Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Arwen Galen]

After the gathering Arwen sat relaxing in the orchard outside Sanctuary. She remembered the night of too much alcohol and the bonding of the Galahads and the subsequent results of that group drunk. She pondered her options as she contentedly watched the four horses graze near her, slipping off into a light doze.

The pale one raised up her head every so often and checked around the orchard as a normal habit of a leader. The large black would stop grazing and rub his large back against the trees attempting to scratch an itch that never seemed to fade away. The small red horse occasionally nipped at the heels of the albino and she snapped back at the chestnut, playing a game both knew too well. They were an anxious group of horses waiting for their riders. Those selected would take them on a journey through space and time that they alone were destined for.

The pale horse ambled over to the napping technomage and started nibbling on her boots.
Waking up from relaxing afternoon in the orchard, Arwen extended her hand to the pale, knowing she was seeking the sugar cubes that were normally kept in Arwen's pocket.

Rubbing the muzzle of the horse in a familiar comforting pattern, Arwen spoke in low tones to the beast.
"Yes I know you are anxious, soon there will be other riders for the other three but I don't know who they will be. Your guess is as good as mine."

Crunching the sugar cubes and snuffling Arwen's hair with a sweet grassy breath, the horse stopped for a moment as Arwen spoke, staring with the deep brown eyes of an understanding mount.

Waving off the horse's muzzle, Arwen stood up and fashioned the hangman's noose into a  hackamore. Placing it over the pale's head she ground tied the horse and walked around the pale, inspecting the horse's body as if she were going to buy it.

After a few moments of a hand brushing, Arwen slipped onto the back of the pale, The animal neighed softly and immediately the other three looked to the pale for guidance. Arwen pulled up gently on the reins as the pale remembered the feel of the rider and turned on heel and headed off in slow amble.

Arwen relaxed as the horse began to trot, comfortable with the gait of the pale. All three other horses followed along not hurried by the speed of the flashy animal and they trotted off as a group into Proper.

Slowing about a half hour out, Arwen pulled the reins slightly to the right and headed to Point Jedi. Something was drawing her there and until it was investigated things wouldn't be able to progress.

Meanwhile Lacuna noted the change of Arwen's implants and completed a circuit in its logic program long thought dead by the technomage family. Firing up the engines, the ship hovered a few moments then rose gracefully above Sanctuary. The ship continued to rise until it cleared about a mile up and opened up the engines. The scream of the engines was overcome by the opening of a portal in space above Proper.

As the ship disappeared through the portal, Arwen's implants began to sing in soft choral strains. She knew the end time had begun and the search for the other three of the four horsemen had begun.

Find the rider of the white horse, for they hold a bow
Find the rider of the red horse, for they hold a sword
Find the rider of the black horse, for they hold a pair of scales
You are the pale horse, the rider called Death
You are the One…Weirden’s last bloodline
That shall purge evil and darkness from the land

[/i]


Arwen Galen
urraim agus neart
House Galahad
Be without fear in the face of evil
Safeguard the helpless even if it leads to your death
 

[Jon Stone]

As Arwen rides through proper she suddenly finds Jon Stone walking along side her horse.  "Excuse me Arwen," he says, "I hope i'm not interupting you.  I just wanted to take a moment to appologize for my rather brusque behavior towards u at the last gathering.  Gatherings tend to put me in an anxious mood which sometime causes me to be rather rude.  It was nothing personal."

[Nema Dakkar]

Dakkar had walked from the Avatars on the hill and reentered to Proper.  She saw the string of horses with Arwen at the head and raised her hand in greeting as she sat at a nearby table.  One of the other Avatars, the one known as Jon Stone had gone to speak with Arwen as she waved and so she left them to it.  The last she had seen of Arwen had shown that she was not well.  Thus concern for her fellow Avatar creased her features as she studied the two in conversation.

[Arwen Galen]

As Arwen rides through proper she suddenly finds Jon Stone walking along side her horse.  "Excuse me Arwen," he says, "I hope i'm not interupting you.  I just wanted to take a moment to appologize for my rather brusque behavior towards u at the last gathering.  Gatherings tend to put me in an anxious mood which sometime causes me to be rather rude.  It was nothing personal."

Pulling up on the reins on the pale, Arwen shook her head., "Jon the only person you were rude to was yourself, if you set a good example others will follow. Doesn't that seem simple enough?"

The other horses stood nearby the pale, the chestnut snorting in minor aggravation of having stopped after so short a journey.

"The end of days are coming my friend, and that alone should shake Avatars from their slumbering attitudes."

She pushed the reins and urged the pale towards the nearby table where Dakkar was seated. Looking back over her shoulder she grinned as the horse continued, "thanks for the apology, I appreciate it."

