gold
familiar FamiliarAdelais, the Ascended Lion
played by OOC Namerinny
hit me with your killshot, baby
ghostwalker
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Post by Quynh Le on Sept 8, 2022 17:11:04 GMT -7
What was there to talk about? Queenie refrained from grumbling a reply as Zeke excused himself to check on Maddox, much kinder in body language than what he had for her. He's the favourite after all; that's what she saw. Adelais interpreted it a little more tentatively, though in the end, it didn't matter.
She watched their exchange with piercing reds, the silence ringing again in her ears. She wondered what it was they were talking about her--like, come on. Of course they would start shit-talking. That's how people do. Though to do it right in front of her was kind of rude.
Her tension doesn't bleed out as easily as Maddox's. It stills and readily simmers, and she's easily reminded of slights against her at moment's notice. Heh...? Whatever happened to being a changed witch? Revenge and pettiness gets you nowhere? Already? Already?
Listen, she's a treacherous bitch with no resolve, whatever. Adelais looked over to his witch with the lion's equivalent of a confused frown.
"What are you saying, Quynh?"
Queenie turned to look at him away from the noiseless exchange between the two men. "What."
"... Don't waver so easily."
Silence fell over the two of them until she let out a long sigh and slumped onto the bar counter with her head nestled in her arms. Maybe she should a take a page out of that Jack girl's book and let off some steam somehow. Recalibrate.
Recalibrate.
Maddox's sudden apology in her ears interrupted her mental adjustment. Queenie turned her head, half hidden in the crooks of her elbow. "It wasn't that much of a conversation anyway, hey?"
Neither of them were going to see what she sees.
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Administrator
high priestess
999
gold
familiar Familiariorek byrnison
played by OOC Namepandora
content monkey
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Post by pandora on Sept 11, 2022 9:09:16 GMT -7
[nospaces] [attr="class","staffcont"] [attr="class","staffheader"]
snakes in eden
[attr="class","staffbody"] [attr="class","staffheadimg"]  with Maddox Ruchbah and Quynh Le[attr="class","staffpara"] Maddox seems to veer into the territory of asking for reassurance, and Zeke gives him a small smile. [break][break]
"Visions are just that, Maddox. What you see is never the full picture, okay? Unless you wanna take hordes of shadowy figures and songs-turned-poetry at face value, too," he says, in reference to the Afterparty. [break][break] He'll ignore his attempts to discredit Queenie, though not without a disproving frown. The silence barrier is broken, and Zeke turns to find Queenie looking...upset. [break][break] He gives her a smile, too. [break][break] "It's alright, Maddox. Leave us to it, yeah? I'll lock up," he says, waving him toward the exit. "See you tomorrow," he says. [break][break] Then, when he's gone, Zeke sighs dramatically and sites down, deflating. [break][break] "He's so high maintenance," Zeke says, huffing. "Do you want a drink? Oh, and I didn't know Farah sent you there," he adds, conversationally. [break][break] "She must have really high hopes for you, Queenie." [break][break] What? When your boss is Farah Serizawa you learn very quickly how to do damage control. And Zeke, generally speaking, is excellent with emotions. Only, well, both of these witches happen to be special cases. [break][break] maddox ruchbah Quynh Le npc thread details[attr="class","staffpara"]
welcome to your quest: SNAKES IN EDEN! [break][break]
zeke is currently: not hostile[break]
[newclass="nullelem"]} .mini-profile.user-1 .mini-prof { background-image: url(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/971663908538576988/995527210289086495/Screen_Shot_2022-07-09_at_10.09.38_PM.png)!important; [/newclass] [/quote] |
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gold
familiar FamiliarAdelais, the Ascended Lion
played by OOC Namerinny
hit me with your killshot, baby
ghostwalker
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Post by Quynh Le on Sept 13, 2022 10:36:32 GMT -7
