@Galehaut @TrashMomma @Spectator @megara17 @Jetdrana @CirrusAscending @Tynethyne @Drachenschwinge
No writing post tonight, but I finally drew art of half the crew! Got headshot sketches of Zylen, Clancy, Elanor, and Micah for you guys!
[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/537772951647289375/851655389044015134/image0.jpg[/img]
I did want to write tonight but I didn't want to pass up an opportunity to actually draw for once. It's been a bit since I've been inspired like this. I don't know when I'll get to the others, but I'd like to try before I get anymore new ones or someone dies.
Anyways, I know tomorrow is both the anniversary and what will undeniably be a hard long day at work. I may try and write since it's the anniversary, but don't be surprised if that falls through.
No writing post tonight, but I finally drew art of half the crew! Got headshot sketches of Zylen, Clancy, Elanor, and Micah for you guys!
I did want to write tonight but I didn't want to pass up an opportunity to actually draw for once. It's been a bit since I've been inspired like this. I don't know when I'll get to the others, but I'd like to try before I get anymore new ones or someone dies.
Anyways, I know tomorrow is both the anniversary and what will undeniably be a hard long day at work. I may try and write since it's the anniversary, but don't be surprised if that falls through.
@Galehaut @TrashMomma @Spectator @megara17 @Jetdrana @CirrusAscending @Tynethyne @Drachenschwinge
Hey guys! Sorry there won't be an update tonight or possibly the next couple of days. There's a reason for this though, as I'm in the process of planning out a second thread for the Pinkerlocke! This will be to catalogue past locations, NPCs, events, and so on for easy reference back. This is so new readers don't have to read the entirety of this if they don't want to delve into 100k words of material. I'm hoping this will help older readers look back at material more easily as well. I don't know when I'll have the thread up and running, but until it is, I probably won't be posting new updates. Hopefully this is worth the wait!
@Galehaut @TrashMomma @Spectator @megara17 @Jetdrana @CirrusAscending @Tynethyne @Drachenschwinge
Hey guys! Sorry there won't be an update tonight or possibly the next couple of days. There's a reason for this though, as I'm in the process of planning out a second thread for the Pinkerlocke! This will be to catalogue past locations, NPCs, events, and so on for easy reference back. This is so new readers don't have to read the entirety of this if they don't want to delve into 100k words of material. I'm hoping this will help older readers look back at material more easily as well. I don't know when I'll have the thread up and running, but until it is, I probably won't be posting new updates. Hopefully this is worth the wait!
Hello! Upon returning from my century long slumber off of flight rising, I am pleased to hear that Pinkerlockes still exist. May I be added to the pinglist?
Hello! Upon returning from my century long slumber off of flight rising, I am pleased to hear that Pinkerlockes still exist. May I be added to the pinglist?
Pinkerlocke? Not now, but one day...
[center][b]Day 62[/b]
[item=Skipping Stone][/center]
After breakfast, the three gathered in the archives to discuss the letter. Zylen had allowed both of them to examine the contents of the letter on their own, Elanor quietly mumbling throughout while Micah fidgeted some, clearly missing his desk where he’d be able to write notes. Both were left puzzled when finished, but Zylen picked up on some relief from the Tundra, likely due to the sender’s intentions.
Carefully placing the letter back inside its envelope, Elanor looked around her office a bit, speaking up to break the silence, “So, what do you three think of all of this?” Grabbing a key from inside one of her desk drawers, she unlocked an older looking file cabinet, sifting through it before smiling, pulling out a folder within. “I think we’ve needed something like this.”
“What? Information or an ally?” Zylen inquired, knowing both were good.
Instead, a frustrated Micah disrupted them both, “Alright, I know the two of you said you’d reveal what’s going on slowly to me, but this? [i]This?[/i]” the Fae could feel his hostility, “I was told my position is [i]important[/i]. As such I expected to be [i]treated[/i] with importance, not as some afterthought to whatever is going on between all of you. I know Mariela’s more wrapped up in her job than this place, but I’m [i]vital[/i] for a reason I don’t even [i]know[/i]. How am I supposed to help or form any of my own opinions on these things if I’m left in the dark. Stuck writing footnotes to give to the professor. Do you know how [i]frustrating[/i] that is? To be left out of the loop?”
The outburst left Zylen at a loss for words as his frills instinctively shifted into one of anger, “What? My explanation from before wasn’t enough for you? Do you have to know every little detail [i]now[/i]?”
