Fantasy Monsters Band Together (CLOSED)

[AriesFantasy]

The sand beneath Meredith's bare feet burned as she shuffled through the long line into the city. The red walls stood between the emptiness of the desert wastes and civilization, and all the way down the chain of refugees she heard mutterings and complaints.

Something about an attack last week? A snippet of nervous laughter, a bout of curses, the whispered word 'spies.'

Out of habit, she twisted the copper ring on her hand back and forth.

At the head of the gate all she needed to enter was for the guards to shine a strange light in her eyes, reflecting from some crystal in-hand. And of course they searched her bag (nothing but a few silver coins), and her pockets (empty but for dust!). Not everyone was so lucky, many were turned away for seemingly no reason. Meredith could hear a mother's wail from the other side of the gate, even as she moved swiftly away from there. She felt rage in her veins, and anxiously ran her fingers through her red hair, stamping out the lick of flame within the strands.

Glancing around, she felt a jolt of panic and quickly scurried down another street, and around a corner. No one here was gawking at her. Still, everyone in the city looked... tense and miserable. Guards were everywhere, and even those with the money to shop looked at least a little dour. Qabar was no shining capital, but it was big enough for her to slip into the cracks at least, refuge and prison alike.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Manchineel


Qabar was a death trap waiting to be sprung and it was stressing the hell out of a very out of place looking tree planted firmly in a rather disturbingly barren looking planter.

Originally there must have been some sort of minor floral arrangement placed there years ago in an attempt by some well meaning being to give the red walled city some sense of happiness but the soft spoken posies weren’t meant to survive.

What took up the spot now was a fairly timid looking tree. A thick enough trunk with somewhat sprawling branches all reaching skyward with small bright green leaves. The light reddish colored bark was almost pleasant to look at and the texture would almost be comfortable to nap against. All in all, a nice average tree.

If the average tree didn’t occasionally shake in little fits of anxiety.

A young and quite wayward young soul made up the being that was this very tree. Manicheel, known to her very small circle of acquaintances as Cheel, was a dryad. A tree spirit. Like many others of her kind, she was a refugee here in the ‘great’ city of Qabar. Her glade was scattered and through misfortune she found herself behind the veil with the rest of the unwashed masses.

Having resorted to sneaking in, the Dryad was quite literally hiding in plain sight. At any other time it would have been restful and pleasant to take root and relax in a planter but today Cheel had to be on top of things. The guards were more active today than they’d been since she planted herself here a week ago. In just a few hours she’d seen as many tragic things happen as in the rest of her lifespan combined. Hence her occasional shaking while she scoped out her next move.

At least it kept most people away. That and the fact that the last person to come too close to her bark started to blister almost instantly upon touching and had to be carried off to the nearest healer.

Yep, Cheel thought, So far so good.

 

[AriesFantasy]

"Ah, perfect," Meredith murmured to herself, with the faint lilt of an accent. This plaza looked to be empty apart from the tree in its center, and her feet were simply screaming for a moment of rest.

Sitting on the edge of the planter, she pulled her waterskin from her belt. Shaking a few drops into the base of the poor planter, the rest she poured over her dust-matted hair and across her burning soles.

Whoever thought to plant anything here was a bloody fool.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Cheel

Having been paying attention more so to the din of the crowd than the either quite bold or quite ignorant being taking refuge beneath her branches. There was some commotion going on a few blocks off that had her interest. An interest that held until she felt a splash of water hit her roots.

Someone new had come calling and it wasn’t a guard this time. Her instinctive reaction to let some sap drip onto her was reigned back in as this was just some stranger and not another pawn in the system. Still couldn’t have people getting close.

Cheel sways ever so softly, branches moving closer to the woman. Once close enough they made a noise.

“pssssst....hey....flame head.....unless you want to get hurt, get lost. I don’t want people picnicking under me“

 

[AriesFantasy]

"Eep!"
Meredith fell forward onto the stone pavement and away from the tree. Her hair didn't light up so much as faintly smelled of smoke, water still dripping from the tips.

She'd definitely ripped the muddy fabric of her dress around the knee.

She was sure that no one had seen her light up! Let alone a... a magic talking tree!

"Do you... do you know how to find the abnormalities guild?" she whispered.

 

[defenderofberk]

Three more have been found dead in a brutal massacure.​

Early this morning at 3:26am, police discovered yet more victims of the so-called vampire killer, this time the residents of the Red District in the west side of the city. As usual, the victims were all men and although the police had to rush a young woman to hospital due to blood loss. Thankfully she is expected to survive, so we might be able to get some more insight into her friends' killer. Below we have an interveiw with one of the guards on the murder case. User descrection in advised.


