(Park)

There seems to be some confusion here. This is a different park, modeled on NYC's Central Park. It has a... special connection to my characters, as you'll find out if you press them.

Danielle looked at the array of newcomers. Out of the five girls, she was the only one who wasn't shivering slightly in fear, mainly because she'd had a worse day than the one represented here, but even then it was close. Then again, the unicorn did lighten the mood. Ah, hello there. I'm Danielle, and that's Rachel, Amy, Olivia, and Charlotte. It's a pleasure to meet you all."

"No, we're not lost," Rachel commented. "Wish we were, though. If this place is what I think it is, then we've got some very ugly history here. Come to think of it, perhaps it's what Tiamat wanted us to see. Face your fears head-on.

Charlotte's eyes rolled when Peggy introduced herself. This was too much by half, even for someone who'd gotten a gift of power from a freaking goddess. "Ooh, boy. Girls, we seem to have taken a wrong turn and ended up in Equestria. Uh, can we return to reality now, please??"

Olivia, meanwhile, turned to Nick, who seemed to want out of this whole mess. Surprisingly smart, given the unusual circumstances. "Can't say I blame you, amigo. This place seems to have a mind of it's own, and I suspect it's crazy. When you feel up to it, though, come join us. I'd be quite interested in what you've seen here."

Forward, boys! For God's sake, forward!

[Farm - Exterior (Mazra, Min, Varris, Caleb)]

Mazra rolled her eyes. "Maybe somebody else just isn't a lucid dreamer." Of course, neither was she most of the time, but nevertheless.

Quickly, though, she stopped worrying about what the glowing man (whose name she didn't remember hearing) was saying, as she listened to Min's story. "Wow, that's..." she began, before trailing off. She could barely understand one-tenth of the terms Min was using - either they were too Terran (or whatever), or she just wasn't that into music at all - but she could recognize the emotions. "That must have..." her mouth formed the somewhat-unfamiliar term hesitantly, "sucked, yeah."

Sucked what?

It hadn't been the story she was expecting, though. It was almost frustrating; Min sounded more like she needed a hug than someone cleaving bad people with a field-sword, which was more Mazra's specialty. (Or what she wanted her speciality to be, at least).

It also didn't answer her original question. How did you go from that to... scrounging on the streets or whatever it was Min did now?

She might as well ask. Rising, she said "So... ummm, I'm a little confused, though. That doesn't sound like you were that... desperate, I guess. I mean, lots of people try being in bands when they're young. Maybe? It 'sucks' when they break up, but... I dunno, it's not really what I was expecting."

edited 29th Feb '16 8:20:29 PM by nrjxll

Forest (Clearing, with the established group)

Just beyond the varied group of beings that had gathered in the forest, the fog swirled and breathed, and the shadows gave way to another dark form.

There was little about this form to cause alarm, however, aside from the suddenness with which it appeared. As the fog parted and the shadows folded back, it would immediately become obvious that this new arrival was human, or at least humanoid; and a rather short one at that, noticeably smaller than the average man. Nothing particularly stood out about him at first glance; fairly young by appearances, with sharp and dark features, including brown hair that fell nearly to his shoulders. He wore a black jacket and slacks along with a white shirt, and a tie hung loosely around his neck; as well as tinted glasses that hid his eyes.

Despite the brandished sword and the harsh words being spoken around the time of his appearance, he strolled toward the group quite casually, showing no concern or surprise at the variety of creatures and entities there, even the largely formelss one. Stopping just short of them, he tilted his head, clearly studying them one by one, although his thoughts on any of them were effectively disguised by the glasses. After a moment, he gave a bit of a sigh, which registered somewhere between disappointment and annoyance. He really preferred to avoid becoming involved in this sort of thing.

Nevertheless, it would hardly do to be anything but polite. Reynardo removed his glasses and tucked them at the neck of his dress shirt, and offered a brief smile that started as a chuckle. The elongated canines were visible for only the first second. And while the smile, and indeed, the expression itself, was pleasant enough, there was just the slightest hint of something amiss in Rey’s dark green eyes, if one was paying attention; the quality might best be thought of as “lifelessness.”

He turned his mildly amused gaze on the swordswoman. “My, but that sounds dire,” he remarked, albeit with a smile. “As I seem to be here, I may as well be of service.” He glanced toward the Asian woman. “Perhaps I can be of assistance in locating your husband. That is, I assume he is lost or missing.”

[Farm – Exterior (Min, Varris, Mazra, Caleb)]

As soon as Min had finished talking, she felt like smacking herself. She'd been so willing to finally release all those bottled emotions that she had completely forgotten who she was talking to. Even though Mazra didn't seem like a threat, she was still a total stranger. And yet here Min was, putting all of her vulnerabilities on display. No doubt Mazra already thought Min was weak. And she wouldn't be wrong.

She'd have to cover that up immediately. “No offense, Mazra, but there's no way you could know what Greyvale's like,” said Min, the same sharpness from before creeping back into her voice. She almost spat out the word 'Greyvale', like it was a curse. “It’s brutal out there, especially in the lower districts. The band was never going to be enough to keep us all afloat on its own. Most of us got part-time jobs, but that was never really an option for me, 'cause I can't-”

Min stopped abruptly, realizing that once again she was telling Mazra too much. Hurriedly, she went on, “Anyway, I couldn't get a job, so I mostly just… Well, either stole or mooched off of my friends. And now stealing is the only option I have. But it’s not like thievery is new for me, anyway. I’ve been doing it since I was young, before I even had to.” Her eyes glinted dangerously, like sparks of lightning illuminating a dark, cloudy sky. “In other words, I’ve had very long time to get good at it.”

“But I’m not just gonna talk about me all day. Why don’t you tell us something about yourself, Mazra? Like…” Min paused, thinking, and then made a crooked smile. “Tell me about the decadent life. What’s House Ji like? Do you live in a mansion or something? With, y’know, servants and expensive silverware? Full course meals? How much does that outfit cost?”

Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours For graphs of passion and charts of stars...

The Blackwood -> Misery Manor (Gon, Yamiko)

Yamiko watched as Nick ran off towards where Peggy left, without so much as a word to them. "Well, I guess we're on our own then," she said to Gon, adjusting her shawl so that it covered her shoulders better - it was rather chilly here in the Blackwood.

"Eh, he's just chicken," Gon scoffed. "For all we know, his friends could be trapped in there too. Well, come on Galaxeon, it's time to go." With a nod of his head, the space knight lifted Gon into the air, the soles of his iron boots glowing and emitting barely-visible energy pulses down toward the ground, keeping him airborne.

"Take care of the shadow creatures!" Yamiko called as she waved goodbye to Ashleigh, while Cerula undulated through the air. "And hopefully we'll see you again, Dark Caller!"

And with that, the two disappeared into the darkness. Here it was so dark that Galaxeon had to light up his starry antennae so that the two of them could see, as he embraced Gon in his metallic arms. They had to travel quite a long ways, longer than they had to in order to enter the Blackwood.

Perhaps the Dark Caller was right, Yamiko thought as they traveled, the ghostly Lorraine floating along beside them. The Blackwood does seem to be expanding, and soon it will cover this world in blackness. Sounds beautiful, actually.

