Drunkard's Walk Forums

“You have beaten
Truth. Take it all.”

One
Hundred Years Ago, A Certain Location

“Sozin's”
Comet burned across the night sky, slowly receding from the world.
The flicker of its tail grew dimmer and dimmer with each passing
second. Soon it, and the power it bestowed, would vanish entirely
from this world. It would be another hundred years before the comet
would return, more than a human lifetime. Yet it had done its job.

The
door thundered open and Sozin himself strode proudly into the
chamber. His hair was grey from age, his face lined by the years yet
he stood proud and strong. His life work had finally been
accomplished. He quirked a corner of his mouth into a gentle smirk as
he beheld his chief science adviser.

“How
went the campaign, my Lord?” There was really no need to ask. He
could read the results of the day in his Lord's face.

“Absolutely
perfect. The monk's stood no chance. With the power of My Comet we
struck down all three of their temples. The few who escaped will be
hunted down easily enough.”

He
bowed his head. He could imagine the outcome of that battle. No, more
rightly a massacre. He had felt the power of the Comet burning in his
own blood, stoking the Fire within him to unimagined heights. All
that hot breath swirling around him. Plus, he had his own, much more
obvious proof of the victory of the Fire Nation today.

“And
the Avatar, my lord?”

Here
Sozin's expression darkened, but only for a moment. “We almost
certainly destroyed him in the raids. None of the children were
spared. Though none displayed any master of any additional
elements...”

“Perhaps
he merely had not come into his power?”

“Perhaps,”
the Fire Lord Sozin agreed. “Whatever the case, it turned out your
preparations were not necessary. I will not need your secret weapon
against the Avatar.”

“Ah.”
He was not disappointed or surprised. “And what I am I do to with
my research?”

Sozin
glanced imperiously around the chamber. It was a circular chamber
full carved into the rock with only a small hole in the cieling open to the night sky. Its walls were bright with the sheen that
showed stone cut with Firebending techniques and not Earthbending.
Into the floor and walls were carved elaborate mandalas and formula.
The momentary look of confusion was quickly and professional erased
from the Fire Lord's face. He may not understood how the formulas
worked, but he understood what they meant. A threat. His adviser had
promised him a weapon capable of defeating the Avatar, or at least of
turning the tides significantly in the Fire Lord's favour. With the
Comet receding into the depths of space for another hundred years...

“Burn
it. All of it.”

The
adviser bowed briefly. “Of course, my Lord.”

Sozin
examined his servant's face for a long moment, perhaps searching for
some sign of disobedience or disloyalty. Apparently satisfied with
his investigation he nodded curtly and stepped out of the chamber.
“See that you do,” he called over his shoulder as he walked out
to where his loyal dragon mount awaited.

A
few seconds passed after the door closed. Then the shadows of the
room shifted. Eyes opened in the darkness. Too many eyes. Large eyes.
Small eyes. And great grinning teeth,

“Well,
are you going to obey your lord?” a voice called from the darkness.

“You
appear to serve no purpose now,” he answered.

“Oh,
really?” The teeth glinted and the eyes filled with merriment.
“Tell me, old man, do you want to live forever?”

Time
Unknown, Location Unknown

Emptiness.

They took something
from me. Something important. I can't remember what it was. I feel
like I'm deflating, all my vital stuff just leaking out all at once.
If nothing happens I'm just going to fade away, lost and broken.

“Hey!
Hey you, wake up!”

A
voice? Is that a voice?

“If
you don't wake up, you're going to die!”

I
struggle to respond to the voice, but it seems so far away, like its
calling to me from the other side of a thick wall. Still, its very
presence seems to give me strength. I can feel something inside me
responding to it.

A
warm hand presses down on my shoulder.

That's right. I
have a shoulder. I have a body, I am...

[ ]A boy, of
course.
[ ]A girl, of
course.
[ ]A
boy... wait, that isn't right...
[ ]A girl... wait,
that isn't right...
“I
can't exactly get out of here on my own. I need your help. You need
my help.” My shoulder is jostled. “We're running out of time.”

