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charlettebffxiv · 3 years

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Prompt #24 Illustrious

Event Report Number: 787 Date: 9th Moon of the 3rd Astral Moon Order Representatives: Charlette Bellamy, Loash, Ogi Nogi Logged items: 1 pamphlet, 30 vials of a suspect liquid, 1 cape, 1 pair of trousers, 1 shirt, 1 pair of leather shoes, 1 top hat, 1 golden stopwatch and 1 magicians cane.

Report Summary: In response to a tip-off from one of Emille’s contacts within Gridania, a contingent was sent to investigate the possible whereabouts of a longtime target of the Order. A Miqo’te that had been first encountered in Ul’dah, and had subsequently escaped, may have resurfaced in the Shroud’s capitol. Guardian Bellamy, Agent Loash and Agent Nogi were quickly dispatched in hopes of apprehending the suspect.

Originally brought under suspicion whilst he was witnessed peddling wares in the Ul’dah markets, the Miqo’te that was currently only known as ‘Brightfinger’ had amassed a large audience whilst giving an impassioned sales pitch for his apparently ‘miracle curatives and restorative techniques’. He had positioned himself as a well-traveled and uniquely empowered individual capable of resolving any ailment. Curing aether sickness, enhancing beauty, reversing the effects of aging, curing blindness, deafness and other fantastical offerings were amongst his promises. The main origin of suspicion, however, came about when a volunteer was seemingly ‘cured’ of their speech impediment after taking part in an on-stage demonstration. On-duty team lead at the time, Head Armsman Emille, had noticed the use of aether from a crystal within a stopwatch held by Brightfinger. More notably, however, was that upon interrogating the volunteer, they seemed to be in a daze of some kind. Responses were slow, somewhat wooden in delivery and eye contact was impossible to maintain. The volunteer was taken into custody, and did not resist. On-duty Arcanist at the time, Brienne Croftte, performed an examination at a clinic in the city, and found that the stutter the volunteer had suffered from was indeed completely gone. So too, though, was almost their entire personality. However, before further analysis could be done, the volunteer seemed to recover approximately eight bells after the incident. They had no recollection of the event, aside from the seeing Brightfinger’s speech, and their speech impediment had returned. Emille mobilized his unit to interrogate Brightfinger and confiscate the dangerous aberrant artifact, but he and his caravan had left. Stranger still, no one in the market seemed to remember it ever being there. Emille’s contact met with the assigned team, and guided them to where he had seen Brightfinger. All three confirm seeing a small tent that had been setup on the outskirts of the Trader’s hub, and a Miqo’te dressed in a suit, cape and top hat, wielding a cane and a similar watch as was reported by Emille. Brightfinger announced himself as “A Traveling Student of the Illustrious Academy of Aetherical Medicine Men and Women.”'. They made no immediate moves to approach, choosing to first observe the suspect to better understand their process. Brightfinger attracted several customers through the sun, but administered no treatments on-location. All seemed to leave satisfied, however, which prompted the team to engage him in disguise. Guardian Bellamy approached, in disguise, and reported that Brightfinger was “Predictably charming for a snake oil salesman, but also lacked the greasy nature of one.” She came under the false pretense of having a deaf ear and hoping to be cured of the affliction. She was instructed by Brightfinger to visit his ‘clinic’ outside of the city's limits. She was given the location, and a time for their appointment. Upon arriving at the location, Agent Loash remarked that “If this is a clinic, then the Conjurer’s Guild is a circus.” The ‘clinic’ consisted of three tents, one large and two small, setup next to a traders caravan. Several people were inhabiting the clinic, including Brightfinger himself, and none seemed to be under the effects of his artefact. Guardian Bellamy entered alongside several other ‘clients’ while Agents Loash and Nogi spoke to the other camp inhabitants. Most seemed to believe in Brightfinger’s abilities, some accounting their own stories of being cured by him and consequently becoming followers. Agent Nogi wished to add to the record that “It’s a cult, anyone that happy about hanging someone else's washing on a branch in the middle of the forest is in a cult.” Considering the unusually high number of cults operating in the Shroud, this is a possibility that cannot be overlooked. Guardian Bellamy was called for her appointment, and was joined by her teammates. Initially he seemed unhappy about the additional attendees, but when insisted on, he relented and allowed them to join him in his caravan. Once inside he was questioned about how the curing process worked, and what proof he had that it would. Brightfinger explained that he had studied under many different healers from around the star, including witch doctors of Golmorra, chirurgeons from Ishgard and medicine men from Ala Mhigo. None of which he could corroborate, and as noted by Guardian Bellamy “Made no sense and was clearly a lie made-up by a less traveled and far less studied fool”. When challenged in his credentials by Bellamy, Brightfinger became suspicious, but offered to continue the treatment. Loash and Nogi are reported as having advised Bellamy not to go through with it, but she insisted and is quoted as saying “It’s not going to work anyway.” Brightfinger produced the artefact, opening the front and exposing a mechanism that was part metal, part crystal. A pearl-like sphere was placed in Bellamy’s palm and she was requested to focus on her ailment for several seconds. Once done, Brightfinger placed the sphere inside the watch, closed it, and held it in front of Bellamy. She was instructed to focus on the watch itself, as was Loash and Nogi. Brightfinger turned the arms of the clock with a finger, aiming it to the time of midnight. It was at this point that he began to channel aether into the device, Bellamy reported feeling a certain tingling, around a single ear, and Brightfinger’s focus turning to shock. According to all three, it seemed like time itself had snapped from early-morning to midnight. The caravan, its people, and Brightfinger had all disappeared, leaving behind the tents, clothing and some supplies. Both Loash and Nogi would like to be on record as saying to Bellamy “Told you so.” before conducting a final investigation of the area. Bellamy would like it to be noted that had either of them not looked at the watch, all of this could have been avoided, while still learning how the artefact worked. The final report included the few items found on sight, most valuable amongst them being a stopwatch similar to the one Brightfinger used, but missing the crystalline pieces. Brightfinger remains at large, and Emille’s contact can no longer remember ever seeing him, or making the report to the Order. Report signed off by: High Archivist Aemeric

