This turned out pretty dark...

The Forest

The man opens his eyes. He looks around and finds himself standing in the center of a small glade. His gaze goes down, and he sees that he is dressed in all white-and-gold, except for a large stain of what appears to be dried blood across the chest of his upright-collared tunic with epaulettes. A diamond-hilted yataghan is attached to his belt.

While the man is not particularly tall, his proud stature and broad shoulders make him appear bigger than he actually is. He looks like he is in his mid-thirties, his pale face is cleanly shaven, his black hair is short, his slanting eyes under thick brows are dark brown, and as a whole he looks like a well-groomed aristocrat, if you don't mind the blood.

The man, sighing, unsheathes his weapon and goes towards the trees. He stops on the edge of the glade, touches the blade, and to his surprise finds out that the weapon he assumed to be a ceremonial one is as sharp as a razor.

He makes a notch on a nearest tree and enters the forest. After a few steps, he notches another tree, looks back at the first one and moves forward, trying to go in a straight line that goes through the two trees he just notched. And so, he slowly moves through the forest, marking it as he passes.

After an hour of hard labor, he finally sees an opening in front of him. He excitedly hurries forward, and to his frustration finds out that he arrived to the same glade that he started his journey from: across the glade he sees his notch on a tree. He looks back and sees that the notches he made before disappeared.

"Damn!" He irritatedly sheathes his weapon in one swift motion.

Suddenly he hears a deep mocking chuckle of a woman he knows all too well.

"Ceallagh?" says the man.

The chuckle turns into an arrogant cackle that makes the forest itself shudder.

"Look at that, the boy is lost." Ceallagh's amused contralto comes from all directions. "In more ways than one!"

"For a moment I thought you had abandoned me." The man goes to the center of the glade.

"Don't tell me that you missed me."

"I did," says the man in a playful tone.

"Liar. Are you not aware of what I do to those who try deceiving me?"

"You don't show them a way out of the forest?"

"While life grows thick in the forest, its battles are slow and its front lines are immovable."

The man is puzzled.

"Does that mean you can't show a way out?" says the man, half-mockingly. Ceallagh's response is heard from right behind him:

"Well, let's see..." Ceallagh's dusky lean arms wrap around the man's chest.

"You carry the means of war with you," whispers she softly in his ear, putting her hand on the yataghan's hilt.

"You wear the trails of wasted life on you." She rubs the stain on his chest, unclotting the blood.

"You have a turmoil within you," says she, caressing his cheek. "Why, the signs of all of my domains are right here! And if all fails, well..."

Suddenly the man gasps for his breath as Caellagh's hand grabs his throat and lifts him above the ground.

"I still can crush you, should you speak down to me again," says Caellagh, her voice still softer than silk. She releases the man, and he lands on all fours, coughing violently.

"Stand, Nergui," says Ceallagh, voice booming with authority. "'Tis unbecoming for khagan's son to be on his knees."

Nergui's coughing subsides but he's not in a hurry standing up.

"And you are too old to be a catamite," says Ceallagh.

That seems to do the trick: Nergui stands up and turns in the direction where Ceallagh's voice is coming from.

There stands, with arms crossed, a tall, unnaturally beautiful woman with sharp features. She's wearing a long dress which seems to be made of white, yellow, pink and red patches, held up by a single strap on her right shoulder with a large round pale gray brooch. Her long scarlet hair, along with her dress, slowly and fluidly wave, although there is no wind to speak of. Nergui's fury is reflected in the pitch-black abyss of her eyes. Ceallagh gives him a smile with an approving nod.

"Yes! That's the spirit!" She puts her palms on Nergui's cheeks. He tries to shake them off, but it is like trying to budge a mountain.

"That's my boy!" Ceallagh shakes Nergui's face a little and releases him. He has to duck then, as Ceallagh unsheathes his yataghan and waves it around, saying:

"Follow, second son. We have a whole forest to explore!"

Nergui, gritting his teeth and panting heavily with anger, glares at Ceallagh, who is moving away from him into the forest, seemingly not touching the ground. Then he makes a deep breath and reluctantly follows the woman.

Seems that even if she favors you, teasing the incarnation of war is not a good idea.

He finds her sitting on a boulder with her legs crossed, overlooking the forest. She looks almost peaceful. The yataghan is plunged to the ground next to her.

"We're not back home, are we?" says Nergui.

A mocking chuckle.

"Did the trees shifting back betray that to you?"

"Where are we, then?"

"We're in a dream, Nergui," says Ceallagh in a tone reserved for small children.

"Is it not your hall?"

"You'd be dead if 'twas."

"Is it not a dying dream, then? I'm covered in blood..."

Ceallagh gives out an exasperated sigh.

"You're asking wrong questions."

"Well, I don't know the right ones."

"The first question is ‘Why am I with you, here in a dream?' The second question is ‘Why are you in all white?'" says Ceallagh, chuckling at Nergui's bewilderment. "You remember nothing, don't you?"

"I..."

"Thought so. Well, you have your questions. Now go and find your answers."

Nergui reaches for his weapon.

"Better leave that here," says Ceallagh. "It will only detain you. Have no fear, I am watching you."

That didn't sound reassuring to Nergui. But he goes off anyway.

edited 21st Dec '16 4:40:19 AM by Millership

Spiral out, keep going.

[THE CASTLE (I'm lazy rn lol)]

"Look," Nick said, "I have to complain, or else ya'll are gonna forget that I exist."

Jackson just gave a heavy sigh, then turn to new strangers. "Please excuse my friend; he's a dumbass."

"Hey!"

Ignoring Nick, Jackson continued, "That's Nick, by the way. I'm Jackson, and here is Adam."

"H-hello..." Adam said, giving the strangers a shy wave, "W-wait, curse? What kind of curse? Will she be ok?"

[Snow Castle (Alice, Rin, Nick, Jackson, Adam, Gliosem, Gwenafer)]

Alice studied herself upon hearing Gliosem mention a curse, muttering, barely audibly, "did those shitclowns..." she focused her mind. "...no, feels fine. So why... ah, of course." She looked back at Gliosem and said, "you wouldn't happen to mean that I'm a walking hole in the very fabric of magic?" She grinned wryly and wiped away the last of her tears. Biting her tongue before she said too much, however, she took a moment to consider. Then, finally, "...me and magic aren't on speaking terms." She didn't look eager to elaborate, at least not immediately.

She needed to change the subject until she could get the measure of her potential enemies. What would Sigmund do? Okay, uh, bullshit. Small talk. After a brief silence, long enough to be awkward but short enough to not let anyone else slip in a question about her "speaking terms", Alice said, a bit more stiffly than she intended, "Madame Admiral, I thank you for your hospitality." Okay, generic compliment... "Your castle is lovely, by the way." And what was that rule? Franklin's thing? Right. Always ask for a small favor. "Spare some hot tea, if it's not too much trouble?" She was visibly not used to the formality she was trying to display, but hoped she would get partial points for effort.

Then, to Gliosem, "oh, anyways, pretty sure this ain't Earth. I'm from there myself, and the Senjima Empire isn't a name I'm familiar with." With a slight bite of her lip, she added, "no offense meant, Admiral. I'm sure you're no more familiar with Western Amalgamated." She glanced at Nick, Adam, and Jackson, curious to see if that merited a reaction from any of them either.

edited 20th Dec '16 10:11:31 PM by KillerClowns

Forest -> The Graveyard -> Misery Manor

After making a couple of hundred paces in whatever direction he was heading, Nergui unbuttons his tunic and sees that the blood soaked through all the way down to his skin. The shirt he wears under his tunic feels sticky. He looks around nervously. The scent of blood could attract dangerous predators. Wolves. Lions. Bears. Whatever else is living in these woods.

"Could you remove the blood from my clothes, Ceallagh?"

"Do you take me for one of your washerwomen, khagan's son?" hears he Ceallagh's voice.

"Wouldn't dare," says Nergui in a tone that implies the opposite of that.

"You asking me that is pretty daring, though. You seeing me washing a tunic of yours will raise the need to wash your breeches afterwards."

"What's that supposed to mean?" blurts out Nergui.

"And why remove the blood in the first place? Red suits you. It brings out the fury in your eyes."

"Well, 'tis unbecoming of khagan's son to show up in a polite society like this."

An amused chuckle.

"It takes a second son to find a polite society in a dream forest. I suggest you remove your upper clothing altogether. You'll attract a lot of polite societies that way. And if you worry about getting cold, I'm sure the societies will be polite enough to share their... warmth with you. Which you are in a desperate need of."

