endarkthinged

[segreant]

Imps are sort of terrible to fight; it has to be done in plainclothes most of the time, and with sigils alone, neither of which is optimal paladin combat conditions. Kaja is trudging to where she left Ragnar, murmuring prayers to the Winter Light for each of the bites she's received. But at least the imp is gone.

Comments

[endragoned]

A tall and confused person with horns, claws, a tail, and large batlike wings appears out of nowhere a ways in front of her and a little off to the side. He looks around in bewilderment. He is not wearing any clothes.

[segreant]

Kaja can't help it; she doesn't have her weapon or her armor on her and she is very surprised. She shrieks.

Ragnar gives a roaring call and she calms herself enough to answer with a whistle.

[endragoned]

He startles at the sound of her shriek, and flinches away, crouching slightly as though ready to spring into the air and flee at any moment; at Ragnar's roar he flinches harder.

[segreant]

Ragnar charges over to his paladin. He has a load on his back - armor, a sword on a stick. Kaja pulls the swordstaff from her mount and clutches it, calming substantially as soon as she has her hands on it.

"What... are you?" she asks the red thing. He looks like a gigantic oddly-colored imp, but imps are not usually gigantic and oddly-colored, so...

[endragoned]

"I? I am very, very confused," he says. "And you?"

[segreant]

"I'm a paladin." She swallows. "If you're not a dark thing, you can prove it." She pulls a Winter Light sigil pendant out of her pocket.

[endragoned]

"I would tell you to save your unicorn the trouble, but that does not appear to be one. Has someone invented a portable unicorn substitute since last I walked among speaking creatures?"

[segreant]

"My order doesn't use unicorns. If you touch the sigil and aren't burned, you aren't a dark thing."

[endragoned]

Eyeing the sigil, he asks, "And if I am a dark thing...?"

[segreant]

"Then you have until I get my armor on to run."

[endragoned]

"You are not making a very convincing argument for touching your sigil," he says, rubbing the backs of his fingers against a burn scar on the palm of his other hand.

[segreant]

She considers this, then throws it at him.

[endragoned]

He catches it—begins to look annoyed—stops and looks confused instead.

"Not that I object to the results, exactly," he says, opening his hand and looking down at the sigil where it rests innocently and harmlessly on the old scar, "but are you certain it's working properly?"

[segreant]

"It's a sigil of the Winter Light. If you were a dark thing it would burn you. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean you're harmless, I'm particularly concerned that you wouldn't touch it willingly, but you're not a dark thing."

[endragoned]

He tosses the sigil back to her.

"The question of my harmlessness is fairly complicated. The question of whether I am a creature of the Dark... shouldn't be. Whatever my feelings on the subject, I am one of the Endarkened."

[segreant]

She catches it. "You look like a giant, red imp, but imps are usually small and black, so I wasn't so sure. If you would like to avoid being attacked by overconfident paladins you might want to just wear the sigil. I can get another."

[endragoned]

"That... sounds like it might be helpful. Since your sigils seem to have a different definition of Dark than I am used to."

[segreant]

She tosses it back. "What's so complicated about your harmlessness?"

[endragoned]

"The reason why I am an outcast Endarkened is because I do not like to harm people. But I am still Endarkened, so harming people is the purpose I was created to fulfill, and I don't lack for talent. Left to myself, though, I would really prefer to live somewhere nice and grow interesting plants and not bother anyone."

[segreant]

"You're not a dark thing, so I see no reason you shouldn't live somewhere nice and grow interesting plants if that's really what you wish to do."

[endragoned]

"I would also rather like to find out why a mirror-headed snake appeared out of nowhere and transported me here," he adds, "and if possible return to the place I came from. But interesting plants will occupy me well enough in the meantime."

[segreant]

"...I don't know what to say about the mirror-headed snake. I've never heard of such a thing."

[endragoned]

"Neither had I, until just now."

[segreant]

"And it brought you here? That's very strange indeed."

[endragoned]

"Yes, it is."