After several minutes, the air turned lighter and foggy ahead, and the ground once again sprouted grass... but not for long. The grass quickly died, as the trees around them. The mist lingered a bit, but it was thin and grey and smelled faintly of death. This earthy stench remained when the two came upon the abandoned manor, looking rather foreboding against the dark cloudy sky. Upon their arrival, the two landed on the moist and ash-laden ground, which stained the bottom of their shoes gray as they walked. Gon immediately leapt about in disgust onto the steps leading up to the manor porch when he discovered a fragment of bone sticking to his sandal. Thoroughly freaked out, he rubbed the side of the sole on the rotting wood steps, until finally the bone detached.

"I don't like the look of this place..." Gon stammered. "This is beyond creepy. Way beyond creepy." He crept backward onto the porch, while Galaxeon just stood there near Yamiko shaking his helmet-covered alien head in shame. And then he stumbled into something made of raggedy cloth, and immediately shrieked and jumped in surprise. And then he turned around only to find himself staring into the menacing red eyes of a raggedy witch, which caused him to cry out and flounder backwards again. He tripped over the front steps of the porch and fell backward, only for Galaxeon to zoom forward and catch him.

"This place gives me the creeps too," he spoke in a monotone metallic voice. "But we must face the threat in order to save your sister."

Gon heaved a heavy sigh and threw his head back. "I knooooooow..."

Meanwhile, the witch put on a small smile, and glanced to the side at Gabe before speaking. Yamiko found the fashionista's presence odd indeed - it just didn't seem to fit the doom and gloom of the place.

"Well well well, it looks like we have visitors," she spoke, stepping out towards the two teens. Welcome to Misery Ma... wait..." When her eyes fell on the blue oriental dragon Yamiko had just dismounted, her eyes widened in surprise, making their red irises all the more prominent. "Cerula... Goddess of Water... So, you are an Elemental Guardian?"

Upon hearing her name, Cerula transformed back into the feathery serpent known as Melusine and slithered right up onto Yamiko's shoulders. "Um, well, yeah, I guesssss," the little draconic snake hissed, her dark blue tongue flicking out at every sibilant sound. "Yamiko here isssss the Water-Keeper, and Gon there isssss the Fire-Keeper."

"Hm," said the witch, raising a thoughtful black-naled finger to her chin. "So the legends are true then. I must bid you a most sorrowful welcome to Misery Manor."

"Oh I know you!" Gon blurted out, springing to his feet from Galaxeon's arms. "You're Sinistrina von Schwarzwald! You, like, watch over all of Necromere! I've read all about you! And is that Lucina of Alpenhaus? What's she doing here?"

Sinistrina muttered a low giggle. "My sister wouldn't dream of visiting a place like this. She calls it too... icky, I believe was the term. This is Father Gabriel, a demon hunter/cosmetologist from another world. He prefers to be called Gabe."

"He looks kinda like an angel," Yamiko remarked as she admired Gabe's outfit and makeup. "Er-hem, I mean, you look like an angel. My name's Yamiko, and this is Gon. We're from the virtual world of Mystrica, as is Sinstrina and this manor. I must say that's a very nice outfit. My boyfriend works for a fashion company himself, and that cape almost looks like something out of it. Which I guess makes sense, since the company is called Lumiere."

"Anyway," Gon mentioned to Sinistrina, "have you seen an Asian girl a little younger than me, 12 years old, wearing a blue hat and peacoat, glasses, black hair? She's my sister you see, and I just received a message saying she was stuck in there."

"Oh my, how tragic," Sinistrina reacted unsympathetically. "I'm afraid there is little I can do to dispel the curse of Misery Manor. But I will say that I just saw the goddess Mythrine leave this manor a few minutes ago. Your sister is not another Elemental Guardian, is she?"

"Well yeah!" Gon replied, sounding more excited and determined now. "Ari's the Spirit-Keeper! Please, I got to go find her!"

"Oh, look what I found!" rang a very sweet and melodic voice from the front wall of the manor. Lorraine floated right through the wall, grasping some sort of ectoplasmic form in one of her oversized pointy hands. The figure was that of a skinny young man, with wavy hair and glasses and a long coat, whom Yamiko knew too well.

"Lorraine!" Yamiko scolded, running up to the ghostly sorceress and getting right up in her pearly blue face. "Don't you know if you pull someone's spirit out of their body like that for too long, you'll kill them!?" She raised her hand to slap her across the face, but then remembered that her hand would just go right through her if she did. "Let him go, or I'll expose you to sunlight the first chance I get."

Promptly, Lorraine let go of the ghostly figure, which phased back through the wall and back into the manor, becoming little more than a wisp. "Oh noooo, I can't have that. Pity, for his soul sounded positively delicious. And what am I saying? He's suffering. Badly. I can't let him die - that would just be irresponsible of me! In fact, I think I'm gonna wait inside and... feed off of him for a while." Laughing, she disappeared back through the wall.

Frustrated, Yamiko growled and gave the wall of the manor a good roundhouse kick, briefly revealing the frilly black bloomers beneath her dress. The entire manor shook, but nothing fell. "YOU COME BACK HERE! You're MY Mystripet. You traitor!"

"You ssssstill got me at leassssst," Melusine muttered from her shoulders. Then all of a sudden, the feathery wings on the sides of her head twitched, and she let out a gasp. "Look... behind you..."

Before she could turn around, Yamiko heard the growl of a dog. But this was no ordinary dog, as she discovered when she turned around. This pitch-black dog had glowing red eyes and its ribs protruded out of its skin, and it was foaming at the mouth. Its skin looked sickly and flea-infested. And with a growl, it lunged at Yamiko...

"Oh no you don't," Gon threatened, pulling out his Scanner and pressing a button.

"Galaxy Slash!" Galaxeon called. As he did, he reached into the metallic rod on his belt and hed it out before him. From it, a long blade materialized, glowing with Pure Energy.^note It's kind of like a lightsaber, but the blade is actually flat and shaped like a sword blade. Without hesitation, the space warrior swung the blade out in an arc, and a beam emerged from it, lopping the dog's head clear off.

"All right, a one-shot!" Gon cheered, high-fiving Galaxeon's free hand. But it wasn't long before another head grew right back in its place. "Wha-?"

"You idiot, you can't defeat Undead class creatures with a Melee attack," Yamiko remarked. "They'll just re-materialize! Do you have any Cure Sprites? Those should work."

"Oh yeah! Duuuuuh. Guess I was so frightened I caught caught up in the moment, hehheh." Gon sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, as he often did. "Then try a Magnet Pulse! I don't think your sword's gonna work."

Obeying his command, Galaxeon sheathed his sword and instead outstretched his palm, firing a barely-visible energy pulse from it. Meanwhile, Yamiko took out her own Scanner while Melusine leapt off of Yamiko's shoulders and slithered across the ground.

"Healing Watersssss!" Melusine called, as she slithered around in a circle and then at the zombie dog. A stream of glittering water surrounded it, at the same time that Galaxeon's magnet pulse attack hit. The dog cringed, more so with the healing water, until it melted away into oblivion.

And then a beep issued from Yamiko's scanner. "Oh cool, Melusine leveled up!"

Rumbling sounds echoed all around... and five more zombie dogs emerged from the ground, each of them growling and frothing.

"Stay back!" Sinistrina cried, swinging her staff in a wide arc at the dogs. "You are not to enter Misery Manor!" For her usual tired demeanor, she seemed pretty fierce. Her eyes were almost aglow just like the dogs' were.

