Smoldering ruins surrounded every inch of this crater. Endless stretches of silver expanse had been laid to waste, never to see the suns again. In dwellings far away, strangers were made absolutely aware of a change in the world. Most ignored it-- some reviled it. None particularly cared enough for its implications to seek out the cause.Closer to the source of such a shift, some exceptions occurred. Curious organisms sniffed around the fresh boundaries of the forest, familiarizing themselves with this new division between the strange and the ordinary. Many-trunked mice, miniature horses, webbed birds, and all manner of inquiring things found themselves dancing on the edges of this giant pit; none seemed to value their lives highly enough to consider what might happen if they fall within it, nor did many fancy themselves clumsy enough to find out.Deeper still, at the very core of the newborn crater, lay a glowing anomaly. Something not of this planet, yet belonging to no other. An entire galaxy of thought and emotion whirled within its inner world, feeling clashing with thought; clashing with instinct; clashing with reality, mocking roaring waves against shattering cliff-faces.Then, in an instant, the turmoil was cut short by a voice-- a voice that the anomaly neither understood nor knew of. It repeated, again, louder-- yet the anomaly was left just as clueless as before.The creatures surrounding its crater soon began to scatter, making a variety of noises that likely had no inherent meaning beyond alarm. The source of their vanishing wondered if there was any distinction between their vocalizations and the voice's, but quickly put that thought to rest. Somehow, it simply understood that they were not one in the same.Soon after, silence fell upon the flattened forest. The anomaly was left alone. It heard no sound, nor saw any thing, nor did it find its other senses particularly disturbed. Estranged from its reality and the world it now found itself in, the anomaly's first thoughts were of...>Opportunity. It found itself in awe of its surroundings, ready and eager to build itself a new future.>Acceptance. Despite a lingering sense of loss, the anomaly saw no use in dwelling on it. Whatever came its way, it would greet with open arms.
>>6368309[Hello again, /qst/! This is an original one-shot meant to help warm up for another ongoing quest of mine. I don't intend on running this for more than one thread.Updates will hopefully be daily, or every other day at worst. I want to be consistent with this, but I can't guarantee a super rigid schedule due to life being a bitch. If something goes wrong, I will give both a heads-up and an ETA for return in this thread. If you don't see anything here, check the latest /qtg/.With that out of the way: I hope you enjoy this short quest!]
>>6368309>AcceptanceNo telling if Here is better than There when we don't know where There was... or even what we are.
>>6368309>Acceptance. Despite a lingering sense of loss, the anomaly saw no use in dwelling on it. Whatever came its way, it would greet with open arms.I hug the world with both arms
>>6368309>Opportunity. It found itself in awe of its surroundings, ready and eager to build itself a new future.
>>6368309>Opportunity. It found itself in awe of its surroundings, ready and eager to build itself a new future.In awe of the power...
Opportunity wins out, 2:1! I'll start writing now...
