Life in the Circus

Member created stories, poems, & other creative work.
jmecha
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Posts: 1699
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 4:22 pm
Location: Chicago
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Re: Life in the Circus

Post by jmecha »

"Spend all your time waiting
For that second chance
For a break that would make it okay
There's always some reason
To feel not good enough
And it's hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction
Oh a beautiful release
Memories seep from my veins
Let me be empty
Oh and weightless and maybe
I'll find some peace tonight"


They arrived in pairs, and Aeldre Feyblade stood there to greet them politely and offer them drinks of Maerlathen Blue Wine, Elverquisst, Moonwine, and Evermead. The first was Sorceress Luva Sine'de with her secrets and Squire Declan Johansen of Torm in his brilliant armor. Next was Vincent Delarose armed with his charms and Finnea Chaestina with her keen eyes and ears primed for what was to come. Last but not least was the writer and reviewer Leopold Lapworth with his intentions and Clergy Anovallis Starmane of Mystra with her own. The stage had been set and it was time to begin the show. Stepping into the Shrine Chamber to address the gathered Aeldre Feyblade raised his voice to fill the room.

"I want to thank you all for attending.....I am Apprentice Aeldre Feyblade of the Adventurer's Guild and shared some Adventures with Valyar Floshin.

Welcome to the shrine of Labelas Enoreth, the Lord of the Continuum. He who governs the orderly passage of time and guards against those who would alter the path of history. Together with Sehanine Moonbow, he oversees the long life span of the elves and their lives after they had left the mortal realms. His symbol is the setting sun.

We are gathered here to share our memories and stories of our time with Valyar Floshin. For those of you who did not know him allow me to offer a brief introduction of who he was in life before our first speaker steps forward.
Valyar Floshin was from the High Forest where he served as an administrator in his Uncle's House Hold, tending to guard rotations and other tasks that Valyar himself once described to be as horribly dull. When the threat of the Shadow War here in Waterdeep reached the Floshin House Hold, Valyar Floshin volunteered to come to the City of Waterdeep's aid.

Here in Waterdeep he joined the Adventurer's Guild where he served as an Apprentice and worked his way to Journeyman status due in no small part to his devotion to the War effort.

Journyman Valyar Floshin not only marched with the Adventurer's Guild to confront the Collector who plagued our fair City of Waterdeep, but was part of the attack on the Legion atop Mount Shadowdeep.

Sadly Journeyman Valyar Floshin was slain by a Cornugon, more commonly known as a Horned Devil, in the North Ward.

Sadly other members of the Adventurer's Guild were unable to attend.....Clergy Starmane, would you like to share a story or words about the departed?"


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With a visible limp in her step, Clergy Anovallis Starmane took her place before the gathered to speak to them about the departed.

"I am a faithful of the Lady of Spells...and I believe this is why Val and I had ... such a draw to each other. I won't speak to his tasks in life... but... to his person... his soul...If you knew him... he was kind... full of life in more ways than most.

I found him a marvel... the innate ability with the weave... a bit envious I suppose...he had this ability... to pull people together...quite unique in this city to be honest... and he was always there for me... not once did he fail in that task.

When we battled in the shade he never faltered and stood fast against the one called Hans.

this is the type of elf... we come to honor this day...a true friend.

He will be sorely missed... and thought of often...To lovely Val."


With that there was a toast to the fallen and while some drank and others refused. All thought of the one who we had gathered to remember, although some memories were kinder then others. It was Leopold Lapworth who stepped forward next.

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"I'm Leopold Lapworth. You may have read my column in the Daily Trumpet. I have met Valyar, exactly once. Well, twice now.

Funnily enough, the first time I met Valyar, it was at the funeral of Soosh

Anyway, I was wearing a robe made of baby tiger skins. It cost a kings ransom.

Eleven baby tigers had to be drowned to make it, and Valyar scorched it with his cheap parlor tricks.

When I heard he was dead...well...I was sad.

Sad I wasn't able to make a robe out of his skin, myself."


It was with that announcement the writer and reviewer from the Daily Trumpet knocked over the urn containing Valyar Floshin's cremated remains, emptying ashes onto the altar and the floor to stomp on them, before throwing the urn to the floor with a definitive clang. The sound of the empty urn bouncing hard off the floor truly served as well placed punctuation at the end of a very clear statement.

