Monstrous (Chapter Fourteen)
Saturday, March 14th, 2015 02:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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This is a chapter that really dragged on for me, and I apologize if that shows. I really didn't know what I wanted to get done with this chapter so it's a little all over the place.
Chapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Chapter Fourteen
Kingdom of Illian, Minecraftia. July 10, year 373. Time instance 483Z.
“Blame!” A wide grin spread across Vechs’s face. “You’re alive!”
“I can’t believe this.”
“Do you know if anyone else is alive?”
“No. You are, unfortunately, the first person I’ve run into.”
“What happened? Is anyone else here?”
“I don’t know. One minute we were up there, and the next, we were falling. Something must have happened to Guude.”
A chill ran down Vechs’s spine. Was Guude not okay after all? “I hope he’s okay.”
“I do too.”
“How did you survive the fall?”
“I broke the surface of the water with my sword before I hit.”
Somewhat illogical.
“You’re not soaked.”
“It’s been about twelve hours, Vechs. I didn’t sleep in the lake. I saw you hit the ground, though. How did you live through that?”
“Dunno. Passed out after that."
An equally illogical statement.
"Oh! Right! We need to head back.”
“What?”
“I got rescued by a mortal girl. Aureylian. She’s helping me look for you guys.”
Blame sighed. “I can’t believe this. Out of twenty-seven other Mindcrackers, I had to run into you.”
“Yep!” Vechs grinned, backing towards where he had come from. “It’s fate. Come on, let’s go find Aureylian!” He bounded through the trees. Blame followed, sheathing his sword and looking entirely displeased with the situation.
They reached Aureylian’s house quickly. Vechs looked around for her, but checked the time and realized it hadn’t quite been two hours yet. “She’ll be here in another half an hour or so.”
Blame looked over the house and looked in the window. “It’s very pink.”
“Yeah. It’s also very glittery.”
“…Okay.” Blame sat down next to the door. Vechs sat beside him.
“So. What do you want to talk about?”
“Nothing. I’m good.”
“But sitting around in silence is boring!” Vechs pouted.
“The alternative is worse.” Blame scooted away from him. Vechs followed.
Commence ignoring.
Over the course of the next half hour, Vechs did his best to get Blame to talk to him, but the man in the skeleton mask kept ignoring him, hoping he would go away.
He didn’t.
He only stopped bothering Blame when Aureylian stepped out of the trees. “Vechs, I didn’t find- oh! You found someone!”
“Yeah!” Vechs jumped up. “Aureylian, this is Blame the Controller, or BTC for short.”
Blame stood. “Blame also works.”
“Blame, this is Aureylian. She pulled me out of the crater.”
Blame shook her hand and looked between her and Vechs. “How?”
“It wasn’t easy.” Aureylian admitted. “He’s over a foot taller than me.”
Blame subconsciously straightened his spine to seem a bit taller, disliking that Vechs was a full ten inches taller. “You don’t look like you could carry him.”
“I dragged him.”
“That explains the bruises all over my back.” Vechs rubbed the offending area.
“Sorry.” Aureylian smiled sweetly at him.
Vechs decided that girls officially had a weird aura that made your insides do weird things.
Blame cleared this throat. “Did you see any signs of other Mindcrackers?”
“What?”
“My other friends.” Vechs put in quickly. “It’s our name for ourselves.”
Aureylian nodded. “Let’s go inside before we talk about this anymore. The chairs are more comfortable than standing around outside.”
Vechs agreed and ran into the door. He grinned sheepishly, opened the door, and went through.
Blame sighed and followed Aureylian in. She had them all sit down at the table and got some cookies for them. Vechs cheerfully thanked her and munched on one, but Blame was a bit more cautious, but hunger won over caution. His mask didn’t prevent him from eating, fortunately, so he eventually took one.
Blame’s mask was designed after a skull, but there was no lower jaw. The teeth of the upper jaw were the bottom of the mask, at a level barely higher than this mouth. The mask itself covered the rest of his face and it curved up some to give a somewhat “horned” effect. He wouldn’t answer questions as to why he wore the mask or why it had the horns, nor why he never seemed to remove it. His eyes were constantly shadowed so they were difficult to see, but still visible. Due to the build of his mask, he was still capable of making expressions and eating without taking his mask off, but he still had a freaky appearance that took awhile to get used to.
