fallen_star | 01 -- Video/Commentlog

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[Oh no, Keep! According to what you're seeing in your journal, an entire room has been set ablaze! That, or the journal is simply on fire. Neither of these options are very pleasant, but luckily Calcifer is smart enough not to eat any, apparently magical, books without first knowing what they do! So rest easy. No harm shall come to your precious literature just yet.

Like a spooky spirit, a disembodied voice chimes in with quite some sass to his tone.]

I have to say, I've heard of wizards trying to con people or trick them into some cruel contracts. But trying to tell us the entire universe was unmade? That's some thick wool you're trying to pull over everyone's eyes, Deior.

[A faint crackle, like burning wood, is present in this voice; now giving a tired yet accepting sigh.]

Still, the book is an okay gift. You must have been following Howl 'n I to know my name, so maybe you're just a fan. It looks like there are other people here, according to this thing. Can anyone hear this? How long has this kidnapping thing been going on?

[Anyone hanging around the third floor of the barracks might just turn a corner and see a ball of fire hovering straight towards them! Once Calcifer manages to make it out of his room, he'll be roaming the halls, pausing to stare at one of the torches or some of the furniture occasionally.]

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[The fuck is that.]

[No, seriously. What is that. Is it...? It's talking about wizards.]

[It's talking about wizards and it's a thing made of fire. Maybe... maybe it's like her...]

Who are you?

So these are connected to other books! That's pretty useful.

[A pair of little flames, obviously eyes, pops up inches from the journal.]

Who am I? I'm Calcifer. Free and mighty fire demon!

[The flames swirl and flare up violently, very pleased to be able to say that "Free" bit for once.]

Who are you?

Fire... demon?

[Holy shit. She just sort of stares for a second. Wide-eyed.]

You're... you're an elemental?

You got it right the first time, but yeah I guess some people would call me an "elemental".

[Maybe it takes away the menacing feeling one gets when using "Demon" or something. Ah well, nothin' to complain about, 'long as he's still a great and powerful elemental.]

You've heard about my type, huh? I guess Deior would have a fire demon, if he's strong enough to pull us here.

You still haven't said your name, lady. Don't you have manners or somethin'?

[Humans these days.]

I've... heard of you, yeah. Back home. I know an elemental.

[Because it lives in her head. More or less.]

Makenna.

[Last name basis is always safer with supernatural things. It's less personal. Less of a Name.]

You know one? Not that it's any of my business or anything, but be careful around my type. Nothing good comes from getting too close to us. Still, if you're not dead yet I guess you know what you're doin'.

[There's bound to be others in the world, but Calcifer really only knew of one fire demon aside from himself, and it came very close to killing him. There's no doubt that any other would try the same.]

Anyhow, Makenna, I'm guessing you're a "guest" too?

Yeah, I... kind of have that one figured out by now. I'm just sort of making this shit up though. Y'know. As I go.

[This one is a lot more congenial than her elemental. It talks like a normal person too.]

[This is... sort of surreal.]

More like 'captive', but yeah.

Yeah, that's pretty smart if you're good at that sort of thing. Thinking on your feet and all of that. Howl's pretty good at that... I guess.

[More lucky than quick-thinking, but still.]

I had a feeling I wasn't the only one. How many people has this Deior fellow managed to kidnap? Has anyone actually seen him around, or does he have people to do his talkin' for him?

[Maybe he likes to act more like a king than a wizard.]

Who's Howl?

I dunno. I'm kind of new. But I don't think anyone's seen him.

Howl used to be the guy I was linked to. A pretty strong wizard- don't tell him I said that if you see him- that made me do all sorts of work and hard labor! Now he's more of a friend I have to keep lookin' out for.

[Speaking of which, Calcifer is really going to have to look around for him or Sophie pretty soon. Hopefully he's not alone here.]

That's too bad. You've probably been here longer than me, anyways. I'll get us out of here eventually.

[Just need to find out where to start...]

Linked to? ... And... you got away? I mean, you separated? I didn't think that was possible.

[She raises an eyebrow -- the confusion turning to skepticism.]

Oh yeah?

Well yeah, contracts can be broken just like anything else. It's not easy to do, though. At all. I almost gave up on ever being able to explore and be free, but look at me now!

[With that, Calcifer backs away from the journal to show a hovering little ball of fire with a big smile. He does a quick float around the room before focusing back in on the book.]

