Ma'am? Are you alright?!" He asked, groggily. To him, not much time had passed. He looked between the Roe and the starved Miqo, his breaths heavy and rapid as he tried to assess a threat from the situation. 

 

But he seemed so weak... It was unlikely he could do much else. 

 

((Sorry for the wait. Had a bit of health problems. ))

[Star Lin]

When she realize that the strange hyur seem to be out, she remove the blades from his arm.  Kestlona soak one of the bandages in potion and apply it to the wound.  Once that was done she remove the covering that was over the drive seat.  She wrap the makeshift blanket around the hyur before going over to the wheel and starting the repairs on it with the tomahawk parts.  She had the wheel halfway fix when the smell of the cooking fishes alert her to them being do everything.  She stands up to remove them from the stove, hearing the first bit of movement from the miqo'te.

 

She steps away from the miqo'te and moves over to check the hyur.  Just as Kestlona reach out to try and shake the other awake, he shoot up and scares few years out of her life.  "Am ah alright?  Ah should be asking ya that ya fool."  She holds a hand over her heart, just gray hairs from watching you try to get yaself killed.  Don't ya ever do something that crazy again."