Mickey Flash

Jo didn't have alone time anymore. As a matter of fact, it looked like her table was drawing quite a crowd.... well a crowd for this place anyway. First a blonde haired male swaggered up to her table, backpack filled with travelling gear. He spoke as if he knew her, mentioned a name she'd never heard of, and then sat next to her. She didn't know how this male had come to her small neck of the woods, or what he wanted..... oh wait. She'd put out that ad for help at The Bewitchin' Marsh, asking for experts and offering a small fee. This must be one of those that answered the ad. It was either that, or one of her pack friends called in a favor for her and told others she needed help. This just reminded her that she needed to keep her big mouth shut about her private affairs. Just because she was a lone wolf, didn't mean she was helpless. Far from it. Before she responded to the male's overconfidence, the door opened and she caught a strange whiff in the air. It smelled like hounds.... hell hounds, as some of her people fondly called them. The ones she'd seen weren't too keen on werewolves, finding a reason to growl, bite, or chase one of them any chance they got. Maybe it was a canine thing, or just those particular hounds. She wasn't sure. She didn't care, really. Any werewolf half their salt can face a hell hound without much trouble. They were just a pain in the ass. And there were two of them, which meant more difficulty. She looked up at the stranger who seemed to have control of them. Impressive. She had to give credit to anyone who was able to have hell hounds as pets. In her limited experience with the creatures it seemed that was a rare occurrence. The hound's master asked about the book too, which almost made Jo cringe. Did everyone know about her semi-secret, now not secret at all, mission to get the Shadow Grimoire? Last, but not least, a horned giant, or giant compared to Jo's five foot five inch frame, came barreling in. He didn't seem to know what was going on, but joined their group on the simple basis that they were talking about books. Jo let her head fall in her hands and rubbed her eyes. She sighed, and pasted on a sharp smile. "Alright. I'm going into the Bewitchin' Marsh to find a lost magic book. I will pay three silver coins to those who want to help me in my journey. Three gold coins will be given if you succeed in helping me find the cursed novel. You pay for all your own food and lodgings along the way." She thought for a minute, and then added, "This whole journey is dangerous, and there is a chance at death....." she added the next part in a muted voice, "or whatever death allowed a person in a place like this." She then spoke up where everyone could hear her again, "So. You travel at your own risk. Who's in?"

As she began to float into the air, Immie started to feel a nervous fear. Her eyes widened, and she wondered if she should continue this or ask them to stop. She wasn't use to so much focus on herself, or such strange methods being used. She also was afraid of the unknown. Would this hurt? Would she be able to survive it? What if this killed her? Shouldn't she have told her adopted family and friends about doing this before she'd taken this leap? She hadn't even told them she was helping to kidnap a queen, which she was sure her parents would not have approved of. Neither did she, now that she was more aware of the situation she was involved in. And here she was... in a cluttered laboratory... with a mad scientist... and a fairy... getting some kind of magical blockage enema. This was by far the most stupid thing she'd ever done in her long life. She could feel something pulsing around her, like it was small fingers pulling at the covering of her skin. She could almost feel the outer shell of herself, and the fingers were picking at it. Pulling and tugging, trying to get the shell to crack. She wanted to scream, because it began to hurt. She couldn't scream. She felt immobilized, even her vocal chords. The shell was cracking, ripping from her. It felt as if pieces of her skin were being torn away. Tears leaked out of her eyes, falling onto the floor underneath her. Her breathing became labored, and she felt like she was going to have a heart attack. Maybe she wouldn't survive this. Just when she thought that death had found her, the whole of the shell shattered, like a crystal glass being slammed onto a marble floor. She felt a multitude of sensations in that moment. One was that the shattered pieces hadn't disappeared, but floated around her as if waiting for a chance to come back to her where they originally thought they needed to be. Another was the rawness of her skin, exposed and naked. She felt like she was free from a weight and her skin was finally able to breathe. And the last thing was the gathering of some type of latent energy. She could feel it growing, seething, angry, and powerful. She couldn't control it, and didn't know if she wanted to. She could only get out of its way. This was going to happen with or without her consent. The energy wasn't going to expel from her person, but became like a vacuum. It began to suck other energy from the air. What she didn't know was that it was taking life force. Life force from the two beings that were alive in the room. It was a build up of generations of suppression. If this wasn't stopped soon, their life forces would be drained away.

