Dominic Deegan: "3"

Age : 25 Joined : 29 Mar 2007 Posts : 72

Hey, thought I'd break in this section of the forums. As for the story itself, I decided to stick to the theme and split it into three parts. Also, personally I think as of now Quilt has the most potential as a character for growth as a character and hope to see him grow. I don’t normally use other people’s characters when I write so if seems a little off all I can say is my mistake. Don't want to give too much away so on with the show.

3

Place: The Royal Observatory of Callan, built under order of King Darnus The Wise. Workplace of a set of triplet’s history will know as The 3 Sisters, magisters credited with founding the current field of Astronomy.
Time: 333 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, and 3 hours before the alignment.

King Darnus would be known in history as The Wise, but at the moment he didn't feel particularly wise at all. If he was asked he'd just say there were some rules that he noticed were always true like they were made into the universe. The first and foremost of these rules was that panic never helped anyone, although his council and the parliament didn't seem to feel the same way. Another of the rules was that is someone smarter then you wanted to do something harmless for you, pay them so it doesn't become something harmful against you. When the 3 sisters showed him designs for a building made specifically to study the heavens he gave them carte blanche because otherwise he could very easily see a rival kingdom asking them to make some possibly rather nasty weapons. He had promised himself that he'd learn their names but they acted so strange, like every move or action one of them wanted to make had to be shared with the other 2. At one point he was sure he had them right, but it was almost impossible not to mix them up again the moment he came in contact with them again.

Now that rule could cause problems for him. The 3 sisters publicly predicted a total solar eclipse with incredible accuracy and when half your subjects think eclipses are omens of death sent from the gods that's never a good thing, especially when the other half still are resentful with him appointing women as magisters. Now accusations of witchcraft are flying around the castle walls and three of the most brilliant minds he's ever met could be burned at the stake.

"You have to give me something. They'll burn all 3 of you."
"So one of our hypothesis was correct. Why do lesser minds have to be scared of a natural trick of the light?" one of the sisters asked- which one it was the king missed.
"Because some of those lesser minds are very powerful and think you could only have that knowledge from having congress with demons."
"Superstitious nonsense isn't allowed here," another sister scolded him.
"I know that but they'll bring that superstitious nonsense and shove it down your gullets if I don't defend you. I need to give them something to do that. Help me."
The three sisters pause for a moment on whatever they were working on, and share a glance among them. An unspoken conversation seems to pass, and then the third sister speaks.
"We'll take our case before the council with your permission."
"That will take time to set-up, and I have to be there with you."
"Why can't we do it ourselves?"
"Because they won't listen to women unless I'm there to make them listen. First however you have to give me something so I can give them a taste. How did you know about the eclipse?"
"Simple mathematics."
"Pardon?"
"My lord, what are our children taught about the heavens?"
"That the sun, moon, and planetae all travel around us on great gears and wheels in the sky. All mounted in a bowel with holes in it backlit by the majesty of the gods."
"And what would you say if I told you that that was completely wrong?"
"If I didn't know you 3, I'd say you were completely daft."
"What if we could prove it?"
"Prove it?"
"That the we go around the sun, that the spheres aren't perfect, that the paths of the planetae are elliptical and not circular, and that the stars are like our sun just much further away."
King Darnus was shocked into near silence, "If you could prove all that, it would shake the world."
"We've been building a case so that we can prove it. There's still a few holes left but we can have a full case presentable in a few days."
"Anything you can give me now?"
The sisters pause and look at each other, and it seems that all three have the same idea at once. One produces an ancient tome; the other begins leafing through their charts.
"This is something on loan from your library, a star chart from the Atalani Empire," the sister explains while opening the very old book to a certain page and pointed toward a certain cluster.
"This is our own charting efforts of that same group of stars in the sky," another sister states while carefully unrolling a chart.
"What do you see?" the third sister asks like a child holding a secret.
King Darnus takes a long hard look. At first he sees only the points and is about to laugh it off when he spots it.
"That's impossible," he breaths out too stunned to say much more, "those three stars."
"They moved. We call them the 3 Sisters after ourselves. Closer to each other and further east. By our guess we think that they'll align with each other in a little over 300 years."
"We have to tell everyone," he blurts while gaining excitement.
"We intend to, for the council."
"No, not just the council. Not just Callan. Everyone."

Place: The underground lair of Jacob Deegan, Necromancer at large.
Time: 3 years and 3 weeks before the alignment.

If he were the kind of person to make jokes, he'd say he was sleeping the sleep of the dead. The new lair was perfect and close to both a large cemetery and an old battle ground, the type were the dead were never completely accounted for and the magics flew around like angry insects.

The next step was research. Making the perfect undead was a passion at this point, something he'd have to work on. Passion is for the living and that is not the goal. Still, there were so many other things to do. He'd need help and it's not like people would line up to be a necromancer's assistant. The question that burned in his mind is what to make as his servant. Definitely a question that needed lots of careful thought, and when it got late he decided to sleep on it.

