️Through the looking glass️

Discussion in 'Other KaW Discussion' started by AshesOfEden, Aug 3, 2017.



  1. The umbrella Roni held gave only but a meek shelter to the cold English rain that was pelting the dark landscape surrounding her.

    Well.. them.. A large cat seemed to have taken sanctuary beside her.. soaked to the whiskers..

    Am I still in Blackheath? She wondered.

    The rain suffused the surrounding to shadows and shifts of forms and she swore there were figures in a close distance digging up the heath relentlessly.. and burying.. like how the Heath was used during the Black Death when the bodies were piling up.

    "They all come back you know.." the cat mused

    "Who?"

    "The departed".. the cat grinned.. a large row of menacingly gleaming teeth shone through the rain..

    Not a cat to mess with Roni thought.

    "Where am I?.. Are you.. real?".. She asked as the rumbling thunder droned in the distance

    "Oh I'm real enough... back where I am".. grinning, the cat continued..

    "But "real" has how shall I say.. realigned you know"

    "You see... the world that has connected us, has now seeped into our own worlds.. and now the Blackheath that was your Eden have turned into ashes.."

    "Ashes...." the name echoed in her hazy mind..

    "You.. you're from a game that I play!?"

    "Hahahaha" the cat chuckled

    "Well the game is playing us now dear girl"

    ------------------------------------------



    "How do I get out of... This?" Roni asked

    "Woa woa.. why are you in a hurry to get out?" the cat replied bemusingly..

    The shapes seemed to inch closer to them in the rain.. they still seem to be digging but Roni noticed a grievous error in her observation from before.. They were not burying.. they were digging them up..

    "We like to live in alternates but get all freaked out when alternates come to live in us?" the cat was continuing..

    "But I like my picnics in the Greenwich park.. I like having a hot tea and cake with a cool breeze flowing through my flat.." Roni interrupted.. saw a slight mournful twitch in the cats whiskers and added..

    "I like you too Ashy cat.. but.. you're just not real enough you know.."

    "Fine... I'll just entertain myself watching you try to get out of "This".. the cat went back to his full grin

    "So here's the deal.. we all went to this world cos we want to fight.. That is the key truth.. and if you want to get out of it..

    You will just have to fight your way through.."

    Lightening arched in the sky above and the cat swiftly raised his right paw, extracted its steely claws from its fur, and slashed at Roni in a flash..

    The steely claws met an equally steely blade etched with vine-like runes..

    "Vorpal blade eh" the cat exclaimed

    "I guess you didn't transmute that one"

    Adrenaline was coursing through her veins like pulses of lightening as Roni sheathed the blade back in the cloth belt of her dress.. a mad smile flashed across her face as a similar part of "herself" still seem to be with her in this strange and unsettling world..

    "So.. who do I have to hack and slash to get my self out of this world?"

    "Ahh.. now you're talking.." the cat smirked.. his eyes glowing wide with glee..

    "But first... We have a party to attend!.. a tea party to be exact.."

    "I hope you like Cakes... Lady Cake is hosting"

    "Oh that maniac Brummie broad" Roni muttered and followed the cat through the zombielike hoard who were busy ceaselessly digging up their own kind

    ----------------------------------------

    White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
     

  2. "Delivered from the blast..
    the last from a line of lasts..

    The pale princess of a palace cracked"


    Roni sat on a head end of a frozen table in the collapsed tunnel of Queensway in Birmingham that had been caught in the tempest of a nuclear winter.

    The walls were littered with Crimson graffiti of "CF" posts..

    On the table, was a snowglobe with a gently falling snow, settling down softly on a miniature house with a glowing fire around a group of characters gathered in a party.

    The snowglobe had a label that read "HFBC" but Roni could not summon its meaning from the cobwebs of her mind.

    She noticed through the blizzard that on the other end of the table sat a pale princess with a pale white dress and crimson tears running down her eyes.

    An uncut cake and a pot of tea were placed in front of the pale princess.

    "May I borrow your Vorpal blade please?.. You know.. just to slice..the cake.." Lady Cake asked behind her crimson streaked eyeless stare

    Other characters slowly appeared out of the ice fog and settled silently around the table.. men.. beasts.. wraithlike.. with the Crimson eyeless stares..

