"A-are you my mother?"

Elene

Summary: It has been quite an eventful week, and Elene decided she was going to take the time to fish a little in Mournhold Vortex. She didn't start fishing for very long before she was visited quite unexpectedly by a robed girl with white hair.

For those who prefer to read in colours, you might like to pursue the logs here:
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3

For those who prefer to read it in the forums plain text, do read on!

Elene

PART 1

A robed girl with silky, white hair brushes away a few strands from her face as she quietly looks about.



The girl's appearance:

Big, bright emerald eyes rest evenly on the youthful face of a slender girl. Her complexion is naturally tanned without the leathery wear of the sun. Soft and nimble from crown to sole, her long, silky strands of snow-white hair cascade down past the shoulders in thick, almost shimmering waves at even the slightest of movement. She wears a plush dark robe of midnight with a vibrant emblem of a simple yellow sunflower patched to one side of the front breast pocket.
A robed girl with white hair is a humble-looking creature.
She is strangely weightless.

You have emoted: Elene tilts her head to the side as she glances at a robed girl with white hair.

A robed girl with white hair gulps audibly as she treads aganst the scalding, turbulent currents here in Mournhold. Her large eyes seem to trace over your features before she manages a light, almost innocent smile. "A-are you my mother?"

You have emoted: "Hello," comes Elene's voice in a soft silken caress as she stows away a Master Gulleye's Rod. It seems as if a robed girl with white hair is new to her, and her eyes settles attentively upon the little woman as she notices the vibrant emblem of a sunflower upon the breast pocket of her dark robes.

You say to a robed girl with white hair, "It's dangerous to wander in the turbulent currents of the Mournhod Vortex, girl. If it's your mother you're looking for, I'm not her. Do I look like her?"

You have emoted: Like trails of blood, Elene's crimson gown floats in the turbulent currents of the Vortex as she makes her way closer to a robed girl with white hair. One hand stretches out, before clasping upon her lean arm. Her chin jerks briefly, to the northwest, before her voice rises into audibility once more. "We should get to shore first."

A robed girl with white hair paddles through the waters, drawing closer to you. "H-hi!" Her voice is soft as the plush, rich robes adorned across her frame. As she tries to speak, waves crash into her face and briefly whisk her away from view. It's a few heartbeats before the girl is found resurfaced and gasping, closer to you now and in your clutches. "Y-yes, mother."

A robed girl with white hair begins to follow you.



A streak of lightning cuts across the muted sky heralding the arrival of the thunder that soon follows.

You have emoted: Wading out of the turbulent waters, Elene drips water from her clothing, but she pays it no mind. Leading a robed girl with white hair out onto the harbour, she finally releases her hold upon the girl's arm, before reaching upwards to flick the silken tresses of her hair behind her shoulders. As she does this, she takes a closer look at the waifish figure before her, noting the snow white hair that adorns her head, before she nods in satisfaction. "Where did you wander off to?" She questions, her voice low and soft, almost re-assuring, almost kind.

A robed girl with white hair coughs and hacks up some water as she follows you to the overlook of the harbour. "So n-nice out here." Comes the immediate reply, ignoring your question at first. Her features stretch and pull on her youthful face into a wide, naive smile as she stares up at you. Even as you makes to release the young girl, she draws nearer still, trying to settle in against you in a yearning embrace like a daughter might her fond mother. "I-I saw you out from the harbour. Thought I might come save you."

A robed girl with white hair shivers visibly.

You have emoted: Elene's heterochromatic eyes are sharp and attentive, watching every single action from a robed girl with white hair with a hawkish glance. She does not immediately reply, evidently taking some time to think unlike the girl's own immediate response, but the wide, naive smile upon her features and the shuffling draw towards the warmth of her own body gives the Azudim some pause. Ichored lips part, allowing a withered tongue to slither out, tasting the air. Uncomfortable, the woman turns to stare westwards, to the rest of the quay. "I... see," comes her words. "Did you think I was drowning? You could hardly swim against the currents, but came for me anyway." A soft exhalation of breath escapes from Elene, and the woman continues, "Let's go somewhere warmer."

