Glowfic (an RP community)

Return to sender. Please.

Thu, 30 Jun 2016 00:20:07 GMT

Posted by: wind_on_my_face

Sure, flight is faster and more generally applicable, but being right next to the ground and going this fast is its own thing to be enjoyed.

Some object darker than the expanse of salt catches Thanjen's eye.

It's worth removing obstacles, whether they're lost things, litter, or natural. He slows down and turns back to get a closer look at it.

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I can't fix you, but maybe I can still help

Mon, 30 May 2016 18:29:30 GMT

Posted by: powerispain

He's trying to kill us--could ruin him--worry about that later--grab your sister and go.

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A Sith Lord's Agenda

Sun, 22 May 2016 20:51:55 GMT

Posted by: poll_the_stars

Lord Callida's gotten more freedom, ever since she earned her lord status. Her own ship, her own crew, her own missions. She's expected to not get herself killed or do anything stupid, but if she wants to manage her people in a way that Occlus finds kind of bizarre, Occlus is completely fine with it.

So when her engineer does not calm down, and still flinches every time she walks by - well, she finds a replacement, and she decides to transfer him to a place where he does not have to be near a Sith Lord. She has her translation droid, N-V09, nicknamed Envee, conversationally ask him where he'd like to live. Because if she asked he'd whimper out how he's happy where he is, and that's not the honest answer she wants. He turns out to have friends on Balmorra, and quite mysteriously, Callida learns of an open position on Balmorra and sends him a message asking if he would be willing to serve Darth Occlus from there. As it happens, he does, though he prefaces the reply with lots of I'll stay if you still have need of me, my lord, just say the word and I'm your man. She snorts and transfers him.

The astromech droid she picked up on Narr Shaddaa is quite happy with its new status as her ship's engineer, and is much less terrified of her. It rolls up to her near immediately, and beeps, Callida == buy new set of hydrospanners // TN-R13 == hate current set // TN-R13 == unable to do job and is perfectly happy to lead her to the exact set of hydrospanners that it would like. And then it beeps at her the next day, asking for a chassis upgrade and a set of wheels with more traction. Callida considers this a job well done, and upgrades the droid.

She wonders if she's going to end up replacing her entire crew with a legion of loyal droids that are just thankful she treats them in the same category as people. ... She might, though her pilot and doctor both seem perfectly happy to work with her. She'll see about defenses against ion based weaponry, just in case.

But ion weaponry isn't likely to crop up in the tomb that she's been asked to clear out for the archaeologists, so she tables that search for now. Droids as a rule, do better in Sith tombs than organic life, but they don't escape unscathed from the dark aura that tends to permeate the tombs of Sith. They'll stay on the ship, she'll walk in and kill any creatures living inside, dispell any ghosts that still haunt the premises, and disable any traps, and then she'll estimate how long anyone that isn't a Force-sensitive could stay in the tomb without their minds being twisted, and go from there.

Clearing out the tomb might take a few days, so she's packed for them. Ration bars, canteens, water purification tablets, and other such necessities. If she runs out of supplies she can always retreat back outside, but she'd like to get the tomb cleared out in one trip.

Unfortunately for her, she barely even makes it past the threshold before the scenery abruptly changes, and the oppressive feeling of the dark side dissipates. Instead of a dark tomb, she's in a forest of some kind.

She frowns, and begins carefully searching her new environment. This tomb just got a lot more interesting.

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We weren’t even testing for that

Fri, 20 May 2016 14:18:25 GMT

Posted by: synchrosyntheses

Among the information she has archived or cached, there are obscure theories about inter-universal interactions. Not how they might happen, much less how any intelligence might begin one, or target it meaningfully.

But they give some constraints on the properties of such connections, and their time evolution.

This highly speculative information is available to her, but even were she fast enough to access it, none of it would be particularly useful when a pinpoint of not here blinks into existence directly ahead and expands spherically to swallow her.

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Searching Far and Wide

Tue, 17 May 2016 19:16:20 GMT

Posted by: intricate_engineer

Glen was creating a prototype for a new gate design. It was meant to be affordable and provide quick transport between individual homes. She tests several objects and a rat and everything seems to be working.

