The Prince of Foolish Relevations
The Graveyard
Her eyes widening as she heard that thunderous boom, the patchwork soul with no name witnesses the Sentinel being struck down. Patches' lightly but notably shivering, she nonetheless finally turned to Friedrich- Yet dazed & confused, as if trying to remember something instinctual to herself. Gifts aren't like that, not normally. His was corrupted, and from the looks of it his Gift is the only thing giving him purpose in such a feral state... They're both victims, once you get down to it.
Patches' confusion fading away, and her body presenting more confidence, she finally responds- Though with a touch of sadness she can't explain. "Nuh-uh, whatever that thing is, it didn't possess Armory Knight- They were born together even. I don't know why Armory Knight is so feral, but his soul was likely damaged somehow... Thus, that golden being is the only thing capable of guiding them. I don't think separating the two would do any good in his state, but it isn't to blame. Least, I don't think so, since my soul is a lot like it..."
The Armory Knight, on the other hand, almost seemed to look proud at the apparent defeat of the Sentinel- To the point its three short growls sound excited. Yet with the disappearance of the shadow goddess, it once more appeared angry. With golden & black eyes wildly looking around and standing tall on its legs, the metallic warrior is clearly seeking who to target next. Though it dismisses the Sentinel's roar, the humanoid arsenal couldn't ignore seeing the unnatural forms twisting around itself.
Watching, trying to figure out just what is disgracing his senses, the Armory Knight found itself caught off guard to the attack- Yet as those claws raked him, nothing like blood spilled forth or anything organic for that matter... As if the creature is nothing more than an anthropomorphic weapon, not one bit resembling natural life. Still, with eyes full of rage, the beast shrieks in outrage- Like someone who asked for help, only to be assaulted. With that, the Armory Knight's body detonates upon realizing it could not fight back.
Patches screaming in sudden horror at the sight, the power of her soul fluxes once more- Spheres with crackling electricity trapped inside, forming around her as the girl remains uncertain of how to act. I, I-I... What the hell? She, he, it can't... Brother? I... I wanted to say goodbye, this isn't how I... The spheres shaking erratically in place, Patches sharply turns towards Sentinel- Yet her rage & sorrow is tainted with confusion, as she hears a familiar bestial scream as the ground is sharply impacted.
As the Armory Knight's outer body turned to explosions, a 'core' had launched into the air like a missile- Its body forming anew from up above, flamethrowers sending it crashing back to the ground away from the spot it had been assaulted. Though its senses were still being assaulted by the enigmatic forms surrounding it, the creature hadn't taken notice of what was happening to his supposed master. Yet, without even looking, the beast suddenly stilled- The same time as the Golden Being's 'form' began to manifest.
"Light World"
Sensing a ripple, a breach into this place of unfiltered existence, the impossible being turns towards the source- A human being? Tilting his 'head' slightly in order to convey curiosity, the golden being listened quietly. Once the peculiar human wrapped up, he sent a shiver through the man's soul, yet... Behaved in nature, as if merely confirming his existence. The mysterious being soon found himself being interrupted, the soul of the necromancer practically screaming at him.
'Eyes' flickering over to her frame, the barest frown marks its impression of a face. Yet her doll, pathetically trying to worm itself into his being, accusing him despite knowing nothing? The unnatural being's face splits into a snarl, only to abruptly stop- Gazing towards the doll's mistress, and realizing the connection between the two. With that the creature of Defiance ignored the doll, addressing Sinistrina whilst leaving his 'words' unintelligible to the parts unique to the imitation.
"I call him imitation, because his life is a forgery- Based upon you humans, yet his soul something else in nature. However, do not let his foolishness bleed into you, preventing you from understanding: I am no devil, no trickster. I am above something as petty as corruption, so I can promise we would do you no harm. However, my body's soul is breaking from this strain- We were not meant to be one so directly. Help me save him, and in turn we will do the same for you. I will not lie, though, in that I need soul matter to repair him- Spare who you will, and leave 'Patches' alone, but there is no other way to save him."
Smiling victoriously as that insulting thing was struck down by his body, his 'smile' turned to light amusement as the first to address him encroaches onto this realm of raw reality- Only for his smile to fade into concern, sensing the harm this place is inflicting on her. Unimpressed and worried for her as she expanded her existence here, the being above deities spoke to her- But not through her soul, words gently falling upon her alone.
"This place is not safe for you, this is the light that gives substance to the world below... I do not know how long the male will last, but you are in pain here. Please, escape while you still can." With those words spoken, he finally addresses the human who foolishly treaded into creation unforged. "I'm not one concerned with appearances, so I don't mind. Though from my understanding, gold seems to be a color regularly associated with existence- It would surely help with your attempts of scaring and enraging beings lesser than me. The notion of distracting me is very ridiculous however, so you should of been more concerned stopping my body instead."
That was when the filthy creature began working her power on reality, bounding the light together with the world it was meant to illuminate- And what he could only presume to be the world's shadow, pouring into this unnatural fusion breaking under the strain of her attempts to forge something new. Unfazed as the thing before him unleashed a pulse of light, if anything it was annoyed once she boasted. Even as the scales swarmed towards him, the being beyond existence didn't panic.
Giving a cursory look over the ribbons condensing and the strings of light coiling around him, this golden being didn't even bother to look towards the Armory Knight. Yet, a look of perverse amusement crossed its face, finally establishing an image of incredible reality as the thing herself tried to force one- Six shimmering wings made of blades sprouting from him, four from his back and two from the sides of his arms. His form, not so much adorned but is, resembled a golden suit of armor based off his own body's appearance. Yet his brown face... It did not belong to him, those sad green eyes and messy brown hair- Was that the Armory Knight's true face?
Whatever the case, the strange being soon found himself being bound to the ground. Glancing towards the woman of magic and that curious male, the Defiant creature "sidesteps" for lack of a word- And reappears before the exhausting creature that keeps bothering him. "I will not lie, I underestimated your power- Any other Gift would of been subdued by now. However, it seems your attacks are solely dependent on your targets having no understanding of themselves. Being a Royal Heart, I was intelligent from the very start- Allowing me to understand my Defiant nature now that I have action of my own."
Holding up his left hand, with a crackling orb of pure knowledge hovering above, this so called "Royal Heart" intones once more. "I do not have time to continue wasting with your tricks, so bare witness and understand that I am beyond you." With that he vanishes, and emerges from behind the monstrous sentinel- Slamming the orb into her very soul.
???
Nothingness, oblivion, a void- How does one describe an absolute lack of anything? Is it even possible to understand such? This... Thinking? This thinking thing hurts... It must be nice, being nothingness, it hurts so much trying to understand it. These others? Do they think? Can't even make them out, do they even have... Form? What is that ev- Huh?
Have you ever witnessed a birth before? I suppose that's the closest you could compare the abrupt creation of reality- Or like an egg hatching. Really, even I have trouble deciding what this was... One 'minute' there was nothingness, the next all of this impossible existence thing. Being honest, I probably haven't discerned every single thing there acting like it created everything.
Whatever this unexistence is, it suddenly erupted- Countless figures seemingly responsible, each overlapping and reflecting off the other. T-this thing called existence, its so prominent now- Darkness and light spreading out in all directions, the others so illuminated now, darting off with such speed! T-trees and oceans and cities, sprouting up everywhere! What are these things? What's all those things, l-like that ship? Huh? Is that man... Looking over here?
That man, even now, I'm still not sure what that was. I suppose progeny of existence would call that a 'steampunk' aesthetic to his armor. Overall, it is quite strange for a progeny of existence to stand atop a spaceship, as it travels through the 'space' between universes & multiverses. Still, I've been thankful that man seemed to spot me, as curiosity overtook...
His ship, did it come from that tree? It... What are those things, teeming within existence? Progeny of some kind? With that, 'I' found myself shaking and darting, pursuing that multiverse with a blind obsession. But do you see now? Just how little you can perceive the entirety of the omniverse? Just what is your mind & soul telling you, trying to process purest nothing and all of creation? Can you feel the undeniable truth, that I predate all that you know to be possible and impossible?
"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Graveyard - Crater (Patches, Sentinel, Moreena, Caleb, Half, Sinistrina, Friedrich, Gabe, Ceallagh)
Friedrich had been so sure of his conclusion that he was rather disappointed to hear Patches say that Armory Knight and the Golden Being had an entirely different connection to each other - now they seemed more like partners. He felt a sudden weight in his unnaturally ticking heart when Patches mentioned both Armory Knight and herself having corrupted souls, especially upon sensing the sadness with which she said it. He even sounded the slightest bit sad himself when he replied, as sad as his broken self could possibly sound.
"Souls are odd things. I've always thought my own corrupted in a way myself, an aspect of it grown from that of my moth- erm, my creator." For a brief moment he glanced over at Sinistrina, who was just now dispelling the shadow sheild she had tried to protect the Sentinel with. "The souls of dolls are normally stored within their bodies, but due to how broken my body is, I suppose it couldn't be entirely contained. I'm not even sure if the heart is an aspect of the soul, or is distinct from it."