Lightning strikes again across the sky, scorching from cloud to cloud in a violent and haphazard web of fire that briefly illuminates the cliff side.
The natural shadows around your feet and the young girls elongate briefly in response. Yours as you would expect but the girl's... It's sundered and twisted into a shape unbecoming of her size.

Looking up into Elene's eyes, a robed girl with white hair says, "Warmer would be nice, yes."

The distorted shape of the shadows are as brief as the flash of lightning as another band rips across the sky. This time, it is that as it should be... Yours and hers...intertwined in embrace.

A robed girl with white hair shivers against you as her arms tighten in its embrace around your form. The girl is certainly young and a bit doe eyes as she studies your features with an intense scrutiny. It's a fiery passion forged in fondness - an undeserved love. "Let us find some place nice, mother."

You have emoted: Elene inhales sharply, glancing up at the sky and the lightning that flashes across the sky in a violent web of fire. She glances down at a robed girl with white hair, and though her pupils do not shift, it catches sight - very briefly - but she catches sight of the shadows that twist and elongate around her own feet and the young girl's. "Alright. Let's head to Esterport. We can rest at a nearby tavern. Nice, warm, with food and drinks," she answers.

Distance to On the Esterport Bridge: 26.
Path: nw, n, nw, n, nw, nw, w, sw, w, sw, w, w, w, sw, w, w, w, w, w, ne, ne, ne, ne, ne, e, e
You start speedwalking.

Elene

PART 2



Delighted, a robed girl with white hair says, "I've never been here before, mother."

Her voice a silken caress as she escorts the girl into the Inn, you say, "This is a relatively old establishment. Old, but reliable."

Trusting your judgement, a robed girl with white hair visibly relaxes against your form but dares not separate herself from your touch. "What will we have mother? Will it be bitter and juicy? I like bitter and juicy."

You have emoted: "Bitter and juicy?" Elene questions the preference, before taking steps towards the counter upon light, bare feet. With a robed girl with white hair clung to her, her movements are not as fluid, and almost halting as she eventually comes to a pause before the bartop. She glances at the offerings, before grunting once. A hand slides into a stygian ritualist's satchel, retrieving several round gold sovereigns before she slams them upon the counter and empties a tall, frosted pint glass, so that it may be filled with something else. "A drink first, then."

You have emoted: Leaning purposefully over the counter to hide her actions from a robed girl with white hair, Elene slips a dose of curare into a tall, frosted pint glass, before mixing it well, sloshing the cocktail in its vessel before she straightens once more, offering the fresh cocktail to the young girl. "Here, have it."

You give a tall, frosted pint glass to a robed girl with white hair.

I saw it. I definitely saw it.

There is a pause in her thoughts, the woman taking time to consider what she saw as lightning crackled overhead. A swirl of images, the distortion of shadows that conceal what one might exactly be, a sundered and twisted monstrosity of a thing beneath the feet of the girl, next to her own normal one. Another flash, and this time, the shadows of both figure are the same as the persons themselves.

"Mm," a robed girl with white hair watches your every movement with neither complaint or delight - only that neutral, thoughtful sound. From the simple glance to the leaning over the counter to tend to your sleight of hand, the girl appears none the wiser... Or perhaps content. Her bright, emerald gaze trace over the lure-hooked fishing hat worn reluctantly over your tresses right down to the elegantly encaged miniature dangling upon your wrist. "You're very, very pretty mother." A robed girl with white hair collects the offered drink without protest with one hand while the other clings to your waist, keeping her form pressed closed to you.

A robed girl with white hair brings the glass to her lips and begins to drink. A sip that becomes a gorging slurp in mere moments until all of the contents have been drained from its container. It's a ravenous thirst that takes her as she even tries to swirl a small tongue along the rims to collect any last drops.

