Handayashi Forest Campgrounds
"Let's try this from another angle," Rick said. "What do you do besides shooting things? Or stabbing them. Or bludgeoning, lacerating, poisoning, short-circuiting... Basically the Grail War, from what I've heard, is going to involve a lot of... not running at people with swords."
Small Apartment - Handayashi Outskirts
"Mata Nui? Uni-" Francis cut himself off with a groan as he facepalmed, "Of fucking course I'm not understanding half of this, the fucking Kaleidoscope is involved! I thought I'd summoned some weird ass Type, but no I get someone from an alternate fucking universe." Calming himself down and breathing, the magus continued, "Well, at least it seems he's familiar with combat. Oi! Vezon, wanna come with me so we can go get registered at the cathedral? We might need to disguise you first though. People aren't really all that used to... kinda-sorta-robots walking out on the street."
/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\ Will you make a contract with me?Archer, Shop Basement — Handayashi
A grand spectacle came to life from the center of the circle. The violent red turned into a soft yellow. Streaks of light burst heavenward, winding in spiral patterns. Flowers started to bloom from the center of the room, going outward until they stopped at each corner. They burst into petals soon after. The winding spiral lights became a tornado that dispersed. There in the center was a girl a little ounger than Beatrice herself. She wore a hat, a corset with a strange musketeer uniform. She opened her eyes, blinking a bit as her sight adjusted to this new ... place? "Hm? ... Oh, this is new," there was some information granted to her by the Grail. How was she going to say this? Ah, right. "I am the Servant Archer, summoned to participate for a wish. You're my Master, I presume?" she tilted her head to the side, a warm smile upon her face.
EPISODE 1; THE SUMMONING, A NEW ALLIANCE FORMED!!!
Josaku, after being persuaded to combat against he devil that has plagued his family for ages, he has begun to partake in the Holy Grail War! The accomodations are low, to be sure, but being of the Joajima Family - surely he will make use of them.
Ding... Ding... Ding!
"Ohhhhh!" Josaku Joajima, also called Jo Jo, ran as fast as he could to check in the kitchen. Or rather what could be called a kitchen in a cabin in the middle of the woods. It was small with no protection, no bounded field - it's only plus being a microwave, a bed, and a small refrigerator. It was all that a man needed to survive! "It's done!"
That and hotpockets.
He reached a hand into the microwave...
" Whoooa! Ah, ah, okay, hey, hot! Hooooot!"" only to have it burn him! Being as clever as a fox, he threw himself into the sink which was already filled to the brim with water. "Phew, alright, let's try that again," he took in a deep breath. He moved his hands arms in a semi-circle, gathering up energy from the world and from his core. One finger moving down. Slow. Slower. The slowest it could be... a single touch. Lightning surged from the world, up to his legs, his waist, his shoulders, out his forearm then to the tip of his finger.
Boom.
It exploded.
"Ahhhh," he reeled back, placing both hands on his head. No dinner! Well, not like he didn't have things that he needed to do. This all occured as he just finished making the summon circle with animal blood. He grabbed the book that had the incantation in it. He placed a finger on the circle then started reciting the chant, aria, whatever it is that mages did. The blood blasted to life, except it didn't explode like Jo Jo's poor hotpocket.
edited 21st Mar '15 5:46:01 PM by RagnaTheSaviour
Handayashi Forest Campgrounds
The forest became silent again — completely silent, as though someone severed Rick's vestibulocochlearin shorter words nerves. Then the sounds returned.
Banshee flicked her hand, lazily, as though she was waving a fly away. A small blast of blue-coloured energy scattered the leaves from the forest floor, showing the bare ground beneath.
βI am Banshee.β
edited 21st Mar '15 5:47:31 PM by desdendelle
On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.Small Apartment - Handayashi Outskirts
"Well of course I wouldn't want to attact attention! Someone might want to kill me then." Vezon somehow made this sound like a grave affront against politeness and common sense. "Sucks to be them though, because Ignika granted me something new as a welcome back present!"
He smirked, and bowed, vanishing into thin air as he did so.
