In this world, Magic is Everything. All people, all races, are granted with the power to perform mystical and magical feats via grimories, mystical tomes granted to each and every child on their 15th birthday. Those blessed by the mana can have their names written down in legend.
Shattered Grimoires is the work of the mind(s) of Ardere & Shattered Grimoire's staff. All characters and content are copyright their creators, and may not be replicated without their creators' permission. Black Clover is owned by Yuki Tabata and published by Viz Shonen Jump. All images belong to their original owners. The theme you are currently viewing was made by Eliza of ElizaCodes exclusively for Shattered Grimoires.
Post by Willow Omens on Apr 29, 2020 2:03:06 GMT -5
New Haven was a town unlike any other within the entire Kingdom of Clover. Its borders housed but one other structure, a single building, that shared similarities between itself and the tree bound village. That was the Azure Deer Knight base of operations. Whether by some stroke of luck or by design itself, these two locations on separate ends of the map found themselves often compared to one another, and oft more contrasted for the huge differences they boasted.
Toting on about it is one thing, experiencing it first hand is another. It was here that many people found themselves enthralled with the culture of a dead nation, a land swallowed whole by the sea. New Haven was the home for Havenites. The people noted for their shades of red, orange, and pink hair, and their physical nature. Attuned to the nature of the land like the Heart Kingdom, and physical like no other mage, many found them to be strange as is.
But to make their homes within the canopy of branches? To bring themselves terra firma to cultivate and farm from? To raise livestock up here? Within the branches themselves? What madmen would do that? Those who had a long-standing heritage of avoiding the ground for ravenous mana beasts roamed the earth. For them, this was the safest way to live. Existing alongside nature, being at one with the forest. Homes hewed out from the bark. Walkways made from sawed-off branches. Many self-contained lanterns with magical flames in them. This place was unlike any other in Clover.
And it was a bitch and a half to reach by foot. People had to trek through the Forsaken Region, risking life and limb with the cutpurses and hungry monsters that roamed the lands. But the mana storms and ever-shifting landscape between towns where magic protected them mostly? That was another task. The insurmountable issue though, that most reported to be a problem, was how to reach up to the canopy of this otherworldly locale. Stirrups. Simple Bungie stirrups. A foot goes into the loop, a tug on the elastic rope, and up you went to visit New Haven.
If one were to visit today, they'd be met with the sound of drums, the whine of string instruments, and the hum of wooden woodwinds. The smell of delicacies unlike any other. There was some sort of festival going on! And the village chief, his wife, and four daughters were the centers of attention!
Willow, the girl who normally freaked out about the outside world, was smiling, standing in a normal fringe poncho and light airy outfit, as opposed to her usual garb of multiple layers to protect herself from the outside world!
Roc Lily was not a man of typical fortune. Though there were instances of good luck or gracious happenings in his history, much of his life was characterized by his struggle against a flew of unfortunate circumstances. His morning had been a continuation of that series. A Green Mantis magic knight had been requested to visit the strange town of New Haven in the Forsaken region, and quite literally every knight in the squad had been rejected for the goodwill tour. All but Roc and a few other junior knights had been turned down by either the leadership of Clover or New Haven as being positive representations of their squad. Roc only bypassed this qualification because he completely lacked any negative history as a magic knight, he lacked any kind of history at all, being so new.
As a result, he was escorted, first by stagecoach and then on foot out from the mantis base to some corner of the Forsaken region that was completely alien to Roc. Magical beasts and packs of bandits were thwarted by the powerful presence of his guardians for the trip. Only a few out of place obstacles hindered their arrival. As they went, the escorts tried to describe the city of New Haven to Roc, but every explanation only confused him further. It was evident they'd no idea what the city really was. Eventually he just ignored their descriptions. He'd be seeing it all himself anyways.
Roc's only instructions for the trip were to 'leave a good impression,' as a letter from his absentee captain had put it. It wasn't often that Roc succeeded in life by being congenial, but learning a new skill was hardly a bad thing. Diplomacy was not a skill he thought he'd have to cultivate in the roughest of the magic knight squads, but it seemed the other teams had little success in establishing successful relations. Roc was truly the last straw of a last ditch effort. It was either that or it was just assumed that he'd be unsuccessful no matter what happened.