Elanor quickly wedged her way between the two, her expression hiding the far fiercer anger in her eyes. “Enough!” she shouted, “Regardless of how you two feel about our situation, fighting will get nowhere. If Micah wishes to know of what we’ve been through, so be it. At the very least he’ll at least stop avoiding Clancy, like I know he [i]does[/i].” She turned to face the Ancient, “She’s been through a lot more than you think. Give her a chance.”
Micah scoffed, growling, “Fine. I’ll stay afterwards so you can tell me more. But I better know [i]everything[/i] by the end of this.”
The Tundra shook her head, “Sorry, but unfortunately some information is confidential. For example, Zylen’s taken to trusting me with some information he’d very much like to keep between the two of us. The sort of thing that’s only written down so there’s documentation of it.”
The Veilspun huffed in defeat, finally focusing back on the topic they had gathered there for. “I’m guessing an ally on the outside is something lacking with this place?”
Zylen nodded, happy to see the situation resolved for the time being, “I mentioned before that there have been a lot of individuals that know who we are. The problem is at most, these individuals have held neutral standing. Up until this letter, our only ‘ally’ was a friend of the dragons who worked here before us named Issac. And even he restricts how much information is shared and how often we do so.” He rolled his eyes, “So long story short, yes. Whoever this is, they’re the first to be outwardly friendly to us, and gave us plenty of information we desperately needed.”
“Speaking of information,” Elanor waved the folder she grabbed earlier, “I was wondering why talk of strange letters was familiar. It’s not much but I found some loose papers a while back dating back to while Darryn was still employed here. At first I thought these mentioned digging through letters had something to do with Saile. We know now what they really are.”
“But that begs a new question,” Micah’s interruption drew attention back to him, “What happened to these letters? Do you think Darryn hid them with the rest of his material, or do you think he had them destroyed?”
“Destroyed,” Elanor responded, “Darryn may have hidden potentially dangerous information, but as far as we’re away, that writing was from others employed at the manor. Information provided by others, especially those that were likely enemies, would pose a risk to not only him, but the entire manor. We may not know what happened to the others, but if there’s one thing we [i]do [/i]know, it’s nothing good came to any of them. Just look at what happened to Issac.”
“And what of the others from before Darryn’s time? Those archivists? Do you have any idea if they handled similar problems?” Zylen countered, “I’m not only talking letters here.”
She rubbed her temples, slightly irritated, “Unfortunately, not from what I’ve seen. Then again, I haven’t gone through much of those. Between my personal search and looking for anything relating to the missing section with Darryn’s writing, I haven’t had much time to scour anything from other archivists. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out anytime I do from now on though.”
Micah adjusted his mane, clearly uncomfortable, “And if you [i]do[/i] find more of these strange occurrences?”
Zylen answered for him, “Then I’m afraid whatever is going on with this manor runs far deeper than the staff and what Saile assigns us.” There was a stillness after these words were spoken, no one wanting to admit what this would mean for them if true. No one spoke a word as they stared back at the envelope on Elanor’s desk, colorful paper drawing in their eyes.
Then, almost inaudibly, the Tundra added to the Fae’s prior words, “It already does. I-I don’t think we need physical proof. Our guts and our doubts are already telling us the truth.”
----------
Awakened to the sounds of screaming, Zylen’s heart pounded in his chest as he bolted upright in his bed. Suspecting it to be another nightmare at first, the second time he heard it, it passed right past his door. Heavier footsteps followed, and as he caught on to what was happening, he didn’t hesitate to leave. The pest was at it again, this time having tracked down an isolated member of the night staff.
No one in sight as he looked down the hallway, he could still hear the distant pleas of the staff member. Wasting no time he darted off towards them, hoping to be able to rescue them before they’d wind up being another victim. As he turned the corner he stopped, and backpedaled, remembering what would happen if he found himself injured. Cautious, he used his magic to hide his appearance in the shadows the best he could, now stealthily encroaching on the two. If he could blind the pest, the member of staff would be able to escape unharmed.
As he drew nearer, he finally got his first good look at the intruder in the walls. Even from this distance he could make out the molded and disused Mirror doll taking up most of the small hallway. Torn in places but in strangely good condition, the limbs of the draconic plush moved irregularly, jittering with sharp sudden movements that put strain on the fabric. He could see nothing of the creature inside this doll however, at least from the angle he was observing it from.