In response to all of this Clergy Starmane fetched a scroll from the belt of her formal wear and spoke the final words to complete the magical loop the written words had begun to form upon the page. The energies released were intended to hold Leopold in place, to make him a prisoner in his own body for a brief time, but alas the determined will of the writer was more then the magical energies of that particular page could restrain.

"Speaking of cheap parlor tricks.
I'm done. Fuck Valyar, I'm glad he's dead.
Don't forget to read my column, I appreciate your support."


With that the writer walked away. As the remains of Valyar Floshin were returned to the Urn, Aeldre Feyblade decided it was time to get to the words he had been asked to share.

"As you have all seen.....each of us have our own lived experience and personal experiences and perceptions that shape our opinions.

I will now.....read the prepared statements.

Cleric Eliyanas Amamion of Sehanine Moonbow had this to say about the departed...
Valyar embodied the very best of our Elven ideals. His lifelong devotion to Lord Labelas Enoreth and his pursuit of knowledge was both inspiring and impressive. Although I only knew him a short time, I will miss him very much. He was always so kind to me.

Cleric Alain of the Great Guide had this to say...
Arcanist Valyar Floshin, troubled as he was by daemonic forces, and while flighty and light hearted as is so strangely common among the fey folk, showed a respectful humility for the ultimate fate of all; death, which I believe was earnest.

Though their ways seem esoteric and obscure to me, I pray that the Eladrin Gods deliver their Judgement of his Eternal Soul with justice and wisdom, and he may find the lasting peace in Arvandor that seemed to elude him in life."


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"It was now that I intended to tell all of you of my time with Valyar Floshin...
I was going to talk about his arcane prowess and his willingness to bend and break infernal forces to his will, the army of imps he wielded like a weapon against his enemies, of his willingness to take risks, and how much enjoyed the destruction of those that stood before him.
I was going to invite all of you to travel to the old Magister's House in the North Ward, where Valyar was fascinated with the unstable portals and offer the opportunity for all of you to tamper with them in his memory.

I want to try and end this on the sort of exciting and dangerous note that I believed Valyar chased and enjoyed in life.

We though have a special guest, someone who may have known Valyar Floshin longer and better then any of us...I now invite Luva Sine'de to step forward and tell us what Valyar meant to her, and means to him still....and accept his Urn."


Only one person in the room had known that Valyar Floshin and Luva Sine'de had a shared history, well two if you counted the deceased. Feyblade though had has his suspicions, and thought this was a fine opportunity to take a chance and try to confirm them. The shock upon Luva's face, and all the eyes in the room focused upon her, made the chance one well worth taking for Feyblade. As the depths of the awkwardness of the moment began to really settle in, Luva efforts to deny their shared history only served to amplify the moment, but then she stepped forward and picked up the urn as she before addressing the gathered.

"This space is sacred, you know.
Labelas Enoreth's holy space.
History's space.

Do any of you know what you will mean to history?
What the generations will say of you, once you're burned to ash too?

I'm...

I've never been anyone.
But Aeldre said it best.
Valyar...was many things. To many of you.
Different stories, all entwined.
The threads of history.
Which tale will last, maybe we can't know.
But from what you all said...We know he mattered.
Maybe for him, for today...For tomorrow even."


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Current Characters: Aelenta Renvanith
jmecha
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Posts: 1699
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 4:22 pm
Location: Chicago
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Re: Life in the Circus

Post by jmecha »

"The dark side's coming now, nothing is real
She'll never know just how I feel
From out of the shadows, she walks like a dream
Make me feel crazy, make me feel so mean
Aint' nothing's gonna save ya from a love that's blind
Slip through the dark side and cross that line
On the dark side, oh yeah"


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The fool made a face like someone was asking him to solve Netherese Algebra as he dropped the black chalky pelt through my mouth for a second time. He was an idiot, but he is my idiot. As he scooped the pelt off the grass, I wondered if this is how people feel about their family. All those they are born with a connection to, without ever getting a choice in the matter. Do they trick themselves into finding the banal peace that comes with acceptance? Justifications made to make the unwanted but intimate and unbreakable tethering conections some how palatable?

With a defeated sigh, his shoulders slumped and he forced a smile before apologizing in flowing elven. There was a small pleasure to be had in seeing him humbled and defeated. More importantly it was time for the reveal. With intentionally slow and exaggerated motions, I opened the small pouch on my belt and withdrew an even darker and shadowy black pelt. Although it was far less chalky. One of the drawbacks and or advantages of being a rather mostly immaterial being, nothing had a texture.