Nergui frowns, hearing Ceallagh's mocking chuckle. He buttons up and continues his path. Soon he sees a clearing up ahead. What he sees after he exits the forest is a vast gloomy wasteland with a big, sinister-looking house in the distance and a storm raging above it all. Near the house he sees flickering lights.

"M-mm... a battle!" says Ceallagh. "'Tis not my doing, though. Strange."

She appears out of thin air sitting with her legs crossed on one of the scorched rocks, facing the battle.

"Now, boy. I'm about to savour this little spectacle of violence, and I'll enjoy it more if I'll have a glass of blood of soil's and Sun's matrimony. Go to the house and fetch me something to drink."

Nergui, gritting his teeth, glares at Ceallagh, who seems to loose any interest in him and is completely consumed by the battle. Sighing, he turns around and heads towards the manor.

"Don't get yourself killed on the way!" hears he Ceallagh's voice. "And should you spill even a drop of wine, you'll be wearing your manhood as a necklace!"

edited 21st Dec '16 7:09:20 AM by Millership

Spiral out, keep going.

Twilight Ball (Amiluet, Ferisen, "The Queen")

For a few more minutes, Amiluet played her instruments on the stage, occasionally singing a song to accompany it. Meanwhile, Ferisen stepped back into the corner of the stage and withdrew a polished crystal semicircle, with a bright bluish tint. As she held it, she closed her eyes and focused on it, at the same time focusing on the two sisters who had gone missing.

Gliosem, hear me, and let me know your whereabouts...
After a while, she saw an image of a castle of some sort, and before it a neatly-decorated courtyard with snow all around, though the sun still shone bright.
And now, Emriel... There she only got the simple image of a beating heart, and traces of a thought relating to blood.

At last she approached Amiluet, who had just finished a tune. "It seems that Glee and Reel are safe," she said, "though they seem to be in different dimensions entirely. I can only wonder if it is the positioning of the moons, or if it is a disturbance caused by the warring factions of day and night."

Heaving a sigh, Amiluet gave the large stringed instrument she had been playing a gentle telekinetic push to the back of the stage. "I'm tired of playing anyway. Why don't we go mingle with the crowds for a bit?" And she jumped right off the stage, with Ferisen following behind.

After wandering a bit amongst the crowd, some of whom complimented them on their performance or wondered where the other two had gone as they went. After a bit of such wandering, Ferisen glanced around and no longer saw the orange-and-yellow-clad flower lady... but after some scanning of the area, she soon picked up on her aura, as in the aftermath of the performance it had grown brighter. Once she actually saw her, she found that she had been staring at something, which she alerted Ferisen to.

"Look at that," she said, pointing over to a young lady in a short skirt and tall boots. Do you see that enchantment written there? I've never seen one in letters that big - foreign'' letters too by the look of it."^note I'm assuming here that the Translator Microbes only apply to speech.

Furrowing her brow, Ferisen glanced over at the woman, noticing the aforementioned letters displayed across her busty chest. "Looks like another human - there were quite a few here last I looked. They typically don't write enchantments into their clothing though. And... yes, those letters do look familiar - it's the Earthen writing system! I can't decipher it though - what do you think it says?"

Amiluet shrugged. "I don't know. If only Glee were here - she might know; I believe she's studied that system. I suppose we have no choice but to ask her."

And so the two fairy-like musicians approached the young woman, who seemed to be aimlessly wandering through the crowd just like they were. ''Excuse me," Amiluet asked her, "but what does the enchantment on your shirt say?"

Ferisen looked a bit disturbed - she wasn't expecting Amiluet to be that direct about it.

Beta Town (Gon, Ari, Ruka)

Ruka wasn't kidding when she said the Messenger was good at adapting. Not only did it effortlessly dodge Satori's Aurora Helix, but it picked up on Kinaga's homing Dragon Flame and used Ruka as a shield. Thankfully, after some struggle, one of Ruka's lightning bolts seemed to hit it. This thing was going to be difficult to deal with indeed...

"Okay," he said to Ari and both of the Mystripets, "from now on, we do everything stealthily. No more calling your attacks. The key to winning this battle will be to catch the Messenger by surprise."

"I also say we ditch the rules and go against the program," Ari suggested. "We are in a dream, after all. Unfortunately, with my Scanner out of order, I can't use any items or send out any other Mystripets, so it looks like it's all you."

Gon nodded, and after a couple of presses on his Scanner, sent out both Galaxeon and Aki. "I changed my mind. The Messenger seems to have no element and no class, so I say we just give it all we got! Also, no calling your attacks. Just follow your instincts. Kinaga, stay in front of us." He called up to the fire goddess, who landed in front of the two Keepers and held her torch-staff at the ready.

"What is this?" Aki the fiery dragonfly asked Gon. "Why are we all fighting that... oh. It's not from Mystrica, so screw the rules. Flame Sp- oh, right, no calling. I gotta stop doing that." And so he flew over to the Messenger, the long cylindrical light on his tail glowing brightly. "Hey scrap metal!" he called to the Messenger. "You wanna piece of me?" He made his tail shine even brighter, blindingly so, as he flew all around, trying to stay constantly in front of the Messenger's featureless face.

Meanwhile, Galaxeon re-drew the sword that materialized out of pure energy, where the blade glowed for a bit before he swung it outward, aiming for the same gash in the Messenger's leg that the lightning bolt had struck. Satori, meanwhile, was focused on the twin beams the Messenger was just about to fire from its lances, anticipating them seconds before they were actually fired and moving in front of Ruka to block them, holding up the larger crystal ball she was holding into their anticipated path.

Though Gon had told everyone to not call their attacks, Kinaga saw no problem with bending that rule - besides, she was a goddess, so who was she to follow the whims of a mortal? Turning toward Ruka, she pointed her tall torch at her. "Inner Flame!" Some small flames flew at Ruka and encircled her, causing her to glow somewhat. Just as Gon was about to protest, he saw a message pop up on his Scanner that said "Offense +1" above a pixellated image of Ruka. Indeed, at that point Ruka might notice a surge of power through her, making any attack of any type she used a good bit stronger.

And then two missiles came out of the sky. But none of the Mystripets had any missiles! The two Keepers then looked up to see Lord Metatronic flying high above, his blue glowing eyes directed downward. Back on the ground, Gon gasped in surprise. "WHAAAAAT? Now we have him to deal with as well?!?"

"I think he's on our side," Ari pointed out. "Look - those missiles are aiming for the Messenger, not us." Indeed, the missiles were headed straight for the Messenger, homing in on it.

All right, a lot's going on here, so time for a recap. (takes a deep breath) Aki attempts to distract the Messenger with his glowing tail while Galaxeon aims a Sword Beam at his legs, Satori uses her powers of precognition to anticipate and block the beams directed at Ruka, Kinaga gives Ruka a power boost, Lord Metatronic shows up and fires a pair of homing missiles. What will Ground Assault Knight do?

edited 21st Dec '16 9:12:56 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.

[Twilight Ball] (June, Amiluet, Ferisen)

The green-eyed redhead watched the two fae-like women approach her. She knew they weren't actually fae, she could instinctively tell that much. Flashing a catty smile, she took another bite from her scone thingy. It tasted of cranberries, but like everything here, it wasn't cranberry.

Swallowing the morsel, she pointed at her shirt. "Oh, this? It's not an enchantment. Just a shirt I got at a discount store. It says 'I am the Queen'," she said, smiling. "You're the Bardic Sisters, Amiluet and Ferisen, right?" She placed a hand on the center of her chest, tilting her head with a grin, "My name's June."

June looked around at the gathering, a hand held to her mouth. "I absolutely love parties. Say, what's the occasion, hmm?"

---

[Beta Town] (Ruka, Ari, Gon)

Ruka, unable to get out of the way in time, braced for the inevitable wave of ice. Seconds passed, but the attack failed to hit her. Glancing up, she saw Satori deflecting the beams with the crystal ball she held, a wall of ice forming around them. Ruka stood to her feet and began charging up her blade. It was time for a more decisive attack.

Meanwhile, the Messenger backpedaled, trying to evade Galaxeon's sword strike. The tip of the blade caught it in the gash, nearly severing the leg. Performing a quick scan of the two Mystripets, the Knight swung its right lace up, cloaked in blazing red flames before taking aim at Galaxeon's head and jabbing forward, while it tried swatting the annoying dragonfly away with the other lance. Leaping away from close combat range, a blue light began pulsating on the Messenger's chest.