I
can feel my body now, it feels familiar and

[ ]Strong.
[ ]Tough.
[ ]Agile.
[ ]Fast.
Just like it always
has been. However there is something still missing. Something
important. My body is just a body, nothing more. I am missing... even
as I think that the presence of the Other pulls something up out of
me, the fills me with an explosion of thought and emotion. The sense
of Self makes me feel

[ ]Perceptive
[ ]Imaginative
[ ]Devious
[ ]Centered
in a way that is
hard to describe.

A
resounding noise fills the air, the ground shakes. I'm on the ground.
It's hard and damp, but rapidly getting hotter. The Other starts
pulling on my shoulder more roughly, shaking me. I had better respond
because

[
]They need my help.
[
]I'm in danger.
[
]I want to know what is going on.
[
]They'll stop annoying me if I do.
With
that thought, I wake up.

How
Does This Work?

Every
weekday (barring emergency) I plan to do a scene of this story. I'll
end every post with at least four options for the character to follow
up on at the end. You vote on which option you want (one person, one
vote, and please indicate if you change your mind). I follow up. I
start writing at Midnight, EST. But first we need to know who our
protagonist is! So you have until Midnight, Sunday June 19th
, EST to offer your
opinion.

-----------
Epsilon

1) Both C and D (ie neither boy or girl is correct)

2) C

3) D

4) B

When I saw "Avatar" in the subject line, I wondered "Pandora or Airbender?" But that's neither here nor there... or is it?

Quote: That's right. I have a shoulder. I have a body, I am...

A boy... wait, that isn't right...

Quote:I can feel my body now, it feels familiar and

Agile.

Quote:The sense of Self makes me feel

Imaginative

Quote:I had better respond because

They need my help.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

I'll abstain for the moment... wanna see where this goes first.

*reads the post*
I'll have to abstain as all the lead up screams, scrambled mind with extra personalities and fragments randomly running around internally... so any answer I could give will be contrary by reflex.  As personally entertaining as that would be it would kind of defeat the point of the exercise.

Well, this looks interesting enough to interrupt my habitual lurking.

Quote:That's right. I have a shoulder. I have a body, I am...

[X]A girl, of course.

Quote:I can feel my body now, it feels familiar and

[X]Agile.

Quote:The sense of Self makes me feel

[X]Devious

Quote:A resounding noise fills the air, the ground shakes. I'm on the ground. It's hard and damp, but rapidly getting hotter. The Other starts pulling on my shoulder more roughly, shaking me. I had better respond because

[X]I'm in danger.

I suddenly had a flash of inspiration as I read this. In a world where the Avatar is accidentally locked in a block of ice and not available, it creates a new kind of hero. It takes four spirits and binds them into one body. So depending on what element this combination creature is trying to bend, it's a whole different person. Sort of like Cap'n Trips, but triggered whenever one of them focuses on bending the new element.
That, and the constant internal bickering as four people try to make one body in a crisis work would be sheer comedy.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

Unfortunately, as I posted, all of the above is not actually an available choice... in fact negates the point of having limited choices in the first place.  Welcome to the Hell of Abstaining Due to Red Tape Issues.

Let me put it this way:
This  is not a First Past The Post election. If five people vote the character is Devious and four people post the character is Centered I'm not going to ignore the four votes entirely. People are complex beings, after all. So if you're refraining from voting because you think your input would be ignored you've misunderstood the point of this. If you have an idea for "all of the above" feel free to supply a write in option that I did not present. Heck, you might very well inspire people to change their votes to your "best of all choices" option. It's not like votes are locked in until I actually sit down to write.
---------------
Epsilon

[X]A boy... wait, that isn't right...

[X]Agile.

[X]Perceptive

[X]They need my help.


___

I'm a fan of these free form stories. Looking forward to what happens next. Though my first thought with the description of those shadows reminds me of Pride from FMA:B

[X]A boy, of course.

[X]Tough.

[X]Perceptive

[X]They'll stop annoying me if I do.

[X]A girl... wait,
that isn't right...  ((Just to see what happens ))

[X]Agile. ((Though how Agile is different to Fast... I have no clue. To be agile one has to be fast.))

[X]Centered  ((I am calm, I am zen, I will not panic....))

[X]I want to know what is going on.