"Poof! Even better than Mahiki and Huna and Volitak and probably a bunch more!" His voice came to Francis through a mental connection. "So let's go to this church place to get you some better armor, then!"
edited 21st Mar '15 6:11:06 PM by Krika
Handayashi Forest Campgrounds
"At least that means someone had a sense of humor when they named you Banshee," Rick said. "I just got named after a great-grandfather's uncle or something."
He stood up, taking his empty aluminum can with him. "I have to go put this in the recycle bin." He used his other hand to wave at the RV. " Since this is where we'll be staying for the next few weeks, might as well give you the tour while we're at it."
Handayashi Forest Campgrounds
Banshee got up and followed Rick to the RV.
On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.Handayashi Forest Campgrounds
Considering that if they lost he'd be dead, and if he won being broke and in massive credit card debt wouldn't be an issue, Rick had gotten the Khan of Khans of RVs, namely a Thor Motor Coach Tuscany 45AT
painted in copper fusion.
"Sofa turns into an air bed, so I'll sleep there. You can have the bedroom all to yourself," he started by saying as he went to the kitchen and placed his beer can in the recycle bin. "Gives me a better view of the TV, anyway." The 60-inch television was indeed quite perfectly positioned so as to be viewable from the sofa. It was currently displaying Netflix's pause screen, with an episode of Marco Polo paused halfway through.
Handayashi Forest Campgrounds — Rick's RV
Just like that, Banshee vanished.
I do not sleep. Her voice echoed in Rick's mind. The courtesy, however, is appreciated.
Gwen Remington: Looking for Adventure, the shady part of town, Abandoned Warehouse
Gwen tapped her left foot impatiently, a scowl on her face. The silver-haired young woman let loose an irritated growl. He was late. Her opponent in tonight's fight was late. She specifically told him to be here thirty goddamn minutes ago. She was going to complain to the organizers about this! "Bloodbath Handayashi" was an illegal fighting tournament held in the city every six months. And Gwen had joined. She had heard that the fighters were tough. But apparently, they were bloody cowards!
Gwen screamed in frustration. She was in a terrible mood after the blazing row she had with Mum earlier.
She looked around the warehouse to keep her mind off that. It was an old place. Rusty metal and abandoned trash littered everywhere. There was a large hole in the roof, letting the moonlight stream down.
...Something caught Gwen's eye. It was a large red, ornate circle, drawn in the very center of the warehouse. Frowning, Gwen walked towards it. It looked...odd. Was this drawn by a weird cult or something? Or maybe by DND nerds...
Curious, Gwen touched the circle.
And at that moment-!
The circle lit up, a brilliant red. A burning pain appeared on the back of her left hand.
"What the?!"
Handayashi Mansion
Hiro had just finalized the summoning circle he would use. Made from pure silver, runed, and very pleasing. Perhaps melted gems or platinum or blood would work better- he wasn't really 100% sure of the details- but silver was his "thing". At least, recently it was. Some stupid fucking reporter had gotten a snapshot of From the Heart showing, and so he had to keep up this half-hidden love of silver recently. And yeah, silver was pretty cool, but he really wanted to make sure nobody thought it was too freaky that he had some weird silver accessory that he didn't let people see, so he had bought a ton of silver, and-
Well, silver worked. He knew that.
So he had finished the circle, and then made it a pentacle- not a pentagram, he was sure, because one is down and the other is up, though who fucking cared if it was horizontal, who could know, but of course magic knew the difference, somehow.
Then he took out the summoning focus. A silver coin. One benefit of his sudden obsession with silver was easily procuring this particular artifact, which was much less cumbersome that transporting an entire exhibit from the Chicago Museum of Natural History and finding a way of getting it to his basement. The downside was that he wasn't sure it would work. The coin wasn't really an artifact directly from the heroic spirit, but it was still an ancient Roman coin. Facsimiles could work sometimes... right?