Ruka changed the consistency of her blade from crackling electricity to a distinct, pulsating blade of deep purple plasma, surrounded by the occasional spark of electrical discharges. Receiving the offense boost from Kinaga, Ruka took a modified sprinter's stance, her plasma blade held away from her, before dashing towards the Messenger.

The Knight used its lances to fire beams at the incoming missiles when it noticed Ruka charging at it. It moved a lance to block Ruka's slashing uppercut, only for the plasma blade to cut straight through the lance. The Knight jerked its head back as Ruka reversed the motion, cleaving the machine in two.

Or so Ruka thought. The separate halves flickered out of existence, replaced by metallic orbs floating in the air as the Messenger sliding to a stop a few dozen yards away, discarding its useless lance. Ruka stopped herself from tripping in surprise, only to notice the orbs clinging to her gauntlet, ominously beeping.

Wide eyed, Ruka tried phasing the orbs off to no avail. The beeping increased to a wail, "Oh sh-"

The wail stopped, replaced with a loud explosion as the orbs detonated.

---

[Yukijou-minato ~ Snow Castle (Inner Ward)] (Rin, Gliosem, Gwenafer, Adam, Nick, Jackson, Alice)

Rin crossed her arms behind her back and faced Gliosem. "No, this isn't Earth. This world is called Aria," she said.

The Admiral turned towards Alice before bowing her head slightly, "I was planning on having the staff fix some tea for everyone here any way, two more wouldn't be any more trouble. Oh, and no offense taken," she indicated towards the others, "I am growing accustomed to dealing with people from other worlds today."

Noticing something off, Rin pushed her sword an inch from its scabbard with her thumb. She frowned when the blade failed to start forming; the wind magic enchantment was still there, it just wasn't working. Alice had mentioned not being on speaking terms with magic, she'd have to inquire further later. But first...

She clicked her sword back and extended a hand up the stairs, "This way please."

edited 22nd Dec '16 7:54:24 PM by WillDeRegio

The Graveyard (Ceallagh)

Ceallagh's gaze follows Nergui for a while. The man shows caution: he slowly but surely moves towards the Manor in short bursts, dashing between the scorched remnants of whatever was in this place before, taking cover behind them. Ceallagh smirks and continues watching the unfolding battle.

There is a flash in the distance brighter than those which were before, and suddenly Ceallagh is standing in a borderless grey empty field. She takes a deep breath of still scentless air. She looks down and sees that the ground is ashes, much like those she leaves in her wake, but when she kneels to take a handful of it, she feels no triumph over the vanquished foe, no promise of life budding within it that will fuel the upcoming battles. She digs her long dark fingers into the ground and earth does not respond to her touch. No critters are battling for survival, and the soil itself is absolutely barren. She stands up, hugging her shoulders, looks skywards and sees nothing out there. The Core of her Shattered World is put out. Other shards in the sky are as lifeless as the one she is standing on. And the Void is reflected in the pitch-black abyss of Ceallagh's eyes.

There is no one to wage a war on. No life to flourish. No conflict to escalate. And soon what is left begins to crumble.

There is nothing.

"So this what Reaper's final harvest will feel like..." Ceallagh lets out a mirthless chuckle. "Well, dull men make a tiresome company, and their farewells are abrupt..."

She steps out of the vision. Those times are yet to come.

What has arrived is the time to announce her presence. If someone in the battle near the Misery Manor were paying attention, then they would notice that a red dot on the background of the Graveyard near the forest border has vanished.

Soon, agains all logic, the sounds of the battle - missiles launching and exploding, the spells being cast and hitting the barriers, combatants changing their forms, along with the sound of thunderstorm raging above the battle resonate into a low amused chuckle which quickly turns into a pleased cackle of an arrogant woman. Then, what heard above the battle is blood-curdling trill of Ceallagh's battle cry.^note Imagine Xena's battlecry performed by choir of banshees fighting demons during earthquake.

"YEeeeEEeEeS. Yes! This is good!" Finally, Ceallagh's contralto is heard from all directions. "'Tis good to feel welcome here, strugglers! Now, who started this glorious fight, I wonder? Who has expanded the borders of my realm?" There is no challenge heard in her voice, only curiosity. "Don't answer that, you'll strip the battle of half of its fun. Soon I'll know. I'll say only this: whoever made the first blow will be rewarded greatly, should he survive this battle. And he'll join my host if he doesn't, which is an even greater award! I shall make barren the loins of those who would say that Ceallagh is not generous towards her subjects after this!!!"

While I desribed Ceallagh's battle cry as "blood-curdling", how it affects those who heard it depends on the listener. Some might be terrified, some might be inspired by it, some might be unaffected at all - pick whichever you think is natural. What everyone in the battle of the Graveyard feels is that they're being watched, and they're being judged.

Spiral out, keep going.

Yukijou-minato ~ Snow Castle (Rin, Gliosem, Gwenafer, Adam, Nick, Jackson, Alice)

Gwenafer raised her single eyebrow once again. A walking hole in the very fabric of magic? What the Depths was that supposed to mean. Suddenly, the odd behavior of her eye didn't seem all that coincidental. She noticed a strong feeling of unease growing within her.

"I hadn't heard about this 'Earth' place before today," she commented, and turned to the three boys. "Ain't that where you were from?"

Gwenafer began to follow Rin up the stairs, but stopped halfway with her gaze locked on Gliosem, her living eye widening in surprise at the movement beneath her cloak.

"Is that... do you have wings?" she asked with a somewhat trembling voice. Clearly not human, but way too... well, nice looking to be any kind of corrupted beast or ghoul, and apparently a mage judging by her words about auras and curses... Gwenafer had heard plenty of stories about the servants and enemies of the gods, but she would never have expected this. Whatever the case though, there was no use in just standing around looking dumb. She cleared her throat, and tried to regain her focus.

"Are you a demon?" she asked.

edited 23rd Dec '16 7:02:45 AM by Corvidae

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

[THE CATSLE]

First, Jackson addressed Alice. "Well, we're from earth, though we haven't heard of that place you're talking about. It could be a case of being in an alternate universe; seems to be common with me and my friends."

"Heh. No kidding." Nick said.

Then, Jackson turned to Gwen, "Oh, you never heard of Earth? That...honestly explains a lot. No wonder you were so confused; all our stuff must sound like gibberish."

At that moment, Gwen started accusing Gliosem of being a demon, which made all three boys very worried.

"Are you...are you ok?" Adam asked gently, "You look really scared."

Jackson turned to Adam, a bit bemused, "Did you miss the part where she asked if she was a demon?"

"Hey! I-I'm just trying to calm her down! Um..." he twiddled his fingers, "Let's...n-not jump to conclusions! We just met each other."

edited 23rd Dec '16 5:38:14 PM by Masterofchaos

Snow Castle (Rin, Gliosem, Gwenafer, Alice, Nick, Jackson, Adam)

When Alice mentioned her being a "walking hole in the very fabric of magic", Gliosem gasped in surprise. "That sounds terrible!" she exclaimed, feeling a deep empathic sorrow towards her. "I've heard of evil sorcerers draining people of the ability to use magic, but far rarer is to curse someone so that they repel magic. I am so sorry that you had to suffer such a fate." She reached out as if to touch her, but was afraid to, fearing that the anti-magic lady would drain away her entire aura upon contact.

When then she heard Rin's remark, she was confused, but that confusion quickly turned to Glee. "I have never heard of the planet Aria, but it sounds like a place where I'd be right at home. I can only imagine what sort of music-based culture it has..."

She was relieved to have Rin lead the group towards the tower she had just appeared outside of mid-song, for she was not exactly dressed for cold weather. She had been to cold places before, but always wore a thick cloak on such occasions, which she had left at the Twilight Ball. That's when she heard Gwenafer ask about her wings, which she promptly extended out of the sides of her cape - two long and transparent oval-shaped ones with thick black veins running through them in a lace-like pattern. But then she thought she was a demon? That seemed odd to her - she even seemed afraid of her.

"Of course I am not a demon," she replied with a small giggle. "Demons, as I understand, are creatures of ill intention above both life and death - but I am perfectly mortal, a humble bard. And yes - all sumiri have wings. Though they aren't so much for flight - they're actually for absorbing sunlight, just like the leaves of plants. You see, on one side of Orenya the sun stays still in the sky, and on the other it is completely absent - sumiri mainly dwell in Rumia, the sunlit half, because of it."

