Tourn RP Archive

At a time when no one else was in the kitchen, Zahara walked back inside the kitchen, looking around for if Rakin had stayed back after speaking with Agustin and Kian. It seemed that he had left, so she looked pretty disappointed.

6:23 PM

@Twig | Kiran + Riki

Riki had been pretty much paralyzed from the shock. He couldn't believe his senses, this had to be a nightmare.... Yet, he couldn't wake up. It didn't help to sit and stare into space (haha), he had to do something. He refused to fall into apathy, refused to give up. There had to be a way to get back home, there had to. He was still alive, and as long as he lived, he would look for a way. Right now, it would be best to get to know his surroundings, and figure out his situation. Riki wandered into the kitchen, and paused in the doorway. He looked at Zahara on alert, and took in the scents in the room. The smell of food was distracting, but he could sense Rakin's scent in the air. The back of his neck bristled. "Greetings", he said to Zahara. His voice and demeanor weren't hostile, but they weren't friendly either. @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"Oh- howdy!" Zahara turned back to look at Riki, blinking a few times as she took in exactly what he was. ".. You're pretty interestin!" @Twig | Kiran + Riki

Riki raised his eyebrow, and nodded with a slightly tilted head to receive the compliment. "Would I be right to assume that you are one of our hosts? Or perhaps kitchen staff?" Riki ventured, glancing around the room leisurely, before looking back at Zahara, as he stepped further into the room. @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"I dunno if I'm staff, but I was here before y'all new people arrived." Zahara said. "What's your name?" @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"Hmm", Riki seemed somewhat skeptical and cold, as he approached Zahara cautiously but with a polite composure. He stopped a few steps away, and bent slightly forward from his waist. "I'm captain Icefang. Nice to meet you." @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"Cappin Icefang?" Zahara repeated before nodding. She held out her hand for a shake. "What're ya the cappin of?" @Twig | Kiran + Riki

Riki glanced at Zahara's hand, and hesitated for a second, before shaking it. "I'm captain in the Imperial Palace of Ninjago. I mostly train new recruits. Who do I owe this pleasure?" Riki asked with a hint of a smile. @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

Thankfully, Zahara didn't electrocute him like the last frogling he encountered. "Wow, I never even heard of that place!" Zahara said. "And I'm Zahara." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"Mhm, I suppose it's understandable. The space is large", Riki replied, and felt his back fur tingle from his own words. He shook his head slightly and drew a deep breath through his nose to calm down. "Nice to meet you, Zahara. Can you tell me where we are?" @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"Rakin told me we're ina maze in space. Not much else." Zahara smiled as she said his name. "He said we have to trust him." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"Hm." Riki's ears turned back, and he looked away, his tails swaying. "... I see. And, you trust him?" @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"Of course! He's my king, he's a good man. I know it." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"Your 'king'?" Riki raised his brow and looked back to Zahara. "Interesting. Hm. You refer to him quite informally for a subordinate. Do you know him personally?" @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"I wouldn' say I'm a 'subordinate', Rakin is jus close with all the froglings he saved. We knew each other before I got here." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"Mhmm... It sounds to me like there's a story to tell", Riki hummed. He stared down at Zahara for a moment longer, before hus eyes softened a little, and he sighed. He leaned his hip slightly against a counter, crossed his arms, and rubbed his face with his hand briefly. @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"A story? You wanna hear it? It's kinda long.. And I'd have a lot of translatin' to do." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"I would like to, yes, if it's not too much to ask from you," Riki nodded. @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"Well.. Alright." Zahara decided to take a seat on the floor. She took her gloves off and set them on the floor next to her. "I'm.. Twenty-two now. And when everythin went wrong, I was seven. So fifteen years ago." "... I grew up in the Swamplands, it was so perfect there. Great weather, rained juuuust the right amount, so many bugs to eat.. Other froglings to befriend.." She smiled a little as she reminisced about the good ol' times. "Then.. fifteen years ago... These- these creatures-.." She took in a deep breath and wrung her hands together. "They attacked us. They were giant bug lookin humanoid creatures with- mushrooms on em! Terrifying.. Even when we frogs were human sized, they were bigger an' stronger than us. They outright killed half of us, and the previous king, right there. Thankfully, the crown fell to Raina during the event, and he.. He took charge to do what he could. He told us all to retreat, gathered up as many a' us as he could before we escaped through our Well." ".. Unfortunately, the creatures.. Struck us with some awful disease. Fungus that eventually chokes us out. None of us knew it right away, but.. It was awful." She took in another deep breath- just to make sure she could still. "Saving us from outright slaughter was the first of his blessings." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