Already sucking wind at the tiresome journey, Roc was surprised at the nothingness in front of him when his escorts paused. Before them were some dangling strands that extended higher than he could see clearly. No city lay before him.
"This is your stop," one of the knights explained, gesturing towards one of the strands. "Plant your foot there, tug, and you'll go on up," he said it as if it were as simple as opening a door. The strands extended far beyond what Roc considered safe. What was simply foreign had evolved into something dangerous very quickly. What about New Haven warranted it being so impenetrable?
Roc obeyed, slipping a foot into the loose stirrup and tightly clutching the strand. He waited for the other knights to do so, but they remained stationary. "You're not coming?"
"We'll be here when you get back," the other knight explained. "Go on now, we might be tardy already," she urged, nodding towards the strand. It might've been true that it wasn't her place to ascend on the strands, but she didn't seem all that disappointed by it.
Hesitantly, Roc wrapped the cord around a hand. Taking a deep breath, he tugged hard against it and waited. For a moment, there was no movement, and Roc assumed this was some sort of hazing by the more senior escorts. Before he could ask about the joke, however, he felt his body yanked away from his companions, pulled towards some foreign frontier. Roc hugged the cord and shut his eyelids, knuckles white against the elastic cord. It was impossible to gauge how long he'd climbed from the adrenaline pumping in his veins. Sooner than he expected, he'd stopped in his climb, and he opened his eyes to New Haven.
A wall of sound became clearly audible at the top of his ascension. New Haven was colorful and loud and strangely vertical. The size of the city seemed to extend into the tree tops, with people walking between the boughs of trees with the ease of creatures who'd lived there all their lives. Roc stepped from the cord to more solid ground. Nothing of what the companions told him held any truth, and Roc was instantly overwhelmed and lost in the energy of the life of New Haven.
Post by Willow Omens on May 1, 2020 23:30:40 GMT -5
Of the many things going on in the hovel that was New Haven, Roc would notice but one feature that stood out among the crowd. The hue of the heads of hair that everyone shared. Reds, oranges, pinks, all the colors between. These people all had full tufts of fiery hair! The second thing to notice, just from looks alone were more tanned bodies, pointed ears, and each person that had the markings of the elf clan on their faces in different patterns and the like. The smells were fruity, spice-laden dishes that begged one to sample the delicacies that desired to be devoured. Prepared by hand and not by magic, the taste was unlike any other. Stuffed apples, spiced pairs, chilled melons. All sorts of fruit stands of people gladly handing out the treats to one another free of charge! This was a part of a festival, after all, it stood to reason that there would be no need to spend yul!
There was the sound of music, docent tones that begged one to relax a little, let loose, cut a rug, and enjoy the rhythm. People dressed in light clothing today, there were many dark outfits befitting Clover's traditional style, but, the ones that stuck out were those wearing strange bone masks that were nearly helmets with how much they covered. Fringe laden bracelets and anklets, feathers tied around their knees and elbows. White garments around their bodies and flowing around as they danced in the center of the festival.
Roc would be able to hear people talking in a strange language. It sounded like nothing but Chaos, impossible to decipher without some sort of lexicon or codex to decipher the cryptic manner of speech these people had back and forth.
"Oh, hello there! You're new here!." Said a pleasant little voice, it belonged to a girl wearing a black and red outfit, a short pink hairstyle with two pigtails tied to the side of her head. She was very diminutive when it came to body assets.
"Of course Iris, he's clearly not from around here. he's here to experience the festival, get a tour, right?" Asked a second voice, she had a similar pink hair color, though hers was styled into a bob. Her outfit was green and black with more 'oomph' to her body than her twin. Just looking at their faces one could tell they were twins.
"So, think we should let her take care of it?" "I dunno, does she need that?" "Clearly, she needs to meet more people. Dad would want it that way, right?" "But Brier, if you do that, she's gonna be a bit out of it. I mean she's up on stage." The two were talking as if they were about to push Roc off on to someone. Where he would be directed to look at the center stage in this big open park area!
She had long flowing tails of pink hair from her bone mask. She had a lithe body, and she was the center of attention as she danced with streams of water flowing behind after her hands and feet, casting off little jets whenever someone held up a torch to make smoke signals up into the air with distinct shapes to them.