Park (Phoebe, Nick, Fawn, Dragon's Daughters)

The park could have characteristics of both Nick's and the Dragon's Daughters' - since this is the dream world, things can manifest here from the minds of anyone who is in the park. Including Phoebe, as you're about to see...

Just as Phoebe was introducing herself, she saw a familiar teenage boy run up behind them. After introducing himself, Nick went over to sit on a nearby bench. "Yaay, Nick's here!" Phoebe cheered. "Hey, is something wrong?" Nick didn't respond - in fact, for now he seemed to want some alone time.

As the Dragon's Daughters introduced themselves, Phoebe laughed at the remark Charlotte made about Equestria. "Oh come on, this is Peggy, not Princess Celestia. Peggy isn't even royalty!" Peggy gave a disapproving snort again. "Besides, technically this isn't the real world - we're all in a dream! Oh, and this is my best buddy Fawn - she's a news reporter. Or wants to be one. Just like how I wanna be a pop star when I grow up."

"Frankly Phoebe, the chances of that happening are one-in-a-trillion or less," Peggy sassed.

"Hey Peggy, wanna do something useful?" Phoebe turned to the winged carousel unicorn and stroked her rainbow-coloured mane. "Can you get rid of this fog, lighten this place up a bit, maybe?"

"I can try, but I might need Zephoria's help." With that, Peggy walked a few steps away from the group, and then suddenly broke into a run, but not for long before leaping into the air and spreading her wings. "Feather Gale!" She stopped and flapped her wings, and several sparkling white feathers flew about high in the air. The foreboding air about the place seemed to lessen a bit, but not by much.

"Huh, guess she's right. That's some nasty fog." And so Phoebe pressed another button on her Scanner. "Come on out, Zippy!"

Out came a yellowish-green hummingbird just a few inches tall (about three times the size of a regular hummingbird), with orange insect-like antennae on her head, and bright vermilion beak to match. But she didn't stay this way for long... "By the power of Air, I invoke the goddess Zephoria!"

When Phoebe pressed a button on her Scanner, both it and Zippy turned a bright yellow. After becoming cloaked completely in that blinding yellow light, Zippy grew bigger, especially in her wings, sheer and colourful and lighter than any feather, and with a tail made of a long matching streamer. Her eyes were sharp and bright, with long vermilion eyelashes enhancing their intensity. Otherwise, she looked a bit more insect-like: she had four short spindly legs attached to her feathery torso, clutching a pink crystal plate shaped like a heart. Her beak was also shorter than before, more like a regular bird than a hummingbird. The very air around her seemed to scream in joy, and on her beak she was always smiling.

Just to clarify, these transforming Mystripets are called by their nickname (like Zippy or Melusine) when in their normal form, and their goddess name (Zephoria, Cerula) when in their invoked form.

"All right Zephoria, gimme some Ecstatic Vibes!"

After a quick nod of the head, Zephoria flew up near Peggy and started flapping her wings at supersonic speeds. Bolts of static electricity quickly began to spread throughout the air in the park, reaching down even to the group below somewhat. If anyone got struck by these little static bolts, they would receive a quick surge of energy and excitement, a quick bout of euphoria.

"I am afraid this air of positivity won't last for long," said the Goddess of Air. "Make good of it while you can."

"Well, that's much better now, isn't it?" Phoebe announced proudly to her companions, including the Dragon's Daughters. "So, just who is this Tiamat?"

Before the Dragon's Daughters could answer, Phoebe heard a harsh robotic voice coming from down the path.

"ELEMENTAL KEY DETECTED," it spoke. Three small robots on wheels approached the group, each shaped like a trash can with hinged arms and a large spherical antenna sticking out from the tops of their heads. "WE ARE TO RETRIEVE THE KEY FOR OUR MASTER, VIRTUALMON. ALL THOSE WHO STAND IN OUR WAY WILL BE ELIMINATED."

As a warning, the leader of the three robots, about twice as big as the other two and coloured red (the others were just plain silver), aimed a laser beam from its antenna right at Phoebe's feet.

"Eek!" Phoebe shrieked, jumping backward. "Those are T-bots. They have been chasing after me and the other Elemental Guardians back in Mystrica! I guess I should've known they'd be appearing in our dreams... Watch out though, they're immune to magical attacks!"

Since Peggy and Zephoria used primarily magical attacks, Phoebe had to take a while to think up a better strategy to defeat these things. Ohh, where's Gon and his Mystripet expertise when I need him?

edited 1st Mar '16 5:23:34 PM by ladytanuki

Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.

[Misery Manor]

Gabe seemed disappointed by the zombie dogs. "Madame von Schwarzwald," he said, his tone suddenly a bit cold, as he dismissed his combat fans with a gesture, causing them to disappear as fast as they'd appeared. "I've been enjoying our conversation." He didn't even bother looking back at the dogs as he tossed something over his shoulder at one; a feather that flew like a dart and filled the zombie with so much light energy it exploded, taking out another two near it. "You seem like a perfectly decent woman, and I've always respected witches in general. So I'd quite prefer to remain on friendly terms, but do you mind explaining what the fuck is going on here?" He then noticed that not all of the zombies had fallen and said, "Actually, I think it can wait; first, a little fun."

Gabe flash-stepped to one of the surviving zombie dogs, then gave it a good kick into the air. He followed it with a leap, re-summoned his fans, and sliced it into pieces with a flurry of attacks, before descending to the ground. He aimed his stiletto heels as he landed, letting his right one sink into the dirt, causing a shockwave of heavenly energy to turn every piece of ground in a twenty-foot radius — save that very near the Misery Manor, which could easily resist — into a softly glittering field of bright grass and pastel tulips. Even the mists thinned; through them, a sun more bright and pure than any seen on Earth. Those who stood within the field might even fancy the wind sounded like a Cherubic Choir.

Suffice it to say, no zombies would be rising from the light-suffused ground, and the remaining dog burst into white fire. "Why," Gabe said, disappointed, "is it always tulips? Can't we get roses, or at least orchids?" He sighed. "I swear, angels must be the just tackiest creatures in the universe. Darkness got all the style." Then he turned to the newcomers and said, "and, word of warning, darkness got all the honesty as well." He turned to Yamiko specifically. "I might look like the masks angels wear, but the things underneath them..." he shuddered in horror at the memory. The true forms of angels were worse than demons, who at least had the decency to appear as they truly were. "Which reminds me. You mortals might want to avoid standing on any of this grass," he motioned to the newly flowered field, "for any longer than ten minutes or so. A brief walk over it won't hurt, though." Ironically, the Manor's porch might be the safest place to stand; the place where the Manor's darkness and the light Gabe had called forth approximately cancelled out into a safe balance.

He brushed off a few more bits of undead flesh; the outfit was stain-proof, the blood and gore sliding right off. "Yamiko, Gon, it's a pleasure to meet you both; I wish it were in less difficult circumstances. Love the dress, by the way, Yamiko. Absolutely fabulous." He studied it, mostly approvingly. A bit too short for his sensibilities, but he knew that was a matter of opinion. "If it's your boyfriend's handiwork, I really look forward to meeting him, because somebody really worked on getting that shade to work. I've met so many people who fancy themselves fashion experts, but couldn't tell find an indigo swatch in a pile of blues and purples if their very souls depended on it. Not whoever designed that dress, though; the balance between the eyes, the hair, even your friend there," he gave Melusine a nod of confirmation, "is just so. You simply can't get thought like that off the rack. With a design like that, of course, there's a risk of being a bit too matchy-matchy," he glanced down at his own exclusive palette of white and gold, "yes, I know, glass house and all, but white and gold were all they gave me to work with; like I said, angels are the tackiest things. I add anything else and it gets covered in demon blood in a week, and that never comes out. Anyways, that shawl of yours definitely helps balance that off." As for Gon's dress sense... Gabe decided the polite decision was to make no comment.