Dakkar had walked from the Avatars on the hill and reentered to Proper.  She saw the string of horses with Arwen at the head and raised her hand in greeting as she sat at a nearby table.  One of the other Avatars, the one known as Jon Stone had gone to speak with Arwen as she waved and so she left them to it.  The last she had seen of Arwen had shown that she was not well.  Thus concern for her fellow Avatar creased her features as she studied the two in conversation.

Arwen slowed the pale again near Dakkar and let loose the reins so that the horse could graze, "Yes Dakkar I am better now, different but much better. How are you?"

Arwen Galen
urraim agus neart
House Galahad
Be without fear in the face of evil
Safeguard the helpless even if it leads to your death

[CassieMcCullin]

With the brief sound of an old modem, Cassie appears about 30 feet in front of Nema, Arwen, and Jon, grinning psychotically. The servbot is standing in front of her, and the mechanical arms twitch menacingly from her back.

"Why does everyone always want to be death? It's smelly." She shakes her head and laughs gleefully. "Purge evil? You have got to be kidding. There is not a soul in this place that is not guilty. You want to bring about a reckoning and judge them all? You will kill them all."

[Arwen Galen]

"Why does everyone always want to be death? It's smelly." She shakes her head and laughs gleefully. "Purge evil? You have got to be kidding. There is not a soul in this place that is not guilty. You want to bring about a reckoning and judge them all? You will kill them all."

Sliding off of the horse, she watched the Octagon as she sermonized, Arwen chuckling at the logic.

"So what you are telling me is that you want to die because you are guilty. Or is it that you are guilty so you must die. So tell me which one is it?"

"We all have paid for our time in this purgatory, some just haven't figured out that they have been released to a higher or lower level. Simple fact is that I don't judge their placement…but you seem to."

"If you want to die, trust me there are ways of killing you that are so decidedly evil that thinking of the act itself should be banned for eternity."

Arwen sat down with a grace of a certain manifestation and then calmly watched with twinkling hazel eyes, "I just find your logic skewed as far as the point of death being smelly. That all depends on how it is done." 

"Trust me we can make it very neat, for myself it is a perfection, an elegant art."

Arwen's body rose about 2 feet above the ground as stared at the Octagon with a bemused smile on her face.

"Everything is easy once you get the hang of it!"

Arwen Galen
urraim agus neart
House Galahad
Be without fear in the face of evil
Safeguard the helpless even if it leads to your death

[CassieMcCullin]

The Octgon continues to smile bemusedly. "You're the reason for the umbrella drinks with the curly straws... It's all so clear..." she says to no one in particular.

"We all must die some day... I did not threaten you, but you threaten me for questioning your logic. How do you judge what is evil to purge it? You truly believe you have that authority? Just because you can kill people well doesn't make you Death."

An eerie green glow shines from underneath her mirror lenses. "Death is, in fact, smelly. I sleep with it. Although, of course, I've gotten used to the smell, and those air fresheners I installed work wonders...

"I still don't understand why Death's the popular one. Maybe you can enlighten me. War's fairly wicked. And famine can be quite fun. Death just sort of sits in the background and reaps the harvest of the first three, after all. Not a very active position. Me, I'm fond of Pestilence myself."

With the last words, there is an overwhelming sense of fear, almost tangible, surrounding her. The plants under her feet seem to grow diseased, and not just physically - it's as if the spirits of the blades of grass are writhing in pain.

"There are many Horsemen here," she hisses. "Be wary of the others before you decide to take up the mantle."

[Brother Seneca Shakran]

"Oh death's popularity is quite simple really.", says a Seneca materializing from nearby shadows.

"Wars end, hatred is eventually replaced by the horror.  War's time is limited, but even so it returns as a part of mortal nature.  Pestilence, poor pestilence can only do so much before resistance springs.  And it only spurs us on until it is cured, and then it creeps back.  Famine is perhaps he most easily avoided, simply by getting off one's ass and producing more food.  Of course sloth takes a hold again, and the cycle continues.

I think however you should be beginnning to see my point.  You other three are very simply avoidable and controllable.  You come, and then are sent away until apathy takes a hold.  You spur the wheel on, but you do not have the power to cleanse it of its inherent flaws.  You're ineffective, full of sound and fury, and signifying nothing.

Death however, he's got a diffent game altogether.  Death not only turns the wheel, death gives a soul a chance to rethink itself.  Maybe the next time that soul takes a spin, it won't be so damned impertinent. 

You're all eternal, and unending no doubt.  But when it comes down to it, everyone of you that likes to play dressup in the robes of the horsemen, knows that the other three are just a premature ejaculate, for the fourth,"

[Arwen Galen]

Chucking as she slowly floated back to the ground, stopping for a moment then breaking out into peals of laughter,
"So correct me if I am wrong but if I question YOUR logic dear soul, I am threatening you?" Holding out her hands patting down her arms and legs and shaking her head.

"Nope no weapons primed, nothing that would guarantee instant horrible mind-numbing painful death here….just logic." Arwen continued giggling.

