[RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

Post by Shade »

And so they leave, if not exactly voluntarily. It seems that Ashley knows where to go from here, however. A good thing Alice has someone to rely on...
After another somewhat lengthy trip, during which everyone has talked a bit with each other to brighten their mood up a bit, they arrive at a town with susprisingly strong walls. Definitely a larger and more fortified settlement than the ones she's used to. It seems that the invaders have been here as well, but failed to take over the town.
Once they're inside, it quickly becomes clear to Alice that Ashley wasn't joking when she told her the Kennsfords weren't well-liked in the least. It seems unfair. Ashley appears to be a genuinely good-hearted person. Why are they so harsh towards her? What did she ever do to them? Is something as meaningless as a name really enough to be cursed for all eternity?
Once they arrive at their destination, Alice can no longer hold back herself.
"Ashley, this is terrible! Why are all these people so harsh towards you when you haven't done anything to them!?"
Would they still be such jerks towards Ashley if they knew that this entire group of girls would be dead if it weren't for her help?
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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Ashley walks over to one of the small plants decorating the entrance which have been in a bad state for a while now. She sticks her hand into a small opening and retrieves a keyring with multiple dusty keys, and proceeds to use each one of them to unlock the door while answering Alice's question.
"It's a fairly long story... but I've made a pretty bad reputation for myself with my lifestyle. It seems that you can't just do what you enjoy and still make good in everyone else's eyes on it." As she talks, an old man walks past.
"Kennsford, how long has it been since you bought clothes? That shirt is obviously many sizes too small to be even somewhat decent."
"So I have managed to make an even worse name for the Kennsfords than there was before my parents left this world through various... ehm, activities."
As she says this, the last chain falls away and the door is free to open. Ashley grips the rusty knob and turns it. After a few tries, it gives way and the large wooden door swings open. The dusty windows cast some light into the room, but it is otherwise unlit. She leads Alice and the girls into the expansive entrance hall. A large chandelier without any apparent candles hangs precariously from the roof, and the staircase leading to the next floor is broad.
"The only good thing that came from losing my family is that I have a massive pile of money if I ever need it, and a pretty huge house too. There's easily enough room for you all to stay here for the time being. As you can tell, it's been a very long time since I've been here, so any food I might have had around will be spoiled. I'll have to go and buy some more. Does anybody have something particular they like to eat? I'm no gourmet cook, but I can scratch together a fairly nice meal, I think..."
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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"But...!"
And yet another old man makes a snide remark about Ashley as he passes by. Don't these people have anything better to do!? It's so... ...painful... ...to watch this, not being able to do anything about it... ...especially because it's not Alice herself who gets the harsh treatment... However, she takes care to contain herself. Antagonizing the townsfolk about this matter would probably only make things worse...
In somewhat low spirits, she follows the others into the house. Two entirely different worlds clash with each other - the very elegant and luxurious design of the mansion's inside is covered by a thick layer of dull gray dust and pretty large cobwebs, some of which actually have spiders in them. It's a strange combination; it gives the impression of lifelessness... as if this place actively tried to suck all happiness out of whomever enters it. It almost looks like a ghost house... ...minus the ghosts.
"...losing your family is never a good thing. Please... please don't pretend otherwise in front of all of us."
Yet Ashley happily ignores Alice's remark and proceeds to ask the group what they'd like to eat. True, she's pretty hungry... It's been almost a day since she's last eaten something. The thirst actually is much worse, though...
"...pancakes would be nice... ...and maybe some cherry tea, if it's not too much trouble..."
She hesitates for a moment.
"I can help, if you don't mind..."
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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"Pancakes do sound pretty good. Oh, you'd like to help? Thankyou very much, that'd be great!"
Ashley wears a large smile on her face. She can't let it get to her, not yet.
"At the very least, I can get some warmer clothes now that we're here... I'll be back in a second, then we'll go to the market."
She leaves the girls in the entrance hall, and darts up the stairs, around and down the hall into the room she uses as hers when she's here. She opens the large dresser on the wall and selects a leather coat, with a chest design bearing the same crest as her vest. She also takes an undershirt with a higher neckline and longer sleeves than those of the one she's currently wearing, and proceeds to change into them. Once this is done, she opens the locked box on her desk and takes out a fairly heavy sack of gold coins.
Once she's returned to Alice and the girls, she gives them all another exaggerated smile.
"That last guy from outside did have a pretty good point. Well, shall we go, Alice?" Turning to the other girls, she says "We shouldn't be too long. Feel free to explore, make yourself at home, but just try not to break anything."
