File: 1343859098079.png-(285 KB, 720x3000, 61.png)

You are Evan Tolston, and this has been the strangest night of your life. Your stomach grumbles and churns on itself and you lick your parched lips. You haven't eaten anything since dinner, and it was almost dawn the last time you were in a place where you could see the sky. Your strange, black-eyed lover turns and surveys the surroundings. "Elle," you ask, "how long is this going to take?"
She turns to you with her typical strange grin, the innumerable lights in the floor reflecting perfectly in her black marble eyes. "Who knows," she replies. "The last time someone built a court, no one could measure time yet."
"Can we just... stop? Just for a little while? I'm hungry and thirsty and tired. Tired of being awake, tired of running around getting chased by monsters and...and saving your life! You're welcome, by the way!" despite yourself, you feel hot liquid welling up in the corners of your eyes. "And...and my cat died and my house burned down, and my father put a shotgun in my face, and my mind got all messed with, and I lost a tooth-"
Elles expression drops. "I thought those grew back."
"I'm 12!" you shout back. "I'm done losing the teeth that grow back!"
"Oops," she responds, monotonously.
"And you sucked my blood! What are you, a vampire? A fairy? A...a demon? Was Savannah right about you people?"
Elle sighs and takes a moment of silence before responding. "I guess this has been hard for someone like you. Why don't you take a walk? We need to find a border to cross. The only way I know how to twist it is to use shadows, but there's all these lights. You don't have any limitations. Be creative. Find us a border, and then we can go get you some food and water and a place to rest your head, okay?"
She puts her hand on your cheek and kisses you.

First part of chapter 1:
http://archive.foolz.us/tg/thread/19363045/#19363045
Second part of chapter one through chapter 4:
http://archive.foolz.us/tg/thread/19363045/#19363045
They're relatively quick reads if you skip the suggestions. Since I update pretty slowly, each post tends to have a lot of stuff happen, meaning the posts tend to be mostly meat and not much filler, plus has some nice pictures to put you in the proper mood. Still, I understand if that's not your cuppa, so I've also written a synopsis here: http://pastebin.com/bVpLPU1C
My all-day update scheme isn't going to be viable much longer. After this chapter, I'll be finishing the story on tgchan, where the threads will stick around longer. I'll have a link for you by the end of this thread.

>>20135447
Playing the flute helped you see borders before. Try that.

Holy shit you're back

>lover
>12 years old
what the fuck am i reading

>>20135459
You don't have a border there, so create a border.
Put your jacket down on the floor in a circle; the circle can be your border.
Later you can try to use the jacket itself, then practice until you can flourish a cloth over yourself and go through that.

File: 1343861803599.png-(397 KB, 720x4184, 62.png)

You turn away from Elle and start walking. Remembering how you had an innate sense for where borders are when you last played your flute, you take it out again. You listen to the strange innate thrumming sound of this place as you put the flute to your lips.
A slow, mournful song pours out of you, keeping time with the sounds in the pervasive black mist. The notes play out your frustration at Elle for not telling you anything, for not understanding you. You don't really know anything about this "making a new court" business, and frankly you don't know why it needs to concern you. You want to just stop, but then what? Go back home? Roam the earth? You somehow know these concerns are expressed in your song.
You feel a change come over you and open your eyes, noting that Elle did not follow.
Your border-sense seems to flicker across the iron landscape. Thin, wispy lines arc across adjacent lights before evaporating into nothing. You think you sense more of them off in the distance, but a thought occurs to you.
You don't need a border at all. You can make your own.
You strip your shirt off and lay it on the ground between two lights. You can tell the line is strong enough to work, that you can leap across it and go anywhere else you please. A tiny voice in the back of your head adds that you can do so with or without Elle.

>>20136084
Just call Elle over and say here a border we can use. (I didn't actually think that would work though.)

>>20135683
Not humans, not mortal, not much in the way of morals. And I think the boy is a satyr, you know how they are.

>>20136084
She's all we have, no leaving her behind. She can't help how she is, I don't think. Say aloud for her to come along.

>>20136084
She probably doesn't need to eat or anything. All we really need to do is go get some food and bring back a sleeping bag. Heck, bring general supplies over here. This is a place of safety- no normal fae can survive here.

Ask her if she can disguise herself for the food run or if maybe it would be better if she stayed behind for now. On the other hand perhaps she wouldn't like being alone in what is essentially an execution chamber. Don't just ditch her because she manipulated you- she also saved your ass a couple times. BE A MAN ABOUT IT.

