Forest:

With an ungainly thud of flesh crashing against dirt and the brief shaking of nearby trees, the recent arrival was announced to the deaf yet alert forest.

Wary of the vision to be revealed, his mind turned to his sense of touch while his eyes lay closed, fingers the colour of light ashes grasping the earth beneath to feel the humid soil wet his skin, the grains of sand, humus and partially decomposed leaves assuring him that his current... dream was unlike the others.

Finally bold enough to breath, cool mist air filled his lungs and granted him the strength to open his eyes to the mist and rise to a sitting position. Looking over his back, he noticed the outline left on the ground, yet no damage to the trees. Did others also enter dreams with kinetic energy?

Stoping the slightly profane line of thought, he removed a long wooden wand with a hooked tip from between his robe and his shirt and looked around, not letting the consequenceless nature of a dream interfere with his natural shame. No one is watching. You don't have to be stuck in that mudhole forever., he told himself to still his heart, and with anxious hands pulled up his robe, revealing the gaunt copper and wood apparatus that stood where most of his leg should be. After pulling a few levers with his hook he dragged its dead weight closer to his body, and transferred the hook to his left hand, which lacked the two last fingers. With the combined strenght of his good arm and his good leg, he rose and quickly moved a few of the levers he touched before, now with his left hand, making the prosthetic firm enough to half walk half stumble towards a tree, leaving deeper footsteps than his size and build would have indicated.

Nearby the tree he found a fallen branch which he gladly took as a walking stick, unbothered by the rough texture, and with it and a little more time messing with the levers he found himself walking somewhat comfortable. Letting out a breath of relief, he then did his best to remove the dirt from his hands and his hairless head without polluting his robes further, even if at their current state they would probably have to be incinerated or torn apart to be used in the cleaning of stables. Still, the dirt left his hands, neck and head much more easily than expected, and that already made thinking straight somewhat easier. But now he noticed something more troubling than the dirt.

The constant drumming in the back of his head was... muffled. The heat at the tip of his fingers was muddled too. Not absent, but now it lacked direction. Right arm pointing skyward and left hand touching his forehead, he searched for a transmission and all he could hear or see was static noise filling the eery mists. Noise and... two points of vibrance, obscured but not far away.

Should he investigate? he couldn't run well, and couldn't fight at all if outnumbered, but what else was he to do? He couldn't run and couldn't hide for long, even in a dream, and... if that was to become a nightmare, it wasn't like he could stop it.

The decision already made, he did the best to straighten his red and orange robes, dirty as they were, and slowly marched with his left leg making a soft clicking sound from beneath the robe, improvised staff held tightly by both hands. His movements still betrayed him, and he stopped on the edge of the clearing to see what he was about to involve himself with.

The first of the people he saw was a young child of mud, probably younger than him, and the other... where those wings? That could mean she was a mage, but her brazen attire and strange appearance made the newcomer nervous. She is not one of ours. But she does not look like a criminal either.

Still unsure of how to approach the strangers, he stepped back... and them remembered that he probably broke so many twigs they would look at him anyway. Awkwardly, he cleared his throat and said "Sorry for the interruption. You... you may call me Tagui." with calm voice, following with two short and nervous bows. Then he turned his eyes to the winged woman and focused on the distance between their minds, wondering what lay beyond it but too intelligent to do anything.

edited 30th Jan '17 3:21:45 PM by EternaMemoria

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

[Castle]

In response to Gliosem's excellent mimicry of her demented mood swing, Alice raised an eyebrow and gave Gliosem a look of... not quite approval, but a sort of begrudging respect. She took up the cup of tea, smelled it, and considered. If this was a dreamscape, and evidence favored that theory, then she had before her the idea of tea, which might have within it the idea of poison. An interesting conundrum — could she will any potential poison to do her no harm in this realm? She hesitantly took a small sip, considering the flavor. Seemed clean. Quite good. She'd have to be careful, though; she tended to get quite agitated if she had too much caffeine in her system, and for all she knew, this tea was more like that damn Uelane tea with the cocaine in it.^note High Yoth tea, which didn't actually use cocaine. It just used the unrefined coca leaf, a milder though still significant stimulant, though Alice had missed this nuance

She looked over at Rin. The Big Nine clearly weren't Rin's friends, so perhaps best to highlight the differences. Or maybe not? After all, Rin wasn't stupid; she'd probably nine variations on the corporate boiler plate theme. After a few more moments savoring the tea simply to buy herself time — I am not as good at this as Sigmund, dammit — she finally said, "run by greedy men, hmm? Funny thing: greed is so short-sighed." She smirked. "A lot of our competitors couldn't beat us because their bosses got greedy and we outplayed them in the long run. Now, Sigmund, he was not a greedy man. He was a patient one. It's how we got to the top, and how you stay there."

There was a grain of truth to this moralistically satisfying narrative, though it was overall an unduly favorable interpretation of Sigmund and Western Amalgamated. Sigmund had spent far more on luxuries than most of the world's population did on simple survival, but he wasn't greedy in the conventional sense. While by other definitions of greed, he fit perfectly. His interest had always been the accumulation not of money, of power and influence, the better to slowly reshape what parts of the world he could according to his grand visions of a shining future. Money, then, was but another form of power, to be given without hesitation to charitable institutions whose dreams for the future matched Sigmund's own.

edited 29th Jan '17 6:13:39 PM by KillerClowns

[The Eldritch Factory ~ Forest of Bone] (Ayako, Durnem, The Midnight Stitcher)

Ayako breathed shallowly as she observed Durnem disposing of the remains of the youkai that the magical girl had slain. Durnem came over to Ayako, offering her some sort of medicine ointment. "Thank you, Durnem-san," she said as she took the container, careful not to accidentally drop it as she pulled herself off the ground.

She hefted her weapon up, returning it to its original form as an umbrella, before leaning it against the wall. Fumbling around with the bottle, Ayako unwove her sleeves around her forearms as she began applying ointment to the areas over where her bones were broken. She turned away from the others when it came to applying the ointment to her chest and sides, expanding her shoulder cape as a privacy curtain. Although she was surrounded by two females and someone who seemed to have any reaction to someone not wearing a shirt, Ayako wasn't exactly terribly fond of being in any form of undress around anyone outside of her teammates.

It didn't take Ayako long to apply the medicine, which was already starting to take effect in relieving the pain emanating from her broken ribs, and weave her outfit back to its original state. Turning around, her attention was grabbed by the Midnight Stitcher as he expressed his concern and offered his assistance, though the owly movements of his head was a bit disconcerting to Ayako. She shook her head, "Oh no, that won't be necessary. I've been through worse before, so I'll be quite alright." As if to disprove her point, she inhaled sharply at the twinge in pain from her chest. Note to self, don't breath too deeply right now.

Grabbing her umbrella, Ayako made her way over to where the Midnight Stitcher was standing at the edge of the chasm. She leaned forward, peering into the depths. "I guess it cannot be helped," the girl said before taking a few steps back. She stopped when Ethoya stated that she was leaving. Ayako bowed slightly towards the lady, "Goodbye, Ethoya-sama, may we meet again."

After Ethoya made her departure, Ayako turned back around to follow through with what she was planning. "Geronimo!" Taking a running start, she flung herself into the abyss, plummeting into the darkness below before deploying her umbrella.

---

[Beta Town] (Ruka, Ari, Gon)

Ruka found herself being swarmed by the two Mystripets coming to her aid. Galaxion removed the signpost, causing blood to begin flowing from her wound. She flinched in pain before scowling at the knight, "Ow. That hurt." She whipped her head towards Satori, growling slightly when the dragon mage applied ice to her wound.

Realizing what she was doing, she averted her gaze again. "I'm sorry. I'm... not exactly doing too hot right now," she said as she tried to stand, only to stumble to the ground as spasms shot through her injured leg. "Please refrain from doing that," Ruka stated to Satori as she brushed off the ice crystals from her leg.

She sat for a moment while she tried forcing her suit to retract. After a moment, the suit began whirring, metal plates collapsing as the armor peeled away from her limbs, revealing her white undersuit. As the remainder of her armor folded away into the backplate of her suit, she picked up the signpost. Closing her eyes, she focused her energy through it.

