The light furnishings along the dark stone walls of the castle make it feel mostly empty, even though every few seconds, a stranger in military garb would awkward brush past your shoulder, usually carrying a crate's worth of supplies - timber, canned goods, and other hearty goods. You notice that despite the uniforms, the only person openly carrying any weapon was Russel, who had insisted on taking your hand as he guided you towards a pair of spiral staircases. With the torrential pouring of people around you, that was probably for the better.
"Sorry about pulling you around like this, we're all getting ready for a big jump soon," Russel explains, continuing to pull you along. You barely have time to look upward as you see dimmed sunlight stream downward, each step of the staircase seemingly disappearing downward as you're hurriedly pulled to the top. "I just want you to meet somebody first!" Russel shouts, as if there's wind rushing down your ears - there isn't, but you're starting to feel lightheaded from the altitude changes.
You finally emerge in an ocean of bluish gray, the clouds you saw from when you woke up stretching even further towards the horizon in a seemingly monotonous canvas of dirtied white. You turn around to see the brick of the tower's summit seem to curve behind you, like a tidal wave, providing shade over the entirety of the rooftop, in the middle of which sat a large, amethyst-shaded locked box. You try to breathe the air around you, but it's thin, and the wind is whipping at your face again. Russel doesn't seem bothered by it in the slightest.
"Hey! Corbin! Got somebody for you to see!" Russel shouts into the wind. From behind the arch of stone comes a man wearing a heavy leather coat, patterned with midnight blue and deep purple patchwork, with thin lines of indigo thread tracing a circular maze of starting from just above his heart.
"Russel, is this another person who showed up on the grounds today?" Corbin mutters with a soft voice, somehow still firmly audible over the rushing currents of wind surrounding the tower. "And no, don't try to dig yourself out this time. I heard that the commander of our military forces was trying to beg the mess hall staff for a second helping of food. Some image you're putting up for yourself."
"And let them starve and freeze to death? You know that's not happening!" Russel doesn't show a single sign of regret. proudly putting his hands on his hips.
"Alright, fine, but remember, this is the tenth person you've pulled up this week," Corbin sighs, running a hair through his dark hair in an attempt to calm himself. "You said yourself we need to get supplies soon."
"That's why we're making this jump, right? I've got everyone in Castle High all ready to go on that, everything's tied down and ready to deploy and stuff. And besides, I wanted our new guest to see this for themselves. Think there's something... special! About them."
Corbin raises an eyebrow, then shrugged. "Alright, alright." He turns to you, and you feel something deep in his eyes trying to look you over. You find yourself pulling a bit on the thin coat Russel was barely able to grab for you beforehand. "Just so you know, people like you really shouldn't be up here while I'm doing this. Just hold onto something so you don't get swept away."
With that, you watch as Corbin jiggles the lock on the box until it falls off with a clack, reaching inside to withdraw a jet-black pipe vaguely styled in the shape of a rifle, almost twice as long as he is tall. You can see a faint violet glow where a pair of iron sights would be. He leans it against an edge of the tower where the parapets had crumbled away, tipping it to where it would slide and fall into the abyss of clouds if his grip slipped for a millisecond.
He squints for a moment, eyeing the faint glow of stars above the horizon. And then, he pulls the trigger, a thin beam of violet light shooting into the clouds before becoming swallowed by them.
Then, the cloud parts, revealing the damp marble and dark moss of the surrounding castle, slowly spreading further and further until the edge of the cliff was visible. The hum you woke up to was now audible from here, slowly rising in vigor and life, as you see from the empty space ahead of you, brilliant jets of purple flame erupt like a cannon. You feel a sudden lurching throw you forward, as you see the clouds that were once behind you suddenly shoot forward with the pace of a raging stampede, the tips of black mountaintops in front of you disappearing. It takes your full strength to not get thrown off the side of the tower...
And eventually, you're heaved backward as the world seems to come to a halt, the jet of violent light now replaced with a trail of its wake. And you can see of the edge of the cliffside, down below, were now the grassy meadows surrounding a smaller castle.
"Jump complete," Corbin remarked, leaning back to pull his giant cannon onto stable ground. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a packet of smokes, but then he shot a glance at Russel and re-pocketed them. "Apparently this place looked like a good starting point. Or at least, that's what recon says. You know how I feel about them."