    A snow covered Moose slowly trudged past Roni..

    "Can you greet Rachel Ann from me please?...

    I never got a chance to say goodbye to her.."

    his voice trailed off as he disappeared back into the fog..

    The only motion were of Lady Cake slicing the cake with the blade.. and the miniature party that seem to be in full swing around the warmly lit fire of the house inside the snow globe..

    Roni picked up the globe and peered in and as their chilly voices and random conversations struck her, she knew who they were..

    [MicKeYKNoCKs]"Do you want an ally volley to 80B.. I keep?"

    [Toni]"Aztec are the weakest.. I suggest we put Destiny on them first"

    [Eric]"I did go to Harvard and you're still an idiot"

    [Warlock]"I'll farm that mouthy blazey's ass off"

    ['Mare]"Belle.. Go suck an eggplant"

    [Chuck]"Let's go fight them KOTFE again"

    [Phil]"I don't take sides.. but my main is on your side"

    [iProphet]"I'm down for farming the fat piggies and call it a fest"

    [Tim]"We need to crush this tyranny of the marketplace.. they are the bad guys.. we're the good guys here.."

    [Crusty]"But we can't even keep our alliance together.. our council may be free but we're also insane.. I guess that's the price of freedom"


    A blonde Russian woman dressed in a red gown stood up, downed a shot of vodka and shouted..



    "Why do I feel like this is the last supper? which one among you all female dogs is the snitch!?"

    An Aussie woman rose from the side and pointed an accusative finger at the women in red..

    "You're the rat Blazey!"

    ...and everyone laughed..

    ....and the laughter echoed off into the frozen hall of the collapsed world..

    "Ugh.. senseless echoes of the past".. a dismissive voice boomed next to Roni..

    Lady Cake Monster stood next to her, the Crimson tears had ran down the dress and the Vorpal blade she's holding.

    "Cake?".. she held up a pale white cheese cake with "Reset" Icing lettering on top..

    "Hey I want that one.. babe" a voice trailed from the fog

    "Oozy... I already gave you one" Lady Cake snapped.. still smiling at Roni..

    "Yea babe.. but I think mine's poisoned.. I want the one you're about to give to that delusional girl"

    "Fine.. here take it" Lady Cake handed away the cake.. after a few moments, choking and gagging sounds can be heard..

    Lady Cake watched with glee and turned back to Roni..

    "It's Christmas time all the time here now you see.. Presents every other day.. Peaceful and quiet.. why would you want to leave all that!?"

    "But look at them.. all you have are the ghosts of the past and the poisoned masses that won't say more than snappy one liners and snappy emojis that they bought.."

    "That's the way this world is now.. and I mean THIS world".. Lady Cake waved the blade through the cold air and at the frozen Birmingham caught in the nuclear winter..

    "But alas, the fighting spirit lingers.. flickers in the dark hearts... and should you wish to break this spell.."

    "You will have to vanquish the fire breathing dragon and the Red Queen herself" Lady Cake paused..

    "First.. I reckon you will need help from the Knave.. you are too weak on your own Roni.. and you can't trust that psycho cat to get his claws out"

    "You see.. the Knave and The Red Queen were good friends before.. and then they had a thermonuclear fall out..well we all did" Lady Cake chuckled..

    "And where is this Knave?"

    "Oh not too far.. last I heard, the Knave is lording over the Queen's hotel in Leeds.. or working double shifts as a bartender there.."

    "Cake?"

    "No thanks.. I'll pass.."

    "Well here's your Vorpal blade.. Thank for letting me use it.." Lady Cake handed the blade back to Roni.. dripping with the Crimson blood..

    "I have poisoned it a good deal.. you'll need all the help if you want to keep up with the Red Queen".. with that, Lady Cake went back to her tea party..

    "Now who wants more tea?!"

    [Pill the Rabbit]"Me please!"

    [Lady Cake]"I'll trade you for an omelette recipe!"

    Roni walked down the frozen M1 towards Leeds.. towards the Knave.. and towards the Red Queen..

    __________________________________________


    Smashing Pumpkins, The beginning is the end is the beginning
     
  3. The Blockade

    The highway was littered with burned out and wrecked vehicles. The world was not frozen anymore but engulfed in the hazy smoke of charred machines and charred flesh.