He cleared his throat as he remembered the urgency of the situation. "But anyways, as Madame von Schwarzwald said, I am Father Gabriel, more commonly Gabe, and I am very good at two things: helping people look beautiful and killing things." Brushing further chunks of zombie off his leg, he added, "I'd really prefer to be doing the first right now. So," he looked back at Sinistrina, "about my question? Because I'd rather not get those upstairs," he glanced with disgust to the heavenly sun, "involved."

He had a lot of questions for the newcomers as well, and they were free to answer his question in their own way. But first things were first. Dark beings capturing innocent souls? Dealing with this was basically his second job's description. And a delicate situation; his associates upstairs could theoretically solve it with their usual solution, overwhelming and indiscriminate destructive force, but they'd probably destroy the souls trapped in the Manor in the process. And they'd been acting very strangely lately; he suspected they were up to something nasty, again, and didn't want to risk giving them anything that might help their schemes.

This got longer than expected, but Gabe had a lot to react to. My apologies, Blackfire; Celso is my first priority as soon as I get a chance.

edited 1st Mar '16 9:18:01 PM by KillerClowns

[Park]

Oh, you have GOT to be shitting me.

Nick barely had time to think about this unusual dream world when he suddenly saw Phoebe be attacked by...something. He quickly ran behind a tree, trying his best not to get too much involved. Though he felt guilty about it; he honestly did want to save her...it just that he was unarmed.

"Why didn't I wake up with my gloves?" he muttered to himself, "Nick, you fucking idiot..."

Then, suddenly, out the corner of his eye, he saw someone standing by him. Before he could figure out who it was, they vanished just as quickly as they came. Ok, he wasn't sure if he literally dreamed that or not; either way...he felt some sort of presence, and he wasn't sure what. He had to figure just what the hell it was. Maybe they could help him fight...whatever the hell Phoebe was fighting.

With one more glance at Phoebe and the others, he quickly dodged away from the fighting and tried to find the mysterious person.

"Sorry, sorry guys." he whispered.

Park - Fawn, Phoebe, Peggy, Zippy, Dragon Girls, Nick, robot things

Fawn listened to all the girl's curiously, realizing she went from one large group straight into another. It was a tad difficult for her to catch everything that was going on, but she gave the girl's a small wave at Phoebe's introduction of her (surprised that she called her best buddy), and said, "Nice to meet you all." Fawn turned back to Phoebe and Peggy, watching with widened eyes as the carousal tried to get rid of the thick fog, but to no avail. Then Phoebe summoned a large hummingbird like creature who transformed to help with the task and succeeded but mentioned it wouldn't be for long. But questions and pleasantries would stop to a halt as an alarming noise would approach and three robots appeared, clearly after Phoebe.

Fawn gulped and ran behind a tree for safety. She had no powers as far as she knew in this dream world and could definitely not beat robots with her camcorder. She only hoped that either Phoebe could fight them, or maybe these girls that were with them had some kind of special abilities. Surely someone could save them.

"Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie?"

[Wasteland]

Celso turned to Miyuki; now suspecting she was a fragment, not truly a child, he wasn't quite as eager to defend her, but still remained polite and spoke softly. "For now," he said, "your friend will deal with them if they return." He looked over at the path back into the fog, clearly considering it. Something, perhaps the friend he suspected responsible for the orange tree, told him it might be dangerous. Miyuki's nightmares had thus been gracious enough to die when shot; he wasn't sure every other being here would extend him the same courtesy. And who knew? He might find something useful. "And I," he finished, after a telling moment of hesitation, "will as well." He was no longer morally obligated to assist, but curiosity and ambition had proved useful in his long life. No reason it would change now. Besides, he secretly enjoyed gunning things down without having to worry about bad publicity. "What is that city," he said, "and is it more or less likely to attempt to kill us than this waste?" From the looks of things, a visit there might involve Celso getting closer to the filthy, criminal, morally bankrupt masses he presumed the poor to be than he would like.

[Clinic/Henry]

The ticking continued on and Ritter and Iveya were showing signs of panic.

"Shit" Henry said to himself as he got up with pain. He had a pretty good feeling what that ticking was and he really hoped he was wrong.

He looked over to Iveya. "Chemo is short for chemotherapy. It's a process designed to kill cancer cells by targeting them with radiation." He started getting nervous at what the sound likely was. He then looked over to the window looking outside to the front of the clinic where the sound seemed to come from. "I asked that because you can't really feel or see radiation so a type of device is needed. A device called a geiger counter. When it gets close to something radioactive it ticks just like the sound we're hearing now."

He started limping towards the window. Once he got to it he looked out the window. When he got a look at what was out there he grew pale.

Outside the window was an undetonated atomic bomb. One that looked a lot like one he designed a long time ago.

"SWEET JESUS!!! HOW THE FUCK DID THAT GET HERE!?!?" He yelled stepping back.

[Clinic/Henry]

It was a bomb. It was radioactive. And Iveya's expression made one thing clear: she knew perfectly well what an atomic bomb was. The Uelane weren't advanced to build one, nor had they, guarded as they were by Amu's protection, suffered one. But she knew of them by reputation. The Kykzavi had beaten their own continent into submission with wanton displays of atomic fire, stopping only after a war with the Mauros Federation, a war in which the Mauros had responded in kind. Nothing less than a nuclear war that had left both continents scarred and nearly ended their entire world before the two powers had realized the nightmare they were spiraling towards.

Even Iveya's magic was quite concerned — it was a parasite that needed her, and wasn't sure what would happen if she died here. So a desire for self-preservation alone meant it would be very, very cooperative in any requests made of it to deal with the weapon. Already it was looking at it; one of the advantage of existing outside the normal geometries of space was that it didn't have to prod, poke, or even approach the device in any way to see it inside and out, and it was capable translating the data into a human-readable format. (Normally it preferred not to, as a form of psychic attack, but that was the last thing it was concerned with.)

Iveya's magic wasn't remotely intelligent enough to actually make sense of the information, however, hoping Iveya could do better. Iveya said, "Ancestors help us, an atomic weapon. Where...? Why...? Is..." she studied it. "It doesn't seem active." She wasn't confident, but if it was active, she'd be dining with her ancestors before dusk. A dinner date she'd much rather postpone.

Misery Manor (Gon, Yamiko, Sinistrina, Gabe)

While watching Gabe easily dispatch of the zombie dogs, Sinistrina had the same mixed feelings of awe and disdain that she did when she first encountered him. He was a skilled demon hunter indeed - he even knew undead creatures' weakness to healing magic. However, she was put off a bit by the flowering field he summoned in the end, and even backed away towards the front door when it appeared. (Upon Gabe's warning about it, Gon and Yamiko returned to the porch, the former returning Galaxeon to his Scanner.) But what really surprised her was his use of profanity while asking her what was going on, since he had initially come across as very polite. It was a good thing he went on to compliment Yamiko on her dress at that point, for Sinistrina was too unsettled to respond for now.