"Well from what we've learned so far, the killer seemingly kills in a methodical manner, although there is one stark difference between these attacks and the last. Previously, all of their victims had been of Western decent; and as people usually kill within their own racial group, it lead to the assumptions that the killer must be western as well. These new victims break that mold however, as even the bitten woman was Eastern this time."

Is the killer trying to throw us off the scent, or are they broadening their focus? Either way, we have no doubt they will be caught soon.


Lileath closed the hand written newspaper and blew out the candle next to her, plunging the room into darkness. It was actually the middle of the day but blinds covered the windows along with heavy black sheets as the former often allowed slivers of light to peek through. Various iron nails kept the thick fabric in place and she'd made an effort to make it look reasonably tidy, although she couldn't really claim that building was one of her skills. Still, considering it was an attic in an abandonded plague house, it wasn't too bad. She'd stolen some foreign rugs and drapes from a transport caravan, snuck into a manor during a ball and emptied out the mans' study of a very nice desk that she couldn't help but feel might be a little heavy for the floor it was stood on, she'd bewitched a tavern owner to give her his piano, although she hadn't really thought it through as the walls were not soundproof. In fact, she could hear every step her neighbours took, but she did have better hearing than mortals.

Walking to her bed, she lied awake as she looked around. Her vision could pierce the dark perfectly well; better than the light in fact, although she occasionally used candles. The streetlights of this new world were horribly bright and dangerous as the morons had now started caging fire and dangling it over their heads like a morbid party trick, yet she needed to continually feed to maintain her immortal beauty. Being dead didn't often do much for ones appearance, yet she looked quite good for four hundred years of experience. Aside from the pointed teeth, red eyes, cold pale skin and claws, she looked completely normal. No wonder people screamed when they saw her, yet with a combination of stolen makeup, perfume, gloves and bewitching charms, she could almost pass as human.

Lost in her thoughts, her eyes settled on a letter from her husband. She hadn't seen him in several decades but that was quite usual for them, as they were both currently in different parts of the world. Feeling a pang of loneliness, she rolled over as to face the wall, eventually falling to sleep.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Cheel

“The what?” Cheel stage whispered back to what now had to have been some sort of fire being, maybe a demon. She really wasn’t quite sure but was already starting to feel a little worried about the capabilities of this being. Instinctively she pulled her leaves back away from the woman who smelled of smoke. “I don’t know anything. I’m just staying away from the guards, they don’t usually let Dryad inside city walls. Now stop making it obvious you are taking to me. And don’t touch my bark, I’m toxic!”

Her branches straightened out, returning to a natural look but if Meredith looked at the highest point of the tree trunk, she’d notice a pair of eyes staring right back.

 

[AriesFantasy]

Picking herself up, Meredith hummed a tune to herself, repeating it once or twice as she searched for the words. Her voice was clear and the melody pleasant. One could easily mistake her for a street performer.

"Malice hides his shaded lair,
he hold it close and fast
And welcomes every sorry beast
of mangled, sordid past"

"Beneath the boat, his tavern keeps
And there his monstrous kin do sleep
But all shall answer to the law,
or answer to below the Maw"

As she sang, she switched to a much more chipper sea shanty, a ditty about an old beached ship, and swayed away from the dryad and towards the far side of the plaza. Perhaps a half-dozen citizens glanced over, but Meredith did send the dryad a yellow-eyed wink.

 

[Huntertabbysandshark3]

Vlear​

it be fair it wasn't too hard to vlear to get into the city... they had just pretended to be a crate on one of the wagons transporting stuff in the city luckily they didn't check the boxes on the way in so... now they where hear.. needing to find a way out of the loading bay before they got picked up by someone remaining very still as they where transported off the truck and into some warehouse lefty alone in the dark they morphed once again this time into the man that had brought them in walking out the same way the came opening out into the street once out of the sight again vlear stopped in a alleyway to catch their breath

(sorry if its a short post... should be ok?)

 

[honeylemon]

Ruu
Ronu Kanim
Streets of Qabar

Considering the shape of the city, the state of the country, and whatever shit the locals were up to, Ruu was safe. Not as safe as a noble locked behind an army of guards, mind you, but nearly as safe as one feels wrapped up in blankets. He was far from such comforts. The smoke pooled around his canine form- that of a small fox pup- as it sunk from his jaws. None of his endeavors have found him a way to halt this obvious use of mystic power, sadly.

Ruu was crouched on the edge of a roof much like one would expect a bird to be. The avians had wisdom in such a perch- it allowed him a wide view of the world around him- and he was closely contemplating a switch to one of the signs or tree branches nearby. Though it may be harder to remain without suspicion, particularly in a non-avian form. On second thought, his current was a passing locale.