She steps through. Instead of finding herself in the room next door, she finds herself standing on a sidewalk in an empty city. The buildings are tall and perfect, colorless with doorways far too tall for any human. The roads have no straight lines and twist in on themselves. There is no life or sound.
Glen tries to stay calm. She begins to walk along the road, randomly opening doors and exploring buildings that are as silent as the rest of the world.

She opens a door that she hopes will lead onto a roof and is instead met with warmth, and soft noise, and color.

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milliways, the lurking thereof

Mon, 18 Apr 2016 21:02:21 GMT

Posted by: andaisq

A few years ago, Deekin would have been very cavalier about this weird demiplane that just inserted itself into the Underdark, much as he was about basically everything. Times have changed, though; now Tynan is a factor, so instead of skipping merrily towards the bar, Deekin keeps his crossbow high and his stance low, even as the baby pokes his head out of his rucksack and babbles merrily.

...This place doesn't seem to be dangerous in any way.

This is intensely suspicious.

But after a quick casting of See Invisibility, a nip of Barkskin potion for Tynan, and a nice loud Curse Song in case someone's still hiding somewhere, Deekin feels comfortable enough to sit at the very polite bar and get free drinks. (Tynan gets some kind of strange black milk, which he obviously enjoys. Deekin gets something he thinks might be apple cider with a shot of cow blood, which is very nice even if it does kind of remind him of Tymofarrar.)

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Delightfully Strange

Tue, 12 Apr 2016 19:09:53 GMT

Posted by: magictechsupport

At the end of the universe,

A man steps into a bar and looks around. "Huh, nobody told me they installed a break room here."

With Slayer Juliet.

With Kappa's Dagna.

With Eclipse!Bell.

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all's fair in love and war

Fri, 08 Apr 2016 17:41:39 GMT

Posted by: actualantichrist

The four of them are sitting two-thirds of the way up an old live oak, passing around a canteen of tinny water and talking about magic.

Em wants it more than anyone. The rest of them all think she should be a psion, but she wants to be a mage, wants to paint the sky with fireworks and make clean energy and maybe become an astronaut and figure out a way to avoid the rocket equation.

Reuben, whose upcoming eclipse in March started the whole conversation, says he doesn't want powers at all and if he gets any he'll have them shut down. He wants to be a priest when he grows up, which the rest of them all agree is objectively way lamer than either mage or psion.

Faith, like any sane person, is hoping she'll eclipse, but she doesn't want it with Em's desperate hunger. If she doesn't get cool magic powers, she'll find something else awesome to do with her life. Right now she's thinking she wants to discover a new element (or maybe a new planet, she hasn't decided) and get it named after her. Fides, from the Latin for her name.

In the end, it's Jay who gets powers from his eclipse, and that doesn't work out so well for him.

The three of them are huddled together at Jay's funeral, Reuben in the stark cassock and surplice of an altar server, Em staring up at the sky like she's willing it to open up and rain fire and vengeance. Or at least rain.

The sky stays stubbornly blue. "My eclipse is in February," Faith says blankly, looking up at the moon and she sun in the sky together, so she doesn't look down at her friend's coffin instead. "Maybe I'll be the one who figures out how to bring back the dead. Maybe I can still fix everything."

"Faith, no," Reuben says, softly. "You can't think that way. You have to let him go. I hope -- I hope you don't eclipse, I couldn't bear if--"

"I don't have to do anything I don't want to," Faith retorts. "Just because you're scared--"

"Don't," Em says. "Not now. Just don't."

Faith eclipses anyway. She doesn't actually get a choice.

Virtuality is incredibly lame. She can't actually do anything, not for real. But she comes out of it with her new powers, and it's the most amazing thing that's ever happened to Faith. She can get people's attention, make them listen instead of laughing because she's young or female or a sub, and it's not easy but it's right, like catching a pitched ball perfectly and feeling it slam into your hand. People throw their attention all over the place, and she can fix that, help them pay attention to important things.

Like what she has to say.

School is boring, so Faith tells her parents she wants to be homeschooled, and what do you know, they listen. (She doesn't make them agree, of course. Even if she could, that would be horrible. She just helps them really sit down and listen to her, and understand how important this is and how carefully she's thought about it.) When she's ready she applies to the local college, and her resume is okay but the interviewer thinks she really stands out.

College is way better than high school. Class discussions are fun! Her favorite are classes with participation grades. She always gets A's in those.

They're standing by the grave when the two of them turn on her.

