Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » EoO: Abyss in the Elven mines (Full)

"Group phase?" Shiori muttered under his breath once the hooded woman has disappeared, there one second and gone the next. The school was already turning out to be much more strange than he had originally expected, although, reserved as he was, he couldn't say he didn't enjoy the change of pace for once. During the course of their short tour, or rather, walk straight to the dorms, Shiori had quietly inspected the people around him as he himself stuck closer to the back of the group. They all looked about the same age as him and were various different races, aside from the other Eviere. She had a single tail and looked a bit young as well, someone Shiori supposed he could try to befriend first considering he was expected to interact with people here.

Shiori looked up at the dorm buildings, then pulled a dorm key out of his pocket. That was handy. Ever so eager to leave before conversation arose between everyone, he quickly passed through the group and took the door on the left as he'd been instructed. Yes, some boys wore their hair long, this one in particular all the way down his back. He found his room in short order, gently setting his duffel bag down on the floor once he'd gotten the door open. He'd packed only the bare essentials he needed, the rest of the bag consisting of his favorite magic artifacts. Some of those he could never leave at home, not where they could get knocked over and not when there was more to learn from them.

A plain dorm room was an uninteresting place. Curiosity soon overcame Shiori just as it had when he determined to leave for the school in the first place, and he stuck his head back out into the hall to see what everyone else was up to.

The large reptile-like man simply smirked as their guide suddenly vanished. "Group? Hah! I could probably take on the entire thing on my own. But I guess I could do some of you the honor of becoming your teammate." He spoke loudly, loud enough for everyone in the immediate vicinity to hear him. He stood with his hand on his hips and a wide smile that reeked of self satisfaction. He truly believed he was some sort of super star that everyone would want to party up with. "But I suppose with all of you clambering to become my party member I should probably set up some sort of raffle system. Don't worry everyone I'll make sure you all have a fair chance to join my side! Any of you who wish to have the honor of joining the most powerful man in this rank shall meet at the dorm common room in an hour!" With that he quickly made his way into the building and towards his dorm in order to start working on his project.

Shortly after entering, he quickly burst out realizing he had no materials to work with. He begins charging towards the front desk and stops sharply, sliding towards it and coming just inches away from crashing. After a quick talk with the receptionist, she hands him some sheets of paper and a red marker, which he gladly accepts and rushes off on his way again. On his way back he managed to bump into several students, launching them out of the way, and upon reaching his room, slammed the door.

(Sorry for the short post, I'm about to eat so I should start typing more after, but I didn't really wanna put off my post any longer.)

Edit: Well it's not as short as I initially thought but it could still be better.

"FINALLY!" Do'hasta exclaimed. "I thought that lady would never stop talking." The young Basku could not keep himself in control anymore. Throughout the whole tour, it took everything he had to not leave on his own and explore. This is the first time that he's ever left his homeland in the mountainous north and he wanted to see what this new world had to offer.

"I'm going to become stronger. Stronger than anyone else!" he says to himself. His thoughts are interrupted by a reptilian man as he starts to shout at anyone who would listen. "...Don't worry everyone I'll make sure you all have a fair chance to join my side! Any of you who wish to have the honor of joining the most powerful man in this rank shall meet at the dorm common room in an hour!" Do'hasta watches him as he runs into the building. "I wonder if he really is any good. I'll have to check him out later." he thinks.

Do'hasta decides to explore the campus before going into the dorms. So he turns around and starts to walk around the immediate area, hoping to find something interesting.

Shiori stared at the scaly orc as he rushed around like a chicken with its head cut off. What was he up to? A raffle? That was entirely ridiculous. He stepped out into the hallway again, and was about to go ensure none of them had accidentally maimed that poor eviere girl in their antics, when that self-righteous orc returned, post-haste, brandishing a marker and a pile of paper. Being moderately in the way of his clear shot down the hallway, Shiori was granted a sidearm bump from the orc. It knocked him off balance, nearly tossing him to the floor before he caught himself, although outwardly it only appeared to be an awkward step backwards.

He stood still for a long moment. The door down the hall slammed shut. Outside the dorms, he heard the other guy walk off before even finding his room. The testosterone was thick in the atmosphere; Shiori swore he could've cut it with a butter knife.

Quietly, he approached the door the orc guy had slammed earlier, where he was undoubtedly constructing that raffle system for his undying loyalty or some garbage like that. Letting out a preemptive sigh, Shiori knocked on the door, once, twice, then crossed his arms and waited for a response.