Smiling a greeting to an appearing Seneca "Oh my dear Seneca you were right, some of them are TOO rich!"

Looking back at Cassie with a twinkle in her eye to answer her question,

"Well to be honest the horse likes me. I went with that."

Standing up and stretching cat-like, Arwen walked over to the pale and started to pet her, looking very content.


Arwen Galen
urraim agus neart
House Galahad
Be without fear in the face of evil
Safeguard the helpless even if it leads to your death

[CassieMcCullin]

If you could see into the astral (and since some of you can, well...), you would see a *very* tangible fear radiating from her, in the form of little damned souls swarming around her. If you can't, you just see sick plants.

"I can't help but note you haven't answered the question, Arwen."

[Dragontologist]

Felegro, still in the orchard by Sanctuary, notices Arwen, but remains silent.  In fact, he remains still enough to be easily mistaken for one of the trees in the area, although he is (for some reason) in full bloom, while the rest of the orchard is turning from brilliant shades of orange and red to a dull brown which crunches underfoot.  He says nothing to any of the comments made, and in fact seems not to care….

…Until the plants underneath Cassie begin to shrivel.  They writhe in pain. 

And Felegro, of course, can hear them screaming. 

He moves swiftly towards the group, but only has eyes for one.  He stops about twenty feet from the group and glares.  He ignores the talking between anyone else.

[Nema Dakkar]

Dakkar listens to the other who stepped into their conversation and stands stroking the pale horse next to Arwen.

"It is good you are better than when last I saw you Arwen."  She looks around to the others who are there.  "There is good and evil in everything if you know how to change your perspectives.  What one would think as good others will find as evil.  Though even in this statement I make there is variations."

She looks to the other mounts then back to Arwen.

"The destruction of the world in which I lived before coming here was also imminent.  For myself this has not changed.  That world by its mortal history had times of coming near to an end by many perspectives and the four horsemen had in deed and in action ridden through.  The fact remaind that while the world changed it was never completely destroyed and those that survived continued."

She smiles and looks to the Avatars around her.

"Cycles of change are violent effects.  Some will hunker down and weather the storm in hopes to be lucky, other will prepare as best they may and again hope to survive, some will seek to find their ending and perhaps in a death finally find their peace.  Others will rise again upon the other side and in dispair of what they lost finally succomb.  This is the way of change."

Turning back to Arwen.

"Arwen it is well that you came back from those who tortured you on that other side of the portal.  It was and is an honor to have helped in what small way I could.  I am at heart a builder and so I do not fear changes I tend to make them.  If this is your ride and this creature your mount know please that the power of death is only absolute in its individual efforts.  Life will always return just in different form and for as long as here is hope it shall be seen.  In my heart there is hope."

With that she bows to the others and retakes her seat.

[Arwen Galen]

"I can't help but note you haven't answered the question, Arwen."

But I did my dear soul, you just didn't get the answer you wanted.

I said I liked the horse and the horse liked me. My  version of death and yours is almost opposite but you seem to think that yours is the only one. Tell me how does your version of death helps the greater good? Is it a place to go when nothing else matters, or a starting of a circle that continues forever?

He moves swiftly towards the group, but only has eyes for one.  He stops about twenty feet from the group and glares.  He ignores the talking between anyone else.

Noting the aura around her and his reaction, Arwen thought of something to say but decided to stay out of the tree's range.

"Cycles of change are violent effects.  Some will hunker down and weather the storm in hopes to be lucky, other will prepare as best they may and again hope to survive, some will seek to find their ending and perhaps in a death finally find their peace.  Others will rise again upon the other side and in despair of what they lost finally succumb.  This is the way of change."

Nodding her head in agreement, "Most likely it is a cost to your soul that some are not willing to part with. I myself have no idea where the horse will take me I let the reins loose and she runs…to her own beat I guess."

With that Arwen mounts the pale and as she gathers up the reins, the horse turns north, flaring her nostrils and as she appears to head off again.

Arwen leaves a parting comment to Nema, "I think for now heading to Point Jedi is our next stop. There is something there that Tarkin left behind for me and since the area still needs some clearing I am off to perform some more tasks as well.

"Be well and keep your eye on the horizon, for all truth will come from there."

As the pale starts off towards Point Jedi, the three others turn as if they are part of a flock of birds and run off in total formation behind the pale and off into the sunset.

Arwen Galen
urraim agus neart
House Galahad
Be without fear in the face of evil
Safeguard the helpless even if it leads to your death

[CassieMcCullin]

"You never said how you would judge evil."

Cassie arches an eyebrow, and without warning the servbot fires at Arwen.

[OOC: surprise long range, servbot action, 335 (NQ)]

[Salvius]

[OOC: surprise long range, servbot action, 335 (NQ)]

OOC: Carol, you can force an initiative draw for combat, but you cannot make a surprise attack as the Servant was in plain sight.

>>>Vinny