They tell her all the things she's been hearing her whole life, things she'd thought her friends would never say to her. They tell her that she shouts too loud, dreams too big, talks too much, that she acts before thinking, that she needs to stop. They want her to stop using her powers, to make herself less, to make herself normal.

Faith just stands there, too devastated to speak, and she cries, and when they're done she tells them that they're right, that she understands, that she's going to transfer colleges and stay with her mother's cousin and make a new start, meet new people whose minds she's never touched.

They let her go.

They were supposed to be her friends.

Faith doesn't know her aunt all that well, but of course Aunt Kelly is happy to have her niece stay with her for college. Faith's transfer application gets processed with perfect efficiency once she shows up to the office of the registrar and helpfully lets them know she really does need it dealt with soon. Kansas is no Texas, but it's okay, it'll do.

Her first class is apparently history of philosophy, which sounds unbearably boring, but it's a core requirement, so while Faith's advisor agrees that she should clearly be allowed to take something more interesting instead, no one actually seems to have the authority to make that happen. So: ancient philosophy it is.

Faith arrives early and sits in the front. After all, she'll surely have helpful insights to contribute!

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New Working Environment

Tue, 05 Apr 2016 21:02:29 GMT

Posted by: rockeye_stonetoe

It's an average day. Nick the fairy is poking at one of his little electronics projects, paying attention to the incoming summons with half a brain, trying to grab one. But while a lot of fairies get summoned, equally many are looking out for summons. It takes a while unless you're really focusing on it.

He starts an automated test and gives the stream of summons his full attention, and gets one a moment later.

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worlds apart

Thu, 17 Mar 2016 23:44:56 GMT

Posted by: sturdycoldsteel

The Fate who calls herself Mountain tried to convince some of her neighbors to allow the occasional mountain in their lands, for stability purposes.

"I meant no insult!" Dodge ball of lava. "I don't intend to interfere, you said no!" Dodge house-sized spear of ice. "I'm leaving peacefully, okay, so stop tearing up the tile!"

"You'll respawn at home. No permanent damage. You interrupted an important meeting, you need to learn a lesson about territory, mountain bitch." Dodge- no, fail to dodge a thrown tree, and then another ice ball. Survivable, but it put her in a perfect position to be hit by a sphere of magma and disintegrated by the sheer heat.

She wakes up, stripped of all her tools and enchantments and even clothes, and groans in pain.

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Wander about looking dismayed

Tue, 15 Mar 2016 02:12:49 GMT

Posted by: aestrix

There is a certain reason why wandering around outside by yourself while looking dismayed and thinking about your troubles might get you a bit more than sore feet, burrs in your shoes, and catharsis.

Sometimes, you might just find a mysterious old woman. It's hard to tell them apart from perfectly ordinary old women, just the way mist curls around her feet or for the way her eyes catch the light a bit too well, or other telling signs of mysteriousness. Those vary, though, and often it's quite a good idea to err on the side of caution with these things, and take care with heeding their advice.

While their advice often is a very bizarre set of instructions, following them perfectly will get you exactly the result the mysterious old woman advertised, without fail. If she advertises a fixed roof if you were to weave a net made of reeds picked only at midnight on a new moon and then drape it over your roof at sunrise, or a full stomach if you filled a large pot with clear water, acorns, and fresh wildflowers and put it over a fire and leave it to simmer for four hours, you will get a fixed roof or a pot filled with delicious stew. If you follow the instructions exactly.

If you don't, you could get something else entirely.

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No One Here Would Understand As Well As Me

Mon, 14 Mar 2016 21:29:24 GMT

Posted by: here_together

It's probably harder for most people to stay off the grid than you would think, but when you have unusual enough (and useful enough) talents, there's always someone willing to help you out, in exchange for something only you can give them. (Incentives. Supply and demand. The carrot is so much more useful than the stick--and so much less likely to get you hurt in return.) And their magic (it has to be their magic, even when they're a her instead of a they, otherwise the investiture would just fall apart) is uncommonly useful.

Right now they (definitely a they, right now) are kicking back and relaxing in a little no-tell motel. There's free wifi, at least, and the employee who discretely got them a room in exchange for clearing up a few issues also snuck them some decently filling snacks, so they're pretty much good to go until they decide to do something else. Or something interesting happens.

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Time Rift

Sun, 13 Mar 2016 01:10:34 GMT

Posted by: hasbeendispatched

All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.