Soon the pole began to glow orange, at which point Ruka applied it to her wound. Gritting her teeth, she stopped herself from screaming in pain as she cauterized her wound. Once the bleeding stopped, she cast the pole aside and flopped onto her back, her breathing ragged.

---

[Twilight Ball] (June, Amiluet, Ferisen, Lauren)

"Mmm, I've dealt with my share of conflict," June said, grinning. Holding up a finger, a small red flame sprung to life before being encased in a dagger of ice. She twirled the blade around, the fire still flickering inside. "The occasional factional conflict can be quite... interestin', especially with newcomers who don't know what they're gettin' into. Though, I prefer to stay out of anyone else's messes if it doesn't benefit me." June tossed the dagger into the air, where it burst into a puff of aurora-colored snow.

Returning to her plate of food, she flipped a piece of cheese into the air before deftly catching it in her mouth. "Sheemsh yur shishter'sh zonin' ou' on ush," she said through her mouthful of cheese. She swallowed the morsel, "It's quite interestin' that your war would also be in the dream world. Seems a bit impractical to me," she said, rocking back and forth on her heels before showing off again with another piece of blue space soy cheese.

---

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

Rin took a moment away from her conversation with Alice to take a sip from her cup of tea and observe the mystical actions of Magdalene and Gliosem. "Interesting," she flatly stated, giving no observably clear indication as to what she meant.

The little girl bore a strong flower motif fitting someone with the title of Queen of Yellow Flowers. From what the Admiral could tell of Magdalene's powers, she could quite easily develop into a high ranking combat officer. As for Gliosem, the woman appeared to be bothered when she looked in Magdalene's direction. So she could see the emanations of one's life force. How intriguing.

Megumi stood by the door, looking back and forth between Gliosem and her master. Rin gave her an understanding look, causing to the maid to return the look with a nod. An outfit for the winged musician wouldn't be necessary.

Admiral Tachibana returned to her previous conversation, "I keep forgetting that not all of the men who run the Big Nine are fueled by greed. Young Mister Steel is quite a pleasant individual to be around, and is quite respectable, unlike his father." Rin sipped some more tea, she had to take a crash course to keep up to date on all that was going on overseas, and in the process, had a chance to meet the owner and son of the namesake of Steel Industries. He was reasonable enough to arrange for a fair contract for shipments of steel.

Rin returned to quietly sipping her tea and observing the group.

edited 29th Jan '17 7:07:06 PM by WillDeRegio

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

Gwenafer watched with some suspicion as Magdalene conjured a flower. Using magic so casually, at that age... And Gliosem's words about the girl's "bright aura" weren't exactly comforting either. Sorcerers who gather multiple souls... That part sounded like straight up necromancy or something. She took a second sip of tea - she didn't usually drink the stuff, but this time it was pretty nice, actually - and let her eyes wander between the two winged mages, the mechanical one softly whirring a bit as the iris readjusted itself after Magdalene's light show.

"You uh, said that you got your title from who?" Gwenafer asked the girl. "Ferries" made no sense. Fair-ies maybe? Strange name either way.

She glanced up as Gliosem conjured a cloak for herself, apparently without needing any magic, judging from her words about the Dream. Maybe the joke about roasted skvader and Yndavian courtesans hadn't been so farfetched after all?

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

[Ritter Clinic]

Before they had a chance to react to Friedrich and Iveya's words, Zeles was contacted by one of their comrades via extradimensional telepathy.

-"Zeles, we've got terrible news: They're already here. We've been forced to put the plan in motion. Forget diplomacy and retrieve Ms. Ruth immediately".

-"Understood".

With that final word, the towering knight moved at an unholy speed as they pierced right through Friedrich's barrier as it were nothing, obliterating the rustic house's porch with the after shock created by this sudden display of velocity. And yet, instead of the building being reduced to smoldering pile of rubble, the stranger used their own “aura” to revert any damage caused by them, without leaving a single board, nail, thread nor speck of dust out of place. Ultimately, Zeles placed their hand on Ruth's shoulder, as both were enveloped by several rings of ethereal rune-like symbols before vanishing from the dream-like plane of existence. All this lasted a mere fraction of a second.

And just like that, Ruth's brief and ultimately pointless visit to this strange dimension ended.

---

[Outside “the Dream”]

-“Wow... Talk about anti-climactic and violently sudden. You didn't even gave them something decent this time. Even Aurum's (horrid) death scene was better than this garbage.”

-“i know... i'm just really tired...”

-“Now what?! Whose innocent character's life are you going to ruin next?”

-“... you shouldn't worry about it... i'm going to take an indefinite break... maybe make it permanent... i'm too tired... too disappointed... maybe it's for the best... it's not worth bothering...”

-"I still hate you."

-"...i know..."

edited 31st Jan '17 6:40:18 PM by VPhantom

"It's better to burn out... THAN TO FADE AWAY!"

Graveyard

When Moreena's tendrils fell off, Caleb moved to grab her and take her to safety, but she got up and vanished before then. He looked around, both for her and to see if the Sentinel was still going.

That's when he caught a glimpse of the black dome, and focused his attention on it. "Okay," he said to himself, "what is this?"

"I think it's Sinistrina's plan," Caleb heard the voice say, and he looked to the speaker. Caleb locked in place, his entire body felt like it just shut down. In front of him was Half, just like that night years ago.

"No...no, this can't be possible," he barely forced the words out, "you're supposed to be dead! Why are you here?!"

"Do I have not the right to dream?" the being responded.

Caleb remembered the first encounter, but this was different. "Wait, you can talk?"

"That's what I've been doing if you haven't noticed."

"Oh, and you got a mouth on you too, great."

"Much like you, I see."

"I didn't necessarily mean it as an insult," to his shock, Caleb felt himself calm down, after all this with the Tranquil Underworld, the Graveyard, the Sentinel's transformations, and Armory Knight, this was almost familiar. "So what's this about?"

"I think we should watch how this turns out actually," Half turned to face the dome, as did Caleb.

edited 7th Feb '17 2:39:58 AM by Novis

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

Graveyard (Ceallagh)

"Well, look at that," comes Ceallagh's voice after Armory Knight made his transformation. "This place has full metal butterflies with chrysalises made of explosions! Why don't I have one of those?!"

"Huh, it seems that our insect got caught up in a web," says she after Sinistrina made her move. "Pity. And it also seems that the shield-maiden that caught it has a lot more in common with spiders. Weaving webs of shadows, leaving lifeless husks in her wake. Just to push the metaphor further, I wonder if she caught the Metal-clad Warrior just to do what spider-maidens usually do with their mates? Did I arrive to witness love on the battlefield at last?!"

"Did I came late to the feast?" says Ceallagh when it seemed like the fighting stopped and the combatants decided to talk things out. "Although now I know who started the fight. Pity it's the Metal-clad. He doesn't seem to need my gifts. I was hoping it was the White Peacock Ma- Wo- whatever they are. They seem to fancy me. 'More power than even she knows '." She chuckles.

edited 31st Jan '17 5:42:10 AM by Millership

Spiral out, keep going.

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

Varris hopped from Min’s shoulder down to the chair beside her, and Min began to carefully cut up her food, placing about half of it onto Varris’s plate. Min took a small bite of the filet mignon, chewing it slowly, easing herself into the taste. She wasn’t really sure what she’d been expecting. Having never eaten it before, it just tasted more or less like what she imagined really good steak was like.

Min chewed in silence for a few seconds, coming to the sinking realization that, with Seilaan gone, there wasn’t really anyone to talk to. She glanced around the table, eyes first landing on Varris, and then Vince, and then eventually resting on Ren Yangchao. Min set her food back down on the plate, biting her lip. Maybe I could-

She cleared her throat, somewhat conspicuously, and in as steady a voice as she could manage, she said, “Ren. You’re Seilaan’s… ancestor, right? I’ve- I’ve talked to her a lot recently, but I still don’t really know what she even does. Something about politics, wasn’t it?”

edited 31st Jan '17 2:39:37 PM by VioletN

She turned her eyes to see the ship's fins - they are rising upward to the ring again...

[farmhouse]

Vince had a bite of soup, idly watching the tiny wyvern eat for a few moments. That looked like a lot of food for an animal that little. A lot of fat and extra salt- most animals can't take all the fat and salt in bacon, even occasionally. But who knew what else was different about those wyverns? If Varris's earlier remarks were anything to go by, it was normal for his kind to speak.