She noted how Jackson and Adam were wondering about Gwenafer's nervousness. "Truly I never meant to scare you," she said to all three of them plus Nick. "It would seem that you cannot see my aura - otherwise you would have known that I mean no harm. Perhaps if time permits, I can teach you."

As she followed Rin up the stairs, she paid special attention to Alice, giving her the occasional look of concern. Though she felt a tinge of fear every time she glimpsed her anti-aura, she stayed close to her, as if there was one thing she knew about curses, it was that fear of them often makes them stronger, and thus compassion for the sufferer was important. She even reached out a hand to her to help her up the stairs if she so desired. The risk of damaging her own aura didn't worry her too much, as currently it was more energized than usual, as singing always did for her.

Twilight Ball (Ferisen, Amiluet, June)

Ferisen and Amiluet looked at each other when June mentioned the words on her shirt not being an enchantment, and the latter was particularly confused when she told them what it meant. When she asked about their names, they nodded their heads simultaneously. And then she introduced herself as June and asked what the occasion was.

Ferisen opened her mouth to speak, but Amiluet got there first. "You're a queen?" the young flower lady asked her, her brow furrowed slightly. "You don't look like one though. What of?"

Ferisen gave Amiluet a disapproving look, which was easy because the latter only came up to chest height on her, while she herself was nearly a head taller than June. "Lute, if she were one, surely wou would've been able to see it in her aura."

Amiluet pouted. "Well excuuuuuuse me, princess," she said to her big sister. For a while, the two stared at each other, when finally Ferisen sighed and placed a reassuring hand on top of her pigtailed head, which seemed to calm her down a bit. Then the tall latria player turned to face June, who turned out to have the exact same eyes as her - though Ferisen's looked quite a bit bigger on her narrow face framed by lavender-colored hair. And the curiosity she saw in June's aura saddened her a very slight bit, such that she glanced briefly behind at the town outside before speaking.

"I don't know if you heard what Gliosem said, but because of the war, this may very well be the final Twilight Ball for a very long while. This ball has been a tradition in the town of Azuhala for centuries, an annual event occurring when the sun and the star oppose each other in the sky. However, on this year's case, since all four of the moons are together, it was decided that it should be hosted early."

"I personally don't believe that this will be the last one," Amiluet mentioned, adjusting the twiggy flowered circlet on her head. "I like to believe in the positive, even though Fair's predictions about the future nearly always come true."

"This was not my prediction," said Ferisen, closing her eyes for a brief moment. "But I do predict that you are not from this world, that you are from another planet entirely." She opened her eyes. "This is a world where the sun either stands still or is absent, and right now we are at the dawn of a war between day and night itself."

"Which means that the twilight regions, like this one, will be the most dangerous - already there have been battles fought nearby. Fortunately though, the town mages that aren't off fighting in the war have set up a barrier around this hall so that no harm will come to it."

"I would not be so sure about that." In fact, just as Ferisen said it, there was a soft resounding boom that caused an ever-so-slight vibration in the floor, so slight that nothing was damaged, not even the tall stack of those weird alien clay plates^note the people of this planet never invented porcelain at the buffet table. Both Bardic Sisters turned to look outside, where a bunch of wooden beams went flying all over the place somewhere off in the distance behind a row of little houses. Ferisen turned back to June. "See that? That was a bomb going off - fortunately it was far away."

"I still say that we are protected here. Look, the other guests don't seem worried - that I can see in their auras." After pausing to stick her tongue out at Ferisen, Amiluet decided to change the subject, turning towards the not-queen with a sudden cheerful smile and a playful flutter of her small wavy wings. "So where are you from? And how did you get here?"

It's getting late - will have to hold off on Gon and Ari until tomorrow.

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.

[Marble Corridor]

Something was roaring in Seilaan's ears. So here you are, again, trying to convince me that you're not the bad kind of capitalist, and you're immediately distracted by your tea being gone. There's something seriously wrong here.

Hadn't—hadn't they gone over this before? Or had Seilaan, for the sake of catharsis, imagined confronting Mazra so many times while brooding over her tea that she couldn't even remember if it had truly happened? Either way, something about this felt familiar.

"Every time you open your mouth, I find myself wondering, does she even care?" Seilaan sounded more concerned than anything, which surprised even herself. "I work with senators who disagree with me on almost everything, but we're always civil to each other. I'm close to a lot of religious people who believe in nonexistent beings and arbitrary rules about how to live your life, but I respect them. And even people like Senator Feng who just fight me all the time—I respect them. I'll always have a scrap of respect for someone who'll actually put some effort into defending what they believe in. But you—you!"

She drew her sword. "This isn't even about culture clash or the merits and downfalls of capitalism or any of that. Not anymore. The question we need to answer first is if you even know how to feel."

Yes, that was it. She had diagnosed the problem, laid it plain for all to see. Mazra did not care, did not try, did not think anything mattered. It was clear enough to Seilaan, anyway, from the blase manner she perceived in everything Mazra said and did. If Mazra backed away from a duel, then Seilaan would win—in her heart, at least. Because for Mazra to show that she cared, she had to fight Seilaan, the one accusing her of not caring. Caring was very important. If she did care, she would want to prove it, and she would take the opportunity Seilaan was presenting to her, the opportunity to fight. Yes. It made perfect sense.

To Seilaan, anyway.

Her head pounded. She narrowed her eyes. I have no idea what that's about, but now is not the fucking time.

---

[Ritter Clinic (parlor)]

Friedrich beckoned Henry over from the kitchen so he could join the hushed discussion. "Heinrich holding down the fort? Look, I'm not saying I think there's something off about him, but—"

He glanced at his brother, who was staring at the ceiling and humming quietly to himself at the other side of the parlor. Yeah, still acting pretty typical. For Heinrich, anyway. Besides being back from the dead.

"—well, I'm just not sure if he's the best person for the job. No magic abilities, doesn't really pay attention to his surroundings... yeah. I have defenses set up in case certain people come after me, but I'd still feel a lot better if we had at least one definitely alive-and-not-a-trick-of-fucked-up-magic adult on the premises. Once again, not that I think Heinrich is a trick of fucked up magic, but you know. Still, you've got a point, Iveya." He took a deep breath. "Henry, just look at all that goddamn snow. Are you sure you want to head out there while you're injured? Let's really think about this."

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

[Snow Castle (Alice, Rin, Nick, Jackson, Adam, Gliosem, Gwenafer)]

"Earth," Alice said. "It's... an interesting place right now. At least my version is." To herself, she thought, What do I mention? The rising oceans, the dying ecosystem, the imploding nation-states, the frequent riots, the utter demolition of the transhuman fantasy, the economic malaise brought on by the struggle between the incompetent and the insane, the occasional threat of nuclear war, or one of the other countless other delightful quirks of Terra that would have long ago driven me into cowering in a social media bubble if I wasn't already protected by my own inherent sense of deranged, psychopath-adjacent whimsy?

A contemplative look crossed her face as she considered all this. Indeed, there had been so many meetings where the Board's idealistic dreams and grand schemes had been punctured by Alice's morose intelligence reports and her sheer cynicism. And more often than not, her dark warnings had proven vital to Western Amalgamated's efforts, whether Sigmund had decided to try and make the world a slightly less shitty place, or simply to make a buck off whatever horror it was simply too late to stop. Maybe that's why Siggy left me in charge. The world's gone insane, might as well trust the company to the only woman who can match it. So... what the fuck do I do with it?

Aloud, she finally decided she should find something nice to say about her home world. All she could manage was, "we've had a great couple of years for television and movies. Some pretty sweet comic books and video games lately as well. Half-Life 3 was worth the wait."

Then she looked over at Gliosem, trying to hide a certain note of condescension. And nearly succeeding; those experienced in spotting hidden emotions on faces and in voiced might be able to discern her true thoughts, but years of climbing the corporate ladder had made her a pretty good deceiver. "Speaking of Earth," she said to Gliosem, "magic hasn't really gotten rooted in over there." And thank fuck for that. "Only spell casters I've met there got their powers cutting a bargain with a nasty piece of extra-universal detritus called the Eyes and Teeth. So... ask yourself who'd make a deal with something named that and you'll understand why I spent years of my life training myself to generate this aura." She failed to hide a brief, proud grin.