Then he heard commotion - Armory Knight was being pulled apart by those... things the Sentinel summoned. Annoyed, he turned around to face the supposed "matron of medicine", who now seemed more like a matron of fury or power. "Sentinel!" he shouted. "I thought we agreed to not hurt Armory Knight! What kind of a goddess of medicine are you anyway?!" Sighing, he turned back to Patches, who was understandably upset about what was happening to Armory Knight... who just then resurrected or something? Well, more like shed his body and grew a new one. If he had a Gift, it was some Gift indeed...
Meanwhile, Sinistrina was kind of surprised when she saw Armory Knight's lightning attack travel right around her shield and hit the Sentinel full-force, but given how hastily she had cast the spell, she wasn't too surprised. But the divine(ish) being seemed to be handling herself quite well, though the way she distorted reality and brought Gabe and a spirit that seemed eerily similar to Moreena (had the latter been astral projecting?) back into view as the worlds merged was... interesting. And all those creatures? What kind of strange distorted world was this anyway? Though from what she could tell, it was one where the laws of science and magic were already loose. Which brought to her a thought... what if all of us can bend reality to some extent in here?
Just then, a terrifying scream resounded through the desolate air, though to Sinistrina it was less terrifying and more plain annoying. With it, new person arrived on the scene. Some sort of woman with an oddly colorful dress. She was clearly very excited about this battle, invigorated by the sight of conflict. This annoyed Sinistrina even further, as she herself was not that keen on fighting - even opposed to it for the most part. And the tone she took on sounded very similar to that of Lucina, in all its twisted cheerfulness.
But before she could respond, she felt again the Golden Being speaking to her soul within Misery Manor. At first her instinct was to be skeptical at his insistence that he was not a trickster and didn't mean any harm. However, something within that statement struck a different chord with her. For a moment, her attention shifted to the attic of the manor, which held a painting of her childhood self holding a jar, surrounded by spiders, one of which was a black widow spider perched on her outstretched finger. The latter was the same spider held inside Friedrich's pocketwatch, and also the same spider responsible for her discovering her powers of necromancy in the first place - when her mother killed it, she ended up raising it from the dead while mourning its destruction.
She remembered how shocked her mother had been when she discovered that she could do such things, and how a similar shock came up over and over again throughout her life. All along, she had demonstrated a talent for black magic, and despite that, she vowed never to use it to serve a harmful end. She recalled the instances in which she tried to help people with said magic and instead ended up causing harm - especially the moments when she tried to heal someone, one of whom was her own father when he was old and sick, but instead ended up killing them.
What if this being is in a similar situation? What if, despite his arrogance, he feels judged by his powers of defiance and and tortured by his supposed "oneness" with Armory Knight?
Indeed, when she looked at his new form, she had to wonder if the face he had had a connection to the Knight, similar to her own connection to Friedrich.
But then she "heard" the Golden Being's admittance of needing soul matter to repair Armory Knight; at this she had an idea. Rather than speak through her soul, she spoke with her body, her own physical voice.
"If you needed soul matter - or ether, as I prefer to call it - why didn't you tell me in the first place? In fact, I find it a tad insulting that you would ask someone like me to take the souls of these people here" and here she gestured around to the rest of the group "to meet that end. Despite the nature of my magic, I try my best to minimize the harm done with it." Emphasis on try. "However, as it so happens, I spent the entirety of my death trapped in a world where ether accumulates. It is most unfortunate that it consists of the souls of people executed during my sister's reign, but hopefully it would serve your need. Allow me to show you."
Closing her eyes, she spread her arms wide. "As the mistress leftward of the black woodsnote , I conjure the black mists of the Deathly Glade. Like the dimensions conjured before, let them come into being."
At those words, leafless and lifeless black trees sprouted from the ground a short distance away on both sides. From them, a thin black mist wafted, shrouding the area between them right on top of the mists conjured by the Sentinel.
Just then she felt a disturbance in Misery Manor - someone had entered it. Really? Now? She wanted to go there to check on the occupant, but the Golden Being was more important right now.
"This black mist contains ether," Sinistrina explained. "In this form, the ether is tainted by black magic. However, I can purify this ether by draining it of this taint, making it usable for restoring your knight. Before I do so, though, I need confirmation on your offer. I let you take this ether once I purify it, and you help me return to my mortal self. Do we have a deal?"
Though she couldn't see it in his ambiguous golden form, she knew he was nodding in approval - or whatever his equivalent of it was.note She glanced downward. I hope he keeps his word. And after a long solemn pause, she began.
Grasping her staff firmly before her in her left hand, she cupped her right one and held it close, focusing her very being on the despair echoing throughout the walls of Misery Manor, the blackness that she constantly found herself destined for. Blackness that was now gathering in her cupped hand as the taint of the black mists. At first it gathered as a thin smoke, but over time it became darker and more opaque, and as it did, the surrounding black mists became a progressively lighter shade of grey. Slowly the taint gathered in the form of an orb, growing ever blacker.
By this point, Sinistrina seemed to struggle with the process, the hand holding the orb shaking and her eyes shut tight, the black veins around both becoming more prominent beneath her pallid skin. Dark wisps flashed out of the orb like solar flares from a pitch-black sun, as she struggled to contain them within the now-pulsating orb. At a point, when the surrounding ether was of a light silvery hue with occasional black specks, the strain became a bit much for her, and knowing some of the taint had to escape, she conjured a shadowy disc similar to the one which had formed before the Sentinel on the floor below her. The edges of this disc reached upward in black tendrils eerily similar to the ones of Moreena's form, encasing her in a black dome which the tainted black wisps continued to flow into - but they could not come out.
Inside the dome, the taint was all around, eating away at her form as it tried to sustain itself inside this orb of destruction. Though a prickling pain grew throughout her body, she continued to focus on the taint, with the deal she and the Golden Being made just behind it in her mind. As the last of the taint got absorbed into the black dome, such that it was surrounded by a pure white "soup" of jumbled yet intact souls, she struggled to hold it inward as she waited for the Golden Being to act.
"Quick, take it!" Her voice sounded strained as it rang out from within the dome. "I cannot hold this taint in much longer!"
Already she was beginning to feel the effects. Invisible inside the dome, her already-corrupted body was now absorbing (more of) the taint - specifically her bones with were turning a darker grey. The flesh around them began to evaporate, the skin starting to peel off, the blood (black just like Moreena's) turning to soot, the heart stiffening... and in the manor, the soul pleading for the Golden Being to hold up his end of the deal after accepting the purified ether.
Throughout this process, Friedrich guided everyone a short distance away from the ether cloud so as to not interfere with it (he even led Patches along by the hand, which he had to reach up as high as he could to grasp hers). He kept a close eye on the black dome within, worry rising within the aspect of his soul that was connected to Sinistrina's.
Everyone is free to do whatever they want with Armory Knight and the Golden Being while Sinistrina is purifying the ether, as the process would take a little while.
edited 17th Jan '17 10:47:22 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.
[The Eldritch Factory, Forest of Bones (Durnem, Ayako, The Midnight Stitcher)]
"It seems the only way forward," Ethoya said. Then she stopped, tilted her head. "Hmm. I... apologize, but it seems I am called elsewhere. Such is the nature of one who serves the Xayu." She gave a long sigh. "I bid you all farewell, and hope you find success." Then, after a brief pause to respond appropriately to any similar farewells, she gave one last bow and vanished in a cloud of golden dust.
[Beta Town] (Ruka, Ari, Gon)
The Messenger was still fully operational for the time being, despite the massive damage it had incurred. It swiveled its head around towards the small individuals who didn't fight. They were giving orders to the others, as well as healing those that the Messenger had defeated. They had to be eliminated immediately.
There was also the problem of the sheer numbers. If there were other Messenger units available, this battle would be a guaranteed victory. However, the Knight's communications with the the collective had been cut off. There would be no reinforcements. The sixth light changed to red. The Messenger was running out of time, but it would take out as many of its opponents as it could along with it.
Ruka groaned slightly. The pain in her shoulder had died some, though why it had she wasn't entirely sure. She was in the midst of getting herself off the ground when Ari rushed over asking if she was alright. "I'll be just fine," Ruka replied.
She wobbled towards the fighting, only to stop and stare slightly at the dragonfly valiantly trying to slow down the Messenger. She was barely cognizant of Ari talking to her about the shield Galaxeon had deployed, and her warning of staying back. "Hnn? Oh, my armor can withstand up to..." Ruka blanked out for a second, "a lot." She glanced down at her exposed arm, "Oh... right."
The burning threads had absolutely no effect on the Knight as it lept away from the fray, only for it to be engulfed by Kinaga's highly persistent attack. Surrounded by a vortex of crimson flames, the Messenger was swept up into the sky.
As the effects of the attack cleared, the Knight's lance plummeted out of the sky, burying itself point first into the street. High above, the Messenger floated in midair, a ring of eight red lights and four blue on its chest, and the remnants of its left arm crumbling to dissolving flakes. It quivered in place, its movements erratic as it shakily raised its right arm, still armed with Ruka's armor.
Electricity crackled as flakes were pulled into the lance of energy being formed between the prongs of the pilfered gauntlet. The Messenger's scarred face stared at its opponents, all gathered in one spot.
