2027 Training Room
Remix got up and skated after the others, heading to the training room."So this book is the key to getting home, excellent," he commented. "I don't suppose there is an ebook of it, no?"
Training Room 2027
"Sorry about that," said Interceptor, having just returned to the Training Room. "Apparently Reinbach nearly let loose the Undying Ones of all things. Took him a bit to seal them away for another 1000 years or so. Anyway, this should do the trick." He handed Matten a piece of paper with a series of notes scribbled down in a just barely legible font size. "This is Reinbach's instructions. You follow these and there's a %99.9 chance you'll get home. He also said there's a 0.1 chance you'll end up in the Abyss. Specifically your Abyss. Normally I'd say there isn't a chance in hell of that last one happening, but in this line of work, a 0.1 chance tends to happen a lot more than it should. Just in case, you'd better be ready."
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Saint Academy 2k...and 27 - Training Room
Mahvash refrained from giving Interceptor a proper curtsy, settling on a light nod while she took the note. He had vanished from his hosting duties after all without explanation. "Don't apologize. After all. You'd do it again."
She tilted her head, leveling a stare at the man while folding her arms behind her back. "You are pardoned though. I do not mind your delay too much, but do tell me, what became of Saint in this world?"
"I'll enter this into a nice PDF when we return, Remix," Mahvash about faced, making her way to the controls. "Though you could just snuggle up to me and read it too. "If you worry... allow me to remind you of a funny thing about the Abyss. That was initially our route back, before we found our demon's wings might be terminally clipped. And though you may tread through the fiery, dreary valley of Gehenna fear not..."
The daeva revived her yin-yang moth wing image leaping up to the control panel in a single flap and swirl of light and dark. "For you have divine protection in the manifest glory of the moon, and she herself will lead you through the flames and the brimstone." From what I read the Dutch are mostly irreligious, but that had to strike a chord, yes?
Edited by CenturyEye on Aug 7th 2018 at 9:43:15 AM
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
Training Room 2027
Interceptor looked away from Matten. Almost as though he didn't even want to think about what she was asking. Not that it stopped him from telling her the truth. "Saint died of a heart attack a few years back. From the same injury he'd been dealing with for years. He got it during a fight with Leon. Managed to get a lucky shot. Turns out it was also because he got his hand on some experimental weaponry, though we never learned where he got it from. It's honestly a miracle Saint lasted as long as he did. But during his and Leon's final fight, it was just too much to take. He managed to beat Leon once and for all, but Leon still got the last laugh."
Edited by kkhohoho on Aug 8th 2018 at 12:34:22 PM
AKA Nixer
Saint Academy 2027
Lucy gave Sam a sweet smile at the hair ruffle – one slightly twinged with her familiar shyness – before moving closer to Hei, finding his hand and giving it a squeeze.
She felt... happy. Which was rather surprising. Whether it be displaced relief due to being in a place not trying to actively kill them, or simply the high of euphoria of learning about her future children, Lucy genuinely seemed on cloud nine.
Unfortunately, her cheer deflated somewhat at Matten's call, and reality hit her like a truck. They probably couldn't stay here for long. And although she was immensely curious of the details of this world, a part of her recognized the fact that they didn't belong here. No matter how good it seemed, it was not their home.
But she didn't let this fact get her down too much. Even if this 'visit' ended up brief, it was enough to give her a new goal. Before, she was uncertain as to what she truly wanted to do – what direction she wanted to take her life in. Hei was a wonderful person to call her own – something that still sent shivers down her spine whenever she thought of it – but she had to admit she hadn't really known what she was doing. That plus his own (albeit endearing) cluelessness caused the ugly head of uncertainty to rear up in the back of her mind.
Is this really what you want?
Well now she had her answer.
Yes.
Yes, she wanted this. She wanted to become as best a hero as she could be, even of it meant a strange or unorthodox approach. She wanted to teach Hei love, and give him the happiness of a close bond that he deserved. She wanted to raise a family. She wanted to repent, to apologize whole-heartedly to those precious lives she had so cruelly cut short, even if it meant beating the earth with bleeding knuckles to show her genuinity. And she wanted to learn to forgive herself – to be able to acknowledge, fix, and move past her mistakes – without accidentally creating another emo-wannabe alter ego in the process.
