Stormguard - Nadia al-Amin

Feeling a bit... odd about the festivities, considering the two armies now joined together here were mere moments away from killing each other, Nadia asked one of the maids to lead her to the kitchen, if it were not too much to ask; she had, after all, promised the undead warriors that any left still cursed she would help change back to normal, just as she had the people of Marrow's Graw. Joining the royal chefs in their place of work, Nadia summoned up an apron, a hairnet, and chef's gloves and immediately got to work amongst them.

"Don't mind me; just a Guardian here to help out..." she casually told them as she took up her own section of kitchen counter. Taking a deep breath, Nadia focused on remembering those feelings that she channeled before...

Protection. Compassion. Strength. Freedom from pain. Those thoughts reverberated in Nadia's mind as she took up her knife, gazing at the ingredients that would be her tools towards achieving the cursed undeads' salvation. Almost as though she were in a trance, Nadia's hands moved swiftly on their own, slicing, seasoning, roasting, pan flipping, whatever it was she felt she needed to do. As Nadia prepared her food, she thought about that had happened so far - the sudden chance meeting with Kirsti and company, meeting with the undead, the march for war and the miraculous cure... All of her experiences in Lotus enriched her food just the same as the ingredients she chose, and she would continue like this to the amazement (and bafflement) of the chefs surrounding her.

There was one thing she forgot though: a certain jade colored book with a lotus pattern on it, left next to Kirsti's seat.

The Banquet!

...

...Had Mason even eaten today? He couldn't even remember! This was such a long day and...well, new life means he had some time to acually build up muscles instead of looking like a fucking stick lately! So, he was busy shoveling food into his plate, he nodded his head at every suggestion offered to them and took a moment to gulp down some of the most delicious food he'd had since his mothers cooking.

"So, how should we go about doing that, anyway?" He asked, as he took a swig of his drink and looked around. "Hunting down this...Shuria, person? This place is pretty big after all..."

Stormguard Castle, Feast

Tibalt sat there with his food and the new sword. A fresh sword manifested from the air by someone who knew what she was doing, at least it felt a little comforting that he was in the company of people who'd hit their stride in this land. He looked over the blade a little as he ate and pondered whether he'd bother trying to engrave the same message onto this one as well...

And then he was asked whether he thought he was a faker.

"That would require believing I'm worth anything to beg-..."

He stopped himself, self-deprecation wasn't one of his usual coping mechanisms and he shouldn't start the habit now...

"Well look at what this world expects me to be; A divinely-appointed hero with exceptional powers and somehow I'm in the unique position of being a king according to a definitely-magical barely-musical instrument."

Deep breath, take another gulp of this watered-down alcohol that settled for the lightest drink available.

"My philosophy has always been to be myself and the people that matter will be there. Well I did that and I'm now a dimension away from home, family and tossed into a situation that is begging for me to be something other than an unemployed scrub gamer from the suburbs..."

Stormguard Castle

Terry looked down at the food in front of him, his brows furrowed with a stern but sullen look on his face. He looked down at his left hand and closed it into a fist as he sighed. It still doesn't feel real.

He closed his eyes and contemplated his current situation. So we're hunting Shuria tomorrow, huh? Terry had originally wanted to seek out Medan and learn about this dream world, but it seems to be one detour after another. Man, what am I doing here? He wondered to himself, glancing down at the ring on his finger. After only a day here, Terry was starting to question his existence in this world. If this truly was a dream, then there should be no point, so if there's no point, then what?

Terry thought more about the events of the day, which was certainly interesting. It turns out Terry had more abilities to him than he originally thought. That demon... the axe said I could control it, but it was more like its mind was torn apart. Terry thought to himself before he suddenly thought of something. I wonder...

Terry suddenly got up from his seat, and as he did so, his axe on his back spoke up.

What is the matter? Not enjoying the festivities?

"No, I just want to find something out."

Terry walked away from his seat at the table and over to the head, standing beside King Artis. "Your Majesty, may I have a word? In private?"

