OCC: This quest is for Long-Fur/Nezumi, myself, and my fellow WPLs only.
Long-Fur's life ended for the second time. First, he had given it freely to Phyrexia and The Ineffable One, Lord Yawgmoth. Now, it had been forcibly taken from him by the same entity that used to embrace his foul presence.
Shattered and broken, his soul drifted for some time while otherworldly bodies battled over its remnants.
Long-Fur's soul, however, had other plans for him.
Quickly and inexplicably, Long-Fur's soul began to reassemble. Piece by piece the parts he had sacrificed and handed over for power flooded back to him, until, finally, the parts became whole once again. When the last piece found its place, Long-Fur returned to consciousness.
Humiliation... Rage... Temptation to kill, to have his revenge... And fire, causing unbearable pain...
But then- nothing.
He was floating in an endless pool of nothingness, unaware of His own existence... Unaware of existence of countless worlds, full of people, all living with their own problems. But here were no problems...No solutions... No hate felt and no love experienced... No reason to do anything. All and nothing was surrounding Him.
Who knows how long He was floating like that in this nothingness, for even time was never-present here.
Yet an unimaginable thing happened. Happened! In a place where nothing ever happens, suddenly, a web of light and shadows- both equally contrasting to the nothingness- formed and surrounded Him. It was out of place. Nothingness tried to tear it apart, swallow it and make it part of itself, but the web seemed untouchable. It simply kept floating around Him, as if a slight ocean breeze was moving it.
"Ocean", He thought and immediately a small hole in the web filled with visions of a smal, wounded figure appearing out of nowhere on a seaside.
He looked at the grey fur of the figure and another vision filled one more hole. It was the same figure, but not wounded. It was hiding in the shadows outside the hut, trying to overhear what the elders were discussing inside.
Soon after yet another vision appeared. This time the same small ratkin was discussing things secretly with another, older and more threatening ratkin.
More visions appeared- one where the ratkin casts a deadly spell upon his village; one where he is tortured by kitsune folk; one where he escapes to a different world after using a rare artifact.
Each vision causes more visions to appear, leaving less and less empty holes in the web. He witnessed the ratkin learning his first otherwordly spells, finding his way to a glorious town, joining one of the factions of mages, fighting in numeruos battles- some won, some lost. He saw how the ratkin had forsaken his soul to a greater entity in change for power... He also saw the unforgivable things, the ratkin did, the trickery the nezumi used and also the mistakes, that were made. Mostly, picking on stronger opponents, bluffing and occasional loss of self-control.
Vissions appeared and stayed. The web was almost filled, there was just a single hole left. He moved closer, almost...eager to see the last vision.
The space in-between web threads rippled and He saw the ratkin undergoing a terrible pain, caused by the dark mana. A cat lady greeted the beaten nezumi upon his arrival to the Stronghold. They exchanged words, with the ratkin constantly trying to understand what's going on and still keep his head up. He noticed, how the cat lady's temper got shorter and shorter until... Until she lost it completely and went on a rampage, removing ratkin's arms and telling her servant to kill the nezumi. After that- only fire, burning until nothing is left of the ratkin.
The web started spinning around. The ever-repeating visions, surrounding Him, merged. The web tightened and tightened, until there was no space between Him and the web. All of His body was covered by the web, the merged visions seeping in his body.
A flash of light pierces nothingness and disappears shortly after, leaving no trace of Him.
A cloud of shadows appears from where the shards of nezumi's soul gathered and as the shadows fade away, a figure remains standing.
"What...what happened..? Where am I..?", Long-Fur asks himself, looking around hoping to find an answer to his question. He knew he should be dead, so why?
It didn't take Long-Fur long to realize that he could draw no breath. Whatever had happened to him after the Phyrexian's purging flames, he was still certainly without life.