With her goals set, she returned to reality, and sent a brief note of acknowledgement back to Matten through their link.
Right. We're coming.
“Matten wants us. I think she's found a way out of here. She'll probably leave us behind if we don't hurry.”
She paused.
“Scratch that – she will leave us behind if we don't hurry.”
Edited by Enirboreh on Aug 7th 2018 at 4:10:53 PM
bork
Saint Academy: Fast Forward
While the others had been productive, Caleb had been wandering through the halls wondering and constantly second-guessing whether to internet-search himself. He wanted to know but frankly, he was afraid of what might have happened. And if he did find something bad, he'd just spend all his time in the present trying to avoid it and, with his luck, probably end up causing it. So, eventually, he ended up back in the training room having accomplished exactly fuck all.
Caleb overheard as Interceptor mentioned what happened to Saint. That was concerning to say the least. Name sounded faintly familiar. Was that the armour guy who attacked him a while back? They seemed to already be nemesis. Did that mean he might have the injury already?
"Mr Interceptor, sir? Do you know when he got the injury?"
Edited by FerrousMaelstom on Aug 8th 2018 at 2:33:15 PM
Surrounded by weirdoes
Sam just nodded to Lucy as he ended putting things together. "Well, this should be enough until the next couple of crisis" Perhaps that means until lunch, but who can say?
Giving the Nurse a handshake, he simply handed everything to Lin and started walking to the others.
"Thank you, lady" He said, honestly "Take care of the latest batch, good luck"
Walking out of the Nurse office, he wondered what they will do now. But hopefully, they'll be together when that happens.
Wake me up at your own risk.
Training Room 2027
"About ten years ago," said Interceptor. "Why?"
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Saint Academy 2k...and 27 - Training Room
Mahvash leveled at a stare at Interceptor. The proper target couldn't quite face her wrath, yet. "...That star spangled flying ass." It took her no time at all to remember that the Saint that this Interceptor knew had died and the wound still hurt. In fact she never forgot it. It took the daeva a tad longer to register that one might take offense regardless of circumstances. "...the world is poorer for his absence, but he seems to have left a good legacy on his own in this 'without-me' place."
"I'll start this machine, and be prepared," Mahvash began working the machines without further ado. "We are going to find out how many tranquilizers it takes to bring down a Saint in 2017, and then he can address both keeping us in the dark and leaving a wound to fester once he's safely strapped to a hospital bed, functional limbs optional. Or wakes up after surgery. But he has to co-sign my project request for WATCH first."
Really should have kept on him after he told us so excitedly about how his performance had dropped like a rock after we met that Leon the first time. And then I never even bothered to scout out where he landed, and I certainly didn't dissect the tech that can put up a shield like that. So much to do. And I still have to write my project proposal. He hasn't approved one single...
Edited by CenturyEye on Aug 8th 2018 at 9:51:16 AM
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
Saint Academy 2027-Infirmary
If you thought that kiss was intense, I think I might need to teach you a little lesson later on...
Hei felt his world stall for a moment, and no matter how hard he tried, failed to suppress the blush that currently dominated his facial complexion. Seriously. You'd think that he would be used to hearing far more salacious pillow talk considering who his aunt was. Then again, this was the first time someone said something like that to him, and meant it.
...How...how am I supposed to reply to that!? Hei's mind screamed once he could think in coherent sentences.
"H-hai...?" He squeaked as shadow tendrils hastily shoved medicine and supplies into his gate as his body moved on autopilot.
That didn't sound right...wait, Lucy's speaking. Hei snapped back to (relatively) normal functionality and opened a gate back to the Gym. "Right, let's n-not keep her waiting then." He replied, giving Nurse Hello a bow and thank you before they left.
Edited by svenorzokarkoff on Aug 8th 2018 at 10:02:50 AM
Training Room 2027
Caleb hesitated for a few moments as Interceptor replied then just nodded along as Mahvash spoke.
"We've already fought Leon. He kind of kicked our arses."