Hiro placed the denarius in the center of the pentacle and raised his hand. He hummed a quiet tune, activating his magical circuits. Actually physically humming it wasn't necessary, just imagining it- but he liked the feel and the flow of the notes. Magical energy flowed through him, a familiar feeling. Then came a less familiar one- the energy flowing out of him, to something else. The summoning circle glowed, and Hiro incanted the necessary words. Light shone brightly, and then stood his Servant.
Hey look!. Yu-Gi-Oh meets wrasslin'!Handayashi Forest Campgrounds
"Well I guess that's convenient," Rick said. "Still, I have to. I figure by having an RV, we aren't tethered to any one location. We're mobile. Plus, I'm at my element in the woods, most of the city slicker mages we're dealing with probably couldn't identify a tree unless it was in their front yard and pruned to look like a duck."
The Shady Part of Town, Abandoned Warehouse
A blast of harmless, yet bright, hellfire erupted from the center of the ritual circle, momentarily engulfing the entirety of the warehouse. When the blast dissipated, a new presence occupied the summoning area. Clad from head to toe in heavy black armor and a red cape, only a pair of glowing yellow eyes were visible from the helmet. His right hand held a massive battleaxe that rested on his shoulder, while his left arm was held near his abdomen, his elbow ninety degrees and his hand covered in a hefty gauntlet.
And yet, it wasn't from him that the following sounds came from. In fact, it came from several feet below.
"Hmmm, so she's the one?" a short goblinoid creature
asked. It couldn't have been more than three feet tall, and even with the lamp above his head that was suspended from a stick, he was easily dwarfed by Gwen. "Looks a little thin, but I've worked with worse."
edited 22nd Mar '15 2:40:47 AM by nman
As Margarita summoned Berserker there were several things that happened, all of them very, very, foreboding... Firstly, there was no blinding nova of magical energy and force that heralded the materialization of her servant; but a burst of intense heat along with her summoning circle spontaneously combusting. Secondly, the ring of fire was not of this world, as the flames were as black as the void of space itself; giving the flames an inherent wrongness about them, not to mention their incredibly curious and disturbing property of draining light rather than creating it. And finally... The dark, impossibly tall "human" figure slowly arising from the center of the summoning circle like a demon who had found a way out of hell... Her servant... Suddenly the figure unleashes an inhuman, crackling roar that resounded all around the room, the roar did not sound like anything a living creature in this world could ever make... It sounded more like the insides of a raging furnace...
Even in the unnatural darkness generated by the flame, Margerita can see that Berserker was turning towards her from within the dark inferno and then strode towards her, slowly and deliberately as it walked past the curtain of dark fire, the intense heat generated by the flames barely even registering in it's warped mind. Once it exited the circle, the dark flames suddenly died off and were seemingly absorbed into the figure's back as the room was once again illuminated, giving the Magus a good look at the abomination she summoned...
The Berserker before her was a giant, easily standing at nine feet tall; but he was somewhat lanky, detracting some intimidation in exchange for creepiness; yet his scorched, battered but still strong suit of armor that somewhat reminded Margarita of a Raven gave the black knight an immensely intimidating presence; looking as if he was a harbinger of death... Not to mention that there was something not quite right about Berserker, even with the insanity granted by Madness Enhancement; it's as if the servant before her was... Empty... Without warning, Berserker steps forward and reaches out for his master with his left hand, a gesture that was not in any way friendly... As a matter of fact, the mad servant's body language screamed hunger!
edited 22nd Mar '15 2:31:56 AM by Questor
Foolish donkey, you would not be able to resist me if I wished your annihilation.Gwen: Abandoned Warehouse
Gwen blinked. She stared. This...was utterly bizzare. It took a good few minutes for the girl's brain to start working again. There could only be one person who would be here right now....
A small grin appeared on her face as she stood up from her crouched position...and launched a kick at the small goblin thing with all her strength.
She then turned to face the Sauron wannabe and raised her fists.
"You, Nerdlord. You're my opponent tonight, huh? Pretty dramatic entrance. What a geek."
"....Try not to make this fight boring."
The Shady Part of Town, Abandoned Warehouse
The tiny minion let out an "oof" as he was sent rolling backwards into a crumpled pile.