Not that she particularly trusted any other sort of spell-slingers either, though she could grant most probably didn't understand the fundamental wrongness of the powers they wielded. In that way, she'd been fortunate to grow up in a universe where magic's corruption had not yet taken deep root. Then, in a diplomatic offering, she added, "I can also suppress it, make sure I don't, uh, break anything." A necessity to get the drop on mages who were smart enough to simply shoot any anti-magic they sensed. "Though I might need a bit for that. Takes a calm mind, and..." she motioned towards her funeral clothes. "It's been a long day."

edited 25th Dec '16 12:18:37 PM by KillerClowns

[Twilight Ball] (June, Amiluet, Ferisen)

June contained a bubbly laugh at Amiluet's princess comment. Interlocking her fingers, she rested her hands on her midriff as she listened to their explanation of the Twilight Ball. Her eyes flashed at the notion of day and night going to war with each other; her own people had a tendency to fight for the smallest of reasons, mostly due to factional differences.

When the bomb went off, June spun on her toe tips to face the source of the disturbance. "Oh my~" the last syllable carried an air of amusement. She spun back around to face Amiluet, eyes closed as she smiled, "I'm from a little blue planet called Earth. As for how I got here, the prospect of meeting interesting new people at this party brought me." She reopened her eyes, staring at the two winged ladies, "And so far, you seem interesting."

---

[Yukijou-minato ~ Snow Castle (Inner Ward) —> Main Keep (Entry Hall)] (Rin, Gwenafer, Adam, Nick, Jackson, Gliosem, Alice)

Rin was getting a workout for her eyebrow today. Gwenafer's asking of Gliosem being a demon was met by the woman revealing she had wings, which by itself wasn't terrible surprising; crow tengu have wings after all. However, Gliosem also revealed that she was a sumiri, something the Admiral had never heard of before.

Meanwhile, Alice mentioned movies and television. The first she couldn't figure out, but was probably related to the latter, which she assumed must be related to the telegraph and telephone. She shook her head, this probably wasn't important enough to focus on. Rin listened quietly to Alice's description of magic in her world.

The Admiral continued to observe the anti-mage. She was someone to watch out for, as Rin could tell the woman distrusted Gliosem, who seemed harmless enough. Alice with her mindset would probably grow to distrust Gwenafer and herself in due time...

"I do understand why you would do that," Rin said to Alice. "I would do the same in your position. However, here, in Aria, power can come from all kinds of sources. From studied knowledge, from one's self, from the very elements, or from others. Here, magic is inherently neutral, subject to the whims of the ones using it, the same as any other tool."

They had reached the top of the stairs, and now Rin lead the group around to the entrance of the main keep located in a veranda. Approaching the doors, the Admiral grabbed the right hand door handle and pulled. The door slowly opened, letting out warm air from inside and revealing a brightly lit entry hall. Directly in front of them was a smooth stone area ten feet by twenty feet with mats along one side. The rest of the room, which went further back about thirty feet, was raised up a few inches from the entry way.

Rin wiped the bottoms of her shoes on a mat in the entry way before stepping up onto the hardwood floor. The walls were made of decorated wood panels, with an untouchable ceiling several feet overhead. The Admiral turned around and waited for the others.

[Clinic-Kitchen to Parlor/Henry]

Henry came into the parlor at Friedrich's gesture. He listened to him talk to Iveya and he wasn't surprised when it got to the point of Iveya demanding to go. She had a good point but Henry didn't trust himself. He's been getting more and more paranoid ever since he encountered the divine ones. It was that paranoia that got him and his wife in this mess.

When Friedrich pointed out the snow and just how badly he was injured he also had a point. Could Henry survive out there? He's survived a lot but between that snowstorm and the atomic bomb popping up out of nowhere he wasn't so sure. He knew they were right, he just needed to ensure his paranoia wouldn't get the best of him.

"Okay. Fine I'll stay but on one condition." He started before reaching into his shoulder holster to pull out his engraved silver plated Model 29 S&W 44. Magnum Revolver. " I want one of you to take this. If I don't trust myself right now. Also you're probably going to need it more than me. Just be careful, it's a 44. magnum so it'll have one hell of a kick."

[San Francisco-Lauren's House/Lauren]

Lauren looked over to Demo.

"I don't know what exactly is going on but I think I'm supposed to learn something from this. That's the only rational thing I can think of. I think this place is showing me my past so I can learn something. What that thing is is beyond me though."

She rubbed her head in frustration. " I wish Henry was here. He's better at psychology and understanding people than I am."

Snow Castle (Gwenafer, Adam, Nick, Jackson, Gliosem, Alice)

Gwenafer continued to stare somewhat awkwardly at Gliosem's wings, listening to her explanation. So she wasn't a demon at all then, just a... - sumiri- from some strange other world. Given all the weirdness that had already happened today, both of those things were probably just as likely, actually.

"I... uh, meant nothing bad by it," Gwenafer said, fidgeting with her mechanical eye and forcing herself to look up at Gliosem's face instead. "Figured you'd be one of the nice ones, like maybe a Merwonite sky-nymph or something."

She ran her hand through her hair, realizing that Gliosem probably wouldn't know what that was.

"Let's get inside, alright?"

She followed Rin into the keep, taking in the sights before turning back towards Alice. The woman's words about her homeworld made little sense to Gwenafer, but the part about magic seemed clear enough, and kind of explained why her eye had acted up earlier.

"I ain't a mage myself," she said. "But yeah, there's a lot of nasty shit out there that any sane person would avoid. Magic itself is just... there though. Came from the Storm of Creation just like everything else, and can be used for anything you want."

She glanced over at Rin. "Just like here, I guess."

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

Beta Town (Gon, Ari, Ruka)

Gon cheered Galaxeon on as he managed to successfully swipe at the Messenger's leg, so that it was almost broken. But then he retaliated, jabbing a flaming lance at him before he could put his shield up to deflect it. The blow landed right in the space knight's helmet, sending him flying backward with sparks around his head, which burned red-hot for a while. Then Gon watched his Scanner screen nervously, until a message popped up.

"What!? A critical hit? Now that's just not fair! And how'd the Messenger know Galaxeon's weak against Fire?"

"I did see the Messenger scan him," Ari remarked, as she watched Ruka slice the Messenger's other lance in two. "Maybe his version of Scanning identifies strengths and weaknesses."

Gon sighed and threw his head backward. "Well that's just great." And he looked back at his Scanner just in time to see Galaxeon's HP fall to zero. "And that's even more just great!"

Just a second later, both of them heard a beeping, followed by a wailing... and then Kinaga shouting "Stay back!" while holding up her staff. Just then there was a loud BOOM, and an explosion that hit Ruka, Satori, and Aki (who had been most unfortunate to fly in their vicinity upon detonation) full-blast. But Kinaga conjured a wall of fire just in time to block it... from hitting Gon and Ari and herself at least.

Once the blast cleared, all three targets were lying on the ground or against walls of buildings - in Aki's case, his tail light blinked out, and in Satori's case her crystal ball cracked and rolled along the street while she herself lay motionless. A quick look at his Scanner told Gon that Aki had been knocked out by the blast; the same was probably true for Satori and Ruka as well. But just then he smirked.

Apparently reading the Keeper's mind, Kinaga dispelled her wall of fire and made the flame atop her staff grow and flash with golden sparks. Her wings, too, began to glow, and extended upwards as if she was about to take off. But she didn't, instead gesturing her staff around at the fallen combatants.
"Wings of Life!"

Golden feathers flew out from Kinaga's wings, enveloping Galaxeon, Aki, Satori, and Ruka. There they landed on the four combatants and vanished into a golden dust. As soon as it did, all four of them found themselves refreshed, able to stand and fight once more.

Meanwhile, high above the battle, Lord Metatronic flashed his searchlights all around the town once more, and his grumbling metallic voice rang out and echoed across the buildings. "ALL ROBOTS, PREPARE FOR BATTLE. BE RID OF THIS FOREIGN INTRUDER, WHO IS NOT EVEN FROM MYSTRICA. ATTACK!"

At once, every robot that had cowered into the buildings emerged once more, obeying the gigantic winged mecha and scrambling over to where the Messenger was. As soon as they were there, they surrounded him - V-Bots of every shape and size, from UFO-like to beetle-like to boxy and wielding powers of just about every element. There must have been at least fifty of them, some of whom flew up into the air in case the Messenger tried to fly over the groundborne ones. Even so, Metatronic had above covered - he swooped down and, being about ten times larger than the Messenger, tried to grab him with his massive hands, not flinching at the slightest at the few robot attacks that hit his arms instead of the Messenger - even so, they tried not to hit him anyway, as he was their master.