And sure! It wouldn't be the first time I've gotten myself out of the hands of some trouble-maker. This Deior guy's still human like any other wizard, I'd wager.

[He's seeming to forget how he would have been smothered out without Howl and Sophie.]

It's... a contract? That's all it is? I... thought it was something, y'know, a lot more binding and permanent. Not until death shall you part, kind of thing.

[Maybe not even then. She doesn't know. Hell, she doesn't even know her elemental's name.]

If he's even here at all. Most people think he's not.

Not really a contract, like a paper contract. They're usually way more binding than that. I was actually pretty sure it would never have been broken until Sophie walked in the door. I mean, when Howl caught me he gave me his heart to keep me alive. That's a pretty heavy thing.

[It almost feels unusual, finally being able to say this and everything. Before, he couldn't talk about any of this because of the deal.]

He'd bound to be here... Somewhere. I'm sure.

His... heart?

As in, ripped out of his chest in a fountain of juicy gore? Or metaphoric, here take my heart and soul, sort of deal?

A little of both? Or, most of both actually. Not quite so much blood as you'd think, but I definitely held his literal heart inside of my core while I was bound to the hearth of his castle.

[There's a sly smile. Maybe because he does enjoy the occasional reaction he gets from telling regular people this.]

In exchange, I shared my power with him and helped him be the great, according to him, wizard he is today.

That... I've never heard of anything like that. Ever.

I mean... even the elementals don't... do that.

You haven't? Maybe we're not talkin' about the same elementals er demons? I've heard of other demons takin' other things in exchange for power, maybe.

What are they like where you're from?

Primus, this place just keeps getting stranger and stranger.

A golem or something, huh?

[From the looks of it, there's some pretty heavy magic at work if this thing can speak so clearly.]

You're looking pretty strange yourself there. Got to say, I've never seen anything like you around. Is Primus your maker, or wizard or something?

That'd depend on if you were the religious type or not. What are you anyway?

Religious type? Oh, so he's a sort of big creator to... Well, golems.

[He's not going to lie and say he's very well educated in the ways of other magical creatures.]

Haven't you ever seen a fire demon before? Because I'm one of the best ones out there. Calcifer's my name. What about you?

I am not a golem. I am a mechanical being from the planet Cybertron.

[A beat.]

My name is Starscream. And demons do not exist.

[He says even as fire is both looking at him and talking.]

Mechanical.

[He says it bluntly, without any meaning behind it as if hoping he'll suddenly understand what exactly it means to be mechanical and, apparently, sentient.]

So you're from another planet entirely?

[That nonexistent comment earns a disgruntled flaring up of this DEMON.]

Demons definitely exist, and you ought to start believing because you're talkin' to one, buddy! I've never seen any "mechanical beings" in my many years, but obviously they exist somewhere. On some planet that's never heard of respect for powerful fire beings apparently.

Where I come from fire is just that fire. Unable to speak. Burns out. Scientifically impossible to exist...

[Weird fire creature you.]

[Fire shouldn't be able to speak. Jetfire stares quietly for nearly half a breem before he activates his own journal and actually speaks.]

As far as my inquiries have found, close to a year, if I'm not off.

... What.. er, are you? Fire contains too little energy, and, ah, needs constant fuel that is rather... stationary, to facilitate an energy-based being...

[Yet there was obviously an intelligence contained in that somewhere.]

Another one? How many of you guys are there here?

[Maybe these big things are workin' here, like guards or something.]

A whole year? Hasn't anyone tried to come lookin' for all these missing people? It can't be that easy to hide this place. And hey! I've got loads of energy, pal. I'm not just some run-of-the-mill fire, neither.

In case word hasn't gotten around yet, there's a new fire demon here and that's me!

Presently, there's three of us.

And no, apparently no one has. Which doesn't really lend strength so much to the original "explanation" we're given in the letter, as some circumstantial evidence that time here flows differently, so that we wouldn't be missed...

The fire is merely a representation, or expression of the energy you're made of, then?

... demon?

[The question isn't so much an expression of incredulity to the fact that Calcifer's claiming to be a demon, as confusion over the term itself.]

Three, huh? I dunno about that letter, but I suppose I'll believe it when I see it. I've witnessed some heavy duty spells, but nothing that could take out the whole universe.

[Someone still thinks this is a load of hooey.]

I guess it is. I don't really know much about your science business but yeah, demon. They don't have demons where you're from, or something? Makes sense, since we don't have any of you around Ingary.