Yamiko blushed all the while when Gabe was complimenting her on her appearance. It really became apparent to her that he was really into fashion - more so than she or her boyfriend were for that matter. "Oh wow, uh, well... actually, my boyfriend didn't design it, although I think he said something about his aunt helping a lot with the design. He only does part-time work for the company, as he is also really into dancing - ballet specifically. That's actually how we met, when we uh, both went to the same dance school."

At this point, Yamiko began to sound uncomfortable, directing her gaze downward towards the floor. She really didn't want to talk about ballet now, especially with all those memories associated with it, as well as the state of her ankle. She was fidgeting her right foot around as she thought about it.

After Gabe introduced himself, he addressed Sinistrina again, mentioning something about heavenly intervention. It was Sinistrina who replied first. "There is no need to worry about that. It is my job not to let any undead creatures into Misery Manor, which I can easily prevent with my magic. However, I typically let them run free outside the manor, so that Mystripet owners like these two can gain experience from fighting them." She gestured with her free hand at Gon and Yamiko. "But yes, it is true. I am from the same world these two are: the land of Mystrica. A land that is watched over by the five Elemental Goddesses - of air, fire, water, earth, and spirit."

"It's kinda a long story," Gon mentioned as he put his Scanner back inside his laptop bag. "But technically, we're not from Mystrica - we're actually from the real world. Mystrica is a virtual world. We essentially became characters in a quasi-real video game! Kinda cool if ya ask me." He was doing his sheepish back-of-the-head rub again, but promptly stopped and sounded more excited when he spoke again. "Anyway, that was sooooo awesome how you dealt with those hellhounds! Kinda reminds me of the moves Galaxeon could do, but better! (I can say that because Galaxeon's hidden in my Scanner now.) Are you from Mystrica too? If so, are you one of those elite V-Bots or something?"

While Gon was speaking, Yamiko snuck behind him and approached the front foor. She paused for several moments before it, pressing her hand lightly against it, her heart shuddering as she thought of what horrors might await her inside of there. But before she could think much, she saw a skull inside a black ring waving in front of her, barely avoiding hitting her on the nose. Startled, she jumped backward and turned around, while Melusine leapt off her shoulder and slithered up onto the bench.

"Not so fast," Sinistrina warned her. "First of all, I would advise you to return your Mystripet to your Scanner, as the transition sometimes causes glitches in their programming. Second, do not enter unless you are absolutely sure you are ready. People do end up trapped in there, and then have to be rescued. In the old days, succumbing to the curse of Misery Manor would simply return Keepers to the outside world, but since the lockdown of Mystrica made the outside world inaccessible, their very souls have remained trapped, unable to escape. I have tried to restrict access to the manor because of this, but so many people end up entering anyway that I have stopped doing so."

"Don't go in there without me!" Gon shouted. "There's no way I'm going in there alone!"

A smirk spread across Sinistrina's face, but quickly faded. "I'm afraid you have no choice. The curse of Misery Manor begins with isolation, so that one's companions fade. You should consider yourselves lucky. I don't tell most people that part."

"WHAT? You can't be serious!" Gon's eyes were wide with surprise. "You expect me to go in there alone?" Just then, Yamiko started making chicken clucking sounds, and Gon gave her a dirty look. "Who're you calling chicken? I said only Nick was. And I don't see YOU going in there, if you're so brave." Yamiko returned the dirty look, then turned back to the door, but again had that apprehensive feeling about entering. "My point exactly."

Sorry, I don't have time to post with Phoebe... Will do in the next day or so - and this way, Daird can get a post in too.

Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.

(Park)

That was unexpected to say the least. First, Zippy showed up out of Phoebe's scanner, then she transformed into a... honestly, none of the girls knew what to call it. Bird-bug thing, perhaps? Charlotte let out a surprised squeak, and the others were close to doing the same. Amy actually got hit by one of Zephoria's bolts, and felt a sudden, much-needed surge of positive feelings. "Emotion powers? That's... pretty cool, actually. Seems like it could be quite useful, in the right circumstances."

Then, the T-bots attacked.

The Dragon's Daughters couldn't believe it. Even in their dreams they were under constant assault! It took a few seconds for them to get over the shock, but eventually, Rachel nodded to Olivia. "Well, Olivia, if they're immune to magic, looks like they're your problem. You've got the muscles, at least."

"Do I have to? Ugh, fine." Another flash of light and power, another transformation, and Olivia stood in her green outfit, with a motif of triangles meant to resemble dragon fangs. She also carried a massive hammer of strange green metal, with a jagged underside to reinforce the theme. She took aim at the nearest T-bot, reared back like she was trying to ring the bell at a carnival game, and called out, "Dragon Fang Fury!" The hammer descended with a glowing green aura of energy, made contact...

and bounced right back, almost hitting Olivia in the face. "Oh, right, anti-magic. Oops." She responded by firing off a heavy kick at the robot. While transformed, she had enough strength to lift a pickup truck, so the robot took the impact and dented badly, getting knocked over in the process. "That's better."

Forward, boys! For God's sake, forward!

[Farm - Exterior (Mazra, Min, Varris, Caleb)]

Mazra winced. She hadn't meant it that way, but now she thought that she might have unnecessarily antagonized Min a little. Maybe I should stop assuming things.

She looked down at her jacket. "I don't really know how much it costs," she said thoughtfully. She did try to pay attention, sometimes, but this one she had no idea about for obvious reasons. "I don't actually own it. Black and white are the Imperial colors." (She didn't really consider that Min might be referring to the clothes under the jacket).

"It's not that great overall, though, being a noble," she continued. "...Or I guess it might be better to say that it's overrated. Utterly overrated if you're from one of the major houses, but House Ji... umm, isn't. But I mean, still, yes, my father has estates and retainers and all that, but being his only daughter means I have to spend time preparing. Study the accounts, learn Court politics, network with other heirs. A commoner can be almost anything I want. But if I try telling Father, or even Talons, that I want to be a pilot or an Imperial Paladin one day, I have to hear a 50-minute lecture about responsibility and duty and..."

She sighed. "I know it probably sounds petty to you. And certainly a commoner in the Empire is a lot better to be now than a thousand years ago, so..." When was Min from, anyway? Comparatively? She'd thought it was similar to today in the Empire, but now she wasn't sure. "But I don't know, I want to have adventures!" She yanked her field-sword hilt away from her side and lifted it up, though she realized just in time that she shouldn't activate it unless she wanted to alarm the others. "Not... run things."

...Actually, now that I think about it, this sort of is an adventure now, isn't it?

Farm - exterior (Min, Masra, Varris, Caleb)

Caleb listened to Min and Mazra's conversation nervously, and wondered if he should go inside or just leave. Admittedly the two had managed to hold back any tensions they might have, but in the Glidyleaf quarantine town he's seen more than once that interactions could turn sour when people talked about the time before their curse.

Semi-instinctually, he responded to Mazra's last comment, "I've been on an 'adventure' once. Wouldn't recommend it; unless you enjoy-" he stopped. Now he was doing it, "my apologies. I was just reminded of something."

edited 4th Mar '16 3:03:25 AM by Novis

You say I am loved, when I don’t feel a thing. You say I am strong, when I think I am weak. You say I am held, when I am falling short.