"Fine piloting as usual! Don't know what we'd do without you," Russel congratulates Corbin, paying no mind to his remarks. He turns to you. "That's where we're thinking of restocking for now, though given how things are today, I doubt they'll be open to just a trade offer. This might come out of the blue, but... well, our armory's also pretty thin right now, but you got any experience with weapon-to-weapon combat? We could always use a hand around Castle High, you know? That's how we keep afloat here!"
"Sorry about pulling you around like this, we're all getting ready for a big jump soon," Russel explains, continuing to pull you along. You barely have time to look upward as you see dimmed sunlight stream downward, each step of the staircase seemingly disappearing downward as you're hurriedly pulled to the top. "I just want you to meet somebody first!" Russel shouts, as if there's wind rushing down your ears - there isn't, but you're starting to feel lightheaded from the altitude changes.
You finally emerge in an ocean of bluish gray, the clouds you saw from when you woke up stretching even further towards the horizon in a seemingly monotonous canvas of dirtied white. You turn around to see the brick of the tower's summit seem to curve behind you, like a tidal wave, providing shade over the entirety of the rooftop, in the middle of which sat a large, amethyst-shaded locked box. You try to breathe the air around you, but it's thin, and the wind is whipping at your face again. Russel doesn't seem bothered by it in the slightest.
"Hey! Corbin! Got somebody for you to see!" Russel shouts into the wind. From behind the arch of stone comes a man wearing a heavy leather coat, patterned with midnight blue and deep purple patchwork, with thin lines of indigo thread tracing a circular maze of starting from just above his heart.
"Russel, is this another person who showed up on the grounds today?" Corbin mutters with a soft voice, somehow still firmly audible over the rushing currents of wind surrounding the tower. "And no, don't try to dig yourself out this time. I heard that the commander of our military forces was trying to beg the mess hall staff for a second helping of food. Some image you're putting up for yourself."
"And let them starve and freeze to death? You know that's not happening!" Russel doesn't show a single sign of regret. proudly putting his hands on his hips.
"Alright, fine, but remember, this is the tenth person you've pulled up this week," Corbin sighs, running a hair through his dark hair in an attempt to calm himself. "You said yourself we need to get supplies soon."
"That's why we're making this jump, right? I've got everyone in Castle High all ready to go on that, everything's tied down and ready to deploy and stuff. And besides, I wanted our new guest to see this for themselves. Think there's something... special! About them."
Corbin raises an eyebrow, then shrugged. "Alright, alright." He turns to you, and you feel something deep in his eyes trying to look you over. You find yourself pulling a bit on the thin coat Russel was barely able to grab for you beforehand. "Just so you know, people like you really shouldn't be up here while I'm doing this. Just hold onto something so you don't get swept away."
With that, you watch as Corbin jiggles the lock on the box until it falls off with a clack, reaching inside to withdraw a jet-black pipe vaguely styled in the shape of a rifle, almost twice as long as he is tall. You can see a faint violet glow where a pair of iron sights would be. He leans it against an edge of the tower where the parapets had crumbled away, tipping it to where it would slide and fall into the abyss of clouds if his grip slipped for a millisecond.
He squints for a moment, eyeing the faint glow of stars above the horizon. And then, he pulls the trigger, a thin beam of violet light shooting into the clouds before becoming swallowed by them.
Then, the cloud parts, revealing the damp marble and dark moss of the surrounding castle, slowly spreading further and further until the edge of the cliff was visible. The hum you woke up to was now audible from here, slowly rising in vigor and life, as you see from the empty space ahead of you, brilliant jets of purple flame erupt like a cannon. You feel a sudden lurching throw you forward, as you see the clouds that were once behind you suddenly shoot forward with the pace of a raging stampede, the tips of black mountaintops in front of you disappearing. It takes your full strength to not get thrown off the side of the tower...
And eventually, you're heaved backward as the world seems to come to a halt, the jet of violent light now replaced with a trail of its wake. And you can see of the edge of the cliffside, down below, were now the grassy meadows surrounding a smaller castle.
"Jump complete," Corbin remarked, leaning back to pull his giant cannon onto stable ground. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a packet of smokes, but then he shot a glance at Russel and re-pocketed them. "Apparently this place looked like a good starting point. Or at least, that's what recon says. You know how I feel about them."
"Fine piloting as usual! Don't know what we'd do without you," Russel congratulates Corbin, paying no mind to his remarks. He turns to you. "That's where we're thinking of restocking for now, though given how things are today, I doubt they'll be open to just a trade offer. This might come out of the blue, but... well, our armory's also pretty thin right now, but you got any experience with weapon-to-weapon combat? We could always use a hand around Castle High, you know? That's how we keep afloat here!"