This was good soup, though. It was like an amalgam of several soups he'd made back in the day. At times it reminded him of that pork blood number he made for the Sunrise festivals, at others, it made him think of lighter, pho-like fare. He began to pour their drinks with his psychic arm, starting with the water. He and Tsadro managed to remain largely unreactive, as they ate their food and waited to see what'd become of this topic.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

[Marble Corridor (Seilaan, Mazra)]

Well, that was an embarrassing failure. Admittedly, it wasn't nearly as embarrassing as some of the things that had happened when Mazra had practiced with a field-sword in real life, but Seilaan didn't need to know that. Or know about that.

On the bright side, it looked like the carpet she had been trying to imagine had actually more or less materialized, though it was an uninspiring gray color. You'd think lucid dreaming would make this easier.

She put some distance between herself and Seilaan and adopted a cautious stance. That quip about Min might have gone completely over her head, but Seilaan seemed to be pretty good at mind games in general -

The armor that she had barely noticed vanishing reappeared, from out of nowhere - and apparently on Seilaan's command, not as some quirk of the dream. Mazra's face fell. "Well that 'totally sucks'," she commented, her mouth carefully forming the amusing new slang. She thought about putting a foot on the ice blade just to see if it made Seilaan mad, but that might not be a good idea until she knew more about what it did.

Then what the other girl had said registered more clearly in her mind. "Er... wait. Did you just say that you need your magic sword and your magic armor to even just make this challenging? Really?"

Wait, could I have phrased that more smoothly? Damn. Let's see if she goes for it...

The Eldritch Factory, Heart Forge (Noire, Ashleigh, Emriel)

Processing the things Ashleigh and Emriel said as she awaited an answer from the sumiri about being Fair, Noire's eyes widen in a serious kind of confusion. "Dream? I understand you're from another planet, but there's no way you could think this is a dream. Seriously, they're just visions of other universes, and this is not the dreamscape. Still, the dreamscape had to be outright invented, so... Whatever, I'll give it some time to formulate before asking." Her sword of shifting white & red vanishing, Noire's face softens as she speaks with an apologetic tone more resemblance of her usual casualness.

"Guess you aren't a Fair, very few would proclaim they're mere mortals. Hell, from what I know that's the whole reason they rebelled against pre-magic humanity. Still, seeing as I never met an alien before that doesn't live on Earth, I'm curious to know more about Orenya if you're willing. Regarding the Eldritch blood..." Glancing past the black archway made of hair(?) and towards the blood freely flowing in the main chamber, Noire looks over both Ashleigh & Emriel before continuing with a more educative tone.

"Eldritch biology is very... Strange, what with being utterly impossible and all. Like with that first Eldritch, they can often appear in forms that don't look alive. Thus, just because Eldritch blood looks dried out, doesn't mean it is actually either. Honestly, we could be surrounded by an Eldritch whose body is made up of a million independently controllable ones, which merely looks like dried blood. Still, for the mutations to occur the Eldritch matter has to get soaked up by your body, so touching their intact skin is perfectly safe. Though really..."

Throwing up her hands and shrugging her shoulders as if saying 'Your loss', Noire's voice becomes a little more serious as her arms dangle aimlessly. "Eldritch mutation is just power upgrading deformation most of the time. Sure it is pretty risky playing mad scientist when you have no idea what the results are, but Eldritch mutation is always predictable based on the unique specimen's makeup and the infectee. So yeah, you might inherit their weaknesses, but unless you consume their flesh only the area directly exposed will mutate. Furthermore, once your Eldritch mutation stabilizes, you need the use of magic to further mutate yourself. Honestly, just gently tap your pinky finger in some blood and that'll suffice for making you immune."

Though after a few moments Noire unexpectedly begins to frown, casting it specifically Ashleigh's way before speaking coolly & restrained. "We don't literally live in different worlds Ashleigh, but with the masquerade so absolutely enforced... We practically might as well. While you think the world is all about humans and science, in reality literally anything is possible if you can bother to think of it. It can very truthfully be said that, if something doesn't already exist someone will make it so upon realizing it doesn't exist. Yet the Servants of Humanity..."

Noire's hands tightly clenching into fists, a sort of hate could be sensed from her, even as her voice remains the same. "Those bastards robbed you Unawares of the truth, denied you all our era of wonder and magic. They have been tricking you all for thousands of years, to believe magic is a lie, that only humans exist in our once sacred world. Yet the worst part of it all?" Casting an almost vicious glare at Ashleigh in overdue retaliation for that dirty look, Noire finishes up rather simply. "Too many of you are arrogant and gullible enough to believe them, dismissing those of us from Eldon as lunatics and villains. We have tried so often to break the masquerade, only to be rejected by the Unawares and violently oppressed by the Servants."

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, the white-eyed Guro Lolita focuses her attention on Emriel. Folding her hands behind her head, her tone rather easily becomes casually friendly again. "I'm not whatever a Precious is by the way, just a normal probable human with a magical sword from birth. Technically anyone on Earth can read souls, but unless you possess an unusually powerful one yourself its usually too much effort for a magic user to learn let alone from scratch. Honestly, really only good for rooting out broken souls like Revenants and Shells from crowd. Rather curious you Orenyans combo platter soul vision with emotion sense though..."

Closing her eyes briefly, it is easy to tell Noire is thinking something over. Calmly opening her eyes, Noire looses her words. "In fact, the differences in cultural and magical development I find extremely fascinating. For example, in the Earthen dreamscape you normally don't interact with other dreamers. Throw in the fact it was created before the discovery of aliens, means it only affects Earth. Thus whatever you define a dream as means something entirely different for us, since I know this isn't my personal dream world."

"You know that's really curious now that you bring it up." Familiar only to Noire herself, is an impossibly teal & whimsical sounding voice, coming from behind the door. Though Noire herself didn't seem to immediately notice the voice let alone it was physical, it would of been apparent to anyone else. Then, that whimsical and impossible voice continued. "After all, if she's from our' universe she would of known Earth is a Class E planet, yet she hardly seems shocked by what look like two humans. I mean really, being an extinction-level threat to other worlds deserve some comment."

It was then that Noire realized that crazy voice was finally speaking out loud, and a look of outrage & confusion became evident on her face as she tried processing why it is speaking out loud. Still, that's no reason to wait you boys and girls out there, thus did she begin to emulate Noire's odd casualness atop her own cheeriness. "Thus what if, dare I say, this is a nexus of some kind? People from all across the omniverse being drawn together in this mysterious place, for the sole purpose of interacting together and being observed by entities from other universes? Why, such an idea would absolutely tickle the True Gods' curiosity."

Then, in a more anticlimactic kind of casualness, the mysterious woman added on rather mundanely. "Or, you know, Orenya has no affliction with the Intergalactic Defense Force and is completely oblivious of everyone's favorite space cops. That's probably more realistic than some convoluted trans-universal science study conducted by beings totally oblivious of our awareness. I mean really, the notion would be utterly ridiculous, as its not like Phoebe disappeared because she woke up or that the fact Noire's here should be impossible given the dreamscape rules of our world.

After all, it just sounds silly to include a Fourth Wall Aware character because they "can't do anything real". Except... That's not true once you take the trope seriously, as you realize that such an individual must have keen trans-universal senses, and not "flagrantly" ignoring she's fiction. Honestly, the only reason it is so difficult dealing with you, our dear sweet audience... Is because there's too many people, too many versions of them, and too many universes to choose. Though really, I just wanted to say my piece to anyone who can respond back, my adorable little Preciouses are getting me hooked on this tvtropes thing. Why, I'm even getting inspired! 

When the mysterious voice didn't immediately speak up again, Noire let out a short yet angry scream, rapidly walking up to the door with her sword materialized in her hand. Still, stopping about a few yards in front and it being rather clear anger & annoyance marks her body, Noire Blanc speaks up with restrained frustration to Ashleigh & Emriel. "Whatever the hell that person is, they know far too much for someone who isn't part of my organization. So if she's indeed behind that door, you should be prepared first."