[Misery Manor]

"First," Gabe said, "accept my apologies, Madame von Schwarzwald; things got very messy very quickly, and I sometimes assume the worst of people in such situations." He gave her a respectful half-bow.

Then to explain himself to his new friends. "No, from Minneapolis, in the 'real world'," he said, though he hesitated slightly at the use of the term — Sinistrina seemed perfectly real to him. Still, he gave it no further thought, and continued. "I don't know much about video games, I'm afraid; never really got into them. I mean, unless you count a game of Threes on my cell phone when I've got time to kill." He checked to see if he had it on him; he didn't. Huh.

Finally he said, "now, if you have friends trapped in there... my honor demands that I help you free them." He readied his fans once more. "I should be immune to most of the effects; my soul has already been claimed." A slight shudder when he mentioned this; the so-called "Paradiso" had some very unpleasant fine print.

Unless Gon and Yamiko object, you can assume he follows them into the Manor when they enter.

[The Forest]

Demo turned to Lauren, looking at her outstretched gun.

"Tell me lass, do yer bullets plan to kill living mist? If they don't, put that thing away."

Demo turned back to Moreena, shrugging his shoulders and dropping his grenade launcher.

"Moreena, Goddess of Death, huh? Yer not the same Moreena my boy Recon ran into a few thousand years back are ya?" he asked.

The Blackwood (Ashleigh, Half, Dark Caller)

Ashleigh was waiting patiently for the Dark Caller to help out Half like the latter had hoped... but it didn't seem to be responding. Its back was turned, and it was barely visible against the trees. At one point it spread its wings and gave them a good flap, and the table with the tea and snacks disappeared, but beyond that, it didn't react to anything. How strange...

After a while, she approached Half, who was still waiting for the Dark Caller, and squatted down next to him. "I'm sorry, but the Dark Caller seems rather unresponsive at the moment. At this point, if you really want to know more about who you are and what your connection is to things, my best advice would be either to find a church... or go to Misery Manor. The latter can be a tormenting experience, but also therapeutic in a way. If you want to go there, just follow that path that Gon and Yamiko took." She gestured off into a path in between a couple of mangled dead trees. "As for me, I have to catch up with Phoebe. But I bid you farewell, and good luck."

She rubbed him on the shoulder (again not feeling anything for some odd reason) before standing up and reaching into a pocket inside her vest to take out a Scanner, just like the ones the other Elemental Guardians had. When she pressed a button on this smartphone-like device, a Mystripet began to materialize out of the beam of light it emitted. This one was a large fish, about eight feet long and as wide as the average horse's body, covered in misty blue, moss green, and pearly white scales, plus some purple streaks down the sides of her body. She had many flowing fins of light blue and grey - two long ones on her sides for movement, one nearly as long as her body on her tail, and some feathery protrusions on top of her head and beneath her chin and belly. When complete with the nut-brown eyes and the dainty little mouth, she looked kind of remora-like in appearance◊. Although there was no water around, she seemed perfectly content sitting there with her streamer-like tail as a perch.

"Geisha, would you kindly use your Marching Stream technique so we can follow Phoebe?" Ashleigh asked the fish out of water, who nodded in approval. As was her cue, Ashleigh leapt right on top of Geisha, clinging onto her feathery dorsal fin. Meanwhile, with a gentle and very feminine cry of "Marching Stream", Geisha flapped her fins and summoned up a stream of water below them, which flowed down the path Phoebe and Fawn and Nick took to the park. Little waves occasionally peaked on the rapidly flowing stream, which Geisha hopped across as she traveled along it, looking like an elegant skipping stone traveling along. When she left, the stream cmpletely disappeared, leaving the scarred floor a little damp in its wake.

Park (Phoebe, Nick, Fawn, Dragon's Daughters)

Olivia's hammer should at least partially work - while the magic from it won't, the physical impact of the hammer should at least make a dent in the robot.)

While Phoebe was trying to think of what else could work against the T-Bots, she remembered one thing she could do. So she took out her Scanner and pointed to another function on it, and then pointed the device at the T-Bot that just tried to laser-beam her. When she did, a screen popped up with some info on it:

"Great, that doesn't help much," she pouted. "I think all these robots are Machine class, and I have no idea what the 58 means. And no element means it has no strengths or weaknesses."

Just then, she looked at Olivia to see something really cool happen. She transformed and her outfit became all green and fancy-looking, and she sported a giant hammer with a jagged edge, reminding Phoebe of a meat tenderizer. She whacked this hammer against one of the T-Bots and then gave it a good kick. Upon impact, the robot flew backward and crashed into a tree.

"OUCH," the T-Bot said in a monotone robotic voice, as sparks flew around its dented body. "MAY DAY. SOON TO SELF-DESTRUCT."

"Oh no, those are the kind that explode when defeated!" Phoebe shouted to Olivia. "You gotta get away from there, quick!"

Olivia had only a few seconds to get away before the robot beeped once, twice, three times... and then exploded, lighting the leaves of the tree on fire and sending scrap metal flying a few feet away. When defeated, there wasn't so much as any rubble left, though the tree was still burnt.

Meanwhile, Phoebe turned back to the other two T-Bots, and called out to her Mystripets. "All right Peggy, go kick the bolts at of this one right here!" Nodding, the flying carousel unicorn flew back down to the ground, reared up on her hind legs, and charged right at the T-Bot in front of Phoebe, ramming into it with her horn. And then she did a quick turn around on her front legs, assisted by flapping her wings around. "Buck Kick!" With this call, she proceeded to repeatedly smack her rear hooves into the T-Bot's face, so that its dome-shaped head could no longer turn. The robot, meanwhile, retaliated by punching her in the butt cheek, then firing a laser beam at her mane. This caused Peggy to fall down and flail her legs around.

"Oh no! Peggy!" Phoebe cried. "Come on Zephoria, do something! Don't you have any non-Magic attacks?"

"I'm afraid not," the Goddess of Air replied from above. "But remember, Thunder magic does work on machines." Feeling confident, Zephoria flew over to the other T-Bot, while dodging a sonic blast attack it fired in her direction. Once there, with the four insectoid legs on her otherwise feathery torso, she held out her crystal heart before her. "Bolt of Love!"

A bright pink lightning bolt fired from the heart, giving the third T-Bot a good shock while sending hearts flying around it. This attack left the spring-loaded eyes of the robot rolling around outside its head, while it bobbled around dizzily with hearts and sparks hovering around it. Just then, Peggy found the strength to get back on her feet, and did another horn charge at the robot to finish it off. To avoid the explosion, she flapped her wings and took off into the air, just barely missing it. But then another laser beam hit her... it was from the remaining T-Bot that she kicked earlier, which now had hoof-shaped dents in its cylindrical body. As the beam hit her in the wing, she had a hard time staying aloft, and landed on the grass where the third T-Bot had just disappeared.

"Do you have enough energy for one more?" Phoebe asked Peggy, noting how she painfully twitched her right wing.

"I... think I better not use any more Melee attacks for a while, and I don't have any Ranged ones."

Just as she was about to think of something else, she heard the sound of rushing water. Glancing behind her, she saw a rapid stream approaching the group, with rough waves dotted about. There was a woman in an old-fashioned dress riding a really big fish across the tops of these waves... Phoebe put on a wide grin when she saw her.

