pretty_plant (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pretty_plant) wrote2025-04-03 09:30 pm
pretty_plant) wrote2025-04-03 09:30 pm
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Choose your own adventure: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell edition
Note: Everybody, feel free to join in!
You are a minor practical magician who have practiced magic for around three years with some basic understanding of common spells.
Today, your fiance, a pretty girl of eighteen, suddenly disappeared and in your attempts to find her, you walk on a fairy road and find a majestic castle with tall towers. Music comes from the windows into the room and you can tell that a ball was going on.
Walking into the chamber, you see many ladies and gentlemen of superb handsomeness in a dizzying array of outfits that escape human comprehension.
What do you do now?
A. Approach a lady and ask her for a dance.
B. Stay next to the wall to observe.
You are a minor practical magician who have practiced magic for around three years with some basic understanding of common spells.
Today, your fiance, a pretty girl of eighteen, suddenly disappeared and in your attempts to find her, you walk on a fairy road and find a majestic castle with tall towers. Music comes from the windows into the room and you can tell that a ball was going on.
Walking into the chamber, you see many ladies and gentlemen of superb handsomeness in a dizzying array of outfits that escape human comprehension.
What do you do now?
A. Approach a lady and ask her for a dance.
B. Stay next to the wall to observe.
choices choices choices
A. Approach a lady and ask her for a dance.
You have been complimented on your excellent dancing before so you believe yourself perfectly capable of conducting yourself with grace amidst this profusion of beautiful ladies and gentlemen.
Approaching the woman, you ask her:
"May I have a dance, lady?"
She looks at you with one eyebrow partially raised and consents to it. When you start dancing with her, however, you realize that her dress is no simple dress. It is, in fact, a mass of little insects that crowd all over her skin; they crawl, wiggle, and bite each other, creating the most awful screechy noise that you are not able to hear from far away. The sight of it repulse you; even worse, one of the bugs scratches you with its terrible claw as you come nearer.
What is your reaction?
A. You gasp and draws back from the insects.
B. You stifle your disgust the insects and compliment her on her dress.
Re: A. Approach a lady and ask her for a dance.
(fantastic description btw, so clarke-ish)
Re: A. Approach a lady and ask her for a dance.
"What a beautiful gown you have, so many beautiful inse...creatures."
The fairy lady gives you a smile from which you can neither guess she is displeased or pleased.
"Thank you, lovely things, aren't they? However, you have not yet seen my best gown. It is made from thousands of interweaving snakes whose venom is so potent that it will immediately kill anybody it bites."
"Oh, that dress does sound lovely. It is a shame I am unable to see it." You are secretly quite glad that it is in fact not that dress that she wears to tonight's ball.
After a while, you decide to bring up a topic that you are most interested in.
What is it?
A. Who is the owner of this castle?
B. Have you seen a young woman, eighteen years of age, brown curls, blue eyes, average height, skin rosy and a little bit dark?
Re: A. Approach a lady and ask her for a dance.
"I think I have seen someone who looks exactly like that." She points a finger to somewhere behind your back. "I think I see her there."
"You have my sincere gratitude."
You do not want to be rude so you wait until the dance is over before following the direction the lady points. You do not have a lot of expectations of finding her there immediately but to your surprise, you see the familiar brown curls and rosy face at that corner of the room.
When you see her, you cannot help calling out loudly,
"My love, here you are. Let's get out of here."
In your haste, you do not notice that she is talking with a man in a blue coat and light grey trousers and that you are interrupting their conversation as you grab her hands and ask her to get away from here immediately.
Your lover looks up at you, a dismayed expression appearing on her face. She pushes you away. "Run, run now, I beg you please leave here immediately." She says in desperation.
A strong hand grips your shoulders so tightly that you cannot help shouting out in pain. You look at the man who was talking to her and see a pale, cold, displeased face.
"Sir, it isn't polite to interrupt a conversation." The man says, his voice even and barely showing any hint of anger. "I think it is best for me to make you unable to interrupt anybody ever again."
You open your mouth to say something sharp but only a creaky groan comes out of it. And for some strange reason, why do the man and his beloved girl become so much smaller than him now? It is as if you grew to be twice as tall or as if they became smaller. The girl looks up at you, her face frozen in shock before she throws herself at you feet, sobs wracking her entire body. You want to comfort her, saying that it will be fine and that you will protect and bring her back to England. However, no word comes from your mouth and you can do nothing besides shaking the leaves on your branches, using them to gently caress her body in a mute effort to comfort.
Game over.
Bad end.
no subject
Hmmm. I chuse B! <3
no subject
B. Stay next to the wall to observe.
After a while, you decide against it and observe everyone silently. In your corner, you can see a servant filling up a bowl of punch and cleaning up dirty plates on the table at the side of the room. He stands out because while everyone in the room wears beautiful clothes, he is dressed in rags. While everybody is immaculately presented, their hair perfectly brushed and styled, their face cleaned, either carefully shaved or tinted with a lovely hint of blush, he is slovenly with his unwashed face and dirty nails, looking like he would belong to a place under the bridges in London rather than a lovely ball.
And most importantly, he looks absolutely normal with none of fairy strange quality in countenance or figure. You suspect that he might be a human.
When he comes across the corner you are standing in, you will:
A. Ask whether he is a human and say that he is cruelly treated here.
B. Ask him whether he is a human and use money and a stable chance of employment to turn him over to your side.
Re: B. Stay next to the wall to observe.
B. Ask him whether he is a human and use money and a stable chance of employment to turn him over to
The man looks towards you and looks momentarily surprised when he sees you.
"A Christian gentleman?"
"Not simply a Christian gentleman. I am an English magician."
"Oh." The man's face was contemptuous. "Are you one of those that sell useless trinkets for a lot of money?"
"No, I am no such thing. I am a modern magician. I study with the foremost teachers of magic and even correspond with Lord Portishead, whom as you might well know, was a dear friend of Mr Norrell prior to his departure from England!"
"I know no fancy people."
"Fancy people!? How can you fail to know at least Mr Norrell? He is the nation's foremost magician, the one who revived magic to its glory and saved us from the France!?"
"Well, he must have done it very quickly because I left England only one week ago and I heard no such thing and the war with the France isn't getting any better."
"One week!" You pause a little bit to think. You have heard of people being enchanted and being trapped in Faerie without being aware of how bad their position were. You feel like you ought to be careful. "I have a question to ask of you. I am looking for a lady who is brought to this place. She is to inherit a great estate. If you promise to help me save her from this place, I promise that we will give you 50 pounds and a position as our manservant."
For a man of such a background, 50 pounds can mean two or three years of work. The man hesitates for a little bit before saying,
"I do enjoy working here wearing this fine servant's livery and eating good food but it is probably better to return to England and find a wife there. All these fairies, even the servants, are so full of themselves. I will help you."
What will you do?
A. Ask about where the girl is?
B. Ask about the master of this place.
Re: B. Ask him whether he is a human and use money and a stable chance of employment to turn him ove