With that, they depart from the house, putting just one of the locks back on the door, and setting off down one of the wider roads in town, one that's properly paved with cream-coloured slabs. After about a minute, they reach a place found in most towns - the market. Tents and stalls are pitched everywhere, centred around a nice fountain display. Ashley pats Alice on the shoulder.
"Hopefully the coat will keep some of the remarks at bay..."
They circle around, gathering butter, flour, sugar, milk, water, and various other ingredients necessary for the spongy treats Alice desires. Ashley begins to think she should have brought a cart, because the stack of paper bags is beginning to weigh her down. At last, they reach the beverage-wares stand, fortunately run by one of Ashley's few friends in town.
"Greetings, Thomas! How have you been these past couple of years?"
"Aha, Ashley! It's good to see you again. I've been alright, I guess. Selling drinks gets a bit lonely. And yourself?"
"Traveling's definitely better than hanging around here and copping abuse from every second person that walks past. You wouldn't happen to have some cherry tea for Alice here, would you?"
When Thomas notices Alice standing next to Ashley, he smiles broadly. A couple of his teeth are missing further to either side, but his heart seems large.
"Ho, I didn't notice you'd brought a new friend. What's your story, young lady?"
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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While Ashley goes upstairs to change into warmer clothes, Alice looks around the house some more. If they're going to stay here from now on, there'll be a lot of cleaning to do! She tries to imagine just how great the mansion must look without all the dust... It's really amazing.
After just little more than a minute, they arrive at the market, prompting Ashley to pat Alice on the shoulder. Alice blushes a little. Ashley just has something motherly about her...
Loaded with entire paper bags full of ingredients - it must be enough for a dozen hungry girls, after all - they then arrive at the stand of someone Ashley actually seems to be friends with. It's a real relief to see that she has at least some friends among the townsfolk...
"Greetings, Thomas! How have you been these past couple of years?"
"Aha, Ashley! It's good to see you again. I've been alright, I guess. Selling drinks gets a bit lonely. And yourself?"
"Traveling's definitely better than hanging around here and copping abuse from every second person that walks past. You wouldn't happen to have some cherry tea for Alice here, would you?"
When Thomas notices Alice standing next to Ashley, he smiles broadly. A few of his teeth seem to be missing, but the smile seems genuine, and he's definitely a lot more sympathetic than the rest of the townsfolk she's met so far.
"Ho, I didn't notice you'd brought a new friend. What's your story, young lady?"
"Ah... I... ...owe my life to her. You probably wouldn't want to hear the details..."
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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When Alice concisely states her debt to Ashley, Ashley's face reddens slightly and she smiles inwardly. It's nice to hear expressions of gratitude occasionally. Thomas sighs exasperatedly at her response.
"Really? Phew, I was preparing for the worst there. Good to know you've been doing well for more than just yourself, hey, Ashley." After this, he turns and rummages around in the many fragrant boxes behind the counter of his stall. Eventually he turns back, holding a smaller paper bag with a strong aroma.
"Here you go, loose cherry tea. Enough for two good strong teapots' worth."
"Perfect as always, Tom. Thankyou very much, and take care." Adding the bag to her stack, Ashley nods a goodbye for lack of ability to do much else and heads off again, Alice not far behind. The journey back is taking a little bit longer because of their encumberment.
"Thanks for carrying so much, Alice. I'm surprised you're able to after what happened to your arms... inner strength, eh?"
As they walk, Ashley notices a young man she hasn't seen in town before. And goodness, is he attractive... An urge she hasn't felt for a while makes itself present. Just a couple sweet words and he'd be hers for an evening... tempting, tempting. And it's been so long, too. I really could use something to unwind... Her walking slows for a moment.
...No. I have to take care of the girls. That can wait. Noticing that she's stopped, Ashley quickens her pace again, and eventually they return to the mansion. Ashley sets her stack of bags down, and they thud despite her bringing them as close to the ground as feasible. She fumbles around in her pocket for the key to the lock on the door, and eventually finds and uses it. Once they enter the large entrance hall again, there's something distinctly different. A lot of the dust and cobwebs previously present is now gone! Moving further inside, Ashley sees six of the girls sweeping various parts of the place. An astonished look sweeps over her face. One of the girls that Ashley recognises as the one who pointed them in the direction of the town Zangan's troops had occupied, turns to her.
"I was looking around, and I found a closet with brooms and stuff... the other girls and I thought this was the least we could do to repay you for what you've done."
"I-I... I don't know what to say! Thankyou very much, all of you...!"