"Heeeey! Ashleigh! And Geisha! You made it!" Phoebe shouted, jumping up and down and waving her arms in the air.

"Marching Waves!" the oversized fish shouted in that pretty gentle voice again, and at the same time, she pushed Ashleigh off her back, the latter landing neatly in a dry spot of grass next to the fading stream behind her. And then she gave the robot a good headbutt, while the rest of the stream washed over it.

"I'm afraid the water won't do any damage since it's magic-based," Ashleigh explained, "but you know, water does conduct electricity."

"You're right! Hey Zephoria! How about a Static Bolt to finish it off?"

This attack was a bit different from the Bolt of Love - just a regular ol' thunderbolt that first rose up into the air, then crashed down on the dented T-Bot. Since the T-Bot was already far away from everyone, nobody got caught in the explosion it made upon defeat. After the victory, Zephoria changed back to her original hummingbird form and flew over to land on Phoebe's shoulder.

"Yaaaay Zippy! You were awesome!" Phoebe cried as she stroked Zippy's feathery back, causing her to utter some cooing chirps. "And you too, Peggy! And wooooooow, Olivia was it? That's some hammer you got there - and what a kick! I can't believe you sent that thing flying! You look just like something out of those magical girl shows!"

Ashleigh looked around at the five girls Phoebe and Fawn had run into, including Olivia who was still trnasformed. "Who are they?" she asked.

"They are the Dragon's Daughters, whatever that means. They got powers from Tiamat, whoever that is." She then proceeded to introduce them individually by name.

"I see." She gave a polite nod to the newcomers, then looked around some more to see Fawn hiding behind a tree. She proceeded to walk over to her, Geisha following behind by "swimming" through the air as if it were water. "It's safe now, so you can come out. And I hope you caught that on film - a battle with robots would for quite the interesting story, wouldn't it?"

And now it's Gon and Yamiko and Sinistrina's turn to be delayed. I want to allow some time for Half to go there anyway.

edited 4th Mar '16 7:18:52 PM by ladytanuki

Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.

Forest —> The Ruins

These things could be so complicated. Reynardo mostly knew where he was - particularly, what it all was - because he had a slight predisposition to the supernatural. Aside from being the sort of creature he was, he had also spent far too much time among magical species and partaken of the blood of one particularly powerful Fae quite often. Too often, apparently. He shook his head slightly and watched the scene unfold.

One creature disappeared and the others did not seem to register his presence at all. That was perfectly fine with him. Perhaps that meant he was just an observer, and would soon be allowed to fall asleep again. And after a few moments, the fog obscured his form again, and he disappeared from the forest, into a comfortable sleep-like warmth.

Only to be pulled quite rudely from that comfortable warmth and into a place he sensed as all too familiar even before the fog cleared it away and left it open to view. As the new scene became clearer, Reynardo could only stare, then sigh, and then murmur, "Oy…."

The Ruins

Here, the forest gave way to a clearing, from which could be seen a short mountain range, in the distance. At the foot of the mountains, a small distance away, were a set of old buildings - ancient shells of structures that had once been magnificent but had since suffered the wear and tear of time. Everything had been made of stone, but still the buildings rose quite tall, with staircases here and there, and grand roofs supported by columns. An entire civilization could have lived there, and in fact had lived there, in times long past.

Everything was old and much of it was destroyed. But Reynardo could see it as he had known it, when it was new and in its grandeur. The plazas filled with visitors and worshippers, the canals flowing with water and music, the endless halls and mazes, the statues of gods and creatures. At the time, it had all been state-of-the-art. Now…

Shadows played among the structures, between walls, in old collapsed rooms, and Reynardo was not entirely certain whether they were just shadows caused by the dim lighting, or somehow alive. As it was, he stood motionless at the fringe of the city, afraid to enter but equally afraid not to. He placed his tinted glasses over his eyes again and tugged at his tie. Did he dare?

Both the dead and the undead danced here.

[Ritter Clinic]

Friedrich had no idea what an atomic weapon was, but it was evident that it was bad news. He did, however, know a bit about radiation. He briskly walked to the window and called on magic to put a shield around the bomb. "At least now we can ponder the situation at leisure, without getting our genetic material scrambled. I, uh, don't rightly know what exactly it is we're dealing with, so... any ideas?"

The goat, sensing the unease in the room, headed to the kitchen.

---

[Farm (inside barn)]

"Oh... I see. Being alive that long... I can hardly conceptualize it. Even the thought of another nineteen years is difficult to wrap my head around."

I must seem like a child to him. I can't help it, obviously, but... kind of embarrassing.

"I've met people maybe four times my age who've never come to terms with things like that. Though they are... rarer, I think, than the ones who have," Seilaan said, mostly looking at the contents of her teacup. "My grandparents were murdered thirty years ago and my mother... she got her revenge long ago, and she seems content, but if it's brought up, you can still see it in her eyes, the glowing ashes from that fire. And I know people who've had great injustices committed against them very recently, but they are already at peace. My uncle left home because of a falling out between him and his parents, and it came close to being violent, but he's remarkably cheerful about it. It's hard to believe he was ever upset, really.

"I think I'd be in the category of 'eighty years old and still angry.'" She didn't seem particularly pleased or disappointed in this revelation. "But obviously, a lot of time will have to pass before I know for sure. I might change by then. Who knows."

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

The Forest (Recon, Warden, Lauren, Moreena)

Moreena felt a mild sting of annoyance at the armored woman's skepticism, but it was understandable enough. Being physically approached by a deity like this was probably a rare event in most worlds, after all.

Demo's words brought on a different reaction. "Recon?" she asked. "Runs really fast? Enjoys creepily sneaking up on people and turning his enemies into hats?"

She slithered a bit closer, intrigued by what this man might have to say.

"That's very possible, actually. I hope he only told you nice things about me."

Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.

The Ruins:

There was nor time nor place, only the rhythm of the steps of a man who gave up on the race.

Had Cira ever ran, or did he march to the drums inside since the beginning of his life? He remembered an old language, more cadences than sentences, made not for prose, but for verse. He remembered chants made to remember things he forgot. And he remembered...

No, he should not remember. Breathing deeply, to clear the fog in his head, he raised his eyes to meet the path ahead. However, the fog was both mental and manifest, covering his tracks and deceiving him from his path. Shapes formed and dissolved as he walked away from the past, perhaps real, perhaps illusions too weak to last. He dragged his tired feet on the humid ground, towards the nearest shape he found. An ancient tree it was, standing tall and proud, and there lay a name upon its bark.

Aian. A name from the past, carrying inside the past. A name with the scent of flowers from the southern plains, and the buzzing sound of the wings of a hundred moths. Paralyzed he stood, as he felt once again spiders weaving their webs on his eyes, and ants biting his pale skin. That tree... it was not real. It was from another land, an illusion summoned to frighten him.

He looked around, expecting warriors to walk from the mist or rise from the ground. In the fog, shapes once again moved and formed. No, from the fog they formed, to soon disappear. A group of monks, their faces in shadow. A monster wearing the face of an old man. A young priestess hiding a knife in her tunic, a heretic among pagans.

Cira almost allowed a faint smile to touch his face, a small surrender to undeserved grace. That last image... it was from another time. Not a better time, but a different one. It was tempting, to smile, to let the mask slip and show to the mists what the memories of Cira's time training among the eilunes, he did truly feel she was one of the priestesses.

