Story Time with Error, Daynel, and CatsvsNinjas

[Error]

New chapter up for my thing.

[Error]

New chapter up, and plot twist inbound. Beware, this will frak royally with the temporal alignment of the "canon" RPs, but the story ain't canon anyway.

[cats]

That reminds me, I was writing a thing last week and I completely forgot about it.

[ACH0225]

Thread is alive for narrative Strigiforme glory

He used to be called Nyytil Vyyhrl. This was a different owl, as different from him as was any owl from 100,000 years prior, or 100,000 years in the future. He had gone to the capital of his homeworld, Vyyshtiil, Ethereal, and gone to the Trials office. A few armed guards took him to a small camp, where a few hundred young owls of both genders lived. After a few months, they were packed into a shuttle and sent off like so many animals for the slaughter.

After a time—how long, he knew not; the ship had no clocks—they landed on another ship. What ship or where it was, he had no idea. The guards escorted them to their quarters individually, each Candidate for the Trials moving calmly despite the fear in each of them. They were left to stew on their fear and anxiety for what could have been a few hours, days, or weeks.

Soon after, they were drawn from their quarters. Many expected role call, to note down who had come. They were wrong—name, status, origin, none of these were important. Before the Trials, all Strigiforme were equal. They were called out to begin, with the First Trial to be one versus one unarmed combat, to the death. Nyytil won, but only barely. He had the tendons on his right wing torn, and the bone was exposed. In their quarters were basic aid kits, which were to supply them for the entire 100 Trials. He used many of the antibiotic salves and bandages up here, though he would fortunately learn soon enough how to defend himself well.

More Trials followed; he beat each. The Trials were individual, each designed to test for something. He engaged in war simulations so realistic, the experienced crews supporting him could not tell it wasn't real. He was taken to dimly lit corridors somewhere in the ship, and left to die or escape. He pirouetted among the stars, shoved out the airlock half-asleep with only a few minutes of air, only to find he was still in the ship, and that the room he was in was both so vast he couldn't discern the walls, but also full of air all along. These were the kinder trials, the ones to which he could rest afterwards easily.

Other Trials were far harsher; they used all forms of psychoactive drugs on him, used all forms of devices to influence his thoughts. Sometimes, these Trials spanned for what seemed like days at a time, times when he couldn't trust his own thoughts. There were times when his every memory was being dissected in front of him, his every insecure thought and action were shown. His entire life became a show for the Councilors reviewing him, each of them laughing and reveling in his pain and embarrassment. He was given drugs which made him speak only the truth, ones that made him feel angry, sad, and happy for no reason at all except to observe him. He was given a gas that prevented him from sleeping, then another that removed his ability to move for a long stretch of time. They took his every thought, memory, and action, and used them against him.

He thought, after a while, that he had been Broken, but he realized that he had been made Whole. He had made it, all the way to the 100th Trial. With him there were three others, each equally Whole as him. The first one fought and died against Leader, giving them another week to wait. Then he fought.

Leader and he stood facing each other in a sandy arena a few kilometers wide. Leader, half his beak made of metal, which had been shed in this very arena 400 years ago, stood tall and unbroken. He, Nyytil, the Whole, stood low to the ground. Leader walked calmly forward, with a smooth stride made from years of practice. Soon, they were but a few dozen feet away. Leader jabbed forwards with his beak, using his wings to propel himself forwards. Whole barely dodged the thrust, and smoothly responded with a slash from his talons that drew the first blood. They continued, attacking and defending and counterattacking, slowly wearing each other out. Eventually, Leader lay on the ground, 1 leg lost and covered in blood. Leader could fight no longer, and gestured Whole over to listen to him. Into his ear, Leader whispered the Secret; a piece of knowledge older than the mountains, which only the Leaders knew. Then, Whole stood, and in a single motion whipped his talons into Leader's chest and removed his heart.

Whole took Leader's heart to a stone depression with a small hole in it and dropped the heart into it. He then noticed the ground around the depression was covered in lightly glowing embers. Picking one, he tossed it into the depression, igniting some gas within to incinerate the heart. Whole then dragged Leader's body over the fire, watching as the frail old owl was burned away to smoke. Nothing would remain; all his memories, knowledge, and thoughts would become as flowing and untouchable as the smoke his mortal form turned into. Whole turned away, walking towards the edge of the arena.

There he found the Council, who unanimously asked him the question.

"What is your name; who are you?"

"I am Leader, the Broken Who Was Made Whole." He had known the answer to this all his life, and only when the soft covering was shorn away by the Trials, was the hard iron core exposed.

And so the Trials concluded, and a new Leader was made.

[cats]

Oh yeah, I never finished my thing.

[Vinyl]

Thinking about doing a thing, but I have tons of other stuff I'm not going to do but will use as an excuse to not do the thing regardless.