Strangely, despite the creature having cornered the Spiral that had been the source of the screams, it was doing nothing to harm her besides keep her pinned. It looked her up and down instead, sometimes forcefully changing her position to look at other parts of her body. The entire scene made the Fae highly uncomfortable, but he knew better than to rush in. His plan to blind the pest was out of the question now, so he had to think of something else.
His backup plan wound up being an attempt at a distraction. From down the hall he spotted a lone vase, which he quickly knocked over once reaching. The sound of the crash did send it running, but as he returned to the staff member, his heart sank as he found she had been killed swiftly with a violent bite to the neck that quickly broke it. Unsure what to do now, he spent nearly five minutes looking for another member of staff to report the body to.
As he drifted down the hallway once again, he noticed two things. The first was a slip of paper and key in the shattered remains of the vase. The second was the now missing body of the staff member.
----------
@Galehaut @TrashMomma @Spectator @megara17 @Jetdrana @CirrusAscending @Tynethyne @Drachenschwinge
Finally, let's get back into this! Boring Material pull today and I forgot I was in the middle of a mission, but that didn't change my plans too much. Poppet still kills someone, Micah's being rude as heck, and everyone is beginning to realize the scope of the situation.
I wish I had more commentary but I'm really just trying to get back into this. I'll be adding Obes to my breed roll list as well as linking the discussion thread in the opening post as well. Hopefully today's writing isn't too rough as I had a hard time starting once I realized Jeremiah and Clancy are gone due to an existing mission.
It's nice to end this hiatus and hopefully I can keep this momentum going! Discussion thread stuff really killed me.
This stone was born to skip! You could probably get 5 skips out of it if you threw it just right.
30
After breakfast, the three gathered in the archives to discuss the letter. Zylen had allowed both of them to examine the contents of the letter on their own, Elanor quietly mumbling throughout while Micah fidgeted some, clearly missing his desk where he’d be able to write notes. Both were left puzzled when finished, but Zylen picked up on some relief from the Tundra, likely due to the sender’s intentions.
Carefully placing the letter back inside its envelope, Elanor looked around her office a bit, speaking up to break the silence, “So, what do you three think of all of this?” Grabbing a key from inside one of her desk drawers, she unlocked an older looking file cabinet, sifting through it before smiling, pulling out a folder within. “I think we’ve needed something like this.”
“What? Information or an ally?” Zylen inquired, knowing both were good.
Instead, a frustrated Micah disrupted them both, “Alright, I know the two of you said you’d reveal what’s going on slowly to me, but this? This?” the Fae could feel his hostility, “I was told my position is important. As such I expected to be treated with importance, not as some afterthought to whatever is going on between all of you. I know Mariela’s more wrapped up in her job than this place, but I’m vital for a reason I don’t even know. How am I supposed to help or form any of my own opinions on these things if I’m left in the dark. Stuck writing footnotes to give to the professor. Do you know how frustrating that is? To be left out of the loop?”
The outburst left Zylen at a loss for words as his frills instinctively shifted into one of anger, “What? My explanation from before wasn’t enough for you? Do you have to know every little detail now?”
Elanor quickly wedged her way between the two, her expression hiding the far fiercer anger in her eyes. “Enough!” she shouted, “Regardless of how you two feel about our situation, fighting will get nowhere. If Micah wishes to know of what we’ve been through, so be it. At the very least he’ll at least stop avoiding Clancy, like I know he does.” She turned to face the Ancient, “She’s been through a lot more than you think. Give her a chance.”
Micah scoffed, growling, “Fine. I’ll stay afterwards so you can tell me more. But I better know everything by the end of this.”
The Tundra shook her head, “Sorry, but unfortunately some information is confidential. For example, Zylen’s taken to trusting me with some information he’d very much like to keep between the two of us. The sort of thing that’s only written down so there’s documentation of it.”
The Veilspun huffed in defeat, finally focusing back on the topic they had gathered there for. “I’m guessing an ally on the outside is something lacking with this place?”
Zylen nodded, happy to see the situation resolved for the time being, “I mentioned before that there have been a lot of individuals that know who we are. The problem is at most, these individuals have held neutral standing. Up until this letter, our only ‘ally’ was a friend of the dragons who worked here before us named Issac. And even he restricts how much information is shared and how often we do so.” He rolled his eyes, “So long story short, yes. Whoever this is, they’re the first to be outwardly friendly to us, and gave us plenty of information we desperately needed.”