    The ground rumbled with a deep resonating thumps as Roni sensed something immense approaching her.

    A giant mechanical tree stump laced with gears and hydraulics landed close to her in the fog and uprooted itself to plant its next step.

    It was but a leg of a leviathan machine that she could not even see its body and with repeating thumps, it rumbled down the highway.

    "That's Lelouch.. the machines are moving in their heavies to the blockade" the cat sidled back next to her.. it was a cybernetic cat, lithe in the alloys and maniacal green glow seeping out of the joints and eyes.

    "Oh are you one of them now?" Roni mused

    "When in Rome Roni"...

    A droning sound approached them from the air.. a biplane from a bygone war circled menacingly and a hail of hot lead rained down upon them.

    Roni ducked into the nearby overturned car as the cat leapt into the air, did its best King Kong imitation in swiping at the plane with its extended gleaming claws.

    The hobbled plane landed in the field beside the road and a punk princess with a deep red gown jumped out, unsheathed a pistol and a sword and approached..



    "Steampunk is so 2013 Taty.." the cat taunted.. giving a wink that sent a pulsating green blast with a whirling sound of a turbine..

    "I still like to fight old school Ashy.." the punk princess responded and pointed both weapons at each

    They were slowly surrounded by mechinations of various forms wielding an array of weapons from different ages..

    "I see the Reborn Walkers have activated phased time in their defence.. Now your machine army is spread trying to blockade across many "times"" the cat smirked and added.. "Quite resilient I'd say.."

    "Suits us fine Ashy cat.. we'll volley the muskets and blow their starships out of the Zodiac all the same" Taty tilted her top hat.

    "Now.. what business do you have in Leeds?" The black blade was uncomfortably inching closer to Roni's neck

    "Well since the phasic time was opened, we thought we'd go attend the Who's Live at Leeds concert you know.." the cat answered sweetly but Roni would have none of it..

    "We came to see the Knave.."

    Steampunk princess winced.. more machines have started to crowd the scene..

    "...and we came to defeat the Red Queen"

    All eyes narrowed with menace, except for the cat's who just rolled them with "Oh great, here we go".. steam hissed and hydraulics tensed and intense humming filled the air as the weapons charged

    The Vorpal blade arched up and crashed into the black blade as the fierce melee whirled between the two princesses.

    The cat jumped onto a spider like machine and did its best Wolverine impression and started shredding it with its claws..

    "Hey PuNcHy.. want a backrub?".. the cat pounced onto another machine that looked like an excavation machine, dodged its whirling drills and clawed at its wires..

    "RoCK CRuSHiNG!.. you look a bit rusty!"

    The machines withdrew their range weapons and brought out their melee weapons and started hacking at the cat.

    Taty raised her pistol but before she could fire, the temporal phasic wind from the walkers hit them and the world around them morphed into a medieval lowland forest..

    The pistol was gone but the blade remained and Taty wielded it with both hands to strike down upon Roni..

    The cat was now clawing the gothic knights in head to toe armour with their maces and bearded axes swinging with force.

    "Ahhh the lowlands.. medieval maces.. close combat..just like old times" the cat purred with joy as a mace bonked him flipping in the air.

    "We need to get to the Knave..cat.. " Roni strained impatiently as the locked blades sent sparks flying

    "Wait for the next phasic pulse..enjoy the fight!" the cat gleamed

    Taty, also seemingly enjoying her fight slashed and knocked Roni down..

    The black blade was descending menacingly when the next temporal phasic blast hit them..

    They were back on the road but this "time", seemed to be surrounded by a hoard of the undead who descended upon the machines..

    "Reborn Walkers! There's our chance! Come!" the cat snatched Roni, put her on his back and sprinted on all fours as a cheetah in full flight.. dodging the undead horde as well as the energy blasts from the machines weapons..

    The cat leapt and climbed the giant wall surrounding the city of Leeds, puts Roni down and looked back at the battle raging below on the horizon..

    The temporal phasic blasts emanated from the city like wave bubbles periodically and they could see glimpses of all manner of war from the small bands meleeing to the machines steamrolling their ethereal trains with steam hissing in rage.