Caleb bit his lip, realizing he should put some effort into sensitivity, even with Interceptor.
"Things don't have to happen in our world like they did in yours. Maybe... "
"We can save him!"
Careful. That's a big ask.
"...Sorry for your loss."
At that, Caleb awkwardly shuffled away.
AKA Nixer
Saint Academy 2027
Despite herself, Lucy couldn't help but giggle at Hei's flustered reaction, a small blush of her own tinting her cheeks as she watched him rush to get everything together.
He's so cute...
She snapped out of it once the gate had been opened, and sent him a perhaps-too-sweet smile, making sure to purposefully brush her shoulder against his as she went past, before vanishing through the gate, biting back a mischievous grin the whole while.
Good god, what had happened to her? Was it still shock, or was this permanent? She could barely believe herself to be this comfortable with things that would normally cause her to resemble a shrivelled up beetroot of embarrassment. She honestly didn't know whether to be proud or not.
...
...Eh, screw it. She was proud.
It was perhaps because of this realisation that there was a drastic change in her stance as she entered the Gym. While before she was indeed a little more confident (at least when compared to the hunchback she was in her first few weeks), she was never standing proud like this, and was unconsciously beginning to resemble her sister with her overall radiance of energy and happiness.
Her stance deflated to a minute degree as she head what was being discussed, but she still continued to stand tall.
“The sooner we go back, the more chance we have of doing something. But still... what if this is a trigger event? What if our travel back ends up...”
She couldn't finish the sentence, but the message was clear. A familiar hint of anxiety was plastered across her otherwise neutral features. She had had a sudden dreadful feeling; as if stepping back into their dimension would be sealing fate.
bork
Surrounded by weirdoes
Sam just looked at the current conversation with a thoughtful expression, wondering just what could happen before shrugging and deciding to comfort them.
"Who can say, really?" He said "The butterfly effect is a difficult enough subject when you aren't taking other universes' intervention, so let's see what happens and plan and accordingly"
Giving a reassuring pat on the back to Lucy, he tried to help improving her mood, and tried to signal Lin to work on it.
"No one has all the answers, the only thing left is to do what we can and hope for the best"
Wake me up at your own risk.
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Saint Academy 2k...and 27 - Training Room
The daeva descended the moment that the portal opened, more than a little annoyed at Lucy becoming another voice of Samuel. Rather then answer verbally, she strode past the hesitating girl, straight through the gate.
Mahvash had plans for the Saint issue, but currently, the gate had a non-negligible chance of leading to the Abyss, and she busied herself taking stock of the others and bringing to mind what she'd learned from studying the Outdoor Pool and the Deep Forest. And the humanely-extracted samples of demon blood.
And I can't expect the Abyss to have a training room adjacent to this bit of spacetime. If we can't jump-start Mikael's wiring, we may have to persuade another demon to get there. And it would be flying blind. I suppose Mikael does have his sister out there in the big burning landfill, but that's a long shot for several reasons. And I really never bothered studying Zamael. Heh, I didn't think to get records on him or his line or or local governments and districts in the Abyss until just now, but its a tad late for the library. If the library even has such information. Like our time in the Deep Forest, we can take a tour of discovery.
Saint Academy 2027 -> Worlds Unknown
"A blessing? I don't feel anything blessingy, am I supposed to?" Remix asked himself as he scooted along. Mahvash had taken the initiative, being the first one to waltz in through the portal. All things considered - with the main consideration being that the portal had to lead to a specific alternate universe - she had cranked that thing out pretty darned fast. So fast that he doubted she'd have even gotten a benefit from montage music."It'll be good to get back to our own time," he stated as he skated through. "I can't remember if I put my carton of milk back in the fridge, or left it on the counter."
AKA Nixer
Entering The Unknown
Seeing how Matten and Remix had just made their way through without a second thought, Lucy bit her lip, momentarily closing her eyes and taking a deep, shuddering breath, before composing herself and stepping forward. Her chest was constricting, and her heart felt like it was about to burst, but she had no idea why she felt so on edge. Could have been displaced anxiety from all the Empress shenanigans, but considering she had justified it with that excuse nearing thrice now she elected to pass that explanation by.