Staring at the ground, looking spaced-out, you'd think that Enfys wasn't even paying attention to the cloaked woman she could only assume was the secretary, or a teacher. She had a sun-faded charcoal hood covering her head, her ears laid back flat, but if you watched carefully, you could see the hood shift slightly as her ears twitched. She glanced sideways at her new schoolmates, thinking on who her partners would be in the group phase. The group would need to be balanced. Since I have the stealth, we would need a large distraction, potentially a tank to make openings for myself and some sort of spellweaver... The disruptive rumble of the half-breed interrupted her thought process. "Hmm..." A soft smirk curled along her muzzle and she moved to the corner, leaning against the wall. That could work.

Scanning the rest of the crowd, she saw the wisp of blue disappear towards the male dorms, her eyes narrowing a moment, and then widening again as she recognized the color as two sleek tails, the kind she could only assume was an Eviere. Immediately she turned down the tip of her hood, curling up her single tail hoping she hadn't been seen by him. Slipping a hand into her pocket, she gripped her dorm key, contemplating disappearing into her room sooner rather than later.

(( Sorry for the delay guys. I get pretty indecisive about my characters at times. Haha ))

As the knocking came into the room, Varkuul stopped tearing the pieces of paper into strips and began to wonder who it could be.'Ah! It must be a fan of mine come to try and get an edge on the others!' Varkuul smirked at his 'undeniable' wit. Loud thumps could be heard as he got up and made his way to the door, suddenly swinging it open. "Now who do we have here? You're the first one to come so I suppose that makes you my biggest fan!" Varkuul carelessly pats the Eviere on the shoulder, likely knocking him down if he was unable to brace himself. "Well I suppose with such admirable dedication I have no choice but to let you join. We need your level of determination on team Victory!" With that Varkuul ran into his room, grabbed his supplies, and ran out of the room grabbing Shiori with his free hand and pulling him along. "We need to finish up these raffle tickets to decide the other members of the party, come one!"

Barreling down the hallway once more Varkuul made his way into the common room and set his supplies at a nearby table. "You work on these while I go find something to put them all in." And off again he went, not listening to a single word shiori may have spoken to him along the way. He made his way outside and begun darting his eyes about in search of suitable item. Shortly after his search began his eyes locked onto the ideal item to put the raffles in. A black hood, found at the top of an Eviere girl's head. His smile grew wide as he began charging towards the girl at full force.

Shiori opened his mouth to respond once the door was opened, but he was immediately cut off by the boisterous orc. He flinched when he was pat like some sort of dog, swearing he would have dislocated his whole arm were he any more aggressive. His eyes widened as the orc continued to speak, and he was about to finally put an end to this nonsense, but was cut off once more as he was yanked from his spot on the ground and dragged back out to the common room.

"No-" he started, but he had already run out of earshot. This was absolutely ridiculous.

Shaking his head, Shiori looked at the pile of paper in front of him. Complete nonsense. Who did this guy think he was, making people raffle for him on their team? No one was going to participate in it, and fuel his megalomania. No one sane. Hopefully. He tore off the largest full square he could from the paper and folded it into a horse.

Once Shiori began paying attention to his surroundings again, he noticed what the orc had targeted for his ticket box. That poor eviere girl was going to be the next victim to a bowling over. Clearly unable to cross the room in that time, he called over, "Hey, watch out!" in a volume that was hardly over talking level.

Enfys had been engrossed in her people watching, scouting potential friends, analyzing personalities, silently responding to conversations she had no part of. I think she would make a better beastcaller.

"Anyways so I heard the headmaster is a total hottie, but totally terrifying." "Really? I heard he was the true epidome of the grim reaper." Oh yeah because you, a freshman, knows what the grim reaper or the headmaster looks like. How did these girls even get admitted to--

THUMPTHUDTHUNKTUD. Her thought process had been rudely interrupted by the thundering of a nearing beast, barreling across the the dorm hall. Her ears flicked forward alert, her whiskers twitching nervously as her eyes land upon this huge scaled...thing? She looks about for an escape but she cornered herself perfectly. Great, you'll make a fine Silent Reaper, Enfys!

Enfys saw everything, but as her ears swiveled about searching for a way out her eyes couldn't see, she hadn't noticed that her hood fell back, exposing her face. Is this what I have to look forward too? How had I never calculated the possibility of a huge beast like this?

Varkuul charged forward, eyes deadlocked onto his target. Even as he began to get close there was no sign of him slowing down. Just as he came withing mere feet of her he changed his course to move just to her side as he picked her up, placed her on his right shoulder, and swiftly made his way back to the dorms.

Upon arriving her promptly placed her down in the chair next to Shiori and sat himself down on the other side of the table. "We need your hood for the raffle we're doing." He spoke with a big grin on his face, clearly unaware of the trauma he'd just put the small Eviere girl through. "And as an added bonus for your participation I'll even let you join team victory, no raffle required. Though you'll need to work pretty hard in order to catch up to my number one fan here." He gestured towards Shiori as his 'number one fan.' "Speaking of which I don't think I ever got either of your names. But I'm sure by now you've already heard of me, the strongest man in this rank, Varkuul." His voice rang with conceit as he bragged about his self proclaimed title.

