From: Thy Lady Witch of the Silver Rose (jmartian@interaccess.com) Subject: Stirrings in the Darkness: The Awakening of the Rose. Date: 1997/07/29 This is an RP thingy. SO there. Read it before you yell at me. Once upon a time, not long ago at all, there was a tree. And the tree had roots... roots that dug deep into the hard stone earth beneath it. In this stone, this earth, there once had been a complex of tunnel systems and living quarters... The Headquarters of the JAO OPPS. This JAO is long dead now...Only one of their number remains... Deep within the heart of the world tree stirred a mind. The tree had been sharing it's self with this bizzare magus for a long time; she hadn't moved in most of that time. The tree reached out with it's thoughts, 'Child, waken thee?' Her dark, rich voice returned, "I do, Father of the Earth. My wounds are healed, and I rise again to do battle with the Wyrm." 'Ah,' thought the tree, 'Your spirit has not been broken by your loss. I am glad of this.' "Nay, in truth, the wit of this young fool has been strengthened by this long slumber." 'Ah, then, my child, you should depart from this darkness into another. The world needs you, little rose.' "Does it? You think? Nah. But, I suppose I should get up and do stuff." 'That's the spirit.' "Oh, shut up." Deep within the heart of the world tree, there was heard a quiet cursing. A slit opened in the bark of the great tree, and from it emerged a silver skinned woman with huge, dragon's wings, and hair the color of gold and copper. After much shaking, mumbling, and stretching, the girl finally dived off of the tree to a sudden drop. Thousands of feet down, she dived, to the huge lake below, spreading her wings to skim across the lake's surface... What she saw stunned her, and she fell into the water. Scrambling out of the water, she swore, "By Grimace!" She touched her silvery cheek lightly, staring at herself in the water, marvelling at just how shiny she was; playing with her new toy, she concentrated for a moment, and was able to cause herself to become as if a mirror; completely reflective, almost invisible. "Whoa. Neat-ass." She reverted to her metallic state, and blinked twice quickly, suddenly realizing she had no clothing. As soon as she had thought of it... It was. A tight black uniform with slits for her wings materialized on her flesh. "Hm... Wonder if those psychos at WEDJEE will take me back... Ah, fuck it. Doesn't matter." After wandering around in the World Tree's alternate time stream for a while, maybe a day or two, the witch suddenly noticed something, and yelled at the tree, "Where's my sabre, you big block head?" 'It's right here, you silly wench where you left it. You want it?' "Yeah, give it to me." 'Say the word.' "Now." 'Well, fine. Miss Snippy. Oh, yes, you're the Witch of the Silver Rose... You don't need little old me... Should have let the mosquitos eat you.' Rose frowned, "Ah, don't get cranky tree... I'm sorry. May I please have my sword?" Yddragissil sighed, the wind through his leaves, 'I suppose.' Rose hefted the silver sword in her left hand, chuckling to herself. "Thanks, Draggy." 'You're welcome, Rose.' "Hey, Tree?" 'Yes?' "Why am I silver?' "Oh... I'm not quite sure. But, you see, the wings and such... Mucho Paradox, chica. I thought it would be best to shield you some." "Ah. I see. Care to explain this to me?" "Well...You see, hon, there's this thing called Quintessence. And then there's Magick, and...well..You've kind of got them." The tree went on for a while. A long while, in fact. You see, in that traumatic rendering that no body remembers, something interesting happened. That crazy kid, the Witch of the Silver Rose, went crazy. She Awakened to magehood, full fledged; The situation in which she was forced to expose her powers was so incredibly bizarre, that, well... Let's say that a smack with a monkey wrench will knock a screw loose. "Well, okay. If you say so. Can I go back to fighting the Hellwyrm for honor and creativity now?" 'I suppose.' Rose grinned wickedly. "Good." The girl stumbled around the roots of the tree, down the rabbit hole to the old headquarters of that long dead JAO, OPPS. The HQ was actually an impressive place... The first rabbit hole opened into the huge dark cavern of the hanger, where, currently, only the dusty Thundervette and a pretty little black jet were living. The huge garage had a large sinkhole in the floor, which led down into the main control room of the HQ. There, the Rose sat and started up the computer, Hal, which had been sleeping since the death of the last Praetor. "Hal... WAKE UP, HAL." "Whohuhwhalemmesleepjustfivemore...Oh. It's you. Didn't all you crazy two leggers go away? I thought it was just me and Draggy." "Yeah... Kind of, Hal. Anyway, you may notice in your diagnostics that I am sort of missing half of my soul?" "Oh, yeah... With Draggy as your Avatar embodiment, though, that shouldn't give you problems... "What? Hal, don't confuse me. "No problem, Rose. "So anyway.. How've our friends in the Jihad been doing since the passing on of the one hit wonderbitch? "Not so good, Rose..>Here, look. Rose looked at the monitor... Scenes of the past bit of time in the Jihad flashed past, and Rose's face creased with a frown. "Hal... Dictate a memo for me, would you?" "Yes, Rose... On dictate mode. "To the various leaders and co leaders and subleaders and whatnot of the various JAOs that make up the Jihad: The ex-Jihaddi known as the Silver Rose is opening a symposium of adventurers and storywriters and other cool people to come to the Cavern and do neat things. Openings for weaponry and armament R&D, Combat specialists, and most other things of the sort available... For directions, call this number...***-***-****. Thanks and salutations, The Silver Rose. Hal nodded on the screen, then flashed the memo up. "Look good, hon?" "Yeah, Hal. Send it. When they call, tell them how to get here, and keep them in the cavern... put a paging bell int there, please, as well." "Yeah, Rose... I'm on it." "Thanks." With that, the Rose stumbled off down the corridor towards her own comfortable room. OKAY! This is a roleplaying type device; I am opening a symposium, seperate from the Jihad, for Roleplaying purposes. I see a lot of politicking and stuff in here that I don't like, and I don't want to mess with... If you like to write good stories If you like to have fun If you like to design really cool gadgets If you like world harmony with competent conflict resolution... email Joanna aka the Silver Rose at: heartsorrow@mindless.com If you want to give me shit about this idea.... email me. This doesn't need to stay on the ng; email is good. Thanks and stuff like that: Joanna