A crimson gaze fixated on his retreating back, right until Maddox turned the corner up the stairs. It took three seconds longer for Queenie to turn her attention back to Zeke after his sigh, defeated as if he were a parent splitting up a children's fight. Her eyes narrowed, and she echoed him with another sigh of her own. She straightened up in her seat. "I've been cutting back lately," she replied, but interrupted by an exasperated click of her tongue at his return to the Farah subject. Charon. Boat graveyard. Adelais peered between the bartender casualness of it all and his witch's darkening glower. "She must have really high hopes for you, Queenie."When Queenie returned to life for the first time, she remembered nothing then. All she could think about was how much it hurt breathing. Her chest was all bruised, ribs cracked under pressure. She found herself--in the haze of semi-consciousness--carried to her room, pushed to drink bitter potions decocted by her grandfather. Her mother wasn't of sound mind even then, but following the formal initiation into the coven, Vivienne sat by her daughter's bedside alone with the bedroom door closed. Her thin hand brushed away the tresses astray. Her eyes bright and shining in a way Queenie had never seen before. Like looking in a carnival's mirror, the way the Sangha curled her lips to a smile reminded Adelais of a fox far more cunning than his own witch. "Little one, my legacy--""Sorry to disappoint," she huffed as her legs tightly wound around each other in her seat, "but I'm not--I can't be... my mother." Her gaze dipped low and averted to the side; lips upturned slightly. It's a question of whether she was upset with herself, her failure, or the notion of being compared to her mother. She looked to her brass prosthetic on the counter, and quietly reattached it to her hand. "--I'll give it to you. Don't break it." It bends along with the rest of her fingers, stiff and creaking.
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gold
familiar Familiarlyra, harpy eagle
played by OOC Namelav
I THINK I COULD CHEW THE MOON TO SHREDS IF I TRIED HARD ENOUGH
suneater
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Post by maddox ruchbah on Sept 14, 2022 7:45:23 GMT -7
[nospaces] [attr="class","pie"] maddox has never known how to hold onto a grudge for long. water that collects in empty graves returns to the earth one way or the other, after all. even now, the indignance has faded; only an aftermath. [break][break] "fair enough," he says to zeke at the comment about the afterparty, and the smile is properly contrite now. he's raised on the edge of a forest, where the lines between story and dream and history are blurred by shadow; what is a vision, to that assembly of half-spoken things? still, he should probably have known better. [break][break] two strikes, he tells himself, and in the back of his mind, lyra hisses, don't wait for a third.[break][break] get out, she means, so he does.[break][break] he's standing up even as he offers queenie a shrug, a flicker of a sheepish smile. "guess it wasn't. my bad." he returns the chair to its original spot, collects his jacket, waves goodbye like it's any other day, says the usual, "alright then— thanks— see ya!"[break][break] he pretends he doesn't notice the weight of queenie's scarlet glare following him all the way until the corner, and after a moment of consideration, takes the long way home. [attr="class","notes"]exit stage left pursued by silly little thoughts [newclass=".pie"]background: var(--secondbg);color: var(--iconcolor); font-family: 'Jost';font-size: 13px;line-height: 1.8; width: 475px; margin: 0 auto; padding:5em 4em 4em 4em;text-align:justify; box-sizing:border-box;} .pie a { text-transform:uppercase; width:fit-content; margin:0 auto; display:inline-block; background-color:var(--mainbg); padding:0.6em 0.8em;font-size:0.8em;} .pie .notes { display: block;font-size: 0.8em;letter-spacing: 0.05em;padding: 4em 4em 0 4em;text-align: center;border-top: 1px solid var(--mainbg); margin-top: 4em; } .pietag { margin-top:4em; text-align:center; } div[rel=user-22] .pie b { color: var(--hydra); [/newclass] |
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Administrator
HIGH PRIESTESS
gold
familiar Familiar
played by OOC Namestaff
aww i guess you're my little pogchamp aww i guess you're my little pogchamp aww i guess you're my l
MONKEY KING
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Post by Admin on Sept 14, 2022 8:46:31 GMT -7