---

The Graveyard

'Blinking' behind that façade of a form he had constructed, the Golden Being felt it was pretty obvious why he didn't just for pre-broken souls: That it is a ridiculous notion, just having 'lifeless' soul parts sitting around. Nonetheless, the Golden Being's attention was caught when Sinistrina claimed exactly such. Watching intently from wherever it is in this distorted world, his 'eyes' could also be said to widen in pleasant surprise upon her being truthful. Thus, the Golden Being didn't feel compelled to say anything, merely 'nod' his approval.

Yet as he patiently waited for Sinistrina to purify the souls, the Golden Being found himself quickly taking notice of that human male who was insane enough to enter unfiltered existence- Appalled at what corrosion of self that man inflicted on himself. Thus once that man began speaking at him and glaring at him, as if his better, the Golden Being was not at all impressive that human would so severely risk eroding himself to kill an unkillable entity. So, as the insane human began asking for a reason to violently assault him and eagerly awaiting an excuse to assault the most important being in existence even after such a perfect & peaceful solution was reached, the Golden Being intones at that farce.

"What a disgustingly arrogant being, throwing away your own humanity and risking oblivion, just to kill me? What is wrong with you pretender gods, that you all are so insistent of your absolute superiority even when proven untrue? I am quite literally more impossible than Existence Itself, I am something that effortlessly defies all the rules, and my nature as unbreakable couldn't be more obvious. If you thought assimilating raw existence would enlighten you to some means of destroying me, then I'm sorry to say that was beyond foolish. Do not threaten my host however, there is nothing in the entire omniverse more important and sacred than him. Or, is that the kind of god you want to be? One who revels in innocent blood, shed purely to spite something you don't like?"

That was when the first to address him took notice of Sinistrina. The Golden Being had wanted to wait until the first fully recovered, he spoke to her as he reappeared before the sphere of souls. "Do not be alarmed, the sheer number there means I wouldn't have to meaningfully cripple any of them. I won't deny I would of taken noticeably larger fragments from all of you, but that's only because there's so few of you in comparison yet just enough I wouldn't have to outright scrap anyone's soul for parts. If I had realized that progeny of existence called Sinistrina could of summoned those husk-like souls, I would of just done that in the first place. My host, the so-dubbed Armory Knight, needs his soul repaired and we are honestly on a deadline. So I am sorry if we managed to temporarily kill you, but your soul is what matters in the end- Bodies can be replaced. Please, this is the most peaceful solution, do not interrupt."

With those calm words spoken, the Golden Being resumed watching the souls as they became purified. Though as it silently grunts hearing that other pretender god, a thought does run through his mind due to the things it said. To that end, the Golden Being slightly bows the physical image it created, crossing the right arm against its chest as he intones into Sinistrina's soul. "Merely restoring your body would not be a sufficient reward for helping me save my host. I would offer to collect you a Gift, but I do not know how long that would take. However, with some discarded soul matter I should be capable of functionally creating a half-Gift so to speak. Certainly its Defiant nature would be inferior, but an already powerful magic user like you would easily benefit from channeling its power. Nonetheless, we can work out how to properly reward you after my host is saved."

So the moment Sinistrina made it clear the purification was complete, the Golden Being was abruptly right in front of the gathered souls. Resting his 'hands' on them, golden lines begin to spread across the collection. On his 'face', as plain as day to anyone, was a genuine smile- A smile of hope, victory, and happiness his trial is finally over. That was also when the Armory Knight suddenly began screeching in pain. Turning back to look at the knightly weapon, his body was uncontrollably changing form.

Patches was next, shrieking in horror as she begins clawing at her head, her free floating spheres of electricity beginning to shift about wildly as their shapes kept distorting. Then the lifeless souls began resisting at all, forcing the Golden Being to break away as such energy would just get them rend asunder trying to break off little pieces from each all. Turning back to where that worthless trash lays, the Golden Being screams in pure rage. "I had it!! The necessary material perfectly counted, both to save my body and minimize the souls' crippling to meaninglessly slight!! So why!? We weren't fighting any of you anymore!! We were going to leave without any trouble!! So why!? Why!? Why!? Why!?"

So as pillars of trapped lightning began smashing into the ground, and as the Armory Knight was essentially both melting & growing 'cancerous' outbursts of varied weapons, the Golden Being shed the form it had took. In its place, the visage of a monster formed- Skin like the night sky, each 'star' the same radiant gold of existence. Standing tall as a quadrupedal beast, it is not so much nondescript than it is a living outline of something that should be, the 'skin' of the beast swirling about as if countless beings struggle to fill in that outline.

The monstrosity looking straight at that thing called Sentinel and the fraudulent-Gift with her, the Golden Being intoned. "This beast is called the Anti-Soul Behemoth in the world I come from. It is an ancient thing, born as the result of one pathetic being acquiring the power to absorb souls. I present this false form to help emphasis my point... If you do not call off your interference, I will be forced to eliminate you. However, destroying your soul means it gets to reincarnate once the omniverse is reset. My host does not get that luxury however, as his eroding soul is bound to me, and we Gifts do not reset. So if his soul ends up eroded and denied reincarnation, then I will deny you reincarnation. Unlike all you pretender gods, filled with your insane pride over merely being strong, my host is presented a very unique possibility: He can become the truest thing there is to a god, to be something that surpasses even us Gifts. He deserves to be the truest kind of god, so I will do everything I possibly can. Call it love, loyalty, admiration or whatever else... But there is nothing more important in all existence than my host."

I'll write up scenes for Patches & Armory Knight's visions later, as they're not strictly required right now and I've taken way too long to write this anyways. 

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."

Twilight Ball (Amiluet, June, Lauren)

Lauren seemed rather reluctant as she explained her experience with war. Amiluet, of course, had never been to Earth before, and thus had no idea what "America" and "Vietnam" were - though she had to giggle at the name of the latter, as it sounded like the name of a tree.^note In sumiri culture, the suffix -nam is used to describe a type of tree - specifically one that bears fruits or is harvested mainly for its leaves. The tree that has the bark the Four Bardic Sisters drank a tea out of is called drimari-nam (or drimariya by the night-dwelling sunestre since they don't use such suffixes), or "Tree of Dreams". What does a tree have to do with a war? Is she speaking in riddles or something? In that case, is "America" a fruit?

At least June had the decency to not mention Earth places a non-Earthling might not be familiar with. But nonetheless, she hardly heard what she was saying, for she was paying more attention to what she was doing while saying that. While speaking, she conjured a flame out of thin air, encased it in an icy dagger on top of that, and then made said dagger vanish into snow without melting it from the fire. The dagger especially caught her attention, since it was a discrete object. Or rather, the illusion of one.

"Huh, I thought Earthlings couldn't use magic," she said to June, having forgotten all about what Lauren had said about war. "I wonder if the person who came up with that myth just hated Earth in general, because obviously he was wrong. It's awesome that we both seem to specialize in illusion magic though! Unless... what other sorts of magic can you use?"

A tiny flower voice in the back of her mind told her that she ought to be focusing on some other topic, but consciously, she had forgotten what that topic was. And whatever it was, it was anything but pleasant. Instead she fixed her attention on June, having forgotten about Lauren for the time being... and also Ferisen, who she didn't even realize had followed through with her astral projection idea.

Forest (Eve, Ferisen, Tagui)

When Eve introduced herself, Ferisen detected the slightest bit of bewilderment in her aura, though she was paying too much attention to the bizarre nature of her surroundings to notice much else. Her mention of "Canada" and "Seattle", if anything, further confirmed that she was from another planet entirely, and from what she had observed from June and Lauren earlier, she was almost certain that planet was Earth.

While she was pondering the meaning of this, she heard the sound of twigs snapping. A man had arrived on the scene, one highly visible against the trees with his contrasting red and orange robes. Although said robes were soiled, the pale yellow aura she saw around him was not - though this, she knew, indicated nervousness, especially given how it quivered, though slightly. Well, as long as he wasn't outright intimidated by their appearance, she figured there would be few problems. And in response to him introducing himself by first name only...

"And you may call me Ferisen, and you may call her Eve." She gestured in the direction of the plainly-dressed young lady - and then paused to take a look at the latter for a moment. "So you are on the run from something..." She looked back to Tagui, studying him a little more. "And I am simply exploring this place. Might I presume that you are lost or looking to hide?"