The hairs on Ruka's neck stood up. She could feel the charged atmosphere, Gon and Ari could probably feel it too. "NO!" Her eyes widened as her mind jolted back to crystal clarity, realization of what was going to happen pushing her into action. Ruka darted in front of the others, left arm held up at the Knight.
Thunder roared as a bolt of lightning rent the air as it streaked forth from the Knight's gauntlet. For the third time in a short period of time Ruka was struck by lightning. She stumbled back slightly from it, clutching her chest as electricity coursed through her body. She winced as her body was wracked with pain. Oh no, not now...
She glanced up at the the Messenger. Two blue lights remained. Her mind flashed back to the first mostly successful kill of a Knight when they first showed up thirteen years prior. It had engaged a Zumwalt-class destroyer and received three direct hits from its main gun, causing the machine to crash into the destroyer midship. However, it failed to disable the Messenger's self-destruct mechanism... Self-destruct mechanism. How could she have forgotten about that?
Ruka turned to the others, staggering slightly. She collapsed her helmet, her eyes screwed shut. "RUN," she said bordering on a snarl, voice full of urgency, "I'll hold it off."
[Yukijou-minato ~ Snow Castle (Main Keep 1st Floor)] (Rin, Adam, Nick, Jackson, Gwenafer, Magdalene, Gliosem, Alice)
Rin nodded approvingly at Jackson's suggestion of having the girl sit at their end. While the girl, who had introduced herself as Magdalene, the Queen of Yellow Flowers (a self granted title by the Admiral's standards), seemed a bit... odd, she did apparently save her maid the hassle of replacing the broken tatami mat, albeit in a very showy manner. Besides, she seemed more of their age anyway.
"In rooms like these, one sits on the floor as per my example," the Admiral said as she gestured to herself, "Tatami allows one to kneel comfortably on the floor for extended periods of time. Unfortunately, the material has a tendency of getting damaged quite easily if one is not careful," Rin stared just enough to get her point across, but not to be rude.
"It is quite... troublesome to have it replaced, though, in a place like this, accidents are always bound to happen in one form or another," Rin pensively gazed back across the table as she recalled the incident involving Lieutenant Commander Akagi. She still to this day couldn't figure out how they managed to light the floor on fire with a jellyfish.
She blinked slowly before returning her attention to Magdalene, "You remind me of the Empress. She is about your age, which makes me wonder how you came about becoming the 'Queen of Yellow Flowers'." It probably is connected to her title of the 'Lonely Queen', which would be something else Empress Kogane have in common...
The Admiral turned her attention to the winged alien entertainer-slash-not-geisha. She seemed very fidgety around both Alice and Magdalene. Gliosem requested permission to leave the castle. Rin crossed her arms before sighing softly, "If you feel you must leave, I will not stop you. However, I will not allow one such as yourself to wander out into the cold by yourself. As a matter of fact..." Rin glanced over to the boys at the other end of the table, "I have been meaning to provide something warm to wear for anyone who needs more climate appropriate attire. If you do not mind waiting, I will have Megumi get something for you before she escorts you out of Yukijō, if you so choose."
Rin listened attentively to Alice's talk about the company she worked for, this Western Amalgamated. From what she said, it controlled the agricultural sector. However, it sounded much saner than the ridiculous things she'd heard about the Djan Alliance overseas. Alice then mentioned how she became CEO of Western Amalgamated. "You have my condolences," Rin said as she nodded her head slightly.
"Western Amalgamated sounds quite interesting. It is similar to the Big 9 of the Djan Alliance overseas," Rin steepled her hands together, "Delgates, JTW, Almont Trade Corporation, Northern Energy, Steel Industries, Bradly's, First Liberian, Blackstone Construction, and Trudo-Capital. Nine companies that are at the forefront of their respective sectors, each run by greedy men who have made Imperial dealings with the Djan Alliance a bit... difficult... a few years ago." Between the Balamar Empire's path towards conquest and the shady dealings of greedy men, I have a feeling dark times are ahead for the world... Rin glowered slightly at the her own dark thoughts.
Just then, the side door slid open again, with Megumi padding silently across the floor carrying a tray with a kettle of freshly brewed green tea. She navigated her way around the table, filling each cup with piping hot tea (making sure to place down an additional cup for Magdalene).
"Tea, is served," she stated with a bow as she placed the tray at the center of the table before taking a seat near her master. Rin leaned over to whisper in her maid's ear, "The tatami doesn't need replacing anymore. Magdalene," she glanced over to indicate the newcomer Megumi had yet to be introduced properly to, "fixed with her magic."
Megumi nodded slightly, before whispering a reply back, "Oh, I see, M'lady. That is most convenient." Rin instructed her to fetch some warmer clothes for the boys as well as Gliosem, prompting Megumi rise to her feet and bow. "Right away, M'lady," she said before taking her cup of tea with her and silently leaving the room.
edited 24th Jan '17 1:46:37 AM by WillDeRegio
Drummer Boy
[Marble Corridor]
"But that's where the—" Seilaan's expression soured, but she quickly covered it up with a cutesy smile. The final traces of her headache disappeared. It can be great having squishy cheeks. Not that they always work miracles, but... "I'll concede that I shouldn't have tried expanding the scope of the argument so hastily. I'm the type who gets carried away easily, as you can probably tell."
Seilaan rested the hilt and the flat side of the blade on her palms and proffered the sword to Mazra.
"Trade?"
She anticipated Mazra being too thrown off by this gesture to take advantage of her and attack, but in case she did attack, Seilaan was quite confident that she could defend herself with magic. Or at least dodge.
[Farm (inside barn)]
"Looks good." Ren Yangchao's robes shimmered as the light green and purple hues became jewel tones. Their long sheet of hair began braiding itself down their back. "Shall we head off?"
Without waiting for an answer, they headed towards the door. Pausing by Tsadro, they gave him a quick but critical looking-over with slightly raised eyebrows. "So. We didn't really have a chance to speak before the conversation... well, took a turn. Any favorite foods you hope to enjoy before we devolve into bickering again?" The slight turn at the corner of their mouth was the only sign that they were joking.
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
Misery Manor (Nergui)
"why are you all in white...?"
"you remember nothing..."
"stand, Nergui..."
"asking wrong questions..."
"unbecoming of khagan's son..."
"you'd be dead..."
"second son..."
"little spectacle of violence..."
"red suits you..."
"why am I with you...?"
"I'm watching you."
It stank of blood and sweat and boiled leather. The air was filled with sound of clashing metal and screams of men, women and children. The light of rising sun colored everything molten gold.
This feels familiar.
The Saturday was reserved for extracurricular activities at the Inkar the Great Academy. The training yard was filled with dueling club students of all seven years. The club was divided in three groups: years one to three, four and five, and the rest, with each group having its own fighting range. The actual duels in the junior group rarely lasted more than ten seconds, with participants quickly losing their weapons, their balance, or their breath. The time when warfare was made with swords had been long gone, but equitation, fencing and archery were still taught at the Academy out of strong sense of tradition, since Ganzorig acquired his Khaganate on horseback with swords and arrows.
And the Conqueror left to us, his descendants, the harder part: the governing of his state.
Yes, only the breed of Ganzorig could take governing positions in the state, and only those of them possessing Ceallagh's gift could compete for the highest position of Khagan, whom only the breed could elect, or overthrow. The gifted understandably held a special place and destiny in Khaganate's society.
Which for poor khuntaijnote Arslan amounted to being assassinated short time after his graduation, as we all found out. To say that my older brother's death affected my family is an understatement: Mother never recovered after that; it was the first time I saw Dilshad, Arslan's twin sister, crying; and Father's attitude towards me changed drastically. Suddenly there were high expectations to be met. Despite the fact that Dilshad was gifted, too.
Women could compete for the highest title in the Khaganate on equal grounds with men beginning in the times when, out of nowhere, a woman possessing Ceallagh's gift named Inkar appeared on the political arena at the time of crisis. She overthrew the unpopular ruler and brought to the state stability, prosperity and changes.
One change in particular was that my genealogy got a lot bigger, since it started tracing the descendants of Ganzorig matrilineally. And it seemed that, at the time I was studying it, that my extended family included almost half of the country. Yes, our curriculum included the family history.
The Academy curriculum also included the subjects a ruler is supposed to know: natural and social sciences, languages of nations within and without the Khaganate, and of course the art of war.
On all levels of the command chain. Although eventually the grunt work faded to the background, as evidenced by existence of our clubs. We still had to join one of them, to keep our bodies in shape. And keep the boredom away.
And so, fourteen-year old taijnote Nergui, having donned his leather armor and holding a helmet under his arm, stood outside the fighting range of the junior group watching his close and not-so-close relatives beat each other up senseless while waiting for his turn. He was specifically looking at the senior group's fighting range, where his other elder sister Soheila was demolishing her opposition. The instructor stopped their fight, when it became too obvious that Esen's situation is hopeless.
"Consider this win a gift from me, my gunjnote ," said he, picking up his sword which flew away from his hand after a particularly strong blow by Soheila.
"If you call this a gift then you're either an idiot or a liar and a weakling, my taij," said Soheila and, when she saw anger creeping up Esen's face, added, "If my words wound you, tomorrow you can get your satisfaction from me on a fighting range."