However, one little cube-shaped robot with little tube-shaped arms and little wheels for legs stayed behind, approaching Ari and extending an arm towards the broken Scanner she held in her hand. Noticing it, Ari took a quick glance at the Scanner. "Oh, you say you want to help fix my Scanner?" she asked it. "I would be happy to download your software indeed."

She handed the Scanner over to the little robot, who examined it for a while, and then opened it. But when it found a peculiar purple chip inside, the light on its head flashed, and as it pulled the chip out, it scurried away down the street, holding the chip triumphantly above its head. Gasping in surprise, Ari ran after it. "Hey! Come back, you little thief! That little chip is vital for my operations!"

Hearing Ari's shouts, Gon turned to see her chasing after the robot. When he too saw the purple chip in the robot's hand, his eyes widened, and then he turned to his oversized fiery dragonfly. "Quick Aki, go follow Ari! That robot stole her Spirit Key!"

Without hesitation, Aki chased after the two, shouting petty insults at the robot all the way.

Twilight Ball (Ferisen, Amiluet, June)

Amiluet cracked a smirk when June mentioned her and Ferisen sounding interesting. "Well duh, that's the whole reason why we were up on that stage - to make ourselves more interesting." But she did a double-take. "W-w-wait... did you say you're from Earth? The Earth?"

"Given she is a human, it would seem obvious," Ferisen told her, then turned to June. "Do forgive Amiluet a bit - she can seem childish at times even though she's an adult. Actually, right now we are on a little purple planet called Orenya. We sisters have heard legends about Earth - it was rumored that that planet and this one were once connected long ago, via a world on a magical plane alongside Earth."

"You see that bright indigo star out there?" Amiluet gestured over to the dark side of the sky, where said star, one shining much brighter than the few very faint ones in the sky, hovered a good distance above the horizon. "Earth lies just beyond that star, so I heard. Perhaps you might have seen it - I've sometimes wondered if it looks any different from the other side."

"Or called any different - here we call it Reimindra."^note The star is actually Alkaid, the star at the tail end of the Big Dipper/the nose of the Ursa Major constellation. Ferisen was looking at June the entire time, forming a curious connection between the two pairs of emerald-green eyes. "So if you are from Earth and came here for the purpose of meeting people, then that could only mean one of two things. That this is a dream, or that the worlds are being connected once more."

Amiluet bounced on her feet and shook Ferisen's exposed light brown forearm in her peach-hued hands. "If the worlds are connected, then that means we can visit Earth!"

Just then there was a flash of light - a dazzling orb of some sort had struck an invisible wall just a short distance away from the hall, before which two mages, one pointy-eared and one winged like the Bardic Sisters, were facing away and holding their staffs up high. Beyond them, another person of some sort flew away on a dragon - something like a wyvern judging by its two legs and wide scaly wings - approximately the size of a horse.

Completely unfazed by the commotion, Ferisen asked June, "so what do you do there?"

Yukijou-minato - Snow Castle (Rin, Nick, Adam, Jackson, Gwenafer, Gliosem, Alice)

Master of Chaos said in the discussion thread to assume all her Dream II characters would just be acting all confused, so I assume this applies to the teen boys. Which means it's my turn to post.

It comforted Gliosem, even more than the rather thin-woven cape she wrapped herself up in, to know that Rin came from a world where magic was an omnipotent force - this made the planet Aria sound even more interesting. Alice, though, said she was from Earth. Gliosem had heard of Earth before, and tried to recall some of the legends she had heard about that planet as Rin led the group into the building.

The first thing Gliosem noticed was the rush of warm air as she stepped onto the stone floor, such that she threw her cape backward and re-folded her wings underneath it. Then she saw the wooden floors and walls with some decoration - the design was not too different than the residences she had seen back on Orenya, though a glimpse around the courtyard told her that this was only one room of possibly several larger ones. Noticing how Rin wiped her shoes on the mat before stepping onto the wooden floor, Gliosem decided to do the same, stopping before her.

That's when she heard Gwenafer agreeing with Rin on magic just being there, mentioning a "storm of creation" - and though she had never heard that term before, she knew, intuitively, what she meant. Everything had a beginning, after all, and something created everything - this, she knew well, though Ferisen likely knew about it more than she did (the latria player had a much more spiritual nature overall). Thus, when she heard Gwenafer say "just like here, I guess", she jumped in.

"And just like Orenya, where magic is a vital element of existence, one that everyone can utilize. It holds an even stronger presence than it does here, and thus it as at the core of our culture." She looked to Gwenafer, specifically her weird mechanical-ish eye, which she still saw a distinct aura around. "You say you are not a mage - but your eye clearly has some magic about it. There is a saying that there's a magician inside everyone, and I must wonder the things you can see with that sort of eye."

When she glimpsed Alice, she suddenly remembered her remarks about her version of magic. "That too sounds terrible," Gliosem said to her. "Rin is correct - if magic worked like that, you have every right to protect yourself. I have heard of Earth before - legend even has it that it and Orenya were once linked long ago, though possibly through a different dimension. There have been rumors of the people of Earth forgetting all about the use of magic later on - and if you say that your version of magic comes only from this 'Eyes and Teeth', it is possible that it may be using the promise of a new power to trick people." She shook her head. "It is sad, truly... but at least here, the only eyes and teeth are the physical ones we all have, and you need not fear the magic that we use."

Then she looked to Rin. "This is a rather nice place so far." She only said it to be polite, as she was not that impressed with the place... yet.

edited 27th Dec '16 1:36:41 AM 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.

The Graveyard

Concrete feels hard and cold. Nergui is sitting with his back pressed to a pile of rubble, panting heavily, and watches in horror as something he just dodged flies away and explodes in the distance.

"By Ceallagh the Bloody... That was a close one..."

"Glad you like it. For a while I've been thinking that you have no fight left in you," hears he a familliar voice. "And you are in the wrong here. My bath is not even ready yet. Most of the strugglers here have no blood coursing through their veins, though. Some don't even have the veins to speak of. Strange."

Ceallagh falls silent, once again leaving Nergui to ponder on the meaning of the words he just heard. He looks up above the rubble and sees the battle participants up close: several human-looking, but not quite human characters, a large grey armored beast and something that makes Nergui's head hurt when he looks at it. Nergui runs towards the back door to the Manor. He reaches to the door handle but when he is about to grab it, hears Ceallagh's voice:

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Invading the abode, just like that? Where are your manners, khagan's son?"

"It's not really occupied, is it?"

"You can't know that. And you don't know who it belongs to." The last bit sounded like a threat. Then again, Ceallagh could make a comment about the weather sound threatening.

Nergui knocks on the door, and it opens by itself with a loud creak. He sees the empty lobby up ahead, but when he steps over the threshold, suddenly everything goes black.

Spiral out, keep going.

[Yukijou-minato - Snow Castle (Rin, Nick, Adam, Jackson, Gwenafer, Gliosem, Alice)]

Years of working as Chief Security Officer had perhaps counter-intuitively made Alice less paranoid; it's important to know who is really out to get you when you're responsible for deploying elite agents and military-grade resources to return the favor. All this insistence that magic was a mindless tool, though... Magocracy propaganda was no different. The Void is empty by definition, they said, it's just the wellspring of all potential for creation. Of course it can't have a mind of its own, and anything the mage apprentice thinks they perceive is nothing but the human mind's tendency towards anthropomorphism in action. Mainstream Xayusa canon even taught that while everything had a "spirit", the spirit of magic was the benevolent ancestral spirit of Axaq ul'Toris, and so obviously not wont to scheme against humanity. And the Eyes and Teeth, the Magocracy insisted, was an entirely different being only sinners had need to fear; if you sensed it while probing the arcane, that just meant it was watching you, so behave.

Suffice it to say, she didn't find their insistence comforting, and it seemed odd they'd homed in on that theme so quickly. Had her defenses grown so weak they'd been reading her mind? She'd watch them, carefully. She forced herself to think about "It's a Small World", without humming it or giving any other indication. If any of them started humming that damn song, they'd be in for it. Externally, however, the only indication she gave of any of this was a nod and an non-committal "mm-hmm". She had something else she wanted to say on the topic of the arcane, but that could wait until the tea. Or, really, any other sort of food. It would help her make a point in a way an entirely abstract conversation might not.

It was then that Alice suddenly noticed something that struck her as unusual about her interactions with the others here. A small thing, but given how she was feeling after today's events, it was so blindingly obvious she couldn't believe she'd only just noticed it. She didn't let it reach her conscious mind, keeping it hidden under that accursed theme park music so telepaths wouldn't be able to lay a finger on it, but she filed it away for future reference. She kept her expression mostly polite, but there was now a hint of slighted irritation at the edges of her eyes, belying a deep well of Minnesotan passive-aggressive anger. Otherwise, she was happy to let the conversation continue on around her.