A girl, of course.
[b] Tough.
[D] Centered
[C] I want to know what is going on[/b]
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

DRAG0NFLIGHT Wrote:I suddenly had a flash of inspiration as I read this. In a world where the Avatar is accidentally locked in a block of ice and not available, it creates a new kind of hero. It takes four spirits and binds them into one body.

But... but... it takes five people to summon Captain Planet...

MicroHue Wrote:[X]A girl... wait, that isn't right...  ((Just to see what happens ))

I've pre-read a few stories where Epsilon made this choice, including Hybrid Theory; they're good stories.

(But I have seen what he does with this option, which is why I chose its mirror.)

MicroHue Wrote:((Though how Agile is different to Fast... I have no clue. To be agile one has to be fast.))

One can be fast when moving in a straight line or when reacting to a situation without being agile enough to squeeze through a narrow passageway...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Quote:But... but... it takes five people to summon Captain Planet...

The power of [strike]lameness[/strike]heart resides in the body into which the spirits are bound.

As for my votes... mm. Should I be a troublemaker?

[X]A boy, of course.
[X]Strong.
[X]Devious
[X]They'll stop annoying me if I do.

Hm. Hard to be a troublemaker, we're too all-over-the-board to start with for me to pick what nobody else has.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Quote:((Though how Agile is different to Fast... I have no clue. To be agile one has to be fast.))

Simple, agile, but not fast means your flexible.  Fast but not agile means you do an impressive impression of a bug on a windshield with random bits of scenery with disturbing frequency.

Awesome, good to see you got started.

[X]A boy... wait, that isn't right...
[X]Agile.
[X]Imaginative
[X]I want to know what is going on.

[X]A boy, of course.[X]Strong.
[X]Centered
[X]I want to know what is going on.

I have a body, I am...
[C] A
boy... wait, that isn't right... (though D is also fine)
I
can feel my body now, it feels familiar and
[C] Agile.
The sense
of Self makes me feel
I'm torn between Imaginative and [C] Devious.
I had better respond
because
[C] I want to know what is going on.

Funny someone should mention Pride...

Day
One, A Cell

The
first thing I noticed was the painful in my head. I groaned and
reached out, wrapping my fingers around metal shafts of some kind. My
eyes blinked open, thankfully the place was dark, lit only by a
series of what looked like oil lamps. I levered myself up into a
sitting position and took a moment to gather as much information as I
could.

I
was in a cell of some kind, with metal bars and floor. There was a
cot on the far side of the small prison, but the entire place was
canted at a severe angle. I must have fallen out of bed and straight
into the bars.

“Hey,
you're awake!”

Looking
down I noticed there was a boy underneath me, hanging from the wall
of my cell with both hands. He had bright yellow hair and matching
eyes, his face was lean and smudged with dirt and what looked
disturbingly like dried blood. Despite the circumstances he was
grinning. “Man, I thought the fall must have knocked your brain
loose for a moment. That was a pretty bad knock.”

“Knock?”
I said, my voice was dry and... strangely unfamiliar. I reached up
and touched the side of my head, feeling my scalp through a short
layer of fine hair. The hair was matted with dried blood. At least I
wasn't bleeding. “What's going on? Who are you? Where am I?”

“There
was some sort of explosion,” the boy hanging monkey-like below me
explained. “I'm Ed and I have no idea where we are.”

I
attempted to stand and then nearly toppled. The fact I was trying to
stand on metal bars was partly responsible but mostly my balance just
felt... off. “What the...” I glanced down at myself. “Huh?
Where is... what happened!” I shrieked and started grabbing at my
chest and hips. “This isn't right! What happened to me!”

“I
haven't a clue,” Ed replied. “You've been unconscious since I got
here.”

I
felt the beginning of panic rising in the back of my head. Still,
panic would do me no good. I needed to focus, control myself. Find
out what happened first, fix it later. I stumble-stepped over to the
cell door, my balance growing more sure with each step. I repressed
the shudder at how quickly I seemed to be adapting to my
circumstances. Thankfully the cell was small enough that I could
reach the latch without having to climb, unfortunately it was locked.