It was a dueling club, after all. And Sundays were reserved for feuding students to put their differences aside in a way becoming of descendants of the Conqueror. Esen stormed off, muttering curses.
Yes, Soheila lost fights only to khuntaijs and titemgunjsnote whose gift was expressed through physical prowess.
"Second year!" shouted junior group's instructor, grabbing Nergui's attention. "Taij Nergui! Taij Bataar! Pick your weapons and step to the range!"
Bataar was Nergui's brother, two years junior. The children were eligible for Academy after they started showing explicit signs of puberty, when Ceallagh's gift could start surfacing.
The fact that me and Bataar started attending the Academy at the same time actually stung a little. My peers saw it, and didn't hesitate to tease me. I could have said that I shut them all up on Sundays, but I didn't. Still, I got into fights and Father seemed to be pleased.
Nergui and Bataar went past the infirmary, where Esen had his bruises tended to, to the weapon rack, supervised by an instructor. There were three types of (dulled, naturally) swords: the acinaces: short straight and most versatile; the kilij: a weapon of the cavalry, good only for hacking; and the yatagan: favorite of the junior group.
Naturally. It's the coolest-looking! Now, why I'm seeing this day, I wonder?
They both picked the yatagans and went to the range. Bataar had a usual cocky smile painted on his face. They put their helmets on, and took stance, waiting for the instructor's signal.
"Fight!"
Nergui managed to parry his brother's initial attack, but only barely. Something was wrong. Bataar moved with far more precision and quickness than a twelve-year old is supposed to have. Nergui jumped back, evading a blow, and watches how his brother takes off his helmet, revealing that his face's been molten off, with straps of skin dangling from the sides of his snow-white skull. Two red lights are looking at Nergui.
Oh, shit.
Another strike sends Nergui flying to the ground. Bataar instantly is near him, arms raised for a coup-de-grace.
Wait! I remember now! It's the day Bataar became a khuntaij! That's not how it happened. Bataar didn't turn into a monster, he just beat me bloody. Not that big of a deal. And... after that Father's attitude towards me changed again... Which, I have to admit, kind of was...
The vision fades away, and Nergui finds himself lying on a cold floor of the Manor's backdoor lobby. All in white. He stads up and starts looking for the door to the wine cellar. When he opens the nearest door, everything goes black again.
edited 18th Jan '17 6:04:19 AM by Millership
Spiral out, keep going.
[farm, to farmhouse]
Tsadro saw that. They were going to make small talk with him like they didn't just look at him like that? Centuries in Tefurea's chief councils left him numb to the often petty reasons behind snap judgements of him, but none of the usual stood out. Likely because they weren't even Rietessian, much less a Tefurean. If the debacle with the girl and her talking wyvern were any indication, who knows? Best not to dwell on it, lest it cloud his thoughts before anything's even started.
He let Acquati walk ahead of him. "Simple things. Curried beans, rice, perhaps a roti." He'd managed to remain largely impassive, but the thought alone was already loosening him up. His expression didn't seem quite so hard. As if to say 'way ahead of you', some fog had cleared behind the table, making it easier to see an obvious, steaming stack of roti flatbreads at the table.
Vince stood a few steps outside his barn, ready to go whenever Min and Varris did. Lise was already in the process of wriggling her way under the pasture fence gate, eager to see what the dream gave her.
We can just have the group get to the farmhouse by the end of Violet's next post.
edited 21st Jan '17 8:31:11 AM by CrystalGlacia
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
It's a bird.
Snow Castle (Gwenafer, Magdalene, Gliosem, Alice, Adam, Nick, Jackson, Rin)
"How strange. Dreams, especially lucid ones, are all about exploration, so I would think it's more beneficial to keep an open mind and welcome any surprises."
Gwenafer began raising one of her arms to show the blue-haired sumiri all the cuts and burn marks she had collected earlier that day, only to realize that they had all disappeared. That was still no reason to let her guard down though.
"I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure this ain't a normal dream," she answered, before turning her attention to the new girl - Magdalene - and the odd titles she had mentioned before sitting down. Was she really some sort of royalty, or just a weird kid? Maybe she just dreamed of being a queen; that was a common enough thing to do, right?
Without warning, six glowing wings flashed into existence behind the girl's back, causing Gwenafer to make a sound best described as "Guh-hah!" and quickly jump backwards, which thanks to her sitting position turned out to be pretty difficult. Thankfully enough, Magdalene only seemed to use whatever abilities she had to repair one of the straw mats.
"Gods, I... are you..." Gwenafer began to mumble as she got back up from the floor, before focusing her thoughts. "A warning would have been nice, you know." Her eyes wandered between Magdalene and Gliosem - the second winged person in the room - but even if there was some relation between them, they didn't seem to know each other.
Gwenafer's mind was too occupied to pay much attention to the discussion around her (something about different trade companies?) but she caught the parts about Gliosem wanting to leave, and the death of Alice's former boss.
"You don't have to leave," she told Gliosem, shooting a glance at Alice, before taking a sip of tea from the cup that Rin's cat-eared servant had just arrived with. "I'm sure we can all... get along just fine, right?"
Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.
["Light World"]
Gabriel spread his arms wide and absorbed the light.
Order of magnitude more than Defiance, in his ignorance could have ever expected. Not his ignorance of the Lumen Sages, but of humanity.
Such an act had consequences, as Father Gabriel knew. He hid away the tiny speck of Self from the storm, focusing on a single aspect and, for a time, becoming it.
And he beheld... everything. The true beginning of all creation. All of it. All of its vastness. Reality forming from oblivion, existence arising from non-being. Everything the Sentinel would have seen in the vision the Golden Being granted her. The Truest Beginning. The Omniverse's entirety. And a single thought burned in his mind:
How... cliché.
This is what Creation shows me? There's all of human experience... love, hate, pain, joy, triumph, pride, tragedy, comedy, fear, acceptance, hope, and so much more. But where is any of that? Just non-existence — not worth thinking about unless you're stoned, really — and then... stuff. It's all just stuff from this far out. When you can see everything, all the stupid vastness of it swallows up anything interesting.
Ordinarily, of course, the vision would have utterly fried his mind, not inspired a dismissive annoyance. But before seeing all that, he'd been permitted to subconsciously touch a deeper truth that now guided him, and shaped his new, strange perspective on the universe. Perhaps alien, but also perhaps... not.
[Graveyard]
The being once known as Father Gabrel floated above the battlefield, a beacon of silver, massive streamers of what appeared to be albino peacock feathers bursting from his back. Such power... Balder, Jubelius, even Father Rodin would never conceive of the might they now wielded. And nor, he suspected, could Defiance. At the very least, he was now equal in both power and understanding to Defiance in his present shape, having ascended to a similar state of being.
He looked around, considering the battlefield, spying Sinistrina. "Oh my. It looks like I won't be needing all this power after all... hopefully." He glared down at Defiance. "It looks like you and Sinistrina came to an agreement. If you honor it, and this squabble is done with, we can leave peacefully." Then he paused and added, "though I admit part of me hopes you try something or otherwise give me an excuse. You are really quite annoying." He looked over to the others in the battle in turn. "Anyone know something about that golden chatterbox that would give me an excuse to indulge my baser instincts? Please? I'm not entirely up to speed, honestly, I just sort of attacked whatever seemed to be the most trouble. Too many centuries of stab-with-fan-first, ask-questions-never."
And then he perceived Ceallagh. "Oh. A newcomer. Another god." He paused, comparing her to the others. "And one who may have more power than even she knows." An awkward pause as he tried to think of a non-enigmatic way to put it, fully aware he'd be annoyed if someone spoke to him like that. Then he sighed. "Forgive me for not explaining; I'm not trying to be obtuse, I'm just not good at putting my... newfound perspective into words. It's a lot more obvious now, in my current form. A lot of things are."
For the mean time, he floated over the Armory Knight. He didn't attack, but would simply cancel every one of its attacks with divine impunity, keeping it unable to do anyone any harm. It seemed like talking would be more effective to resolving this issue than attacking it, and it was easier to talk to a being that wasn't a threat.
edited 21st Jan '17 10:12:00 PM by KillerClowns
Snow Castle (Magdalene, Rin, Alice, Gliosem, Gwenafer, Nick, Adam, Jackson)
Whatever powers the soul contained focused themselves on the crack, along where Magdalene was running her finger. To anyone watching closely, they then would see the mat's material fixing itself, winding together, in a manner not dissimilar to that of a living being except quite accelerated. Before too long, it was as if the mat had never cracked at all.
Magdalene stood up again, but kept looking down at the mat. Then she held her scepter aloft, and in response the soul left the mat and floated up, again manifesting as just a wisp. She reached out and grabbed it to reabsorb it. Then her wings vanished, her powers apparently no longer in use. Once her task was finished, she picked up her shoes and made her way over to where the others suggested she sit.
Along the way, she responded to all the people talking at her, starting with Rin.
"...Then why not use pillows instead? Those are nice and soft, and they don't break!" she replied, maybe not entirely getting everything the ad-meer-all just said but understanding the gist of it.
She noticed the spot where everyone else put their shoes and dropped hers next to them. Then she walked over to the first empty spot over by the three boys. Aping everyone else, she first tried kneeling. A few seconds later, she stood up and tried sitting on her bottom. A few seconds after that, she stood up again and tried kneeling again. A few moments later, she just decided to stand up.