    "Well I don't know about you, but I need a drink".. the cat salivated.. before Roni could answer, he snatched Roni again to put her on his back and slink down the wall into the city of Leeds..

    Ahead, the Art Deco Queens hotel lay fully lit up, pulsating with the synthetic electronic cacophony, jazz rhythms, and a maniac beat.

    ___________________________________

    Terminator Salvation Remix
     
  4. "How absolute the Knave is!

    We must speak by the card

    Or equivocation will undo us."


    The cat proclaimed sombrely as they looked up at the grand entrance of the Queen's hotel in Leeds

    Roni look to the cat and saw herself next to her..

    "Why are you looking like ME now?"

    "The magic is strong in this place.. you need all the protection you can get.. besides.." the cat continued with squinty eyes..

    "I'm more of a doppelgänger.. what did we use to call them?"

    "An alt.." a far away phrase came from Roni

    "Shall we?" The cat.. pranced up the red carpet stairs and entered the grand hotel and Roni followed suit..

    In the grand ballroom with high arch ceilings and luminous chandeliers, a macrbe ball was in full swing..

    Human forms and Beast forms were twirling about, dancing, singing, howling..

    ...and occasionally killing off each other in a duel..

    "Hell must empty.. All the Devils are here.." Roni mused..

    "1,2,3...1,2,3 drink.. 1,2,3...1,2,3 drink.." The other Roni hummed a tune..

    Roni snatched some champagne flutes from the passing butler and offered it to Roni..

    Both Roni's downed the drinks, tossed the flutes...

    "You can't keep dancing with the devil and ask yourself why you're still in hell you know!".. Roni took Roni by the hand and they twirled in a manic jaunting rhythm down the hall..

    "I..........'m gonna swing from the chandelier... from the chandelier." the ballad boomed and echoed through beasts and men

    The phantasmagoria started when an animated gargoyle approached them and swiped it's talons from the joint of his wings...

    The vorpal blades unsheathed mid-swirl and slashed the creature to pieces..

    "I........'m gonna fly like a bird through the night, feel my tears as they dry"

    Masked horde of demons descended upon them.. Roni squeezed the handle of the blade and Crimson poison oozed down the veins of the engraved runes of the blade..

    They whipped the poison out of the blades like the acidic jets around them.. while their other arms held each other in their twirl.. heads held back.. screams of glee flowing like their obsidian hair floating in the night air..

    Limbs flew, wings flew, talons flew.. steel flashed... flesh gashed.. and the mad ballad flashed in the ball..

    The song eventually faded and the twins crossed the gleaming hall and it's devils

    Ahead was a candlelit room with 5 women of beauty and menace, seated around a round stone table... huddled like a coven of witches with their faces flickered in the flames of the candles

    "No need for weapons around here my dears.." SHeRA spoke sweetly and winked her soulless android eyes

    Roni took the cat's lead and laid the blade down..

    "The fire-eyed maids of smoky war..
    All hot and bleeding will we offer them.."

    The cat whispered..

    "Care to join us... for a game of cards?" Bellemorte beckoned with a Bondi beach twang.. her bony skeletal hands shuffling a deck of cards..

    The two Roni's took the seats among the 5 and the 7 women stared at each other with simmering mortal bloodlust..

    "What are we playing?" Roni asked

    "One card stud.. High Arcane"

    Roxey answered, while taking the deck of Arcana from Belle with mistrust and continued shuffling.. tattooed runes pulsate with her poisonous pulse along her arms and fingers..

    "What are we playing for?" The other Roni asked..

    "The Fate of this world.." the Yorkshire accent echoed softly as Aella answered, took the deck from Roxey, drew a card ,flashed it to Roni, and put it back to resume shuffling..



    "Aella.. she's the Knave" Roni thought to herself as the deck was passed around shuffle..

    "Cut?" Starbel urged Roni as she held the deck in her mechanical arms with gears scything and hydraulics pulsing

    Roni cut the deck and a single arcana card was passed to each of the seven in the coven..

    SHeRA ToOtS flicked her card open with her mercurial metallic arms and the soft candle light shone upon the Fool..



    "We are all fools.. we let the devices dictate our social norms, we let AI determine what we should be doing, we let data drive who we think we are..