Peering
outside I could see a hallway heading in both directions. It was
short, just long enough for five cells with mine in the middle. Only
mine and Ed's were occupied. At the “top” of the hallway was a
door, also secured. A pair of oil lamps hung from chains next to the
door, one of them had been knocked out by the violent shift. The
other was swinging around, casting haphazard shadows across the hall
and cells.

“The
bars are pretty tough,” Ed said below me. I glanced down, he had
shimmed over to the door of his own cell. “I can't break out.”

“Right...”
I shook the cell door myself and it rattled in its moorings but
didn't budge.

“Also,
I think the place is on fire.”

“Fire?”

“Can't
you feel the building heat?”

Now
that he mentioned it, I could feel the place was pretty hot. I
reached up and wiped some sweat from my brow. The metal was also
loosing its cool touch. My mind conjured up images of the two of us
broiling alive in this artificial oven, but I quashed them before
panic could claim me.

“There
has to be a way out...” I growled.

“If
only I had my alchemy!” Ed snapped.

“Alchemy?”
I looked down.

Ed
gave me an odd look. “You've never heard of it? No, I suppose you
would think of it as alkahestry?” I shook my head. “Uh... well,
lets just say if I could do it, I could bust us out with ease.”

“What's
the problem?” I asked.

“I...
lost the ability to do alchemy.” He paused. “Though maybe you
can?”

I
knelt down and looked at him. “Can do what?”

“Save
both our skins.” He monkey-climbed back up the bars to the corner
shared by our cells and the hallway. He wrapped one arm around a bar
and planted one foot firmly before raising his fingers to his lips
and biting it. I
blinked as he drew blood. His eyes narrowed in pain but he ignored it
and began to use the blood flowing from his fingers to sketch a
symbol onto the metal floor. The symbol quickly grew in complexity
and size. The shape of it teased at my memory, like I should
recognize it but didn't. He raised his hand up then glanced at me
critically. “No, he doesn't know his basics, have to compensate...”
he muttered before starting to modify it.

“What
are you doing?”

“Need
to concentrate. Equations are difficult to inscribe without you doing
the math like I can?”

“Math?”

“Only
a small fraction of the alchemic equation is resolved through the
symbol. The vast majority is done in your head...” He examined the
symbol again. “If only I had chalk, or charcoal...” He looked
back up at me. “Okay, this is as good as I can get it. You have to
work quickly before the blood run. Place your hands on the symbol.”

“What?
That's disgusting!”

“Do
you want to die here?” he snapped. I was beginning not to like this
guy. Sighing I repressed my disgust and placed both hands on the
symbol. It felt less awful then I thought it would, especially if I
didn't focus on what I was doing. “Okay, now close your eyes and
focus. You have to concentrate and not let your mind wander. The
equation is really simple, and I did most of the work... my blood
should help as well. Just, let it solve itself in your mind.”

I
gave the symbol one final glance before closing my eyes and focusing
like he told me. The symbol seemed to burn in my vision even after my
eyelids shut. The symbol looked incomplete. No... not incomplete.
Jumbled and broken, like a puzzle. All the parts where there, but in
the wrong order. In my mind's eye I spun the pieces in place, moving
one ideogram here, another there... it was a very simple puzzle.

Then
I felt a bizarre warmth spreading up my hands and pulled them back
with a hiss. My eyes snapped open and the symbol had transformed into
some form of blue lightning. The lightning snaked up the bars,
ripping them apart. My mouth dropped open as the cells vanished,
leaving behind only a cloud of red dust that sunk through the air.

“Wow...”
Ed said.

“What
just happened?”

“Very
simple alchemy. Rapid oxidation of the iron in the bars, using the
iron in my blood as a catalyst. Still, that was amazing. The reaction
was a lot bigger than I expected for a first try.”

“That
really didn't explain anything,” I pointed out.

“We'll
talk about that later. First, we have to get out of here.”

I
nodded, reluctantly. The 'alchemy' had destroyed enough of the bars
that it was easy to climb out into the hall. While climbing up to the
door I felt a shudder pass through the structure again, then a lurch
which nearly threw me off the bars. The entire hallway tilted again,
until it was standing completely on end. The oil lamp swung around
crazily and for a moment I thought I saw mocking eyes buried in the
rapidly shifting shadows. My mind froze at the thought of that lamp
falling and putting out our only source of light, but it somehow
remained in place. I bit back a curse, but easily kept my grip.