By all rights, you should be dead already. No one should be looking for you anymore. Go back to Savannah, maybe? You don't have to deal with this fairy shit anymore unless you really want to. The sex might have been nice, but let's face it. You're twelve. You can stand to put that stuff on hold for a while and grow up.

>>20136159
Seconding this post. Can't lose her

>>20136159
Ye, she a bitch, but she our bitch.

>>20136084
Bring her with you.
Ask her about the rules of courtship for your people; do they have binding rituals like human lovers?

File: 1343865248236.png-(408 KB, 720x2798, 63.png)

You can't leave Elle behind, you think. Where would you be then? You've got nothing left. You turn back towards where you came from. "Elle!" you call out loudly. Your voice echoes off into the distance and you suddenly feel very self-conscious, all alone out here in the black mist. It feels like the omnipresent thrumming sounds grow louder beneath your feet.
You are relieved as Elle comes into view and immediately comes to your side. She looks down at your shirt on the ground. "That was fast," she says.
"Here, a border," you say.
She looks incredulous. "What, the shirt? But, you just put that there."
"Well, yeah. And now it's a border," you reply, matter-of-factly.
"Between what?" Elle asks.
You shrug. "This side of the shirt and that side of the shirt?" you explain, pointing to each side of the line.
She grins. "Haha! I could never have thought of that. C'mon, it's about time I weaned you off of that human slop," she says excitedly. She leans into your back. As you step across the line, your shoes hit soft grass.
Overhead, a dense treetop canopy filters streaks of blue-grey moonlight from above, though you can't see any tree trunks supporting it. Hanging amongst the branches, you see strings of colorful cloth and some small flecks of glowing green. In the dappled shadows before you sits a stone bowl atop a pedestal, which Elle approaches. You watch as she pricks her finger in a small stone spike at the side of the bowl. A drop of blood runs down the side, and your eyes can't really seem to register what happens as she reaches into the bowl and pulls out the droplet, except it is now a bright purple spherical fruit.
"Here, eat this," she says, offering it to you.

>>20136865
Eat the fruit. We haven't had anything to eat in a while and she made it just for us.

>>20136865
"Not until you tell me what it does. I'm done with being a plaything or a puppet - from now on, full disclosure."

We have to make it clear we're done being played and toyed with. Enough's enough!

>>20136865
Stare incredulously. Then ask if that's really how she gets food normally.

Also it's time we started asking questions. What exactly are you two going to be doing now?

>>20136865
Just take baby bites to test it out.
> "This side of the shirt and that side of the shirt?" That made me laugh more then it should have.

>>20136893
Seconded

>>20136865
"You're borrowing my immunities, so the rules don't apply. Tell me, what is this?"
Gesture to the basin.

Also, ask this: >>20136768

>>20136900
Eh a bit rough on the wording there. How about "Is there anything I should know about this, before I dig in? It won't make me turn green or shrink or sprout leaves?"

Okay, if there's one thing I learned from every fairy tale ever, it's NEVER EAT FAIRY FOOD. Insist, nay, demand that you eat some good old human slop like you're used to. Besides, you're special, right? Fairy food would just make you more like them and thus less special.

File: 1343867799448.png-(257 KB, 720x1500, 64.png)

Something makes you uneasy about this. "I...don't know. Is that how you normally get food?"
"Of course not," Elle replies. "But, the ways you normally get food around here often leads to getting to know people. Plus, if you're not careful, you might get some other effects."
"Like what," you reply, "turning green and growing leaves?"
"I promise this fruit won't make you turn green and grow leaves," she says. "Come on, I took some of your blood. It's only fair you take some of mine."
"I think I'd rather have some human food," you reply.
Elle sighs and bites into the fruit. "I didn't realize it meant that much to you," she says after she swallows the bite. "Fine, what do you want to eat instead?"
"I just want tome answers," you reply. "What are we even doing?"
Elle grins. "I can't tell you. It's not my fault the world is designed to make it hard for people like you to get answers. Where do you want to eat?" she asks, then finishes off the rest of the fruit.

Please excuse me a bit, I need to wolf down some human slop.

Do we have money? We could go buy something at a 24-hour convenience store. We sure as fuck aren't going back home to eat- we'll run into the Prince doing that.

Safest thing would be finding a border that leads to a house where everyone is on vacation, with a fridge and pantry you can raid. I don't know if such a thing is easy to find, but it can't hurt to seek it out. We just can't afford any more problems by getting caught where people are at home, so use caution.

