Patchwork Universe

Jones · Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2004 4:48 pm Post subject: Leaving Home

Jane Jones had made her preparations for leaving home carefully. As she stood outside the pub she kept a watchful eye for any of her family because if they saw her they'd be in no doubt as to her intentions.

A black canvas track pack lay on the ground and her customary adventurer's clothes had been replaced by an outfit of unrelieved black, although with a certain stylishness about it - at least to Jane's eyes. Her rapier she still wore at her hip and a black coat and broad-brimmed hat lay by the pack nearby.

She was writing on a piece of paper with an ink pencil. But it wasn't a goodbye letter. Jane had already left one of those in her attic room. This was more on the lines of a gift.

Jones · Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 9:05 am Post subject:

Jane printed the words on the piece of paper as she waited for Larkin to join her.

'See the swinging sign with the letter J? See the double doors that are never locked? See the people swilling drink and guzzling food inside?

THIS IS A PUB.

You don't have to knock. Just walk in. That's how it works.

J.

Moving closer to the door Jane took four small tacks and pinned the piece of paper to it.

Larkin Quickgrip · Good Joined: 21 Jan 2004 Posts: 144 Location: The Slums

Larkin swung the door open next to her and quickly shut it after him. He had been keeping half an ear on the conversation and didn't paticularly like the idea of a dragon fight going on in there.

Seeing Jane he turned and said "Alright? We off or what?"

Jones · Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 12:18 pm Post subject:

"I'm ready when you are," Jane said, hoisting up her pack. "What about Karl, is he still coming?"

She glanced over her shoulder and down the road towards the crossroads.
"I'd like to get a move on, now I've made the decision to go... and um, well there's another thing."

Her eyes met Larkin's with a look of complicity, as she added:
"You see, I've sort of stolen this horse."

Tied to the pole of the sign-post a black horse stood cropping the grass in a bored way. Insofar as Blackie had any thoughts at all they were about the oats Jane had produced earlier and the promise of carrots later.

Larkin Quickgrip · Good Joined: 21 Jan 2004 Posts: 144 Location: The Slums

Larkin grinned and looked a touch proud. "Yer, learnin already." he said with a quick grin as he looked at the magnificent horse.

Shaking his head slightly, Larkin said "But it looks like Karl may be some time. Yer dad was talkin to him and it was somethin ter do with his past, so I decided that it would be best if I slipped out."

Looking at the horse again he said "I'll just walk alongside yer, I'm not really a horse kinda guy, yer know?"

Jones · Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 12:31 pm Post subject:

"My father?" Jane said. "I wonder what that's about..." Dismissing it frm her mind she turned to look at her new horse with pleasure, and untied it from the pole.

"Pretty good, isn't it?" she said. "I'm thinking of calling him Buccaneer."

"So, which way are we headed? Does Karl know where to meet us?"
She gestured at the crossroads sign, currently pointing east and added. "It's supposed to be this way to the map, but I don't know anything about what's beyond the mist."

Swinging herself up into Buccaneer's saddle, Jane managed to avoid impaling herself or the horse with her rapier and took up the reins. Her face was flushed and excited and all she lacked was a direction in which to begin her adventure.

Larkin Quickgrip · Good Joined: 21 Jan 2004 Posts: 144 Location: The Slums

Larkin shrugged and said "Chuck us yer pencil." Then with tongue stuck out he scrawled in barely legible handwriting underneath Janes note.

Karl gon to mapp rom. Folow sines."

He then handed it back and said "Sorry, it was either that or go back in, and it looks like there's gunna be bit of a brawl soon, so Id prefer not ter risk it." He then pulled out the note that Yarrow had first given him and with some surprise found it to be changed, ever so slightly.

Grinning he said "Looks like we're headin east then south as it is." He then turned to follow the sign and the pair went east. He then looked up at the girl on the horse and said "Nervous?"

Jones · Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 1:05 pm Post subject:

"A bit," Jane confessed. "I mean, you would be too if your dad had told you if you ever left home you'd vanish."

She swallowed and then affected a cynical smile.
"But then, I expect a lot of fathers tell their children that just to keep them from running off. I'm hoping he got the wrong end of a stick somewhere. But, just in case the horse is a bit of an insurance policy. It got in alright, didn't it? So maybe it'll carry me out again..."

She looked at the eastern mist wall as it drew closer and added quietly.
"If I do vanish though, um, tell my dad I'm sorry I stole the horse. And the gold... and the stuff from the cellar..."
She stopped speaking and grinned ruefully at Larkin and said instead:
"No, forget that. Tell him I'm sorry I never listened to him, alright? You can have my gear..."