Edited by TehStanman on Nov 8th 2018 at 10:14:14 AM

"Or an unemployed academic with no real work skills." Maryland replied back to Tibalt. "Yeah, I get it man." Now, this worked so well with Dante, so why not try it here too? She reached out and grabbed Tibalt's hand, apparently a powerful move. "Sounds like you got nowhere to go but up from here then. Let's just focus on one part of that then, tell me why you think anything you've had put on you matters. You know, being appointed or being told what you are."

Stormguard Feast

"Ever since we turned up in this world, everyone's been falling over themselves to call us Guardians and give us gifts and talk about nothing except how we could help and what the previous Guardians did and how having Guardians is important for the world. And then everyone's gaining magical superpowers because the world wants us to be its protagonists."

He stumbled on the word 'protagonists', unsure if he should say it.

Edited by Pentigan on Nov 9th 2018 at 4:13:26 AM

Erix'aad

"Well, he was being threatened for information, but I guess we stopped him from escaping via death," Shannon mused, somehow having managed to avoid getting even a drop of vomit on her.

Suddenly, her voice gained an overlay over it that sounded like a smooth man's voice with a slight hint of a growl. "If he comes back, we'll be waiting. Assassin types always find a way in, and nobody knows that better than I do."

Shannon's summoned clothes and equipment melted off of her and she was standing in her nightgown again. "Sorry. Adrian's like that..." she said weakly.

Going back to bed, she finally managed to drift into the depths of a deep, restful sleep.

Stormguard Castle

"So what I did was I immediately rejected that idea." Maryland said. Whoof, she'd been there too; she felt more confident pushing forward on this because of that though. "I did what I did because I felt like it. Why do you think any of these people are right about that anyway? If you asked them about the innocent people stuck up in Sepulchrum up till recently you'd get a load of horseshit. Could be random chance we got these powers too."

Stormguard Castle

“Or... ye could just say ‘#$&% it’ and forge your own path...” Aileana suddenly hissed in Tibalt's ear; having pushed herself under the table and springing up on the other side—hand cupping his cheek so he was forced to look at her face. “‘Go with the flow’ only goes so far, aye? Take the reigns and see what happens. They won't like it, will they? But it'll be much more fun. Look...” she muttered, pulling back slightly and raising her arm. A small, amber-eyed serpent coiled around it, hissing softly before nonchalantly biting into its own tail—creating a perfect circle. She let him study the thing before speaking up again.

“Ouroboros, friend. Endless cycles. Life leads to death. Death leads to life. Yin and yang apply, as well as all sorts of things. But disrupting this balance yields truly interesting results. Karma has to work itself half to death to keep up with what I do, for example. Even then it dinnae know whether I'm snake or man. Woman. Semantics.”

She finally slunk away, head facing the ground—before slowly turning back as if in afterthought. Although the ashen, emaciated face didn't greet Tibalt and Maryland. Only a swarm of bleeding, writhing snakes that were viciously swallowing each other and birthing more of their brethren at a speed and complexity inconceivable. Though the disgusting mass was still framed by Aileana's hair; the only remnant left of her head at this point.

“Here I am, abomination against all nature. Nothing changed from when I were a lass, I'll say. I just grew scales,” the things with Aileana's body attached hissed in unison—their limited vocalisations overlapping so her familiar Scottish lilt was audible as an overtone. “Yet ye did not run away—rather, ye passed me by mostly. Exceptional. If ye can do that, who says ye can't ignore some horn? Certainly not I.”

She reached up to brush a fallen strand of hair away from her ‘face’—only for the entire horrific sight to revert back to normal as her hand momentarily blocked their sight of it. She wasn't smiling in any way now, and she looked more like an animate corpse than she had before.

Without another word towards them, she numbly turned and slithered away. Out of the hall and on her front she did so, completely rejecting the use of her legs. It was the first time that the serpentine woman had seemed drawn towards isolation.

Stormguard Castle

Maryland wasn't going to let this fakeass shit get to her. She just stared flatly and circled her hand in the universal get on with it gesture. "So what she did there was a thing dudes in my classes used to do a lot, which is restate what I did, but like more elaborately and fancier, and so harder to understand." She flipped Aileana off as the snakes left. "Asshole."