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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Alice gives Thomas a slightly intimidated look upon his response. He doesn't look like he took that very seriously at all... She ponders whether she should show him her injuries as proof, but then decides against it. Who knows? In the end the townsfolk might delude themselves into thinking it was Ashley who gave those injuries to her.
In notably low spirits again, she mumbles a weak "Thanks..." in Thomas' general direction and quickly follows Ashley back towards the mansion. She has some trouble carrying all those bags with her injuries, but as least her arms aren't completely numb anymore. It aches a bit, but it'll work, and it's not a long way anyway.
"They're not that heavy... And it's not like my arms are broken or anything. They're functional; it's just not very pleasant if I strain them too much."
Shortly afterwards, Ashley stops for a moment. Alice stops as well, looking around to see if something happened, but doesn't give it much more thought after Ashley quickly resumes her pace.
Upon their return to the mansion, Alice immediately notices that the dust is gone. She smiles. It's absolutely inspiring what they can achieve if they all work together!
"Then I shouldn't be idling about either... Leave the pancakes to me."

After a very enjoyable meal that greatly improved everyone's mood, Alice struggles to suppress a yawn. The sun's still up, but for obvious reasons, she hasn't had much sleep that night.
"I'm sorry... Could you show me where I can get some sleep? After all of that, I'm really weary."
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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"That was delicious. Dessert for dinner, that's my kind of meal."
Ashley notices Alice and the other girls all wearing fairly tired expressions. It seems it's time for the girls to get some sleep, which is fair enough. Everyone's had a hard day.
"If you go upstairs and around, basically every room down the hall is a bedroom. The second on the left is mine, so that's the only one that's off-limits. The beds are all large, so if anyone wants to share a room with someone else that's perfectly fine."
Ashleys leads all the girls up, and everyone settles into a room, Alice in an adjacent room to Ashley's. Ashley visits each occupied room and bids everyone goodnight, coming to Alice's room last of all.
"I want to say you've been doing a great job of coping, what with all that you've been through today. If you want, we can go to the local healer tomorrow and have those arms looked at. Good night, and sleep well, Alice." Following this, she plants a small kiss on Alice's forehead, and then quietly leaves the room and clicks the door shut. She stands in the hallway, wearing a very forced smile. I need some time to myself...
Once she's in her room, she takes off her boots and coat, then sits on the bed and lies back, limbs outstretched. Finally, she doesn't have to put up the facade anymore. Her thoughts come rushing back to her, with the responsibility of managing the girls gone for the night. I actually considered seducing that guy... at a time like this. What kind of woman am I? And then there's the townspeople, not even stopping to wonder how I ended up with those sweet little girls... just assuming the worst. I never did anything wrong... and neither did my family... it's not fair, it's not fair...
As much as she tries to hold it in, a couple of small sobs escape her as she lies there, feeling beaten.
And how long can I take care of eleven girls for, anyway? It's such a big workload...
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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Alice chooses one of the rooms directly next to Ashley's. A soft, comfortable bed is all she wants right now. She climbs onto the bed with a rather audible sigh. All of this is so nice... Yet frequently, if just for a short moment each time, an overwhelming feeling of sadness overcomes her. It'll probably be a long time until she'll really be able to have closure about all of this... She's not as strong emotionally as she's been pretending to be.
"Yeah, that would be great... Good night."
Then... A small kiss on her forehead. Alice immediately flushes red. Then, shortly after Ashley has left the room and shut the door, she sinks into the blanket and bursts into tears. That last act of comfort was too much. Her mind flooded with memories of her mother - memories of a life that she'll never again be able to experience - she slowly cries herself to sleep.
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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The next morning, Ashley awakens to the chirping of birds. Sun is shining through the window above and behind her head. The room is bathed in golden light. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she sits up, and swings her feet over the side of her bed. Noticing that there's still a good deal of dust on her floor, she sticks her feet into the soles of her boots and walks out the door without bothering to tie them. She checks the entrance hall, and sees it empty, but still looking marvelous after the girls cleant it. The girls... right, that's right... I have eleven orphans now. Actually, I don't know if they are all orphans. Heading back up the stairs, Ashley hears faint chatters from one of the rooms. It seems two of the girls who knew each other from before the bandit incident had slept together and are awake and talking. She opens the door slowly, smiles and says good morning to each of them.
"Morning, Monica, morning, Kate. How are you both?"
"Hello... I'm alright..." "Morning... having lost mummy is still making me feel sad." Monica nodded her agreement to Kate's statement. "Yeah... I miss daddy already..."
"It is tough... anyway, do you girls want to help me wake everyone else up?"