[Beta Town] (Ruka, Ari, Gon)

Ruka was barely able to phase her way out of her explosive covered gauntlet, ditching the entire arm of her suit and jumped back, turning so that her armored side was exposed to the explosion. She was hurled against a wall by the blast, slamming hard into her unprotected shoulder. Slumping to the ground, the half-ghost (emphasis on half) groaned in pain due to her injuries.

Glancing up, she saw the Messenger leap to where she was. It tossed its remaining lance over to its left hand and used its now free hand to drive its arm into her discarded armor. "Bastard..." she said, weakly. She noticed the golden feathers that landed on her, reinvigorating her. So did the Knight.

Turning around to face Kinaga, the Messenger cloaked its lance in deep blue energy. It lept, jabbing its lance at the goddess before leaping away. It looked around, finding itself surrounded by machines. Looking up, it saw Lord Metatronic bearing down on it.

Surrounded and outnumbered, the Knight swiveled its head to observe its situation. It came to one conclusion, use its last stratagem. The silently blinking light on its chest stopped, replaced by one of solid blue surrounded by twelve smaller blue lights. The Messenger shone slightly with enigmatic light as the pilfered gauntlet flaring to life, the top most of the twelve lights changing to red.

The alien machine evaded the the various V-bots with breakneck speed. It swept its lance, cloaked in a rainbow of energies, at a few targets nearby, before cleaving a hapless machine in two with the plasma blade. Coming to a stop in mid air, another light changed to red as flakes began peeling off the Messenger's body.

Meanwhile, Ruka pulled herself off the ground. She began striding forward, raising her right arm which was clad in nearly skin-tight white fabric. A faint glow began dancing along her arm.

There was a crack of thunder as a bolt of lightning dropped out of the sky, striking Ruka upraised hand. The purple and blue electricity cloaked her arm, forming claw-like projections on her hand. She clutched her chestplate with her left hand briefly before continuing towards the messenger, glaring at it through her visor.

---

[Twilight Ball] (June, Amiluet, Ferisen)

June's raised an eyebrow in amusement, "A magical plane alongside the Earth, you say? How... interesting," she purred. She slowly blinked, "In all my various travels, I can't say I've ever heard of a place called Orenya before." She glanced back at the buffet table. She wanted another scone thingy.

"What do I do there, you ask? I manage people. I really don't like doing that sometimes. Terribly boring stuff, it's like herding cats. So I usually just pop off somewhere and go do something fun," she said, before abruptly spinning on the spot. She began walking towards the buffet table.

"Oh, by the way, this is all a dream," she said as she tilted her head towards the two women. June picked up a plate off the table and began loading it with food. Moments later, she was gazing out at the goings on outside the hall, nibbling a piece of cheese. Or at least something blue that tasted like cheese. She shrugged and went back to nibbling on it.

---

[Yukijou-minato ~ Snow Castle (Main Keep 1st Floor)] (Megumi, Rin, Gwenafer, Adam, Nick, Jackson, Gliosem, Alice)

Rin nodded towards Gliosem, "Thank you." She gazed around at the group, not wanting to continue the talk about magic at the present. When everyone had finished wiping their feet on the mats, she turned around. "Follow me. I shall take you to the drawing room." She headed to the back of the room and turned to go down the left hand hallway. She tensed up when she saw who was standing there.

She was slightly taller than the Admiral, green-eyed with shoulder-length dark gray hair. She wore a white apron over top a black outfit, a white collared long sleeve shirt with a calf length skirt, black tights and high heeled shoes. On her head was a white, ruffled headpiece... and cat ears. She smiled at Rin before bowing, "M'lady."

"Megumi," Rin said calmly. A series of popping noises could be heard by all. "You. Drugged me."

The maid held a knuckle to her lips, "I apologize, m'lady. You hadn't slept for at least a week. The staff was beginning to get worried about you. I was worried about you."

"You conspired against me behind my back. I trusted you—" Rin looked around at the group behind her. She paused in thought, burrowing her forehead in her hand. Sighing deeply, her face softened slightly as she looked back up at her maid, "We have guests. Prepare some tea for us."

"Right away, m'lady." Megumi bowed before turning and heading down the hall.

The Admiral faced the others, "That was my personal maid, Megumi." She tapped her foot a few times, "The drawing room is just down the hall, if you just continue following me."

edited 3rd Jan '17 2:52:06 PM by WillDeRegio

[Castle (First Floor)]

None of the boys knew just what anyone was talking about, so all they did was follow Rin inside the castle.

That is, until Rin inexplicably allowed the maid who drugged her to make them tea; when that happened, Nick snapped his head towards her, quirking an eyebrow.

"Are you serious?" Nick asked, "You want someone who drugged you to make us tea?"

Jackson twisted his lip, "I hate to say it, but I agree with Nick. That's a huge red flag. Why do you still trust her?"

Adam didn't say anything. He just crossed his arms and looked down, wondering how on earth did the maid who drugged her even got here.

edited 27th Dec '16 3:24:16 PM by Masterofchaos

[Farm – Barn (Min, Varris, Vince, Ren Yangchao, Tsadro)]

For just a moment, compelled by nothing but her own stubbornness, Min almost kept arguing with Vince, but when the ghostly figures appeared, the words died in her throat, and she stumbled back as though pushed, covering her mouth with a trembling hand. There had to be dozens of them, winking in and out of existence without Vince even noticing - or if he did, he didn’t seem to care at all.

And only a few seconds after it stopped Mazra and Seilaan vanished as well, leaving the rest of them alone in the silence. Min felt a sudden chill and folded her arms tightly, trying to pull her tunic closer to herself. Numbly, she thought, My old jacket had been so much warmer than this...

In a quick, hushed tone, Varris said, “Min, you should sit down. Please. I’ll handle this.” Min moved her head in a gesture that was halfway to being a nod, and lowered herself back into the chair, not making a sound. And what could she say to Vince, anyway? If she was being honest, she hadn’t even been talking about him in the first place. Not really.

Varris’s gaze lingered on Min for a few seconds, eyes soft and full of concern, before giving her a quick nuzzle on the cheek and turning back to Vince. “We’re dropping this conversation now, alright?"

His tone made it clear that this wasn't a question.

I'm sorry this took so long.

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

[farm, inside barn]

The moment Varris said that, what little energy Vince had left drained straight out of him. "I believe we are in agreement."

As the sky outside finished clouding over completely into an even sheet of gray, he picked up the cloak he'd lent to Seilaan and directed his telekinesis through it. The dark fabric briefly took on a greenish glow as dust and dirt from the barn was stripped out of it, falling into a neat patch on the floor. One of his psychic arms dragged a nearby crate behind him, he tossed the cloak over it and eased himself onto the seat, being careful to not bend his arthritic knees too suddenly.

At some point, the wyverns had retreated into their loft. Lise had been observing from afar with a perplexed look. Once they were both sitting, Lise stepped carefully towards Min and Varris, giving them a saddened look as she remembered that they didn't like her, then perked her ears back up when she saw Tsadro nearby... but something was off.

She moved next to him, trying to see if Tsadro was looking at something outside. Suddenly, he let out a quiet gasp, apparently so lost in whatever was troubling him that he didn't notice she was there.

edited 29th Dec '16 6:23:17 AM by CrystalGlacia

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

[Marble Corridor (Seilaan, Mazra)]

Mazra sighed as exaggeratedly as she could as Seilaan finished her tirade. It wasn't just because she was mad - if the 'Renesian' girl wanted a duel, which was how it seemed, aggravating her even further might be an advantage. "Oh, right, then that speech about context I'm totally unfamiliar with certainly countered my point," she said, trying to mimic the dramedy performances she'd most recently seen. "And the part where you decided to escalate to physical force? That's a strong argument right there."

She detached her field-sword hilt and thumbed it on. The blade - this time a bright blue - leaped to life with a hum.

"That said," she continued, "before you prove your moral superiority by hitting me with your magic sword, I should point out that if it doesn't seem like I care about anything you're saying, it might be because I'm not sure you even exist!" (Maybe Seilaan was getting to her a little; that wasn't supposed to be so loud). "I don't know anything about you, or your world, or Min and Varris's, for that matter, except what I've been told in what might just be a really weird dream. And the same goes for you about me, which is why - again - I think there just might be some projection occurring."