Aureylian didn’t seem too disturbed by Blame’s skeletal-evil-overlord appearance, just interested. “What’s with the mask?”
Blame’s expression darkened. “I wear it.”
“Why?”
He remained silent and let the silence stretch until Vechs cleared his throat. “Uh, anyway. Blame, any ideas where the others are?”
“No. I only saw one other fireball and it turned out to be you. I figure the others, if they survive, will make their way back to Traz’madar.”
Vechs nodded. “I thought of that as well. We can make our way there.”
Blame looked over at Aureylian. “Where are we?”
“Illian, near Valdrar. Traz’madar borders Illian on the other side. It would take a couple weeks to get there.”
“The meeting place was only a few hours away from the Valtarian border.” Vechs noted.
Aureylian tilted her head. “Valtarian?”
“Yeah.”
“Valtarian hasn’t existed for close to thirty years.” She frowned. “That’s been part of Traz’madar.”
Vechs’s eyes widened. “What?!”
Aureylian frowned. “How do you not know? You can’t be more than twenty four or twenty five.”
Blame sighed. “Actually-“
“You’re right.” Vechs interrupted. “I, uh, learned stuff from a really old history book.”
Blame shot him a questioning look but didn’t say anything.
He would have a talk with Vechs later and question him then.
“We should probably get going soon.” Vechs said, looking at Blame momentarily. “Later today.”
“Can I come with?” Aureylian asked hesitantly. “I still want to go. I want to help you find your friends and it sounds like fun. I’ve never been to Traz’madar before and you two are interesting.”
“I don’t think-“
“We’d love for you to come along!” Vechs assured, grinning. Blame rolled his eyes.
“Great! What do we need?” Aureylian jumped up.
“Food. Weapons. Camping materials.” Blame looked around. “You have any of that?”
“Yep.”
“Is it pink?”
“Mostly.”
“That’s fine.” Vechs put in. Blame nodded.
Blame really wished he had run into literally anyone else. He continued to eat cookies as Aureylian scrambled around to find what they needed and Vechs tried to help, dropping things and knocking things over.
Once they were ready, they split the supplies into three packs. Aureylian gave Vechs a spare stone sword of hers, made sure her house would be okay while she was gone, and let Blame lead the way. Vechs had turned the wrong direction initially, and Blame took over reading the map and leading the way. Aureylian walked behind him and Vechs brought up the rear. It was about midday when they set off so they only walked for a few hours before needing to stop and find shelter.
It became very obvious that Aureylian had lived in these woods for awhile and knew several locations, taking them to a small, secure cave that showed signs of past habitations. Vechs was having a great time walking around with Aureylian and Blame, talking to them (mostly Aureylian) and setting up the cave for the night. Blame was in a bad mood and had resorted to answering questions with grunts or simply ignoring them altogether.
He had had a very bad day.
First, he had become mortal (after being a worldbuilder for around a century) and fallen from the sky. He had almost died when he hit a lake, and then the only Mindcracker he had encountered was Vechs. Finally, he had gotten stuck with Vechs and some girl (who he honestly didn’t mind but he disliked Vechs so much he just wanted to not be there at all) on some ridiculous walk across a kingdom he had never heard of back to familiar territory.
He was relieved when he could finally get to sleep, ignoring Vechs and Aureylian saying goodnight.
Vechs closed his eyes after they had all settled into their sleeping bags, reflecting that today had gone a lot better than he had initially thought it would.
As much as it sucked being mortal, he had gotten to meet Aureylian and maybe he would finally be able to be friends with Blame.
His last thought before he slipped into sleep was that he wished Aureylian was one of them.
And that he hadn’t lied to her about not remembering how he fell…
Chapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Chapter Fourteen
Kingdom of Illian, Minecraftia. July 10, year 373. Time instance 483Z.
“Blame!” A wide grin spread across Vechs’s face. “You’re alive!”