The dead don't dream, but this one he'd forgive. In his dream he was actually working on the problem. A very simple dream really, he was working out logistics on a chalkboard at his mother's school. The chalkboard seemed to have a mind of it's own as it erased things that it didn't like and moved other things to get his attention. Finally however the chalkboard brought together random symbols allover the board into one glowing formula that grew to fill the chalkboard quickly and with force. The in-dream formula began to shine so brightly that Jacob woke with a start. Copying the formula quickly, it first resembles mindless gibberish. It's not until crumbling the paper that he sees that the ink had bled though onto the desk and by sheer coincidence the bled ink formed a single ancient symbol tied to a myth only half remembered.

"A golem?" he says to himself more then anything, "An interesting thought."
He takes a second look at the formula, this time with an idea of it's context already in mind.
"Yes, this could be made into a very good golem," Jacob understates. In his mind he's already patting himself on the back for the brilliance of the idea. It would take a couple years to make but this golem would make an excellent servant. It would be perfect.

Place: The Barthis house of Dominic Deegan and Luna Travoria.
Time: 3 Weeks before the full alignment of the 3 Sisters. 30 Seconds before the alignment of the first 2 of the 3 Sisters.

“Now if only we could agree on where,” Dominic lovingly sighs through the crystal ball. Luna stares back at the other end, taking advantage of a break at work while the lab is rebuilt from the latest accident. Contrary to popular belief it really is possible for Luna to surprise him for a lunch-date. It really does have to be completely spontaneous and it has to be at least an hour before he begins to even feel hungry but it can be done.
“Let’s just walk around town and decide then,” Luna agrees to disagree.
“Working on anything interesting?”
“Working out some kinks on the sand-to-water transmutation, it works but just recently the water comes out too dirty to drink about a third of the time. How about you?”
“I might be. Noticed the number 3 popping up anywhere else?”
“A few places. Why?”
“Starting a little over 2 months ago 3-themed coincidences started popping up pretty much everywhere. All of them harmless but it’s still pretty weird and it’s building. All the craps tables in Erossus have come up multiples of 3 since last night.”
“Weird.”
“Yeah, so basically anyone that owns a crystal ball is getting sent messages asking to look into it. Its my day off anyway, so I was thinking I’d spend today looking in on it.”
“Tell me what you see over lunch.”
“Wherever that is. Love you.”
“Love you too.”

The orb goes black as the spell connection is cut. Moments and a sigh pass for a certain oracle for hire as he rubs his hands together. Time to get to work.

Place: The Heavens
Time: 3 Weeks before full alignment of the 3 Sisters as seen from Earth. The moment of the first stage of the stellar alignment as viewed from the planet.

Truth is that the actual alignment probably happened a very long time ago, and that assumes the stars are pretty close to the same distance away anyway. From the work of the earthbound 3 sisters and those that came after it is known that stars can be any number of great distances away. It’s known that Light, and by extension Energy, travels up to an incredible but still finite speed. It’s also known that everything is way more complicated then it can appear, possibly more complicated then mortal minds can understand. Silently the images of two out of these three stars align, and the result is anything but silent.

To stay it started small would be silly but compared to what came afterwards it wouldn’t be entirely inappropriate. It started with an image of 3 dots, 2 in a row and the third slightly to a side. A little thing to be sure, but when everyone on the planet with even a smidgen of potential to become a seer has that image forced into their heads it may be a reason for concern. When none of them can shed the image for 3 minutes, the more experienced seers begin to worry. Then the image changes to The 3 Towers. Three rock spires in the middle of the Burning Desert. Majestic, timeless, and now stuck in the minds of every potential seer for the next 30 seconds. Next comes is the Tomb of the 3 Kings, graves of ancient and powerful lords of an empire long lost to history and now for 3 seconds visible all over the world.

Soon the images assault the senses of potential seers too fast for mind to fully register before they are replaced. An alien world where the denizens have 3 distinct genders, a ring on the hand of a king with 3 different gemstones, a battle from over a thousand years ago with 3 armies facing each other, and other 3-themed images rapidly attacking their minds. Some hold out longer then others but not for long. Minutes after the first stage of the alignment every single sentient being on the planet with at least the potential to become a seer, 3 out of every ten thousand, begins to scream.

Age : 25 Joined : 29 Mar 2007 Posts : 72

Place: Callan
Time: 3 Weeks before the alignment of the 3 Sisters.

“BOSS!” a talking cat tries to scream, but Spark’s lungs just doesn’t have the power when compared to Dominic’s screaming and flopping on the floor in agony. Thinking fast, the cat leaps from floor to table to countertop.
“Sorry Boss, I hope this works,” Spark improvises and knocks over a sturdy container that was filled with now scattered Mapvel candies, lugging it to the sink as fast as a small cat can manage.

“What the hell is happening?” someone managed to get out above the screams. Luna, Melna, Runcible, and Cassafinn knew it wasn’t any of them but they all felt the same way.
“Some of the students, a few teachers, maybe even some nearby townspeople. They just started screaming like something is attacking them!” someone else answers back.
Cass is the first to leap into action, “Where’s Miranda?”
“In her office, but she’s one of the screamers.”