She rolled her eyes, and raised her field-sword vertically parallel to her face in a salute. "But if you want to just go ahead and duel until someone wakes up, that's fine. Like I said. I'm not exactly tired."

Snow Castle (Gwenafer, Adam, Nick, Jackson, Gliosem, Alice)

Gwenafer casually tapped the metal socket surrounding her eye. "Oh, this thing?" she said in response to the winged woman, "It's just a normal eye... more or less. Got it from a friend back home after..." She waved a hand over her scars and made a "fwoosh!" sound, before shrugging and shaking her head a bit.

She followed Rin down the hallways of the castle, and as a new person appeared - apparently some kind of servant or maid judging by her outfit - she realized how strained the muscles behind her single eyebrow were getting. Cat ears? Eh, why not...

Once she had left to fetch tea, Gwenafer stepped up to Rin, gesturing towards Nick and Jackson.

"You know they've got a point, right?" she asked the admiral, while she tried to make sense of everything in her head. So Rin remembered how she had fallen asleep and ended up here? And if the maid - Megumi - was here as well, did that mean that she had fallen asleep too, or was she just a part of the dream, like the rest of the castle? And - Gwenafer scratched her head, sighing - what the Depths would happen if they all got drugged?

She sighed again. "Gods..."

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

Beta Town (Gon, Ari, Ruka)

Gon was kind of surprised that the Messenger didn't bother attacking any of their revived Mystripets - perhaps it still thought they had fallen. Instead it decided to attack Kinaga, of all pets, via a quick jab of its lance. Kinaga had been watching the Messenger all this time, and enveloped herself in fire just prior to its attack. While this helped absorb the damage, the lance still struck the flaming naga in the side. Gon watched her HP fall by about a third on his Scanner screen. While that wasn't a lot, he knew that the "Wings of Life" technique she had just used was her only healing move, so he decided to use one of the Cure Sprites in his Scanner to recover that lost health. Like all Sprites, this one manifested as a little ball of light that entered its target and vanished into sparkly dust.

Meanwhile, Gon beckoned Ari over - or was about to, but noticed that Ari had run off somewhere. Aww man, I just thought of a strategy too... But then he took another look at his Scanner. Wait a minute... And so, on his Scanner screen, he navigated over to his three Mystripets and selected commands for each. Or at least Kinaga and Galaxeon, since Aki was off chasing after the robot that stole Ari's Scanner. For the former he chose a technique called "Firewall", and for the latter, "Static Field".

While this was going on, Lord Metatronic was watching as the Messenger dodged the V-Bots' attacks, cleaving several of them in half along the way. This didn't faze him too much though - when a few robots fell, a few more jumped in to take their place, attacking the Messenger as before. This time, though, Metatronic pulled several of the broken ones aside, opening a panel on his arm concealing a bunch of tools to repair them with. After the hasty repair, he tossed them right back into the fray.

While the V-Bots kept on attacking, even after the red light appeared on the Messenger, the Mystripets went to work. Kinaga went first, firing a small fireball at the Messenger's feet, which spread into a concentrated circle of flames that closed in on the Messenger, restricting movement through the wall. After whispering something to Satori, Galaxeon went next, flying all around the Messenger while sending electric sparks flying from his hands, trying to stun the Messenger - especially its head and arms. And to finish off the trio of traps, Satori sent ice crystals flying into the Messenger's feet, anchoring them into the ground so that it couldn't dodge attacks as easily.

Elsewhere in the town, Ari continued chasing after the little robot, with Aki flying above and blowing flames at it. "Flaming Silk!" Aki shouted at one point, blowing fiery strings from his hollow mouth. This did the trick; the fiery silk wrapped around the robot, causing it to trip and drop the Scanner and the strange purple chip before it. Ari immediately ran over to pick these two up.
"Looks like I'll have to find my own way to repair my Scanner," Ari remarked. "Come on Aki, let's go back to the battle!"
And the two ran or flew back the way they came.

Twilight Ball (Ferisen, Amiluet, June)

The way June described her job, it sounded boring indeed. "Oh, you mean for building projects?" Amiluet asked, following her over to the buffet table. That was the first thing that popped into her mind upon hearing it, thinking of those people who tell construction workers where to put all the wooden beams and roofing materials and whatnot. "Although, your shirt said 'I am the Queen', did it not? That's perfect for ordering people around! You're like, the queen of construction!"

When the two Bardic Sisters were about to follow June over to the buffet table, they heard her say that this is a dream. To this, Amiluet gave her a look of displeasure. "Kraguor. How do you know for sure? And what difference does it make anyway? Dreams, reality - in a way, they are one. Right, Fair?" She glanced up at Ferisen.

"You should not use such strong language at a gathering like this," Ferisen told her, then turned to June. "Amiluet is correct - here on Orenya, we make little distinction between dreams and reality, especially since the former frequently influences the latter. Come to think of it, I have no recollection of us arriving here, nor anything of our performance prior to that sunestre making an announcement."

"Is that what that was?" Amiluet asked her. "I thought the announcer was just a lunatic, introducing us near the end of our performance. But you're right - we would've ridden here by dragon I bet - but I don't remember that at all."

"They did say something about a new railway system that would traverse the northern part of Rumia," Ferisen mentioned to her, "but I don't see any evidence of it here. And I also remember Glee serving us that tea made from the Tree of Dreams." By that time Amiluet had begun to peruse the buffet selection, but she continued on to herself. "I also remember wondering if she included some of the legendary bark in that tea - if that's the case, this will be a very long dream indeed."

Noticing June try some blue stuff on the table, Amiluet decided to pick up a piece of it herself. When she tasted it, her eyes went wide. "I-i-is this... cheese? B-b-but it's illegal to serve cheese at a public gathering!" Gingerly, she grabbed a plate, and her eyes fell on a plate topped with circular biscuits in many different colors, with a thin layer of filling sandwiched in between them^note these are macarons, though Amiluet wouldn't know what those are. But as soon as she saw how creamy the filling looked, she put it right back. Instead she put something on her plate that looked safer, but still different: a yellow spongy cake of some sort. It tasted the slightest bit sweet, but had a very weird consistency that wasn't quite bread, and wasn't quite jelly either.

"What is this?" she asked a nearby guest, who told her it was called an "omelet"^note It's a Japanese style omelet, which is sweet and more cake-like. "I have never heard of an omelet before. I wonder what's in it..." She took another bite of it, but still couldn't tell.

"On Orenya we consider it immoral to eat anything that animals use to feed their young," Ferisen mentioned to June. "Though if this is a gathering of many worlds, it doesn't make much difference. So, how did you arrive at the conclusion that this is a dream?"

Snow Castle (Megumi, Rin, Gwenafer, Nick, Jackson, Adam, Gliosem, Alice)

All the reassurance that magic was not inherently harmful didn't seem to reassure Alice very much. But given Alice's history with said magic, it was easy for Gliosem to see why she would be so doubtful. Speaking of Alice, as she looked at her, a peculiar thought came to her, a sudden inspiration, like that for a song.

When Rin led the group down a hallway, they ran into another woman, one in a black and white frilly outfit, and with large triangular ears and dark grey hair. Gliosem's eyes widened. What's a sunestre^note Those of you who have been following my posts in Frontier may remember that Nemaforte is a sunestre doing here!? But she's a bit tall for one...

There was some discussion about the maid, named Megumi, having drugged Rin (apparently with some sort of sleeping tonic), and then of Gwenafer and the teen boys being suspicious about her serving them tea because of it. The whole thing seemed rather odd to Gliosem, but not quite in the same way.

"I would like to know what sort of drug she used," she mentioned to the group. "After all, I drugged myself" as well as my sisters "to end up in this dream, which it seems we are all sharing. There is a tree that grows on the dark side of Orenya called drimari-nam, or 'Tree of Dreams'. I recently managed to obtain some of the inner bark of this tree, which is extremely rare, and known for encouraging vivid and very long-lasting dreams. The leaves function as a general sleeping tonic, so I brewed a tea out of both. If Megumi is preparing a similar tea, we may experience a dream inside a dream."

As she continued to follow Rin down the hall, she began to hum a melody that just then came to her, something perhaps inspired by this place, or its occupants. It was a very simple yet cheerful melody, and for some reason it seemed to carry a message of equality for all, the same topic of the last song of her performance over at the Twilight Ball. Though she didn't realize it, it was the exact same melody that Alice was focusing on in her mind.

edited 2nd Jan '17 10:40:26 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.