Etoral quietly sneaks back into his mother's bookshop, holding a bag full of several paintings. Unfortunately, each painting is only worth about 10 dollars. Fortunately, he stole A LOT of those paintings. It should be enough to afford food for a couple weeks. He'll contact a fence soon, but right now he needs to rest. He goes up to his room, hiding the bag of paintings under his bed. He doesn't even change out of his outfit before he falls asleep. Hopefully he didn't steal them from anyone who's capable of getting assassins...
Blue Pacific, signing off...Ravindra at last decided he could not afford to turn a blind eye to the needy. He was certainly pious and kind hearted, but the fact that he was good didn't mean he was nice, anybody that could not pull carry their own weight was naught but a burden in his eyes and was better to mercifully finished instead of dragging them along and extend their pain to an inevitable demise.
Brutal, but there was no room for frailness in his dimension, it was either kill or be killed.
Ultimately however he could not escape his monk nature and sighed when Ace announced he was going to assist this injured armored man. "Alright, everyone off." He said clapping his hands to get their attention. "We really do not need to be carried towards the city like royalty. Mr. Spellbound, please assist our wayward fellow traveler here, we'll walk the rest of the way."
With that, he got off the card and extended a hand to help anyone that needed to be helped down.
edited 19th Sep '11 5:45:58 PM by CienCaras
Lucas was thankful that the man was actually helping him, although he didn't expect another card going under him and taking him up. I'm certainly thankful there was a workaround, Lucas thought, trying to be silent as the man concentrated. It started to make him worry slightly that this man was being too generous.
Apparently, someone else thought the same thing, and a man got off, letting the man aiding him - Mr. Spellbound was the mans name, apparently- know that he could just take him and the rest would walk.
While Lucas was grateful on the one hand, he didn't want to impede the groups progress on the other. However, he was in no state to walk himself at the moment, which meant that the mans logic was sound, and they'd have to take the fall to help him. While Lucas gained a greater respect for this man for giving up his own position on the already floating card, as well as the woman that followed, he didn't want to leave them to fend for themselves.
In a spark of realization, Lucas reached for his back, withdrawing an odd, somewhat rectangular device. Immediately, it expanded into a form that looked similar to a rifle. Turning towards the two that had gotten off already, he began to explain.
"I appreciate your kindness," he began, "but i feel i must repay you somehow. Now, i don't know if we'll actually be needing this, but in the event we do, i can offer some supporting fire from above. It's the least i can do to help you all... for now, anyway." It did occur to him that in his state, firing a gun might not be the best idea, but he certainly wasn't letting them all go about unprotected. This is where he drew the line at letting his fatigue get the best of him.
"You lost, Dio. You lost for one simple reason - you were using charcoal." - Hank HillAce sighed.
"You guys didn't have to d that for me.. thanks..." He said, easing up on the concentration, he actually got off the card himself and the deck as they sat upon shrank down and flew into his front pouch. He then turned his attention to Lucas.
"You me amigo, don't have to pay back any kindness, it's the whole superhero thing, I help you and my only rewards is the warm fuzzy feeling I get for seeing another civilian safe," He said with a relaxed smile and his hands on the back of his head.
The Blog The Art"Something tells me that he is not a civilian." Noted Ravindra glancing at the rifle which the armored stranger clung to.
"Don't worry of it for now stranger, your energy is better spent trying to recuperate yourself and we are perfectly capable of defending ourselves. Besides we have yet to encounter any hostile beings in this dimension."
He arched an eyebrow at Francis and reconsidered "Well, any hostile 'natives' that is."
edited 20th Sep '11 3:16:03 PM by CienCaras
Lucas listened to Mr. Spellbound explain he didn't expect anything from him after getting off the card himself, and was actually touched they'd all humble themselves because of him. It made him feel like a sort of royalty, to put it in what Lucas knew was a slightly selfish frame of mind. He, did, however, object to one detail. However, the man who had gotten off initially put the words in his mouth before he could say them.
"Yeah," he said, nodding in the mans direction, "like he said, i'm not quite a civilian. Quite honestly, the term 'mercenary' would be a far more accurate description. Allow me to intoduce myself. I'm a former pilot of the Alliance Navy, although i now work with a small mercenary group instead of the Alliance. Those in the crew gave me the name 'Rook.' That'd probably be the easiest thing to call me. So nice to meet you all!"
The unspoken implication there was that Lucas wasn't quite ready to give them his identity. It wasn't as if his life depended on it, but something here didn't quite add up, the 'magic' being the main thing. That wasn't normal where he came from, and it set him on edge, if only slightly. The group had certainly shown themselves friendly, but Lucas wanted answers first and foremost. He'd worry about personal introductions at a later time.
edited 20th Sep '11 3:54:58 PM by InfiniteParagon
"You lost, Dio. You lost for one simple reason - you were using charcoal." - Hank Hill"Guess you'll have to fill us in since I don't think any of us knows that the Alliance is supposed to be," Ace said sleepily as he looked at Rook again. There was nothing Earth-like about him which meant he was fro ma world where humans got some really weird fashion tastes or this alliance was an alliance of aliens.
Nevertheless, his eye was mostly on the gun, and how he would convince this person not to use it if need be.
The Blog The ArtRavindra sensed the secrecy in the man's words, but it was not his position nor his interest to pry into the man's history. Far from being judgmental, in fact so much as to be considered aloof and uncaring, the monk didn't get any red flags when this fellow named Rook admitted to being a mercenary and obvious hired gun.