Still, as consciousness flooded his mind, so did visions. Twisted trees, cragged peaks, fetid swamps, rolling plains, and crashing waves all flooded into his mind and left as quickly as they came, Slowly, but surely, the locations began to seem familiar to him, and at one point, he even saw the dark and damp comfort of the sewers.
It was all fleeting, however, for Long-Fur quickly felt the unbearable weight of a physical form on his soul. Unlike his previous life, he found this form completely still and stifling. Though his sight had become fixed, Long-Fur knew not where he was, or what he was being contained in.
Trey looked around, as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. A disembodied mechanical arm started to raise a ruckus. "Alpha? What is it?" The hand pointed at a glowing power stone on the counter. Trey walked over to it, and tapped a couple times. "The hell is going on...?"
Just as Long-Fur registered the figure moving through the strange room, he felt waves of pain wash through him as the man began pounding on his...head?
"Well, not just any rock, mind you. You're in a powerstone, a fuel source for my creations." Trey said, matter-of-factly. "What did you think you were...?
"Oh geez, I don't know... Maybe in my own body... You know- two legs, two arms, a neck with a head on top, a torso and a tail", Long-Fur replied sarcasticly.
"Ugh... Where's a necromancer, responsible for this? You don't look like one", the rock says "eyeing" the Izzet genius.
Trey picked the stone up, and began tossing it up and down absent mindedly. "A tail...? Sounds like nothing I've seen before...I wonder how you got caught, though...I suppose in gathering ambient energies, your spiritual essence must have gotten snared..." He muttered seemingly to himself.
"I said watch it", Long-Fur says, now only slightly irritated to his own surprise, as Trey starts tossing the stone, "It hurts, you know... And about your version- it couldn't happen."
"I died", Long-Fur explains plainly, "Or I should have. The fact, that I'm here in, in this state, is a mystery to me. At first I thought, it was necromancer's doing, but I see, that you know not of such person," the ratkin makes a short pause.
"Anyway, at the moment of death I wasn't toying with any kind of energy"
"Truth now. What caused your...untimely demise." Trey said, his eyes still dangerously narrow. "Because I have a machine designed specifically for agitation..."
"I was killed...I'm not lying. If you want the details- my body was beaten, my arms were ripped off, the throat crushed and then burnt to death and the next thing I remember is being here", Long-Fur tells the truth, hiding just the parts, that include phyrexians.
Trey looked at the stone coldly for a few moments. He then placed the stone gently on the table. "Rough way to go." He said, somewhat absent mindedly. "You, my newly deceased friend, are in the Izzet guildhall. I am Trey, master artificer."
A worse place for him to appear in could've been only House Hammerheim or Phyrexian Stronghold. A part of Long-Fur suggested to lie as he always did. However, another part of him demanded not to rush into making stupid decisions. Deciding to leave this question for later, the rock spoke again.
"Nice to meet you, Trey. So, do you know how we could solve this little problem we have?"
Trey rubbed his chin for a few moments. "Well the solution to MY problem would be to crack the stone. There's enough power in the fragments to use in smaller devices...not sure what that would do to you, though..."
Long-Fur's life ended for the second time. First, he had given it freely to Phyrexia and The Ineffable One, Lord Yawgmoth. Now, it had been forcibly taken from him by the same entity that used to embrace his foul presence.
Shattered and broken, his soul drifted for some time while otherworldly bodies battled over its remnants.
Long-Fur's soul, however, had other plans for him.
Quickly and inexplicably, Long-Fur's soul began to reassemble. Piece by piece the parts he had sacrificed and handed over for power flooded back to him, until, finally, the parts became whole once again. When the last piece found its place, Long-Fur returned to consciousness.
But then- nothing.
He was floating in an endless pool of nothingness, unaware of His own existence... Unaware of existence of countless worlds, full of people, all living with their own problems. But here were no problems...No solutions... No hate felt and no love experienced... No reason to do anything. All and nothing was surrounding Him.
Who knows how long He was floating like that in this nothingness, for even time was never-present here.