Since Jackson was right there, she decided to answer his question first.
"I...um...." she started. She looked thoughtful for a few moments, staring off into space. "...I forget."
Then she moved on to the next thing Rin asked about.
"That's what the fairies decided to call me. Well, some of the fairies," she said in response to everything else Rin asked, "I think they knew how much I like flowers!" Then she held out her free hand. Her wings appeared again, and a blob of light formed. It then quickly shaped itself into a perfect yellow rose. "Like this one! They're pretty~"
Her wings faded away again, and she opted put the rose down in front of her for the time being. For all intents and purposes, this was just a plant, albeit one created out of magic.
"Aw, you want to leave? But I just got here! You can't leave!" she stated with a pout, "You haven't even told me what an 'ooh-rah' is! What's an 'oo-rah?'"
Concerned as she was over this, Gwenafer's reaction mostly flew over her head and she hadn't noticed the weirdness going on with Alice just yet. She glanced briefly at the tea when it was brought in, but soon turned her attention back to the not-fairy.
edited 22nd Jan '17 11:10:25 PM by Yomegami
Icon by Civvi the Civilian!
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Beta Town (Gon, Ari, Ruka)
Gon cheered loudly when Kinaga's Sacred Blaze attack made a direct hit with the Messenger, who didn't bother even blocking it. So did Triumph, despite her slight weariness from having used the attack. However, something was definitely wrong. Those lights seemed like quite the ominous sign, and Ruka's worried expression confirmed it. Even more so when she intercepted the lightning bolt and told everyone to run while she held them off.
"What!?" Gon shouted. "We can't just leave you behind! Besides, I've been in many battles where things suddenly get worse, and even I know not to run away from a battle you've already put a lot of effort into!"
Ari nodded. "Gon's right. It would be a waste to abort a large file download at 95%, and likewise to end a large battle at 95%. Though, do we really need the EXP?"
She looked over at Lord Metatronic, who was shielding several of the robots from whatever attack the Messenger was about to use. Which made sense to her, as he was the "mayor" of Beta Town, and thus had a duty to protect it at all costs.
"You should run," said Satori, gazing warily at the Messenger after glancing at Ruka. "The Messenger is about to self-destruct." She was gazing into her crystal ball as she said this, which held an image of a huge explosion within. "All of our powers combined will not stop it. Ruka, you should run with us if you value your life."
"I'm all for runnin'!" Triumph remarked. "There ain't no way I'm gonna sit around and wait for this thing to go kaboom. I'm outta here." And with that she walked up to Gon and let herself back into his Scanner.
"I can take him!" Aki blurted out. He began to fly up to the Messenger, but was stopped by a telekinetic force courtesy of Satori.
"No Aki! If that thing is anything like the Novas, attacking it will cause it to explode faster! But we are staying. We've faced self-destructing enemies before!"
"But not where the attack targets you," Satori replied. "For your safety, run. Already you're wasting time by discussing this."
"You mean it's gonna target us?" Ari exclaimed. "But... but that's against all the rules of..."
"We're not in Mystrica," said Galaxeon, who was in the process of flying away on his hover boots, and just now picking up Gon. "I trust Ruka's experience and Satori's clairvoyance, and heed the warrior's wisdom of knowing when to retreat. We should leave, now!"
Heaving a defeated sigh, Gon put Aki back in his Scanner as well, putting up no struggle as Galaxeon carried him away. Next to him, Ari mounted Satori who flew alongside him.
Snow Castle (Rin, Nick, Adam, Jackson, Gwenafer, Gliosem, Alice, Magdalene)
All of Gliosem's instincts were telling her to leave, but the others' words told her otherwise. Even those of Alice, who she was conveniently looking away from and thus didn't notice her smile. Gwenafer's words were almost identical to Alice's, Rin seemed neutral about it, the teen boys were clearly too perplexed to say anything, and Magdalene was almost pleading her to stay. At the latter, Gliosem just had to smile - that was exactly the sort of thing Amiluet would say. The resemblance with her youngest sister became even more uncanny when she conjured a flower of some sort, seemingly out of thin air, and placed on the table. Objects out of thin air... I wonder...
She also noticed the wisp leaving the tatami mat, and noticed that it also had an aura about it - as if it was living. As it clearly looked intangible, that could only mean one thing... is that... a soul?
She looked back at the flower queen, and had to squint to do so because of the brightness of her aura - or "oo-rah" as she called it. This confused her for a bit. Sumiri, after all, were native to the sunlit side of Orenya, and her hometown of Drenlin was located in perhaps its brightest spot. Even here, the brightness of the sunlit snow didn't bother her one bit. But somehow, this was a different sort of brightness, one that defied the very nature of light. Closing her eyes confirmed this - she could still "see" the brightness, and not through her eyelids either, so she had to look a way a slight bit as she finally responded to Magdalene's question.
"You don't know what an aura is? But you have such a strong one about you. An aura is an energy field found around all living things, one that reacts to what goes in in the body and mind. It changes color in response to emotion, weakens in response to hunger or sickness, fragments in response to injury, and can even be damaged through magical means. Or reversed to repel magic," she added with a nod to Alice, able to detect her anti-aura even with closed eyes. "Bright auras such as yours are typically found around gods, phenomenally powerful mages, or sorcerers who gather multiple souls." Some sort of instinct made her more inclined to believe the latter with regards to this otherwise innocent-looking flower girl.
She opened her eyes when she caught the scent of brewed leaves, only to see a cup of tea before her, courtesy of Megumi. She nodded to the felinoid maid. "Thank you." Then she lifted the cup closer to her. "This smells kind of like wakeleaf, but looks very different." She took a small sip. "Tastes much more mild as well."
Placing the cup down, she glanced around the table. "Well if you insist, then I shall stay. Besides, I could use the tea after all that singing at the ball. However," and here she straightened up and cast an uncharacteristically stern look at Alice, "there will be no more scathing remarks at the table." She even mimicked Alice's sudden switch to cheer. "Otherwise I might have to calm down the place with a song!"
Then she saw Megumi leave to gather warm clothes for her and the boys. At this she stood up and faced the maid. "Before you fetch anything for me, let me try something." Taking a few steps back away from the table, she made a quick remark to Gwenafer. "Indeed, this is not a normal dream, but rather a shared dream. It is most unusual and often involves specific spells or herbs to achieve. And since it is a dream..." She closed her eyes once more and held her hands close. For a moment it seemed as if there was a slight gleam in the sapphire-like gem on the front of her circlet.
"Sai nen drazeum la nendria-ha, kusa tei-bi tei suni-no shinda bebei-ya."note
During the incantation, she reached her hands behind her and under her cape, and after it, tossed said cape upward and spread her arms out. And here she stayed still, until she felt a heavy cloth fall across her arms and back. A heavy black cloak just as billowy as her cape had materialized out of air as thin as that the yellow rose came out of, wrapping forward around her shoulders. It was lined with the same blue cloth her lightweight cape was made out of, and around the edges was what looked like shiny blue embroidery at first glance, but on closer inspection the color was blended into the very fabric, not even dyed. There was even a hood currently hanging off the back of it.
After a satisfied glance around at the cloak, she looked in the direction of Magdalene with a bright smile on her face. "I must thank you for giving me the idea to conjure things into being - doing so to personal belongings within a dream is an important practice." She looked to Megumi. "This is the cloak I wear when traveling to the coldest parts of Zurem. ...That's the dark side of Orenya," she hastily added, as she unfastened and folded the cloak and sat back at the table, taking another sip of her tea.
edited 21st Jan '17 11:41:12 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.
It's a bird.
Graveyard/Light World (Patches, Sentinel, Moreena, Caleb, Half, Sinistrina, Friedrich, Gabe, Ceallagh)
Moreena's body remained motionless despite Caleb's attempts at waking it up. But slowly, one by one, the many tendrils extending from it detached themselves, falling to the ground where they began to decompose, releasing dark smoke and turning into more of the thick black liquid that already coated the gravel and concrete where she had fallen. Meanwhile, the humanoid shape at the center slowly returned to it's original form, as the claws and fangs disappeared and the charred flesh started to stitch itself back together.
The Goddess of Death herself was busy elsewhere, giving the Golden Being in front of her an eye-less stare of disbelief. Why would it suddenly be concerned about her well-being?
"You're aware of the fact that you just tried to kill me, aren't you?" she asked. She was still speaking more through thoughts than words on this infernally bright plane of existence, but there was no point in putting on a show anymore. This being was clearly not one to be intimidated. "Some might even say that you temporarily succeeded."
Had it known that damaging her flesh would not be fatal, or was it simply more hesitant about harming gods than mortals? The latter was an infuriatingly common attitude among some beings after all.
As Moreena processed her thoughts, she felt a shift of sorts. Terrifyingly powerful magic, pulling the planes closer together, until her companions in the Graveyard became visible to her as shadowy reflections. Could they perceive her true, divine form through the veil as well? If so, it would be more obvious than ever to them what she was.