There was something peculiar about Tagui that Ferisen couldn't quite put her finger on. Although, if Tagui was at all perceptive to psychic energies, he would surely have noticed such an energy emanating from the box sitting on the wheeled cart that was standing behing her. Which meant either he was very good at hiding his awareness of things, or perhaps wasn't as aware as she made him out to be. So for now she decided to just listen to his response, and to Eve's as well.

Beta Town (Gon, Ari, Ruka)

Ruka was understandably perturbed about having the pole pulled out of her leg. Although neither Gon nor Ari had experienced anything remotely similar themselves, Gon in particular recalled witnessing Aki having a spike driven through the base of his tail during a battle, and how the fiery oversized dragonfly singed the top of his hair off when he pulled it out. However, even Ari had to scratch her head at Ruka refusing Satori's numbing ice crystals after trying to stand on her injured leg.

"Seriously?" Gon didn't realize he was saying aloud. "I think if I was impaled through the leg, the last thing I'd try to do is stand on it."

"Well she is half-ghost, so..." Ari turned to her brother and shrugged, then turned to Ruka. "Uh, we should probably get out of here before more of those Messengers show up. Gon, where did we enter the town?"

"I see a patch of fog down that street." He was pointing to a spot opposite where the Messenger was, where the surroundings seemed to fade into white. "Hopefully this time we'll end up in a less violent place."

"Well, at least now we got a glimpse of how to fight those V-Bots."

Meanwhile, Satori offered to help Ruka up, though being very careful to stay away from the pole the latter was holding. "I am sorry about the ice. It was the only way I knew how to stop you from bleeding while Galaxeon pulled that pole out, which I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted stuck in you." In fact, as she was speaking, a white mist started emanating from her body, though it faded from view when one concentrated on it. Much of this mist began to flow around Ruka, easing her pain a bit, just like the Cure Sprite Gon would have used if his Scanner wasn't broken.

"Perhaps I should carry you instead," Galaxeon offered. "I think Gon will manage all right without me."

"HEY!" Gon shouted. "I just flew head-first into a fire hydrant a minute ago, you know that right?"

"But your head is so thick that it didn't do much damage," Ari remarked, stifling a giggle. This caused Gon's face to turn a bright red.

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.

[Beta Town] (Ruka, Ari, Gon)

Ruka leaned up to a sitting position. She glanced between the two teens with her shadowed eyes. "I'll be fine. Walking... might be a bit tricky for now," she said, before reaching over towards the now-cooling pole section. Grabbing it, she used it as an impromptu support, pushing herself off the ground. She leaned heavily on the pole, keeping weight off her injured leg.

Looking towards the fog bank, Ruka nodded slightly. "Indeed, I'd rather not hang around here either," she said. On cue, the first of the airborne debris began raining down. She hopped back slightly as a baseball sized chunk of asphalt ht the ground in front of her. Right, what goes up must come down...

Ruka waved at Satori when the dragon apologized, "It's not your fault. I'm... just not exactly fond of ice is all." As the soothing relief of the Mystripet's mist began to take effect, Ruka gingerly applied weight to her leg. While still uncomfortable, at least she wasn't subject to debilitating pain now. Ruka smiled at Satori, "Thanks."

"No, that won't be necessary," Ruka replied, declining Galaxeon's offer. She looked over towards Gon, who objected to traded off for herself. "You're pretty vocal for someone who should have a concussion," Ruka quipped, clapping the boy on the back. She paused for a moment, "Then again, I'm one to talk."

Balancing on one foot, Ruka enthusiastically pointed with the pole towards the fog, "Onward to where ever!" She waved a hand through her hair, now returning to its solid blue color, and began limping carefully down the street.

Graveyard (Patches, Sentinel, Moreena, Caleb, Half, Gabe, Sinistrina, Friedrich, Ceallagh)

While Sinistrina was still inside the black dome waiting for the Golden Being to take the ether, she heard two voices call to her. The first came more directly, a very evil-intoned voice that was chillingly calm, asking her if she had any idea what she was doing. Upon which the Golden Being swooped in and asked her to not interrupt the process. The second was the distant voice of the war goddess, mentioning something about an insect being caught in a web. It was the clear that the former meant Armory Knight and the latter meant Sinistrina. Yes, I do in fact know what I'm doing, and yes, I do have Armory Knight trapped in a web, but I intend to heal him rather than eat him.

And here she had to smile. I intended to heal him. There was a lingering fear that like everyone else she tried to heal, Armory Knight would end up dead instead, but given his defiant existence, she figured that was less of a concern. The Golden Being thought so too, coming to thank her for providing the ether, and even promising a Gift in return. Or half-Gift rather. Sinistrina didn't really care about the latter; she already had all the power she needed, perhaps even too much given its destructive nature. But his words made her smile even more. Even though she couldn't quite feel the emotion behind such a smile, she felt the pictures on the manor walls grow brighter, especially the one in the master bedroom depicting her mortal self amongst the living dolls at the ball. And soon that picture would come to life...

Suddenly, her attention shifted to the one picture that hadn't grown brighter: the one in the stairway leading from the cellar to the basement, where she was near the end of her life, lying in weakness and agony in the bed of that same bedroom. She remembered that day (well, not really a day, as it was always the same "time of day" in the Deathly Glade and thus easy to lose track of time there) all too well, when she had just made her final attempt to leave the place, via the same disc of light in the sky people fell through when entering it. As she lay in that bed, she knew that that place would be her end.

But it wasn't. In fact, her death was rather painless, a welcome release from the strife and the peril a mortal life entailed. The same was true of the people who were tossed in there, some of whom she had killed herself so that they wouldn't be slowly poisoned by the black mists or permanently damaged by the curse of Misery Manor.
Death truly is a gift. It offers us a way to be recycled into new life and to take a break from the petty worries such a life provides. It was perhaps the greatest Gift that God ever gave us.

And out of that realization came a feeling: happiness, in the most jaded and saturnine form. For a moment she even saw one of her will-o-wisps before her, which burned scarlet before entering her body and settling within her heart, helping to prevent it from stiffening within the black dome.

In the same fashion that the sudden feelings revolving around death came, a brightness suddenly pierced her inner vision, causing all the pictures on the walls of the manor except for the previous one to shine even more brightly. Oblivious to the fact that these feelings were brought about by an external force, her consciousness drifted across these other pictures, one by one, just like it usually did in her dreams. But this time the feeling was more powerful, and shone through all the pictures at once. Just for a moment, she felt as if she was mortal again just as the Golden Being had promised, filled with the life she had in those captured memories. Of sitting on her father's knee as a toddler, of helping him and her sister out in the toy store, of gazing into the hand mirror the Deathly Glade was contained in, of playing with her undead spider friends, of her and Lucina conversing over absinthe at a bar in town, of her at the ball surrounded by dolls and visiting townsfolk... and of Lucina herself, who was always more lively and exuberant than she could ever be. Come to think of it, all these moments could never be. Nothing new could be made of them. In fact, her current existence was a slap in Life's very face.

And out of that realization came another feeling: sadness, materializing in a lively anguish. The second will-o-wisp appeared before her and burned a deep blue, entering her heart as the other one did. Meanwhile, all eight pictures on the manor walls shone even brighter, even the one in the cellar, becoming as wild as the souls of the Deathly Glade. And in their wild excitement, their images transformed into balls of light and flew right out of their frames, converging at a spot right above the roof. Out of this spot, a misty white comet shot out in an arc, aiming right for the group at the crater.

But it stopped and took a detour when it spotted the errant souls flying around. This was not the pure white mist that she had conjured up for the Golden Being. These were delicate fragments, looking more like floating glass shards that would shatter at the slightest touch. And alongside them, a great scream, coming from the Golden Being who seemed furious at the state of the souls. It was clear that he could no longer use those souls to restore Armory Knight, who was now spasming out of control. The deal was off. Her one chance at returning to a mortal life was rendered null. The black dome was useless now, so she immediately dispelled it, the black mist fading away until becoming invisible in the gloomy landscape of the Graveyard.

And out of that realization came another feeling: anger, materializing as a stiffening frustration. And yet, when the third will-o-wisp appeared before her, burning orange like a normal flame, it did not stiffen her heart when entering it. It managed to retain just enough fluidity so that when the black dome disappeared, her body was left considerably more withered, and yet the skin that had peeled off from the taint was re-sealing itself and her black veins were re-forming underneath it.