Stormguard Castle

Meanwhile, Kirsti sat opposite of where Terry used to sit, intending to apologize to him as soon as she almost finished her simple dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. But just as she finished her last bite, Terry left to talk to the king, which reminded her that he was part of the Eastern Kingdom's...army, she guessed. And by the looks of him popping out of everyone due to how 'modern' looking he is, he's a guardian as well. Not that she knows if he has ANY powers or that guardians had to have powers to be a guardian but whatevs.

As her thoughts drift out as she spooned herself more food, her elbow hit a book right next to her. She recognized it as that book Nadia hold and talked to. Kirsti doesn't remember seeing Nadia reserving a seat beside her because she was spacing out for a bit to have a moment to herself. Actually, now that she gave more thought about Nadia, is she coming close to her? Not that she minded, just a wonder.

Regardless, it might be a good gesture to return the book to Nadia and Kirsti reckoned that Nadia will be found in the kitchen considering her nature as she pushed aside her now empty plate and picked up the book. Then she wonders if she can talk to it as well. She decided to test that theory She decided to do that one stupid thing.

"Hey Alexa!" she asked the book as she opened to a blank page. "Play Despacito!"

It was then Kirsti realized that she walked by another group of seem to be guardians, specifically, Tibalt, Maryland and that snake lady. She's fine with locals hearing her, she can just explain away that it's a spell or some shit. But these guys are from the modern world. And she just froze there, looked at them, thinking "Oh shit."

Stormguard Castle

"Well of course they have no good reason, it's a preprep-"

And then face full of flowery philosophy and snake-based body horror. Tibalt was silent during that whole exchange because he felt deeply uncomfortable and that silence lasted well after Aileana left the room.

"... We've been given a sandbox to work with, we can do whatever we want because we have power and most don't."

He took a moment, choosing his next words carefully.

"But where we came from, the same could be said if a student got their hands on a rifle."

The words 'with great power comes great responsibility' flashed through his head but that also brought up the throat-tightening specter of obligation...

Under his breath he began trying to hum Despacito to get his mind off things but he didn't know the words particularly well and ended up in a loop of what he could only assume was the first six or so seconds of the chorus.

Edited by Pentigan on Nov 9th 2018 at 10:10:19 PM

Stormguard Castle

"That's not equivalent." Maryland said. She realized Tibalt was going on her turf now, and she had an angle here. "A lot of gun control rhetoric is built around the idea you could effect real change with it, countered by the reality of modern militaries. But like..." Maryland wiggled her fingers. "We have scale that changes the rhetoric here. We aren't angry incels in high schools, we're fantasy supeheroes. With great power comes great responsibility."

Stormguard Castle

Aileana blatantly ignored Maryland's final irritated comment. As well as the song from the passing Kirsti. Instead, her face stayed blank as she flitted her attention from face to face, only to pass them by too. It only lit up with an expression again once she reached the kitchen and spotted Nadia—specifically a particularly rubbery smile that showed no teeth.

“Ah, snake steamer herself. Or roaster. Marinater? Not as catchy without the alliteration. Need a hand, lass? I've picked up the odd skill or two. Nurses were sweet enough to conform to my wishes. Though I will say I'm more used to a lap-tray over an actual countertop...” she admitted, staring at Nadia's work surface a little doubtfully as she discreetly de-summoned any snakes still on her person. “Ye'd help a girl out, aye? Give me a few pointers?”

Only now that she had removed all her kin did she think that the others might appreciated filleted snake as a rare delicacy. She most certainly had—up to the taste at least. No idea of the satisfaction, though. Unfortunate, but she had made that clear back at the other banquet.

Two dinners consecutively. Feasting like royalty indeed...

"Playing Despacito," wrote the book as it suddenly came to life and floated before Kirsti, and began to play a joyful song. "Also, my name is not Alexa, it is Weiss," wrote the book upon the blank page as it landed upon its edges, proud.

Enjoying the strange music, King Artis turned towards Terry as he approached. "Ah, of course," he spoke as he decided to see what the Guardian wanted.

Gregori and Trish just watched as both Terry and King Artis walked away from the festivities and into the Throne Room. "Is it safe to leave the King alone with a Guardian?" asked Trish.