At first, she had assumed that this had to be the work of the Golden Being, but on closer inspection, it was the Sentinel - wearing yet another interesting new form - who had worked her magic, binding the Golden Being to some kind of physical avatar on her own plane. At the same time, she had unleashed some kind of attack on Armory Knight, causing it to shed some it's armor and retreat from the battle, at least for now.
Moreena had almost failed to notice it at first, but there was another presence making itself known here as well. Laughter. Something was enjoying the battle, cheering it on. So many gods in one place, tearing the world apart with their struggle... Even at this relatively tiny scale, the whole thing was starting to feel painfully familiar. It had to stop.
Moreena faced the Golden Being. "Why did you attack us?" she demanded to know, her divine voice echoing with several millenia's worth of anger and regret. "What do you want?
As if in response, the necromancer she had seen joining the fight earlier started performing some kind of ritual, gathering up a magical substance of some sort, cleansing it and offering it to the Golden Being. Was this perhaps what it had been after all along? What was it? Intrigued, Moreena decided to take a closer look, and...
NO...
Without hesitation, the goddess left the world of light and violently threw herself back into her body, causing it to convulse and cough up a disturbing amount of her black blood from the shock. She rose to her feet, dislocated bones loudly snapping back into place, and gazed towards the necromancer, black eyes darker than ever, too occupied to notice how the Golden Being did... something to the Sentinel, or the transformation of the colorful person who had entered the light world with her.
The necromancer had hidden herself from view inside her black dome, so Moreena chose to appear right outside of it, taking a shortcut across the folds of reality like so many times before. This time however, she was covered in still-healing wounds that smelled of burnt flesh, visible through what little remained of her traditional black dress, that had just begun to repair itself as well.
Human! she growled through clenched teeth that were once again quickly growing sharper, before her voice suddenly and without warning became calm and controlled instead. Way too calm in fact, and disturbingly cold.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing?"
edited 22nd Jan '17 7:25:55 AM by Corvidae
Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.
To dream is my right
Graveyard:
With a moment, a small distraction from the Archmage of Transmutations, and the Fulminant Mind made its host discard the body-mass sentinel had marked, rebuilding its defenses. With the slightest tensing of muscles and the deepest rearranging of blood vessels she prepared to evade whatever was to come, to rebuild herself if broken apart, to remake her shell if cursed, and tried to think of a way of trapping that holy beast in her net.
As she deviced a solution however, a sickening howl filled her insides and sparked her hunger, while the wind screamed in her ears promising rewards to the one who started that battle, as if there was any glory or enjoyment in such stupid distraction. And that despicable voice was distraction enough to prevent her next move, allowing the fulminant mind to evade her bindings her bindings and deliver its assault. Not on her physical form, but on her very mind.
???:
There was nothing before light. There is nothing after light.What was that state, so far beyond reality, in the wings of a vision each light growing smaller and smaller as Sentinel drifted away from the universe. Stars, galaxies, great clusters all fading in the lightless void. Soon she reached beyond where even light had ever touched and saw the space fold on itself, hiding spires of crystal and fields of pulsating particles. Breaking further through space itself, she saw clusters of information, projections and shadows... or was the universe the shadow of a form that transcended the dimensions her brain could conceive?
Drifting further, the universe itself was gone, the void around lacked form and distance and had only a vague remains or debris of time. Yet she could sense presences, no longer lights but borders floating around, growing and fading, shining in light for brief moments and slumbering in shadow for many eternities before fading again.
There was nothing before light. There is nothing after light.
Drifting further still, there was nothing more she could see, feel or think. She was nothing, after all, just a speck of dust in the void, delaying the cosmic entropy by a few meaningless moments while he great tapestry remained unchanged, empty like her. For but a brief moment there was no different between being before, after or beyond the universe. After all, inexistence is always the same, and that is where all will end anyway.
There was nothing before, there is nothing after...
Graveyard:
There were no stars, beyond or beneath the sky. Sentinel's horns grew as dim as her eyes, and her very shadow dissolved beneath her feet as she fell to her knees, limp limbs failing to keep her away from the now frigid mist. The phantom image of a high priestess superimposed over her deathly form was fuzzy and colorless, and bit by bit pieces of her flesh began to dislodge from their right places, while her mother-of-pearl bones began to darken. All the while she was wordless, expressionless, less living than dead, lost in her mind as the enchantments that sustained her body slowly broke apart.
The mists themselves now ate away reality, growing higher and obscuring senses, muffling sound and shielding light as they spun and shared their deathly cold with those around, seeping away their forces and burdening their thoughts, pulling their minds closer to the dark, empty place Sentinel now was in, whispering the end of all things to the minds sufficiently attuned to other planes, and making sure they knew they wouldn't be spared.
None of them. Specially not Sentinel, the one who outlived gods greater than her, who forged an empire and dreamed of seizing the stars. How could she think she had any significance in the universe, when all there was to it was void, brazing fires and the cold dark that comes when they all die. And no one would help her escape that abyss. No one among the living, at least.
Subtly, tenderly, a vague humanoid form manifested in the air, unseen except in parts illuminated by shifting prismatic light, brief flashes revealing ethereal wings or many hands, not all connected to its invisible body. To those capable of seeing beyond that plane, it would become clear that it was linked to Sentinel, its power coming in part from deep inside her but also from somewhere else, distant and deep, and its form, its will, its psyche where not the same as hers. Stranger still, the nature of its essence was similar to that of the Fulminant Mind, but less bright and... deeper? Less uniform?
Whatever it was, the spirit was touching Sentinel's mind, or maybe it was born from it, and its pale light found a way through the shadows, a promise that couldn't be trusted, but could be hoped for. A spark of Defiance strong enough to keep her body from breaking down before she awakened. still keeping one of its countless hands on her head, the ineffable spirit breathed its memory unto the landscape, trying to fill all those in the mist with memories of life, light and suffering so they could resist its phantom snare and its peaceful lethargy as cold as the embrace of death. All but the golden, fulminant presence that started it all, and the voice that promised to reward it for the interference it caused.
And that included the indistinct souls Sinistra was holding, that now held debris of memory of life hunger and fear, yet were not healed from the unimaginable damage they endured and would be much harder to harness and control. Not that it bottered the spirit. Maybe the eventual screaming would be enough to awaken Sentinel, who was still a prisoner of her mind.
edited 23rd Jan '17 5:36:20 AM by EternaMemoria
"The dried flowers are so beautiful, and it applies to all things living and dead."
Mr ship
[Twilight Ball/Lauren]
Lauren rubbed her head at the other human's joke. "Great another person who watches too much Tv." She said under her breath before turning to the two 'fairies'.
"No thank you. I'm fine with what I have on right now." She said opening her jacket to show the kevlar lining the inside of it. "Unless you have something that's also lined with kevlar. I suspect this place to be dangerous and don't want to take chances."
[Castle...the room thingy]
Well, that was a bit of cop out. Still, the girl looked no older than twelve, so Jackson didn't bother to hound her over this.
Instead, he looked uncomfortably at the cup of tea in front of him. Even with Rin reassuring them that Meg wasn't gonna drug them, he had a hard time believing that.
It also appeared that his friends felt the same, because neither one of them picked up a cup. Instead, they all awkwardly looked at each other.
"...So, uh," Nick said, "I'm just gonna..." he slid the cup away, "I'll wait for the clothes."
"Me too." Adam said, also gently pushing the cup away.
Jackson nodded, still not touching his cup. Focusing back on Maggie, he decided to ask her another, hopefully simpler, question.
"How long have you been here?" he asked, "As in...how long have to been in this world, specifically? You got in the castle pretty fast, though I don't think you just randomly spawned here."
Nick noticed Gliosem summoning a cloak out of nowhere. He blinked for a few moments, before he furrowed his eyebrows.
"Show off." he scoffed.
edited 24th Jan '17 6:01:22 AM by Masterofchaos
[Marble Corridor (Seilaan, Mazra)]
Mazra grinned energetically - half to cover up that this was a little more tiring than she'd thought (and how did that make any sense?) half-truthfully. "See?" she told Seilaan. "Nothing like a little mutually inflicted violence to resolve your problems." Not that she was certain, yet, whether Seilaan was actually calming down or just faking it, but that was part of the game.
She shook her head, noticing in passing that her waistcoat had once again turned plain black and white. "Somehow I hadn't noticed - " Seilaan offered to trade swords, and she cut herself off with an incredulous "Um."
Assuming a guard posture, she regard the magic ice blade (magic ice blade!) warily. "Well. That's different. But come on, you don't really think I'm that stupid, do - "
Rather than finish her sentence, she lunged forward as quickly as she could, grabbing for the hilt with her free hand at the same time as she swung her field-sword in an attempt to gently rap Seilaan across the side.
Mazra is not fast enough to pull this off in real life, but it's up to you in a dream, especially since it's partially reflecting her own overestimation of her skills.
the cutest lizard
[Farm – Barn -> Farmhouse (Min, Varris, Vince, Ren Yangchao, Tsadro)]
With a sigh, Min pushed herself back onto her feet and stalked out behind the others, Varris close by her side. Blinking as her eyes adjusted to the light, Min looked around at the farm, surprised to see that the storm hadn’t ravaged the area outside too badly, although the grass was still damp and the leaves glistened with raindrops that refused to fall to the ground.