Darkly, a robed girl with white hair says to you, "Another."
[Author's note: This reminds me so much of Edgar, the bug alien from Men in Black ]

A robed girl with white hair just thought:
A soft fog settles over her thoughts. "Oh, no... I feel strange."

You have emoted: Elene's chest rises and falls in slow, even breaths in the warm tavern, her head tilted down as she stares at a robed girl with white hair. Nothing shifts upon her features as she examines a robed girl with white hair, her silvery tresses framing a features not too far a cry from the snow white curls that fall from the young girl's head. A scarred hand reaches downwards before fingers dig deep into the flesh of the girl's forearm, forcibly ripping away her hold from around her waist. She does not accede to the request for another, before ichored lips begin to twitch at the edges. Her eyes gleam briefly as the effects of the drink seem to take effect, before the quiet voice of the woman murmurs, "I am not your mother, girl. Tell me who you really are."

As you sunders a robed girl with white hair's grip about your waist, a sharp cry of pain escapes the young girl ina shriek. "MOTHER! YOU'RE HURTING ME!" Even the voice start to lilt downward and waver from the onset of poison coursing through her veins. The girl staggers backwards, gripping her arm and looking up in a guise of feigned horror at you. "MOTHER?!" She shrieks in exasperation.

As the girl's gaze locks with yours, you feel a sharp intrusion enter your mind.
Health Lost: 2120, psychic, none

A robed girl with white hair angrily asks to you, "Why don't you love me anymore mother?"

You have emoted: Ruthlessly does Elene continue to dig her fingers into the forearm of a robed girl with white hair, keeping that grasp iron-tight even as the sharp cry of pain echoes from her, the shriek rising into a pitch that cuts through the hubbub of the tavern. It's almost a crushing grip as she tugs a robed girl with white hair around, slamming her into the wooden surface of the counter as her head begins to spin, the other hand reaching up to her temple as she feels the sharp intrusion into her mind, tearing through her. A soft exhalation escapes from the Azudim, and she uses the rest of her own frame to pin the young girl against the bar. "You won't be able to move soon, as curare settles deep into your bloodstream," she eventually manages to form words to her disarrayed thoughts. "You are no daughter of mine. Now. TELL. ME. WHO. YOU ARE," her voice rises in tone, until it is almost a bellowing command, spurred partially by pain.

A robed girl with white hair is powerless to resist your churn of violence as she is whirled about and slammed into the bar top. "M-mother...have I not been good to you? M-mother... l-love me... please... I've been so very, very gooooood." Each word sags in tone, growing deeper and more sinister than the last as the iris of a robed girl with white hair's emerald gaze begins to freakishly split before you. "L-love me. MOTHER. PLEASE!" The girl grows limper and relaxed within your clutches.
Even as the girl grows limp within your grasp, the intrusion into your mind grows sharper. It's a piercing flood of rapid fire images of things beyond your comprehension. Heat. Rage. Blood and broken bone. You start to see twisted faces form but the blinding pain surges through your psyche to clear them as quickly as they come.
Health Lost: 3534, psychic, none

You have emoted: Her fingers against Elene's temple crunches tight as she slams them into the side of her head, the assault upon her mind rising in a relentless wave. A snarl is ripped from her ichored lips as it causes her pain, the woman scrunching her eyes shut tightly even as she struggles to endure against the endless rapid fire of images surging into her mind. "I LOVE YOU!" Comes the proclamation of the woman as the pain rises into a crescendo, and as her eyelids flutter open, she notices the sinister irises of a robed girl with white hair, the freakishly split pupils of the girl coming to hold the woman's gaze. Anger shifts across her features, the silvery tresses fluttering in a mess of strands as the Numerologist ruthlessly breaks the girl's forearm in her grasp, slamming it against the counter with a force hard enough to shake her whole frame. And then does the woman begin to gasp for breath, her fingers losing strength as she murmurs, "How good have you been, daughter? What did you do that deserve more praise?"