"Do not worry, the King is never alone... especially since he's back," spoke Gregori as he sniffed the air.

"Joker is back?" asked Trish as she took a sip from her wine.

"Yes, and he's watching over the king carefully."

As Artis and Terry moved into the Throne Room, Artis spoke up to Terry. "So, what would you discuss with me, Guardian?"

Kill him.

Suddenly, a voice beckoned in the back of Terry's head... one that was unfamiliar to him.

Kill him and take what's yours!

Meanwhile, Amber walks over to Tibalt and Maryland, patting the two of them on the shoulders as she sat next to them. "How goes it? You two seem to be getting chummy," murmured Amber as she looked over the two of them.

Exploit them.

Just as Terry was hearing a voice in his head, so was Tibalt.

You are a KING! Do what a King must do.

It grew louder, and louder...

Use these two fools to better yourself and become KING!

"You alright there, Tibalt?" asked Amber as she patted him over the back.

Lucifer's Estate

Save Zakuun for later...

A voice spoke in the back of Julian's head as Shuria tried to feed him some wolf meat.

Use the daughter of the Demon King and reclaim the Lotus... Don't destroy it or else you'll stay here forever.

The voice was soothing, yet alien...

The other Guardians are in your way to seeing your family... Kill them, and send them to me!

"Say 'aahhh!'" spoke Shuria as she attempted to feed Julian some food.

Meanwhile, the demonic servants poured some wine and handed out more food for Skylar and Dimitri, clearly unaware of the voice that was plaguing Julian...

Edited by Toukas on Nov 9th 2018 at 8:56:59 AM

Stormguard - Throne Room

"I wanted to say-" Terry suddenly felt his hand twitch, and stopped himself just before he started reaching for his axe. Whoa, what was that?

He took a few steps back from Artis, who he was now seeing in a different, and a little more hostile, light. He looked behind him, then around the throne room, looking for whatever that voice came from.

"Did you hear that?"

Stormguard Castle

"W-well if you wanna do something interesting we could usur-..."

He stopped himself, where did that come from? Surely that wasn't his idea, it couldn't be could it? Maybe he should be king, it would certainly give him... No, that was wrong.

"Actually hold that thought..."

He abruptly got up from his seat, causing a few nearby goblets to wobble.

"Your king commands you come fetch him when the desserts come out m'kay~? I n-need to take a walk."

With a very quick pace Tibalt started to walk to somewhere else, somewhere quiet where he could take the warhorn out of it's pouch and stare at it intently.

"Seriously? It's not enough that you've declared me king now you're trying to force me to take the throne?"

For a moment he thought it'd look silly, this outlander talking to a warhorn in an empty corridor. That thought couldn't of been the horn, it had to be his right?

"I should put you back in the Vault and find something that isn't magical..."

Deep breath, need to calm down, you can't be king. You're too ignoble to be king, too pathetic to lead a nation (Unless you take it by right as Guardian...). As his mind roiled he tried to hum out music to soothe himself.

"#You've tasted silver Sarah, you taste the crown, you thirst for blood from the roses in hand...#"

Someone's In the Kitchen with Nadia, Someone's in the Kitchen with - Nadia al-Amin

"I prefer the chef of snake saute," Nadia said absentmindedly as she made one dish after another after another after another in a blur of movement. "Extra hands in the kitchen are always welcome since we're serving a big amount of guests, it seems, and I'd be happy to give you a few point- errr."

Nadia turned to look at the person asking such things only to find the snake woman from earlier. She just sort of stared at Aileana for a few seconds as she unsummoned her snakes (the shadow was still freaky though) and let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

Well, at least she seems earnest at the moment, Nadia thought to herself as her hands chopped onions precisely, even without her eyes on them.

"You know what? Sure!" Nadia gave Aileana a big grin, putting down her knife and unsummoning her gloves before summoning up a kitchen apron and a chef's hat to hand to her. "I'll keep from overdoing the super speed so that you can actually have demonstrations with your tips..."

So, working from what Aileana showed her she knew, Nadia helped give the snake woman some advice on how to improve her cooking with a little flourish, passing the time away until there was plenty to feast on for the guests and the servants alike. Stepping back from the counter, Nadia sent her apron and hairnet back into the ether... before remembering the mudstains all over her clothes.