Karl Groever · Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 1:16 pm Post subject:

Karl had caught sight of Jane's note as he sped out through the tavern door. He quickly spied Larkin's, too. And wondered which 'sines' he was being instructed to follow. But that he would find them, he had no doubt. Casting about him, however, Karl saw that, perhaps, it would not need to come to his following the 'sines'. He could Larkin's familiar figure off in the distance, and it would appear that Jane was beside him, seated upon a horse, like the ones the Desert nomads often rode.
Karl thought quickly. He considered taking Larkin's note with him for a moment to shield the identity of their location from prying eyes, then he decided that, perhaps, given the number of individuals Larkin appeared to know in this place, it might be worthwhile if others could be made aware - however tacitly- of the party's plans. He also thought of Jones sending out a search party for his daughter. A part of him knew that encountering an angered Jones, or the group he might have sent after them, was not desirable, but, then again, he was now starting to feel uncertain about betraying the publican's trust in this way...perhaps leaving him a fighting chance to relocate his daughter would partly make up for that ? He left the note where it was.
A few moments later, Karl had broken into a headlong run, and begun to shout at the retreating figures of his erstwhile companions 'Larkin, ma demoiselle, wait !! Wait for me!!'.

Larkin Quickgrip · Good Joined: 21 Jan 2004 Posts: 144 Location: The Slums

Larkin decided that reassurance was probably the best route for the moment. "Don't be stupid. Yer not gonna vanish. I mean I've crossed the boundries a few times an nothins happened ter me." He thought for a second then added "Nothins happened ter Doc Jewel back there an she says she's a ghost!"

"Hey an don't worry, if yer do vanish (which yer won't) then odds are, when I work up the courage ter return back here in a few dozen years time, I'll pass on the message."

Larkin then pulled up short when he heard the yelling from behind him. Turning he saw Karl and said "Oh looks like he is comin with us after all." The pair waited for a few seconds while he caught up

Jones · Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 1:31 pm Post subject:

"Karl," Jane looked pleased at the arrival of the newcomer and she glanced at Buccaneer for a moment before deciding she could explain about the horse later.

"Larkin said my dad got hold of you," she said. "Really, you shouldn't listen to anything he says. It's all nonsense, like this vanishing business. He makes it up to seem clever."

She looked at the wall of mist again, it was much closer. Taking a deep breath she said:
"Right, then. Here goes nothing..."
She directed the horse at the mist and took another deep breath. She seemed to be having difficulty screwing her courage to the sticking place. A third breath and then with a wild yell she kicked the horse into motion.

With a start the newly-named Buccaneer realised what was expected of him and threw himself forward. Black horse and black-clad girl launched forward at full pelt and disappeared into the mists.

ooc note: This thread continues in Academy 'The Black Rider'

Karl Groever · Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 5:45 pm Post subject:

Karl looked at Larkin as Jane spurred the horse forward through the mist. He looked worried. Then, remembering something, he stopped for a moment, perused the ground nearby, picked up a number of largish stones lying amongst the grass.
Seeing Larkin looking at him a little quizzically, Karl said 'Back home, the Zayshi maintain that dreams often reveal truths...or so it is said. This will be by way of an experiment, for in a dream I had whilst in the Inn, I threw stones across the borders of the Mist. It seemed to imply...something important. And I am shaken, Larkin. I feel as if I have come face to face with myself.'
Larkin watched as Karl began to pitch the stones forcefully into the mist - they seemed to disappear, soundlessly.
When Karl had thrown away seven of his stones, grown tired, and deposited a few others into his trusty carry - all, he turned to Larkin with a satisfied look 'There now, that's done. Let us go on through the mist, for Jane is surely waiting for us on the other side. Who knows, perhaps she has been waiting days already, whilst a moment passed by for us here?'. He laughed, a little raggedly. 'Oh ,mercy, Larkin, I hope this God of yours, whoever they may be, can offer me answers. What if this place were as Jones told me, an ever shifting prison, a Purgatory from which even the clerverest, the bravest and the best could never truly escape...merely rail against until they died fighting?'
He turned suddenly determined 'Well, let me go on fighting, too. Onward, hey?...to whatever awaits'

[OOC: Karl crosses with Larkin to Academy:The Black Rider]

Larkin Quickgrip · Good Joined: 21 Jan 2004 Posts: 144 Location: The Slums

Before Larkin crossed he thought to himself "Oh mercy?" Then sniggered slightly before following after the slightly over-dramatic (to his ear) sounding Karl