Riki listened carefully, with his head tilted and one leg crossed over the other. His ears were attentively pointing up, though his eyes seemed almost hazy as he listened Zahara talk. He frowned slightly, but didn't interrupt the frogling with any questions or sympathies before she paused. "My condolences. That must have been a nightmare to experience. Are you still ill?" he finally spoke in a softer tone. @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"No, Rakin got us a cure. That was his fourth blessing." Zahara smiled. "He worked so hard for it.. That disease killed a lotta us too.." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"I see... I'm, glad you're cured." Riki nodded. "Please, continue, if you can." @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"I don' like talkin about this next part much so.. I'll give ya a quick rundown." Zahara slowly nodded. "After we escaped from our Well, we tried the axolotls first since we knew they were friendly. But they said for us to stay we had to abandon the Pilarians.. Which lookin' back may have been a fine idea but at the time, they were our Gods- we couldn' just abandon them. So we moved on. We tried the salamanders and the newts, but their Well was weak for us.. A few frogs stayed here and there. Then the caecilians, their well worked slightly betta but their home was miserable for us. A few frogs stayed there too, but the majority of us went to- to the toads." She took a notable pause after that, twiddling her fingers. "... The toads were not kind to us. And King Raina took so many of our punishments-.. He saved me. All of his bravery at the face of those brutes was his second blessing. He is the only reason we aren' functionally extinct." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

Riki was quiet for a while after Zahara paused. He had thoughts and questions, but since the lady didn't seem happy to talk about this part of the story, Riki hesitated to ask. He didn't want her to stop telling the tale at all, or feel negatively towards the fox. He lifted his head in thought, pensively looking into the corner of the ceiling. "Hmm... I got the impression he had a tendency to accept physical punishments on himself to atone things", he mused. Pilarians... Riki was sure he had hears that word before. ...That must have been the species that Alrai Pin wanted to bring back. The fox glanced at Zahara slightly sharper again. "What happened then?" he asked, not in a demanding tone, though he seemed eager to learn more. @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽 (edited)

".. Wait- did you hurt him? How would ya know that he-.." Zahara frowned and looked up at Riki with a hint of sadness. @Twig | Kiran + Riki

Riki's ears turned slightly back, and his eyes turned colder. "I know this because he literally offered himself to be my 'punching back' to vent my feelings. I held back. The most I did was applying light pressure on his throat, not enough to stop his breathing or leave lasting damage. He did not fight back, he seemed to accept whatever I would inflict on him." Riki looked away again, a thoughtful look joining the cold expression. "I assumed he felt guilty for the things he is doing to us, and wanted to ease his consciense by letting the people he hurt to hurt him. I did not want to grant that release to him, but it seemed others had." @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

@Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"That's-... Of course, that's why Rakin's been poppin in and out of here so much.. He's not been fightin alien monsters like he said, he's been.. Gettin beat up by y'all.." Zahara's expression soured as she looked away from Riki. ".. He's too kind.. he don't even care bout himself." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

Riki lifted his chin slightly, his ears still turned back a bit. "I guess you could see it that way. Frankly, I am still unconvinced of his 'kindness'. For what I know, he could enjoy the pain, or even just get satisfaction out of knowing we got to vent our 'frustrations' as he put it", his voice was a tad colder now. @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽 (edited)

"He didn' enjoy any of that!" Zahara suddenly shoved herself up to her feet. Some of the warm water in the tub began to sway as she did so. "Take it back. Raina is a hero." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"I would not know. I have your word to prove it, and my experience to prove against it", Riki said in a soft, deep voice that rumbled like icy, distant rapids. He didn't move into a defensive position, but put both of his feet on the floor, still lightly leaning against the counter. He took notice of the water, but didn't look that way. "I do not wish to slander your ruler, but you must understand that my view and experiences of him differ wildly from your own. Let alone, as his loyal subject, of course you would defend him regardless, would you not." Riki shook his head slightly. "If you want me to believe you, you need more than this to vonvince me." @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"You've only known Raina for less than a day. You dunno anything bout him!" Zahara protested. "He's doin all this for a good reason, you just have to have faith!" @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"Yes. He abducted me, separated me from my family, chained and muzzled me, told me I was going to be entertainment to his master, that I would be fighting other people he had abducted, and that in the end I would be killed." Riki narrowed his eyes slightly. His neck fur subtly raised up, and his tails started moving each on their own, but otherwise he remained still and held back the hot rage he felt in his chest when he thought about Rakin. "It is not the best first impression, believe it or not." Riki tilted his head. "Why are you calling him 'Raina'?" @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽 (edited)

"H-he musta said all that for a good reason. He must need ya to be mad or scared for.. Somethin important. He won't actually let ya die, I'm sure." Zahara said. "A-and- Raina is what he used tuh go by. I dun know where this new name came from. In Pilarian that just means 'Rain'." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

