Test Drive Meme!

[paradisamods]

TEST DRIVE MEME Welcome to the Test Drive Meme! Whether you're considering joining paradisa for the first time or you just want to test out a new muse, this is the place to do it. Only character journals allowed, please! Feel free to have your character roam any of the castle's rooms, grounds locations, or City Royale. Thanks for your interest, and have fun! Premise: You wake up in a giant, magical castle. Everything is beautiful and the castle grants material wishes. It also provides a magic journal to every resident that allows everyone to communicate with each other like a two-way radio.

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[lightbranded]

Will had long ago given up any hope of ever seeing a familiar face in the castle. While others had seen friends and family come and go, Will had stayed silent and comforted himself with his duty and with the knowledge that no one could have come for him. Even if they had wanted to.

And so seeing Merriman standing in the courtyard this morning was the last thing Will would have ever expected. He just stands and stares for a moment, almost not daring to believe this was real.

"Merriman?"

[foreverold]

Footsteps coming and going seemed to be the norm for the courtyard, so Merriman had left it as something to keep an ear out for any that approached, and that was that. So far, no one had tried coming close enough for more than a polite nod.

Then his name was called, and he turned to face someone he perhaps should have expected to see here. A quirk of his lips answered the call.

"Will Stanton."

A host of warm greeting was in that name, for Will's ears only.

[lightbranded]

Will laughs as he quickens his steps and joins the other Old One.

"It is marvelous to see you!"

In his words was all the joy of once again meeting an old friend, as some of the burden that had been weighing him down recently vanishes.

[foreverold]

No longer alone. Merriman chuckled quietly, benevolent for Will's sake. He reached out when the boy was close enough and rest a hand on a shoulder, looking him over carefully with earnest concern. No, he knew nothing could kill this Old One, but harm? Oh yes. So he worried.

"As it is to see you. How long has it been for you?"

A question he normally did not have to ask. But this place, the question did not seem wrong.

[lightbranded]

"Nearly two years, now." Will hesitates, not quite sure how to explain. "Time is odd, in this place. No one ages here. Not even men."

It had been a very rough few months for Will. Even now, after several weeks of rest the signs of stress from his recent ordeals were clear for those who could see.

[foreverold]

Ageless, not just for those like them. But Merriman saw no reason to doubt the Watcher. He saw those signs clearly and frowned, not pleased with how his friend had been used in this strange place.

"What else have these two years shown you?"

[lightbranded]

"Many things. There are people here from many worlds far outside the knowledge of Gramarye. Worlds that have darkness and light, but that have never known the Dark or Light."

Will had learned the hard way that some of these world's darkness could not be fought in the same way as the Dark.

[foreverold]

For a long moment, Merriman seemed lost in thought. Or his thoughts were very far away. What Will said should be outside the Laws. And yet... That didn't necessarily mean they were lawless. Simply held their own laws.

"And in their absence, new laws emerge." Quiet musing, speaking more to himself than to Will.

[lightbranded]

Will only nods.

"I have not yet met anyone here who knows the Laws in the same way we do. Only last month, I met a creature named the Mara. It spoke of goals very similar to the Dark. It wished to manipulate human minds towards greed and cruelty. But it was not held by the same laws. It possessed someone against his will, and used him to attack others."

Will's face remains expressionless as he explains this. He kne Merriman would be able to tell how much this troubled him. Even now, a month after the attack, the memory still hurt. That someone he thought of as a good friend could simply be taken and used like that. And that he had truly failed him.