[nospaces] [attr="class","staffcont"] [attr="class","staffheader"]
snakes in eden
[attr="class","staffbody"] [attr="class","staffheadimg"] with Maddox Ruchbah and Quynh Le[attr="class","staffpara"] Surprisingly, after all these years, he really still does see the best in people. Farah's a tricky person to please, and he knows, from experience, that initiates who experience Farah Serizawa first end up caught between fear and awe—and a little unable to find their footing as a result. So he thinks Queenie is, too. [break][break] So he says, almost flippant, charismatic as ever: [break][break] "Hydra doesn't need another Vivienne Mai. Though, she was one hell of a cook." [break][break] His eyes trail away from Queenie, toward Adelais, watching the lion curiously. Surely they had heard the teasing rumors: that Vivienne and Ezekiel occupied such similar roles—controllers, as they both were, one with lavish banquets and the other from behind the counter of this bar. Before she fell ill, Vivienne was actually a lot more well-received than Zeke. But that's neither here nor there. Ajax walks across the very same counter, seemingly intrigued by something on the far end of it. Zeke follows his familiar's movements, weaving a story as he goes: [break][break] "My family wasn't in Hydra. I was...an outsider, then. And if turned out like my father—" [break][break] He had picked the bat. Weighted on the tip. He had gone for the head. He thinks. He doesn't remember, to be honest. It might have just been his hands. [break][break]
"—there's no way I could have managed a bar like this, or had the patience to learn magic. And if I was like my mother, well..." [break][break] A pause. [break][break]
"Maybe I'd be able to make something other than pasta, and your mom would have been stuck behind this counter." Delivered with a wry smile.[break][break] Ezekiel drums his fingers quickly before throwing his hands up, as if to say, well, what can you do? You're stuck with the cards you're dealt, legacy and all. [break][break] "You can just be you, Queenie," he says. As long as you're useful, of course. [break][break] Quynh Le npc thread details[attr="class","staffpara"]
welcome to your quest: SNAKES IN EDEN! [break][break]
zeke is currently: not hostile[break]
[newclass="nullelem"]} .mini-profile.user-1 .mini-prof { background-image: url(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/971663908538576988/995527210289086495/Screen_Shot_2022-07-09_at_10.09.38_PM.png)!important; [/newclass] |
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gold
familiar FamiliarAdelais, the Ascended Lion
played by OOC Namerinny
hit me with your killshot, baby
ghostwalker
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Post by Quynh Le on Sept 16, 2022 22:09:47 GMT -7
"Hah... Yeah, mum's cooking was the best," Queenie replied with a tone a little lighter than her weighty frustration moments ago. Vivienne was a socialite of another calibre. Perhaps it was because it was a time before the popularisation of the digital network, that her mother could hold sway with coven mates and strangers alike. It was a slower time back then, Queenie figured. She's not sure if she would have the patience.
The girl gets it. She got what Zeke was trying to say--and frankly, she's not like Maddox here to fully care about it. Queenie's gaze fell onto his wry smile, his lackadaisical shrug and a similar platitude Adelais had told her a while ago.
You are Le Suong Quynh.
A rather unladylike snort escaped, even though she didn't mean to. She briefly covered her mouth with her hand, as if there was shame to her reaction. Sarcasm threatened to seep in between her words. Or perhaps it was mere cynicism now?
"Being me is what got me shot and--" she waved her left hand before her face, almost dismissive, "--this, in the first place, babe."
Silence.
Queenie lowered her hand back to rest on the counter, a hissing exhale enveloping her like a soft security blanket. Her eyes were downcast again, lips turned up in the same budding frustration over the patterns of the wood-top counter.
Then, in a seamless transition from lost soul to determined warrior, the witch brought her sights firmly back up to Zeke's eyes. The pads of her fingertips pressed tight against the warm surface.
"I need to come back, Zeke," she said, "to the fold."