Riki sighed lightly and shook his head. He stood away from the counter, still holding his arms crossed, and after realizing it might come off hostile, he turned slightly away and eyed the interior of the kitchen. "You must be aware of how little that means to me? How can I place my trust in someone who has only harmed me? Fine Zahara... can you even be sure that the man I am talking about, was your king?" He turned to look at Zahara again. @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"I can be sure. Cuz he's been introducing himself as Rakin now. I dunno why but- but he is." Zahara said. The water in the tub was still sloshing around. ".. You have to trust him. He's a good man." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"I wish I could, believe me, I wish I could", Riki said with a mix of bitterness and anxiety in his voice. He sighed tensely, closed his eyes and rubbed his face. "Rakin, Caller of the Abyss..." he mumbled to himself, flashing his fangs briefly. Then he shook his head again and looked back at Zahara. "I need to understand in order to trust. His master, your master by extension, is trying to revive these 'Pilarians' that you also speak of. Your gods, yes? Can you tell me about that?" @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"Uhm.. Sure- Raina said we ain't sposed' to talk bout em anymore, but I guess be changed his stance on that.. Possibly." Zahara mumbled. "The Pilarians are the ones that blessed us with life. The magic stones they put on earth changed us normal amphibians in to what ya see now. We are born as regular amphibians, but when we turn five we get the chance tuh be able to turn human. Most of us stay animals most of the time but it's way too cold here for me to do it.. I miss bein' a frog- bit anyway, the Pilarians blessed us with life, and some of us were able to keep communicatin' for the rest of our lives with em." "But once all of us were back together again, Raina told us that they were bad. That they could control people- puppet them to do their biddin'.. And that was bad. So Raina and some weird aliens worked together to kill all of em.. And it seems like nothin' much happened to us, future generations have been born n' all.. Raina had his kids, and they're fine even.. I don't know why he'd wanna bring them back after goin' through all the effort in the first place, but I'm sure he's got a good reason." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

Riki listened carefully, and tilted his head the more he got confused. The minor issue of how Zahara's species worked was not too important, though. Riki's attention was caught by another detail. "You say Pilarians can puppet people, hm?" Riki mused. "What if Rakin is being puppeted by one survivor?" @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

".. I thought bout that. It would make a whole lotta sense. But when the Pilarians were doin' it, the puppeted's eyes got all.. Starry. They were black like Raina's eyes now, but he's only got the one spot in each eye, and it don't really look like a star.." Zahara frowned. "There's also a whole lot of Raina left in him. When he talks to me one on one, he acts like his old self, mostly. But his eyes are still funny.. I dunno.." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"That doesn't sound normal either", Riki said seriously. "It does sound to me that he's not acting fully out of his free will... interesting." He turned away again and started pacing in thought. @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

".. He was very insistent that all the Pilarians were dead when he told us. They were super sensitive to sound, and their base exploded.. Zahara said. "I dunno how any of em could have survived to go an' mess with us again." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"Perhaps not all of them were there? Or perhaps, hm... Well, I am not the best person to take guesses, since I don't know anything about these species." He sighed a bit, before turning to look at Zahara again, he leaned slightly against a counter once more. "Do you know anything about this master that Rakin talks about?" @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽 (edited)

Zahara shook her head. "He never mentioned anything bout a new God or master to us.. But the Wells we got here are the same as on Earth. So either they knew how to make em, or they got them from the rubble of the Pilarian base." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"I see... What are the wells for?" @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"The Wells are what give us our energy to be human. Usually you can use em to move to other Wells, but.. We tried that and they ain't connected to anything on Earth." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"I see, interesting. Hmm... So, there are others of your kind here, too?" @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"Sorta. I'm a frogling, but there's a newt and axolotl here as well. We're kinda the same thing but kinda different..?" @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"Oh? Different evolutionary forms? Or regional variants?" @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"Uh.. I think the first thing is more right..? I dunno much about evolution, but I think we all came from the same kinda creature a long time ago. Tikeytaller or somethin." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"Oh, I see, I think we are talking about a different thing. You are referring to slow evolution. But I think I understand what you mean", Riki nodded. "Hmm... Oh, did sir Raina always know how to levitate?" @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽 (edited)

"... Levitate? Uhm-... No.." Zahara frowned. "He got lightnin powers before he blew up the Pilarians though. He didn't use em much after that. Maybe they let him float or summin.." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"Ah, lightning powers. I have felt those in my hide", Riki shook himself lightly. "I see, I suppose that is not impossible but still... another thing that doesn't quite add up", Riki hummed with a small frown, looking in the corner of the ceiling again in thought. He was quiet for some time. Finally, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, a stressed furow plastered on his face. When he looked back at Zahara, his eyes were gentler, but anxious and concerned. "Do be on alert, fine Zahara. There's plenty to be wary of here." He unfolded his arms and stood away from the counter again. @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

".. Are ya leaving?" Zahara asked. "Um.. if ya are, don't go in to the woods. There's creatures out there. Just a warnin." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

Riki smiled slightly. "Thank you for the warning. I'll keep that in mind." He was about to leave, when he thought of something. "Oh, by the way, you could ask Rakin why he is bringing the Pilarians back. If you two are close, he might explain it to you." @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

"I.. I could try that. But I'm just trusting that he knows what he's doin." Zahara said. "If I see him again I'll.. think about it." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

"Sure, if it doesn't interest you, you don't have to", Riki nodded, and bowed his head a little. "Take care of yourself. Farewell." @Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

Zahara nodded back to him. "Same to ya. I'm sure I'll be seein' ya again soon." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

Mads|Madison📱+Aldreda🔥+NPCS👽

Zahara nodded back to him. "Same to ya. I'm sure I'll be seein' ya again soon." @Twig | Kiran + Riki

Riki waved his paw a bit and walked away.