Opportunity. Opportunity! The amount of possibilities at hand--The anomaly surged with a newfound curiosity and zest for life. A rush of thought overwhelmed any remaining cliffs, cresting over the conquered terrain, elating the strange spheroid----before crashing down, becoming overwhelmed with a wave of weakness that snuffed out the enthusiasm it had been powered by before. Every inch of the anomaly's being was overcome with weakness. The consequences of its arrival seemed to finally be taking their toll.As the anomaly slipped into unconsciousness, it felt the light around it begin to dim. How it felt such a thing, not even it knew...<><><><><>"...here! Over here, Yavenn! I heard--"A great noise awoke you. Where it came from-- that was to be determined. Not important. Not interesting."Alright, alright. Slow down, won't you? I can hardly keep up..."You blinked-- and found yourself surprised. Blinked! You had eyes? Wait-- of course you did! What a silly question. "This way, right there. In the pit..."...you sat upright and took a look at yourself. Two hands, two arms. Both seemed almost luminescent when you looked at them, but quickly faded to a very pale skin tone. This tone was shared across your entire body-- across your legs, your torso, your nails..."You there, sir! Are you well?" A voice called out from above. You weren't sure where. It took some looking around to notice-- someone leaning over the edge of this very deep crater you'd found yourself in."Yeah! I'm fine, mister!" You called back, surprised by your own voice. It was quite a loud thing-- enough to make the stranger recoil and prompt you to modulate. One two three, one two three, you tried to tone it down..."He's got quite the set of pipes, hasn't he?" A second figure peered over the side of the pit. This one was distinctly different-- you could tell it was taller, less decorated. "If I could sing like that, everyone back home would wish me theirs!""Yes, yes, I'm sure they would," the first figure dismissed the second, then returned its attention to you. "Brace yourself, I will be with you in a moment..." The second figure protested. Something about the first being too frail, about leaving the second behind. Whatever it said was drowned out by the brief shock that took hold of you upon the first figure's descent. "I suppose you may have heard, already, but I must be polite... my name is Yavenn. I am pleased to meet you." The figure offered one of his six hands. It looked just like yours, only... darker. Marginally so. His hand was peachier in tone, though no less pale. It was bonier, too-- perhaps those two aspects were related, somehow. When you returned your own, the man's eyebrows seemed to raise."My, my...!" The man tapped his walking stick to the ground and raised another free hand to his chin. "No tail? No crown? And your ears..."
You began to wonder how he was discerning all of these things with closed eyes. It unnerved you somewhat-- both the implication that you were abnormal, and the implication that this man could see without sight. Eager to establish yourself, you tried to keep your tone confident. "I'm glad t' have them, that's for sure. Haven't you got a pair?"The older man laughed, a glint of hoary hair becoming apparent underneath his brown hood as he did so. "I do indeed! I have ears as surely as I have eyes," he smiled, "although I won't pretend I'm not lacking elsewhere." Your conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the second figure, seemingly fed up with its companion's running off. She looked like nothing you'd ever seen-- though, come to think of it, neither did anything else you'd laid eyes upon today. "Grandpa, please..." The stranger's voice was far less grating than her grandad's, more akin to a singing bird or a set of windchimes. She seemed a perfect demonstration of the aspects her grandfather had made reference to-- she boasted two thin tails, a set of symmetrical bumps across the top of her head, and open eyes... but only two arms, and two legs. Like you! "Hey--"She interrupted, still focused on her relative. "I need you to stay by me. We can't afford to get lost here. And you're already so slow..." You found her interruption both rude and unimportant. She wasn't even talking to you! Why did she feel the need to butt in? You moved to interrupt her back, but found yourself stopped by a brief wave of tremors. You thought, at first, that they may have been the fault of the world-- uneasy terrain, some sort of rumbling underground. But both Yavenn and his granddaughter seemed unaffected..."Zalaena, please. Can't you withhold yourself for one moment? This young man is clearly uneasy," Yavenn murmured. He moved to help you up, taking five of his six hands off of his walking stick to get you off the ground you'd just found yourself upon. As he helped raise you, the starry night sky caught your eye..."We'll have to get him to the village the old-fashioned way," the older man chuckled. He let go of you and stepped back, only to be stopped by his granddaughter."No, I-- please don't exert yourself. I can..." Zalaena trailed off as she laid eyes upon you. You appreciated her flabbergasted expression... yet couldn't place the reasoning for it. Thankfully, Zalaena made such reasoning very loudly obvious. "Whoa! I-- okay, hold on a moment..."
To your great dismay, the first thing she'd done was procure an oversized bandana from a pouch she'd carried on her. After wrapping it around your waist and adjusting it to cover between your legs, the woman stepped back and examined her work. "Where... where did you come from?" Her eyes darted between the new covering and your confused face. "Most people don't come to the Chordless Forest without good reason."Funny, then, that you couldn't recall one of your own. Odd, too. Come to think of it-- you couldn't recall much of anything at all. No names, no faces, nothing... save for this language, some vague sense of what was normal, and everything you had just seen. That wasn't supposed to happen, was it?>Be honest: tell her you can't remember anything, and that you woke up here just a few minutes ago. >Ask where she came from instead. You want to know! It's very important information. Zalaena said so herself.>Make up something cool.