“Hurry
up!” Ed shouted.

“I'm
going as fast as I can.”

To
my immense satisfaction the door at the top was open. I had to wrap
my knees around the bars and lean out far into the hallway to reach
the latch. My fingers were slick with sweat, fumbling for purchase
but eventually I grabbed hold. The door opened outward, and managing
to push it up and out against the pressure of gravity (who the hell
made a heavy steel door like this, anyway?) was nervewracking.

Eventually
we made it up into the next hallway. A quick glance showed that the
path split, though I could feel intense heat from the right. Ed
crawled up after me and sat against the wall, panting. “Damn...
wore myself out a bit. I'm going to need your help to get out of
here.”

“Can't
you...” I glanced back at him and then spotted something I had
missed before. His left leg was missing below the knee, the fabric of
his black pants hanging limp from the stump. I stared at him in
shock. “Did they... did they do that to you?”

“My
leg?” Ed grimaced at it. “No, that was my own stupid fault.
Though they must have taken my automail while I was asleep.”

“Did
they... did they do anything to you?” I reached down towards my
crotch and then forced my hands to the side, clenching them into
fists.

“Anything?”
Ed snorted. “Aside from taking my automail? No. Listen, we have to
get out of here before the fire spreads or this place collapses
totally. We can talk about my past history later.”

“Right...”
I looked to the left. “Away from the heat then, and... up?”

“Sounds
good.”

Just
as I was debating what to do about Ed's poor mobility a voice shouted
from the left hand hallway. I glanced over and saw three figures
turning the corner. All three of them were dressed in some sort of
red lammelar armour of a style I didn't recognize. They also wore
white ghost-face masks and carried spears. “It's the prisoners!
They've escaped!” one shouted in surprise.

“Just
saves us the trouble of climbing down to their cells,” another
responded. “The Princess' order still stands.”

“Right,
right...” The first one stepped forward. “You there, halt!” He
brandished his spear.

[
]We can solve this situation peacefully.
[
]If I leave Ed behind, I can probably escape while they are busy.
[
]They're armed, we're not. Flee to the right.
[
]It's time for violence!
----------
Epsilon

Quick question: are they at a T intersection or a Y intersection?

If T: Pull back to behind your corner and attack as they come around the corner.

If Y: Take a few steps into the right hallway, and attack as they come around the corner.

The spears they are armed with should hopefully put them at a bit of a disadvantage in the close confines of the hallway, especially when they go around a corner. Use the time it takes to bring the spear to bear to attack.
-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.

Jorlem Wrote:Quick question: are they at a T intersection or a Y intersection?

If T: Pull back to behind your corner and attack as they come around the corner.

If Y: Take a few steps into the right hallway, and attack as they come around the corner.

The spears they are armed with should hopefully put them at a bit of a disadvantage in the close confines of the hallway, especially when they go around a corner. Use the time it takes to bring the spear to bear to attack.

So... D?
--------------
Epsilon

Jorlem Wrote:Quick question: are they at a T intersection or a Y intersection?

If T: Pull back to behind your corner and attack as they come around the corner.

If Y: Take a few steps into the right hallway, and attack as they come around the corner.

The spears they are armed with should hopefully put them at a bit of a disadvantage in the close confines of the hallway, especially when they go around a corner. Use the time it takes to bring the spear to bear to attack.

This sounds good.

__

[X]They're armed, we're not. Flee to the right.

Yeah Ed! Also poor us waking up in the wrong gender's body.

What I would suggest is using alchemy to make a wall to block off the pursuers, but considering how a simple turn the bars to rust tired him out, that might be asking for too much from Ed. Not sure who the princess is, but on the bare possibility that it's Azula, trying to talk things out doesn't sound good. Anything she ordered is not something I would like to subject myself too or leave someone else to face.

Flee: find a spot to hide! Become unseen! Might be surprised how easy it is to do at times and you only need them to overlook you for an instant.