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Administrator
HIGH PRIESTESS
gold
familiar Familiar
played by OOC Namestaff
aww i guess you're my little pogchamp aww i guess you're my little pogchamp aww i guess you're my l
MONKEY KING
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Post by Admin on Sept 21, 2022 19:03:58 GMT -7
[nospaces] [attr="class","staffcont"] [attr="class","staffheader"]
snakes in eden
[attr="class","staffbody"] [attr="class","staffheadimg"] with Maddox Ruchbah and Quynh Le[attr="class","staffpara"] Queenie snorts and Zeke smiles. Her humor is met with a wry smile, as though he is trying his best not to laugh and only partially succeeding.[break][break] "Yeah? Well okay then, maybe a little less you. But still you, I mean—" He then laughs, of course, he's glad at least she's making jokes about it. Punishments in Hydra always lead to a variety of responses—he just hopes her handler is dealing with it well enough. [break][break] She sheds the teasing skin soon enough, trading babe for Zeke, her aimless frustration into determination. [break][break] He appraises her and seems to consider it, eyes shifting to the side, thinking. He levels with her, looking at her more eye-to-eye. The red irises are getting harder to read, and Zeke seems to be searching for something and not quite finding it. Still, he says: [break][break] "When you're out of the fold, Queenie, it's not as easy...there's no failsafe. I can give you a chance, but that's all I can give you. You understand?" [break][break] Of course, there's never a guarantee of life with Hydra—but there is that comforting embrace, the knowledge that there are hundreds more around you that will find you, tend your wounds, and, if all else is lost, will bury your body. Outside of Hydra, there are still ways to be useful—but the tasks are riskier, can never be traced back to the coven, and you have to do them with the knowledge that no one is coming to your aid after.[break][break] "...it might be easier for someone like you to stay away from this."[break][break] That's harsh, but it's fair. Walking the path of a witch is hardly a joke, and a witch of Hydra will always have it worse. Queenie, with all due credit, got the cleanest break from Hydra that anyone could ask for. Just a finger. He knows enough people that would have taken that offer without blinking an eye. [break][break] Quynh Le npc thread details[attr="class","staffpara"]
welcome to your quest: SNAKES IN EDEN! [break][break]
zeke is currently: not hostile[break]
[newclass="nullelem"]} .mini-profile.user-1 .mini-prof { background-image: url(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/971663908538576988/995527210289086495/Screen_Shot_2022-07-09_at_10.09.38_PM.png)!important; [/newclass] |
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gold
familiar FamiliarAdelais, the Ascended Lion
played by OOC Namerinny
hit me with your killshot, baby
ghostwalker
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Post by Quynh Le on Sept 23, 2022 21:34:55 GMT -7
There's something special about Queenie; Adelais had known this since his consciousness only barely started forming within the mana realm. The memories there were fuzzy, almost non-existent—do you really remember the time in the womb? The first year of your birth? Adelais sure didn't.
But something about the very nature of a deep seeded bond between witch and familiar let him understand Queenie's so-called psyche. Or was it a warning?
So seeing her casually throw jokes to Zeke about her death was more or less inevitable.
Queenie blinked at the sudden serious turn of the conversation. Zeke stared into her eyes far longer than she anticipated, and her shoulders drooped away from tension when he broke it to think.
"What does that mean, someone like me?" she asked. Her smile was poised this time. Practised. If there was any reflexive anger sparking up within her heart, Adelais squashed it down for her. Perhaps she was expecting some easy resumption into the fold; if she kept her head down and do what's needed properly, then maybe her obsessive search wouldn't be so difficult.
The way Zeke was speaking made her think for a moment that Hydra was rejecting her.
Who would reject this face?
Who would reject Queenie Le?
"I get it though. A chance is fine."
There's something she had to do—and Hydra's pipe dream of unbridled magic was the only way to get there.