>>6369002>Write-in >"Wait, what's the Chordless Forest? Are forests supposed to be Chord...ed? I think something happened, and I don't quite know where I am..."
>>6369002>Be honest: tell her you can't remember anything, and that you woke up here just a few minutes ago.
>>6369010+1
For this vote, the write-in wins. I'd like to stress for the future, though, that I'm going to try and avoid write-ins for this quest unless they're explicitly solicited. Writing...
"The Chordless Forest?" You echoed Zalaena's statement, unsure of what she was referring to. If you looked up a little, past the edge of the pit, you could see some silver branch-looking things... but nothing like a whole forest."Yes, the..." Zalaena trailed off, realizing why you'd repeated yourself as she spoke. "You don't know, do you?"Her face soon contorted into one of... sympathy? Sorrow? Some sort of unhappy expression. One that rubbed off on you, and made you feel like someone was plucking at your chest. A very uncomfortable feeling, that was."I haven't a clue, lady." You ran your hand through a thick head of hair that you found yourself surprised to have. "Something happened t' me, I think, and now I'm here. I don't know where I came from, or where I'm going. If forests are supposed to be corded, I haven't got the memo."As you went on, Zalaena's palms found themselves covering her mouth. When combined with her long hair and hairy wrists, it almost made her look maned. You chuckled at the thought-- she almost looked manlier while scared than she might have while angry-- but found yourself dismayed again once she began mewling apologies."No wonder you can't answer! I'm so sorry. I have a bad habit of assuming the worst of people around here..." "A very reasonable habit!" Yavenn interrupted, surprisingly inflamed by the topic. "Nobody good comes here anymore. This is a cursed land. You did well to assume poorly of him," the old man assured his granddaughter, "this is simply an exception to the rule. Under normal circumstances, any creature larger than the trunkenmice seen here would be worth suspicion." The old man approached you once more, prying your hand from your hair (reminding you where you'd left it in the process) and taking it into his own. "I trust that you have no such ill intentions. I can sense as much. And if, in my old age, my senses have begun to fail me, and you truly do have some malintent about you... well, I would be very surprised if you managed to act upon it." "Don't scare him," Zalaena huffed. "He's just a newborn babe. He needs shelter and comfort, not fancy handwork and a beatdown."The two-tailed woman promptly marched herself over to your side and offered you her shoulder. "Now, I don't know how well you can climb, so let me show you how we can get out of here..."
<><><><><>After a prolonged and embarrassing hike out of your pit, the three of you found yourselves in the forest proper.Beneath the midnight sky, it would normally have been impossible to make out much at all. However, your skin seemed to glow-- faintly, but surely-- enough to highlight whatever you found yourself nearby. Through some stumbling around and a lot of grasping into darkness, you made out a sort of dead thicket littered with silver "trees;" misshapen things, smoother than you figured natural, with nonsensical curves to their growth and hardly any substantial growths beyond their initial trunks. Most of them were barren of any leaves-- those that might have had foliage instead bore transparent vines of some sort, made of fibers you couldn't identify, that brushed up against you harmlessly and tangled upon the splintered branches common to these strange plants. Any other plantlife was so insubstantial as to be invisible to you, and the earth itself almost seemed to begrudge you walking upon it."You know," Yavenn commented, "this forest used to sing as sweetly as my late wife once did. With every step a nell took, he would be met with a delightful melody..." "Or so he says," Zalaena mumbled. She seemed red in the face-- you wanted to ask why, but she didn't give you room to interject. "Grampa's a bit loopy. He goes on tangents like these a lot. I don't know how much of what he's saying is true, and... well, this place has been a dump for as long as I've known it." Yavenn continued on, undeterred. "Then, of course, us nellefim saw fit to abuse its goodwill for party tricks and power..." "Nellefim? What're those?" You asked, wondering why the term was unfamiliar to you. Wouldn't you know what you are?"We're nellefim, silly!" Zalaena smiled, though she quickly realized you were being serious. "Well-- I don't know about you. Your ears are round, you haven't got any tails, your wrists and ankles are barren..." "By that criteria, I am hardly nellefim myself!" Yavenn turned around to chuckle at the two of you. "Don't you worry about specifics, young one. Once we get back to safety, all will be explained..."