The armored man, for his part, momentarily let out a deep, hearty laugh. He hefted his battleaxe off of his shoulder, letting the blade fall to the hard floor of the warehouse. It collided with the concrete with a loud thump, and left a modest crater where it impacted.
He held his left hand out, and made a waving motion with his fingers and palm, as if inviting her to try landing a shot.
Lendid Estate
Troubles with Berserkers are that they're hard to control. More akin to living weapons than actual people, sometimes they can leave their leash and become as dangerous to their Masters as they are to their surroundings.
But who would Margarita Lendid were, if she wasn't prepared for such an event?
Berserker would find that there's a second circle around him to halt his movement, this one much more stronger than the initial one. This was Rita's favorite method of punishment: give them a chance and then brutally slam it down to establish who holds both the carrot and the stick in this relationship.
This Berserker however... felt strange. His armor matched no description of any mythical figure she was familiar with. His mind was also a mess, even before the enhancement of madness left its mark upon the creature. Yes, creature, for this Berserker... this Berserker was no man.
Not that she minded. If she can bind the monster to her will, it matters little what she summoned.
Still, precautions. Lazily, Rita snapped the fingers of her other hand, causing a plethora of thin, but sturdy wraps to further restrict Berserker's movement, wrapping themselves tightly on his wrists and ankles. She would find out what exactly was her Servant's deal, but for now... introductions.
"Glad to see the summoning went well." She spoke, her voice a mixture of beautiful and condescending altogether At the same time her mental message drilled into creature's blackened mind, illuminating it with her presence, leaving its mark. "Welcome back to life, Berserker. For the time being I will be your Master in the upcoming conflict. This means..." She took a moment to sip her Chianti, savoring the sight of the struggling creature. "that your little display of rage impresses me little. Let us establish a couple of rules, Berserker. This time I'll go easy on you, but if you think of anything clever next time... you will pay consequences. Mind you, I'm quick to disappoint. Please me and you shall be treated well. Disrespect me or disobey me... you shan't. Are we clear?" She ended with a small, triumphant smirk.
Even with the binds restricting it, Berserker didn't seem to be angry at all; displeased more like as it merely looked at Margerita hungrily since even a mind as warped as the one that it has knows that the binds cannot contain it forever. But then the mental invasion started and that got a reaction from the creature, roaring at her as it trashed angrily when she intruded upon his mind, a place that Berserker would only let one other being enter; its rage worsening its hunger, the shattered remnants of Berserker's mind was forced to make the most coherent demand that it could muster.
Ooooooooooodddd...!
Oh, it appears it can speak. Or does it?
edited 22nd Mar '15 9:44:17 AM by Questor
Foolish donkey, you would not be able to resist me if I wished your annihilation."...hm. Worry not, Berserker." Rita's smirk grew wider. "I'm sure I can provide you some. In fact..." She got up from her comfy seat and walked all over to what looked like a drawer before opening it, briefly rummaging in it and pulling out... a child, tightly wrapped and tied-up, an expression of absolute terror on their faces as the girl whimpered quietly. Without so much as a moment of hesitation, the gray-haired woman pushed the child right inside the circle with Berserker in it before reclining back in her seat. "How about a small treat? Call it a token of goodwill." She mused, chuckling.
edited 22nd Mar '15 9:26:40 AM by FergardStratoavis
Gwen smirked. This guy. This guy she liked. He might have been a total dork (what kind of self-respecting guy would wear something like that?) but he looked strong.
Perfect. This one should be fun.
She started getting closer to the oddball in armor, keeping her guard up. Then...lash out! A palm strike to knock that stupid-looking helmet off his face. The thrill off battle was in her now. Laughing, Gwen followed up with a kick to the crotch.