As she passed through the threshold, she had a sudden, instinctive urge to turn herself into ink, and she did so, relying on her slowly developing tactile senses to manoeuvre her way through. Even though the div's lesson on the subject had been relatively brief, it nonetheless had helped, and she found it much easier to move around.
At least my heart isn't banging like a steam hammer anymore, she absently thought, before shaking it off and concentrating. Or at least, as much as she could. Apparently Sardar had decided to continue his echoing whispers to her now of all times, and so she ended up coning across rather distracted as she tried to focus on manipulating her ink-based body through her ancestor's disembodied ramblings.
Now, Lucy wasn't exactly well-versed in Old Persian – but she had studied it out of curiosity after first learning of her distant great-times-x-amount grandfather. A mistake she would not repeat again, as apparently Sardar wasn't one for friendly conversations from what little snippets she could understand. Which was very little, it should be clarified. But still effective.
So whether it be from that reason, or the sound of reluctant acceptance distantly inflected, or perhaps even the overall tone of disappointment in one of the voice's statements (or questions, judging by the differing pitch), Lucy felt a cold shiver running down where her spine would be, despite not accurately knowing what Sardar had actually been saying.
پس دخترم زندگی خود را به قضاوت ضعیف خود می اندازد.
Repressing what would have been an audible gulp, Lucy drew her inkified hood up and forced herself to focus on their destination. Wherever that may be.
Edited by Enirboreh on Aug 10th 2018 at 11:16:05 AM
bork
Breath of the Sun
Saint Academy 2k17
After determining that the others were finally ready to get moving, Mikael made her way to the training room. She calmly followed Mahvash through the portal.
"So if we do land in the Abyss, being so close to home will probably kickstart my teleportation again. And if not... well, I apparently have a lot of family members there, so hopefully one of them will be nice enough to take us back."
Her mother almost certainly would, but her siblings, she wasn't as sure about. They'd burn those bridges when it came to it.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
Surrounded by weirdoes
Sam simply started to walk in, looking at the group.
"You better be right" He said to Mikael "Because if we end up in the Abyss, I give it ten minutes tops for me to end up a delirious dead weight" With that being said, he took a deep breath and jumped in.
Wake me up at your own risk.
2027 Training Room —> ???
Caleb watched as the others started trailing into the portal, a small part of him listening for echoing screams or something to that effect. He eventually let out a deep sigh.
"Well, here goes nothing. Best case scenario."
Caleb took a deep breath and stepped forward into the portal.
Traing Room 2027
Interceptor watched as Class 1 entered the portal. He hoped that despite common sense saying otherwise, they'd wind up safe and sound in no time flat. And he also hoped that perhaps they could find a way to save their Saint, even if his Saint was long gone.
And he hoped he wasn't an idiot for thinking the near impossible.
Training Room
"Like I said, simply reverse the polarity of the neutron flow! Easy-peasy!"
Reinbach and Interceptor had been hard at work trying to open up a portal to get Class 1 home. Not that they had much success, but they still had to try. They continued tinkering and working and hoping until at long last, the portal opened. Even if they didn't have anything to do with it.
"Finally," said Interceptor. He looked at the portal, almost rejoicing as Lucy stepped clear on through. Or at least until it was clear that she was the only one who would.
"Where are the others?" he said.
Reinbach pushed up his glasses, almost as though he knew where they might have gone. "If I were to guess, I would say that there is a fair chance they have still returned to their proper universe, but perhaps not to their proper dimension."
"Damn." Well, that was disheartening. Just where in the multiverse could they have gone now?
The Abyss
Nearly everyone soon found themselves on the other side of the portal. They had hoped they would have finally arrived home. That after all they had gone through, they could finally get some rest.
Instead they found themselves standing in the middle of a ruined wasteland. Scorched plains and decaying skeletons dotted the landscape far as the eye could see, and ghosts and ghouls roamed the skies looking for their next meal. A giant palace loomed in the distance, and even though Mikael (who still had breasts,) had never seen it before, deep down, she knew what it was. And who it belonged to.