As if on cue, you heard a rustling behind you. Some kind of shifting-- then, a crack."...ah, I see we have some company." The six-armed man tried to remain jolly, but you could hear some strain enter his voice. "Stay beside me, children." Zalaena did what he said without question, and made sure you did too. Her grip was strong-- strong enough to yank you along with her.And it was a good thing she did so, too, as the three of you were soon confronted by a small group of bandits. All four bandits looked markedly different. One was nearly six feet tall, with two dull lumps mimicking horns atop his forehead. He had an enormous tail, not unlike a third arm, that was covered in spiked bands and visibly scarred. Another was hardly more than five-foot-five, covered in thorny armor, with a veritable explosion of bumps across his entire cranium and a far slimmer tail. The other two seemed more similar-- about the same height, with similar protrusions across their head, and sporting club-like attachments to the tips of their own tails.You figured such disfigurements must be common for nellefim, if that's what they truly were... and began to wonder why you didn't have any yourself."Easy pickin's, eh?" The scrawny one bragged. "Jes an old man an' his senpai'ly, no way've defendin' 'imself." "Easy enough," the juggernaut agreed. His voice was deeper than the hole you'd just climbed out of, and his looks could probably kill any small mammal in an instant. "Hand over yer cash an' we'll let you run free." "Wait, wait!" One of the twins interrupted. "That man..." He pointed directly to you. "Er, I fink he's a man. He'll fetch a pretty penny, won't he? Looks about workin' age, ratha healthy..." "An' who here has the guts t' try an' wrangle themselves a captive? Anyone?" The juggernaut boomed, seemingly irritated by the suggestion.While the bandits argued amongst themselves, you took the opportunity to...>Strike first! They're clearly here to do something bad to you. May as well get the advantage while you still can.>Puff up your chest and try to scare them off. Not literally, of course, but with big words. You can back them up, probably.>Keep silent and hope they'll decide against capturing you. You don't know what you can do, or what they can do, and you'd really rather not find out...
>>6369494>Strike first! They're clearly here to do something bad to you. May as well get the advantage while you still can.Initiative!
>>6369494>Strike first! They're clearly here to do something bad to you. May as well get the advantage while you still can.SUCKER PUNCH
>>6369494>Keep silent and hope they'll decide against capturing you. You don't know what you can do, or what they can do, and you'd really rather not find out...
>>6369494>>Strike first! They're clearly here to do something bad to you. May as well get the advantage while you still can.What's their problem?
Alright, we'll be attacking the bandits! Please roll 1d100.
Rolled 55 (1d100)Have at thee!!!!
Rolled 14 (1d100)>>6369816POW, gangsta shit.
Note to future self: clarify more than this next time I ask for dice rolls.Writing!