But no, he couldn't show more than he needed to. He needed to focus, pull back from the chants of the past. Any secret, any word he spoke could be used against him. Specially if he was truly trapped in a dreamworld. No, now Cirranze of Akerom, the wanted fugitive, was necessary, not Amana, the conspiring heretic.

He walked away from the tree, and evaluated which tools he had to his disposal. From the little he knew about dreamworlds, they were collaborative constructs, even if their maker is the one with the most control over it. If whoever trapped him there left any hole in it, it was up to the minds of those inside to fill. He probably could force the creation of anything he wanted by pure force of will, but he would rather not interface his mind directly with it unless he was forced to. He had been almost overwhelmed by his encounter with the tree, and if Aian was in any way involved with his situation, much worse would follow.

Running the fingers of his left hand through his long red hair, he instead reached under his jacket for his handgun. He was wearing what he called his "hunting clothes", the ones he wore during his return to Reh-Lem. Old boots, simple brown trousers, an old gray shirt and a leather jacket some sizes too big, with so many pockets and straps on the inner side sometimes things would get lost in there for years. Practical, even if it looked outrageously horrible on someone as short and unimposing as him and drew too much attention in places most civilians wore skirts. But then, the big burn scar on the left side of his face was already enough for people to shoot him on sight anyway when he was not disguised. And truth to be told, most masculine clothes were nothing special anyway.

The jacket was his favorite part, and he was glad it came to the dreamworld with him, for the supplies in those pockets were his only hope, should he face something his semiautomatic pistol couldn't solve. A foolish, irrational hope, truth to be told, since most tricks he knew were the kind that creates even more trouble, and half of then required fresh components he would rather not go his way to gather. But still, he would rather go to Hel with it.

With a sigh, he resumed his silent march, moving away from the cursed tree, and trying his best to not keep a cadence to his thoughts, lest he call memories of his homeland. The shifting of the mists had a pattern to it, a hidden will perhaps, but it was primitive, relying too much on his own mind to take shape, and as he focused only on the path ahead, it pulled away from him slightly, letting Cira see the trees give way to ancient stones and bricks.

He was no longer tired of body, as in the dreamworld, the power of his mind was enough to command the tiredness away for a while, but his will to walk away from the dream weakened as he walked towards a lone column, standing solemnly among the scattered remains of a collapsed ceiling. The tiredness of the stones, the grim bitterness of broken mosaics, the sad echos of ancient laughter filled him. Perhaps out of sympathy for the forgotten, perhaps out of morbid curiosity, he opened his mind to the imprints of the past. He walked through a ruined hall, his hand running along the wall, hearing music in a forgotten language when he closed his eyes. After every breath he took, translucent human-like figures rose from the ground and walls, calling for him with distant words he could not understand, reminded by his presence of what it was like to be alive.

He walked among them, ignoring their whispers and cries, basking in the shadow and the cold breeze, and taking a handkerchief from his pocket to dry his eyes, driven to the verge of tears by the shadow of the past. No matter how much places like that made him suffer, he was drawn to them, as a moth is to the flame. It was his duty, his nature to remember, whatever he wanted or not. It was the curse of being a necromancer, to never close your eyes after they were opened to Hel. The dead were his best teachers, but in the end they would rather make him their slave.

Moving forward with slow, tired steps, he tried to find a way into somewhere he could learn more about the place. He wasn't sure if the mob of ghosts was guiding or following him, as the forms blurred into one another and formed a dense cloak of shadows. They seemed to like him, which could prove useful, but with shadows so ancient and lost, one could never be sure, and a insane friend can be worse than a rational foe.

Circling around a crumbling wall, the cloud of shadows parted, allowing him to have a clear look at what waited him. A short human man, wearing tinted spectacles, lay there among the ruins. He was no ghost, but his posture didn't imply he was lost. No, he knew something. Hiding his handgun, Cira made a gamble and walked out of the shadows, taking great care to not show his not fully human teeth as he slowly spoke "Are you seeking something?", his words coming with the syllables clearly divided, and a strange rhythm in them, like he was chanting.

Silently he prayed his gamble would work out, for whoever that man was, Cira doubted he was less deep in the dark side than him. And he could use an ally if one of his many enemies showed themselves in the shadows.

edited 5th Mar '16 8:31:04 AM by EternaMemoria

"The dried flowers are so beautiful, and it applies to all things living and dead."

[Farm – Exterior (Min, Varris, Mazra, Caleb)]

Varris rolled his eyes at Mazra. “I wouldn't really call our lives 'adventures'. An adventure usually involves traveling to various places across the world, meeting new people, exploring... Stuff like that. We, on the other hand, have never been outside of Greyvale.”

Min bent down and extended an arm to Varris, letting him climb up onto her shoulder, leaving fresh scratch marks on her jacket in the process. “Yeah, Varris is right,” said Min after she straightened herself again. “I know Greyvale like it's carved into the back of my hand. My 'adventures' usually involve trying to not die, which is a lot more stressful than you seem to think it is.”

There was still something about Mazra that Min just couldn't stand. Having to do a bit of paperwork and learn politics wasn't terribly exciting to Min, either, but Mazra still had money and a warm place to stay. Not to mention political power… which was another thing entirely. Who was to say that the Corinarchi Empire wasn't just as corrupted as the Republic of Leric?

Min nearly jumped at the sound of the man's voice; she had forgotten that he was there. “You're… Caleb, right? So what's your deal, then? If I had to guess, I'd say you probably aren't nobility.” Hopefully not, anyway.

edited 5th Mar '16 11:15:17 AM by Collen

Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours For graphs of passion and charts of stars...

Park

Well, that was that, then. Olivia had dealt with one robot, and these newcomers had finished off the other two. A good fight, defending others; just the thing the pugnacious girl liked. A snap of her fingers, and she was back to normal.

"So, these things followed you here? You have got to be more careful, Phoebe. Especially if your friends don't have many powers that can deal with them. I don't think we've been introduced, anyway. That's Danielle, Rachel, Charlotte, and Amy. I'm Olivia. It's a pleasure to meet you all.

Rachel snickered a little bit at Phoebe's magical girl comment. If they only knew... "Yeah, I guess we would remind some people of those shows. It's a shame we can't just use the magic of love to beat our enemies, though. They'd probably laugh hysterically, then eat us. Now courage, on the other hand, that seems to work somewhat."

"Well, duh. You think courage and bravery wouldn't hurt monsters made of sentient fear?"

Nick was still out there, somewhere, so Amy called out to him. "Hey, come over and join us. Between all the magic we've got here, I don't think there's anything here that can cause a problem."

Forward, boys! For God's sake, forward!

Park - Fawn, Phoebe, Peggy, Dragon Girls, Nick

At first Fawn was too scared to do anything but watch, hoping no one would get majorly hurt or die but when the real action started and one of the Dragon Girls transformed she instantly turned her camcorder on to record. They managed to beat off the robots and Phoebe came over to fetch her. "Yep, got it all on tape! You guys were amazing!" she exclaimed with a grin and came out from behind the tree and walked up to rejoin everyone. "So, who exactly are you guys? I think you talked about yourselves a little bit, but then those robots showed up." she said, clutching her camcorder close and excited for the footage.

"Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie?"