#ffxivwrite2021 #ffxiv writing #ffxiv roleplay #ffxiv rp #ffxiv #elezen #duskwight

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hardlyfatal · 6 years

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first line meme

Tagged by @notpmahalem: List the openings of the last ten stories you published. Look to see if there are any patterns that you notice yourself, and see if anyone else notices any!

Tagging @ladytp, @lauraann1013, @frostbitepandaaaaa, @raginglittlehurricane, @jaimebrienneonline, @wackygoofball, and anyone else who wants to seduce everyone into trying their work!

1. Desperado

In 1887, Kingsland, Texas was a prosperous little town, as towns went in that place and in that time. The land upon which it stood had first been claimed by the Targaryens, an enterprising family from Boston, forty years earlier. It lay empty for almost a decade, the Targaryen-built shops sitting vacant on the dusty main street, but then the Martells— aristocrats newly arrived from Spain by way of Mexico— saw the value of land which, even if not arable or grazeable, would still need to be owned by someone, somehow.

The Martells bought everything the Targaryens hadn’t, and soon had made themselves a fortune by selling the bottom land around the river to the Tully family, and the lush area out by the lake to the Tyrells. Half of the huge rocky outcroppings of granite and and sandstone (and, it was rumored, gold) was bought by the Lannisters and the other half by the Arryns. Whatever was left was snatched up for the purpose of farming cattle by the likes of Starks and Baratheons. The empty shops filled up, as did the Targaryen coffers, and soon everyone was prospering and happy.

Well, most everyone, at least. There would always be those for whom prosperity was not enough; they had to reach ‘prosperity’ and then go another mile or two past it to ‘obscenely wealthy’, and even then, it might not suffice.

2. slowly stars go out each night

“…and then a friend told us about the most amazing marriage counselor, and we figured, what have we got to lose?”

Walda Bolton was an effervescent person, every sentence more like a burbling brook than human speech. Jaime had been charmed by it. At first.

Now, as a headache burgeoned behind his eyes, he found he hated it. Hated Walda. Hated everything. He set the phone on his desk to rub his temple and slung his feet up on the squat filing cabinet, trying to get comfortable. Walda kept talking, clearly audible even with the phone face-down.

“And it worked! Not only have we gotten past the little… hiccup… that almost broke us up, but we’re more in love than ever!”

3. Shoot the Moon

Jaime Lannister's assistant edged warily into his office, poised on her high heels like a gazelle ready to spring away from the lion before her at the first sign of danger. He wasn't in the best mood of his life, but he tried to foster an amicable, productive working relationship with his employees, especially Pia, who'd confided in him an unhappy past. She didn't deserve his ire. He forced his lips into a semblance of a smile.

"Yes, Pia?" he asked her, feigning a pleasant tone well enough to be impressed with his own acting skills. Thank the gods the day was almost over; he couldn't wait to get out of the office and go home.

"Your father's assistant emailed," Pia said miserably. "The OB just called a meeting in five minutes."

4. Love’s Disguise

Brienne Tarth was having a much better time at Tysha’s and Tyrion’s engagement party than she had expected. She’d wanted to enjoy it, of course, but having heard the groom’s tales of woe regarding various of his family’s less pleasant members, she’d harbored no real hopes of it being anything but drudgery. Fortunately, the joint was jumping and smiles abounded thanks to an excellent band and Tyrion’s insistence on a lavishly stocked bar. It was going well, if she said so herself, being Tysha’s second-in-command in organizing it.