...strike first, of course!Without hesitation, you lunged towards the smallest bandit. He'd been too busy contemplating the juggernaut's challenge to notice, so you pinned him against a nearby "tree" without a problem. Unfortunately, his teammates quickly took notice. "Oh-hoh, look a' that! He's jus' throwin' himself at us!" The lazier of the twins remarked, taking it upon himself to gloat and grin while his sibling did the dirty work of smashing his tail-club into your lower back. The shout that elicited from you was loud enough to deafen the bandits for a full minute. You were pretty sure the other two Nellefim, the friendly ones, said something, too... but whatever it was, you couldn't hear it. Nor did you need to! You had enough anger to go around; their cries of worry were unneeded."Alright, losers-- I'll show you who'll be making slaves of whom!" Did that make sense? It didn't need to. You spun around and grabbed the fighting twin's tail with both hands, gripping it as tightly as you could, and tried your best to thrust the hopeful spine-smasher aside. You didn't do half-bad a job-- at the very least, you threw off the twin's balance and familiarized his face with the forest soil. But that wasn't enough to keep him down, and the twin's strongest ally soon took it upon himself to enter the ring."What a convenient distraction. Zalaena?" Yavenn remarked. The old man had hidden most of his arms; the only two that remained were used either to keep his walking stick upright or to stroke his unreasonably long beard."Grampa! Don't even joke about that!" The girl almost looked like she was an inch away from slapping her grandfather, but withheld her fury... to redirect it into manipulation. "Hey, boys! Lookie over here!" As the Nellefim girl began prancing around the forest like a pixie, you found yourself narrowly avoiding a spiked fist to the face. "Hey! What use would I be to you wannabe slave drivers without teeth? You wanted t' keep me healthy, remember?" "We wanted yer money, you blitherin' idiot!" The scrawny bandit, whom you had recently been shoved into, cried. "Now, shove off!"As the diminutive ne'er-do-well said that, he pushed you straight into the waiting chest of the juggernaut. With your spine already plentifully perforated thanks to the tiny one's thorny armor, you braced yourself-- and found yourself squeezed so tightly that you couldn't breathe. It took that experience for you to realize you'd been breathing entirely out of habit, not necessity, and for you to wriggle your way free through generous contortion of your ribcage.
Such an escape method still came at a cost. Despite your lungs seemingly being for decoration only, your bones most certainly were not. Your entire body screamed for a new skeleton, yet you found yourself unable to provide one. The loud cracks that followed visibly sickened almost everyone in the forest."Tha's not natural, man," the fighting twin murmured. "He's no' supposed t' still be walkin' after tha'." Zalaena slowed her frenetic dancing to a crawl. Within moments, she was upon you-- covering your lacerated back with her own body, switching between yelling profanities at the bandits and praising you for your work."Look-- the tiny one's completely out! And the big guy's got some dents in his armor... have you got any training in this?" The awe with which she spoke was laced with worry. Zalaena seemed genuine in her praise, however, as her smiling face almost seemed a little reddened while she spoke. She wasted no time in slipping her arm underneath yours and helping you towards Yavenn."None that I can remember, ma'am," you joked. Your face was remarkably untouched-- it was just the rest of you that looked like an utter disaster. Not unlike the tiny bandit's visible body parts, come to think of it. "Just gut feelings 'n a pair of fists." "Hey-- hey!! We're not done with you yet!" The lazier twin shouted, offended. He seemed just about ready to storm over and beat you up himself, but decided to delegate the task to a better fit for the job. "Nevell, go get 'em!" The juggernaut responded promptly, lumbering over to the pair of you and lowering his head. Upon his two great bumps sat a pair of steel spikes, curved in such a way that made them function identically to the horns his protrusions typically mimicked. By the time Zalaena had turned you around to see what was happening, his head had already been tucked in against his shoulders. All Zalaena could muster was a brief cry--