The two Elements resolve themselves in a span of verdant forest. In one direction, waves crash against a shoreline which is too much a line to be natural. In another, a jagged rift of oily black and red absolutely reeks time disturbance, mayhem creeping through it like tentacles -- Sapphire can feel the fabric of time tugged in that direction as it whizzes like a spindle out of control, tugging a thread to unravel.

Bizarre, Sapphire comments. We are very far from home. This is a young place.

This is out of control. Operatives should have been sent much sooner, Steel replies, striding towards the monstrosity.

The earth shakes, suddenly, making the trees sway and creak. Steel remains stock-still, feet firmly planted, but Sapphire stumbles and nearly falls before Steel extends a hand to catch her.

It's very strong, Steel, she sends, pressed against his side. We must find the source of the disturbance.

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An Unexpected Part in the Sea

Sat, 05 Mar 2016 21:32:23 GMT

Posted by: whatamithinking

There is a bar. The bar is quite pleasantly outfitted, with booths and tables and a lovely fireplace with couches in front of it. The couches must be quite comfortable, because a young woman is sleeping on one of them as though it were the grandest featherbed. Or perhaps that's just exhaustion. She—and the other woman in this currently otherwise-empty establishment—are both plenty the worse for wear. To an inexperienced eye, it might seem only as if they had been out camping for a while, from the roughness of their clothes, but if you know how to look—that's the sleep of one who's found decent sleep a precious commodity for a long time. And her sister, the one whose eyes you can see—those are the eyes of someone who's found an unanticipated path out of Hell, an unexpected part in the Red Sea.

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proceed to new world (do not ask questions, do not collect delightful prizes)

Tue, 23 Feb 2016 22:01:58 GMT

Posted by: space_between

Here is a young woman curled up on a bed, shivering, having thrown off her blankets when she woke earlier.

She is asleep. For now.

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A Rose, Unnaturally

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 17:25:46 GMT

Posted by: four_is_death

The lockpicks slide against each other with a gentle metal-on-metal sheeee, then click solidly into place.

Sophia smiles beneath her mask. "Got it."

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Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 15:19:40 GMT

Posted by: whatamithinking

Edie has mixed feelings about the roses.

On the one hand, magic exists.

On the other hand, ow.

On the first hand, perfect healing.

On the second hand, ow.

On the first hand, flight.

On the second hand, holy fucking ow that one's definitely the worst, yep, ow ow ow.

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Ring Around the Rosie

Tue, 16 Feb 2016 22:25:47 GMT

Posted by: iamnotpolaris

Niagara Falls is gorgeous, but there's only so long you can stand at the railing staring at it. Emily is, therefore, giving her feet a rest with one of the convenient benches and snapping photos of miscellaneous attractive objects.

She isn't taking pictures of specific people, because, privacy, but in a crowded place like this you can't exactly complain if you happen to be in frame when someone's trying to take a picture of a rainbow or a flower. Or if someone happens to notice your bracelet when the sleeve of your hoodie rides up a little. Or that it's not actually a bracelet, but some kind of...vine? With thorns?

Okay, they could probably complain some about her getting up to follow them, but it would bother Emily for weeks if she never found out whether she had seen wrong or not.

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Most Likely A Refuge

Sat, 13 Feb 2016 06:03:13 GMT

Posted by: whatamithinking

It was probably safe.

The bar was...unusually reticent, in the lower layers of her mind (and she hadn't pried further; she wasn't sure if she'd be noticed; she wasn't sure if offending would get her kicked out, and regardless of whether it was actually safe it was safer than anywhere else she'd been for the past...three years?) so she couldn't be sure this place wasn't really a trap of some kind, but the higher layers gave a plausible explanation that didn't involve being a trap, and whatever else it was warm and dry and had food. Her guard was probably a full 25% down. Positively trusting, these days.

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Part of your world

Sat, 13 Feb 2016 02:30:55 GMT

Posted by: light_another_life

Sea monsters aren't typically in this area, but sometimes things can go wrong and a sea beast will rise up from the depths to try and drag the ship down with them to munch on the tasty humans inside. Sometimes when this happens, the ship gets away, if the people on it are clever or have the right enchanted items or have a particular talent for magic. More often than not, though - they don't.