“Speaking of information,” Elanor waved the folder she grabbed earlier, “I was wondering why talk of strange letters was familiar. It’s not much but I found some loose papers a while back dating back to while Darryn was still employed here. At first I thought these mentioned digging through letters had something to do with Saile. We know now what they really are.”
“But that begs a new question,” Micah’s interruption drew attention back to him, “What happened to these letters? Do you think Darryn hid them with the rest of his material, or do you think he had them destroyed?”
“Destroyed,” Elanor responded, “Darryn may have hidden potentially dangerous information, but as far as we’re away, that writing was from others employed at the manor. Information provided by others, especially those that were likely enemies, would pose a risk to not only him, but the entire manor. We may not know what happened to the others, but if there’s one thing we do know, it’s nothing good came to any of them. Just look at what happened to Issac.”
“And what of the others from before Darryn’s time? Those archivists? Do you have any idea if they handled similar problems?” Zylen countered, “I’m not only talking letters here.”
She rubbed her temples, slightly irritated, “Unfortunately, not from what I’ve seen. Then again, I haven’t gone through much of those. Between my personal search and looking for anything relating to the missing section with Darryn’s writing, I haven’t had much time to scour anything from other archivists. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out anytime I do from now on though.”
Micah adjusted his mane, clearly uncomfortable, “And if you do find more of these strange occurrences?”
Zylen answered for him, “Then I’m afraid whatever is going on with this manor runs far deeper than the staff and what Saile assigns us.” There was a stillness after these words were spoken, no one wanting to admit what this would mean for them if true. No one spoke a word as they stared back at the envelope on Elanor’s desk, colorful paper drawing in their eyes.
Then, almost inaudibly, the Tundra added to the Fae’s prior words, “It already does. I-I don’t think we need physical proof. Our guts and our doubts are already telling us the truth.”
Awakened to the sounds of screaming, Zylen’s heart pounded in his chest as he bolted upright in his bed. Suspecting it to be another nightmare at first, the second time he heard it, it passed right past his door. Heavier footsteps followed, and as he caught on to what was happening, he didn’t hesitate to leave. The pest was at it again, this time having tracked down an isolated member of the night staff.
No one in sight as he looked down the hallway, he could still hear the distant pleas of the staff member. Wasting no time he darted off towards them, hoping to be able to rescue them before they’d wind up being another victim. As he turned the corner he stopped, and backpedaled, remembering what would happen if he found himself injured. Cautious, he used his magic to hide his appearance in the shadows the best he could, now stealthily encroaching on the two. If he could blind the pest, the member of staff would be able to escape unharmed.
As he drew nearer, he finally got his first good look at the intruder in the walls. Even from this distance he could make out the molded and disused Mirror doll taking up most of the small hallway. Torn in places but in strangely good condition, the limbs of the draconic plush moved irregularly, jittering with sharp sudden movements that put strain on the fabric. He could see nothing of the creature inside this doll however, at least from the angle he was observing it from.
Strangely, despite the creature having cornered the Spiral that had been the source of the screams, it was doing nothing to harm her besides keep her pinned. It looked her up and down instead, sometimes forcefully changing her position to look at other parts of her body. The entire scene made the Fae highly uncomfortable, but he knew better than to rush in. His plan to blind the pest was out of the question now, so he had to think of something else.
His backup plan wound up being an attempt at a distraction. From down the hall he spotted a lone vase, which he quickly knocked over once reaching. The sound of the crash did send it running, but as he returned to the staff member, his heart sank as he found she had been killed swiftly with a violent bite to the neck that quickly broke it. Unsure what to do now, he spent nearly five minutes looking for another member of staff to report the body to.
Finally, let's get back into this! Boring Material pull today and I forgot I was in the middle of a mission, but that didn't change my plans too much. Poppet still kills someone, Micah's being rude as heck, and everyone is beginning to realize the scope of the situation.
I wish I had more commentary but I'm really just trying to get back into this. I'll be adding Obes to my breed roll list as well as linking the discussion thread in the opening post as well. Hopefully today's writing isn't too rough as I had a hard time starting once I realized Jeremiah and Clancy are gone due to an existing mission.
It's nice to end this hiatus and hopefully I can keep this momentum going! Discussion thread stuff really killed me.