Lorial coughed up what seemed like gallons of water. It very well could have been. She'd been thrown overboard during the raging storm, and into the chopping, violent waves. If she'd been one iota less vampire she would have drowned in the dark depths. Instead she'd swallowed quite a bit of water, and waded her way to shore. She knew she would find land, since they hadn't been too far from land when the storm it. They just hadn't quite made it. The sun was going down, and she had mixed feelings about that. Being part vampire, she felt her vampire abilities strongest in the darkness. The wood nymph half of her flourished in the sun though, and she felt a pang as she saw the sun disappearing into the horizon. The wood nymph half had always been her favorite half, for she despised everything about the vampire nature. She sniffed the air and could smell the queen. She'd been here, and she'd been alive, which was a relief. Lorial didn't know if Skacharm would allow her to live if she didn't do her duty and protect the little elven female. She had also made the mistake of liking the new queen, which she rarely allowed herself to do. She was just so... naive. She really didn't know the first thing about saving her own ass, or suspecting others' nefarious intentions. And for some reason Lorial was fond of her for it. Maybe it had something to do with the rarity of it. And the fact that her innocence wouldn't last forever, so Lorial was witnessing a special part of Malia's life. Whatever. She just couldn't help liking the girl. Lorial heard a strange screeching in the distance, and it immediately alarmed her. She didn't know what she was running into, but she used her vampire speed to follow the sound. She hoped she wasn't too late. She stopped for a moment to sniff the air, and she could smell the queen stronger now. The ground was trampled with claw-like footprints, a sure sign of some large predatory animal. Lorial growled low, and her eyes lit up a bright pink. She felt the need to kill something. ________________________________________________________________________ Malia could see the two women off into the distance, right into the creature's line of sight. Her eyes widened as she watched them run, and the creature took chase. They might be able to outrun this one, but they wouldn't be able to outrun the others that were going to show up to ambush them. Raptor's were rare, but they stuck together. They always ran in packs. Lorial showed up out of the greenery, like a wet amazon warrior. She was growling and staring intently in the direction of the raptor, probably thinking it had killed her charge. "Lorial!" she screamed, then realized a minute too late that Lorial would have been able to hear her if she'd whispered, "I'm over here. Please get me down." Before she could take her next breath, Lorial had her out of the tree. She knew what Lorial would do next, if Malia didn't say something quickly. "I know you want us to leave, just in case the raptor comes back... but we can't. There were two other women that were being chased by the creature. If they hadn't have showed up, he would have had me for dinner. We have to save them."

Michelee turned to see who addressed her, relief flooding her being at the thought of someone, anyone, dealing with this crazy situation right along with her. The male she saw was very tall, and had metal hooves for feet. His inquiry hit her as funny... well met. Were they well met? Were any circumstances such as this a way she wanted to meet anyone? She thought not, but was aware that it was a common saying to those newly introduced. She heard the tiger walk up, and wasn't alarmed in the least. How can she be scared of a normal tiger? She was a far more fearsome creature. She let time go by, soaking in just a moment to gather her thoughts. "Hello kind sir. The last thing I remember was a airship crash that apparently I participated in." She knew those words sounded weird, but she couldn't think of a decent way to describe what happened. "I believe there are people in jeopardy that are... in my care. Will you please escort me back to the site, so that I may tend to those who are unwell? I am a healer." She didn't plan to tell him that she only planned to tend to those that weren't pirate. As far as she was concerned, the pirates deserved what they got.

I believe the majority rules, and we are posting a flexible posting order.

Hello Shen. 😀 I just changed my theme over to the dark side. Gonna try it out for awhile. Welcome back to Val.

Welcome back to Val. 😀

Anyone can go ahead and make a post though, while we wait for others to respond to what kind of posting order they’d like.

There are a couple more to vote, but if I get one more flexible posting order that will be the one we go with.