Even more bizarre was that her outfit had changed, perhaps conjured into being much like the black mists were. In fact, she was wearing the exact same dress she had worn in the picture of her at the ball. A fancy and frilly one reminiscent of the upper-class dresses of the Victorian era, mostly black with tattered grey trim, the sleeves at mid-length on top of black lacy gloves. At the bottom it was short enough to show the laced-up black boots she was wearing, and long enough for the tips of grey cloth fragments in the back to drag along the ground. It felt a bit weird for her to be wearing it now - especially the corset which was actually loose on her given the gauntness of her figure. As well as the skull-adorned rings on a couple of her fingers, which on top of also being loose, seemed to draw attention to her deathly grey fingernails. But now more than ever she enjoyed the frilly black collar she wore on top of the dress to provide more contrast to the large spider pendant, which she made herself out of bone, sitting on the top of her chest. Her hat was the same, its point and its wide brim a playful giveaway to the nature of her magic, though the grey spider-web embroidery aroung the brim was more prominent.

Meanwhile, Friedrich experienced those same feelings of death and re-birth. Like Sinistrina, he was all too familiar with the former - in fact, with that feeling he re-lived the very first moments of his consciousness, starting with an empty void that slowly filled with his senses. And yet, when he came into being, he still felt that emptiness, especially with realizing how broken he was and how his soul seemed a little more fragmented and incomplete in nature than those of the other dolls brought to life in the twins' home town of Solevaille. He wondered why he even had this existence, and if he ought to have been just a pile of porcelain shards from perhaps several dolls that had been smashed and then tossed into the Glade as a form of "execution". The souls of those dolls, too, had been contained in the black mists, returning to the mixture that entered their bodies in the first place when they were born.

And then suddenly, he felt a great pain in every crack in his body, as the black substance that held him together struggled to hold itself together as it tried its best to transform itself into porcelain. The pocketwatch he wore as a pendant shattered, the tar-like crust inside unraveling into dust, the dead spider falling out and then excitedly scurrying away towards Sinistrina. As he followed the spider with his clear glass eyes, he caught a glimpse of the fragile souls floating around in the sky, struck with the same wild sensation of life. Then he saw a white comet make a circle around them and then head right for him, attracting what was left of the mists and turning grey in the process. Shocked, he instinctively stumbled backward, but nonetheless, the comet crashed right down on him, causing him even more agony. For a while he writhed around on the ground, bathed in a darkening mist, his entire body feeling like it was on fire, perhaps that of the kiln he had been encased in upon his arrival here. When at last the mist cleared, Friedrich lay motionless on the ground, a little bit of dust having gathered on his elegant coat, but yet, his face perfectly smooth.

...His face perfectly smooth? Sitting bolt upright, Friedrich moved a gloved hand around his face, utterly shocked at how smooth it was. All the cracks were gone, apparently having sealed themselves in the wake of that strange burning sensation. And not just on his face either - when he removed his gloves, he found that they, too, were those of a normal, unbroken doll. He couldn't feel any in the rest of his body either. Likewise, both the ticking sound and the ever-present empty feeling inside him had vanished... well, not completely in the case of the latter. It wasn't quite emptiness, but something more of a loss of self, as if his very will had merged with something bigger. The sense of self that he did have felt as if it was still somehow broken, this something else holding it and making it stable. In fact, he wasn't sure if this sense of self was in danger of leaving completely, such that he would become a motionless empty shell. In which case, it was worse than being broken.

By that time, the black dome had dissipated, and much to his shock, Sinistrina looked exactly like she did in that picture in the master bedroom. Had the Golden Being followed up on the deal after all? Well, actually, he knew that was incorrect. The Golden Being had changed form again, now a furious celestial beast, focusing all his rage on the Sentinel. Friedrich cast another disapproving look at the Matron of Medicine - was she the one responsible for all those souls becoming so fragile? He was beginning to wonder when the list of reasons to hate her was going to end - if that were true, this would be written in particularly large print on that list. In fact, he started to wonder how Sinistrina would feel about this...

When he saw her, he was in shock for the third time, and she was in shock for the first time. By the time he got to her, she was examining her outfit while trembling with what was perhaps a mixture of surprise and solemn joy. If Friedrich could raise an eyebrow, he would have - Sinistrina had always seemed to him to have just as much a capacity for emotion as he did, which was very little if any at all. But more importantly...

"Sinistrina!" he called out to her. "You're a... still dead." The shock left him at the last moment - if anything she looked even more dead than before, if that was even possible. "Looks like the Golden Being didn't follow through with the deal after all."

Sinistrina sighed. "It wasn't his fault. Something caused a disturbance within those souls..." She looked at the Golden Being's new beastly form, who was facing the Sentinel. A hatred similar to that Friedrich and especially the Golden Being felt was brewing inside of her, and yet since it was never in her nature to lash out at things, it instead manifested as a cold stare aimed at the Sentinel. Yet it didn't last for long - something inside her, a feeling she had experienced inside the manor, mitigated that hatred, putting out that orange flame, so soon she looked away.

Both of them found themselves looking at Misery Manor, which was shaking and creaking... and then, it collapsed, causing them both to jump back in shock. Not necessary at the collapse itself, but the fact that both of them were entirely unaffected by it.

Misery Manor

Inside the manor, Nergui would also be influenced by the sensation of death followed immediately by the sensation of life... and immediately after the latter, any visions he saw within the manor would vanish. Indeed, once those lights left the pictures on the walls and left behind empty frames, the curse was broken, leaving all inside to see the manor exactly as the dilpaidated house it was, all torment merely lingering from remembering the horrors they had already experienced in there.

And then the manor started to collapse. Wooden beams all over the walls and ceiling spontaneously rotted away and fell, floorboards snapped in half, and even the furniture inside crumbled away into dust. Yet strangely, the cellar and everything within remained perfectly intact. The zombies remained as well, entirely unaffected by the transmitted feelings since they didn't have souls. One of them even had his arm fall off when it got hit by a fallen beam, though no blood spilled and he just popped it back into his shoulder where it re-attached. And below the foundation of the manor, the black mists left the place as several spectral forms of spiders scampering outward, disappearing into the gray earth.

edited 4th Feb '17 2:15:00 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 Graveyard]

The being that was both Gabriel and not considered. "What makes you so certain there is nothing beyond you? Perhaps, beyond us both, is something that is to you what you are to us? Perhaps if I reach out, I can discover something that is more impossible, more 'beyond' than you. Let's try it, shall we?" His mind reached out, and he found... something. Then he fell, the power he had stolen fleeing from him. He collapsed to the ground — alive, but rendered unconscious.

A bearded man, seemingly mundane, strode through a jagged portal torn open near where Gabriel lay; the portal closed a moment after. "And that," the man said, glancing at Gabriel, "is why you do not pry too deeply into the secrets of the Demiurge's foul work. You might find out what he just did." (What exactly Gabriel had seen was a good question — it apparently had done what witnessing the whole of creation and the spark of existence itself could not.) The newcomer was a dark, reedy, mousy-looking man with a shaven head and a massive, jet-black, meticulously groomed beard. He seemed some sort of priest, of uncertain descent; perhaps West African, with Arab or European or both mixed in? It was hard to say for sure, give how much of his face was obscured by that beard. He had the air of a monk or a priest, and wore simple, humble robes with a rope belt. The robes had been black at once point, but had since faded to an uneven dark gray. The only touches of color was a holy symbol around his neck: a cameo carving portraying a barren black tree set ablaze with white fire.

The dark priest stepped aside, seeming to have no present interest in the outcome of the matter before him. But he also seemed unperturbed by the goings-on, and indeed, any of the various attacks he ought to have been caught by would flow around him rather that strike him, a stone in a river. He gave Gabriel a last glance. "He'll survive," the dark priest noted. "His memory won't let him hold onto what he just saw." He then opened up a journal with a red leather cover and began jotting down notes with a ballpoint pen in fine, precise letters.

edited 4th Feb '17 2:39:47 PM by KillerClowns

The Forest [Eve, Ferisen, Tagui]

Eve caught sight of another likely cosplayer stepping out the forest, in bright orange robes like some kind of wizard. This just got better and better. She sighed and crossed her arms, pulling away from the two just a bit. "Yeah, the war...look, did I step into some kind of LARP? Because if so, it would be nice if you could direct me to whichever town of yours is still doing well enough to have people running around in the woods and hitting each other with foam batons rather than shooting each other with guns. They probably have warm meals and running water."

edited 4th Feb '17 2:26:20 PM by TooManyIdeas

please call me "XionKuriyama" or some variation, thanks! | What is the good deed that you can do right now?