His eyes lit up with realization that I, as his Shadow, had what he had. Although the Shadow of it. It was fun watching the gears turn as he tried to work out if there was a way to spend, swap, or exchange shadowed treasures for actual material wealth. He was as previously stated a fool. As the mental exercise ran it's course, he returned to the matter at hand. His effort for the pair of us to have a good time.

As he raised his right hand to hold his black chalky pelt over his waiting mouth, I mirrored and mimic his movements. Together we dropped our Midnight's Kiss into our mouths and the journey began. He had done his best in advance to tell me what to expect, he did in earnest try to make this an enjoyable experience, but he had been wrong. How was I even surprised?

As he laid there with glistening drool running out the side of his blissful idiot's smile, I was overwhelmed with the sensations. It started with feeling, actual feeling, a tingling in my fingers and toes. I wiggled them in a near panic that only worsened the sensations as I felt them. I felt my fingers brushing against eachother as I moved them. I felt my toes trapped inside my boots as they wiggled and wormed.

He had told me I would become weightless and truly free of any physical form. He had waxed poetically about bearing witness to the infinite nothing, and the sense of freedom that came from seeing all that could never be and never was, basking in the voluptuous black blossom of the never ending nothing.

The wind howled through the stone walls of the hidden glade, and I felt it rustling through my hair. I felt it moving through my hair. I reached up and ran my fingers through that same hair, in part because I wanted to keep the wind from blowing it away, and then because I felt it. I felt my hair tugging gently and painlessly at my head as I ran my fingers through it. I felt each fine and slightly slick strain of hair as they brushed across my fingers.

I staggered back and tripped over a log and landed on my back side with an audible thud. I winced with pain as my back side blossomed with a warm throbbing pain, and my heart raced. The brief panic of the fall, the pain of the impact, the wind in my hair, it had my heart racing. I HAD A HEART!

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With a grin from ear to ear I leapt to my feet, and I felt alive. I felt free, I felt everything, and it felt better then anything I had ever imagined. Looking down upon the blissful fool I spied a treasure so grand a wondrous I needed to make the experience of it mine. There beside his unconscious frame laid waiting a bottle of Elverquisst.

It's ruby color was distilled from sunshine and rare summer fruits, small flecks of gold floated within like motes of sunshine suspended in pure liquid sugar. I felt my mouth wet with anticipation. I was the drooling fool now, and there was no hesitation as I raised the crystal bottle to my lips and bathed my mouth in the sweet embrace of flavor. Half the contents poured through me, but what I captured enraptured my being.

With victorious roar I threw the empty crystal bottle against the stone cliff face as hard as I could, for no reason other then I can. I can breath and I can scream! I had a voice of my own, and hands that could touch, and a tongue that could taste! As the crystal erupted in a shower of a thousand shards, each one gleaming with the light of the Moon and stars, I reveled in the pleasures of reality. I WAS ALIVE!

I ran as fast as my legs would carry me through the glade and out through the cave like passage into the greater wilds of the West Wood. I knew the way to the rainbow ruins and I wanted to bask in all the colors I could experience. No longer was my existence one of muted Grey's and darker blacks. I could see in color! I could feel my heart beating, and my muscles coiling and stretching with each quickening stride. I was life and living in the light of the world, an unstoppable being ready for all existence had to offer!

The trees passed by in a blur as I leapt and ran between them smiling, no grinning like a fool in love. In love with life and living! I raced a rabbit and thought to run down a deer, just to taste the richness of it's heart's blood. I thought better to not, I did not know how long this would last and I wanted to see the rainbows. I dashed ahead and leapt over the stream to the stone ruin stairs. I took them two at a time.

There I roared once more. A primal bellow released from deep within that echoed through the trees, and alerted the beetles to my presence. It felt so damn good to yell, that afterwards my grin grew painfully wider and I could not help but laugh with the pleasures of it all. Hearing their legs clacking and clicking across the river rocks as they splashed up the banks of the stream, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end with excitement.

With my rapier drawn and the light of the Moon and stars reflecting off it's mirrored surface they came in a swarm of chattering chittering mass. In the unison of a hive mind they unleashed a torrent of blinding rainbows upon me, as I existed in a world of colors I had never seen, I laughed with a joy I did not know existed in life.
Current Characters: Aelenta Renvanith
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