I'm unsure if I believe it, and the very situation would be an oxymoron, but I doubt an ontological cataclysm would be caused by a... spell.

[Really, he can... somewhat... accept that magic exists, but... Well. He'd rather consider it as little as possible.]

As I'm unsure what a "demon" is, except for clearly not being an animal of any sort that fits into a conventional ecosystem, unless you come from an energy-based world, I can't say one way or another.

[But, eyeing the view he currently has of the ball of flame, he'd be inclined to say "no, we don't." But he's not going to unless he can be sure of what a demon is.]

Well what else could it be, if it even happened? And I'm definitely not an animal. A demon is... Well, it's more of a name given to us by people I guess. I used to be a star, until I started to fall. I guess sometime after I fell, I was considered a demon.

[It's not really something Calcifer has thought deeply about. He's mostly just accepted the title as something to take pride in.]

That's not all, though. Falling stars usually die, but I was lucky enough to have Howl catch me and give me his heart. You haven't happened to have seen him around, have you? Tall guy with bright hair. Probably being dragged around by his ear by a brown haired lady?

Mmm. An experiment perhaps... As long as time flows differently here, us being taken from our home dimensions wouldn't be noticed... Er.

[That... "explanation" leaves Jetfire quite... stunned at first. More... "magic", of course.]

Stars... are large collections of several different superheated gasses, and while I suppose an energy being could live in a star... A star itself... can't, er. Really fall.

[Attempting to apply science? Attempting to apply science. But he's more tiredly exasperated than stubborn about it, and rubs a hand over his lower faceplates. Apparently the Sunstorm situation was only the beginning of things that do not quite (or at all) make sense.]

Ah... no, I haven't. He might be here, and yet not made an entry, though.

[Even Sunstorm had made more sense - been more consistent - than all the various situations and people here at the Keep.]

Edited (forgot part of the tag) 2012-04-25 17:21 (UTC)

If that's all true, then it's one of those things that's definitely... Gonna take awhile to make sense of. Even for me. And if it IS true, it's safe to say that we're not from the same uh. Dimension, is it?

[How in the world does that even work?]

Well maybe where you're from that's what your stars are, but where I'm from, stars are living spirits! 'Least until they fall. Uh... Hm.

[The little ball of fire hovers a bit lower to the ground now, shrinking and turning a darker red. From the look on his face, he's deep in thought and trying to process all of this.]

Yeah maybe. He probably didn't even open his book. Ah well, I'm sure he'll show up eventually.

[Hopefully. Calcifer still isn't completely sure if what Jetfire is saying is true, but if somehow it is, then it's definitely going to take a little longer to get home.]

Dimension, yes, and probably not. Even a lack of information, or differing explanations for the same things wouldn't give the... ah, extremely diverging reality we both take for granted, as in the case of our stars.

[He still doesn't understand how the idea that stars would be living spirits (energy beings?) would work, but a different dimension... would be a different dimension.]

Hopefully, he will. It's never pleasant to end up somewhere unexpected all alone... The book is somewhat easy to miss, unless you're laid towards thoroughly exploring your surroundings, after all.

Wow, then... I feel like this would be much more amazing if we weren't meeting under these circumstances. Like I'm expected to have a world of questions for someone from an entirely different dimension...

[Calcifer can't wrap his head around the idea that stars wouldn't be alive somewhere.]

No, it's not pleasant at all. I should know. I don't think anyone's going to arrive here very pleased, to be honest.

[That causes Jetfire to chuckle a bit.]

I'm sure I, or whoever else you might want to ask questions of, would be willing to answer them if you come up with some later. We do have... time... after all.

[Unfortunately.]

If they do, I assume the situation that they came from would either be quite exceptional, or particularly dismal, so that this would be the better choice.

I'll be sure to memorize some, then. This is a pretty important thing, after all. But we're probably not the only two here that are from different dimensions, are we? Any residents with particularly hostile backgrounds?

[If he's gonna be settling in, he'll need to know what to watch out for.]

I believe the majority of... ah, guests here come from different dimensions; only a few ever share the same. Most are alone, or have one or two from their own realities.

[The last question has Jetfire frowning in thought, before he slowly shakes his helm.]

None as I am aware, but that wouldn't necessarily mean there are none. There's been... circumstances and situations of death and killing, but we don't know who until after they've been... punished, for it.

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