Graveyard:

As the accusing gazes fell upon Sentinel she greeted then with deathlike silence, still trapped in her own mind, too weak to face the emptiness brought by the Defiant One. And in response all who accused her, a subtle yet clear voice echoed part in the air and part in the mind as prismatic light revealed for a moment a translucid humanoid figure standing over the fallen Sentinel.

"We are doing nothing. The Beyond is answering to what you did.", they replied to the insignificant being who failed to consider what they defended. "And you broke someone who could help you."

Savoring the darker mists that siphoned all sensation the being's form manifested more completely there, the shadowy outline of an human with many wings of prismatic light flashing behind. A ray of light for a few seconds pointed towards Armory Knight as they spoke to its Gift:

"You can destroy my heir, bring ruin to my word... what goes forth comes back. And all you have is power.", they echoed the arrogant one, tilting their head awaiting for a reply while savoring the slow and certain cracking of Armory Knight's soul, knowing it would make its master think better before acting. "Whatever you choose, your knight will once again face the consequences, and we can do nothing to stop it.".

With that, they sat besides Sentinel, comforting her in silence. Sooner or later decisions would be made, and they spoke no lies. Those around them had power now, while they had only the Beyond at their side. "Don't worry, little one, we never die.", the spirit whispered in their ward's ear as she drifted only a little bit further from oblivion, then turned part of their attention to the strange monk with a small spark of curiosity in their mind.

Forest:

"I... what?", Tagui said, stretching forward a bit to hear better. Few things "Eve" said made any sense to him, but one brought even more insult to her tone. "I didn't get to choose my clothes, unfortunately.", he replied flatly, now firmer fingers moving through the folds of his attire, finally stopping to remove spectacles with blue lenses, which he cleaned before putting on. "And I am not in rush to go anywhere... unless you want me to leave?", he said, confused by why Ferisen thought he wanted to hide from something. He wouldn't say his name if he wanted to run, would he?

Moving his eyes between the two strange women, he drew himself in, letting external vibrances touch his senses. That was one of the hardest techniques of his organization, and little he felt besides the two people there. Carefully, he pushed outwards in a fast pulse, doing a surface reading of the environment. It was softer and less nitid than he was used to, like graveyards or the few haunted places he had been to, but there was more... an interference nearby Ferisen, and a more... permeable psyche? Or selectively permeable and making no effort to hide that. Taking care to not look directly in her eyes yet not looking suspicious, Tagui commented: "I don't believe there are any towns or cities nearby. But I am also unsure what you mean by 'larp'."

edited 5th Feb '17 4:17:40 PM by EternaMemoria

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

[Farmhouse]

Ah, yes. Back to Seilaan and politics. Because that went so great last time. Oh well!

"Seilaan is the heir of Ren Island. She grew up aware of the political world that her parents worked in. And as the future head of state, she has been gradually introduced to that world herself. The duties she'll someday take on include representing the executive branch's interests in the Senate—albeit with limited voting power—commanding the military, managing the bureaucracy, diplomacy...." Ren Yangchao waved their hand dismissively. "All that sort of thing. I won't go into the details unless you want me to. They're boring. She still frequently shadows her parents, but has been doing some things on her own as an approved representative of the family since she turned eighteen. She makes some speeches here and there. Meets with senators, has taken part in a few floor debates. Spends a lot of time in the city or travelling between the islands, mingling with people."

---

[Marble Corridor]

Did she mishear me? Is she playing dumb? No, she must be planning something to take advantage of me losing my weapon. Stay alert. "Frankly I don't think that's what I said at all. What are you waiting for? Need me to make it even easier for you and lose the armor, too? Don't tell me I have to lie down before you can feel like it's a fair fight. What the hell kind of combat training did you get growing up?" It was meant to get a rise out of Mazra more than anything else, but Seilaan couldn't help but seriously wonder. Mazra was putting up a fight, obviously, but she couldn't imagine her parents being satisfied if Seilaan performed like this. Then again, they had high standards.

Actually, what are we even doing anymore? Some nobles we are! If there was even a shred of importance in what we were arguing about, we've totally forgotten it by now. This is sort of embarrassing. I wonder if I can find a nice, neat way to wrap it up soon without having to admit that this is kind of all my fault. And what's the deal with this carpet? Gray? I may be the one preaching austerity, but gray is a bit much.

---

[Blizzard]

"You're a spiritual person, yeah?" Friedrich kept his eyes downward as he trudged through the snow. "Sometimes I miss it. I miss feeling like there are other things just... out there, I guess. I dunno what we'll find in the cemetery, but if that grave's really empty, if that man back there really is my brother returned to me... maybe I can finally tell science to get the fuck out of this part of my life."

He looked back. Not long until the house lights would be just barely visible, especially in this weather. Friedrich took a small arcanoconductor out of his coat pocket. Golden light formed a rune circle that he slammed into the ground, penetrating all the layers of snow. He dropped the arcanoconductor, pointy end down. It found its way to the center of the rune circle and embedded itself in the dirt. Golden flames erupted, a child-sized beacon of warmth melting some of the snow around it.

"But I still don't know if I can ever go back." Friedrich shoved his hands into his pockets. "Do I want to worship a god who's heaped so much misfortune upon the people who serve Him and sing His praises? Why did He bring the founders of the Republic to our shores? What had we done to deserve generations of oppression? If this is a test like the Fathers say it is, I've failed—but at the same time, I'm not sure if I care about the rewards of the afterlife anymore. Why should we suffer more for those rewards than those who came before us? What did we do so wrong? Shit, never mind. I'll quit whining. Only the Light knows, and as far as I know, you're not Him. Unless you are. Honestly I don't think I'd even be surprised."

Fuck, just listen to me. I'm such a shit prophet. Can't believe this generation is stuck with my ass. It's a good thing they don't even know it's me.

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

Graveyard (Moreena, Patches, Sentinel, Caleb, Half, Sinistrina, Friedrich, Gabe, Ceallagh)

Moreena reluctantly pulled her gaze away from the necromancer's black sphere to face the Golden Being's physical form. It's motivations made sense to her now, though they hardly excused the attack. Attempting to steal parts of her companions' souls, and not even considering any other options until the battle was already underway? Though the being now claimed that it could accomplish it's task without 'meaningfully crippling' any souls, as it had so delightfully described it, she could hardly be criticized for her lack of trust, now could she?

"The dead are not to be used for bartering," she said with the same cold voice as before, the words seeping out between her now very sharp, almost shark-like teeth. "Though I am pleased to hear that you're finally being reasonable. Perhaps we..."

Moreena froze in place, staring blankly into the distance. Emptiness, meaninglessness, the end of all things. Hardly new sensations on their own, but their strength and suddenness caught her by surprise. She felt the final fate of her world - of all worlds - and knew just how utterly insignificant all of it was. Her own existence - an eon of terrible mistakes, glorious triumphs, love and hate, agony and bliss - was still absurdly brief and ultimately pointless. And yet...

There was something else there as well. A memory. Hope. Defiance. Slowly, very slowly, the corner of Moreena's black lips curved into a subtle smirk.

Once her mind had returned to the present, the black sphere was gone, and she found her gaze wandering between the now oddly frail looking necromancer, the winged spirit sitting by the Sentinel's fallen body, and a strange man in robes who had suddenly appeared from somewhere. Most noticeably of all, the souls surrounding the necromancer seemed... different. More alive somehow.

And the Golden Being, in turn, was furious. This would not end well.

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

[Marble Corridor (Seilaan, Mazra)]

Mazra stared absolutely incredulously at Seilaan, mouth hanging slightly open. What kind of attack was that? Obviousness entirely aside (since both of them clearly knew what each other was doing here), she'd thought she'd been doing quite well - particularly considering how much of the field-sword fencing had had to have been self-taught - and Seilaan was just unusually skilled. Did Renesian nobles actually expect their basic self-defense training to be the same level as their House CSO?