"Oh, right... erm, snake lady, I'll be back at the banquet, I just need to wash up and change real quick..."

Going over to the maids asking for a change of clothes ("Any will do!") and the nearest bath, Nadia rushed on over to clean herself up from head to toe before changing into her new outfit - the same uniform as the maids wore. Nadia paused for a second to look at herself in the mirror before laughing and deciding to go ahead and help serve out the food. To Frederick, Dante, Canna, and their undead guests, she set down a hearty roast and a lovely bread pudding-

"Courtesy of the Guardian Chef; may you enjoy the flavors of life and the fruits of your labors," maid Nadia said with a curtsy, afterwards making her way to the gathered Guardians. "To our cherished saviors~" From her serving tray Nadia set down a large meat combo pizza and several milkshakes (don't ask how). "A little taste of home-"

That was when Nadia noticed her book floating, then landing on the table. "You can fly?! Why didn't you tell me you could fly? Why have I been hauling you around in my arms this entire time when you can fly?!"

Edited by Starbound2 on Nov 9th 2018 at 11:13:55 AM

Lucifer's Castle

Dimitri continued to eat, drink, and be merry. He continued doing this for a while until he started to get... bored. Here he was, in a new land with new powers and new people, and all he was doing was eating. It was practically a criminal waste of time.

Perplexingly, the food and drink Dimitri was being served started to turn into blood in his mouth. As did the plate he was eating on, which he lapped right up. Blood blood blood. He couldn't stop thinking about it. With nothing left to distract him, his magic began to alter the world around him to give him what he craved.

"Uh..."

Dimitri just sort of looked perplexed as he realized what he was doing. This was totally ridiculous. But by God, it was incredible. Why didn't he do this more often? In fact, why was he going along with Julian's plan at all? Doing all this work for someone else who wanted to end the world and take all this away from him didn't make a lot of sense, did it? Wait, wha-

"Well, that sure was weird!"

Dimitri just sort of laughed the whole thing off. Boy howdy that was incredibly silly.

Stormguard Castle

“It's Aileana, lass—if ye haven't heard...” the serpent-sage called out as Nadia left the kitchen, before giggling to herself and plonking her chef's hat on a freshly summoned snake. Ignoring its dirty look, she weaved her arms to a length beyond normality in order to pick up as many of her own dishes as she could, before gliding back out into the hall and depositing the things. She didn't do much other than place them down and state what they were, but she was cheerfully humming at least. Professionalism was definitely lacking, but she was enjoying herself.

“Snake in snake sauce with extra bits...” she murmured through her humming as she abruptly whisked Mason's plate away and replaced it with some sort of broth that stared back at him. And hissed. And bared its teeth.

“Cooked extra raw. Enjoy~”

She was off to the next table seconds before the serpent lunged for Mason's arm.

“Roasted... goat,” she hesitated upon reaching Tibalt and Maryland's table, staring down at the dish before shrugging and passing it to them– one. Oh.

He left.

She watched after Tibalt as he quickly stalked away, a small frown crossing her features for a moment, before shaking it off and turning back to Maryland instead. And Amber too, who got an absentminded head-pat.

“Nice beat too. Prefer the classics meself. Is Dullface alright? Did me wee speech get to him? Does he need a pacifier, or pacifying?” she asked, seeming to light up with glee at that last part.

Edited by Enirboreh on Nov 10th 2018 at 12:01:28 PM

Lucifer's Castle, The Dragon's Appetite

Skyler went for whatever he could get his hands on. Food or drink, he needed to fill up after the long trip, no matter what it was. Maybe he was a bit rude in table manners but it didn't matter right now, a matter a fact the dragon didn't have any deeper thoughts, getting a good meal is all that mattered. Dimitri mentioned something weird caused a little bit of focus on the vampire but it was short lived since Skyler did not figure out what was weird.