@MisterMylez
You posted while I was editing everything for today's post, but you've been added! Welcome back to FR, and thanks for the interest! Giving a ping here to let you know you weren't ignored.
@MisterMylez
You posted while I was editing everything for today's post, but you've been added! Welcome back to FR, and thanks for the interest! Giving a ping here to let you know you weren't ignored.
Ayy, thanks! Now to get caught up with the pinkerlocke.
Ayy, thanks! Now to get caught up with the pinkerlocke.
Pinkerlocke? Not now, but one day...
I'm at day 6 rn and something bugs me a little bit- I can't find any image of Slaye or Jaxon, etc at all, so I have no idea what they look like other than knowing that they're both guardians. It's sorta confusing, especially since I can't find anything on the cast list which also gives me a feeling that both Jaxon and the mirror are gonna die since I couldn't find them on the list.
I'm at day 6 rn and something bugs me a little bit- I can't find any image of Slaye or Jaxon, etc at all, so I have no idea what they look like other than knowing that they're both guardians. It's sorta confusing, especially since I can't find anything on the cast list which also gives me a feeling that both Jaxon and the mirror are gonna die since I couldn't find them on the list.
Pinkerlocke? Not now, but one day...
@MisterMylez
Unfortunately this is the one major hole I’ve been unable to fix. On one hand, I don’t want to include now-deceased dragons in my cast post so it doesn’t become even longer. I tried to solve this by putting past members in End’s bio (dragon itself linked on the day navigation post), but then there’s the problem of having only small images combined with knowing the exact order everyone died in.
If you have any suggestions as to how to go about fixing this, let me know. At the current moment I don’t have anything in place to prevent realizing stuff like this. It’s the major problem I’ve had with any Pinkerlocke I’ve done, both past and present.
@MisterMylez
Unfortunately this is the one major hole I’ve been unable to fix. On one hand, I don’t want to include now-deceased dragons in my cast post so it doesn’t become even longer. I tried to solve this by putting past members in End’s bio (dragon itself linked on the day navigation post), but then there’s the problem of having only small images combined with knowing the exact order everyone died in.
If you have any suggestions as to how to go about fixing this, let me know. At the current moment I don’t have anything in place to prevent realizing stuff like this. It’s the major problem I’ve had with any Pinkerlocke I’ve done, both past and present.
Something I've seen people do is put the names only in the cast, with character descriptions in their bios themselves. Even then, there's the problem of exalting. It may be a good idea to take a glance at other Pinkerlockes for inspiration- when I first started mine I took a lot of inspiration and got much needed help from a few particular people. If you'd like, I have a few lockes that I used to follow back in 2019-2020 that you can use as material.
Something I've seen people do is put the names only in the cast, with character descriptions in their bios themselves. Even then, there's the problem of exalting. It may be a good idea to take a glance at other Pinkerlockes for inspiration- when I first started mine I took a lot of inspiration and got much needed help from a few particular people. If you'd like, I have a few lockes that I used to follow back in 2019-2020 that you can use as material.
Pinkerlocke? Not now, but one day...
@MisterMylez
Yeah, that's why I keep the old descriptions with the now-deceased dragons in End's bio as well. I also don't want other users to have to click on dragons to get a description, which is why the cast format I use is what it is. As for exalting, only one member has actually been exalted, with the others having been adopted by followers of the Pinkerlocke.
I'm about to head to work, but as stated before, deceased member's descriptions aren't gone, and can be found on this dragon as I don't want to clog another post with those that have since died. The only thing missing are larger images of the dragons dressed up, and it shouldn't be hard to add those if requested.
That said, feel free to throw some examples at me! I've been doing things the way I do based on my own past experiences, but I'm willing to look to others for inspiration.
@MisterMylez
Yeah, that's why I keep the old descriptions with the now-deceased dragons in End's bio as well. I also don't want other users to have to click on dragons to get a description, which is why the cast format I use is what it is. As for exalting, only one member has actually been exalted, with the others having been adopted by followers of the Pinkerlocke.
I'm about to head to work, but as stated before, deceased member's descriptions aren't gone, and can be found on this dragon as I don't want to clog another post with those that have since died. The only thing missing are larger images of the dragons dressed up, and it shouldn't be hard to add those if requested.
That said, feel free to throw some examples at me! I've been doing things the way I do based on my own past experiences, but I'm willing to look to others for inspiration.