Yet an unimaginable thing happened. Happened! In a place where nothing ever happens, suddenly, a web of light and shadows- both equally contrasting to the nothingness- formed and surrounded Him. It was out of place. Nothingness tried to tear it apart, swallow it and make it part of itself, but the web seemed untouchable. It simply kept floating around Him, as if a slight ocean breeze was moving it.
"Ocean", He thought and immediately a small hole in the web filled with visions of a smal, wounded figure appearing out of nowhere on a seaside.
He looked at the grey fur of the figure and another vision filled one more hole. It was the same figure, but not wounded. It was hiding in the shadows outside the hut, trying to overhear what the elders were discussing inside.
Soon after yet another vision appeared. This time the same small ratkin was discussing things secretly with another, older and more threatening ratkin.
More visions appeared- one where the ratkin casts a deadly spell upon his village; one where he is tortured by kitsune folk; one where he escapes to a different world after using a rare artifact.
Each vision causes more visions to appear, leaving less and less empty holes in the web. He witnessed the ratkin learning his first otherwordly spells, finding his way to a glorious town, joining one of the factions of mages, fighting in numeruos battles- some won, some lost. He saw how the ratkin had forsaken his soul to a greater entity in change for power... He also saw the unforgivable things, the ratkin did, the trickery the nezumi used and also the mistakes, that were made. Mostly, picking on stronger opponents, bluffing and occasional loss of self-control.
Vissions appeared and stayed. The web was almost filled, there was just a single hole left. He moved closer, almost...eager to see the last vision.
The space in-between web threads rippled and He saw the ratkin undergoing a terrible pain, caused by the dark mana. A cat lady greeted the beaten nezumi upon his arrival to the Stronghold. They exchanged words, with the ratkin constantly trying to understand what's going on and still keep his head up. He noticed, how the cat lady's temper got shorter and shorter until... Until she lost it completely and went on a rampage, removing ratkin's arms and telling her servant to kill the nezumi. After that- only fire, burning until nothing is left of the ratkin.
The web started spinning around. The ever-repeating visions, surrounding Him, merged. The web tightened and tightened, until there was no space between Him and the web. All of His body was covered by the web, the merged visions seeping in his body.
A flash of light pierces nothingness and disappears shortly after, leaving no trace of Him.
A cloud of shadows appears from where the shards of nezumi's soul gathered and as the shadows fade away, a figure remains standing.
"What...what happened..? Where am I..?", Long-Fur asks himself, looking around hoping to find an answer to his question. He knew he should be dead, so why?
ooc: I hope it's okay...
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Still, as consciousness flooded his mind, so did visions. Twisted trees, cragged peaks, fetid swamps, rolling plains, and crashing waves all flooded into his mind and left as quickly as they came, Slowly, but surely, the locations began to seem familiar to him, and at one point, he even saw the dark and damp comfort of the sewers.
It was all fleeting, however, for Long-Fur quickly felt the unbearable weight of a physical form on his soul. Unlike his previous life, he found this form completely still and stifling. Though his sight had become fixed, Long-Fur knew not where he was, or what he was being contained in.
The creator of Maro's Magic 8-Ball!
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The creator of Maro's Magic 8-Ball!
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The creator of Maro's Magic 8-Ball!
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The creator of Maro's Magic 8-Ball!
"A...rock?", Long-Fur was obviously stunned.
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The creator of Maro's Magic 8-Ball!
"Ugh... Where's a necromancer, responsible for this? You don't look like one", the rock says "eyeing" the Izzet genius.
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The creator of Maro's Magic 8-Ball!
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The creator of Maro's Magic 8-Ball!
"Anyway, at the moment of death I wasn't toying with any kind of energy"
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The creator of Maro's Magic 8-Ball!
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The creator of Maro's Magic 8-Ball!
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The creator of Maro's Magic 8-Ball!
"Nice to meet you, Trey. So, do you know how we could solve this little problem we have?"
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The creator of Maro's Magic 8-Ball!