The smell of the food hit her before she even stepped onto the patio, the same smell she associated with the bars and restaurants that lined the coast of Downtown. But without the roar of the crowd or the blaring of music, it was all foreign to her, too small and too quiet.
Min forced back the returning anxiety and stared intensely at the food instead. Among the other things on the table, there was a plate of filet mignon carefully wrapped in bacon, placed alongside heavily seasoned potatoes and garnished with tiny leaves. Min hadn’t been consciously thinking about it, but she knew it was hers immediately.
Varris chuckled, his tail brushing against the back of her head as he laughed. “Fancy. Which menu did you steal this from?”
“Goldenloft.” Min’s voice was barely audible, even to herself. Just speaking was difficult in and of itself. “Always wanted to try this. Saw it on one of the screens up in Skyline once.” She'd also seen the cost. The number seemed permanently seared into her mind.
She was about to sit down, but stopped herself halfway and looked back at Vince, head cocked back as though to ask for his permission.
She turned her eyes to see the ship's fins - they are rising upward to the ring again...
[farmhouse]
Vince waited for Ren Yangchao and Tsadro to find their seats. When he saw Vince pull his own chair out to sit down, Tsadro followed suit, sitting before the plate of food he spoke of earlier.
The wooden table was set simply, with the kind of nondescript flatware, and pure white plates and cloth napkins that you only saw on food shows and in nicer restaurants. Each place setting had two glasses- one for the pitcher of ice water with sliced lemon, one for the bottle of Tefurean lychee wine. A platter of freshly baked roti sat in the center, for anyone to help themselves to.
Sitting in front of Tsadro was a plate with a layer of rice, topped with black beans stewed in a thick, spicy sauce, and a fried egg, yolk perfectly runny. He took a roti and carefully tore off a large piece, then used it to break the yolk, dragging the golden stuff across the beans before scooping some up with the bread. It was simple and not very pretty, but such was the nature of everyday stuff, the kind of stuff that you feel at home.
Vince looked at Min's bacon-wrapped fillet mignon. "Ah, feeling fancy today." He smiled a bit and picked up his porcelain spoon, stirring his soup, which looked to be a very Southeast Asian kind of deal with a hearty, meaty broth, a softboiled egg, rice noodles, and plenty of colorful, fresh vegetables. Like the kind of soup that started it all for him.
In the meantime, Lise gorged herself on her usual, a bowl of very fresh-looking raw organ meat cut into pieces, so she didn't have to dig so hard at the meat and get it on her face.
Also, if/when we run out of ideas, Tsadro has an arc of sorts waiting in the wings.
edited 25th Jan '17 8:41:02 PM by CrystalGlacia
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
[Twilight Ball] (June, Amiluet, Ferisen, Lauren)
June flashed the sisters another one of her catty grins. "Oh, no, I'm quite serious when I say that I know someone by that name. Frowns a lot, doesn't quite get metaphors, though he's a hard worker. Unlike some people I know..." She muttered the last part under her breath.
The woman stifled more of her bubbly laughter at Ferisen's (unintentional) Star Wars quote. Getting her breathing under control, she placed her plate down before crossing her arms. "Difficult, it may be, though impossible it is not. Careful with herbs one must be, least strange dreams you have," said June. She then vigorously shook her head, "Gah! Did not mean to talk like that..."
June turned towards Lauren, visually appraising her damaged, if still serviceable, clothing. "Hmm, Kevlar, good for small rounds and sometimes magic, not so great against sharp objects. I myself would go for scarlite-titanium alloy weave. Lightweight, highly durable, and absorbs magic well. Ludicrously expensive though." She patted her chest, "I'm not wearin' any right now, not that I really need it. Anyway, in case," June gestured towards the areas outside the barriers, "it looks like those people out there are fightin' with magic, sooo..."
June grinned mischievously, "We'll be gettin' front row seats to some pretty fireworks."
[Beta Town] (Ruka, Ari, Gon)
Ruka sighed slightly. That boy was hardheaded, but at least he listened to reason. Ruka considered what Satori had suggested to her as she turned back to face the slowly approaching Messenger. Its movements now erratic and jittery, hopefully it would be slowed down enough to not catch up to them.
She had considered relying on her abilities to stop the Knight; however, now that she thought about it, in her current condition, her phasing might not work properly. And considering the state her armor was in, she would most likely not survive a point-blank explosion. She raised her unarmored arm towards the Messenger.
Arcs of electricity surged down Ruka's arm and lept from her fingertips. Tendrils of purple-white lashed out across the gap between Ruka and the Messenger, attracted to the hole in the machine's chest. The Knight stumbled backwards, falling to the ground.
With the Messenger down for the moment, Ruka decided to make a run for it. Adrenaline pumping, she chased after the two teens and their Mystripets.
If the Messenger could have regrets, it would be one: it failed at its job of taking down its enemies. All twelve outer lights turned red, with the central light following suit. And a second after that, the Messenger disintegrated into a cloud of fine flakes surrounding a small spark of energy.
Ruka was sent tumbling painfully as what felt like a truck impacted her from behind. A split-second later came the gust of wind and roaring report of the powerfully explosive demise of the alien machine. Behind them, the initial fireball was blossoming into a great mushroom as dust and debris were pulled upwards into the air.
Ruka slid to quick stop, world spinning in vibrant colors and bells ringing in her head. Quick to recover, she attempted to stand, only for her right leg to buckle when she put her weight on it. Glancing down, she blanched when she noticed that a broken off portion of a signpost was apparently impaled in her thigh. She couldn't tell the extent of the damage at the moment, though, due to all the adrenaline coursing through her body.
Coughing slightly, fortunately sans blood, she clutched her chest again as a twinge shot through it. Now is not the time for that to be happening... Her mind flashed to the 142-year-old posters in Director Pierre's office, specifically the one that said Keep Calm and Carry On. She put that message on repeat in her head.
She attempted to pull her helmet back up, only for some motor to give a piteous whine followed by a soft pop. Helmet out of commission, she decided to hold a hand across her brow as she averted her gaze from the others. No doubt there would be plenty of concern, and a few questions... particularly about the streaks of white in her hair, the spontaneous eye shadow, and her enlarged golden-brown irises.
Keep calm and carry on... Ruka muttered to herself.
edited 26th Jan '17 2:07:31 PM by WillDeRegio
Drummer Boy
[Marble Corridor]
Seilaan opted for simply hopping out of the way, unsure if this was the right time to test how her magic would interact with the field sword's tech. It was less elegant than she would have liked—despite anticipating Mazra making a move, she obviously couldn't predict exactly what Mazra would do or when—but at least she didn't fall flat on her ass like she did in the duel with Min.
But she did drop her sword.
Pro: I'm not injured. Cons: I don't get to make my point in a pseudo-clever convoluted manner and I have no sword. Second pro: that's just part of my Witch form. It'll vanish as soon as I—
Seilaan's armor disappeared and was replaced with her original set of red and gold silk robes.
The sword remained.
Oh come on. So that probably meant even if she returned to her Witch form, the sword would be out of her hands. Just great. But she might as well switch back anyway for the armor.
"Oh, silly me!" she said cheerfully, her Witch form's armor shimmering back into existence. "Quite unfortunate that I had to lose my sword before I could get the prospect of an actual challenge out of this fight, but oh well." Hopefully that would piss her off, make her careless, open up a chance to get the sword back...
[Farmhouse]
Ren Yangchao chose a seat near Min. A plate of cold, sliced beef shank and a small salad of pickled shredded vegetables was waiting for them.
"That looks like something one of Seilaan's friends would approve of," they said, almost wistfully, as they peered at Min's plate. "She likes richer fare as well, but I couldn't stomach it too well when I had my own body."
You can just go ahead with whatever questions you were planning to ask them about Seilaan, can't think of much else for them to do right now.
edited 29th Jan '17 12:05:55 AM by SnowyFoxes
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
Into Oblivion
The Forest
A young woman, about eighteen, with brown hair, brown eyes and a simple gray shirt and jeans walked through the forest. How long had she been walking? Eve Chance didn't quite remember, and at this point she didn't quite care either. She had a vauge sense of where she was going, and that was all she needed for now.
But this place was so endless. Or at least it felt like it. The mist seemed to follow her—no, be with her, like she was one with it. She almost wondered if it was another illusion thrown up by the psychics. But no, the psychics weren't this subtle. They targeted your worst fears, your darkest memories, every time you had screamed or cried or both. This was just a bit disorienting. And annoying.
Getting tired of just walking around, she decided to call out. "Hello? Is anyone else out here?"
edited 29th Jan '17 12:21:23 AM by TooManyIdeas
please call me "XionKuriyama" or some variation, thanks! | What is the good deed that you can do right now?
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Twilight Ball (Ferisen, Amiluet, June, Lauren)
When June repeated her comment on that Kraguar chap, Amiluet flashed an equally-catty grin at Ferisen. "Heh, looks like your predictions aren't always accurate."
Ferisen briefly closed her eyes, unfazed by this comment. "I said she was joking, not lying. One can certainly joke while telling the truth."
"Ooooooh, I get it - why else is she talking like an elf right now?"