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Administrator
high priestess
999
gold
familiar Familiariorek byrnison
played by OOC Namepandora
content monkey
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Post by pandora on Sept 28, 2022 20:11:20 GMT -7
[nospaces] [attr="class","staffcont"] [attr="class","staffheader"]
snakes in eden
[attr="class","staffbody"] [attr="class","staffheadimg"] with Maddox Ruchbah and Quynh Le[attr="class","staffpara"]
Zeke winces at her reaction, but doesn't retract his statement: "You know what I mean," he says, looking at her both gravely but kindly, saying, in essence, that Queenie Le can be many things. Matchmaker, home-wrecker, drug lord. But Hydra cares little for the pretty face, or the alchemist's body it's attached to. All it wants is the one thing she doesn't have: devotion.[break][break]
But hey. Not like Ezekiel Belgrass knows the inside of her heart—all he sees is a little stubborn, child-like arrogance. And he can work with that just fine. [break][break]
A folder appears on the counter—the bartender is no summoner so it must have been here the whole time. Or perhaps he removed from the drawer, at some point, or perhaps he brought it out with the drinks? He smiles as though he's let her in on a secret and begins sliding the folder her way, five finger tips dragging it across, further from him... [break][break]
And then it stops. He drums the surface, looks off to the side. [break][break]
"By the way, your apprentice...she's gotten a little...out of line." Zeke had spoken to Rebecca, of course, but he's not allowed, technically, to punish her for mere provocation. I won't tell you how to solve that problem, but..." His voice trails off; whatever methods a handler uses is none of his business, really. But eventually his eyes meet hers, yellow on red, and he says.
[break][break]
"...it's a problem, Queenie." [break][break]
Fix it.
[break]
npc thread details[attr="class","staffpara"] this NPC thread will no longer receive staff replies. [break] Quynh Le, you may optionally reply to conclude the thread, else it will be locked. REWARDS[attr="class","staffpara"] Thank you for completing: MINOR NPC QUEST: SNAKES IN EDEN, and helping unravel the lore of Moonrise! You've each received +7MP for completing the quest thread(s), in addition to these rewards: [break][break] maddox ruchbah, you've completed 3 NPC threads with NPC EZEKIEL BELGRASS. your rewards are: [break] SPELL OF CHOICE (ABJURATION OR SPELLSINGING) - incl. adv spells [break]and[break] [attr="class","spellcont"] [attr="class","spellimgcont"]  [attr="class","spellbody"]
MUNDANE SKILL: MIXOLOGIST -[break]
Ezekiel's mundane skill, Mixologist, allows a character to share some of his proficiency in brewing—whether that's a drink, a potion, or cup of coffee. All one-time-use potions obtained from Kiki's gacha (or elsewhere) are cast at the rank of the witch, as opposed to being at a sentinel's power.
[break][break] Quynh Le, you've been awarded: [break][break] SPELL OF CHOICE (ILLUSION) - incl. adv spells [break]and [break] [attr="class","spellcont"] [attr="class","spellimgcont"]  [attr="class","spellbody"]
QUEST: NEXUS GENERATION[break]
Genius is hardly bound to blood, but few names like "Fresnov" decorate history so easily...This is staff-given quest, and optional to complete. In order to complete this quest, finish a non-moderated thread with Rebecca Harper involving the capture of prodigy Cipher Corp researcher, Sergio Fresnov. Fresnov is a powerful Acolyte, an augmentation specialist with a knack for light magic. To be eligible for rewards, the task should pose a serious difficulty for both characters involved. The quest will reward lore, and possibly spells or items. This is NOT a minor quest, and takes up a spell slot. Please claim it in the Quests main thread.
[newclass="nullelem"]} .mini-profile.user-1 .mini-prof { background-image: url(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/971663908538576988/995527210289086495/Screen_Shot_2022-07-09_at_10.09.38_PM.png)!important; [/newclass] |
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gold
familiar FamiliarAdelais, the Ascended Lion
played by OOC Namerinny
hit me with your killshot, baby
ghostwalker
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Post by Quynh Le on Sept 28, 2022 21:48:18 GMT -7
She stared, perhaps a little too intently at the bartender; seeing his casual visage crack for a split second. I don't know what you mean, she wanted to say, and she'd be genuinely curious about it too. But she said a chance was all she needed—there was no point in arguing semantics with him, Adelais reasoned.
Fine.
Queenie's gaze finally fell down to the manilla folder sliding towards her, glancing up to Zeke's own just as her ears caught up with his words. Rebecca was being a problem.
She opened the folder and skimmed the first page. There was nothing in there about her apprentice, but rather, a directive for her. This was her chance, she realised. Queenie closed the folder with a fox's grin.
"Aw, the hazing wasn't enough?"
Fine.
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