--before the juggernaut went flying into the lazy twin. A loud THUD made certain that the projectile had hit his unintended target, and you were left utterly baffled at what had caused such an occurrence... until you heard a familiar voice from behind you."I would like to disagree," Yavenn said calmly. The old man sat atop his walking stick, all six arms arranged in a radial position around his body, smiling. His balance seemed absolutely perfect. For a moment, too, you could've sworn his fingertips had been glowing."Grampa!" Zalaena stumbled forward, absolutely beaming. You were totally lost-- why was she so happy all of a sudden? What had just happened? Did this mean you could go back and give the bandits some more pummelings?"Zalaena!" Yavenn responded, mimicking his granddaughter's eagerness. "Come here, quickly. I feel it might be in our best interests not to stay here any longer." You glanced back at the bandits. They were absolutely mortified-- what two were left, anyways. In fact, their skin had somehow managed to out-pale yours! Neither of them had gotten the hang of glowing, though. They'd need to try a little harder. Neither of them spoke a word. They just watched the two of you stumble over to Yavenn and his stick completely placid-like. Their eyes almost looked blank, vacant-- not their own. "Aw, wait-- can't I give them another punch or two before we go? I really want them t' learn their lessons," you begged. Even as your back writhed in agony and your ribs cried out for comfort, you tried to forgo any kind of pain in favor of simply doing what you wanted."You are in no state to do such a thing, young gentleman," Yavenn scolded... before easing up and smirking. "But I can do it for you. Watch."The old man's voice took on a much deeper affectation-- it almost seemed to echo around the forest as he spoke. The words that followed rang through your head almost as certainly as they had your ears:By the sacred stars above and below, let this bolt smite my foe!One of Yavenn's arms thrust forward so quickly that it made a snapping noise--KK-KRRABOOM--within seconds, the same arm brought forth a zig-zagged bolt of pure white energy! It flew, straight and true, towards the juggernaut's horns. It flew right between them, in fact, splitting the big brute's shaggy hairline in two and carving a hole in the tree behind him. "Hah! He'll remember that one for a long while. Thanks," you rejoiced. Whatever the hell that was, you figured it more than made up for your lack of punching."As will I," Yavenn concurred. "Now, children, gather 'round..."
He continued to chant, now speaking in words you could not understand. You assumed they had to be words-- after all, they seemed to mean something-- but, really, you weren't sure. They could have been vocal tics for all you knew.As Yavenn spoke, however, the grass beneath you began to glow a pale yellow light. That light began rushing upwards, clinging to all three of you, and intensifying-- going from pale yellow to dandelion yellow to golden-- until you felt yourself being whisked away, and found yourself...<><><><><>...someplace entirely different.All three of you now found yourselves atop a vibrant blue rug. Upon it were stitched a series of symbols you could hardly understand-- symbols that seemed to fade with the light you'd been engulfed in."Grampa, you really didn't need to..." Zalaena trailed off, embarrassed by her own objection to what had occurred. "...w-well, thank you. Even if you shouldn't have--""Oh, hush," Yavenn replied. The old man descended from his stick and returned his arms to its sides, seemingly more dependent on it than ever. He almost sounded weary in a way that his attitude made seem impossible. "The crownless boy seems fatigued and untrained, and you yourself were outnumbered. Better I overexert myself for an evening than lose my only grandchild." Zalaena had no counter to that, and simply watched her grandfather go. Yavenn left the room without another word, slipping through an aging wooden door to your right into a room unknown. You and Yavenn's granddaughter remained, alone, in the spacious lobby the rug resided within. A half-counter kitchen could be seen a few feet to your left, while a steep staircase with ornate railing was found to your right (above the door Yavenn had gone through). Straight ahead lay a dark corridor, and behind you could be seen... well, nothing. Another dark corridor, this one seemingly shorter than the last. The entire room was painted to faintly resemble a sunset: the ten-foot ceiling bordered salmon-pink, while the very same pink walls turned bright orange by the time they the floor.The consequences of your fight were beginning to catch up with you, and you felt it might be a good time to try and rest. On the other hand, Zalaena seemed... dismayed. And you still had no idea what had happened back there...>Stay in the lobby and try to talk with Zalaena. Ask her about what happened, why she's upset, all that. If you need to rest, you can just do it on the staircase steps.>Bid farewell to Zalaena and try to find someplace to rest. You'd love to learn what just happened, and maybe some more about Zalaena, but you're in a lot of pain and don't want to make it worse.
>>6369913>Bid farewell to Zalaena and try to find someplace to rest. You'd love to learn what just happened, and maybe some more about Zalaena, but you're in a lot of pain and don't want to make it worse.
>>6369913>Stay in the lobby and try to talk with Zalaena. Ask her about what happened, why she's upset, all that. If you need to rest, you can just do it on the staircase steps.Shut up, body, we do what we want!