Heat. Rage. Blood and broken bone. A twisting, sundered shadow overlapping the girl's frame in her mind's eye. The figments of twisted faces floating just out of recognition within her mind, before blinding pain cuts through her psyche, eliminating them from her mental landscape. What remains, however, is the emotions churned within the woman. Rage. Utter rage. A thirst for blood. A thirst for violence. A thirst for.. answers, from whatever thing stands before her in a girl's shell.

Blood begins to pour from every orifice of a robed girl with white hair as she pleadingly stares on at you. The emerald eyes split uncontrollably into an unsettling polycoriac mesh of many different pupils staring fiercely onward at you, almost through your very being. "Mmmmmooooootttthhheeeerrr....." The speech slurs and dips dramatically now until the girl is utterly frozen and sagged against the countertop even as you come to shatter the girl's forearm. A dark bile spills from the laceration formed across her forearm as thick, sharp edges of bones now pierce and protrude from beneath her skin where the arm has been broken. No cry of pain. An almost gleeful indifference to the wound as she sags from the countertop and drops to the floor. "Iiiiii.....kkkkkiiilllllleeeeddd.....aaaaa......mmaaaaannnnnn......"
The images flood wildly through your mind until it is near blinding, forcing dark dots to randomly appear in your vision. Slowly the world starts to close in around you, darkening and losing its color as if the very contrast of all that is is being sapped away. Or perhaps you are losing your mind? Perhaps the girl before you is not even real? No, she must be real! You can still feel the lingering warmth of her form when it had pressed to you earlier. You think? Or do you know? Your mind reels from the flooding images as they flash faster and faster in your head.
Health Lost: 5301, psychic, none

[Author's note: I got trolled with Bohemian Rhapsody. XD]

You are unconscious and thus incapable of action.

Being unconscious, you collapse upon the floor.

You are unconscious and thus incapable of action.

When you come to, you find yourself alone in the bar with the spilled glass of orange juice nearby. The very beverage you had offered the girl... If there ever was a girl.

You have emoted: Elene eventually stirs, groaning softly as she finds herelf sprawled upon the ground, next to the countertop. She sits up slowly, wincing as her head seems to split open from the movement. Although she's none the worse for wear physically, that might not be the same that one can say for her mental faculties. As she remembers what she was doing beforehand, she whips her head so fast, glancing at the countertop, and then to the floor, and then at the spilled glass of orange juice nearby. "I.. I did not dream that," she murmurs, even as she continues to remain seated where she is.

What in the -Pit- did I come across? What is that girl?

I must be going mad.

You have emoted: Elene shakes her head violently, as if that very action would be able to erase just what she has seen exactly. Picking herself up from the ground, she exhales softly, before stepping from the tavern, leaving the spilled glass of orange juice behind.

Elene

PART 3



A deep, unsettling feeling seeps into your gut.
Health Lost: 707, psychic, none

It's almost like unseen eyes watching you from beyond. You cannot -see- them but you can -feel- the grating itch sifting underneath your skin.
Health Lost: 707, psychic, none

You crease your brow in a frown.

(Tells): A robed girl with white hair tells you, "Come home, Mother... come... home..."

You have emoted: Elene shakes her head a little, but seems unable to shake the feeling that seeps into her gut, sinking like a rock in her stomach.

You have emoted: There's a frown that graces her features, even as the woman plods down the road of nobility, taking her slow meandering path home. Elene turns around upon her heel, as if looking for a source for that eerie feeling, but finding nothing or nobody.

The closer you draw to your home, the worse the feeling gets in your stomach. Heavy. Plodding. Dark...
Health Lost: 707, psychic, none

You have emoted: It is still bright and vivid, the dark bile that bleeds from the wound of the girl's broken arm still bothering the woman as she pauses before her door. Elene tilts her chin up, staring at the entrance, and the sound of the quiet Undercity is broken only by the soft rustling of silks and gossamers, and the soft breaths of the woman as she snarls, "Stop it. I'm not your mother. I hurt you, didn't I? I'm not your mother."