"That's our big sister, she's often the one that helps new people. When she's done dancing, you should go see her." Said Brier, trying to hide she was just trying to mess with Willow up on stage.
As soon as Roc was assaulted by the sensory overload of New Haven, it was followed up by two small girls having some conversation Roc found nearly impossible to follow. For his sake, they spoke in his language, as opposed to the foreign tongue that he kept hearing around the strange town. The flow of their conversation pushed Roc towards the center of many people's attention. Their cheers and shouts were indecipherable, and Roc's magic knight cloak earned him more than a few dirty looks. He was tempted to hide the Green Mantis sigil, but it would defeat the purpose of his goodwill tour. Before he could ask the two girls any questions about anything that was going on, Roc found himself in front of a stage and a lithe, small girl dancing fiercely and ritually. It was a style that Roc didn't recognize, but he tried to appreciate it all the same. Roc was there to be polite, and he'd watch the dance at attention.
The dance wasn't the only intense aspect of New Haven to behold. Something about the mana of the place felt more natural and potent to Roc. It was more closely weaved with the nature and the people. Strong smelling fruits mixed into a bold atmosphere that permeated throughout the festival. Gaudy masks decorated the lively faces and voices of each citizen of the festival. The sound of the music accompanying the girl's dance vibrated against the trees and shabby looking houses in their boughs. Every sense was overloaded by one aspect or another of the festival. It was as exhilarating as it was intimidating. It felt as though at any moment all of those feelings could collapse inward onto Roc and overtake him.
His guide, as those strange girls had introduced her was dancing at the stage as a central spectacle. Though it was interesting to watch that, he also would've really liked some explanation for anything that was going on. Roc had been advised that some sort of celebration would be happening upon his arrival. Its specifics or the role that anything played in the festival was completely lost on the young magic knight. It was all he could do to try and relax within the nearly hostile crowd and try to appreciate the strange dance in the strange land.
Post by Willow Omens on May 7, 2020 21:45:00 GMT -5
As the current song waned to a halt, hushing to a murmur, the musicians took time to have a break, catch their breath, and refresh themselves as they prepared for the next major part of the festival. The dancer, however, was finishing her little show for the crowd, coming to the end of the stage as she grasped her mask-like helmet, and lifted up off of her head. As she exposed her face beneath, it was like looking at the picture of secluded innocence. Willow Omens had a gentle featured face, deep pools of teal-colored irises with flecks of magenta scattered through those orbs in her head. Hair pulled in to two long pink ponytails that dangled down to her waist. People were reaching out and giving her a handshake, thanks for her hard work and appreciation for the wonderful dance before the games could start.
The moment she saw Roc, she froze in place, jumping backward after but a moment's hesitation. Thrusting the mask back on her visage, Willow hid under it before she flourished her arms, trying to look important and not as startled as she actually was. Her voice echoed within her mask, which only served to mute some of her speech, "H-Hello traveler, I, I am being called Willow Omens. It, it is a wonderful thing to be meeting you. I, I need a moment to--" She turned to run for it, only to hear the telltale sign of her sisters, both casting their respective thorn and root magics, grabbing hold of Willow by the arms and pulling her back while her heels dragged along the wooden ground. "Oh no, you don't Missy! As the ambassador for today, it's your job to be with this new person!" "Besides, it's good for you to develop as a person yourself!" The twins said with wicked grins.
One of the random bystanders would clear their throat, putting his hand on Roc's shoulder, "Forgive the girl, she's a bit of a special case, doesn't get out much and has a lot of fear of anything from the outside, but, she wants to go outside. Think you could do us a favor bigger than she's doing for you? Just keep her company for the day. Ask her about her drawings when you're eating later."
After some encouragement, and off-screen cat-fighting between the trio of pink-haired lasses, Willow had lost. She got pushed toward Roc, without her mask. "I! Hello! Yes! It...It is wonderful to properly be making your acquaintance! Shall we go around a bit?"
There were plenty of stands still, and little games to be had, with many people meandering off to something of a sports arena. "This is New Haven." She said while brushing some of the hair out of her face and tucking it away behind her pointed ear. "We are celebrating the Festival of the First Flame today."