Panic tears through the school, desperate plans coming together to somehow stop the screamers. Everyone in the school dropping what they were doing to deal with this emergency, except one. It had been a while since he had dressed like a pirate, so he had figured why not? What’s the point of being a necromantic golem if you can’t have a little fun when you feel like it? He wanted it to be Pirate Day, so Pirate Day it was. If some of the students wanted to join him, good for them. Pirates can be fun! But then the screaming started. Gods help him, he was receiving instructions from what could be the fabric of the universe itself and he’s dressed like a pirate! Now anyone unfortunate enough to have a mind capable of hearing an encrypted version of the instructions was suffering for it.
“I understand, but you’re killing them. Please stop this,” Quilt whispered while gazing skyward. He feels it deep inside like something acknowledged his request, and for a moment he feels the other two in the distant corners of the world but it passes. They also heard the message and they know what to do.

Then, even more suddenly then when it started, the screaming stopped, and the silence was like a weight was put in the air. Images boring their way through skulls just suddenly stopped. Across the world in every kingdom one question burned in the minds of the people. What just happened? It didn’t take long to convert the gymnasium into a recovery room for the screamers. Conjured from thin air in what normally would be an exercise center was 47 now filled cots and one empty one. Miranda Deegan didn’t feel like lying down. Even though she completely lost her voice from all the screaming everyone was pretty sure nobody could make an arch-mage stay down if she didn’t want to.

“So we had 41 students, 4 teachers, and the headmistress were all screamers but only 2 others from Quiral. Is something attacking magic users?”
Miranda writes down a response and hands it to the closest faculty member, Runcible in this case.
“No, if I was effectible then whoever did it is either much more powerful then our protective wards or could be a lot more precise. All the students wouldn’t have been a problem.”
“Careful fearless leader, your modesty is showing,” he has to reply upon reading it. Miranda just gives a happy smirk. It’s true and they know it, but anything to lighten up the situation would be welcome at this point. That might have been what made Quilt’s appearance so poignant. Normally the goofy golem would have been perfect for this, but he looked so serious it was kind of scary.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what Quilt?” Luna managed to be the first to say.
“I have to go.”
“Go? What are you talking about?”
“It was the seers. Everyone had any amount of potential to be seers. They overheard a message they weren’t meant to hear.”
“How do you know? Message from who?”
“Because it was meant for me. And two others. As for who it was from,” Quilt pauses then can’t help a nervous quick chuckle, “I have no idea but I have to go.”
“Two others? Here at the school?”
“No, two others around the world. I have to go.” Quilt says as he turns to leave.
“Around the world? You mean this happened everywhere?”
“Tell Peg-Leg I said Hi.”
Hearts almost audibly drop; a mother wishes she could say one word to teleport while a lover begins to fly almost too fast for the eye to follow. A golem and friend however calmly walks out. Somewhere in his mind he wishes he could be there for his friend, but this is too important. He has to go. The others will meet him there but he has to go.

Place: The Barthis house of Dominic Deegan and Luna Travoria.
Time: 30 Minutes short of 3 Weeks of the Alignment of the 3 Sisters.

The landing is hard. She’s flown before but not at that speed and she’s certainly never practiced landing with such force. She remembers landing hard but only as if it had happened years ago. There’s a little jolt of pain every time her right foot touches the ground but there’s no time to think about it. The door less opens then it gets out of her way like it knew that if it didn’t she’d destroy it without a second thought.

“Dominic!” she screams almost in a panic, not knowing if he’s alive or dead. Whatever it was if it tore through the minds of an arch-mage just as easily as it did through students, would an Oracle be able to hold it back, or would being an Oracle just make it worse?

“He’s over here.” Spark calls back. She doesn’t remember actually heading toward the kitchen but it wouldn’t matter anyway. What she sees however scares her more then anything she’d ever seen before. Physically Dominic was no worse for wear, just a little wet with an empty container nearby. His mind however may have been a different story. He was curled up in a fetal position and hiding in a corner, muttering something over and over. She moves as fast as she can to him, half-sliding on the floor for the last few feet and trying to pull his head up to hers. Cradled in her arms she finds herself praying to any good deity she can think of just begging for him to be okay.

“Three weeks,” He manages to get out with what might have been tears in his eyes.
“No-no-no-No-NO! You’re going to be fine! YOU HEAR ME!” she half-begs and half-screams.
“That’s all he’s managed to say since he stopped screaming,” the cat says deceptively calm, like he’s trying to fool everyone that he’s not panicking.
“Three weeks.”
“What’s in three weeks?” she tries. Pulling at straws to get him get him to say something, anything else. Any sign he’d be okay.
He pauses, like the sheer horror of the word is what he’s fighting inside.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? What are you talking about?”
“Three weeks, then three dots in a line, and then nothing. I look into the future and beyond three weeks I see absolutely nothing.”

To Be Continued. . .

Age : 25 Joined : 29 Mar 2007 Posts : 72

Or not. I'm sorry guys but I just can't get into the writing process when I'm using someone else's characters. I for one liked the central plot idea enough to try and nothing against Mookie's characters but something about using them feels cheap.

I kind of like the set-up though so I think I'll leave it.