The moment Berserker was presented with the offering, the creature eagerly took the opportunity to feast: grabbing the girl's head with its left hand, Berserker snuffs out her life with but a squeeze of its hand; the act performed with the same detachment and ease as one would have opening a candy bar wrapper before sucking in the girl's Od through the visor of its helmet. Once finished feeding, the creature makes vaguely contented-sounding moan, as it stared back at Margarita; its previous hunger gone for the moment and seemingly a bit more docile.
edited 22nd Mar '15 8:45:02 AM by Questor
Foolish donkey, you would not be able to resist me if I wished your annihilation.Handayashi Forest Campgrounds — Rick's RV
That might be an advantage if we lure the other Masters here, especially if you could prepare the battlefield accordingly, Banshee's ethereal voice echoed in Rick's head. It might, however, be a disadvantage, if the other Masters will simply ignore this place.
The Servant appeared again, sitting cross-legged on the sofa. βIt would do us naught but good to scout our enemies abilities to see which we need to take down first. The balance must be maintained.β
Handayashi Mansion
As the Servant was summoned, he looked down at his summoning focus, then back up to the Master with an expression of mounting anger. "Okay, first of all... don't fucking touch those things. Ever." He breathed a deep sigh out, and called his staff to his side. Still solid and wooden; glad that carried over. "Wait..." Rider took another deep breath. "Right, no way you could actually have one and summon me with it, mine's in my basement..."
Rider leaned as far forward as he could through the circle, towering over his Master. Sort of redundant. I tower over everyone. He bit his lower lip. "Hey, kid, look me in the eye, we got a contract to work out here."
Handayashi Suburbs
Jacob was sort of frustrated that he'd have to sacrifice his son's game for this summon, but he knew they'd be safe afterwards. He could just replace it anyway. He didn't know much about these games, but he did see that Anders guy. Ah, yeah, Hey, son, I didn't know my dad was in this game! Perfect, a Dad Joke about Dads. Dragon Age 2 laid in the inscribed circle.
"Anders, come forth!"
Handayashi Mansion
Hiro nodded. "The coin is safe, nothing like the one you had. I am Hiro Protagonist, your Master... You are Harry Dresden, then? Caster Servant?"
—
Handayashi Suburbs
The disc and case to the game disintegrated as Anders rose up. About as tall as Jacob, he had orangish-red hair tied up in a tiny ponytail, messy stubble, a black coat, and... glowing eyes?
"Who calls Vengeance forth from the Fade?! Mortal, I am far more powerful than-"
Anders coughed, and his eyes turned normal. "Erm, sorry. What's going on?"
Hey look!. Yu-Gi-Oh meets wrasslin'!Handayashi Mansion
"Oh yeah, that's a good book." Dresden sank back a little. "That's a sick joke, though. The Denarian and my class. I'm actually a Rider." Hated to disappoint the kid, but on the other hand I still had a trump card that might end up being nastier than anything the Winter Knight could whip out on his own.
Handayashi Suburbs
Jacob smiled and clapped. "Hey man! I'm Jacob. Nice to meet you; you're... Anders, right? I need you. It's important, and I thought that one of my son's heroes could help me."

Small Apartment - Handayashi Outskirts
Vezon tilted his head. "Don't you see? The Great Beings created the universe. And Mata Nui. Who was the universe, after all, so they made both at once. Such workaholics. Though Mata Nui was a giant robot. A giant robot, an universe, and Mata Nui, all at once! They made the Makuta, too. Nasty bunch, all of them. Even Spiriah, and he would have killed me at the home I'd never been to before! And then they made the Toa. Guardians and protectors, the lot of them. Kill one person and they hate you, what's up with that? They even took the Kanohi I was born - well, split anyway - to protect. How rude of them. But the joke's on them!" He tapped the back of the mask that was apparently his face. "I have it back now!"
As he had meandered on, Vezon had been getting more and more animated, and as he wound to a halt, he looked upward and began poking at the ceiling with one hand, a divot forming in the drywall. "And you don't know any of that? Weird. Is this Spherus Magna? They didn't have any of those. Just Galatorian and Agori and Skrall and all sorts of things with too many spikes that wanted to eat you. But at least they had the brains to wear armor. Don't want something to just chomp you in half, it'd kill your multitasking ability!" He laughed at the joke he had apparently made.
edited 21st Mar '15 5:23:21 PM by Krika