“I can’t believe this.”
“Do you know if anyone else is alive?”
“No. You are, unfortunately, the first person I’ve run into.”
“What happened? Is anyone else here?”
“I don’t know. One minute we were up there, and the next, we were falling. Something must have happened to Guude.”
A chill ran down Vechs’s spine. Was Guude not okay after all? “I hope he’s okay.”
“I do too.”
“How did you survive the fall?”
“I broke the surface of the water with my sword before I hit.”
Somewhat illogical.
“You’re not soaked.”
“It’s been about twelve hours, Vechs. I didn’t sleep in the lake. I saw you hit the ground, though. How did you live through that?”
“Dunno. Passed out after that."
An equally illogical statement.
"Oh! Right! We need to head back.”
“What?”
“I got rescued by a mortal girl. Aureylian. She’s helping me look for you guys.”
Blame sighed. “I can’t believe this. Out of twenty-seven other Mindcrackers, I had to run into you.”
“Yep!” Vechs grinned, backing towards where he had come from. “It’s fate. Come on, let’s go find Aureylian!” He bounded through the trees. Blame followed, sheathing his sword and looking entirely displeased with the situation.
They reached Aureylian’s house quickly. Vechs looked around for her, but checked the time and realized it hadn’t quite been two hours yet. “She’ll be here in another half an hour or so.”
Blame looked over the house and looked in the window. “It’s very pink.”
“Yeah. It’s also very glittery.”
“…Okay.” Blame sat down next to the door. Vechs sat beside him.
“So. What do you want to talk about?”
“Nothing. I’m good.”
“But sitting around in silence is boring!” Vechs pouted.
“The alternative is worse.” Blame scooted away from him. Vechs followed.
Commence ignoring.
Over the course of the next half hour, Vechs did his best to get Blame to talk to him, but the man in the skeleton mask kept ignoring him, hoping he would go away.
He didn’t.
He only stopped bothering Blame when Aureylian stepped out of the trees. “Vechs, I didn’t find- oh! You found someone!”
“Yeah!” Vechs jumped up. “Aureylian, this is Blame the Controller, or BTC for short.”
Blame stood. “Blame also works.”
“Blame, this is Aureylian. She pulled me out of the crater.”
Blame shook her hand and looked between her and Vechs. “How?”
“It wasn’t easy.” Aureylian admitted. “He’s over a foot taller than me.”
Blame subconsciously straightened his spine to seem a bit taller, disliking that Vechs was a full ten inches taller. “You don’t look like you could carry him.”
“I dragged him.”
“That explains the bruises all over my back.” Vechs rubbed the offending area.
“Sorry.” Aureylian smiled sweetly at him.
Vechs decided that girls officially had a weird aura that made your insides do weird things.
Blame cleared this throat. “Did you see any signs of other Mindcrackers?”
“What?”
“My other friends.” Vechs put in quickly. “It’s our name for ourselves.”
Aureylian nodded. “Let’s go inside before we talk about this anymore. The chairs are more comfortable than standing around outside.”
Vechs agreed and ran into the door. He grinned sheepishly, opened the door, and went through.
Blame sighed and followed Aureylian in. She had them all sit down at the table and got some cookies for them. Vechs cheerfully thanked her and munched on one, but Blame was a bit more cautious, but hunger won over caution. His mask didn’t prevent him from eating, fortunately, so he eventually took one.
Blame’s mask was designed after a skull, but there was no lower jaw. The teeth of the upper jaw were the bottom of the mask, at a level barely higher than this mouth. The mask itself covered the rest of his face and it curved up some to give a somewhat “horned” effect. He wouldn’t answer questions as to why he wore the mask or why it had the horns, nor why he never seemed to remove it. His eyes were constantly shadowed so they were difficult to see, but still visible. Due to the build of his mask, he was still capable of making expressions and eating without taking his mask off, but he still had a freaky appearance that took awhile to get used to.
Aureylian didn’t seem too disturbed by Blame’s skeletal-evil-overlord appearance, just interested. “What’s with the mask?”
Blame’s expression darkened. “I wear it.”