"Sunestre," Ferisen snapped. "Remember that such obscenities are what helped start the war in the first place."note Then she turned to June. "This dream already is strange, and we expected exactly that sort of strangeness when entering it. Those who take the bark of the Tree of Dreams will experience a dream that reflects their nature along with their desires, so ill-minded folk will experience a long nightmare. With Orenya on the brink of war in real life, I indeed feared that the war would reach Azuhala in the dream world."
Amiluet scowled at her. "You're speaking in riddles." Then she heard Lauren refuse the offer of clean clothes, and also heard the mention of "kevlar" - which, again, June seemed to know about as well. Was this another Earth thing? "What's kevlar?"
"Perhaps a sort of armored cloth?" Ferisen asked.
"Tch, well I knew that. But what's it made of? Most of the toughest materials we have here, provided they're not consecrated in some way, are metals - like those materials June mentioned."
Again unfazed by her sister's cheekiness, Ferisen gazed out at where the mages were still blocking attacks on the ball. Just as June mentioned "pretty fireworks", another dragon-riding mage flew by, firing deflecting aural blasts at some explosives an unseen ground-based fighter was throwing at him. The dragon he was riding though then fell suddenly ill, afflicted by some sort of curse, upon which the rider threw a bunch of little spears at the ground fighter - who deflected those with some form of telekinesis. At the same time, a bunch of sparkling flames flew up at both combatants, knocking the rider off the sick dragon and sending the ground fighter - a sumiri like the Four Bardic Sisters - rolling on the ground out from behind a building.
"It is a good thing that the twilight regions are battlegrounds rather than specific targets," Ferisen finally spoke. "Thus, I predict that this place will remain relatively safe." She turned around to face the others. "A thought just occurred to me as I saw one of the moons, and while I wouldn't mind staying to chat, there is something I've been thinking about trying as I played the latria during our performance. If dreaming is considered a passive form of astral projection, then would actual astral projection work inside a dream?"
Amiluet scowled. "You think it's safe to attempt astral projection in the middle of a war zone? Just because the mages outside are protecting us, that doesn't make them any less dangerous. Though that's the reason why we entered this dream in the first place - to gain some insight into this war and find some clues on how to deal with it." She turned to face Lauren and June. "You two wouldn't happen to have experience with wars, would you?" She was looking primarily at Lauren while saying that.
In the brief span of Amiluet having turned her attention away from Ferisen, the tall observant latria player returned to the stage, where she grabbed a cushion and sat on it behind the box where said latria was stored. Turning her attention inward, she tuned out of her surroundings entirely, the ball and the planet at large fading away as her soul separated from her body.
"Eldarien... moon bearing an endless forest... allow me to explore your winding trails."
Forest (Ferisen, Eve)
Eventually, Ferisen found herself walking along a trail leading through a forest, pushing a wheeled cart containing the large box with her latria still inside of it. She smiled slightly as she wandered, satisfied that her experiment with astral projection was a success... or was it? Something seemed off about these trees; the last time she specifically projected to this forest, there wasn't so much mist around them. Moreover, this wasn't a normal mist - there was a definite ethereal quality to it, one whose energies were strangely similar to that of the herb Gliosem had given them to induce this dream in the first place.
Ferisen stopped. "Where am I? This doesn't look like the forests of Eldarien at all... hmm, unless being in a dream within a dream would distort its appearance somewhat. This mist looks like those fabled dream mists that lurk around incomplete dreams." Of course, she had no idea that she was not in a dream within a dream at all, but rather a different location within the same dream space.
After a long moment of some silence during which she contemplated the absurdity of her location, she heard a voice calling out. And moments later, she saw its source: a young lady, perhaps Emriel's age, clad in a plain grey and blue outfit. She looked like yet another human, just like June and Lauren - but a quick glance at her aura told her not only that she seemed lost, but also that she had a strange sense of familiarity with her surroundings - was it the mists? Or having her aura looked at? She couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"I am here," she responded, moving closer to the young woman, her small-ish light green wings and the cart with her boxed latria on it now in full view amongst the mists. "I projected here willingly, but how did you end up here?" As she gazed a little longer at her, though, she had the sense that she was missing something... ah, of course. Managing to hide her embarrassment in her usual calm demeanour, she spoke again before the other lady could reply. "The name's Ferisen by the way. Ferisen Baoshra. And you are..."
Beta Town (Gon, Ari, Ruka)
Though they fled the scene as fast as they could, Galaxeon and Satori still got hit by the explosion, flying forward and stumbling on the ground upon impact. However, Ruka seemed to get hit harder than they did, probably due to being closer to the explosion. She had somehow been impaled by a signpost while fleeing, understandably in a lot of pain because of it, and her helmet was also apparently broken.
Galaxeon, who had lost his grip on Gon in the impact and hit a similar signpost right near Ruka was, made his way over to the other space knight. "Are you all right?" he asked her in his usual surprisingly-intoned metallic voice.
"What happened?" Ari was just now running towards them, clutching her left shoulder with her right hand as she did so. One of the lenses of her glasses had shattered in the explosion, and in her hindered sight she tripped over a dislodged asphalt chunk on her way over there, making her shoulder hurt even more. Satori flew right over her and surveyed the area.
"You look to be in quite bad shape," said the ice dragon, looking around the scene. "Where's Gon? He should still have a Cure Sprite or two..." After a while, she flew off again.
The explosion had kicked up so much dust that it looked like a thick fog that covered the streets. No robots were around in this now-deserted place; for all they knew, they had been reduced to rubble by the explosion, perhaps even the mighty Lord Metatronic. Some distance ahead of where Ari had fallen and where the two Mystripets were attending to Ruka, Gon had flown head-first into a fire hydrant, and was currently lying unconscious next to it, obscured from view by the dust. But not from Satori, who could see past any mundane obstacle like such. Once she reached him, she carried him back over to Ruka, along with his also-hidden Scanner which she carried on small ethereal wisps over to Ari.
Though Ari was still in quite a bit of pain herself, she managed to grab Gon's scanner, but... "Bad news... Gon's scanner has crashed as well. I cannot get it to boot up. Satori, you'll have to use your Aural Healing on her."
The clairvoyant ice dragon nodded, as she moved a pair of scaly hands over Ruka's body (without actually touching her), applying a soothing and slightly numbing sensation to recover some of the damage she had taken. Though it didn't do anything to help with the pole that had become lodged in her thigh, she filled that area with ice crystals afterward, while Galaxeon gently pulled the pole out of her leg.
edited 29th Jan '17 2:36:03 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.
Into Oblivion
The Forest
Well, this person looked more like a cosplayer than a psychic, at least—butterfly wings, lavender hair, a big dress. Maybe she was a resistance member—they never seemed to take themselves seriously outside of combat. Hell, their battle cries were liberally borrowed from pop culture and random memes. They thought acting like a proper military would be doing the psis too much justice. They weren't afraid.
But something seemed off about Ferisen, too, something that hinted at something more than someone looking like an anime character on the battlefield to spite their enemies. For one thing, she wasn't carrying a gun, and typically, everyone who was alive and not under occupation had a gun, prominently displayed to ward off raiders and the occasional overzealous rebel. Maybe she was just some poor fool who lost their minds when the shooting started—that happened a lot.
In any case, the psis weren't this chill, so Eve decided to at least tentatively trust her for now. "Eve Chance...I've been walking for a while. Trying to get to Canada, they took Seattle about a week ago."
please call me "XionKuriyama" or some variation, thanks! | What is the good deed that you can do right now?
Mr ship
[Twilight Ball/Lauren]
Lauren looked at June, surprised at her knowledge of light weight armor. "Unfortunately we don't have access to that kind of technology. It took Henry forever to figure out how to make removable kevlar linings for our suits as it is. As for sharp objects though, we just made our tench coats stab proof."
She went back to checking the lining, finding that it was still good to protect her. As she finished she heard June mention fireworks.
"Fireworks? Wh....." She tried to say but was interrupted by the battle going on outside. Listening to the two non humans it was clear that this place wasn't a specific target, but that wasn't enough to get Lauren to be at ease. She looked in her jacket and made sure her Glock 17 was ready just in case.
After she did that Amiluet asked her and June if they were ever involved in a war. She also notice that Amiluet payed particular attention to Lauren as she asked. Knowing she wouldn't be able to sneak out of this she decided to tell them some of her experiences.
"I was never involved in a war America was fighting in. By the time I joined the CIA in '79 Vietnam was over, but I was able to go to South America to help train some rebels in marksmanship. I've also done some field work in Poland mostly espionage. Though I never fought in war time 'battle' head on, I've always operated behind the scenes as per usual for the CIA."
edited 29th Jan '17 4:45:57 PM by Mrship21
[Castle]
When Maggie did some sort a spell to the floor, all three boys blinked.
"Well." Nick said, "That just happened."
Adam was still confused about what the others meant by aura, and everything else. To him, it all sounded like gibberish. On top of his already increasing confusion, he wondered why no one else seemed to acknowledged what Maggie just did. It wasn't like she did it in secret; how could they have missed it?
"...My head hurts." he said, holding his forehead.
Jackson was just as dumbfounded, so while the others were talking about rather unrelated stuff, he turned his attention to Maggie.
"How long have you been doing that, exactly?" he asked, "I, uh, am a little interested and slightly afraid of you."