So even when a sea monster attack is very, very unlikely, if Lirlaveth notices a ship anywhere nearby, she'll put what she's doing on hold and quietly follow the ship to make sure it's not going to be attacked by a murderous monster that wants to eat humans. Or, if it is, to help prevent the humans from becoming food.

She's spotted one such ship, and so even though it means putting her study into enchantment on hold, she goes to follow it to make sure it'll be all right. Probably just paranoia (sea beast attacks aren't that common), but it might turn out to be justified one day.

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My bunny slippers just ran for cover

Fri, 05 Feb 2016 22:10:34 GMT

Posted by: will_you_still

Morgan doesn't strictly need to sleep. Even if she didn't want to put up with the annoyance of constantly having a caffeine buzz and having to ask for coffee on almost every summon, there are naps. Naps can keep a daeva going for quite a long time.

But there's something unutterably pleasant about curling up in a proper bed in pajamas and just sleeping. And then waking up and getting breakfast in those pajamas. So she does that, because immortality's a long unpleasant time if you don't enjoy the little things every now and then. Like adorable bunny slippers and soft pajamas and sleeping in.

She's midway through a fruity salad thing that counts as the standard fairy breakfast when she feels the summon. Showing up to a summon in pajamas? Eh. If they're proper summoners she bets they've seen worse, and she doesn't particularly care if they think she's unprofessional.

She puts her spoon down and accepts the summon.

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Mountain, meet Endbringer

Wed, 03 Feb 2016 18:07:34 GMT

Posted by: sturdycoldsteel

The Fate who calls herself Mountain tried to convince some of her neighbors to allow the occasional mountain in their lands, for stability purposes.

"I meant no insult!" Dodge ball of lava. "I don't intend to interfere, you said no!" Dodge house-sized spear of ice. "I'm leaving peacefully, okay, so stop tearing up the tile!"

"You'll respawn at home. No permanent damage. You interrupted an important meeting, you need to learn a lesson about territory, mountain bitch." Dodge- no, fail to dodge a thrown tree, and then another ice ball. The next sphere of magma is what destroyed that form.

She wakes up, stripped of all her tools and enchantments and even clothes, and groans in pain.

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stones and sticks

Sun, 31 Jan 2016 20:07:05 GMT

Posted by: sturdycoldsteel

Sometimes she just has to get away from the city. Kell and Durant are very firmly on top, and don't much care who they squish anymore. All the little ways they change the city to benefit themselves grate on her nerves. And she knows her strengths lie in magic and engineering, not politics, so when she gets in this kind of mood the only thing for it is to leave for a while.

She's exploring the wilderness near the Western Peaks. Solid stone mountains, sheer cliffs, snow. Harsh but beautiful landscape. One day she wanders into a little valley nestled between two ridges. It would have been hard to find if she was actually looking for it. Near the center is an ancient stone circle of some kind. It reminds her of the bluestream-activating circles, but the pattern of stones is unfamiliar and the bluestream that used to lie there is of course long gone.

She rebalances her backpack (good exercise, lifting a pack without the stream) and starts investigating the stones and ground for writing or inscriptions. She steps into the circle to look on the other side of a stone-

Wait. What. WHERE AM I?

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Entering without the breaking

Sat, 30 Jan 2016 00:40:33 GMT

Posted by: all_too_familiar

So, Savril has picked out a nice little mage estate that promises to have some interesting books he hasn't stolen copies of yet, and defenses that can be cracked. It's not the easiest of all houses, because - well, he's already broken into all of the easy ones. He is on intermediate difficulty for burglary. But since the triplets broke into the Larivias house (which had, from Savril's acquaintance with sneakery, made it past intermediate difficulty before they teleported inside) they're cleared to come along after the place has been properly cased.

That is, if they have parental permission. Savril does not want to upset the parents of terrifying children. Parents of terrifying children tend to also be terrifying themselves.

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Pleasant walk in the woods

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 01:15:53 GMT

Posted by: all_too_familiar

Blair has gotten neater with his hunting. Comes with hunting so much. He regularly drinks until he feels like he'd ooze blood if poked with something sufficiently sharp - his sister will be safe from him. She'll be a vampire eventually, but until then, frequent and gluttonous hunting trips.

He's just had one such trip, and feels vaguely sloshy. Despite this, his clothes are in perfect condition. Good job, Blair, you've learned tablemanners. Back home he goes.

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