True, as a virtuous monk he was supposed to look down on such individuals that make war their business, but this sounded greatly hypocritical from a man who rips rib cages out with his bare hands. With the exception of the most innocent here, i.e. Ace, Amaranth and Sheila, he was certain they all had blood in their hands, and he wasn't sure about the last one. Therefore he thought nothing of it as it was part of having an enlightened mind set.
However, before they had another episode of everyone crowding the poor injured man as they introduced each other the monk smiled and decided to ensure take care of that, making the man feel comfortable.
"We bid you welcome then Mr. Rook, to our motley crew of wanderers. Allow me to introduce ourselves as it seems we'll be in each others company for an indefinite amount of time. You already know your benefactor Mr. Ace Spellbound." He gestured to the young super hero and then to the others "This lovely lady here is Amaranth, the small child with the kitchen ware is Sheila, this white haired gentleman is our very own vampire policeman Francis and these two armored fellows are our demolition experts Sora and our resident medic Dean who will be tending you very shortly I'm sure." Making sure he had covered everyone he lastly introduced himself. "And I am Ravindra, a humble monk from Earthrealm."
Once he was done he grimaced a little at the thought of running into more people, if this keeps up he's going to end up making name tags for everyone.
I realize Sora has yet to introduce herself (or post for that matter) but I'm sure that her name and profession would have come up at some point by this time)
edited 20th Sep '11 5:21:21 PM by CienCaras
Amaranth can feel herself blushing at the compliment, but it's only barely visible.
I think The World P Cs actually can blush, but that would be really, really hard to implement. On the other hand, mind-data link, so yeah.
At least one of her alts has probably PK'd out of self-defense at some point, but other than that, yeah, just virtual monster slaying.
Also, I know I've seen deadbeat (Sora) around, he just really hasn't been posting often. Contrast Bindlestick, who was one of the first players to sign up and has never posted in this thread.
edited 20th Sep '11 5:30:13 PM by AweStriker
"Only now, after being besieged by a flock of talking ponies, did he really understand what he'd lost. "There were several moments of dumbfounded silence on Lucas' end, more or less at Mr. Spellbound. "You... don't know what the Alliance is?", he finally asked, looking over the group. "Do any of you?"
However, judging solely from appearances, they didn't seem to be from nywhere he knew of at all. In fact, the humble man, who called himself Ravindra, claimed to be from somewhere called 'Earthrealm.' Lucas couldn't quite say he knew where that was either.
The only two pwople that looked like they could relatively fit somewherein where Lucas was from were the two armored people introduced as Dean and Sora respectively. Dean stepped forward, asking to have a look at him and commenting that his shields had to have taken most of the impact. "I-it would seem they did," Lucas responded, confusion getting the better of him for a split second. "Unfortunately, they aren't rebooting anymore... but at least i'm alive."
"You lost, Dio. You lost for one simple reason - you were using charcoal." - Hank Hill"No We don't. If you're like the rest of us, then you're from Earth, but in a different universe." Ace explained calmly. He was frankly used to it at this point. Between the parallel magical world and the omni-dimensional being Timelord, this whole thing, was only vaguely strange, the only thing he was concerned with was who he was dealing with at home.
The Blog The ArtRavindra had also grown quite accustomed to dimension hoppers and thus didn't even gave it a second thought that the armored man might be from a completely different universe.
"It's distressing how quickly this is becoming second nature." He mumbled to himself while watching Dean heal their newest acquisition.
"Well then, shall we continue? I rather prefer if we keep moving, we're easy targets standing around like this."
"Targets for what exactly? The rain? Tribbles? The "It's Quiet… Too Quiet" monster that will jump scare us?" Ace said sarcastically as he began to move forward with a drifting Lucas not too far behind.
The Blog The ArtAmaranth appreciates the warning - she's not used to anything just jumping her other than other players.
The World has Pre-existing Encounters in the form of portals to the monster realm that open up when you approach them.
edited 22nd Sep '11 4:04:55 PM by AweStriker
"Only now, after being besieged by a flock of talking ponies, did he really understand what he'd lost. ""The last one I'd say, those are quite the nuisance." Ravindra either doesn't get or chooses to ignore the sarcasm. Ace must be a lot younger or inexperienced than the monk first gave him credit for if he's not on guard in this unfamiliar place. Though it could be attributed to his innocence.
Regardless, Ravindra nods to Sora in agreement as he himself is not taking any chances.
What they would begin to notice, was that a number of wild animals were beginning to gather, looking at the new arrivals. There were a pair of varren
◊ stood at the top of a building husk (this was about 1 story high). Some viperwolves
◊ were looking out from an alleyway. A large creature
flew over, faster than could be seen.
edited 23rd Sep '11 12:01:12 PM by Plumbum
Curse the ill fortune that led you to me.

"Don't worry yourself man, there are 51 more in a deck after all." Ace said as a card floated from his back pouch, a 2 of diamonds. it enlarged itself to the size of a person and slid itself underneath Lucas and levitated him. Ace did this with closed eyes and slow moving hands.
"Okay, I'm going to need to really concentrate dudes, this is all kinda heavy." Ace said to the group on his card. He did it with a relaxed smile on his face, but the sweat that seemed to be soaking in the headband of his mask said otherwise.
The Blog The Art