"Er, yeah, nice try," she said. The point had made her curious, though, enough to try using some straightforward honesty. Keeping her field-sword in a defensive stance, but making no aggressive moves, she raised her eyebrows. "Actually, what kind of combat training have you had? I was thinking you were just naturally good."

She considered for a moment that seemed to stretch out. Now that Seilaan wasn't so damn indignant anymore, they really were fighting about nothing, and the cross-cultural gap was making it less fun than it would have been otherwise. (Besides, she was curious to see how long this corridor dreamscape persisted if they stopped dueling).

"Actually actually... are you feeling like we're getting a little stuck here? I don't know enough about you to really score any mental hits, and you're the same with me."

[Blizzard]

Iveya considered Friedrich's morose ramblings with an air of polite but distant sympathy, but something didn't quite fit. Why was Friedrich holding his god — that Ibram he'd mentioned earlier, presumably — responsible? There were plenty of other gods that might be to blame...

With a start, it hit her. She didn't understand quite what Friedrich believed, but it didn't matter. As different as their beliefs clearly were, she now knew — or hoped she knew — what she could say to this man. With a sigh, she forced herself to let finally her guard down, visibly deflating. "I often wondered the same," she said, "in my dark youth. Why my ancestors and the spirits who have done so much for our people watched in silence as my mother heaped insult upon insult at me, tormented me with arbitrary punishment, bruised me for every perceived sin." She gave a sad little not-laugh. "I am Uelane, and so I never feared to take strikes from a training sword or a cudgel. It was my mother's simple hands hurt all the more because they were my mother's..."

She realized she was rubbing a bruise on her temple that now existed only in her painful memories — which didn't make it hurt any less. She stopped and awkwardly put her hands back in her lap. She swallowed the now-irrational fear that still found its way to her chest, collected herself, and forced a bit — just a bit — of that formality to return to her. "...she's not here, and she holds no power over me, so it doesn't matter." She didn't sound entirely convinced, but continued. "The spirit Esaxe swore that by her holy blessing, our people would never again be enslaved... but she was silent when I was enslaved in all but law. What I would give to just yank on her broken chains," she actually made a slight motion with her right arm and hand, as if reaching for an imaginary chain to pull whoever was on the other end of it down to eye level, "and ask her," she leaned forward, putting herself nose-to-nose with the imaginary figure, "why."

Then she slumped, the fantasy fleeting, her eyes at her borrowed boots. "The priestesses would tell you it's the way of the spirit world to give us the strength to help ourselves. Which sounds so reasonable... except that my mother would also tell me what she was doing was to make me strong." It always came back to that bitch, didn't it? "Me? I don't know. I just don't know." She sighed, and looked back up at Friedrich, certainty returning. "But I read the stories of the Book of the Xayu, and I see in them the light that guided my ancestors from slavery to freedom. The spirits have written lessons worth reading and laid down paths worth following, even though I sometimes ask myself if they are following it themselves."

Now she was looking levelly at Friedrich. "I suppose I can't tell you how to keep your faith," she finished, "but if I tell you how I keep mine, maybe that will help." A slight smile. "Even if it's all just rambling to you, thank you for listening... it felt good, getting it off my chest. It has been too long since I really thought about it."

edited 8th Feb '17 8:10:43 PM by KillerClowns

[Clinic-Parlor/Henry]

Henry chuckled as he lit another cigarette, it seemed like he can add another thing to his list of constants that prevail across the dimensional boundaries.

"Sounds like the usual stuff then." He told Heinrich. "We have that stuff in America too unfortunately. It's only gotten worse in the past century." He said as he looked around for his glass of whiskey.

"36 years ago I was the head of the CIA, the main intelligence agency used against our enemy, the United Soviet Socialist Republic. We did things raging from intelligence gathering, espionage, assassination, sabotage and other things. Now this wasn't really that different than what I've been doing for the past 60 years at that point." He sighed.

"But, the tone and rational the missions had and combined with my recent experiences in Korea that resulted in my leg brace and the debacle with my work on the atomic bomb projects really caused me to step back and look at what I was doing."

He eventually found his glass and took a drink from it. "What made me finally quit was when they wanted me to organize the overthrow of the Iranian government that was democratically elected and replace it with the old monarchy." He said raising his voice in anger.

"I immediately refused and resigned my position then and there. After I cussed all of them out I went on to join a group of nuclear scientist, and together we built the first nuclear power plant just 3 years later. Unfortunately you can't just leave a position like that. In 1957 the CIA officially put an order out for my 'questioning of my loyalty'. Which in layman's terms means they want to put a 45. caliber bullet in my skull. I found out, burned my mansion in upstate New York to the ground and have been on the run ever since."

As he finished his glass and set it back on the table he chucked again. "Funny thing about that incident is that a decade ago a bunch of radicals overthrew the monarchy in Iran that we set up. It even cost President Carter his chance at reelection. A shame really because he really was an honest man."

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

Min nodded, idly nudging her food around with her fork. “Sounds like she’s really important, then. You know, she’s really different from all of the politicians I’ve seen in my town. Everyone back home is too busy being ‘artsy’ and ‘sophisticated’ to ever get in any fights.”

“And… she actually cares about people. She tried to help me when I got hurt.” Min pressed her hand against her chest where Seilaan had stabbed her. The wound was gone, but if she thought about it feel the dull sensation of the pain, lingering like a faded afterimage. She then sighed; her gaze seemed to drift off towards the trees, but they might as well have just been indistinct shapes in the mist. “It just… doesn’t make any sense. She’s a paradox.”

She turned her eyes to see the ship's fins - they are rising upward to the ring again...

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

"Yay~" Magdalene replied to Gliosem, before happily helping herself to the tea. The second she took a sip, however, her face scrunched up. A second later, she'd spat it out all over the table.

"This stuff tastes bad!" she stated bluntly. Then she looked around for a moment, before her eyes settled on what looked like sugar. She grabbed it and promptly started heaping it into her tea.

"I just got here," she said simply in response to Jackson, "I just said. I was taking a nap, saw this place, and thought it looked like fun~ And then I hopped in, and now I'm here~"

At this point her cup of tea could better be described as a cup of sugar with tea as opposed to the other way around. She stirred it all in to the best of her ability before she took another sip. This time she smiled. "That's much better~"

Then she moved on to the next round of explanations.

"Fairies~" she said to Gwenafer happily, "Like Glilly here." She pointed to Gliosem, before glancing at her herself. "...Though most don't look like that. Actually, most of them look really weird." Then she made a big smile. "But that doesn't matter, because they're all really nice to me~ Much nicer than the people I used to know." She frowned briefly, before her smile returned. "I get to live in their castle and they all give me food and friendship and...stuff. All I have to do is hold on to the dead fairies for King Messy! Though I don't know what he wants me to do with them...."

She looked thoughtful for a moment, before shaking her head and turning to Gliosem.

"Um...you're welcome~?" she said in response, before frowning and pointing at Alice. "Is the oo-rah the reason why her soul's broken? It's all full of fuzzies and stuff...."

Icon by Civvi the Civilian!

[Castle (I forgot what it was called it's been forever since I replied)]

Jackson quirked an eyebrow.

"So you're like us?" he said, "You went to sleep and woke up here. I see."

Nick wondered why everyone seemed so...twitchy towards Maggie. Even with her powers, she was still, by all means, a kid. Yeah, she was unusual, but she acted no different than any other child he seen.

"Look," he said, "We don't have any powers, so we don't know about this aura stuff, but give this kid a break! She's still young."

As he talked, Adam suddenly felt lightheaded. It was weird; he didn't have the tea, and he was already dreaming...so why...?

He stood up, holding his forehead. "U-um...Ms. Rin? D-do you know...where a bathroom...is?"

Jackson immediately took notice of Adam's behavior. "You alright?"

"Y-yeah...I just need to...go to the bathroom for a bit." He forced a smile, "D-don't worry about me! Really!"

If one looked in his pocket, they would notice a dim white light glowing.

What am I plotting? You'll have to wait....it may or may not be sort of relating to Jackson's gems from City and Archipelago. Is it magical related? Hmmm...;D