Hello all! This is the place to discuss all aspects of our thread. It is an exploring thread with a twist.... we will be searching for the same thing. This book of magic. This will give us a reason to all be together. The hunt for the successful acquiring of the grimoire will take a tracker of magic, a virgin, and someone who's been around The Bewitchin' Marsh a bit. If your charrie fits all those qualities.......great! If they don't that's fine too. Jo doesn't have all those qualities, but I'm not letting that stop me. You can come up with your reason for your charrie to join the group on your own. Maybe they want the cursed book. Maybe they want money for being a guide through the marsh (Jo might supply a little bit of cash). Maybe there is someone in the group that they are contracted to kill. Or maybe they just want to hang and everyone looks like they'd be fun to hang out with. It's all up to you. There are five people in the thread, so usually I have a flexible posting order. But I'll ask a vote on if you want a posting order, or if everyone wants to post whenever they post. If there is a posting order, I insist that the skip rule of three days be enforced. And I like to have an ending to a story, so if you plan to pull your charrie out for personal reasons or whatever, please let me know so we can come up with an excuse for your charrie taking off from the journey. Other than all that....... let's have fun with it. Here's a link to the thread @Grubbistch @Spyfox31 @Zashiii @Inkinhart

Jo read the writing on the old parchment again. The piece of paper was darkened with stains, as if blood may have been splattered on it. It wasn't blood. Jo would have been able to smell it. But she didn't quite know what the substance was on the paper, and that bothered her. She looked around in the little cabin she'd found, a place meant to serve drinks to travelers. There weren't many travelers in this area, and the drinks served were simple and few. The decor was the same, simple with only a few chairs and tables for the patrons to use. Jo had acquired one of these tables, but she didn't have to fight her way for one. It wasn't crowded here. She liked places like this, where she could think and drink alone. She ordered a whiskey from the one waitress that was waiting the tables. The woman looked like she was half dead, and smelled a little like it too. Jo tried not to think of what might be floating around in her whiskey, telling herself that the alcohol would kill whatever nasty things might be there. She took a swig of it and was surprised to find it quite good. She looked into the bag she was carrying. She had a few change of clothes, tank tops like she liked, pants and some spending money. She had all she needed. She didn't have all she wanted though. She wanted the book of magic. She'd been obsessed with magic for as long as she could remember. She'd been almost treated as an outsider in her wolf pack, which is not a thing a wolf wants done to them, because of her weird preoccupation with magic. She'd coveted it so much that she was bound to get mixed up in it a time or two. One time she'd had her wolf taken away by a bad witch. Then a good witch gave it back, along with the ability to do magic fire. Jo was still unsure if that witch was a good one, or a bad one. She'd killed a child to replenish her life force after using it to give Jo those powers, and Jo never asked for them. Well... she'd made no secret that she wished she could do magic. But that wasn't any reason to give away magic without the proper permission. What Jo had to find out the hard way was that all magic had a price. She just hoped her new search for this cursed grimoire didn't want her to pay too much of a price. She was lost in her own thoughts, trying her best to enjoy her alone time. Then she heard the door to the establishment open. Muted sunlight crept in and touched Jo's bare shoulders. She shivered, but didn't turn around.

Sure! I was just PMing @KittyvonCupcake to go over details that might include Book Ends. Then Mother’s Day happened. So I should be getting a thread started tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

Hello and welcome to Val. 😄 I like Anne Rice and Dean Kontz, so we should get along just fine. Though there are quite a few T1 battles going on here, there are plenty of other types of threads as well. I’ve written on many threads in Val, but only a few were T1. Please feel free to come visit my board Elendaron any time. But if you have any questions about any lore on Val send me a PM. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll point you in the direction of someone who does. I hope you enjoy your time here.

I have heard people call using endearments as flirting, but I think it’s more the intent that’s important. If a waitress calls you honey, it’s just a name she’s calls every person she waits on, not knowing their real names. If a woman is called honey by a man who shows interest in taking her out on a date.... that’s different. I never use endearments, even though I’m from the south. If I see a woman I know, I say, “Hey gurl.” A man to me is always dude. I only use endearments for special people in my life. So I guess, in a way, I’ve made endearments a special thing for me. Words only have the power you give them, I guess.