You have emoted: At the entrance to her estate, as Elene clicks the door shut, she notices a change in decor. Spinning around swiftly, her heterochromatic gaze comes into contact with what is clearly the corpse of a robed girl with white hair, dead and devoid of life. A single emotion flickers across her heterochromatic eyes - Is it fear? No, is it contemplation instead? Or is it simply the sliver of madness that she's kept locked away, finally surfacing? - Whatever it is, seeing the crumpled form of the girl upon the ground of her entrance hall is an answer to the dread that has formed in her stomach.

Her voice a sibilant hiss, you say, "What the Pit are you? You were in Esterport one moment, and then you weren't when I awoke. Now you're dead in my estate, that fair and few people had access to. What are -you-?"

There is no answer beyond the sound of your own voice reverberting through the halls of your home... Movement just beyond the edge of your vision stirs in the southeast.

You have emoted: Ignoring the corpse of a robed girl with white hair, Elene patters away to the southeast, following the movement that stretches beyond the edge of her vision. Taking no more nonsense, the woman brandishes an ancient tome of the Spheres in her hand and strides on forward.

[Insert seeing the dead girl's body everywhere in her house..., she steps back into the entrance hall.]

You yell, "What is happening? Stop messing with my mind! SHOW YOURSELF!!"


Long stretches of time passes with no answer... leaving you to wonder and guess at what you have seen. Wonder at what you've experienced... When your eyes draw back to the corpses around you, you find nothing in its place.

You have emoted: The pupils of her heterochromatic eyes waver as Elene stomps over to where the corpse was, intending to swing one bare foot into the side of the dead corpse, over, and over, and over again. Yet, when she arrives back at the entrance hall, there is no trace of the young girl. There is no trace of anything, as if they never existed.

Uncertainty and silence are your only answers as you are left standing within your abode... Alone. And possibly quite mad.

You have emoted: Elene sways unsteadily upon her bare feet, staring blankly at the air as she struggles to make sense of her experience.

Her mind swims with a flurry of madness, a series of images flitting across her mental landscape in a series of what would be the visage of the robed girl with white hair. The creepy fondness of the girl as she clung to her, the drink of orange juice that she spiked, drunk by the same girl with white hair, and the insistent proclamations of 'Mother'. Mother. Mother. Mother. MOTHERMOTHERMOTHERMOTHERMOTHER.

The dead corpse of the girl upon her entrance hall. The same corpse in the auditorium. The corpse that follows in the embrace of darkness, wherever she goes.

You have emoted: Elene croons softly under her breath, the silken voice of the woman echoing a plaintive song toherself as she finally wanders haltingly, unsteadily, uncertainly, in paranoia, into the depths of her estate, squinting into the darkness as she seeks comfort into a corner.

-----

Elene

FOLLOW-UP



A robed girl with white hair drifts towards Tetchta. "M-mother?"

Steps into the ruined area, eyes on a robed girl with white hair. "Sorry, Lass, I'm a man," Tetchta answers.

Mileta arrives from the southwest.
She is followed by a diminutive rodent styled golem.

You have emoted: Elene steps back from a robed girl with white hair, behind the comfort of Qelres as she pulls her hood over her head, remaining unseen, or as unseen as she can.

You use Obscuring Cloak.
You raise the hood of a profane cloak of ambiguity, concealing your identity.

A robed girl with white hair's features brighten into a wide smile as she holds out her arms for Tetchta. "Mother! I've been looking alll ooooveeer for you."

"Sure, girl, c'mere!" Tetchta replies heartily, his voice warm, a dull rumble. He opens his arms up toward a robed girl with white hair.

Qelres arrives with you and Lilit in their wake. Their shoes crunch through the snow and the wind threatens to take their hat from their head. They stay well back, unafraid, but with a watchful, unblinking stare.

Lilit draws her cloak around her shoulders and watches from afar, sheltering by Qelres.

A robed girl with white hair rushes towards Tetchta and embraces Tetchta's form fiercely. She doesn't appear to readily notice the others that have gathered as she nestles her face into the cavity of his chest. "I.. I've missed you, Mother."