His eyes had swooped over the common population in his seeking of intriguing events. They reminded him of the common folks of his birth city, the year the famine hit. He was so young then with barely a decade of life under his belt. So naïve too, with ideas that the nobles would be kind enough to provide.

He shook the thoughts away. There was no time for reminiscing, particularly when one is unsure if they run from the law or a particular enemy. The task grew harder still when it could not be easily determined which foe would be more difficult to face, to escape. At some point he would have to face all his foes, both tangible and not- he knew it, and his sister had foreseen it. At the very least he could keep running for a bit more, keep changing identities, keep shifting forms, keep in the shadows. Keep to being like smoke- impossible to catch.

 

[defenderofberk]

"Princess." Abroynn hummed from behind Lileath, leaning against a large oak desk. The vampire was well dressed and his hair was slicked back, his black eyes focused on his wife as she looked out the tall window. He could tell something was wrong with her; not physically perhaps, but she was clearly ill at ease. It was the first time seeing her in several years but she had seemingly changed.

"Are we monsters Abroynn?" She asked, her voice dull and lifeless. Repeating her question back to himself, he realised what had happened. He'd had a crisis of existence the century before he'd met Lileath and now it seemed that she was going through the same thing. Sighing through his nose, he padded across the polished wooden floor until he was stood behind her.

"Do you love me Lileath?" Abroynn whispered into her ear, causing his wife to frown. She thought she could see where he was going with this and immediately thought of a response, one that she knew he was likely expecting regardless.

"Of course. But I'm not the only person in the world to feel love. I've killed people that were likely loved by somebody out there, and I took them away for my own selfish needs."

She replied, her red eyes meeting his dark ones as she turned. His arms encompassed her body as they stood, their faces merely inches apart. She breathed as habit despite it now serving no purpose, but her partner had given up on such trappings of mortality everywhere aside from the bedroom.

"Do you think the mortals care about the rabbit they ate for dinner? The cow they skinned to wear those clothes; the chicken they plucked to have that pillow? Those animals were part of a community, but there was something on the food chain higher up than them. And yet their species still survives. It is the same with the mortals Lileath. They are the cattle and the livestock, stumbling around in the dark - they just don't know it yet."

Lileath couldn't help but darkly chuckle as he finished, resting her head over his muscular chest. Joking that he wasn't half eloquent for someone five centuries dead, he chuckled himself, glad to see her cheered up slightly. He knew it would still bother her for quite some time, but at least it could be dismissed for the moment. Tracing his clawed hands gently through her hair, he dragged them down her neck and smiled as her breath hitched.

"Abroyn-"

Crash!

Lileath woke up with a start and leapt out of bed, landing on the rug without making a noise. Halting her breathing, she relaxed as she heard the neighbours cursing. They'd clearly broken something, which was fine, but she thought she'd been discovered. Relaxing slightly, she wished she was out of this city. It was too paranoid, too uncomfortable and most definitely too hot.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Cheel

What...was...she...doing...

The sudden start to the singing nearly made her uproot right then and there. She jumped as much as a tree could possibly jump before shaking her branches in irritation. It wasn’t a bad song, but she could almost feel the attention on her now. What was once a quiet corner to watch and wait from had turned into a street performing demons main event!

She couldn’t even turn back into her true form with this many people watching. Word would get around instantly that a Dryad was in town and no tree would be safe. An image of one of those tree removal service companies uprooting entire parks flashed across her thoughts.

Cheel wouldn’t let that happen but as soon as she spoke up to interject the demon started singing louder and with a better voice that didn’t seem quite human. There was a flavor in the air that was just entrancing. She had to stop herself from swaying along in tune.

“Stop!” She whispered loudly “People are staring“ Desperate, Cheel leaned out of the trunk of her tree. Her torso sticking out as she tried to pinch the demon to get her to stop singing. Her body the shape of her true form but still made out of the same bark and texture as the rest of her tree body.

 

[AriesFantasy]

Some invisible force gently, yet firmly, pushed the dryad back into the tree. A crumpled note of paper came with it, tucked between an invisible hand.

So long as Meredith kept her ring, those extra arms were well hidden in illusion. Singing drew the eye of the public, and hid the sight of a hastily written note being passed. She only hoped the dryad would not be offended by her use of paper.

"If interested in a safe place within this shithole, seek out the Maw in the shipyard. I have yet to find it myself, but i'm sure our paths will cross again there."
Yours,
Meredith Ignari"

She then made a sweeping show of collecting the spare copper pieces tossed her way by onlookers before slipping away, and down a shadowed side street.

Then she felt someone grabbing roughly at her hair. She didn't get a good look at them before she felt her head being wrenched sideways. Then she caught alight again, and the culprit's hand was engulfed as she tore into the main street like a bat out of hell, openly aflame.