[Waking up in the dusty room of an orphanage, surrounded by dead flowers and other trinkets had been the last thing Jade expected at the end of their little journey into the dreamy unknown.
[No, wait. Scratch that. Having been asleep for over a century was actually the last thing, but that's neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things.
[What she should have expected was the first thing that had been asked of her by her negligible caretaker (descendants of the orphans she had assisted shortly after the assassination of Springstar's Tribune, she later discovered) concerning the state of her health. Jade hadn't noticed it as fast as she should have -- probably due in part to her struggling to think straight since she awoke.
[Most might chalk it up to grogginess. But then the caretaker's face started to melt, pieces of their body turning inside out. Words spoken no longer strung together properly, until all Jade could hear were screams echoing off the walls.
[It was at that point that Jade knew something was terribly wrong. After excusing herself from the Meri's care, she promptly took to the streets, barefoot and half-naked, wearing only the scant clothing she had been dressed in during her long sleep.
[More notably, her skin glows a deep indigo, almost purple -- with skeletal patterns burning into her flesh. Every now and then, her eyes flicker as she walks the streets of what had once been Springstar proper, as the visages of the figures around her twist into various shapes. Some remain more than mere shadows of their ordinary selves, while others turn more monstrous or unrecognizable.
[Whether she runs into a Shard-Bearer such as yourself, whose face she can discern from the hallucination or not, it matters very little. Your face distorts like all the others, and Jade sharply withdraws the moment she sees you, the cold glow of her skin flaring.]
Blazes! Sorry. I didn't see you.
[Probably because she had been walking with her head down, eyes mostly closed so as not to look at the warped world around her.
[Clearly, her caretakers had no idea how to treat the Arcane Fever that plagued her, or else it wouldn't have reached the advanced stages that it's at now. Jade can barely stay vertical, and can scarcely concentrate on the road in front of her as she sways and starts to lose her focus all over again.]
I'm f-fine, [comes to inevitable answer to the inevitable question she doesn't need to be a Prophetess to see coming.
Old Springstar;
[No, wait. Scratch that. Having been asleep for over a century was actually the last thing, but that's neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things.
[What she should have expected was the first thing that had been asked of her by her negligible caretaker (descendants of the orphans she had assisted shortly after the assassination of Springstar's Tribune, she later discovered) concerning the state of her health. Jade hadn't noticed it as fast as she should have -- probably due in part to her struggling to think straight since she awoke.
[Most might chalk it up to grogginess. But then the caretaker's face started to melt, pieces of their body turning inside out. Words spoken no longer strung together properly, until all Jade could hear were screams echoing off the walls.
[It was at that point that Jade knew something was terribly wrong. After excusing herself from the Meri's care, she promptly took to the streets, barefoot and half-naked, wearing only the scant clothing she had been dressed in during her long sleep.
[More notably, her skin glows a deep indigo, almost purple -- with skeletal patterns burning into her flesh. Every now and then, her eyes flicker as she walks the streets of what had once been Springstar proper, as the visages of the figures around her twist into various shapes. Some remain more than mere shadows of their ordinary selves, while others turn more monstrous or unrecognizable.
[Whether she runs into a Shard-Bearer such as yourself, whose face she can discern from the hallucination or not, it matters very little. Your face distorts like all the others, and Jade sharply withdraws the moment she sees you, the cold glow of her skin flaring.]
Blazes! Sorry. I didn't see you.
[Probably because she had been walking with her head down, eyes mostly closed so as not to look at the warped world around her.
[Clearly, her caretakers had no idea how to treat the Arcane Fever that plagued her, or else it wouldn't have reached the advanced stages that it's at now. Jade can barely stay vertical, and can scarcely concentrate on the road in front of her as she sways and starts to lose her focus all over again.]
I'm f-fine, [comes to inevitable answer to the inevitable question she doesn't need to be a Prophetess to see coming.
[Except she's not really fine.]