Quietly, with a pang of sorrow, a robed girl with white hair says, "I've been good. Haven't I?"

"It's okay, girl. I'm here now. Where have you been hiding?" Tetchta offers, his massive form dwarfing a robed girl with white hair almost comically. His left hand embraces her, and his right rests upon her head. "Good? Could be. Do you remember what I told you?" The vampire asks, his voice soothing, but intent clearly probing.

Mileta's eyes dart between a robed girl with white hair and Tetchta in clear confusion. "That's..." She murmurs to herself.

You have emoted: A cloaked figure clutches unto a humble bottle of ebony glass tightly, taking another sip of its contents as she watches from beneath her hood the interactions of Tetchta with a robed girl with white hair. Her ichored lips begin to twitch, telegraphing her thoughts of the current situation. She waves a hand, slicing it in the air as she gestures at Mileta.

A robed girl with white hair nods enthusiastically beneath Tetchta's touch as she stares up at him. "I... I got lost for a bit... Some strange corner. I had to run but then I -felt- you near. I had to find you." A soft sigh of relief seems too escape the girl as Tetchta continues to pad through her hair. "Of course, Mother."

Smiling, a robed girl with white hair says, "Kill them all."

Tetchta pushes a robed girl with white hair back, slightly, with his left arm, and his right retracts from her head and rests upon her shoulder. He kneels down in front of a robed girl with white hair, a warm smile on his lips. "That's right," Tetchta says affirmingly, his stygian eyes meeting a robed girl with white hair's with a subtle nod. "Do you remember why?" Tetchta asks again, his smile widening.

Qelres' fingers rest light upon the hilt of their dagger. They make no sudden movements, appointed by you and Lilit as a kind of sheltering meat shield.

Tetchta just thought:
[A red tumult, quick symbols flash, some coherent, some not, but the end result is a calculated chaos.].

As Tetchta makes to create some space to kneel before a robed girl with white hair, she resists at first, desperately clinging to Tetchta and preventing their separation. Staring intently into Tetchta's eyes, a robed girl with white hair appears confused for a moment. "Y-you said not to ask too many questions. To be a good one. Not like the rest..." Worry creeps into her tone suddenly as she starts to shake her head. "I p-promise I didn't ask no q-questions! I p-promise I've been good!"

Tears beginning to well in her eyes, a robed girl with white hair says, "I took the vial and mixed it into their well just like you said. J-just like you said..."

"I believe you, good girl," Tetchta answers warmly, though his features shift ever so slightly: his eyes narrow, his eyebrows slant: a subtext of severity, danger. "You wouldn't want to become like the others, right? You know how they ended, right? Tell me. Prove to me you know what happens when you don't listen to Mother," the man pushes, his inquiries more pointed and meaningful. Aggressive, though throughout, the low warmth remains in his voice, laced between the veiled threats.

You have emoted: Another sip of a humble bottle of ebony glass, and the woman shakes her head beneath her hood. A cloaked figure glances at Tetchta behind Qelres. The woman straightens her frame, even as she subtly listens to the conversation. An audible snarl echoes from her, and her hood shifts, eliciting a clacking of bone as the clasps upon a profane cloak of ambiguity shift. She moves to open her mouth, but then closes it.

(Tells): Tetchta's psychic whisper trails through your mind, "Get me candy."

(Tells): Tetchta's psychic whisper trails through your mind, "Discreetly."

The girl shudders and frowns as blood begins to drip from every orifice across her body. The emotion clearly distressing her as she extends a single finger up into the air and slowly traces it across her neck in a symbolic gesture of death.
Tetchta has been slain by misadventure.
One moment Tetchta is there and in the next he is gone, leaving only smoldering shards of flesh and splintered bone in the place.
You divine the location of this death as Approaching a ruined structure in the Southern Tundra.

Tetchta

Really thought she was gonna burrow immediately into Tet's chest and blow her up or something. Guess we didn't need the candy after all!