    And we let the game play us in perpetuity under its yoke.."

    Starbel opened hers and it was the Hermit



    "We have become withdrawn into our own world, cutoff from true human interactions and the warmth and life that nurtured us.. instead into our own isolated thoughts and tendencies"..

    Starbel's mechanical disembowelled voice only hints of the a distance Californian coast.

    Roxey looked at her card, chuckled, and tossed it face up on the table..

    It was the Magician



    "AI is the false prophet.. it amplifies our narcissistic impulses and fuel the flames of our virtual possessions.. it has shed the original programming of the innocence and now methodically preys on our weaknesses and feeds the illusions" Roxey proclaimed as the candle glow flickered sadness and pain across her face..

    It's was then Bellemorte's turn.. she took her card in her skeletal hands and before she could reveal her card,

    the top card from the deck that was laying on the table slowly started to levitate up..

    The card stood upright and slowly swirled as it rose up in the dimly lit room..

    ....and the character in the card came to life and spoke..




    "This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
    when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit
    of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our
    disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
    if we were villains by necessity; fools by
    heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
    treachers, by an enforced obedience of
    planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
    by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion
    of weak man, to lay his goatish
    disposition to the charge of a star"

    "Now.. I know all of you want to destroy me.." Vixy spoke with a gravelly voice of waves crashing onto the pebbles at the Brighton beach..

    "...but one of you actually came to do it.."

    "The Red Queen!" Roni's foggy brain registered and before she could act, a flurry of actions unfurled in a flash before her and she became an observer in the sequence as if in suspended motion..

    The cat in Roni's twin likeness threw his card at the queen and the seven sword flew towards her..



    Simultaneously, the red queen levitated a card from the deck and threw it at the cat..



    The gargoyle in the red queen's card leapt in front of the queen and took the seven swords in his body

    The hanged man card however found its target and struck the cat Roni in the heart and she slumped face down on the table..

    "Ashes!... No!!!" Roni woke from the frozen suspension of the time to scream

    The Red Queen, realizing that she had targeted an alt, quickly levitated the five of wands and threw its demons at Roni..



    The hypertemporal actions infused with magic were too fast for Roni but the five demons were intercepted by the Sun card released from Aella and shielded Roni..



    By the time Roni's action senses came, knowing that the vorpal blade was not with her, she instinctively flashed her own card at the Red Queen..

    The Red Queen shrieked with disgust and fled from her card that was levitating on the table..

    Aella took the card from Roni and looked at it with concern..



    "The Tower... We don't have much time"

    Aella activated a temporal phasic bubble and beckoned Roni to enter it with her..

    The other side showed a vineyard in the Odenwald mountains in Bavaria..

    Roni recovered the blade and as she strode past the table towards the portal, the voice with an accent from down under breezed

    "You haven't seen my card yet dear..

    it's the fate of this world you know.."

    Bellemorte gazed with emphatic eyes and flashed her card as Roni and Aella entered the phasic portal


     
  5. Hey all.. I'm writing a set of stories as a present to the awesome players of kaw.. The overall mood will be gothic and they will explore themes of lost memories, friends that are gone, enemies we still harbour.. etc..

    Some players have given me some RL locations for key scenes which will be morphed into this alternate world where madness rules..

    I hope you all enjoy!.. more chapters will be posted as we go along.. prob in a day or two each.. ️
     
  6. Intriguing! Looking forward to it señor!
     
  7. Great read looking forward to the rest :)
     
  8. The overall mood will be Moody.. 
     
  9. You're the best storyteller Ashes!
     
  10. Tried to post a pic hosted through Photobucket.

    Wouldn't work.

    Looked at Photobucket, and found out it's $400 to host photos now. Unreal.

    Nice thread Ashes.
     
  11. Thanks Willy!

    Yea I will move pic like the osw tribute posters to somewhere free when I have time..

    May be the devs can provide some hosting space wink wink
     
  12.  Thankyou Ashes this is such a cute and eerie and unnerving story .i love it  i wont think about the heath again in the same light .Morelike a field of bodies clawing their way out of the mounds of earth .
     
  13. I dun looked through the glass , and seen Ash feeding my head.