“Why?”
He remained silent and let the silence stretch until Vechs cleared his throat. “Uh, anyway. Blame, any ideas where the others are?”
“No. I only saw one other fireball and it turned out to be you. I figure the others, if they survive, will make their way back to Traz’madar.”
Vechs nodded. “I thought of that as well. We can make our way there.”
Blame looked over at Aureylian. “Where are we?”
“Illian, near Valdrar. Traz’madar borders Illian on the other side. It would take a couple weeks to get there.”
“The meeting place was only a few hours away from the Valtarian border.” Vechs noted.
Aureylian tilted her head. “Valtarian?”
“Yeah.”
“Valtarian hasn’t existed for close to thirty years.” She frowned. “That’s been part of Traz’madar.”
Vechs’s eyes widened. “What?!”
Aureylian frowned. “How do you not know? You can’t be more than twenty four or twenty five.”
Blame sighed. “Actually-“
“You’re right.” Vechs interrupted. “I, uh, learned stuff from a really old history book.”
Blame shot him a questioning look but didn’t say anything.
He would have a talk with Vechs later and question him then.
“We should probably get going soon.” Vechs said, looking at Blame momentarily. “Later today.”
“Can I come with?” Aureylian asked hesitantly. “I still want to go. I want to help you find your friends and it sounds like fun. I’ve never been to Traz’madar before and you two are interesting.”
“I don’t think-“
“We’d love for you to come along!” Vechs assured, grinning. Blame rolled his eyes.
“Great! What do we need?” Aureylian jumped up.
“Food. Weapons. Camping materials.” Blame looked around. “You have any of that?”
“Yep.”
“Is it pink?”
“Mostly.”
“That’s fine.” Vechs put in. Blame nodded.
Blame really wished he had run into literally anyone else. He continued to eat cookies as Aureylian scrambled around to find what they needed and Vechs tried to help, dropping things and knocking things over.
Once they were ready, they split the supplies into three packs. Aureylian gave Vechs a spare stone sword of hers, made sure her house would be okay while she was gone, and let Blame lead the way. Vechs had turned the wrong direction initially, and Blame took over reading the map and leading the way. Aureylian walked behind him and Vechs brought up the rear. It was about midday when they set off so they only walked for a few hours before needing to stop and find shelter.
It became very obvious that Aureylian had lived in these woods for awhile and knew several locations, taking them to a small, secure cave that showed signs of past habitations. Vechs was having a great time walking around with Aureylian and Blame, talking to them (mostly Aureylian) and setting up the cave for the night. Blame was in a bad mood and had resorted to answering questions with grunts or simply ignoring them altogether.
He had had a very bad day.
First, he had become mortal (after being a worldbuilder for around a century) and fallen from the sky. He had almost died when he hit a lake, and then the only Mindcracker he had encountered was Vechs. Finally, he had gotten stuck with Vechs and some girl (who he honestly didn’t mind but he disliked Vechs so much he just wanted to not be there at all) on some ridiculous walk across a kingdom he had never heard of back to familiar territory.
He was relieved when he could finally get to sleep, ignoring Vechs and Aureylian saying goodnight.
Vechs closed his eyes after they had all settled into their sleeping bags, reflecting that today had gone a lot better than he had initially thought it would.
As much as it sucked being mortal, he had gotten to meet Aureylian and maybe he would finally be able to be friends with Blame.
His last thought before he slipped into sleep was that he wished Aureylian was one of them.
And that he hadn’t lied to her about not remembering how he fell…
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Date: Saturday, March 14th, 2015 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, March 14th, 2015 09:28 pm (UTC)*facepalm*
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Date: Saturday, March 14th, 2015 09:49 pm (UTC)Mine's set to remember me ^^;
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Date: Sunday, March 15th, 2015 11:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, March 15th, 2015 05:09 am (UTC)Also ooo, Valtarian doesn't exist anymore? Much mystery. So weird. Wow. (i sincerely promise to never use that meme again) (maybe)
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Date: Sunday, March 15th, 2015 05:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, March 16th, 2015 11:03 am (UTC)