Shiori let out a sigh, both disappointed in the orc but at least thankful that he hadn't brutally mauled the eviere to death on accident. Before coming to the school, he would have never believed people on this caliber existed. And goodness, it was getting worse by the minute. The spiel the orc- or rather, Varkuul- was giving simply reeked of self-righteousness.

Shiori shook his head when Varkuul pointed at him. He would refuse to be referred to by such a title. He picked up another sheet of paper and folded it into a crane, leaving only a few scraps for the tickets.

"I hope the hebetudinous oaf didn't dislocate any limbs," he spoke, more directed towards Enfys, although he didn't look up from the paper bird. "He appropriated me in much a similar fashion. Perhaps if we don't move, he won't see us." He paused for a moment, tested the bird's paper wings, and set it on the table. "It's Shiori."

The beast's pure mass cut the air around him and as he swooped past her, Enfys cowering as he closed in, the wind he created blew through her fur, rustling her cheeks into pure fluff. She considered making a run for it just then but was promptly lifted into the air, her lungs releasing a wheezed squeak as her abductor trudged forward once more.

"H-hey, what is this?!" She didn't dare squirm, however, for fear of being snapped in half. As she was plopped down into the seat she winced, then rubbed her butt and sides, checking for bruising. "Jeez..."

"...Though you'll need to work pretty hard in order to catch up to my number one fan here." Enfys finally got a look at the surroundings: the table with parchment everywhere, the beast sested ahead of her, and the creature that was seated next to her. Recalling her hood, and the beast, Varkuul's, need for it, she quickly flipped it over her ears once more.

"The name's Enfys. Sorry to say I've never heard of you. And uh, why my hood?" She inquired as she returned to Varkuul's request. "Seems like an awful bit of trouble to detach my hood when you could find a box or something. Maybe you have a hat?" As she tried to negotiate, she looked around, too distracted searching for a way out to notice the creations on the table before her.

"Ahhh so you're religious." Varkuul spoke to Shiori, clearly having missed his insult. "Looks like we're gonna need more paper. Shiori stop turning them into birds, we have work to do!" He made his way over to the front desk, retrieved a large stack of paper, and flopped it down onto the table, ensuring they'd have more than enough for his raffle. In fact the stack of paper easily went over the heads of everyone at the table other than Varkuul, who had his eyes just barely able to look over.

Averting his attention to Enfys now, a perplexed look came across his face when she'd said she'd never heard of him. "So you must be new in the area, I see." Clearly this was the only logical answer his brain could manage to craft. "And don't be silly, your hood was the closest thing nearby so that clearly makes it the best option." The same familiar narcissistic smirk took its place on his lips once again, proud of his deductive reasoning 'skills.' "So where do you two come from anyways?" His head tilted inquisitively as he spoke.

(Here's the part where we'll get into why people of the same species look different depending on their region.)

Shiori raised an eyebrow, watching as Varkuul set what must've been the majority of the rest of the school's paper on the table. Astonishing. He paused for a brief moment, then slowly grabbed the top sheet of paper, set it down gently on the table in front of him, and folded it into a second horse.

"I do apologize, but I'll have to decline the invitation," he responded as he took another sheet and folded a frog out of it. "I'm not stopping until we have a proper paper menagerie. You simply cannot hope to attract proper suitors to your menage without a menagerie."

He looked up at the other two for the first time since Enfys had joined them, his eyes briefly glancing between the two before returning to a third sheet of paper. "I'm from the south. It's rather quiet there."

Enfys sunk a bit in her chair, half confused, half horrified at the amount of paper the creature managed plop on the small table, she watched it bow beneath the massive stack. She had stayed turned away from Shiori for the most part, and as the beast before them tried to persuade her farther to give up her hood she gripped the hem with one hand. "See now look, my hood wouldn't even be an adequate size for the amount of raffle tickets you'd like to hand out."

Listening to Shiori try to talk his way out of his own situation, her attention had been brought to the small origami creations on the table. Picking up one of the horses she admired the skill that went into making them. Perfect folds, though they seemed so simple; accurate geometry left her dazzled for a moment. I've seen this level of craftmanship, mostly within my kinds' skills. It was then that she realized that she didnt truly look at Shiori. Glancing at him, she pondered. From the south he says... Well I've heard of tribes and clans living in the southern area. Too true his claims of it being quiet. But to her, the male didn't look Eviere, or really of any creature that resides in the south.