Stormguard Castle

"I dunno. Bad stuff I'm thinking. I've got this though, I'll follow him, and if anything's wrong, that'll be fine too, because I've got healing magic." Maryland frowned after Tibalt. Her first guess was Amber caused this actually, just on timing, but what did she know? "I did this one trick earlier, I'm gonna try to use it to get after Tibalt and if I need help I can probably get back here just as quick. Okay." Maryland took a deep breath, focused on the floor about fifty feet away, and willed herself there again. She teleported with the whoosh of air filling the space she was just in, stumbled for a second with the sensation, then doubled down and did it again, hurrying towards the unused hall Tibalt ran towards. To help herself out she grabbed that invisibility cloak from that farmer she'd helped—see, it had paid off!—and vanished from sight. She didn't want to spook Tibalt, but she knew isolation was probably not the best idea for him right now, so she made the call to watch from around 10 yards away and see what was up for now.

Tortoran Inn

Yuval spit on the floor as the nagas left, gnashing his teeth in anger before cleaning his pants, he groaned, putting a hand through his hair.

"God damn dumbasses. I didn't wanna get into a fight, now that we've hurt their ego, they'll be back with bigger numbers. Oh well, couldn't watch them kidnap a goddamn dog against their will." The man sighed as he looked at the table at the creature he fought to save.

"<Poor little guy, come on, you'll be fine now.>" Rosenberg took the pup and petted him, as he looked to Skuld, frowning and sighing he nodded his head from left to right, as he spoke his quiet reserved demeanor miraculously returned now that the angering threat was gone.

"Thanks but I'll manage, like I said I'm not taking anything for free, not food, not a room to sleep in. I don't wanna owe any favors to strangers, especially not now that I almost trashed your place."

Rosenberg put the dog back down on the table as he picked up the bag with all his belongings, ready to head outside to find a comfortable tree to sleep under.

Edited by LiorVal on Nov 10th 2018 at 5:35:18 PM

The Stormguard.

...

Now, seeing, being around Aileana should have been a good tipping point for a good number of reasons not to trust her random acts of kindness. But maybe it was the high he was coming down from the massive brawl he was just apart of-and won!-, that he was being a little happier, and a little more trust worthy. Shoot, it was almost innocent how he couldn't help but grin and nod at the plate, making a comment of "how good it looks!"

Oh, but reality snapped back like a cruel mistress when he realized his broth had fucking eyes and teeth.

It took him a moment to understand what he was looking at, and a moment later when something up and LUNGED at him from the plate. His eyes wide, he toppled back in surprise, exclaiming all the while.

"GK-! WHY! WHY WOULD YOU-" He shouted, likely making a raging ass out of himself and amusing his so called 'allies' by the shenanigans.

The snake latched comfortably in his arm, he picked himself up, covered in broth, a snake on his arm and looking, quite humorously, non-plussed about the situation.

"I don't even know what I did." he mumbled as he took the snake and gently pried it off his arm (He didn't dare do anything to hurt the thing, if Aileana was affectionate and throwing a snake at him, he didn't want to know what would happen if he outright HURT the little guys) and gently placed it on the ground, putting a hand over the wound and pumping some o' dat good ol' healing magic over it.

Whether or not it worked for any venom that may have been pumping through his system was up in the air, but...better safe than sorry.

"Would there happen to be any Antidote around here?" He asked with a little chuckle. "Just in case I got injected with something as a prank."

Stormguard Castle

“Grass snake, lad. Nonvenomous. But pissed off. Probably because of the salt. And the spices. And the sauce. And the carved chunks of its brethren,” Aileana helpfully called out to Mason, the amusement thick and clear in her voice—only for her to suddenly hesitate. “At least, it should be a grass snake. Might be an adder. Same difference. Best be safe though, aye?”

All of a sudden, she was right next to him, having slithered over close to the ground and at a truly frightening speed. She straightened up as her faux spine clicked back into place, and peered down at the wound—only to catch herself and look up at Mason with a mildly sheepish grin.

Key word being mildly.

“Could clean the wound for ye. Shame ye dinnae like it though. It's one of me favourite dishes...” she said sorrowfully, her tone turning into a coo as she gestured for the discarded snake to return up her arm.

Edited by Enirboreh on Nov 10th 2018 at 4:11:18 PM