>>20137436
"The world is also designed so metal hurts you, but you got around that just fine. You seem intent on controlling me, but all I've tried to do is get equality.
If you want me to be loyal to you and only you, then be loyal to me and only me.

Is that a deal?"

>>20137436
"I want to eat off the curve of your ass, grrl."

>>20137607
I lold more than I should have

>>20137533
Oh wait, we can go ANYWHERE. I'm sure there is some location on the planet in a different time zone that's open. Of course, then we have to worry about whether or not our money's good there.

>>20137883
What we need to look for is "stored food, no people". Let that lead where it may.

>>20137976
Like a supermarket? :V

yeah a store would be a public place so the invite only rule should be void.

>>20138103
An ideal result, but we don't know how we can search for certain locations. We may need a context, rather than an image or name. Whatever works.

File: 1343874674045.png-(377 KB, 720x2195, 65.png)

"I guess we could just pick a house and raid their fridge," you say, after pondering a moment.
"And how would you get inside?" Elle asks.
Your eyes widen. "What, I don't need an invitation!" you say. "You can wait outside!"
"How many times have you gone inside someone's home without being invited first?" Elle asks.
Your heart races as you consider the implication. "So...I've gone in people's houses loads of times without them saying I'm invited in!"
"Did they open the door for you, or nod you inside, or any of the other things that count as an implicit invitation in your weird customs? Were you invited in before?" she continues.
You honestly can't think of any examples. "But...but you went in my fort before I got there!" you exclaim, remembering how she was inside when you arrived the first time. "Then you needed an invitation later!"
"Was it your home?" she asks.
"What does that mean?" you ask, "and why do you keep asking me questions?"
"Your home is a place you know intimately and feel like it's yours. An unusual attachment. People in human culture are particularly jealous about theirs. It allows them to have more than one. If they're not attached enough to one, it's only their home when they're there. Was it your home before you arrived?"
You mull it over. "No," you reply. "I guess not."
"And I am giving you questions," Elle continues, "Because I can't give you answers."
"So you're cheating," you reply.
(cont. next post)

>>20138751
(sorry, I wrote too much)
"We all do. We all cheat. The ways we can cheat are what we are. Do you remember, Evan? When I told you what I am? I am the shadows in the moonlight. Whatever I can make that mean, it means. That's how I cheat. And you, you don't know the rules, but you have to follow them anyway. You cheat too. You cheat constantly. You're so good at it you probably don't even notice," she takes a step forward. "I mean, you put a shirt down on the ground and made it a border. Do you realize how unfathomable that is to me? That should not be possible. YOU should not be possible. The very idea of you terrifies everyone." Elle grins again. "Except for me. So I hope you'll start to trust me soon, because I'm all you've got."
"So I'm really not human," you say. Elle stares at you and doesn't respond. You take a deep breath as you try to take it all in. You've suspected this for most of the day, but it's still hard to swallow.
Your stomach interrupts your train of thought with a loud, embarrassing gurgle. "Uh, a store. A store in town. That won't be a home. But, I don't have any money."
"Then we cheat some more," Elle answers. "Lead the way."
The two of you step over a patch of moonlight. The smell of smoke fills your nostrils. Overhead, the shimmering blue streaks waltz slowly across the sky. The sun is just beginning to rise over the city, which, you notice suddenly, is completely dark, save for a fire clearly visible a few blocks away. You don't hear any sirens. In fact, you don't hear much of anything besides the dull impact of your shoes on asphalt.

>>20138751
>>20138761
Fire has jack shit to do with you - But we should hurry and get ourselves some food. Maybe even a bag to keep it in. Go for nonperishables - grains, canned food (get a can opener :V) and similar things. Get fruit if Elle has weird eating habits re: unnatural food or preservatives.

looks like some looting already started. pull out the shards and hop in.

Just keep your guard up no point of thinking things would get easier. Just find some super market or a convenience store.

I mean every gas station has one and most don't bat a eye to a kid if he to young although with a super market we could probably just break in/go though with magic/ect. and take any food that we want and go back to awful fairy land or the iron execution place.