"Crap!" Ellie concentrated, trying her best to port herself and everyone else out of there, but to no avail. "Dangnabbit. Never thought I'd be home again so soon." She turned to the others. "Guys, if you've got any fancy magic protection or whatever, now's the time. Me and Mikael are fine. Matten should be fine too. And I think the cat and the werewolf are good to go. But if we don't get out of here soon, then it's gonna get hella' dicey for everyone else." She then noticed that someone was missing. "Hey, where's the crazy ink girl?"
Edited by kkhohoho on Aug 11th 2018 at 9:12:27 AM
Surrounded by weirdoes
Sam looked around, not feeling too bad so far, but that'll come later, not feeling like his regular cooling breathing worked as it should.
"Hopefully Lucy made it home, but making or getting inter-dimensional cell phones is lower on the list"
Looking at the rest, he could only hope Caleb, Remix and Lin are protected from losing themselves. The last thing he wants is for anyone to lose their very being in this place.
"What to do now?" He asked, at no one in particular. He didn't really like the odds of ending in the storage closet if they walked in a random direction, but the people on the castle might be hostile, and they aren't really in a position for another incident.
Wake me up at your own risk.
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
The Abyss
"A blessing, indeed," Mahvash glided through the portal with apparently overdramatic flaps of her 'wings' from her unfrueld aura. The extra halos and the mix of golden light and the dimness in its wake clashed, but the wash of her aura drove back the essence of the Abyss. "And spiritual ecstasy is a mutual thing." She warmly smiled back at Remix. "You have to meet me, preferably hard and fast, in the middle."
The daeva had made her way through first for a reason. "Follow closely," She said in a much more severe voice to the class at large and Ellie, "but not so close that you start annihilating. That usually starts with chills and a loss of feeling." I have a handle on objects so far, but with uncooperative souls, enchanting them is out of the question. They'd just be undone. And not like I can give them a staff to part the air. Hm...
"We are heading to the palace. The palace is the only craft apparent around, and if the royals here borrowed a taste for pomp and architecture from humanity, then that's the place where we'll find the local Powers That Be. We may even get to practice what we learned from Flora's diplomacy trip."
Mahvash fixed the purple demon with a burning look. "Lucy. You're rudely referring to Lucy Livingston of my Class 1, and you're quite finished with that. We don't know where she is. That's a big part of why we're not just staying here."
Edited by CenturyEye on Aug 11th 2018 at 9:31:27 AM
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
Saint Academy 2027->Abyss
Shifting into his shadow form, Hei did his best to quash a rising tide of fears for Lucy's fate. He couldn't afford to freak out over this. "We....we keep moving between worlds. Until we rejoin with Lucy again." He firmly stated. "That's all we can do for now."
Edited by svenorzokarkoff on Aug 11th 2018 at 10:58:02 AM
AKA Nixer
Saint Academy 2017
“Wait... wh-where...?” Lucy faltered as she realised she was the only one through, regaining her stutter in her panic and looking all around her in a rather frantic fashion. “Wait, what?!–”
She forcefully cut herself off, focusing on calming herself. She unconsciously reverted back from her ink form, gradually slowing her breathing from the point of hyperventilation to something relatively akin to calm, before raising her head again and straightening her back, stalking purposefully towards the teachers.
“What. Happened?” she half-growled, clearly starting to reach the end of her patience. The last thing she wanted to deal with now after all that had happened was having to potentially forever wave goodbye to the only damned friends she had gained due to some stupid fraction of a risk. She didn't even dare think of Hei, as she knew that the slightest thought regarding his fate would cause her to fly off the deep end.
bork
Saint Academy 2k17
Mikael almost decided to follow the others to the Nurse's office, in case whatever was wrong with her was something Nurse Hello could fix, but decided against it. Teleport-blocking seemed more like a problem of the soul, rather than the body. She could have possibly tried to get advice from Dr. Bozo, but it likely wouldn't have been anything coherent.
So she settled for remaining at the cafeteria and making out with her girlfriend. At Mahvash's return, she turned to look and nodded at the Daeva. "Just let me know if you need me for anything."
Thus saying, the demoness returned to her clearly important task.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?