action / text ; un: starkov

[sankta]

ACTION

( the performance begins before Alina even appears before the court. curtains are drawn at her request, and light extinguished throughout the room. it's not total darkness, the hour isn't late enough for that, but the darkness is well enough to be almost discomforting in a group as large as this.

that's when the only source of light in the room appears. two pinholes of light, bursting through the eyeholes of the mask Alina wears. a bright glow that illuminates her masked face in a nearly fearsome way. yet the glow slowly blossoms out underneath the mask, flowing to Alina's cheeks, down strands of her, across her neck, and filling out along her body. Alina stands as a bright light among the crowd with her light flowing all amongst her.

then suddenly the light is out again.

one ball of light appears in Alina's hand. then a second in her other hand. she spreads them apart and a third feeds off the first two to form between them.

with careful movements, Alina presses the lights out above the crowd. the three lights orbit each other in slow succession as they move over everyone. until finally they reach the center of the room. Alina spreads her arms wide, and slowly the small orbs begin to grow in size. they expand from bright, concentrated orbs, into dissipated spheres of light that begin to cover the crowd.

then finally she pulls her hands apart abruptly and the lights burst brightly over the crowd. without wasting time, Alina disappears before she can be harangued about her performance. )

POST

Please tell me we've done enough for Odile. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd rather not repeat that performance again.

Does anyone actually care who Macaluso ends up choosing?


( feel free to respond to the action or the post for this one! )

Comments

[sankta]

That would explain where you got so good at it.

[scrapgege]

haha, it's really not that much if you have the strength for it, but it impresses people, so...

[sankta]

Well I don't have the strength for it, so it was pretty impressive to me.

[scrapgege]

Thank you, haha. I hadn't done it in a while.

[sankta]

Just telling you the truth.

How do you feel about Taravast so far?

[scrapgege]

Hm, well, it's a very big city. I haven't been in one of those for.... a long while.

[He's usually tried to avoid big urban centers, after what happened th last two times he was in one.]

[sankta]

Have you seen anything like it before?

I haven't.

[scrapgege]

... I have, yes. I was born in a city a little like that.

[sankta]

... Is that a good thing?

[scrapgege]

I don't think it's good or bad. It was my home, for a time. It doesn't exist anymore now. It was destroyed a long time ago.

[sankta]

I'm sorry. The place where I was born no longer exists either. But it was a town, not a city.

[scrapgege]

It was a long time ago. I don't think there's anyone alive who even remembers the name now. The whole kingdom is gone.

Cities can be a lot when you're not used to them.

[sankta]

Sometimes I forget how long you've been around....

Nowhere in my country is like this place. I guess the capital is the closest, but only the palace. Not the rest of the city.

[scrapgege]

Sometimes I forget too, haha.

Do you mean, with stone buildings?

[sankta]

And the opulence. This whole city is rich.

[scrapgege]

Ah. Yes. My city was like that too. I mean there were some poorer neighborhood too, but on the whole, this was a prosperous kingdom before it fell.