File: 1343877856195.png-(177 KB, 720x980, 66.png)

You walk up to the front of a nearby convenience store and notice that a window is already broken in. Thinking it a bit portentous, you nonetheless clear the bottom of any stray shards of glass and begin to clamber in.
About that time a pile of rags in a hat stirs from its position propped up against the front wall of the shop.
"World's ending, boy," he says. You realize it is a homeless man whose grimy hat and jacket are so filthy they perfectly match the outside of the convenience store in the dim light. "You should get on out."
"Go on inside, Evan," says an unfamiliar female voice from behind you. You turn and see that Elle has been replaced by a tall woman wearing a red dress and black sunglasses, with the same weird grin. "I'll wait for you out here."
"You're one of them, aren't you boy?" the man asks. "You come to take me back?"
Something about the way he says that gives you chills. "We could go to another store..." you say.
"This one has everything we need. Go inside, Evan. Get some food," the woman repeats, forcefully. You feel oddly compelled to do what she says and only think about what sort of snacks you're going to loot.

Go and get some food, but first ask "Why is the world ending, old man?"

get on out to where? most people don't have another world they can go to. Unless he means die?

weeeird. Given Elle's rape face, I expect he'll be a bloody splatter by the time we get back outside.

Oh well. Candy! So much candy. All the candy.

>THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING

Oh holy fuck, this is an actual thing that is happening.!

Get some real food. Sandwiches or whatever.

Sounds like your doppleganger is taking over the world.

>>20139447
Time for SNACKS but yeah keep a eye out for things that go stab in the night

>>20139678
Although I don't think there was anything exactly stopping him from coming into this world to begin with except maybe him coming into our house

PAPA SILENUS

Please come to the 4chan write/questfag channel, #writescribbles on Rizon, so that the other writefags may hurl praise at you!

Well, only me. But all writefags are welcome!

>>20139853
I can hurdle praise with the best of them. Come on over.

File: 1343881566926.png-(288 KB, 720x1557, 67.png)

You keep on edge as you move through the aisles collecting things. At first, you grab only boxes of candy. Eventually, you realize that maybe there is something to that stuff adults were always saying about candy making you sick, so you grab some pieces of fruit, packs of peanuts, some chips, and some beef jerky, and shove all your loot in a bag from behind the counter. To top it off, you also get a few bottles of soda and water, and head back out the window.
"Got everything you need?" Elle asks, standing next to the hobo.
"I think so," you reply.
"Good. One more thing before we go. Do you still have your knife on you?"
"Uh, yeah, why?" you ask.
"Good. Listen. I want you to kill this man," she says, calmly.
"What?" you exclaim. "No!"
"Please," says the man, "They won't take me back. I don't want this anymore."
"You made him say that!" you say to Elle accusingly.
"That doesn't make sense," she responds.
"Why not?" you counter.
She frowns. "More questions. Kiss me," she says.
Your brain seems to go on autopilot as you step forward and do as she says without even consciously considering it.
She steps back and grins again. "Now, kill yourself."
"What?" you ask, horrified.
"And you didn't do it," Elle elaborates. "Does that answer your question?"

>>20140304
You can't compel someone to do something that is obviously a bad idea. He says he wants to die, so it is really him saying that.

We don't really need to do it yourself though, can't he just cut his own wrists?

Man, we're not killing anybody without a VERY good reason. Not starving is one thing, MURDER is another.

>>20140304
"Yeah..."

>>20140424
Let's just ask him why he needs to die. And why he deserves this... favor, from us.

>>20140443
I second this

So...you can't make people do things they don't already want to do? so when you told your dad to drop, he wanted to? And when invisible demon guy told savannah to rape you or whatever that was, she also wanted to?

>>20140511
Well what the demon wanted she wanted as well due to some twisted love I think. The dad I have nothing

>>20140511
So yeah good point
>>20140627
>my post btw

dad probably was drunk so his inhibitions were NIL.

>>20140511
>>20140627
>>20140729
So... if we give him the knife, can she tell him to kill himself? If not then the restriction might not be about will, but the nature of the command itself.

File: 1343885252748.png-(198 KB, 720x905, 68.png)

You think harder about what Elle is saying. "So, when I told my father to drop, he wanted to?"
"Would you say your father likes himself?" Elle asks.
"Yes!" you answer emphatically, without thinking.
"Hm," is all she intones in reply.
"And Savannah..." you continue, "she wanted to...to throw herself at me?"
Elle grins again, a little wickedly. "Is she prettier than me?"
"Don' answer that one, son," says the old man in a low grumble. "Won't be nice for the other woman."
"Why do I have to kill you," you ask, your head still reeling. You set your bags down on the sidewalk and lean forward to get a better look at the man.
"I'm gonna die today," he replies. "Y'can't change that. Lady says might as well be you to do it."
"I thought I'd give you an easy one for your first," Elle elaborates. "I hear it's the hardest."
"But-" you protest, not really sure what to append to the interjection. "Why do I have to kill anyone? And why are you going to die today?"
"It's this or burn in the fire," the man says. "I seen, nothin to stop it. We got soft relying on our machines. No water here to pump on it. Too old and tired to start walking. Walked too long across this world. It doesn't compare. It can't."
"Plus, we could use the blood," Elle pipes in.
You sigh as you alternate between mulling it over and not believing you're actually mulling it over. "Can I just give you the knife, and..." you trail off.
The old man looks up. You see a twinkle in the pools of inky blackness concealed under his visor. "You could," he says. "Lady says might as well be you to do it, is all."