They spread out from that room, across the hall from Ashley's, visiting the other four rooms, and at last, Alice's. Ashley knocked twice and opened the door.
"Wakey wakey... morning, Alice."
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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She frantically turns around - yet no matter where she looks, it's everywhere! And behind the flames, piercing the veil of absolute blackness, a pair of demonic red eyes... Suddenly, huge black claws extend from the darkness--
"Wakey wakey... morning, Alice."
"!!"
Alice wakes up, startled. She immediately sits upright. Ashley is standing right next to her, and the morning sun is shining through the window. She can hear the chirping of birds outside. It was just a dream... ...better not to give it too much thought.
Noticing the worried expression on Ashley's face, she quickly sorts her thoughts and finally replies.
"Ah... Sorry. Good morning."
She instinctively reaches for her hairband... ...only to notice she's still wearing it. Oops. Yesterday was such a rough day that she actually forgot to take it off before going to sleep.
After getting up she puts her boots back on, stretches her arms until a suppressed "Ouch...!" escapes her and finally adds, pretending that nothing happened:
"Ah... You said you wanted to take me to a healer, right?"
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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"That's right... we'll see to that as soon as possible after breakfast. And you looked like you were having a really bad dream... you alright?"
Ashley takes all of the girls downstairs and is halted by a loud rumbling in her stomach.
"Oh, right... breakfast. If only I'd thought of this yesterday. Well, I guess it's small pancakes for us all! We'll have a big lunch to make up for it, hmm?"
After scrounging up some rather insubstantial flapjacks for everyone's breakfast, Ashley leaves most of the girls in the mansion for the time being, on the understanding that they should be able to take care of themselves for the time this will take, and heads off to the local healer's place with Alice by her side.
No-one else seemed to have an important injury today, so the two go right through to see the healer.
"Ah, Kennsford. I'd heard you were back in town. You look to be okay though, so what's your business?" An aging man with a deep, rumbling voice and a shaven chin spoke to her.
"Hello, John. I was hoping you could have a look at little Alice here, she's got some nasty injuries on both arms." John leaned close to her, inspecting the wounds.
"Fairly ragged cuts... how deep are they, I wonder... this won't hurt a bit." He takes some powder from a nearby bag and sprinkles it over the wounds, and within a few seconds it feels like they're barely there. He takes a measuring stick and pokes it inside.
"Hmm, they were fairly serious, but they're already healing well. Are they working fine?"
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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A bit quieter than usual, Alice follows Ashley downstairs. She remains silent throughout the breakfast, buried in thought about the past, the present, the future... ...and that dream.
A short while later, the two of them go to the healer's place as planned. The waiting room is surprisingly empty, allowing them to go right through to see the healer, an aging man with a deep, rumbling voice and a shaven chin. After Ashley explains why they're here, he takes a look at Alice's arms.
"Fairly ragged cuts... how deep are they, I wonder... this won't hurt a bit."
He takes some powder from a nearby bag and sprinkles it over the wounds, and within a few seconds it feels like they're barely there. That's the work of magic all right.
"Hmm, they were fairly serious, but they're already healing well. Are they working fine?"
"Yes, I just can't stress them very much."
"Then you should be fine. I think we can leave the rest to your body's natural healing capabilities, but if somethings happens, just come see me again."
Alice nods.
"Now, that just leaves one question... Where exactly did you even get those from? Cuts as deep as those don't happen by accident."
He gives Ashley a doubting look. Alice notices this, and decides she cannot hold back her feelings any longer.
"Why are all people here so hostile towards her!? I owe her my life! These cuts? I'll tell you. I got them when a crazy maniac working together with the bandits who destroyed my home was about to kill me. If Ashley hadn't interfered, he surely wouldn't have stopped after being done with just my arms."
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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"I, I see... It's not like I had suspected Ms. Kennsford of bringing them about... Well, I haven't really done anything here, so I won't charge either of you... uhm, take care."
"Sorry about that... goodbye." Ashley quickly ushers the noticeably irritated Alice out of the building, and starts heading for the house again.
"What was that all about? Nothing was wrong there..."
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Re: [RP] The Twilight Project - Game Thread

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Right the moment after she finishes yelling at the doctor, Alice already begins to regret her sudden outburst. She overreacted. She's starting to interpret intentions into people's actions that were never there. With a face red of embarassment, she allows herself to be ushered outside by Ashley.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... it's just... I..."
At a loss for words, she just stares at the ground instead.
"That was stupid... It won't happen again... I'm really sorry..."
Lately, she has been thinking with her heart more than with her mind... and it's only caused her trouble.
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