"I'm from a clan in the Northern forests, called Xionara. Though I wouldn't expect either of you to know where that is." Coming off quite indifferent, she stood, the chair scooting back. Time to return to my escape plan. "Hey, uh, Varkuul, is it? Why don't I do find a larger box of sorts?"

The large lizard orc looked taken aback at Shiori's comment, as though he couldn't believe what he'd heard. "Shiori you can't talk about things like that in front of a lady, it's rude." He scolded him, shaking his head in disappointment. He then leans in to whisper into Shiori's ear. "We can talk about the details when it's just us guys." For once a new stupid grin graced his face with it's presence, though it was no less annoying. It's likely that one would prefer not to discover the contents of his mind. Then he returned to his original position at the table, trying to pretend like nothing happened but his lack of subtly made it clear he was happy about something.

Hearing the pleas of Enfys, though not recognizing them as such, he turned to speak to her. "Don't be ridiculous, we're not using the whole stack. I just wanted to make sure Shiori didn't turn them all into animals." He reached up and took a few sheets of paper to start tearing into strips, using his sharp nails as scissors. Once again she pleaded for a way out. "I wouldn't want to make you go running around for something like that, your hood will work just fine." He popped open the marker and colored three of them red, clearly marking the winning tickets, and once again returned to tearing sheets of paper.

Shiori raised an eyebrow at Varkuul. What on earth was that supposed to mean? He finished his current animal, a small unicorn, and set it with the others, which he'd started to place directly in front of Enfys. He noticed her inspecting one of them.

"She lives in a world of her own- a world of little glass ornaments," he narrated over her shoulder. "Oh, be careful- if you breathe, it breaks." He sighed and leaned back to his own spot, watching Varkuul obviously mark three of the tickets. "Isn't that a little... obvious?" he asked, picking up one of the marked papers. He took it and set it down on the table in front of him, producing a pencil out of his pocket and writing on it, hiding it from peeping eyes with his other hand.

"I'll be sure to accompany her if a search for a better suited receptacle becomes necessary," Shiori spoke as he folded the marked slip of paper in half and hid it under his hand. He'd decided to keep talking over the lizard orc's head for fun.

Enfys was becoming irritated, and a little exasperated for ideas. "Look, I'd really rather keep my hood thanks." Maybe being straight forward with the beast was more favorable in this situation. Usually she could redirect a person's attention to a different idea, but this one seemed to have a one track mind. It was apparent that she, and Shiori, had been talking over his head. Not too intelligent are you. She shook her head and sighed. It was then that she had caught a glimpse of the streams of cool toned fur that originated from the creature next to her. Two full tails, only Eviere produce extra tails... She stared a moment, then turned her eye to the huge lumbering creature on the other side of the table

Varkuul resembled that of an orc. Huge and muscle-y and harsh looking. But she realized something: His scales and physical makeup. Enfys pulled her hood back, her ears popping out and perked up, alert as she pondered the two, her eyes shifting between them.

"Ah, I hate to pry, but I can't have helped but notice the physique of you two and well. Are you guys, by chance, half breeds?" She was sure her deduction was correct, and she stood there with her arms crossed awaiting a hearty 'yes' from both of them.

Responding to Shiori's question, he put his hand up, cupped his chin and put on his signature smile. "Not if they're blindfolded" His amazing plan revealed 'Surely no one could top such a brilliant plan.' He thought proudly to himself. Meanwhile, Shiori's plan went completely unbeknownst to him. "Weren't there three of these?" He asked confusedly, while beginning coloring another.

"If you really wanna keep your hood that bad then fine. But you have to find a replacement before we start the raffle otherwise I'm gonna have to use it anyways." He responded somewhat reluctantly, not really understanding why she didn't want to just use her hood. At her second comment he suddenly stood up and placed one leg on the table, causing it to lean slightly. "I'm not a half breed! I'm the first of the strongest breed in the world!" He yelled proudly, almost as though he was waiting for someone to ask. "There are none who will be able to stop me once I reach my peak! I'll tear through all who oppose the great Varkuul!" He posed heroically and basked in the gaze of his imaginary fans.

Shiori shook his head, snagging the rest of the red dotted tickets while Varkuul wasn't looking. He instinctively backed up as the table leaned under the orc's weight, tucking his feet under his chair in case a wild table leg were to come back down on them. So he was a half-breed, and very proud of it.

He waited for Varkuul to finish his speech before responding himself. "...No. Eviere physiology varies greatly from region to region due to the strong spiritual connection we form with our natural surroundings," he quickly rattled off something he probably read in a textbook. "It takes several generations, but it's not unheard of to find variation in Eviere as great as between us, especially considering we're from opposite sides of Konalla. It's just very weird to think about." He slowly looked over at Varkuul again, then returned his gaze to the pile of paper in front of him and folded another horse.