>>20141208
DO IT FAGGOT

>>20141208
I think we should do it, right through the temple, easiest way.

>>20141208
So we gotta go down in the rabbit hole huh? Well WHAT could we use the blood for I mean blood is kinda worthless unless you need a transfusion unless is for some Fey magic or something which is probably true.

>>20141208
Walk behind him, or ask him to turn around. Slide the knife between the disks of his spine, at the base of his neck.

Easy peasy. Quick, and painless.

>>20141288
>Base of his skull, rather.

i think we need this, otherwise when we need to kill in a combat situation we may hesitate.

>NOPE
Fuck that, no twelve-year-old can handle that shit.

You will need to learn to kill before all this is over, I bet. What more would be lost when you hesitate then? Our life as a human is behind us, but we can remain compassionate, and grant this old man mercy.

>>20141288
If the strike is true. We need to point and line of the knife before our hit. Make t count.

NO please don't for fuck's sake
I think he used to live in fairy world. Teleport him back there! That's what he wants.

Um, it might be best if he chose the way he dies. A 12 year old does not have the knowledge or dexterity to perform a spinal stab.

This thread archived yet?

>>20142976
"Stop compelling me to do things.
It's hard to trust you when you have power over me that I don't have over you.
If I were to offer for us to be equals and partners, would you accept?"

File: 1343893229646.png-(116 KB, 720x938, 69.png)

He's going to die anyway, you think. You can't hesitate later if you have to kill. The city is being burned, and there's chaos everywhere. It doesn't matter.
You feel the knife click open in your hands.
"Show me your back," you say. Almost as if in slow motion, you see the man push himself up and scoot in a semicircle to give you better access. You step up behind him, knife ready at the base of his skull.
You stop. There's no going back after this. You'll be a killer. For what? To be a better killer? Do you really want to do this?
"Kill him," says Elle.
"Wait-" says the man.
It's too late. You've already begun the motion. All his protest made you do is panic. Adrenaline floods your body. The world slows to a crawl. You feel the slight resistance of the blade of the knife scraping between his vertebrae, and you're too slow to stop it. One brief spray of warm blood, then nothing.

File: 1343893286374.png-(365 KB, 720x1911, 70.png)

You hear a dull roaring in your ears and you go a little numb. Everything that happens next is a blur. Elle swoops in and does something with the body. You vaguely recall being whisked off to...somewhere else. Elle bustles around you and ushers you across several borders. At one point you have a faint memory of her telling you to eat and drink something, but you don't remember tasting it.
You fall flat on your back in some grass and fall asleep.
You don't dream.
You wake to what seems like Elle's canopy place. You are laying on your back, nude, and Elle positions her familiar weight atop you.
You looks down at Elle and she smiles. Not a strange grin, but something that feels more genuine, if only a fraction. "You're finally awake, good," she says, wiggling her hips against you. "I knew you'd come around."
As you look around, you realize this is someplace new. No moonlight shines through the canopy, but there are the familiar lights of the iron fields scattered across the ground. To the side, you see your fort's two flaming pillars, and something that looks like a throne. "Where are we?" You ask.
"The beginning of the red court," Elle responds. As she takes you in her hand and positions herself over you, you realize you must have gotten hard in your sleep.
"How did you do this?" you ask. "It's like-" your inquiry is cut short as Elle drops herself down onto you.
"Shh-" she exhales, swaying her hips lithely. "We'll talk later."
End chapter 5

It's been fun running with you guys. As I said, I will be moving this quest from /tg/ to tgchan now. I haven't gotten the thread started yet, but I do have a questdis up and running until I can start the thread proper, probably tomorrow. If you would all be so kind as to move discussion to that thread, I would appreciate it, and I'm sure the rest of /tg/ would appreciate their page 0 board space back. Thank you.
http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/57966.html

aaand someone just pointed out that, in my introductory post here:
>>20135472
I posted the same link twice.
Second one should go here:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Fair%20Folk
which now also includes this chapter.