She and Tysha had gravitated to each other as classmates in college, both being quiet and studious. They’d become and remained the closest of friends in the intervening years, and when Tysha had announced her engagement to one Tyrion Lannister, of course Brienne volunteered whatever talents she might possess in the way of planning the celebration.

5. This Never Happened Before

Brienne struggles, at first, to keep from crying as she watches the sun rise over the lake. Then she gives up and lets the tears fall; there is no one here to mock her for it, except the dog, and he's too busy licking his balls to care.

When the sun finishes its ascent into the sky, she scrubs at her face with her hands and then goes to put her coat on. At the door, she pauses and looks back into the beautiful, weird house in which she'd lived for a year. Stripped of the drapes that had framed each floor-to-ceiling glass wall, and all the furniture, the view through it is practically unimpeded. It appears to hover over the lake, with only its slender, stork-like supports interrupting the vista over God's Eye's silver-blue water.

From her coat, Brienne draws an envelope.

"Time to go," she says to the dog.

6. Sparks Ignite

Her phone dinged at an unwelcome time; Brienne was knee-deep— figuratively speaking— in an instrumental scene wherein her intrepid heroine narrowly escapes capture and certain death by the murderer against whom she is pitting her wits for the sake of truth, justice, and American cuisine. Scowling, she snatched up her phone to see who had messaged her.

Jaime: you home?

Brienne stared at it for longer than warranted. It was Wednesday, only three days after the Friday-night-that-had-turned-into-a-Saturday-morning with Cowboy Lannister, spent in a haze of sensuality. They hadn’t really established anything in the way of what was between them besides deciding they'd continue to see each other every weekend.

Brienne: Yes, why?

Jaime: i want to stop by

Brienne: in the middle of the day?

Next came a series of emojis: a winky face with tongue hanging out, a lipstick print, a kissy face.

Brienne: Is this your way of saying you want to come to my home and have sex?

He sent her a row of hands in a praying position. She rolled her eyes. If this was what passed for flirting chez Lannister, they were in for a bumpy ride.

7. Coup de Foudre

A sudden storm blew up and drove Jaime, walking down the street, to take shelter under an awning. A tall blonde person— a woman, he soon realized— was already standing there, arms wrapped around her waist to keep warm.

She turned to him with a wide, delighted grin on her face, and for a minute, his heart skipped a beat, because it was almost as if she were thrilled to see him, thrilled that he was there with her, and Jaime couldn’t remember the last time he’d been welcomed so warmly. That his presence had been so wanted, that he could be so valued.

But of course that wasn’t it, he realized when that first disconcerting moment had passed. She didn’t know him from Adam, and he didn’t know her from Eve. She was bizarrely tall, and ugly as homemade sin. But her pleasure was almost a palpable thing; he could nearly feel it vibrating in the drenched air around them.

8. Wherever You Will Go

The sun had not been seen in months, the last of the horses had been eaten, all three dragons had perished, and they were out of the wood needed to burn the dead; only Beric Dondarrion’s sword could be counted upon for that grim task.

Thus in that despondent state did commence the last of the battles, on the darkest of days.

9. Easy

The doorbell sounded, sooner than Brienne had expected, and she blew out a huge sigh of relief. Arya had been put in charge of booking the stripper for Sansa’s bachelorette party, regrettably, with the predictable result that she had forgotten completely. She had tried to convince Brienne that her own boyfriend, Gendry, would pinch-hit but Brienne put her size-thirteen foot down.

No, they were not getting Arya's attractive-but-not-a-dancer-and-it-showed boyfriend to substitute-strip. The band of drunken women currently lurching about the Starks’ living room in thigh-skimming bathrobes and clay mud masks (the first half of the evening being an indulgent spa experience, complete with pedicures and facials) would likely tear him to pieces— they needed a pro with experience in fending off groping hands and evading attempts to pluck his g-string, or the entire party would descend into chaos.

Well, more chaos.

10. None But You, Part 2

Sunday, 2 January 1813

Astapor, The Gods Only Know Where, Essos

My Dearest Fiancée,

I hope this letter finds you well. Apologies for the delay since my last; did I send it from Volantis or New Ghis? These cities are all blurring together, I’m afraid. I haven’t been able to tell one from the next since Lys.

I have just arrived at my deployment in Yunkai. I had been looking forward to enjoying some balmy heat, after a chilly and damp winter in Pentos. What a fool I was; in this part of the world, there is nothing but dry, choking red dust that sneaks it way into everything. And I do mean everything, wench.

(There, have I got you blushing yet?)

#first lines #first line meme #braime

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